The crafting draught...

I was wondering whether my unhappiness with my recent creations was "all in my head.

When I started crafting, I was almost never happy with my creations until after they'd "aged" a few days...

But, no. They've aged weeks or months. I still don't like the ones I made during the draught-- represented by these top two yellow ones. They're not horrible -- but I can't bring myself to send them to anyone who knows my work. I can't even put into words why I don't like them.

Oh well, the draught is over and I have made some I really like in the last few days.

But these I can send. Life is better.

I do believe that I have perfected my carrot muffins

Almond Carrot muffins -- dairy and grain free

3 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons fresh ground nutmeg
5 eggs
½ cup maple syrup (use 1/2 cup of honey for a sweeter muffin)
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
3 cups organic carrots (or butternut squash) grated
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts

Combine the almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl.

Whisk the eggs, syrup, and oil in a separate medium bowl until the eggs and oil create an emulsion.

Fold the carrots, raisins and walnuts into wet ingredients

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry

Put two tablespoons of batter into each paper lined cupcake tin

Bake at 325° for 35-45 minutes

Cool to room temperature -- they taste even better next morning.

With thanks to Elana Amsterdam of Elana’s Pantry. We've changed it up to suite our tastes, but Elana gave us our start -- her food is amazing!

Confessions of a Do-It-Yourselfer

My friend, Sue, with whom a I share a peculiar fascination with seeing how things actually work, has found words for why. Rather than try to recreate the wheel, I figured I'd just send you over to have a read of her excellent article.

Global Warming...

Everywhere you turn these days, you can't help but hear the arguments about "global warming".

Are the concerns real? I have no idea. I'm no scientist, and I've heard pretty convincing arguments on both sides -- and some pretty convincing refutations, too.

I wish I could laugh at it all, because it strikes me as so ridiculous.

I keep hearing in all this debate, a family living in level two squalour, arguing about the mess.

On the one hand, you have the Chicken Little's running around yelling that the floor is going to cave in. And on the other, you have the Ostriches arguing "No, the floor is fine!" -- as though if the floor is OK, that's all that matters.

What if it's true that the creaking we hear is just the normal settling of the house and there is actually no danger of the house collapsing into the basement?

Does that make it OK to live in filth and squalor? What about the effects of that filth on our health? More important, on our children's health?!?!?

So, never mind global warming, let's clean up because it's the right way to live!

I wish I could laugh, but I can't it's too sad to see what we are becoming.

The Little Red Hen Comes Home to Roost ...

Tuesday evening: "Jack do you want to help me make cookies or do you want to play chess?"

(absentmindedly) "I want to play Chess Kids, thank you."

Twenty minutes later: "What are you doing in there, Mamma?

"Making cupcakes"

"mmmmmm"

Five minutes later, a young man appears at the kitchen door:

"Mamma, I know the story of the Little Red Hen. But, you know, you're not a hen. And I'm not any kind of barnyard animal...right?"

"Would you like to help?"

"YES!" and here he comes with a chair.

Funny boy. :)

If you cook every meal

your kitchen isn't always (ever?) going to look like a magazine cover....and that's OK.

Thanks to Shauna James Ahern, of Gluten Free Girl for that freeing reminder.

Frustrated again ...

 

I am behind by nine cards already.  *sigh* 

 

It's not that I'm not trying; I have made a half dozen cards that I can't use.  Even old standbys aren't working.

Not sure what the problem is.  Have I lost my touch?  need to spend more time with it?  Need to give up?

 

Not sure.

Winter sowing

I just sent this note...

 

***

 

From: Misti
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 11:07 AM
To: Valerie
Subject: winter sowing

 

Hey, Valerie!

 

I finally found time to check into winter sowing…this Is *brilliant*!  Thank you!!!!

(I am now digging through my seed catalogs and preparing to have a blast!!!)  :D

 

 

I may get the hang of this gardening thing yet! 

 

J

 

Misti

***

 

This *is* brilliant!  I read up on winter sowing at a site called, oddly enough, http://www.wintersown.org/

 

Winter sowing is, it turns out, entirely in keeping with my world view--go back to the basics and life simplifies itself! 

 

Rod has offered to get me a small seed starter setup as my Valentines gift, and since only seeds that originate in temperate climates can thrive with the winter sowing method, the combination will put me "back in business". 

 

I am *so* excited! 

Cooking...

Many years ago, when I cohabited with a television for a while (and lost four entire months to The Home and Garden Nework!) I once came across a few minutes of an energetic young chef talking about catsup, of all things. He wasn't decrying it's plasticine nature nor extolling the virtues of a particular brand ... he was explaining its history and how to make your own...woah, how cool!! My kind of guy! (I had mulled the idea of attending chef school since junior high when a strange evaluation they gave me told me that I was best suited to being a chef on a cruise ship...it sounded fun! But since I had untreated thyroid until I was thirty, I lacked the stamina to be on my feet eight to ten hours per day, so I never tried it.)

I don't remember why, but in spite of my interest, I never saw more than that few minutes of that show.

Over time, that enthusiastic young man became so famous that even I, out in luddite land, heard about him. He was Alton Brown, culinary cartographer and host of a show called Good Eats. One day a couple of years ago, I was browsing the library non-fiction DVD shelved for homeschooling fodder when I came across a lonely Good Eats DVD sitting alone on the shelf. I got it out, to see if it was as interesting as I remembered.

Jack watched with me, and he became obsessed! Every time we go to the library, he checks to see whether there are any new "AB" shows. (Turns out out first one was lonely because that is one of THE most popular DVD sets in the library!) He had always liked to help me cook, but he took a renewed interest in cooking and started to explain to me about why to use the muffin method rather than my old "throw it all in a bowl and whip it to death". (My baking *did* improve.) He prompted me to get Dad a cooking scale and an electronic oven thermometer for Yule -- and believe it or not, they were a big hit.

A few years ago I started hearing about another energetic young chef who seems to share my approach to food and cooking - - at least from the press. Recently I go around to looking for DVD's of Jamie Oliver's Naked Chef at the library, but I was only able to find Jamie's Kitchen.

YUCK! That was so not what I was looking for. It was scene after scene of our young hero dashing about with uncombed hair, young people's self involved, over entitled whinging, and a lot of berating and shouting.

We gave up after three episodes, because it wasn't getting any better.

I did learn one thing though. I had never entirely given up the idea of chef school. It's clear that being a working chef isn't likely to be feasible for me, but I thought it might be something fun to do after I retire, just for my own knowledge. From what I saw of chef school, it's a lot like teacher school. You love to teach children (or cook) so you decide to be a teacher (or a chef). You go to school and you're not not how to teach (or cook) but how to manage a classroom (or a commercial kitchen). In both cases, while it startled me, it does make a lot of sense...but it explains why I never went on with my teacher training and why I guess I'm not going to chef school. So, it's back to the library with me, to get some more Shirley Corriher, Harold McGee, and Julia Child books.

Oh well.

