Lucas came by yesterday to clean the rooftop moss garden that had lent a lovely green hue to the house. I loved that color green along with all the other greens on the property adjacent to the creek. And the gutter garden I and the Stellar Jays had grown accustomed to didn’t survive either. My son came home from school after the clean up was done and asked: Why is the roof white?
It was the moss killer.
I grew up in NYC. Queens to be exact. Yes, I USE to have a Queens accent, but I wanted to make money on Wall Street so I opted for more of a New England accent. It worked. However, in the Northwest everyone knows I come from the Northeast because I talk fast. What does this have to do with food? Nothing, I am ranting.
I met a woman recently who introduced herself as Don. She said it quickly, so I asked her to spell it…D-a-w-n. In NYC, that would be pronounced Dawn as in AW-ful. I think it should rhyme with fawn. She pronounced it Don as in Don Quixote. Ok. Here’s what Merriam-Webster says: dawn.
I met a man recently who gave me directions to Squalicum HS. He said to make a right from Sunset onto McCloud. McCloud pronounced like the word “loud”. Ok. I passed McLeod 2x and decided I ought to call. Why is McLeod pronounced McCloud? The sheeple strike again! Why not McDawneold’s?
Here’s another one. Gyro. In NYC, it is pronounced jeye-row. On the west coast, it is pronounced yee-row. Merriam-Webster is from which coast? The mysteries of phonology.
I’m done now. Thank you for your payshins.
My home is well stocked with staples: milk, eggs, bread and chocolate. I can see you smiling. No chocolate in your house? I’m sorry…but, chocolate = love = happiness. End of story.
The chocolate staple in my home is Scharffen Berger. I was introduced to Scharffen Berger chocolate by Helen Gustafson in her book The Agony of the Leaves: The Ecstasy of My Life With Tea. It is a compilation of her ‘tea’ anecdotes and many scrumptious ‘tea’ recipes. Scharffen Berger is her preferred chocolate in recipes and eating it straight, as I do, it is no wonder. I have the semisweet 60% cacao dark chocolate. The chocolate bar is in six pieces imprinted with a graceful goat on a mountain and 3 stars above it. It has a subtle chocolate smell with a hint of coffee and vanilla. It tastes rich and creamy and, of course, like chocolate!
Ingredients: cacao beans, sugar, cocoa butter, non-gmo soy lecithin and whole vanilla beans. Vegan anyone?
Scharffen Berger has a sister brand: Dagoba. I have seen this chocolate at the Community Food Co-op and Terra Organica and Bargainica. I’ll share my experience with this chocolate soon.
I love animals. They are beautiful mysteries of nature I can interact with. I’ve had a couple of dogs. But, I have always been allergic to cats. I remember when I was 5 years old waking up and not being able to open my eyes. They were swollen shut for four days. My reward for playing with a cat and rubbing my eyes. Allergy shots followed on a weekly basis. You’d think a phlebotomist would send me running, but acupuncture is my preferred treatment ( after sirsasana). As an adult, I’ve used nettle leaf as a preventive successfully. After a visit with a cat friend, I’d immediately wash my clothes, hair and take another dose of nettle leaf. Most times, if I sat on wood furniture, it would be enough and I wouldn’t need my inhaler.
You wonder how does this correlate to being vegan? Well, I read a vegan post about being thankful to people who respect the personal choice a vegan has made by serving foods at gatherings they can eat. It described perfectly how thankful I was for the people (you know who you are) who cared about making my cat friend visits easier. It reminded me of my children with food intolerances and the friends who go out of their way to have snacks suitable for them. I love these people and how caring and thoughtful they are. Because so few people GET IT. The idiom ‘Walk a mile in my shoes‘ is widely understood, but rarely put into practice.
BTW, ‘pet free’ people are few and far between. So I nurture the friends who GET IT and move on from the ones who don’t. Embrace the human condition, whatever it may be.
My mother is an excellent cook. When I was a kid, there were 2 things I could always count on in my mom’s kitchen: fried food and baked desserts. The richer, the better. Oh, she could cook anything, but it was the food fried in lard (she would buy the 2 lb pack at Waldbaums) that tasted best.
The health food/exercise craze of the ’80’s came along and she chose to fry in Crisco instead (maybe because Waldbaums wasn’t carrying lard anymore). Now that we’re living in the 21st century, I felt it was time to influence her eating habits (much to her chagrin). I tried to explain white rice was a carbohydrate like bread. I tried to explain why my organic eggs did not give her indigestion like her commercial eggs. And I sent her home with organic coconut oil after her visit at Thanksgiving. There are many health benefits associated with eating coconut oil, but this post is about my Mom, not about plugging a product.
How did I do it, you ask? Well, through example (and public pressure). We fried some chicken in canola oil and some more in the coconut oil. The kids (and she) liked the taste of the chicken fried in the coconut oil best. It was extra crispy and not heavy at all. The chicken was juicy, not dried out at all (mom’s words). I don’t know for sure if she’s still using the coconut oil (because she knows it’s pricey), but I tried.
As I take stock of what I ate then, and what I eat now, it is truly shocking. In 3rd grade I didn’t think life got much sweeter than half a dozen yodels chased down with ice cold milk. Someone pass the sprouted almonds and peppermint ice tea, please…
Powered by WordPress