Thursday, June 27, 2013

Blueberries, Peacocks, Oatmeal Bread, Snowden and Scheduling a Reluctant Self


This morning the blueberries are calling me from two pots out back. I have buttermilk in the fridge for blueberry pancakes, but there is a recipe I saw where you use regular milk and let  the batter sit for an hour for fluffy pancakes. I am a kitchen scientist. Always experimenting. I love to eat, even though I tend to get caught up in other work, overriding that necessary indulgence. I know I need to get a handle on my reluctant self, and schedule a routine. Perhaps it's after years of being overdrawn, raising 7 alone, and then taking care of my father, that I am just recouping. But, earning a living and getting flush with my economics is pushing me, as is behaving myself in the health arena, and getting more mindful.

Last night I watched a Youtube video from FullyRawKristina on her daily routine. She made the best-looking quart? of morning 'lemonade' to hydrate herself, using sliced lemons and oranges, basil or mint, infusing till morning. Her suggestions for health and a flat stomach were:
1. Hydrate-moves everything through to cleanse.

2. Eat 1-2 Raw Meals daily. She eats fully raw, and her recipes are phenomenal. Bright colors of juice, raw peach cobbler, mmmmm. Her green juice recipe is alkalinizing. A great cancer/disease prevention and tool for healing.

3. Eliminate meat and dairy. These are low in fiber and  high in saturated fat, have hormones and antibiotics, (and possible prions and the dairy produces mucous from casein.) I love yogurt and cottage cheese, and I've been experimenting with buttermilk recipes lately, so I try to use balance. Probiotics can come from fermented veggies. That is something I haven't made yet, but I think it would be great. Saurkraut in a can or jar? is not quite the form I'm looking for here. Keeping the gut flora balanced is a key to a good immune system.

4. She suggests taking out all wheat breads and pasta. There's a book she mentioned called Forks over Knives, so you get the idea of salads and juices and fruit over animal proteins. But her main #4 idea is doing 10 min. of ab exercises. It doesn't take much to tone up. She does:
*Squats, Bicycle crunches, 3 sets of 20, planks where you put our arms down and on your toes, hold stomach in and flat for 60 seconds, and she jumps rope, even if she doesn't have a rope.

5. Stop eating after 7 pm, or at least 3 hours before bedtime.
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Peacocks: We have a beautiful male peacock strutting around, holding court on rooftops, being watched and fed by the 55 and older community here. I cringe at the bread they feed him, so I bought some organic chicken scratch mix to contribute something better for this deep blue Persian-art-tailed iridescent creature. Yesterday I saw him spread that gorgeous tail of his for the first time, on a rooftop.

He came within 1-2 feet of me last night, after I shook a baggie of the grains and made a clicking noise. It's hilarious how he cocks his head, and gets serious. The pattern on his back to tail tip is fabulous! I came back from a bike ride to return my Redbox movie, Cloud Atlas, and saw the peacock walking down my road, with a resident watching. I then could run get my bag of scratch.

He calls early in the morning, around 4-5, and sometimes late at night, from the 50+ foot high Douglas fir trees he roosts in. Some neighbors don't like it, have probably tried fireworks and noise and lights at night, etc., to make him move on, but many of us enjoy this wonderful piece of nature. He has been a bright spot in my life, and those that miss a little bit of country.

I put out a mirror last night, at the corner of my little doublewide in the backyard. They are fascinated by their image, but during mating season, the males can fly at a mirror image, thinking it's a rival. He has already come to check out Duke, a metal rooster made of bicycle and garden tool parts that guards my backyard. My neighbor Bill reported that this peacock seemed very curious about this piece of yard art, and then the mirror, just before he shared a raisin bagel with the bird. I only hope my blueberries remain safe on their bushes. If not, there's always the Farmer's Market on Saturday in Gresham, but there's nothing like picking your own huge, warm blueberry from your own bush that you've nurtured with coffee grounds and manure and water. Anthocyadins and sunshine in a blue-staining bite...

RE: cringing about the bread being fed the peacock, and humans....The chemicals and GMO products in our breads and food in general are so gross, and knowing they produce cancer from studies and resulting pictures- that many public seem unaware of- makes me think we will all be developing eating disorders before the pendulum of this corruption is fixed. The contamination is abhorrent. Perhaps when all other nations ban GMO's, the US public will finally speak out for their own health, and children's health and lives. I don't know.

But, I have been experimenting with bread recipes of late. Yesterday I made an Oatmeal Bread with 2 cups of organic old-fashioned oats soaked in 2 c. of filtered boiling water, 1 Tbsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, about 1/2 c. cut-up raisins, (opt.) 1/4 c. molasses, 1/4 c. honey, 1/3 c. brown sugar.

 After an hour of soaking, I added 1/2 c. applesauce and 1/2 c. scalded milk-I've used what I had-canned milk straight without scalding, or 1/2 and 1/2, etc. Then I mix 1-1 1/2 Tbsp SAF yeast  in 3 c. of organic whole wheat flour, and add and stir, then 2 c. of unbleached White non-bromated Bob's Redmill flour, and knead for 6-8 min., incorporating another cup of the white flour.

(You can add spelt flour, or experiment w/ many different kinds of flours-rice, oatmeal, rye, some wheat germ, or what's left in your fridge or cupboard.)
Let raise in a greased clean bowl covered w/ a dishtowel-(I wet and wring a cotton towel using warm water) for an hour or so till doubled, and divide into two parts, roll each out and into a loaf. Put in 2 greased bread pans, raise till 1" or so over the top of the pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 min. till the tops are brown and hollow sounding. You can brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle w/ cinnamon sugar if you wish before raising, or just after baking, brush w/ butter -I use a stick of butter still in the wrapper because it's easy-and cover w/ your now-semi-dry towel, to get a soft crust, if desired. 55 min. for me was about right. It could have used 5 min. more, as the applesauce and oats make more of a dense bread.

I cut a loaf when it was cooled a bit, cut the slices in half after buttering, put some of my strawberry freezer jam on half of the slices, put it on a platter with a stack of napkins, and shared with some of my neighbors. Food is for sharing, and feedback is key to knowing if the recipe is a winner, or not.

Next time I'll share the olive-garlic loaf that cooked up in less than 2 hours total. The smell throughout the house was heavenly. I also brought a tweaked smoky bleu cheese salad dressing to a dinner with this bread. Oh, my goodness! It's so good, I want any excuse possible to taste it with a spoon. Putting salad greens with it is almost criminal, as competing with the taste is an exercise in frustration. '-} I'll share that, also.
******
Snowden: If I could speak directly to Mr. Snowden, I would want to hug him and tell him how proud I am for his acts of courage. We need men of courage, true patriots and citizens of the world, to act as checks and balances to protect mankind from the greed, power mongering, lies, harm and invasion of privacy to us all.

He is a whistleblower like Manning and Assange, but regardless of the arguments of how to classify each one, their acts stand as a beacon for the best of mankind. Bravo to all of you, and I apologize for Obama and his lost host of followers. I didn't vote for him. Some people don't recognize true leaders, or have radar for dishonesty. The only reason Obama is saying he's backing off somewhat (which is just another lie like the drone murders), is he knows there is a brewing resentment and growing drive to expel him from office, and give him the same treatment he has allowed for Bradley Manning, Leonard Peltier, and any other political prisoner that he could have 'manned' up for, and intervened to let justice prevail. Working for the Corporations, Bank, Pharmaceutical and other organized crime conglomerates makes him no less than a prostitute. Shameful.

Manning, Snowden and Assange are all in a prized category:
Making Your Life Count

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