The thrill of systematic education

Our view of classical education convinces us that a systematic approach to education  -- approaching things from the fundamentals, the beginning -- is the best way to put knowledge into perspective.  There are plenty of other theories out there, and sometimes when jack is browsing the school shelves wistfully, eager to get to the Romans or impatient to learn about knights, I sometimes wonder whether it would be better to indulge his interests as they appear.

 

 

The problem with indulging him too much is that either we make new units less interesting, because he "already knows that" and so doesn't want to study the topic in its appointed time and place, or we start to present history all out of order, losing many of the benefits of the classic sequential presentation.  So far I have compromised by keeping him out of the materials we have set aside, but not interfering with what he finds on his own at the library.  So far so good.

 

Then, last night, Jack got a glimpse of the connections we're presenting to him.  We were reading a book about Ancient Egypt (God kind by Joanne Williamson) and this edition has a map that includes not only the Nile, but also the Tigres and Euphrates.  Jack spotted his old friends the T&E and got very excited when he realized that they were so (relatively) near and that characters from his Mesopotamian stories could (and maybe did) probably travel to Egypt.

 

He enjoys his stories, but he is also beginning to sense the thrill of "putting it all together".  That's a lot harder to do with a scattershot approach and I'm thilled to see the payoff coming so early in his career!  woo hoo! 

 

I have had a lot of that same thrill of putting the peices together into a coherent whole as we've studied over the last year and a half.  I never really got to study history at school-- it had been replaced by the much more 'relevent' (to what, they never explained) social studies by the time I was old enough.  (And don't get me started on my many year quest to find a geography class in public schools!) 

Speaking of where has the time gone...

Would you believe that my "baby" boyhas just announced his first loose tooth?

No more fooling myself now -- he's no baby anymore. ;)

Startlement

I was looking back over some photos today, looking for one to use as a desktop. I was amazed that so many photos that seem "recent" were actually taken three years ago ...
I'm not sure where the time has gone. But I hope we had fun!

(This one is only a couple of months old,but I must get the camera out again!)

Another update ...

...but still nothing deep and meaningful. ;)

Happy Imbolg everyone! Life here is going well...our health continues to improve, though the amazing speed at which it started to improve when we first went wheat-free has slowed considerably. (And I continue to experiment, which sets me back when I do it. Latest -- a small bowl of oatmeal porridge for breakfast on Saturday, and for the last two days I am feeling achy, though not as bad as was normal a few months ago. Nonetheless, achy enough that it hurts to lie in bed.) I actually find it easier to resist the things I thought would be hard, because the feedback is so definite, but I am also finding that in my case, it seems not to be just wheat but any grain. Most of our "replacements" are nut and coconut based, so cutting out wheat has meant slowing way down on all grains. On Saturday our lunch was pretty grain intensive -- one and a half grilled cheese sandwiches on commercial brown rice bread, chicken noodle soup with a handful of quinoa pasta shells, and a small handful of corn chips with peach salsa. By the end of the meal, I felt really awful and I wanted to go lay down for a couple of hours. (There was no time to do that, but my blood sugar has been out of whack every since.) We had been going more and more toward most of our meals being GAPS/specific carbohydrate compliant, since we plan to give that a try in the next few months...and I think part of my feeling so much more energetic was less about wheat specifically and more to do with getting off grasses entirely most of the time. Oh well, as I said, feeling so much better makes that sound less daunting than it might have a few months ago.

In other news, planning is going full steam ahead on the next homeschooling unit, which will be based around Egypt.

One effect of our renewed health is that Rod has become far more involved in our education planning and as a result, we have made quite a few changes. Rod is moving ahead far faster with maths and science than my written plan would have suggested. That's just as well because my math and science planning are very weak -- but most of the ideas I have come across are either too expensive or way, way to advanced for a six year old.

Come to find out, though, math and science as Rod teaches them, are far more interesting to Jack than most of what I had been pouring into the lesson plans. Interestingly, that's taking us more in the direction of Charlotte Mason and away from the Well Trained Mind, which was my first love. Instead of removing the reference materials, though, we're keeping those for adult reference, since more and more this homeschooling thing is a family hobby as much as an educational choice. Rod and I have even started using the Great Courses materials from The Teaching Company at dinner time. They take a half hour, and at the end of twelve sessions, we have a good adult-sized grounding a new subject. Our current subjects are "A Brief History of the World" and "Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World, Part 1".

Since Rod has also been participating in story time at bedtime, he is also better able to relate the material in the day time to the stories I have chosen to go with them. All in all, I feel like we're on the right track.

Imbolg is here and it's time to start planning the garden. I didn't have a lot of luck last year, because of getting sick at the height of the season and then remaining sick until early winter -- but I did learn a lot.

Planning at this time of year, though, does have its downside. In late winter, it seems that the only foods that appeal are orange. Squash, sweet potatoes, carrots...maybe some onions and cabbages. But of course, that isn't what will appeal most come summer. So, for the moment I am trying to get past my habit of living "in the moment" and send my self back to high summer, to do some planning.

Now that we have started to find some wheat free recipes for things like zucchini bread and eggplant Parmesan, I am definitely going to want some zucchini -- and we had a blast with Japanese eggplant last summer, so we need that, too. Lettuce works well for early spring.

The photos? Those are, perhaps, my favorite Yule gift. Rod and Jack gave me lots of lovely gifts, but Rod also helped me to hang some drapes that we'd had waiting for several years. I love the way they finish the look of the room -- and we've hung them so that Rod can push them way back out of the way come summer and have his view back. ;)

I have been getting an astonishing amount of reading done lately. I'm not having a lot of luck *finishing* a book, since the book I am reading usually isn't where i am when I get a chance to read, but that takes practice. (And one doesn't want to carry a library book in one's purse. That results in fines for damage.)

A couple of my favorites:

Shauna James Ahern's Gluten Free Girl: How I Found the Food That Loves Me Back...And How You Can Too. Shauna loves foods in the same way as I do -- it's all about the fresh flavours of real food for her, too, which means that most of her recipes appeal to me. But even better, I love the way Shauna thinks about food and I find reading her book and blog is bringing creativity back into my own cooking. I got this one from the library, but when the tax refund comes in, it's on my short list.

Jean Shinoda Bolen's Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women. Jean Bolen has been a sort of a spiritual "big sister" for me. She is a little older than I am, and so a little ahead of me on life's path. In 1984, when I was trying to figure out what it meant to be a woman, rather than a girl, she published Goddesses in Everywoman. In 2001, as I was contemplating growing older, she published Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women over Fifty. More recently, as I have contemplated my transition to crone, she published Crones Don't Whine. There is nothing earth shatteringly new in this one, so much as it is, as she titled it, concentrated wisdom. A series of meditations on the strengths of a crone, all in one place and pleasantly and inquiringly written. This one is also a library book that is on my list of books to own. I don't know whether Jean is pagan or just fascinated by Greek mythology, but her emphasis on the Olympians has allowed her to speak to me in a way that few writers of her ilk have.

