Ten Days of Little Celebrations - December 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. 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’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for December 2014.

Christmas

Christmas Decorations - at home and other places. I like Christmas decoration - my own and others. Over the years I have enjoyed the less glitzy ones the most: the clove studded fruit, the fresh greens, and poinsettias…but in the end, I really enjoy the whole look of the season. It’s a celebration that always ends the year on an up beat!

The Snowman. I like the music and the visuals of the film. Every year it is an integral part of our celebration of the season.

Food

Apple Cherry Crisp. Yum. I love apples and cherries…and even more together. The oatmeal of the ‘crisp’ is just right from my perspective - better than crust.

Garlic Tuscan Bread. I don’t eat bread very often but I could not resist the loaf in my grocery store bakers…crunchy crust and soft on the end side. I toasted it and ate it sprayed with olive oil.

Butternut Squash Soup. My grocery store has butternut squash already cut up into chunks which makes the two kinds of soup I make simple easy. I alternate between the two because like them both so much. The first is butternut squash with curry seasoning (sometimes I sprinkle unsweetened coconut on top…pretty and tasty). The other is butternut squash with salsa. Sometimes I add parsley or chopped kale. It only takes about 15 minutes for the squash to soften in the broth; I mash it in the pan with a potato masher (and wonder if I will ever buy an immersion blender for the purpose).

Birds

Bluebirds. We have some resident bluebirds. They are visiting our deck because we have a bird bath that does not freeze (I bought a heater for it). Every time I see them, I celebrate. I hope I can get some pictures of them eventually.

Canadian Geese. Usually the Canadian Geese bother me because there are so many of them but they were so photogenic at Centennial Park this month that I changed my mind about them.

Activities

Solstice Hike. I enjoyed the hike this year and plan to add a hike on the shortest day of the year to our family tradition for years to come

Wildlife Photography Class. The class from Creative Live was well worth the time…but I celebrated it because my husband and I did the class together in our den with the Christmas tree decorated and a fire in the fireplace. Some wonderful hours!

Bundling boxwood and holly. Somehow group activities in December are an important part of the holiday. Bundling boxwood and holly for a nature holiday sale was not something I’d done before … but it added to the celebration of the season seeing the piles of greenery and knowing that most of it would find its way to other homes for the holidays!

Holiday Events

Part of the joy of December - the brightness in the season of short days - is holiday events. This year I volunteered at two events that ended up being in the same weekend. They were both so much fun I’ll do the same sort of thing next year! Somehow being part of the set up and behind-the-scenes logistics for an event makes it even more of a celebration.

I enjoy the decorations like the ones I posted about yesterday and the ‘pot people’ at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant farm decked out for the season.

Baking is an integral part of holidays for me…and it is so much better to share the products rather than overindulge. My favorite homemade goodies to donate for events are the always popular oatmeal raisin cookies and coconut macaroons. I was glad there were none leftover this year!

One of my volunteer jobs was to help bundle up donated boxwood and holly - to be sold at one of the events. I bought some and then took some of the remains at the end of the day for a vases and pitchers in my kitchen. It was the final bit of decorating around my house. What a reminder of the ‘good beginning’ of December!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 06, 2014

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.

12 Ways Airports Are Actually Getting Better - Some good trends. I’ve noticed the increasing number of art work particularly - like the floor mosaics in one of the DFW terminals.

Wanderers - A short video. Wish we were doing more space exploration these days….thrilled that the Orion test flight yesterday was successful.

WHO Report: Climate Change to Cause 250,000 “Extra Deaths” a Year by 2030 - Not good.

This Linguistic Family Tree Is Simply Gorgeous - It’s only the Indo-European languages….not all the world’s languages. It would be interesting to see all of them in this same format

Apple Crisp - Yum. I have some apples in my refrigerator I need to use up quickly….this will be a good way to use them!

The Chemistry of Poinsettia Plants - Did you know that the pigment in the red leaves changes color with pH? This could be a project to try as your poinsettia sheds its petals!

