Ten Days of Little Celebrations - December 2013

Over a year ago I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10 for December 2013.

Quite a few this month involved food - but I celebrated them for different reasons:

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing was celebrated because the first one I bought did not have cream cheese icing (I did not suspect beforehand that Red Velvet Cake could have any other kind of icing!) and because is brought back memories of teen aged birthdays when my mother made the cake for my birthday. Oh - and I like the way it looks too!

Roasted Garlic Hummus as Stir Fry Sauce was celebrated because it was a serendipity experiment that worked! I needed something to give punch to a veggie stir fry and the hummus worked very well - stirred in just before serving.

Cranberry Orange Bread bought from the grocery store bakery was a treat to have with hot chocolate to celebrate being warm inside on a cold winter’s day - bought with a coupon and tasting so good I ate the whole round loaf in just two days.

Beans in Cherry Crumble Bars were celebrated because they were a pleasant surprise. The recipe was one I saw on the web and almost didn’t try!

Popcorn with Pumpkin Seed Oil was a celebration because it was healthier that store bought microwave popcorn (I popped kernels in a paper lunch sack in the microwave) and because the oil turned the corn a pleasant green color.

Another group of celebrations involved fund raising activities for non-profits:

Conservancy Holiday Sale was a celebration that combined food, happy people, and a good cause.

The lights at Brookside Gardens are a traditional part of our December celebrations. We always pay to park and enjoy the lights at least once during the season.

Weather prompts 2 more celebrations:

Declaring a Snow Day is always a celebration. It probably started when I was in school, went almost dormant until I had my daughter. She reinforced it; my husband and/or I always took a vacation day when the schools closed for snow. Now - I find myself celebrating a snow day at home even when I am the only one at home!

A warming trend is worth celebrating in December. When we walked around Brookside in the early evening it was in the mid-60s rather than the mid-20s as it would have been a week earlier. Yes - it did feel strange to be wearing a sweater rather than bundled up in coat, scarf, hat, and gloves ---- but it is a comfortable strangeness that I celebrated.

And finally - I celebrated all the build-up to the last week of the 2013.

Christmas Stuff - Part 2 - 2013

Food is Christmas ‘stuff’ as much as ornaments on the tree. Every December there are foods that stand out. Some are new for the year and some are part of the family tradition. Here are the December 2013 special foods for my Christmas.

Red Velvet Cake - The food with the most tradition this year. My mother use to make it from scratch. Now I buy it at the grocery store - making sure that it had cream cheese icing (not the icing that is mostly butter).

Pumpkin Ginger Scones - The food that is new this year and destined to become part of the tradition. I’ve already modified it to use butternut squash in place of the pumpkin!

Cranberry orange relish with plain yogurt - The food that joined the tradition a few years ago. It had good color, is healthy compared to so much Christmas fare, and has a welcome tangy taste.

Kale - The food that I started experimenting with last fall but only decided belonged in my refrigerator when winter weather got serious. I include it in every soup and stir fry I make! It is loaded with good nutrition - and lends a green color to winter meals. I buy a large bag of pre-washed Kale and keep it in the freezer. It crunches easily into small pieces when it is still frozen and cooks up the same as fresh when used in soups and stir fries!

Popcorn with pumpkin seed oil - The food that will go beyond Christmas now that I’ve learned to make it. I pop the corn in a paper bag in the microwave. No more not-good-for-you additives from the packaged microwave popcorn! And then drizzle it with pumpkin seed oil which turns a nice green color on the white corn…..green and white for the season. Add some apple slices for nutritional balance and to achieve the full Christmas color scheme!

Pomegranates - The Fruit of December

I always associate pomegranates with December because of: 

• Their color - the deep red of the edible seeds reminds me of Christmas and red velvet cake and candy canes,
• Their appearance - the shape looks like an ornament to me and its size that fits easily in the hand is also appealing, and
• Their easy availability in the produce section of the grocery store this time of year. 