Ok, I have people coming over to celebrate Imbolg with us at 3pm. I'd best get cooking: roasted root vegetables with Indonesian inspired curry served over steamed spaghetti squash. It's similar to the groundnut stew, but with the richer flavours of roasted vegetables it makes a lovely change!

Homeschooling breakthrough in Michigan!

 

I am beside myself with excitement!  I just discovered that the Michigan e-Library is now available through the library web site (IPAC).

 

That means that any book at any participating library in the state is available for our use -- and I can order it myself and just ask Rod to pick it up when it comes in!  We have been buying a lot of books we didn't actually need to own because the library didn't have them and I didn't have time head down to the library to submit endless requests for inter-library loan.  The librarians have always been very nice about it, but it takes a long time and I can usually get it from Amazon weeks before I can get to the library.

 

That's no longer a problem -- and it increases the number of books we can try, since I don't have to be as careful about a potentially inappropriate 9for us) book if I can just return it to whence it came.   We're going to save a fortune by buying only the books we actually want to own and we're going to have a deeper and broader pool of resources for a richer curriculum than we used to. 

Have a look: http://elibrary.mel.org/search

 

You know, I wanted to homeschool the older boys, but I have to admit that even had I been able to, there is no way I could have provided them with the education Jack is getting.  I just LOVE the 21st century!

Brief Update

Brief Update - january 27

This week marks nine years since Rod entered my life.  That's amazing to me ... it's pretty much *double* the time I have ever been with anyone and it all still feels so new and fresh -- but also so timeless.  I find it hard to remember a time before my beloved Rodney entered my life.  It feels as though it belongs to another lifetime.  Thank you, Rodney, for so many things I can't name them all.

 

In other news, we seem to have inadvertently begun to "politicize" our son.  Rod and I have both wanted to see Michael Moore's _Sicko_ since it came out, so when I found a copy at the library while looking for something else, I tossed it in my bag.  Usually when we watch that sort of thing, Jack plays nearby and seems to be ignoring it all.  Not this time.  He was glued to the computer screen and got angrier and angrier.  I tried to reassure him, but I was missing the point.  He wasn't afraid for us, he was angry because it's not fair.  He was also able to connect what he was seeing to what he has been hearing on the radio, which just made him grumpier.  TJ and Corey were both very political by the time they were six -- much more so than they seem to be now -- so I'm not sure why it surprises me, but it does.  Perhaps because Jack's life has been so much more sheltered than TJ and Corey were.  Tonight we're watching The Human Face with John Cleese.  I hope he will find that less...stimulating.  Politics are important, but I think getting too excited too soon is probably not healthy.  It seems like it may well breed a sense of helpless inevitability. 

 

It looks good for us to be back on the net from home sometime in the next six to eight weeks.  I hope we can pull it off before Rod lovely sister, Karen, arrives to visit.  It would be good if she could check her mail and Facebook while she's here!  (And I am eager to get back to blogging regularly...)

 

Work proceeds apace in designing our next school unit and Rod is working with me to adjust our notes on the previous unit so we can get it online.  I meant to get it up back in the autumn, when we finished planning it, but since we didn't, and since there were a lot of changes in our approach, we have decided that we may as well have it reflect what we actually did.  I am hoping to get the current one up at the same time, since as I understand it, a couple of other families are actually using those notes to help in their own planning.  How cool!! (I was also tickled when the librarian said that they would like to add my reading lists for various topics to their own Homeschool Resources binder and use them to improve the library's collection.  Woo hoo!  It feels good that the work is going to bear fruit for other people, too.

 

Jack has his second dental appointment (of three) today.  I am happy to say that I am not at all in turmoil this time.  Last time was such a "non-event" that I'm sure he's going to be fine. 

 

 

I see by my ConFusion....

I haven't been to a Science Fiction Convention for something approaching
a decade.
I like the people. I like the events. I just haven't had time, what
with so many other interests...
But I have though for at least that long that my friend Mark would enjoy
conventions, so when he voiced an interest this year, I was quick to
offer to accompany him and show him the ropes.
I decided to "ghost" rather than to attend, in part because I could use
the time to sit quietly and blog and write letters while Mark attends
panels, and in part because I don't really want to get pulled back in.
I do enjoy the people and I do like the conventions...but we don't have
enough time as it is and Rod is very uninterested in SF.
So, I am sitting here at the hotel, not quite invisible with a laptop in
front of me. It's been interesting to see so many familiar faces, 10
years later -- and because I am not expected, the changes the years have
wrought have made me unrecognizable, too.
It's an interesting experience.
--
You're welcome to visit us at Chez Smiffy
http://chezsmiffy.blogspot.com/

Dental work, redux

All is well.

Jack flew through his first fillings with no drama at all -- he didn't
even have the injected anesthetic!

Brave boy!

I am amazed that they managed to leave him with the sense that even a
filling is no big deal...though I suspect that the "happy gas" they used
had something to do with it!

So very, very different from my childhood experiences! (Amazing what a
half-century of the development of dental science can do!)

Dental Work

Jack is having his first tooth filled today.  In about two minutes, actually.

 

My stomach is in knots.

 

There are very good reasons I am not there to share this important milestone.  His dentists are superb -- very gentle and caring.  I am sure that, if I can contain myself, they will do a great job of helping Jack not to develop my terror of all things dental.  I suspect that my fear wouldn't have a particularly soothing effect on Jack, so I sit here unable to concentrate on anything but the fear I hope my little guy isn't experiencing.

 

 

 Mamma Bear. 

 

Twarted.

 

*twitch*  *twitch*

It's been one of "those" mornings ...

I woke up early and got my chores done in record time. I showered and dressed carefully, since I have several meetings today.  My hair was behaving and my skin was, for a change, not scarlet after my shower.  (Gotta love rosacea...)  I even managed to make a condolance card Rod wanted to send before work.

 

And then I left the house.

 

In hugging me goodbye, Jack tugged on my hair, loosening the pins so that my bun was now on slightly crooked.

 

My hands were full, so when my trousers slipped down as I walked from the car to the office, there was little I could do.  The cuffs of my trousers got filled with salty mud -- which made for slippery walking, so I also spilled my cup of coffee on myself several times.  On the walk, I also evidently managed to jar both my salad container and my soup thermous, and the leaked all over me...so I smell like a vinegraitte withy turnips. 

 

So...how's your day going?

 

 

 

 

Smiffy's Out and About Calendar

[Fwd: Wheat free baking]

One thing we've learned about going wheat free. It may be best to
simply stop eating anything that is supposed to have wheat in it for a
while

before you start to explore wheat free baked goods. We have found that
the things we tried early on that were completely unacceptable are a

great deal tastier after not having baked goods for a while.
Interestingly, I now find that wheat tastes bad to me. (I have cheated
on occasion

over the weeks since I went mostly wheat free - but the foods I have
eaten haven't tasted good like they used to and the pain in all my joints

when i do eat wheat has been a pretty good incentive to find
alternatives instead.)

One thing that is becoming evident is that Rod is going to be on a
pretty restricted diet for a while. He has now identified soy and milk as

additional sensitivities ... and who knows what else his body will
reject as he gets the big sensitivities under control... (No soy rules
out a lot of

the replacement foods on the market ... we thought we might have found a
cracker replacement when valeries suggest Mary's Gone Crackers.

Sadly, Rod has a reaction to them.)

One lesson I am taking away from this: eat a huge variety of foods, and
don't repeat any one food too often, lest you become sensitive to it. It's

a good theory, but hard to pull off. We can add lots of new foods to
our diet, but it's still hard to get away from the concept of "staple
foods". I

am considering the idea of putting us on a food rotation protocol to
help us develop new habits. The last thing we need is to develop a
sensitivity

to almonds, coconut and eggs! Of course, since I am rarel;y the cook
during the week, it's a bit of a hard seel to the head chef. ;)

Oh, and a number of friends have speculated that Rod and I became
sensitive to wheat because we used to grind our own. I discussed that with

our doctor and he thinks that extremely unlikely. He suspects it has a
lot more to do with how ubiquitous wheat has become in modern life (it's

not like a wheat sensitivity is rare these days, after all) combined
with a genetic predisposition to wheat sensitivity. It seems likely
that the

refined and GM wheats we ate over the years would have played a much
larger role in our troubles.

Oh, and do any of my foodie friends know...is tapioca a whole food? A
google search hasn't really turned up anything definitive though my first

thought is, probably not. (It seems pretty refined.)

Here are some recipes we've adapted from a book by Natasha Mc-Bride that
we're pretty happy with. Her GAPS protocol was originally

developed as a treatment for autism, but her recipes are based on the
foods we want to eat. (No soy, wheat, or refined additives) We find that

they're a little bland for our tastes, but that's easy enough to fix.

Pancakes

4 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil or butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups almond flour (can also use walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts or any
combination)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cups coconut flour
water to thin

1. Whip the eggs up until fluffy.
2. Add the coconut oil and vanilla.
3. Fold in the flours

4. Allow to stand for at least 20 minutes (up to 24 hours).

5. Whisk in enough water (or milk, or coconut milk) to make a pancake
batter consistency

6. Fry up 1/4 cup at a time in butter or coconut oil over low heat

Note: These "pancakes" taste good and make an excellent 'flat carrier
for syrup". I recommend trying them after you haven't had "real"

pancakes for a while, though. They don't behave like wheat pancakes in
that they break easily and can't be folded and they don't really taste

much like wheat pancakes. A comparison with a fresh memory may be
pretty disappointing, but when you can taste them for what they are,

they're quite good.

Cake

6 eggs
1/2 cup of honey
1/3 cup of coconut oil or butter
2 cups of winter squash puree (we like butternut or pumpkin, but any
sweet orange fleshed squash is yummy)
2 1/2 cups of almond flour (can also use walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts
or any combination)
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cups coconut flour
1 teaspoon on vanilla, or 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and
1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

Optional: fresh or frozen berries, apples, peaches, dried fruit, or pinapple

Preheat the oven to 300F
1. Whip the eggs until fluffy
2. Warm the honey and butter together until they're very soft
3. Add the butter and honey to the squash.
4. Fold the squash into the eggs

Optional: spead the fruit evenly across the bottom of the buttered
baking dish or cake pan

5. Spread the batter eveninly into the buttered baking dish or cake pan
(on top of the fruit, if you added it)
6. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until it pulls away from the pan slightly.

--
Misti Anslin Delaney-Smith
misti@delaney-smith.net

You're welcome to visit us at Chez Smiffy
http://chezsmiffy.blogspot.com/

Brief update

Ahh, well. Clever Misti wrote some blog posts on her thumb drive and made sure all the pictures were in order...and then carefully put the thumb drive away in her purse...and forgot to bring the purse (and the blog) to the cafe.

Oh well.

I have, however, learned how to post by e-mail, so I can get everything ready and post quickly when we do a drive-by download.

All is well here at Chez Smiffy; the increased energy at Chez Smiffy is lovely and remarkable. Jack is reveling in his "mid-winter break" as Rod and I work together to prepare the next unit...though the preliminary reading has begun with Boy of the Pyramids as this week's bedtime story. With a lot of input from my newly energized honey, the curriculum is changing pretty dramatically this time -- and all for the good! We're finding that Jack *really* responds to Charlotte Mason style learning and has begun to resist anything less engrossing, so we're moving further and further in the direction of pure pagan CM.

The baking has started to come together, though that was the topic of a longish post, so I'll leave it at that.

We spent the holiday pulling the house together (don't we always?). A visit from Purple Heart
on New Year's Eve has left us with a clear floor and a usable office again and we have started to dig into the dark corners where we hid boxes to deal with "later". The basement is just about empty, and soon we can start on the eaves storage.

I have continued exploring drawing and painting and amazed myself last weekend with not one but *three* recognizable pieces. Not good, necessarily, but one can guess what they are without prompting. This is progress! I have always wished to be able to draw and paint like Hunt, Millais, and Rosetti. Not sure I'll ever get there, but as the frustration subsides, I am finding art rewarding in its own right -- and that's the point, right?

OK, well, I'll post those blogs as soon as I can. Thankd for your patience!

Jack on Star Wars

I first heard about star wars from a magazine, which of course, my parents detested. But I'm now a fan of Star Wars. I've watched 1, 2, and 4. You know why I skipped 3? It was a little dark for my age. Well, maybe. I don't think so but parents outrank children. (wrinkles his nose at his scribe.)

I like Star Was because it has all those fights with light sabers and some fights with laser guns! I like fights because I'm a boy and don't all boys like fights? Well, I know one boy who doesn't. That's my friend Connor. He likes animals much more than anything. Do any of you like Star Wars?

My Mamma has only watched only numbers 4 and 2; 2 much more recently. Dad has watched numbers 6, 7, 1, 2, and 4.

Now this isn't to say that *I* have watched Return of the Jedi -- number 6, I think. And I've only, as you know, watched 1, 2, and 4. My favorite character would be between Master yoda, Master Mace Windu, and Master Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. (Except not as a Sith.) I like them because a) they're really good at light sabers, b) they have good minds, and c) that they have good knowledge of The Force.

The start to every star wars movie is "A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Away". I like that phrase because it's what really gets you started (marching dramatically).

In Attack of the Clones, number 2, it starts with a ship is not expecting a big attack and suddenly *pheeeeyouwwwwww* (That's guns firing, not that it smells bad) There was a big explosion with killed several, several people. And that's all I remember.

The Feast

Valerie asked for the recipes for the Solstice Feast, and rather than send it to her directly, I figured I'd use the recipes as a jump-off point for a blog post. (I am finding it hard to blog about anything that seems meaningful enough to write it and then post it days later...at least until I am inspired. But that makes for a spotty blog, so I am still working on it. *I* like to read other people's day by days, so I'm not sure why it's so hard to write them down and then post them en masse...)