Losing air: barrage of small impacts likely erased much of the Earth’s primordial atmosphere - Since I am in the middle of an ‘Origins’ course on Coursera - I am noting this type article more. There is geochemical evidence that Earth’s atmosphere may have been completely obliterated at least twice since its formation. This research investigates a possible mechanism.

Citizen science increases environmental awareness, advocacy - Talking and thinking are enhanced by doing when it comes to really understanding something. It happens is so many areas of life.

New Model of Media Consumption in 'Age of Interruption' - 15 hours a day is the average…that is almost every waking hour! I’m disappointed that they did not have statistics for the ‘retired’ segment of the US population. The average hours are a bit high for me (very high on days that I am leading nature hikes!) and the distribution (at least for me) is heavily skew toward computer (tablet and laptop) rather than the other types of media….largely because of courses, ebooks and the amount of writing I like to do. And there is another difference too - I am not sedentary in front of my laptop when I am at home (Swopper chair).

The weird world of everyday liquids - I’m always liked these kind of images. There are videos worth viewing too.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 29, 2014

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.

The Chemistry of Ginger – Flavour, Pungency & Medicinal Potential - This article from ‘Compound Interest’ was timely - with my new favorite winter drink being hot ginger water!

This Menacing Carnivorous Plant Time-lapse Is a Horror Movie for Bugs - I remember sending off for a tiny Venus fly trap plant when I was in elementary school - fascinated by the idea of plants that ate bugs. Now I am even more fascinated by the chemistry behind the rapid action the plant takes to trap the bug! The video is under 4 minutes in length - worth a look.

Scientists study effects of sunlight to reduce number of nearsighted kids - There is still research to be done to fully understand the relationship between outdoor time and nearsightedness…but there is enough evidence already to encourage more outdoor time for children to reduce the lifetime risk of nearsightedness.  The ages between 5 and 9 seem to be critical.

Urban Cartography - This is a collection of maps. My favorite is the mapping of sea level rise on the south part of South Bay (San Francisco). Lots of tech company headquarters are in the vulnerable zone with relatively little rise in sea level.

Gifted men and women define success differently, 40-year study finds - From the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth conducted at Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development.  The study involved over 1600 people that were well established in their careers and lives. Collectively they had published 85 books and 7,572 refereed academic articles and secured 681 patents and $358 million in grants. Their scores on measures of emotional well-being, life satisfaction, personal and career direction, and satisfaction with their relationships were universally high. Then the gender differences become more apparent in other areas such as career path, salary, time allocation, priorities, and family. The finding that both the mathematically talented men and women in the study were ‘happy’ says something good about their resilience and the cultural environment.

Update: American Farm Bureau Federation et al. v. EPA Oral Arguments - This update caught my eye because it was about the Chesapeake Bay - something close to home. There is a Total Maximum Daily Load program for the Chesapeake Bay which is coordinated by the EPA in collaboration with the states whose watershed feeds into the bay.

Gingerbread Molasses Scones - Yum! I made these this week. The only changes I made to the ingredients were 1) whole wheat flour instead of plain flour and 2) no topping. I also used the food processor to mix everything. I did the kneading right in the big pan, cut the pieces of dough, separated them a little, and into the oven they went.

These Parasitic Wasps Trick Trees into Building Them Weird Houses - The oak tree hosts quite a few gall wasps. The video show some of the variety.

An Astounding History of Scientific Space Art from the Past 200 Years - Imaginings of other places….

The Complete Crocodilian Primer - Links to articles about the all the different kinds of crocodiles.

Thanksgiving 2014

The cranberry orange relish, pumpkin custard, and gingerbread molasses scones were made yesterday.

The roast is in the crockpot.

The potatoes (sweet and russet) and parsnips (au gratin) are poised to go into the oven.

We’ll light the logs in the fireplace and eat a small salad as football blares.

It’s our tradition.

In the short silences of the day -

Maybe on a neighborhood walk after the big meal, during halftime of the football game -

We’ll talk of the wonder of our lives:

That our long careers were satisfying…

That our family is well…

That the future is full of potential…

That we live the way we wish to live…

And we are full of thanks.