I always cut the top and bottom from the fruit before I cut it into quarters. There is always some juice that leaks out onto the cutting board when it is cut. If there is a lot of it, I use a straw to slurp it up.

I stand at the kitchen sink to eat a quarter of the fruit each morning; the view out the window and of the fruit always sends my mood in a positive direction.

Eating a pomegranate is a messy endeavor. The membranes and peel cradle the seeds; splatters and seed flying are common. I’ve considering whether using a small spoon to tease out the seeds would be better but I always decide to just enjoy the fruits as one eaten without tools. When I am done, the membranes and peel go in the trash and I wipe the splatters of juice and wayward seeds from the cabinet (sometimes on both sides of the sink!).

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - November 2013

Over a year ago I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10 for November 2013 - grouped into themes.

Seasonal Food

Pumpkin bake. One way I celebrate fall is to bake a whole pumpkin. It happens almost every year. The one this year was a little larger than usual - purchased at Home Depot; it was a bright orange decoration for our front porch for a few weeks before I decided to cook it. The color deepened after it baked for an hour or so. I cut a wedge, scooped away the seeds and stringy part from the center, and enjoyed it drizzled with butter and cinnamon. Then I divided the rest of the usable pulp into smaller portions - half for the freezer and half for more immediate pumpkin related celebrations.

Pumpkin and Yogurt Custard. It’s worth celebrating when a culinary experiment works; this one did although I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to duplicate it. I roughly followed the pumpkin custard recipe but used plain non-fat yogurt rather than milk, a non-calorie granular sweetener, and more eggs than usual. It developed a sugary crust that was very appealing!

Pumpkin and Ginger Scones. I had never made scones before but decided to try the recipe I posted in my gleanings a few weeks ago. There are two causes to celebrate: these particular scones are really good and scones are incredibly easy to make in a food processor (why did it take me so long to discover this?).

Pumpkin seed oil. It’s green! It’s yummy! I’ve started drizzling it over a mini-pita - making a fancy design like they do in high end restaurants.

Pomegranate. In the past few years - pomegranates have become part of the Thanksgiving and Christmas celebration for me. It is their season to be plentiful in the stores and I like to think of them as the ‘jewels’ of the season.

Outdoors in the Fall

Foliage. The play of colors in the forest is the grand celebration before winter starkness.

Hike to the Patapsco. Walking through fields and forest on a crisp fall day is a more active way to celebrate the season.

Elementary School Nature Field Trips. I celebrated during every hike I led for elementary school field trips over the past month. What a privilege it is to share their first experiences: milkweed, black walnuts, wooly caterpillars, maple leaves changing color, the rocks of a stone wall between fields.

Raking Leaves. I prefer raking to blowing the leaves that fall too thickly on the ground. Raking is quiet work so I hear the birds and squirrels while I enjoy the leaves that still retain their color. They smell like rich forest tea the leaf mulch will become over the winter. There is a nostalgic celebration in raking leaves since the activity is the beginning of the end for fall.

Amanda Cross mysteries. I always celebrate finding a new author. All three Cross books I’ve read so far area already favorites….and there 11 more to go!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 2, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Pumpkin and Ginger Scones - New York Times Recipes for Health - Yum! The prospect of the melding flavor of pumpkin, ginger, and maple syrup seems to suit my mood for this season. Since I cooked a whole pumpkin this past week, I have plenty of pumpkin to make these scones.

London’s Health - There is a new website that organizes historical ‘Medical Officer of Health’ reports for London from 1848 and 1972. There are several ways to search. I looked for ‘smallpox’ references as my first search.  

Inside the American Kitchen - An infographic about kitchens. Did you know that the three most popular features for kitchen projects are: islands, roll-outs/pull-outs, and drawers?

Cornell Lab FeederWatch - If you get the urge to enjoy birds at a feeder but don’t have one of your own - enjoy the one at Sapsucker Woods near Ithaca NY. There are almost always birds around (and if they aren’t at the feeder there are bird noises that indicate they are nearby).

