POSITIVELY PRACTICAL

I try to be both:  positive and practical.  But as with everything else, I end up being negatively positive and impractically practical.  I may have Groat's disease:  "a fictional neurological disorder marked by hyperactivity!"  I have the old "to-a-fault, ad nauseam, ad infinitum, overzealous, steadying-the-ark, over-the-top syndrome!"  No...not trying to be perfect.  In this world perfection is just not acceptable.  (TAMN was perfect and look what happened to her!)  Just sayin'...it's a weakness!  I have to try to FIX things.  (After all, I am the oldest child in the family!)  Expressing faults openly seems to be the current trend for validation.  We all feel better if we find out we are not the only ones with defects.  Besides, unless we give others a chance to criticize or complain about us, how will we ever be able to communicate?  Facebook would go bankrupt!

Sorry....back to enthusiasm for my curious customs.  I do get a lot of heads tilted and looks askance for my quirkiness, especially around The Manor.  For example, I just couldn't contend with the contention on which is better:  wooden cutting boards or plastic cutting boards?  So I threw them both out and now cut everything on cheap paper plates then throw them away when I am done, germs and all!  For years I couldn't keep a cleaning cloth in my kitchen without it stinking up the whole house, so now I just throw the offending cloth into the dishwasher every day with the dishes!  Problem solved!  Now, take the dilemma of what to do with the myriad of flower arrangements received from my fans.  They don't last very long if I keep them on my kitchen table but if I set them outside my French doors overnight, especially in a cool rain, I can still enjoy looking at them through the glass and they last for weeks!  (I am seeing some head tilting here, but I am pushing on.)

For years I have wanted to "waste not, want not" and try my hand at composting but there always seemed to be some obstacle--until this year.  I learned about vermiculture:  Worm composting!  I bought two pounds of the little red wigglers, learned how to make a cheap worm bin, stuck in some bedding and started feeding them with scraps from my kitchen.  I am proud to report that I have now reaped the fruits of their labor:  healthy, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, rich brown earthy worm castings for my garden!  (I think I am seeing more askanced looks!)

Hey, this is really not a disease!  It is positively practical!!!  

SUGAR:  THE BITTER TRUTH

Here's the link some of you have asked for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

 

 

with a follow-up program:  CBS 60 Minutes (March, 2012)

 

Start on 2nd Dot of streaming bar.
http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/

BORN AND BRED IN THE BRIAR PATCH


     I love eating raspberries!   But they are as costly as gold--except the price of gold goes down occasionally!   It is definitely cheaper to grow your own raspberries, but be forewarned!   Picking them can be dangerous to your health!   Only a true raspberry connoisseur is willing to risk life and limb navigating through thorns and creepy crawlies to delve into the nether reaches of a raspberry patch for one of those succulent red gems hanging from a distant stem. 

     Raspberries try to hide but as a practiced persistent picker, I can spot them!   Sometimes it requires teetering tiptoe on the edge of my garden box one leg in the air, one hand gripping an unsteady cross wire while the other is reaching for the prized fruit.   Hanging in this precarious position it is not difficult to imagine myself toppling headlong into the thicket never to be found again!   But, oh, the ecstasy!   If the Lord of the Manor wonders why his breakfast isn't forthcoming, he just might brave the brambles only to discover his scratched and battered wife sprawled out punch drunk under a tangle of briers, raspberry juice dribbling down her chin and having a bit more trouble than Brer Rabbit "skipping away as merry as a cricket!"  And he may hear a slurred murmur of contentment coming from under the brush:   "Aw, just come back when berry season is over." (hic!)  

Upon Emerging from Writer's Block

Spring thinking is soggy--
rain dampens the muse.

Please Summer, bring wisdom...
which sunscreen to use!

Me and Gisele Bundchen

I guess you can be gutsy when you are the highest-paid supermodel in the world.   Gisele Bundchen has taken a public stand on some pretty controversial topics including advocating natural childbirth, not using baby formulas with sugar and soy in them and now she is saying that she doesn’t like the "poisons" in sunscreens.   Brave girl!   The National Cancer Society really took umbrage!   But EPA studies indicate she may be right.   Use a sunscreen but be careful of ones containing parabens (preservatives labeled methyl-, propyl-, butyl- and ethyl- ), oxybenzone, PABA and vitamin A retinol and retinyl palmitate, octyl salicyclate, avobenzone, cinoxate, padimate O, dioxybenzone, phenylbenzimidazole, homosalate, sulisobenzone, menthyl anthranilate, trolamine salicyclate and octocrylene.  Oxybenzone is a hormone disruptor and retinyl palmitate has been linked to cancer.   (My medical insurance company just sent me a list of things that would put me at risk for skin cancer but it doesn’t say a thing about any of those!   I guess they didn’t get the message.)   Gisele is promoting a new line of natural skin-care products (everybody has an agenda!) but I like her thinking.   It’s nice to know that there is someone else out there with beauty and brains!

Update:  Sunscreen and Melanoma--Nadine Artemis

http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/Articles.asp?ID=621

TASTY PARTY DIP

My kids actually liked one of my healthy recipes!  And the grandkids ate their veggies!
This dip is full of B vitamins, minerals and tons of calcium! 
So, here by popular request is:

BLACK BEAN HUMMUS 

(You need a hefty blender or better yet, use a food processor)
Process until smooth:
1 (15 oz.) can chickpeas, drained
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained
2 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed or chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1/2 large lemon)
2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes (or 2 T. fresh parsley)
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
(A few olives, opt.)

MAKING PIES

In honor of Mother’s Day, I made a pie (without sugar!).   Pie making is one of the legacies handed down from my mother--and her mother and her mother and...well, depending on how you figure your general dates of creation and your definition of a generation, let’s just say that I am the progeny of approximately 200 pie-making grandmothers.  This is not bragging.   This is genetic!

The other notable legacy from my foremothers is also genetic.   Mothers can’t help it that they are the incarnation of the Scuttle mantra:  "Have I ever been wrong...when it’s important?"   It’s the legacy we all get from our mothers!   I don’t think there is a person who ever lived that hasn’t heard that inner voice admonish: "You should have listened to your mother!"

Just as pie making requires the right mix of ingredients, a deft touch and minimum handling, it may also account for why moms are so irritatingly always right.   In the end it may be really important to know how to make pies.  

Thanks, mom...

LOVE NOTE

In response to Ben's query:
"Will you still need me, will you still feed me? When I'm sixty-four?"


"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms!
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,

My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown;
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband's foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready; may it do him ease.
                                      (Kate, Taming of the Shrew)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN!