tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50121633760610972532025-07-16T09:52:01.178-07:00FOOD & BRAIN PAIRINGSUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger318125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-10033654004907564142022-12-20T12:05:00.000-08:002022-12-20T12:05:39.895-08:00

I have a lot in common with the moths in my house. Actually, it's just one thing we share: a love of wool. We like to do different things with it of course. When it's cold out, I like to wear wool sweaters, coats, scarves, and socks. They—just like to eat all those things. After battling them for what seems an eternity, I have learned a lot about our little friends the clothes-moths. My best

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-12801197520083762112020-12-02T17:43:00.001-08:002020-12-02T17:45:30.690-08:00

Haven’t been around here much lately. This %#&@! year was letting me know it wasn’t going to go quietly away. September was transitional, like that carton of milk you have to ask your housemate to smell because something about it doesn't seem quite right. October was particularly awful – all tricks and no treats. November got an extra emphasis on its first syllable and shouted “NO!” a lot… or

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-19713885416167212232020-09-08T03:30:00.001-07:002020-09-08T03:30:04.327-07:00

Nearly every recipe for home made ice cream I've made says something along the lines of, "eat within 3 days" or "keep for up to a week in the freezer". Why three days? Why a week? Well, I have personally done some highly non-scientific home-testing on this subject and am here to tell you: Ice cream you make from scratch will keep just fine for longer than a week. It will last even up to four

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-46403596192151073992020-08-29T03:30:00.013-07:002020-08-29T03:30:03.412-07:00

Etegami means "picture letter" in Japanese and it's a charming way to send thoughts and well-wishes to friends and family. It takes very little to get started: paper, ink, watercolor, a brush or two. There are a few rules of course, but deviate from those traditional confines a little (or a lot!) and you've still got something you can proudly call "mail-art" which you can use to connect

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-77222092827691453702020-08-22T03:30:00.029-07:002020-08-22T08:56:33.250-07:00

Muesli — it's what's for breakfast at my house... especially when it's too hot to cook (or I just don't feel like it).Granola is great of course, if you have it on hand... refrigerator oats are an option too, though they tend to be too "soupy" for my liking, and have a strange texture... we've even eaten toasted oats with yogurt which was actually pretty tasty. This acid-soaked method, is an even

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-88880003862678349002020-08-10T15:18:00.001-07:002020-08-10T23:40:31.569-07:00

I have this top that’s really comfortable yet looks crisp even on hot days. It’s down to the fabric: mostly cotton with just a touch of spandex in it. Wonderful stuff that it is, it’s not always so great when it comes to buttonholes and shirt plackets. That nice bit of stretch means those buttonholes will also stretch and can result in the unexpected unbuttoning over ones bust or belly. Yikes.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-54917898009449727962020-07-12T13:17:00.001-07:002020-07-13T00:01:41.320-07:00

Hold on to your hats my friends, I've been crocheting everything for the past 2+ years and if you sit still for very long around me, I'm liable to crochet you too! Crochet is pretty addictive but the upside is how very practical it can be. It has its limits to be sure, and there are some things that are just better off knitted, but if you stay firmly within crochet's wheelhouse, there's lots

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-43191406322507659702020-07-02T05:30:00.000-07:002020-07-02T05:30:02.546-07:00

Feeling anxious about the state of things still? Yeah, me too. This may sound silly but, it's been how many months into this, and even with many of the restrictions being lifted...  I'm feeling more isolated than ever. Doesn't make sense. A lot of things don't right now. Hence the anxiousness. I try not to put lots of links in my blog posts anymore since it's frustrating to click on

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-8824496074742070942020-06-08T23:05:00.000-07:002020-06-09T09:24:17.184-07:00

This soup came into being about 4 years ago when I wanted to do something different with the baby bok choy in our CSA farm box. I love simply sauteing baby bok choy with garlic (so good) but sometimes I just need to change things up. At least three recipes were combined (based on what ingredients I had on hand) and I improvised the rest. It has since become one of our most favorite soups and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-57132023222234177662020-05-16T05:30:00.000-07:002020-05-16T05:30:01.642-07:00

Yes, another list. It's what I do. Expect more in the future. This is an incomplete list of some of the things that I actually managed to accomplish during The Lockdown.  Alternate title: A Less Than Enchanted April in Rooms Without Much in the Way of a View is Cold Comfort Indeed!* Re-read all the library books I’d picked up before this mess began. Those things are seriously

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-55973788505975825592020-05-03T05:37:00.000-07:002020-05-04T18:01:52.809-07:00

or... What to do with that glowing jar of maraschino cherries hiding in the back of the pantry (other than topping bowls of ice cream) It's still Springtime. I can tell because the bugs are fully activated, the weeds are on steroids, the wild onions are in bloom, and there are still a few cherry trees festooned in their floral finery in our neighborhood. Not many, and not for much

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-91355717221117497062020-04-25T06:30:00.000-07:002020-04-25T10:14:56.316-07:00

As a crafty/DIY-type of introvert with more unfinished projects than time to do them all, there are some aspects of this “Shelter-In-Place” and Social Distancing-thing that make me want to just say, “Hey, welcome to my world everybody!” But then there are the overwhelmingly serious aspects of this situation… and then there are The Fears… The Uncertainty... The Isolation... The Horrid

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-15989497167165694372020-04-16T06:00:00.000-07:002020-04-16T06:00:03.097-07:00

Springtime is what I usually refer to as "birthday season". We have so many friends and family members with birthdays that fall in the March-April-May time frame. This year of course, things are no different. Except of course: no birthday parties, dinners, get-togethers... no birthday hugs, kisses, toasts... and certainly no blowing out of birthday candles on any birthday cake. Likely that's

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-33887404961998394292018-05-13T17:37:00.001-07:002018-05-14T10:19:05.599-07:00

Technology changes rapidly when you're not paying attention to it. It actually changes pretty darned fast even when you are. I've not been blogging for a while and the online photo editing program I used to use apparently decided to cease operations at some point in the last year or so. Since I only use it for watermarking blog photos, I never noticed that it wasn't there anymore...

