tricianutricia

The newsletter's out!

Do you have any fun summer recipes to share?  Are you perplexed by exotic things at the farmers' market?  

Do let us know.

And have a lovely weekend.

 

Loyal Reader T.R. writes: 

"I have an immense oral fixation and need to nibble on food all the time. Until recently, I chewed sugarless gum in massive quantities, but after reading some information about sorbitol having unfortunate side effects, I quit cold turkey. (I noticed significant differences after quitting the gum.) Struggling, I've gone back to sugared gum (which I quit a long time ago b/c bad for the teeth). Otherwise, I don't eat badly: baby carrots, natural almonds, lots of other kinds of nuts, dried fruit, and on and on. But I just feel like I'm piling on unnecessary calories or carbs just to keep my mouth busy. Sadly, this all started when I quit smoking years ago, and returning to Joe Camel sounds like a bad idea, too.

"Any ideas for food I can eat endlessly without consequence? It doesn't need to taste good, necessarily, but it's hard to keep fresh fruit and vegetables in the office, so I'm looking for some shelf stable stuff. "

I reply:

"kudos on recognizing the negative effects of artificial sweeteners and the positive effects of their removal from your daily routine! that's good stuff.   the thing with "shelf-stable" snacks is that they tend to be high in calories and/or chemicals. fruits and vegetables really are the only things you can eat endlessly without negative consequences -- and even then, if you're watching sugar intake, you need to take it easy on the endless fruit. nuts are fantastic and easy to store, but in moderation.   i will continue to ruminate on this... in the meantime, here are 2 thoughts for you:

1. yes, it's a pain; but consider a plan to stock your world with carrots, celery, berries, lettuce leaves, etc.... perhaps a weekly trip through the salad bar at the grocery store, then divide everything up into daily portions, so you've got your supply all ready to bring with you to the office.

2. look into this oral fixation business. i don't mean to sound flip at all. you've made some serious changes -- quitting smoking, changing up your gum choices -- and there is no need to be a slave to a habit that doesn't serve you. what exactly are you looking for in your need to keep your mouth moving? what did smoking do for you? can you find a way to satisfy that need in a non-snack, non-chew way? i don't know you very well so these are only surface questions. "

The moral of the story is:  if i post your questions on this blog, you get free advice... but no capital letters.  :-)


 

Dear Lovelies, 

Spring has sprung!  The strawberries are ripe, the spinach is ready!  

I am beside myself with vegetation-watching -- so much drama!  Will the mysterious, uninvited squash plant deny the red russian kale the sunlight he needs?  Will the aloes re-adjust to outdoor life?  Will the dastardly squirrels wantonly dig up more innocent iris sprouts?

This threatens to become a garden blog...  a thought worth considering.

In any case, the new Nusletter is out!  Please share your thoughts, stories, comments and recipes here!  And then, go outside and play, for gosh sakes!

Hello loyal readers,  and happy new moon!

The May nusletter has hit the newsstands.  Do you have any thoughts, questions, resistances, or success stories about organic food?  

(I have a friend who likes to point out that "it's ALL organic, duh."  ... which is true -- food technically can't be INorganic, can it?  But you get my point, so bear with me...)

I will do my best not to delete your comments, though for some reason I become technologically impaired when faced with The Blog.  Sigh.

Health, joy, and happy springtime to you!

 The newest nusletter has arrived!  Please wax poetic with stories, recipes, anecdotes, and haiku related to all things leafy and greeen.

Loyal Reader L.A.M. writes: "I was alarmed to read in your newsletter today that there is a downside to the spinach salads that are a lunch staple for me!  I probably have at least 5 or 6 spinach salads every week.  It sounds like that is a problem for calcium absorption.  I guess you would recommend substituting some other salad green for the spinach.  What do you consider to be the best alternative?"

I reply: "it's true, and i was also alarmed when i learned of it, as spinach salads were a mainstay for me also.  so sad....   

Brilliant and hilarious.  "May the farm be with you..."

http://www.storewars.org/tater_tot.html

Apologies to those to whom I've already recounted this story.