Massive 80-Room Tree House Stands Almost 100-Feet-Tall - I enjoyed visiting this Tennessee tree house in summer of 2012….and took some very similar pictures (the one below is mine). It is so large that it is hard to capture the entire structure!

Thawing Permafrost: The Speed of Coastal Erosion in Eastern Siberia Has Nearly Doubled - Coastal erosion in areas there permafrost and sea ice were the norm for large parts of the year until recently is increasing rapidly. The materials used for the article include more graphics about how it occurs.

Take a trip over the surface of Mars - A 4 minute video presentation of images from Europe’s Mars Express that has been orbiting Mars since 2004.

The World's Strangest and Most Magnificent Gardens - I love gardens so couldn’t resist including this on the ‘gleanings’ list for the week.

Message From a 50-Year-Old Flamingo - A conservation success story - for now….but there is a lot that could still go wrong for the flamingos left in this world.

Restoration: Another Layer of History - Some examples of industrial/military areas that are repurposed into more public spaces.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - October 2013

Over a year ago I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10 for October 2013.

Everything fit into the suitcases. Once the packing is done….the realization that everything needed for a vacation actually fit into the suitcases is worth a celebration.

Utah. Actually this celebration lasted for 8 days. Even though the national parks were closed there was still a lot to enjoy: the aspens in the Abejo Mountains, Edge of Cedars State Park, Monument Valley, Dead Horse Point State Park, Wilson’s Arch, La Sal Mountains, Needles Overlook and Valley of the Gods. Travel expands horizons - in more than just the physical sense - and provides a myriad of opportunities for celebration.

Home again. Much as I enjoy traveling, coming home is always savored.

Rainy day. I’m not sure why - but a rainy day that keeps be indoors after days away from home is just perfect. I celebrated with a good book and hot tea….while moving the loads of laundry from suitcases to baskets to washer to drier.

Caught up with Coursera courses. There were 4 courses that were ongoing while I was in Utah which meant there was a lot of lecture and resource review once I got back. I felt a real sense of accomplishment once I caught up - and celebrated with some dark chocolate.

Hot tea laced with apple cider. Some beverages seem to go with fall. Apple cider is one of them for me. It’s too sweet at full strength so I use it as sweetener for hot tea. It’s another way to celebrate the season.

Out and about. The fall is one of my favorite times to be out and about the local neighborhood. This year the trees seem to reach peak color and then drop their leaves very quickly. I celebrate when I see a tree full of yellows and reds - knowing the vision is a transitory one.

Vicarious celebration. My daughter achieved a milestone in graduate school. The celebration was hers….but I celebrated vicariously.

Cranberry orange relish. This is another fall favorite. I use the recipe from Wegmans with some modification: two oranges instead of one and stevia instead of sugar.

Finding a dental discount plan. My dental insurance expired…but my dentist suggested a discount plan available from the dentalplans.com site....and I had a good checkup too!

Mini-Deep Dish Pizzas

The University of Arizona published a collection of recipes at the start of the school year - which my daughter sent to us with the specific suggestion to check out the recipe for Mini-Deep Dish Pizzas. The pizzas have become a new favorite at our house - although we have made a few modifications; we use: 

• A muffin top pan (or cups) rather than a regular muffin tin.
• Mission Carb Balance Flour Tortillas rather than generic whole wheat tortillas (which often taste like cardboard).
• Scissors to cut the excess tortilla from around the edges (they get baked with the pizzas and then used as chips with salsa).
• Homemade spaghetti sauce or spaghetti sauce from a jar instead of tomato sauce
• Smoked turkey or chicken (as an additional topping).

Yummy!

Favorite Foods through the Years

Foods are often linked to particular time periods in our lives - and the associations last a lifetime. For me they are all positive associations that come flooding into my consciousness when I buy the foods and when I eat them. Here are a few examples from my life:

Pork chops. When I was in early elementary school, my favorite meat was pork chops fixed by my grandmother. She always fixed extra for me because I ate 2 or 3 as part of my meal. Now I buy thin sliced, boneless pork chops - and am still trying to recapture the way my grandmother make her pork chops taste.