Anyway, my feast was almost directly from Myra KornFeld's Voluptuous Vegan cookbook. The food is marvelously tasty...and as a bonus, the recipes are collected into "feasts", and then she gives a step by step to getting the whole meal on the table at one time -- I find that immensely helpful! However, it's not in my nature to cook right from the book. Recipes are suggestions, and mine are a little different. ;)

Kornfeld is a vegan, and I am not, so I often use butter where she calls for olive oil if I am not cooking for vegans.


Pilaf

1/2 cup quinoa
1/2 cup millet
1/2 cup tef
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (or to taste)
1/4 cup of olive oil or butter
fresh-ground black pepper

Soak the grains overnight in two cups of water and the lemon juice.

When it's time to start cooking, rinse the grains thoroughly and drain them. Start heating 3 cups of water and the salt to boiling.

Put the drained grains in another pan and warm them over medium low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.

When you smell nuts in the kitchen, pour the boiling water over the grains, cover and cook, covered, at a slow simmer for 10 minutes or so, or until the water is absorbed.

Turn off the heat and keep covered for at least another 5 minutes or until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, fluff with a fork and add garlic powder, black pepper, and olive oil (or butter).


Sauteed Spaghetti Squash

1 medium spaghetti squash
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes (or to taste)

Preheat the oven to 425

Split the squash and seed it.

Place cut side up on a baking dish. Rub with a little oil and salt.

Bake for 20 minutes and then reduce the heat to 375. Continue baking for another 40 minutes.

Cool for 15 minutes or until you can handle it easily.

Using a fork, scrape the long fibers of squash into a bowl.

Heat a large pan or a wok. When it's really hot, add the oil, garlic, and red pepper, stir, and then immediately add the squash. Toss until it's heated through and some strands of the squash are getting caramelized.

Serve piping hot.

Note: I often add far more peppers when feeding groups that appreciate heat. When feeding more tender pallets I leave the peppers out and serve the squash with chipotle and ceyenne on the table to be added to taste, or not. If no one will want pepper, I add about 1/4 teaspoon of cumin and a handful of oregano along with the garlic.


Sauteed Mushrooms

1 large onion, diced fine
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
butter or olive oil -- 3 tablespoons or more
2 pounds of fresh, soft stemmed mushrooms, slices into 1/4 in slices.
a splash of soy sauce or Braggs Aminos -- for fancy occasions, dry white wine or brandy is lovely

Put 1 tablespoon of butter in the bottom of a very large skillet.

When the butter is melted, add the onions and saute over medium high heat until they start to brown. Add the garlic, and continue to saute until the garlic softens.

Add a handful of sliced mushrooms to the pan and cook them until they are starting to get golden.

Move them out to the edges of the pan and add another handful of mushrooms. Cook the new batch to golden, and push them off to the sides.

If the pan is getting dry, add more butter, and then add another handful of mushrooms.

When you can no longer fit a handful of raw mushrooms onto the bottom of the skillet, move the cooked mushrooms to a heat safe serving dish and put them in a low warm oven while you finish with the rest.

When the last mushrooms are golden, pull the previous batch from the oven, add it to the skillet and then add a splash of soy sauce, Braggs, or whatever you're using. You want to deglaze the pan -- that is, pick up the tummy coating that has formed on the bottom of the pan and put it back on the mushrooms.

Serve in the now warm serving dish.


African Groundnut Stew

Notes: This recipe is infinitely adaptable to what you have on hand. Once you've tried it, it easy to add this, leave out that, replace this with that and still have a really yummy dish. This is the full-blown feast version, but I have put an asterisk near the "skeletal" ingredients so you can try a more basic version for a smaller group. If you use fewer vegetables, remember to reduce the amount of the ones you do use. Oh, and do try that cauliflower before you add it -- it may become a frequent favorite on your table at other meals as well. It sure has at ours.

2 heads of *cauliflower
4 tablespoons olive oil
salt

1 large *onion
4 cloves of *garlic, minced
1 inch piece of fresh *ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1/2 pound of Yucca, peeled, cut into large chunks, and with the fibrous core removed
1 turnip, chopped into large chunks
2 *carrots, roll cut
1 stalk of celery, cut into diagonal chunks about 2 inches long
1 leek, halved and sliced
2 large *tomatoes cut into chunks. (You can peel and seed them, if you like)
1 sweet potato, cut into large chunks
1 pound of winter *squash (kabocha, if you can find it) cut into large chunks

2 tablespoons soy sauce or *Braggs aminos, or shoyu
2 cups water or stock
1/2 cup of the best *peanut butter you can get
1 cup of water or stock, hot
2 tablesoons of ginger juice
1 scallion
chopped fresh cilantro
chopped, dry roasted *peanuts
greens -- mizuna, dandelion, cress...whatever looks good today

Preheat the oven to 450


Cut the cauliflower into largish florets and toss it with 4 tablesoons of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.
Spread the coated cauliflower onto a large baking tray or cookie sheet
Roast for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 and bake another 15 minutes.

Heat two tablespoons in a large pot (8 quarts or so)
Add the onions and saute until brown
Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and saute until the garlic softens

Add the yucca, turnips, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and the soy/shoyu/Braggs
Cook them, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are reduced and thickened
Add the water or stock and bring to a rolling boil. Lower the heat and simmer partially covered for 10 minutes or so.

Add the sweet potato, squash, and salt. Cook until all the vegetables are tender.

Mix the warm water and stock with the peanut butter and stir until the peanut buitter is entirely dissolved.

Almost done!

Add the peanut butter mixture and the cauliflower and stor it through and bring the temperature back up a bit.

Add the ginger juice, scallions, and cilantro and a generous pinch of cayenne.

If the stew is too thick, add a bit more water. Transfer to a serving dish, and sprinkle with peanuts, more cilantro, and greens.

YUM!

Crone Meditation

I think most people in our culture think of "developmental stages" as something that applies to children. Once you turn 18 or 21 or so, our culture seems to imply, your 'developmentment' is done and you are that unchanging creature "an adult". We don't literally believe that, of course. If we did, we wouldn't demand that our President be at least 30, and we'd be more comfortable than we are with 19 year old doctors. But we stop thinking about ourselves in terms of ongoing development.

Astrology tells us that from birth to death, personal development progresses according to more or less predictable stages. My own experience confirms it. Too bad I seldom think to check on my own stages of development.

Nonetheless, all these years that I have been preparing for the crone's role, I have, like just about everyone else seems to, assumed that crone and sage were mostly social roles. I figured that once you reached a certain age, you automatically became wise if you had been striving toward wisdom, and that the hardships people associated with menopause and the mid-life crisis were part nutritional and largely with emotional resistance to the loss of youth. I was pretty content with my progress in my nurturing caretaker "mother" role, and so I assumed that the transition to crone would be more or less fluid.

Ahh, the arrogance of (relative) youth. I was thinking about it all wrong. Again.

I never stopped to investigate the astrology of it, which might (or might not) have tipped me off that it was a lot deeper than that. (After all, there is enough art in astrology to allow us to ignore what we don't want to see and it takes a talented astrologer to apply the principles objectively to specific situations.)