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-50428906494038310192017-04-11T15:45:00.000-07:002017-04-13T13:47:03.397-07:00

Here's another yummie I made a while back but never posted. It just looks like Easter doesn't it? It looks like spring. But I didn't bake it in spring or for Easter. Actually, I think I might have. But I never got it onto the blog though, did I? If I miss the window for posting something, I have to wait until its time comes back around. If I miss it again (and again)... and then take a break

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-19106498640046877602017-03-13T17:10:00.000-07:002017-03-14T10:42:21.796-07:00

Confession time... The photo above was taken five years ago. It's true. I always meant to write about these awesome cookies but never did. Lately I've been doing some digital-decluttering and I saw this picture and remembered those tiny cookies packed with two kinds of ginger, dried apricots, and dark chocolate. Well, you probably guessed what happened next: I had to make the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-42569093287680024562017-02-28T23:02:00.000-08:002017-03-16T22:41:57.480-07:00

This is what friends do, they tell each other about neat stuff they find... like a shoe sale, a cool band, or a great recipe. Well, I've been remiss in telling you about the Cleansing Bars I made from LisaLise Natural Skin Care. Please forgive me! Lise's blog is full of recipes for making all sorts of your own natural skin care and cosmetics at home, but it was her soap-less facial

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-66587431171444717182017-02-07T04:30:00.000-08:002017-03-16T22:46:58.843-07:00

I know I promised you Cleansing Bars in my last post, but I just made this cake again and realized that I hadn't blogged about it yet. I forget sometimes that I've been a little absent around here for the last couple years. I'm working on that though. So, on to the cake. I've actually made this cake at least four times, maybe five, in the past two years... and it has, along the way, become my

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-39787395708619390822017-01-31T20:30:00.000-08:002017-03-01T00:21:00.375-08:00

So far, 2017—there just isn't another word for it—sucks. I spent the entire month of January battling one ailment or another, which is pretty unusual for me. I'm wondering how much had to do with stress and how much was due to being off my kefir? I gave it a rest last September and it's somewhere in the back of my fridge, dead more than likely, and doing me no good, regardless. But that's

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-4460347334978093982016-07-14T04:00:00.000-07:002016-07-14T04:00:01.825-07:00

Sometimes plums are sweet and sometimes they can be tart, but most of the plums I get tend to be a little of both. Occasionally they can even be bitter. Like that time I had to dump an entire pan of plum cobbler because some of the plums were so bitter that, even after mixing with sugar and baking with a nice sweet biscuit-y topping... the whole thing was inedible. Faced with less than

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-5412028190518258602016-06-27T16:48:00.002-07:002016-06-27T16:48:37.285-07:00

This may not be the prettiest thing to ever come out of my kitchen... but it's definitely one of the cheapest... and best tasting! Today I have a couple of questions for you: Do you sometimes find yourself with a boatload of Swiss Chard? Are you left wondering what to do with all the thick stems from that chard? I've been in that boat on more than one occasion. I used to just toss

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-482409725486187542016-06-08T13:39:00.000-07:002016-06-09T09:30:07.548-07:00

Early June 2016 My Backyard     Dear Jay,  I know that no amount of sunflower seeds can take the place of a warm and juicy ripe blueberry bursting in your beak. On this we can agree. But while I respect your above-average avian intelligence, you are, for a few weeks out of every year, my adversary. Sincerely yours, Stephanie      P.S.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-16664347583551190152016-05-22T13:33:00.000-07:002016-05-23T12:39:21.995-07:00

If you had told me four years ago that I would one day stop taking ibuprofen... I wouldn't have believed you. If you told me that I would be making my own capsules for pain and inflammation... I would have laughed. And if you told me that I'd be filling those capsules with turmeric, a common pantry spice... I'd just have laughed harder. But here I am not laughing... and not missing my OTC

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-90368945705830098632016-05-11T13:00:00.000-07:002016-05-13T16:37:06.794-07:00

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know I'm still around. It's been a while and I've missed you! What has it been, nearly almost somewhere around three whole entire years since I've posted anything? Yeah, and then some. But you know, even back when I was posting semi-erratically, the span of time between posts had been getting longer and longer. It made me ponder more than once whether I

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5012163376061097253.post-31234981845843695432013-02-14T13:04:00.001-08:002017-02-16T17:38:55.553-08:00

Just when everything looks like it's starting to get back on track and within sight, when things start going your way (or going again at all)... well, that's when a brick wall suddenly materializes right in your path. Kapow. A cheerful thought, I know. Our computer died last week. D.E.A.D. Miraculously, I was able to get everything off the hard drive before it's last gasping breath. I had

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3