Eggs in a Nest

My favorite concoction in recent weeks has been ‘eggs in a nest.’ It is a veggie stir fry with eggs added at the last minute into a well in the center. On my stove, I turn the burner off and put a lid on the skillet until the eggs are cooked. I’ve made it three times this month

The first time I stir fried the stems of the chard (yellow and red) a little before adding the leaves, arugula, mushrooms, and a scallion. I used a little table blend Mrs. Dash and some orange peel. When it was cooked I added sesame ginger sauce and stirred it in. I made a well in the center of the mass and poured in two eggs. Then I turned off the burner and put a lid on the skillet. After I put the whole on a plate, I put crumbled kale chips on top (the ones that had a little too much garlic salt). The egg yokes were a little soft in the center but the whites were thoroughly cooked. It was a little like an inside out omelet - more veggies because they did not have to be contained in the egg!

The nest for the second ‘eggs in a nest’ was made with eggplant, onions, mushrooms, arugula, and kale chips with spicy spaghetti sauce added at the last minute. The sauce gave it a very different flavor - I’ve always like tomatoes with eggs.

I was really hungry when I started the ‘eggs in a nest’ for a third meal. I stir fried kohlrabi (bulb, stems and leaves!), mushrooms, onion, and garlic. The sauce was the sesame ginger sauce. It was my big meal of the day!

What a yummy way to include eggs as the main protein at lunch or dinner!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 11, 2014

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.

Grandchildren—The Dessert of Life - I loved the sentiment and phrase ‘dessert of life’!

Three Technological Innovations that Could End Asphalt as We Know it - Solar roadways and glow-in-the dark paths - very clever.

Haunting Cave Paintings in Indonesia Are the Oldest in the World - Symbolic expression developed in Asia and Europe about the same time (almost 40 thought years ago). A new dating technique using the mineral deposits on top of the paintings was used for dating the Indonesian paintings.

Active aging is much more than exercise - Think broadly about what ‘active’ means. It’s all about everyday lives, quality of life, and general health. Older people are not homogenous. Being interested in something other than illness and aches seems to be an important component too.

Are we hard-wired to doodle? - I hope so!

5 Festive Pumpkin Recipes for Fall - I like pumpkin and am always looking for new recipes this time of year. There is something dramatic about cooking a whole pumpkin and then using the bounty in old and new recipes. Last year my favorite recipe was Pumpkin Ginger Scones. This year I will try the Pumpkin Bread Pudding in this post….although I am thinking maple syrup rather than caramel sauce! I already make pumpkin soups (sometimes with peanuts…sometimes with other nuts).

The History of the English Language in One Chart - Lots of additions along the way. No language is completely static.

The expert guide to space colonies - A preview to a topic of the BBC Future’s World-Changing Ideas Summit that will be held later this month.

Watch Over 100 Baby Turtles Make It to the Sea - Just a little over a minute....worth a look!

10 research tips for finding answers online - We all have techniques we have developed over time - but tips like these give us a chance to benchmark what we do and perhaps do some refresh. Often judging the quality if what we find is the hardest part.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 4, 2014

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.

Gender barriers: History of discrimination against women in engineering - Much has changed….but there are still challenges to overcome for women in engineering programs (that are cultural rather than intellectual).

Brilliant Idea: The Green Benefits District - New way to facilitate community investment in new tree-lined streets, parks, and gardens.

The Most Important Animals You May Never Notice - Mussels!

Critically ill ICU patients lose almost all of their gut microbes and the ones left aren't good - Another reason to minimize excessive use of antibiotics….and better understand gut microbes.

Whipsnade Zoo Has A Baby Elephant With The Tiniest Little Trunk - A short video.

Stain Solutions - From the University of Illinois Extension

Foodie Bees: Insects Head Downtown for Dinner - There are many kinds of bees…they are versatile…and gardens everywhere can become better habitats for them!

Immune system of newborn babies stronger than previously thought - Hurray! Newborn immune systems are different….but they work effectively in many instances.

Enjoy the Fall Migration: Your Guide to Bird Observatories - Thinking about birds in the fall…maybe something to combine with a fall foliage trek over a long weekend.

Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cake - The cake may not need any icing at all. I am going to harvest my sweet potatoes this weekend….so I am looking for something special to make with my small crop!

Edibles

This summer I’ve been surprised by parts of veggies that I had not realized were edible previously ---- and I’m sure that are probably more surprises to come. Here’s the list to date.

Garlic scapes. These were in one of the early CSA shares. They are cut from the top of the plant in the spring so that the garlic bulbs will form better. There is a small window when they are available but are a short term seasonal treat.  Their general curling form appeals to me too!

Sweet potato leaves and stems. It had never occurred to me that the sweet potato leaves were edible when I made my small harvest in the past. They are good in salads and stir fries (and probably soups too). I even chop up the stems. At first I thought the stems would be too tough for salads but they are no tougher that fresh green beans. Again - the CSA share was my first exposure to the ‘new food.’

Carrot tops. Most of the carrots I buy are already sliced or peeled…their tops long gone. This year I have a few carrots in my own deck garden and the CSA share has provided carrots with their green tops. I had no idea that the fresh tops tasted like parsley (probably with similar nutrition)….until I went to a lecture on food preservation. Now I manage to use some of the tops fresh in salads and then put the rest in the smoothie maker with water to create slurry to freeze in an ice cube tray; they’ll add a fresh green to soups this winter!

Now I’m wondering what else I am putting in the compost pile that should really be part of dinner instead….

3 Free eBooks - September 2014

It’s time again for the monthly post about eBooks that are freely available on the Internet. The three below are my favorites for September 2014.

Calvert, Albert Frederick. Southern Spain - Painted by Trevor Haddon. London: A&C Black. 1908. Available from the Internet Archive here. I particularly liked the images of courtyards….beautiful outdoor spaces.

Moore, Frederic. The Lepidoptera of Ceylon. London: L. Reeve & Co. 1890. Three volumes from the Internet Archive: one, two, three.  The author was very active in India as well. I’ve looked at all the volumes for Ceylon and have started the ones for India. I wonder how many of the species still exist?

Brown, Leanne. Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. New York. 2014. Available from the author’s website. You’ll get hungry just looking at recipes in this book!  I got caught on the first one (tomato scrambled eggs)…made it for lunch before I finished the rest of the book!

Enjoy some wonderful images (and some good food ideas)!

Favorite Snacks

Favorite snacks come and go. I took stock this week of what I am eating as ‘mini-meals’ between the three majors. These are all very easy prep and not too high in calories…generally high in nutrition too.

Carrot chips and hummus. At one time I thought I would make my own hummus, but my grocery story has their own brand of hummus that is reasonably priced. My favorite seasonings are roasted garlic, roasted red pepper, and lemon/dill. My grocery also stocks carrot chips so I buy them when I don’t have a big supply of carrots from the CSA. This snack works very well as a component of a picnic lunch as well!

Smoothie. As the weather gets cooler this one might come off my list but on warm days it is a favorite. This morning it included some frozen watermelon, frozen lemon wedges and sweet potato leaves.

Fruit. I always try to have seasonal fresh fruit on hand. Earlier this month peaches were at the top of the list. Now I have some nectarines and oranges….and lots of apples.

Popcorn. Since I bought the Nordic Ware bowl for popping corn in the microwave, this is again on the ‘healthy’ snack list. I use pumpkinseed oil or lemon infused olive oil on it rather than butter.

Kale chips. This snack is the one that requires the most prep. I cook a lot at one time and store the chips in a plastic container. I keep thinking that they will last a week or so but I always eat them faster than I anticipate. My favorite seasoning is salt….somehow it just seems right for ‘chips.’

How will things change for when it is colder? I’ll have to decide and then stock the ingredients. Snacking wisely requires some planning ahead!

CSA Week 11

It takes a lot of focus to not have tomatoes left from the Gorman Produce Farm CSA share each week. This I made tomato sauce with all the tomatoes that were left (the roma tomatoes). I am perfecting my technique; the steps this week were:

• Cut the tops off
• Put in a food processor
• Puree - skins and all
• Cook until about the right consistency for sauce adding seasonings if designed (basil and garlic were my choice)

 Everything else I had left will last without refrigeration: potatoes and garlic.