So, I was in the grocery store a few days ago -- the "conventional grocery store" as I like to call it, also known as "Giant."  While paying for my groceries, I had the following conversation with the friendly young man behind the register:

Checkout man:  Is this broccoli?

Me:  Yes, this is broccoli.

*****************************
We are in so much trouble, as a nation, if our youth cannot recognize a head of broccoli.  Sigh.

If you celebrate Easter, Ostara, or Spring by dyeing eggs, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsvRGLQqeVQ

A fun little video on using vegetables and spices to dye eggs!

Happy Spring!

Well, I am obviously not in my right mind... my copy of my Nusletter just arrived in my in-box and it's entitled "Sugar."   Oops.  

I guess I will just claim "Grad School has taken over my brain" syndrome, because the topic is Beverages.  Not Sugar.  Sugar has been done.  I failed to change that line in that there draft copy.  Sigh.

So, send me some stories about how you prevent Brain Loss.  :-)

love T

What do you like to sip on?  What floats your beverage boat?

In other news, March is National Nutrition Month!  

Happy New Moon, 

love Tricia

The Sugar Nusletter is out!  Do you have questions or comments?  Post 'em here! 

Loyal Reader K.R. writes, "Interestingly, [my daughter] Georgia started to be less lactose-tolerant around 3 years old.  She has a lot of other allergies, so we had tested her for dairy allergies, but hadn't considered lactose intolerance.  Anyhoo, the doctor had us eliminate dairy and, turns out the big cup of milk she had each morning was what was giving her tummy aches.  Replaced with soy milk and it's all fixed (even if she has a little bit of milk here and there).  I bet a lot of people get tummy upset, gas, etc. and never think it might be milk!"

Loyal Reader A.M. asserts that my statistics are inaccurate: it's not "70 percent of the world's population" who are lactose intolerant, but in fact 70 percent of people over 5, since babies are built to only ingest milk.  

This is a good point.  I'm curious, though, as to the technicalities of human milk versus cow's milk.

Loyal Reader and Smart-Ass D.S. wants to know, "70% lactose intolerant?  That's just humans, right?"   

Er... I'd assume a higher statistic if we were to include the non-human population.  

Happy day to you!

 The Dairy Nuseltter is hurtling to an inbox near you!  Do you have thoughts on this most controversial of subjects?

I myself am a desperate fan of the Cheese -- it is across the board my default comfort food.  And I find that with raw cheese I feel less bloated.  

To read the nusletter, journey here.

If you are sadly without your own personal subscription, make it happen here.

Happy New Year!

I was a bit horrified to open my copy of my nusletter and see that it was all out-of-proportion, column-wise.  If you download pictures it will right itself and  you can see it in all its aesthetic glory.  Problem will not be repeated in future.  

So, holidays.  New years resolutions.  Any thoughts?  I am very pleased to be leaving the country for the holidays (except Hanukkah, I am still in the country for that). 

My new years resolutions (so far) include:
--learn to knit
--play my darn mandolin
--practice gratitude more consistently

How will you nurture yourself this season?  What's it all about for you? 

Happy New Moon!
 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXXTCc-IVg

Nice.  And funny!

Plus he's got such good teleprompter technique.  

(A sidenote:  I went to college with a woman who, after graduation, dated Bill Maher.  She also dated Davey Jones, from the Monkees.  Random, but true.)

That's a quote from  a play I saw (half of) this morning, in my alter-ego life as Teacher of Theatre.  The program is a 4-session residency in DC public schools. I (and colleagues) go into a school & do theatre games with the kids, talk about what it means to use the imagination, tell stories through theatre, and be a good live-theatre audience member.  Then we all go see a play.  Then I go back for final session & maybe, if the discipline issues aren't too huge, we create our own play... usually just short scenes, though.  

So today, these kids from the poorest and most violent area of Southeast DC got on a bus at 9:00 a.m. (or thereabouts) and set off on their way to the opposite side of the universe, Glen Echo, Maryland, beyond the outer reaches of the most prosperous areas of Northwest.  They hit so much rush hour traffic that they arrived at 10:45 a.m. for a 10:00 curtain.  The show's only an hour long.  The theatre had held the curtain 15 minutes waiting for them, though, so we got to see the final 1/2 hour.  Then they went back out into the bitterly cold wind (dang it's cold today) and got back on the bus.  They were stunningly, brilliantly well behaved.  