My first clue that the transition wasn't going to be seamless was that my very first hint that 'the change' was underway. I went from fairly tolerant and easy going, if sometimes a bit weepy, to an angry, grumpy harridan. For a couple of months in the beginning, I was always yelling, deparaging, and harranging my poor family (Mostly Rod, since Jack was still tiny, but Jack came in for more yelling than he deserved, too.)

I was aware of being angry a lot, but it all felt completely "justified". I was completely unable to be objective, and I was completely unable to see it coming in time to stop it. Eventually Rod, my ever-patient prince, gently brought it to my attention in a calm moment, and I was horrified at my behavior! But although I was able to stop mid-gripe and apologize, the anger was still there, boiling as hard as ever. I was now able to look back once it was past and see how outrageously out of proportion it was, but I seemed powerless in the face of it.

I was chatting with a dear friend who was a few years ahead of me on the path and who was from a more "female" family culture than I am. I mentioned my concerns and she suggested that it might be menopause. She explained that menopause forces us to deal with what we have refused to deal with before. She told me about how she was always a very strong, in-control person; the rock of her family and social group. For a while there, she said, she was in tears a lot. She had never allowed herself to address sadness or grief, I guess. She was too busy.

Anyway, she recommended that before I entertain any dire ideas about "going mad", that I try a course of black cohosh. She was, of course, absolutely right. More traditional symptoms appeared within a few months and while I am now grumpier than I was as a young woman, and it occasionally gets the better of me, I am more able to ride the wild emotions. I can feel them coming on. I can address the fact that they are unreasonable, and I can steer them in another direction if they don't make sense. Perhaps one day, having anger at my disposal will be a good thing. ;)

Thinking still that menopause was now complete, I went on my merry way thinking I'd dodged the worst of it. I was kind of dismayed that I seemed to have grown into such a flawed crone...but I figured this was it. Me, as crone.

Wrong again...

The next surprise was that my fear of heights of many years standing was suddenly just gone! I am still not thrilled by heights and I doubt that I will ever be tempted by sky-diving and bungee jumping, but I can now walk up and down stairs three or four flights without terror making me freeze with a pounding heart and a constricted chest. That was a lovely surprise!

However if the sudden anger management issues and the loss of my fear of heights could be turned at an angle that would make them both seem "freeing", I was also becoming more and more uncomfortable in large groups. I have never been someone who was energized by crowds, and I have gone through major discomfort with large numbers of people both during menarche and during each of my pregnancies -- but now I find that a crowded place gets the same panic reaction as heights used to.

Not fun. And pretty embarrassing, really, given that Rod and Jack are both heavily involved with a very large (by my standards) church, so I keep having to be there at times when it seemd 9/10ths of the planet is in attendance.

They are very warm people, very welcoming. I know that one-on-one I would enjoy almost everyone there immensely. I love the ministers sermons and what the congregation stands for. On those occasions when I have managed to get there for service in time to get a front row seat (and so put the crowd out of sight) I have left thinking that I really want to go every week. But then, next time I don't manage to stay out of the way of the crowd, the panic sets in. And of course, when I am hunting, wild eyed, for a quiet corner to hide in, someone invariably spots me and tries to engage me in conversation -- and I am as social as a caged animal. *sigh* When I do manage to converse, I think back on my own part in the conversation and blush. They love Rod, but I suspect that they wonder what he sees in me. ;) I am neither sweet nor coherent in that state.

Mostly I have been happiest and most comfortable alone in the last year or so. Even with my loved ones, I find myself growing irritable and overwhelmed unless I get plenty of alone time.

But the insights this meditation is based on come from Reverend Gail, the minister at Rod's church. On Christmas Eve, Rod was there for many hours, to sing at two evening services. Because he and several other celiacs couldn't partake in the sandwiches that were being provided to the choir between sewrvices, I was to bring a big pot of vegan lentil soup.

I got there just before the service ended, it was quiet except for the service being piped into the social hall, but there was no sign of the dinner where I expected them to meet for dinner. Jack and I stood around, listening appreciatively to the service in the next room. Jack wanted to join them, but it seemed like a bad idea to come in as the service was ending, so we stayed in the kitchen.

The service ended and no one came in to the social hall or the kitchen. But record attendance also meant that it was impossible to move through the hallways to go looking for the choir's gathering place. I felt trapped; me and my five gallon pot of hot soup. And Jack was thrilled! He wanted to get out amongst all the people!

Eventually I struggled out into the crowds to look for Rod. By the time I found him, I was a panicked mess, but I was able to get the soup to the hall where it was needed just in time and at perfect eating temperature and then left Jack to eat with the choir and socialize. I went and hid in the dark, quiet car and got my wits back around me. However it seems that my troubles came up in a conversation between Rod and Reverend Gail. Perhaps she had seen me drop off the soup, and wondered why I hadn't joined the choir to dine.

When I came back into the church to pick up Jack and the soup pot before the crowd for the next service started to arrive, both Reverend Gail and her partner made it a point to engage in conversation with me. Because it was quiet at that point, I was able to do a better job at being social, and Reverend Gail and I talked briefly about my new anxiety. She asked if she might hug me, and she held me and helped my to ground...and my brain clicked back in. We had a few more minutes of conversation, she and Rod, and I, and then we all went on our way. But Rev. Gail's parting remark stayed with me for a long time. "Remember, it's not about "fitting in, it's about being who you already are".

It wasn't a new idea to me, and I don't know that my anxiety is entirely about whether I'll "fit in", but it struck a deep chord. Especially the part about being who I already am. Not sure why...except that it was a tacit declaration that I am fine with her, anxiety and all. There is that. Part of my anxiety *is* about the crowds. But part of my discomfort is about being unable to behave like a sane adult in a crowd. Part of my anxiety *is* that I can't seem to keep my social mask on these days and so on top of the physical reaction the crowds there is the fear of what an idiot I must look like.

A few days later, as I was dicussing my new insights with Rod and commenting that evidently I am not going to be the kind of crone I had dreamed of being. Wise, patient, tolerant, strong, and able to give comfort and aid, and maybe even with ritous anger at my disposal when it's warranted.

My beloved pointed pointed out that astrologically I am not yet a crone. Chiron return, the healing of the dysfunctions and mal-adaptations to life, happens years before the second Saturn return that heralds the Sage or the Crone.

I hadn't looked at the astrology of it. Like every other stage of life, there are obvious signs of impending cronedom, and there are stages that prepare us for the new era of our lives. I had embarked on the path, but I haven't come near to my destination as crone yet. I am a baby crone, learning to grow into my full power, which I can't expect to reach for five or more years.

I sure have a long way to go...but there is time yet. Just as I was learning how to be an adult at 21, but I wasn't yet the adult I would become, so I am on my way to being a wise elder ...but there are years yet before I willl get there.

That's a relief really.

 A belated Blessed Yule to all!

We had a fantastic celebration yesterday!  Our dear friends joined us for a lovely ritual celebration of the sun's return and then we feasted on an African groundnut stew with sauted spagetti squash with garlic and peppers, sauted mushrooms, and a pilaf made from quinoa, millet, and tef.  Vegan *and* wheat free, but I don't think anyone felt like anything was missing (except the juice I forgot to buy -- but I think fruit tea stood in acceptably.) 

