Choice Morsels

This afternoon I spent about 90 minutes weeding the flower bed along the north side of the house, then for dinner, we met one of the military guys from our Bible Study  at a restaurant, because he's been reassigned to a base in Massachusetts and will be leaving at the end of the week. Today's Good Eating is about "Cruciferious" (krew+SIH-fer-uhs) vegetables.   Interestingly, this scientific name comes from the flowers of these veggies, which, if they bloom, have 4 petals that resemble a cross. Who knew? Cruciferious veggies are everything in the cabbage family, which includes many veggies you wouldn't even guess are cabbage relatives! The family includes, all cabbages, of course: Red, White & Savoy Cabbages Chinese Cabbage And Also:  Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi,  cauliflower, radishes, turnips rutabagas,  Collards, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, Bok choy, watercress, arugula and--big surprise--horseradish! ...

My misadventures have nothing to do with cumin---but rather with the lawn-mower. It's a corded electric mower, which means I run it on a 100 ft cord plugged into either an exterior outlets or the garage, depending on what side of the house I'm on. It also has a surprisingly strong vacuum. Last week I was mowing around the curve of one of my flower beds and I was focused on the fire ant hill on the edge that I was intent on mowing over, yet not stepping in. The a loop of the cord was on the ground nearby, but I thought it far enough way. Apparently not. Somehow the mower vacuum still caught that loop and sucked it in----snap---my power cord was in two pieces! Fortunately, I have a spare 50 ft utility cord and added a 15 ft household extension cord to that to give me 65 ft, which I needed to give me enough reach to finish mowing the front lawn. Of course, hitting the cord also triggered the house's electrical safety thing. Took me a minute to f...

Welcome back! It's almost August! Time does fly! It's stormy again today and was thundering. It's a local coastal storm. The cat doesn't like the sound of rain and thunder. She used to crouch under a stool, butt, in more recent years, tends to ask me to follow her to the back bedroom and have me lay down with her to stroke and comfort her. It gave me a chance to close my eyes and rest for 20 minutes. I'm a little tired today because we got to bed late. After last night's Bible study here at the house, one of the young men wanted to stay and talk about some stuff going on in his life.  We talked from 9 to midnight. Anyway, today's healthy eating topic is coconut!   Generally coconut is either a "love it" or "hate it" affair. I can't say I've ever met anyone who was neutral about liking coconut. But I happen to be one of those happy people who love it. I wasn't the only coconut lover in the family. Whenever we had a box ...

Today's topic is another common cabinet spice: Cinnamon! The number one benefit of Cinnamon is it can lower your blood sugar levels. A mere 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon a day, daily is enough to do the job with regular use. *It is noteably helpful for Type 2 Disbetes and in testing Type 2 subjects daily cinnamon intake of the above amount in 6 weeks resulted in a 27%  decrease in fasting blood sugar. A reduced level in bad and total choresterol and triglcyerides was also shown. So getting more cinnamon in your diet is a win-win for everyone!  [*cited from Healing Spices by Dr.Bharat B. Aggarwal] Ground Cinnamon One thing we do, is when we're making coffee, we shake cinnamon onto the grounds before turning on the coffee maker! This can be done with either plain or even flavored coffees---the cinnamon really enriches the taste! Basically it's the cheap-mans way of having flavored coffee! And it's a quick way to add cinnamon to your life! We ...

Today we're going to talk about Oregano. It's that herb that makes spaghetti sauce and pizza taste so yummy! Good news---oregano has excellent health benefits! #1) Oregano is loaded with potassium and it's an anti-oxidant. (Anti-oxidants help eliminate free radicals in the human body, which are molecules that can damage healthy cells.) # 2) Oregano, in studies, has also proven itself able to kill E-coli and many of the bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Adding oregano to ground meat you're planning to cook is the equivilent of dropping a SEAL team into a terriorist camp. The enemy will be eliminated. So, for this benefit, add 1 teaspoon of dried Oregano per pound of ground meat. For example: for 1 pound of hamburger, add 1 teaspoon. #3) *Oregano is also known for it's anti-cancer properties. Noteable Italian research indicates a high intake of oregano, such as in the Mediterranean diet, is particularly good at reducing the occurance of colon ca...