This week there are a lot of tomatoes again. The new type of tomato in this week’s share was yellow (I got 4 of them along with 1 red one in the 3 pounds in this week’s share). The yellow tomato I ate with yogurt on top last night was pretty and tasty. I’ll eat the heirloom tomato for my next ‘tomato as a side dish.’

The beautiful peppers are in a range of colors. What a way to add flavor and color to a meal!

The spaghetti squash will work very well under chili that my husband is going to make (using up some of the tomato sauce I am accumulating).

This upcoming week is going to be a ‘good eating’ week!

Third Mint Harvest of the Summer (2014)

The mint is even more prolific than usual this year because our hot weather in Maryland has been occasional days rather than long slogs…..and I have watered consistently.

I was surprised to find some dense patches where I had stuck some mint stems after stripping off the leaves after one of last year’s harvest. Mint is providing the ground cover around the iris in the front flower beds.  Some of the patch was cut for this third harvest of this summer.

The pots on the deck had grown back from the previous harvest. The post with mint and butterfly weed looked a bit overgrown so I trimmed the mint severely.

I was going to trim the mint in the turtle sandbox but decided to only cut about a quarter of the mint since I already had so much to process.

There were multiple baskets of mint leaves to rinse and then feed into the food processor.

I decided to use the leaves and tender stems (and then stick the tougher stems that remained around the gardens and other pots. Usually I stop at one processor bowl full of processed mint but there was so much this time that I forged ahead had two.

The drying process started on platters in the kitchen then in a muslin bag hanging in various rooms of the house….what a joy to have a mint scented house.

I may have one more batch in the fall….and then savor hot mint tea all winter!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - July 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. 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 July 2014. I’ve categorized them into 4 groups: CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Howard County Conservancy, travel and outdoors.

CSA

Kohlrabi is a new food for me this summer. It has been included in my CSA share twice and I’ve enjoyed it nutty flavor in stir fries. I may even buy it from the grocery store produce section after the CSA ends in the fall.

Fruit beety has become one of my favorite treats this summer - it is a healthy splurge to celebrate summer…..and a beautiful color to savor too.

Turnips are foods that I liked as snacks growing up but had eaten very infrequently for 30 years. I’m celebrating the re-discovery of how good a crunchy turnip can be.

Howard County Conservancy

Fairy Houses - The Howard Country Conservancy had an event for families to build fairy houses in the woods. I volunteered to help out with the crowd….and it was a lot of fun. The children were very creative with the natural materials of available!

Views in the Forest Shade - I celebrated the natural jewels in the shade on a summer day.

Bugs - Insects and spiders - oh my!

Travel

Travel purse - I found the perfect purse for travel at a thrift store: a pocket on the outside for my Kindle and boarding pass, good closure so nothing can fall out accidently. I am celebrating the bargain!

TSA Pre - I celebrate every time I get a boarding pass with TSA Pre; it is so much easier to go through security with shoes on and the laptop in the backpack.

Outdoors

Heron on the Lotus Pond - The second trip we may to the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Garden in Washington DC - there was a Great Blue Heron that was so intent on fishing that there was plenty of time for pictures. The scene of bird and lotus were the celebration of the day.

Blooming sweet potato - Previous sweet potato plants have grown lots of foliage and potatoes….but this year the plant has blooms too!

Fruit Beety

Fruit Beety has become one of my favorite summertime recipes….which is quite surprising since I didn’t think I liked beets at all before I started getting them in my CSA share and looked around for something to do with them. The first recipe I decided to try was derived from my old Laurel’s Kitchen cookbook. I modified it a bit so that it comes out the consistency of homemade applesauce rather than matchsticking the beets…..and used ingredients I had on hand.

I’ve mentioned it several times in previous posts but am providing the more complete recipe today:

Use 3-4 medium sized beets. Cut off stems and leaves leaving the beet root intact. Scrub to clean off dirt. Cook in boiling salted water. I only cook for 10 minutes because I don’t have to have the skins slough off (the beets I’ve gotten so far have been so fresh that the skin is fine once it goes through the food processor. After cooking - pour off water (it will be a pretty color and could be saved to water plants)  - cool beats with cold water and cut off the very top and the root tip. Cut into chunks.