 

Some parts of the holidays are still going to be hard without wheat in our lives, of course.  For example, we decided it was wiser to skip the cookie exchange this year and while I hunted down some recipes for wheat free versions of some traditional cookies and a fruit cake, we haven't actually tried baking any of them yet.  Parties at other people's houses seem risky, too.  Many of the "usual" delights are off limits, and we find most of the replacements unpalatable. I hate to be finicky, but many lovely people try so hard to be helpful with my diabetes by providing "sugar free" chemical laden processed foods that I shudder to think what they will find to be helpful with sugar and wheat free ... lower carb doesn't mean I want to sidestep eating genuine food and gluten free doesn't mean we're willing to eat refined 'edible food like substances'.  I read a description of crumbling drywall and desicated bricks of wall plaster that sounded about right for our experience of the commercial gluten free products, though a friend baked a lovely gluten-safe "real foods" angel food cake for us and gave us new hope that birthday cakes may not have to be a thing of the past.  ;) For the most part, rather than asking people to buy into our insanity, it seems wiser and kinder to cook for ourselves and invite others to join us. I think holiday baking will get easier as we get some distance from the old standbys and can create new traditions without comparing them to what we're used to. 

 

We are eating a far greater variety of foods and on the whole we are eating better for my blood sugar since wheat was the one carb we never could seem to get away from, so I think on the whole we're probably eating better than we were.  I still need to explore what specific nutrients we were getting in large amounts from our grains so that I can be sure to replace those nutrients from some other source, but one thing at a time.

 

Ironically, we are also having to scale way back on beans.  I LOVE beans! Maybe not quite as much as Rod loves wheat, but... my allergy tests came back showing me highly allergic to navy beans, moderately allergic to kindney and green beans, and the others were all pending test results.  I am trying to get used to the idea that they may be a problem, too.  I'd be tempted to ignore it, except that my "cheat" at last week's office party, where I noshed on a handful of cookies has me in agony.  Every joint feels like someone wrapped it tightly in a sports bandage and then set it on fire.  If that's how I respond to wheat, which I don't technically show a sensitivity to, what are the beans I am allergic to doing?  *sigh*  I'm sure i'll know soon enough.

 

Anyway, enough whinging.  (I found a GREAT little book recently called Crones Don't Whine by Jean Shinoda Bolen ... I haven't read it through yet, but I think my New Year is going to be dedicated to get over myself. Ha!)

 

Yule fell on Monday this year, of course.  I took the day off since I had furlough days to burn.  It went so beautifully that I am seriously thinking about taking vacation time every year for Yule.  Somehow, it felt more like a real holiday than it usually does.  We had all weekend to prepare and then a relaxed celebration with friends.  I don't usually take the day off since I rarely have extra vacation this late in the year and since most of our friends would also be working, we just schedule the festivities for the nearest weekend.  But taking the day itself away from the usual demands made more of a difference than I would have expected.  Luckily, we have some friends whose schedules allowed them to celebrate with us and it was blissful!  As a matter of fact, I have scheduled furlough days for all the Sabbats in the next six months -- I don't know if any of our friends will be able to celebrate with us, but it felt good to really honor them with more than a nod.

 

Whatever holidays you are celebrating, I wish you warm, wonderful times and may the coming year bring you  all that you've been working toward and dreaming of!

 

 

 

 

The Puzzle of Crafting...

I've been crafting for a few years now.  When I started, I figured it was a matter of learning the techniques and then it just happens.  Oh, you might be good at it or not good at it, but I kept hearting the crafts aren't creative like "Art", and so it was easier...

 

That may be, but I can't seem to hit the consistency stage.

 

Some days, when I sit down to craft, I "hit the groove" or whatever you want to call it and everything I create comes out just like I was hoping.  Other days, even if I am really in the mood to craft, even if I am trying to recreate a very successful card I had done before, I just can't seem to get it to work. 

 

I have missed some people's birthdays entirely and I have sent out some really regretable cards when that happens.  I feel bad about that, and I hope people aren't offended at getting a poorly made card.

 

I wish I knew how to tell before I sit down at my craft table whether it was going to be worth trying or not.

 

I've decided to stop trying to make cards specifically for individuals as I need them and just concentrate on making as many cards as I can when it's working. I have the list and I can make them for specific individuals ... but I'll make them weeks or months ahead when I can so that the bad ones don't have to be my only choice.

 

I have discovered, though, that it's sometimes worth hanging on to the duds...sometimes when I'm "in the groove", I can pick up a really sad card and make it look really nice...or at least nice enough.  Makes me wish that I had "do overs" on some of this years cards.

 

  

Oh well.  I'll get the flow one of these days.  At least the good ones are getting better, even if the bad ones seem to be a permanent fixture, too.

Well now that's interesting...

 

Not necessarily in a good way, but interesting.

 

Since my doctor appointment back in November, once I'd had the blood tests run, I have been essentially wheat free.  I haven't been super careful when eating away from home, but since we're wheat free at home, and rarely eat out, it's just hadn't come up.  (In the period before my doctor appointment but after we went wheat free at home, I made sure to get a "dose" every day, so that the blood tests could be conclusive. I stopped that once I had the blood drawn since the easiest source of wheat was nasty stuff from the machines at work.  Yuck.)

 

Well, over the few weeks, I had gradually become more energetic, my thinking had become clearer, and my arthritis had been waning.  On Saturday, we went out to dinner and I had a dinner roll.  Today, I am sooo achy.

 

I am not going to be surprised to hear it if the doctor tell me on Wednesday at my followup appointment that I am sensitive to wheat.  I feel fortunate that my symptoms aren't as dire as Rod's.  Feeling old and achy is way better than being unable to breathe!  I could still cheat occasionally if that's as bad as it gets.  Rod warned me, though, that his symptoms became far worse once his system was cleared of all gluten...so maybe not. 

 

 

 

 

Lockdown

I find an interesting irony in the idea that there are two places one comminly associates with the phrase "lockdown" these days.

 

Prisons and schools.

 

 

 

Jack's art class

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Jack has been attending a new art class. I have been just croggled at how much progress he has made.

My first thought was that they must be "mostly doing it for him" -- they are just amazing, especially given Jack's age and what he was capable of before.

They may be doing some of it for him, but I have to say that his confidence has leaped and he is a lot happier about art these days so whatever they're doing is working just the way I had hoped it would!

The classes are at D&M Studios in Canton, and they're about $12 per week...amazing.

The problem with science.

Well, OK, it's not really a problem with *science*, so much as it is a problem with people.

A few days ago, I was going through all of my cookbooks, looking for interesting new things to do with vegetables; if we're to try going entirely grain and legume free for a while as Rod wants to do, we are going to have to be a lot more creative with vegetables or I am going to go out of my mind with boredom. Our family has traditionally focused our culinary efforts on our grains and served a few very favorite preparations of meats and vegetables along side.