The play was The Secret Garden.  "I'm thinking about the magic that makes things grow."  Plants, kids, all that.  Magic.  

 Mayonnaise is a bit like bagpipes:  it inspires strong feelings of love or hate.

I myself have always hated mayonnaise, nasty stuff, so I don't mind so much being allergic to soy & canola oil and thus prevented from eating most varieties of mayonnaise.

Occasionally, just occasionally, I get a hankering for a tuna salad sandwich.  (Also there's the occasional summertime devilled egg hankering.)  At this time I will make my own mayonnaise, far superior to mayo-in-a-jar.  I use the "blender mayonnaise" recipe from The Joy of Cooking.  

Here's the catch:  mayonnaise won't bind if it is raining or threatening to rain.  Strange but true.  

Here's the kerfluffle (it's an internal kerfluffle): WHY for the past year have I only wanted tuna sandwiches when it's overcast or raining!?!   For instance, today.  And yesterday also.  I dare not concoct mayonnaise.  Drat.  This is some form of subconscious self-torture.  Or something.  Recipe follows.  Have a great day.

Blender Mayonnaise

From The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

Makes 1 ¾ cups

  

All ingredients must be at room temperature.

 

Put in blender container:

1 egg

1 teaspoon ground mustard

1 teaspoon salt

A dash of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon sugar (try substituting ½ teaspoon agave or a dash of stevia)

¼ cup oil**

 

Cover and blend until thoroughly combined.  With the blender still running, take off the cover and slowly add:

½ cup oil

And then:

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Until thoroughly blended.  Then add slowly:

½ cup oil

And blend until thick.  You may have to stop and start the blender to stir down the mayonnaise.

  

**I use olive oil, but some consider it to strong-tasting.  You could substitute “light” olive oil (it’s refined) or canola oil.

New nusletter is hot off the press, coming to an inbox near you!  You may notice it's a bit shorter than usual.  This is because I practice what I preach:  I took the more elaborate nusletter off my to-do list, and went to bed early.  :-)

Happy new moon!

It is Vegetarian Awareness Month!  Here's a pile of resources.   

Also it is Seafood Month.  

Also Herb Day was October 13.

So much celebrations, I can't keep up.    Woo!

Oh yeah, the October Nusletter came out  last week (as I'm sure you heard through all the major press outlets) and the topic is: Root Vegetables.  Do you have any good root veg stories to share?

I had a Parsnip Epiphany a few years ago, eating a holiday dinner and my friend Bill's house - he roasts parsnips in the turkey drippings.  Mmmmmm.  Good stuff for those inclined to eat things like turkey.  

Loyal Reader T.F. wrote to tell me about her "African stew" that she makes with various root veggies.  

British and Americans have different names for various root vegetables, which I find endlessly fascinating.  Some are simple and self-explanatory; for example, Americans say Beets while Brits say Beetroot.  It is a root (or at least a tuber; or at least it came from underground), so that makes sense.  Americans do differentiate between "beets" and "beet greens" so I think adding the additional distinction of "beet root" is quite helpful.

Celery root in America is Celeriac in Britain.  That's not too much drama.

My favorite is this:  the American Rutabaga is the British Swede.  Rutabaga is a bizarre name in  the first place; and I am doubly intrigued by Swede.  Do these root vegetables come from Sweden?  Or is a Swede just as Swedish as French Toast or French Fries are French?  

These and other mysteries to be explored in the future.

Coming up November 5 is a Root Vegetables Cooking Class -- interact with live, in-person beets, rutabagas, parsnips, perhaps some exotic celery root.  Cook some food, eat some food, enjoy good company and bring home leftovers.  Add some crowd-pleasing recipes to your holiday repertoire: root veg dishes are handy for potlucks.  Alas, Loyal Reader E.B., cooking classes are not yet available via teleconference.

Rock on with your autumnal self.