While the beets are cooking - prepare the other ingredients in the food processor.

• 3 organic oranges
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon raspberry vinegar
• Pinch salt

Oranges: The reason I specify 'organic' for this recipe is that the peeling is going into the Beety. Cut the peeling ends off the oranges; cut just enough to get the thicker peel, stem, and pith at the two ends. Cut into slices and removed seeds. Cut into chunks. Place fruit (pulp and peeling attached to it) into the food processor.

The unsweetened coconut is to soak up liquid. If you don’t have any - a tablespoon of chia seeds would work well.

I don’t measure the honey or vinegar - I just add it in.

After adding the beets to the food processor - let it run until the mixture is the consistency of homemade applesauce.

Fruit Beety is excellent alone, with coconut sprinkled on top (as shown above) with yogurt (or ice cream), or as a smoothie ingredient. Just think how beautiful a parfait of Fruit Beety and vanilla (or plain) yogurt would be! 

CSA Week 5

I had a few things left from the 4th week share from Gorman Produce Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) when it came time to pick up week 5: a couple of carrots, one leek, an onion, a few cloves of garlic and 1/3 of the cabbage. All the more fragile veggies were consumed before they were spoiled. I have discovered that I can enjoy a whole cucumber in one sitting made into a smoothie with pineapple salsa and water on a hot afternoon. The vines on my deck have a lot of small cucumbers right now so the cucumber + salsa smoothie might become a summer afternoon tradition!

The share for week 5 includes:

• 1 bunch of carrots
• 1 bunch of leeks
• 1 head of magenta lettuce
• 2 onions
• 2 small heads of cabbage (from at 3 types!)
• 2 kohlrabi
• 1 pound squash (yellow and zucchini)
• 2 pounds of cucumbers
• 1 bunch of kale (my choice instead of chard or collards)

I already made most of the kale into chips! And we’ve made a start on the magenta lettuce and purple cabbage as part of last night’s salad.

I am most thrilled about the kohlrabi since I discovered how great it tastes in stir fries when it was part of the week 3 share. They are such an odd looking vegetable but have become my favorite new food so far this summer (although the beets in Fruit Beety are a very close second!).

CSA Week 4

I managed to have empty crispers by the time I picked up the 4th week share from the Gorman Produce Farm Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Drying most of the parsley (cutting it up coarsely with kitchen scissors and just leaving it out on a cookie sheet for a couple of days…now it is stored away for use in other cooking) and making collard green chips (same technique as kale chips) cleared the overflow condition within 24 hours of picking up the share!  Then I alternated between salads and stir fries and green smoothies to finish off everything except the beets - which I used for the special treat: Fruit Beety (see picture in yesterday’s post, recipe in CSA Week 3 post)

There is a shift in week 4 - it not as overwhelmingly leafy green! Can you find all the items on the list in the picture below?** (Hint: I chose the kale rather than chard or turnips). The cucumbers will make excellent smoothies with plain yogurt and pineapple salsa (and maybe I’ll use some leek too). The lettuce and cucumber are the only two items that are not candidates for stir fry. I’m trying to decide whether to use the kale for chips…or save some leaves for stir fry and salad - there’s really enough for all three!

** Starting at the upper left and moving clockwise: red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, onions, cabbage, kale (lower right), summer and zucchini squash, garlic, carrots, and leeks.

On Cooking

I’ve been cooking for over 4 decades…and today I started thinking about how things have changed in that time period.

Microwave ovens are the biggest technology change although the majority of times I use it these days is for popcorn (the Nordic Ware Microwave Popper has allowed me to go back to the same kind of popcorn I bought 40 years ago rather than the popcorn packaged with lots of additives).

Less meat. I eat a lot less meat these days because there are so many other sources of protein: yogurt, soy nuts, and peanuts are my favorites.

More vegetables. The CSA has increased by veggie consumption this summer but even before that I eat more vegetables now than I did 40 years ago…..and more of them are fresh rather than canned.