Watermelon, cantaloupe and corn-on-the-cob - picked fresh from the garden. These were from the gardens of both my grandparents from my earliest memories through late elementary school. The watermelon, cantaloupe and corn-on-the-cob overwhelmed my senses completely; I don’t really remember what else we ate. Now I buy them from a local farmers market or the produce section of the grocery store. On occasions, the taste approaches that in my memory.

Fried fish. From late elementary school through my early 20s, I consistently selected deep fried white fish when I went to a cafeteria. I never got anything else. It wasn’t that I didn’t like other foods at the cafeteria (usually a Furr’s or Luby’s), but I never even considered getting anything else. I haven’t been to a cafeteria for years but I think I would get deep fried white fish now if they had it.

Texas toast. Do you remember those toasted inch thick pieces of white bread, slathered with garlic butter? They were big in the 70s at steak places. I think I enjoyed the toast almost more than the steak! I rarely eat food like that anymore….but I still remember celebrating a monthly or quarterly anniversary of my wedding at a place that served Texas toast.

Red velvet cake. I like the look of the cake more than the taste most of the time. Somehow the bakery versions never taste quite as good as the cake my Mother made from scratch….but I still try to find a good one almost once a year.

Fajitas. I liked fajitas from the first time I had them in the late 70s at a table on the patio of a restaurant in San Antonio. I still like them now although I expect a higher quality of meat (and maybe meat other beef) and I have them with salad rather than tortillas.

Dark chocolate. I started using two squares of dark chocolate as a reward for taking my vitamins in the morning a few years ago. Now I use it as a reward for being within my ideal weight range first thing in the morning (which happens most mornings). I’m pretty sure that it will never get old.

Celebrate your favorite foods through the years of your life today!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - September 2013

Over a year ago I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are my top 10.

Classes. The quality of the courses I’m taking on Coursera is excellent. I celebrate the first week of courses --- when it becomes obvious how good it is going to be --- and then when something unexpected is offered. The ‘Meet the Researcher’ segment of the Animal Behavior course is one such serendipity.

My weight. I finally - after more than 20 years - I am back down to my pre-pregnancy weight!

Good food. This month I discovered how yummy baked yogurt custard can be - and also enjoyed the best splurge around: a very chocolaty brownie.

Clothes. The t-shirt dresses were so comfortable for the warm days of the month and I discovered that many clothes I pulled out for the cooler days fit better than they did last year (or are too big!).

Books. September was a month I savored some books from authors I’d enjoyed before (May Sarton and Kinky Friedman) and discovered the Amanda Cross mysteries.

Longwood Gardens. Every time we make the trek to these gardens is a treat. You’ve seen evidence of how much I enjoyed the outing in September in the blog posts.

HC Conservancy. It’s always worth celebrating finding another place close enough to home that it can be visited on a regular basis.

Fabulous fall weather. September has been full of perfect days to be outdoors.

Change. I intentionally turned off the computer for hours at a time throughout the month to force some change in my days….and enjoyed the difference!

Visual richness. We aren’t in the colorful part of fall yet but there were two images of September than stand out: a corn field ready for harvest near our neighborhood and a zinnia in a small vase beside my computer monitor. 

Baked Yogurt Custard

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

The basic idea is to use non-fat plain yogurt, fruit and eggs as the basis for custard rather than the more typical milk (usually with some fat), sugar, and eggs. The recipe below was my first experiment:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup grated sweet potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup yogurt 

Slice banana into baking disk. Mash. Add other ingredients. Whisk thoroughly. Let mixture come to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake custard until ‘set’ (it took about 30 minutes in my oven).

Let cool to comfortable eating temperature.

The resulting ‘custard’ is thick and has a pleasant tang from the yogurt and orange peel. Some discoveries with this initial recipe: 

• The grated sweet potatoes were a little crunchy (I was trying to clean out ingredients from the refrigerator and should have saved the sweet potatoes for something else!) and
• It probably was too much to eat at one sitting (but it was so good!) 