As I was reading my 1896 Boston Cooking School Fanny Farmer cookbook, I came across this statement:

"Vegetables include, commonly though not botanically speaking, all plants used for food except grains and fruits. With the exception of beans, peas, and lentils, whichj contain a large amount of (protein), they are chiefly valuable for their potash salts and should form a part of each day's dietary."

To put that into perspective, 50 pages are dedicated to vegetables, potatoes, and salads (not all of which contain vegetables). On the other hand, 129 pages are dedicated to desserts of various kinds, and 100 pages are deciated to the preparation of meats, suggesting that Miss Farmer considered plant foods of lesser importance than just about any other element of diet.

This was, of course, the scientific and hygenic view of the day. By that time, sience had established the need for the three major elements of a healthy diet: carbohydrate, proteins, and fats. Since vegetables weren't strong providers of any of those things, and with vitamins and minerals measurable by the science of the day only as "potash salts", it was evident to the educated man and woman that while they are a delicious addition to the dinner table, and some amount were necessary to optimal health, they were not very important.

We do that, people do.

We forget that science, as valuable as it is, is limited by what it can measure. Even the things that are now undeniably there -- things like vitamins, amino acid, and other phytonutrients -- have not always been measurable by the best of science. That, of course, doesn't mean they weren't there before, or that they were less important to health than they are now that we know they're there. And we forget to concern ourselves with what might be there that we don't suspect and don't yet know how to measure.

This isn't limited to dietary science, of course. Heliocentrists and flat-earthers at one time based their beliefs on the best science of their times, too. In their day, antibiotics and scrupulous hygiene were going to conquer illness forever! Then we discovered super-bugs and the ill effects of too little stimulation of the immune system. It's just that dietary science effects all of us so intimately and by extension, it deeply influences our cultures, as food always has.

Science is very important and I am grateful for all the ways that science has made our lives better! I follow new developments with great interest! I do think, though, that it's wise, when considering scientific discoveries, to consider what they really mean. I don't think that we can safely rely on media interpretations for that -- scientists understand the limitations of science and are far less likely to fall afoul of the "now we know the real truth" fallacy than are journalists hunting for a compelling headline. It from this fallacy that we get the stomach-wrenching swings from "miracle food" to "fatal" we have seem so much of in the last 50 years. Then again, often the language of science is so precise as to be unintelligible to the average reader.

So what do we do, if we want to stay informed? Well, I guess the best we can do is look at developments with a wait and see attitude and a whole lot of common sense. Read the reports with an understanding that there is a core of truth there, but it's very possible that the journalist has misinterpreted what it means. Understand that each new development is just that, a deepened understanding of how our world works and not a final answer wrapped in a bright red bow.

My own solution is to examine new nutritional understanding in light of millions of years of evolution.

Some of my personal conclusions:

* We didn't evolve to thrive on processed foods, we evolved to thrive on the very same foods that spoil -- they spoil because they're chock full of nutrients and we're not the only ones who thrive on them. If the food is "shelf-stable", we have to ask ourselves why. Is it because there's no food value left to attract our competitors? Or is it because ut has chemicals in it to "retard spoilage"? We didn't evolve to eat poisons, either...

* We didn't evolve to thrive on large amounts of grain -- we didn't get the hang of those until a little over 5 thousand years ago. That doesn't mean that they're bad for us per se...but perhaps overreliance on them is one reason for the huge explosion of ill health we've seen of late. Maybe. When we saw the HUGE difference going wheat free made in Rod's health, we started to consider how other grains fit into our basic view of health and nutrition. Rod started considering whether we might feel even better if we eliminated grains for a while, and allowed our bodies to really heal, then add them back in better balance to how we evolved to be nourished. Not being a huge fan of deprivation, I have been working on expanding our grain-free alternatives and we plan to move in the grain free direction slowly as we find ways to replace those foods.

So the problem with science...it's not a problem with science at all. Just a problem with how we interpret what we're learning.

AAAargh!

Jack and I got out the Yule decorations last night and started decorating the parlour.

 

Remember the sewer backup we had last spring?  The smelly one that I thought wasn't "too big a deal" because the sludge didn't get near anything but rugs? 

 

I was wrong. 

 

It was a big deal.

 

While none of the Yule stuff got *wet*, it was in tubs that were not vapor tight, and now a lot of the stuff smells like mold and some of it has a hairy coat.  I can hand wash the stuff that is made or porcelein, glass, or plastic, but I am at wits end about how to clean the ribbons and bows and intricate fabric ornaments.  I expect it involves a toothbrush -- and while I am sure I could get the visitble mold off just with brushing, I'm not sure it's worth doing if I can't skill the spores.  (Since it would then pose a threat to everything else every year in storage.)  I suspect that getting it wet would just make the situation worse.

 

I have some research to do.

 

*sigh*

 

 

Fabulous news!

Fabulous news!

 

I heard from Corey, my middle son, this morning.  He called to let me know that he has survived the tough times at his company and has been promoted from "the line" to Research and Development.  We had a bad connection and he was even more interested in telling me about his recent trip to Vienna so I don't know what that means, exactly, but we are both pleased and relieved.

Chez Smiffy update

I'm a little late with this, but we had a wonderful five-day break over Thanksgiving.

We started with sleeping in on Thursday, then we got up and spent the day cooking -- Jack was, as usual, in charge of the cranberry sauce and the pumpkin pie. He did an excellent job.

It was our first wheat free Thanksgiving, and it went pretty well. Rod has come up with a very good pie crust recipe and then improved on it, so we had three kinds of pie: Jack's traditional pumpkin, Rod's custard pie, and my experimental peanut butter pie.

But aside from the food (which admittedly, is a very important part for me) we also tried to focus more on thankfulness. This has in many ways been a hard year for us, what with health issues and furloughs, but in the end, we are still very, very blessed. We are still reasonably healthy and well on the way to being more so. We may not have the money to spend as freely as we'd like, but we can eat and pay the important bills and we have a warm, secure home. We may be a long while from seeing our beloved older children again, but they are also healthy and seem to be prospering. But most of all -- we have each other, a dream come true for Rod and I and a pretty good deal for Jack -- even if he sometimes doesn't think so.

We started volunteering at a local homeless shelter occasionally a few months ago. This holiday, we have thinking about making more of a commitment. We have so much and it seems right to Rod and I that we share. We have been cooking a meal for the folks at the shelter every few months, but we think we might be ready to step up to a more regular commitment. The question is, what will be the thing we give up to make time. But with a regular commitment, it will be easier to plan.

As you can see, we also got out to get our annual holiday picture made. The mall made it challenging this year by putting most of the decorations overhead. We managed, but I think we'll look for a place to do it next year that we actually want to be. I was astonished at just how uncivil the place has become - -hawkers getting in your face as you walk though -- not unlike braving thieves alley in a fantasy novel. *shudder*

Anyway, it seems odd to post holiday pictures so early -- but I haven't mastered the art of getting the photos I'll need onto the laptop ahead of time yet. ;) Now that my favorite photo editing software is on the laptop, though, it'll be easier. Can't get them just rioght until I load them here.

More soon...