Less bread. I eat grains in different form than breads. Commercial bread was easy to give up. Sometimes I make muffins or scones but I am more enthusiastic about grains that I didn’t consume at all in the beginning of my cooking life: quinoa and chia.

Food processors make it easier to grate and puree in large quantities. I had a blender than I used 40 years ago but it was primarily used for milk shakes. I have several concoctions that are produced by putting everything in the food processor and just running it for several minutes (Fruit Beety is the most recent).  I also have a smoothie maker (a specialized blender) that I use with frozen fruit or veggies.

The menu has changed a little too over the years. Most of our meals take 30 minutes or less and even for the longer prep times there is a ‘get it started’ (like putting potatoes and meatloaf in the oven) and then going off to other things until it is done. Stir fry meals didn’t start until the last 10 years or so; I have a technique where I cut up the longer cooking items, start them cooking while I cut up the other items, then add the quick cook items (like leafy greens); it forces me to work fast!

Overall - I think the way I cook now produces tasty - and healthier - meals and is often easier than it was 40 years ago but not due to technology improvement.  It’s the learning through experience and focus on nutrition that has made the difference.

CSA Week 3

I did a reasonable job of using up the veggies from week 2 of the Gorman Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) ….although not quite as good as the week 1 share. I ended week 2 with some broccoli and spinach left to eat….and some beet leaves in the freezer. I discovered that the dandelion greens were excellent in salads, kale chips are wonderful snacks, and beets are yummy in Fruit Beety. Here’s the recipe for Fruit Beety:

Combine in a food processor: 3 cooked beets, 3 oranges, 2 tablespoons coconut (unsweetened), 1 teaspoon honey, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange peel, pinch salt, scant teaspoon of raspberry vinegar. Process for a minute or two. Mine was the consistency of a thick applesauce. Adjust honey or vinegar to taste. Chill to blend the flavors. This recipe results in 3 large snack servings (6 servings if with a meal). It is good by itself or with a dollop of plain yogurt!

Lessons learned from week 2: 1) have a salad or stir fry twice a day that uses a significant amount of produce, 2) make kale chips with the whole bunch right away next time they are included in the share (they keep well enough for a few days), and 3) remind my husband to eat at least one salad a day and sneak a leaf or two of something green into his strawberry smoothie.

Now for week 3:

I already have ideas for everything in this share….a lot of excellent meals ahead this next week!

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - June 2014

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. 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 June 2014. I’ve categorized them into 4 groups: outdoors, food, and courses and people.

Outdoors

Oak trimming (and discovering the oak marble). Finishing the annual trimming of the oak was worth a celebration but it was made even better this year with the finding of the oak marble. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like tit.

Therapy bush trimming. There is always some to be learned about myself during time spent trimming the bush. I celebrated that it happened this month (and look forward to at least one more time during the summer).

Brookside. We walk around Brookside at least once a month and it is always enjoyable but with the construction going on this summer we are looking for alternatives. I celebrated June’s visit since it will be the last one to Brookside for a few months.

Green tomatoes. My deck garden has gotten off to a reasonably good start. I have 11 tomatoes on two plants! I’m celebrating their progress and hope to report other colors soon (and then move them to the ‘food celebration’ category.

Food

Community Support Agriculture. My first experience with the CSA has been worth celebrating. The fresh veggies are getting eaten.

Watermelon. I didn’t wait for the local melons. The grocery store had a bin and the one I got was excellent.

Kale chips. They taste good - and are nutritious too! Even my husband - not usually big on veggies - liked them.

Courses

Thought provoking classes - The Paradoxes of War class I started this month on Cousera has been very thought provoking….and I am celebrating that I signed up for it.

The survival of people in harsh reality - The Nubians survived harsh climate and the Ancient Egyptians to produce their vibrant culture - that’s the main take away from The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia course that I just finished on Coursera. I am celebrating their accomplishment; they help us realize that the ancient Egyptians were not the only ancient people to apply extreme creativity toward improving their lives.

People

People. There are so many people related celebration days this month that were highlighted by Father’s Day, telephone calls from (and to) family members and meeting new people.