I’ll make some adjustments next time and try some other fruits similar to what I have been using in smoothies during the summer. Pumpkin custard using yogurt rather than evaporated milk sounds good too; it would require sugar of some kind (honey rather than white sugar?). It occurred to me that Baked Yogurt Custard could also be made with vegetables (different seasonings and no sugar) to be more quiche-like. It is a lower fat technique than using cheese or cream. And I will try cooking it in my crockpot rather than heating up the whole oven!

The bottom line of all this is that I’ll continue buying as much non-fat plain yogurt through the winter as I have all summer!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 14, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

World’s Largest LED Streetlight Retrofit Completed in Los Angeles - I wonder if the fixtures are also designed to direct light downward rather than in all directions. It would be wonderful to see the stars in the sky again!

Macrophotographs of insects - Don’t let the first picture deter you look at this article! There are some beautiful ones further down in the series….the dogbane beetle with iridescent red, yellow and green on its wings and blues and greens everywhere else…the leafhopper sharpshooter with its red body and white and black wings.

Edible Coatings for Ready-To-Eat Fresh Fruits and Vegetables - An overview of the coatings used to help fruits and vegetables retain freshness. They are edible…but some don’t sound very appealing. As for finding a coating that would work for sliced bananas - one of the appeals of bananas is that they are easy to peel and a good serving size. Their natural packaging is one of the reasons they are so popular!

Researchers’ Tweets Move Science Forward - A study of 116 marine scientists actively using Twitter. Does this translate to other disciplines?

University of Arizona Cooking on Campus (recipes) - There are some good ideas on this list. I tried the Mini Deep Dish Pizzas (made them in a muffin top pan rather than a regular muffin tin) and they were delicious. My daughter made the Quinoa Ratatouille and reported that it was a winner too.

Has the World Reached Peak Chicken? - As we become more health conscious, will be eat even more chicken? We tend to ignore the industrial treatment (or mistreatment) of the birds just as we do other domesticated animals. And what about the trend toward more heavily processed chicken? I always buy cut up parts these days but remember well the draw of chicken nuggets for children. Or will we have more veggie days?

This girl ages into an old woman before your eyes without you noticing - The video is just under 5 minutes and well worth viewing. The ‘old woman’ does not look that old to me. When I think ‘old’ I think of someone in their 90s.

Interlude in Pittsburgh - Lots of pictures from a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Cathedral of Learning. Brought back great memories of a road trip about 10 years ago when we used the Cathedral (like being at Hogwarts) as a stop before continuing down the highway.

State-by-State Guide to Taxes on Retirees - I’m always a little uncomfortable about these analyses and a particular segment of the population. Are the taxes ‘friendly’ to one group and not to others? For example - do states that are ‘friendly’ to retirees underfund education for children?

How do chameleons and other creatures change colour? - Chamelons and octopuses...some animals have the ability to make very rapid adjustments to their color.

World Happiness Report 2013 - The most recent addition was published this last week. The US is 17th in the world - just behind Mexico. The 6 variables that explain 75% of the variation in the national averages are: real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity.

Day Trip Picnic

Yesterday was the perfect day to be outdoors and enjoying gardens. As I packed our small ice chest with a picnic lunch, it occurred to me how improving our diet has changed what we pack. No chips or soft drinks this time!

Here’s what we packed: 

• Morning snack: apple
• Lunch: ham sandwich made with whole wheat bread and hummus spread; tomatoes, pepper strips, cucumber with hummus for dip
• Afternoon snack: dry roasted soybeans/peanuts
• Bottles of: water and tea 

I’ll post more about our day trip in the days ahead.

High Nutritional Value Salad Dressings

One of the challenges of a weight loss strategy that includes a low calorie/high nutrition component is salad dressing. The commercial salad dressings tend to have relatively little nutritional value for the amount of calories they add to the salad. I’ve discovered two alternatives that are so good I’ll probably stop buying commercial salad dressings and look for more alternatives that are similar to the two I am enjoying now. Here are the two:

Hummus. I bought a tub of commercially prepared roasted garlic hummus and tried it first as a dip for veggies. Then I used it to make egg salad (very simple…just combined eggs, celery and the seasoned hummus - no other seasoning required). Now I’ve started using a heaping tablespoon into just about any salad in lieu of dressing.

Guacamole. You can make your own or look for Wholly Guacamole in your grocery store. They make ‘mini’ packages that are a perfect size to use for a salad.

What other alternatives am I going to check out? The only requirements are that it 1) stick to the salad ingredients and 2) add a good flavor. Here is my ‘things to try’ list: 

• Tahini or peanut butter mixed with salsa and extra basil and/or orange zest
• Chia seeds and salsa
• Tahini or peanut butter pureed with some orange sections, fresh mint, orange zest
• Differently seasoned hummus (commercially prepared)
• Homemade hummus with seasonings different that available in the commercially prepared 

As you can tell - I am not a fan of vinegar…or I would certainly be including it in some of the items on my list!

Any other ideas?

Cookbooks

I am prompted by Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking to think about cookbooks. Does everyone that cooks have some reference they use at least occasionally? I have three that I use periodically - and almost always for some kind of bread or dessert.

The one I use most frequently is a Good Housekeeping Cookbook my grandmother gave me for Christmas just as I was beginning to help out in the kitchen - about 50 years ago. It was not something I used at first but I liked having such a ‘grown up’ present. I appreciated it more as soon as I was on my own in the kitchen - it was the book I had for guidance. The index is the most referenced part of the whole book but that doesn’t show. The splashes on recipe pages are obvious markers in the book and reveal the favorites. In this book it is corn bread, gingerbread, baked custard, popovers, applesauce cake, coffee cake, and apple brown betty (which I made with peaches at least as often as with apples). Now that I am looking at this book more closely….there is a yummy looking recipe for baked barbeque chicken (homemade sauce); it may be time to look at the other sections of this book!

There are only two pages that are food splattered in the Williamsburg cookbook purchased when I first visited Colonial Williamsburg: Christiana Campbell’s Tavern Sweet Potato Muffins and Sally Lunn. I’ve made the muffins with all kinds of variations: pumpkin instead of sweat potato, left over baked sweet potatoes, canned sweet potatoes, mini-muffins, muffin tops, raisins and nuts depending on what is on hand.

The last cookbook was one I inherited from my mother-in-law. I’m not sure whether it was something she had for years or that she bought not that long before she died at a used book sale. Either way - it has a wonderful spice cake recipe (that includes cayenne pepper).

After thumbing through these old books - I’m ready to try a new recipe!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - July 2013

Back in August 2012, I posted about finding something to celebrate each day. It’s an easy thing for me to do and the habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations;’ here are the top 10.

Starting the day outdoors. For years and years I was always heading off to work or errands as soon as I was able in the morning. It is such a luxury to be able to enjoy the outdoors on July mornings when the heat of the day is yet to become overwhelming and the birds are at their most energetic. What a great way to start my days.

Watermelon. I still think the large watermelons with seeds from many years ago had a better flavor than the smaller, seedless varieties in the stores today - but, even these watermelons are a hallmark of summer for me.

Cheesecake sampler. Don’t they always look tempting in the store? Always being on a diet means that I had not succumbed to the purchase until I had a dinner party with enough people to eat most of the pieces in a single sitting. So - I celebrated when I finally found a cheesecake sampler (at the third store I checked) and thoroughly enjoyed the one piece that I permitted myself.

Butterflies on the blazing stars. Flowers and butterflies - easy images to celebrate. See my earlier post here.

Credit for the electric bill. One of the days the exterior of our house was being painted was also an electricity conservation day (our electric utility gives us a credit based on the amount we reduce from a baseline day of similar temperature). The windows were open anyway for the painters - so we turned off the air conditioner and ate picnics (i.e. no cooking). We got at $46 credit! Hurray!

Cardinal flower. Plants are one of my favorite gifts (to give or receive). I celebrated receiving a cardinal flower and enjoy its blooming stalks (increasing rapidly in its big pot) every day. See my earlier post here.

Exterior house painting complete. The house looks wonderfully refreshed….I celebrated that the crew finished in spite of a significant rain delay! See my earlier posts here and here.

Into ‘normal’ weight range. Shouldn’t this be a goal for everyone? I am celebrating getting into the range…and closer to the ultimate goal (another 10 pounds to go).

A quiet day without internet or cable. A storm came through and the service people don’t work on the weekend…so we were without connectivity for almost 48 hours. I found that there was a new quietness about the house to savor…although I also celebrated when the connection was restored too.

Pecans in buttermilk pancakes. I celebrate the goodness the dusting of pecans adds plus the memory of learning to sprinkle the nuts onto the batter as it cooks from my mother.

What have you celebrated today?

Mint and Orange Zest

Yesterday was full of wonderful smells: mint and orange peel.

I harvested two baskets of mint from pots and a reused turtle sandbox on my deck. The cuttings were clipped into segments that fit into my food processor. The processed mint is now on two trays on the kitchen counters. I’ll stir them several times a day until the mint is thoroughly dry ---- ready to use with black tea. There will be another harvest before the end of the season - enough mint to use now and last through the winter.

While I had the food processor out, I decided to make orange zest with the six oranges in the refrigerator and freeze the orange sections. During really hot weather, frozen orange sections are wonderful in smoothies so this was a good plan for the fruit and the zest. Only the white part of the orange peel ended up in the compost. I used a sharp knife to cut the outermost peel from the oranges- making long curls into the bowl of the food processor.

This is the first time there has been a bit of mint with the orange zest. I’ll enjoy that!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 29, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

This is what your grocery store looks like without bees - Lots of empty bins in the produce section

Famous Scifi And Fantasy Authors In Their Workspaces - Keep the dates in mind. How many of these authors do you recognize?

Extremely Detailed Large Scale Paintings of Bugs - Wonderful detail is shown in these images.

Raw Strawberry Tart - I want to try the crust even if I don’t make the strawberry filling! It’s made with nuts, oats, raisins, flax seed, and vanilla held together with date paste.

Chemical in Antibacterial Soap Fed to Nursing Rats Harms Offspring, Study Finds - I am throwing away everything in my house that contains triclocarban. This study was just the latest in a steady stream of studies that showed negative effects.

12 New Volcanoes Discovered in Alaska - And still a lot more to learn about them.

Constantly Changing Majestic Beauty of Mount Fuji - Is this the most photographed and painted mountain in the world? It has all the qualities to make it so.

RCP Database 2.0 - The ‘Compare’ tab of this site allows users to select from several variables that impact climate and then view what happens to the ‘Representative Concentration Pathways’ with that variable change. This was one of the references in the Climate Literacy course I am taking on Coursera.

Man's Parkinson's disease symptoms vanish with the push of a button - Truly amazing results of deep brain stimulation for the person.

How technology is destroying jobs - From Technology Review. Lots of comments too.

 Genetically Modified Fashion - Fluorescent silk from genetically engineered silkworms. Is this something we need?

Minutiae of Diet

My dietary goals are pretty simple: get as much nutrition from food as possible (i.e. don’t rely on supplements to make up for a very poor diet) and lose weight. I’ve had some success over the years but had stalled about a year ago.

About a month ago, I decided that, for me, sound bites don’t help enough when it comes to diet. I needed data other than weight and activity measurements (I already had from a scale and a Fitbit) that would directly guide my food choices.

The cronometer tool was the one I chose. I set up my profile to lose a pound per week and then started logging in my food each day.

I did not choose a special diet. My day to day goal is to stay below the Calorie maximum for the day and meet more than 93% of the nutritional targets….and to do it as much as possible without heavily fortified or processed foods. I found foods that I normally eat had already been defined in the tool (or something that was close enough to what I was eating to use as a substitute in the log). The result has been quite a learning experience….on a very detailed level. Here are some of the minutiae I’ve learned about my diet: 

• Starting the day with chia seeds in almond milk as I have been for quite some time is a reasonably good way to start the day….and the 20 grams of dark chocolate with it is an acceptable treat….but going to 40 grams of dark chocolate is not a good idea.
• Portion size is hugely important! I’ve started looking at labels and measuring. I focus on those things that are high calorie and low nutrient…those are the ones I watch the most carefully for portion size and sometimes question whether I want to eat them at all. Often the nutrient rich foods are not that high in calories so the serving size is relatively large.
• A non-fat plain yogurt smoothie with fruit (blueberries or banana or orange) is tasty, very filling, high in nutrition in relation to calories and, along with the things I normally eat, gets me to the calcium requirement every day. It doesn’t take a huge change to make a big nutritional difference.
• I easily meet the protein requirements with only one meat serving per day and it does not have to be a large one (since I get protein from other sources than meat too).
• Black tea made with tap water has nutrients!
• I like the orange veggies like carrots and sweet potatoes but I need to eat them consistently to get enough vitamin A
• I will probably always need to take Vitamin D. I am not in the sun enough and the fortification in the foods I eat is not enough to consistently get the minimum dose. No wonder my doctor has found my Vitamin D level a little low!
• I almost never get 100% of the potassium target. That is something to work on. Eating one banana or orange is not nearly enough.
• I always exceed the B12 requirement because the almond milk is fortified but I don’t quite get all of them to 100% every day.
• I am general below 0.5 gram of trans-fat - which is pretty good. The tool has helped me be more conscious of foods I eat occasionally that contain trans-fat.
• I am thinking about how long I will need to log my food at the detail I am not. At 4 weeks, I am still in the process of establishing the habit of healthy food choices. Staying below the 1280 Calories per day (totaled up in cronometer) and burning over 2000 calories (estimated by the Fitbit) has indeed resulted in weight loss of a little over a pound a week and I am feeling good - lots of energy. It does seem to be true for me that nutrients from food, rather than supplements, are used more effectively by the body. 

I recommend checking into doing at least a few days logging food into a tool like chronometer for anyone wanting to make tweaks to their diet!

The Joys of Mint Gardening

I have several different kinds of mint growing on pots on my deck: spearmint mint, chocolate mint and citrus mint. My largest patch is in the 20+ year old turtle sand box. One of the eyes is partially missing to the turtle always looks sleepy to me. It is a good size for a mint garden and it pleases me that the old sandbox is still useful. 

Mint is very easy to grow….maybe too easy. It will spread via runners to fill its space and beyond. It often spreads beyond its bed. That is why I like it in a container. From one little plant - it will grow enough to crownd out weeds within a very short period of time. 

Another reason I like mint in a container on the deck, is its proximity to my kitchen. I can easily go out and cut a couple of sprigs to add to a smoothie or salad. Mint makes so many other foods taste even better. And it is just like an additional small serving of green veggie in terms of vitamins and minerals!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 11, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Printable Functional 'Bionic' Ear Melds Electronics and Biology  - What if this development really does live up to its potential?

Addiction Fact and Fiction - Infographic

Robot discovers secret chambers in Mexico - Underneath the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan

APPLE-ALMOND BUTTER PANCAKES - Sounds yummy!

How Petals Get Their Shape: Hidden Map Located Within Plant's Growing Buds - Research about how different parts of plants take on different shapes

Geography in the news: hot chocolate - A healthy indulgence

Saturn Hurricane (at its north pole) - Video and pictures on NASA site

The Fine Art of Photographing Living Portuguese Man O' War

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors - Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street….a concentrated hub of Internet connectivity

Nature’s Most Transparent Animals - from National Geographic

Diet Linked to Daytime Sleepiness and Alertness in Healthy Adults - High fat consumption associated with daytime sleepiness

Art Installations Inspired by Solar Panels - My favorite is the second one (Solar Intersections by Robert Behrens)