Eat Food

I caught Michael Pollan on Oprah last night. I have to admit, I've only skimmed his books, but I agree with so much of what he says! He mentioned a few of the rules from his new book Food Rules, and they make a lot of sense:

1: Eat food .

2: Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

13: Eat only foods that will eventually rot.

39: Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

I especially enjoyed #39. That's a great philosophy about working for your junk food!

Oprah also announced that Amazon is now offering Food Inc. for only $9.99. Go Amazon!

Watching it was a reminder and a motivator to re-commit to organic dairy, ethically- and naturally-raised meat, and local, organic produce. (Well, as local and organic as I can get. I can't resist grapefruit in the winter!)

I've had a real lack of veggies in my diet lately. I'm thinking of having a voluntary vegan week to kind of cleanse and focus on getting a lot of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy proteins. I'll let you know how it goes! Any good vegan recipes I should try? I made the Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms With Swiss Chard that I linked to a while ago. They were really good and can be made vegan. Maybe I'll start with making those again.

P.S. I stumbled upon this cool Food Rules feature on the New York Times. Michael Pollan asked reader to submit their own rules, and then they put them together in a cool slide show.

Martin Luther King Jr. - Thank you.

I don't think I can write anything particularly enlightening or meaningful that hasn't already been said about this extraordinary man. Today I'm just feeling deeply grateful for his dedication to justice, his example of working for change and his legacy.

In church yesterday we sang the hymn "Lift Every Voice And Sing" which is also knows as the Black National Anthem. It's a powerful song, and always brings tears to my eyes.

We also sang it the week that Obama was elected, and you may recall that Rev. Joseph Lowery drew upon it for his benediction at the inauguration.

Finally, King's most famous speech:

Thank you Rev. King. You are an example and an inspiration for all of us.

A Hero

Listening to NPR this morning, I was inspired by the story about Miep Gies who hid Anne Frank's family for two years and died today at the age of 100. She was also the one who saved Anne's diary and gave it to her father when he was released from the death camps. You can read and listen to the entire story here. But I was especially touched by what she said about being considered a hero:

"I don't want to be considered a hero," she said in 1997.

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

We're all ordinary people with a human duty to do good. Thanks for reminding us of this, Miep Gies.

I Want It

The sassy author of Stitch N' Bitch, Debbie Stoller, has a new line of yarn called Stitch Nation. They come in alpaca, sheep's wool and bamboo (is that like cotton?). I love, love, love the colors. Especially these:

But, I don't have any knitting projects lined up. Drat! I'll have to think of something. I've been looking at the book The Opinionated Knitter, which I recently got from the library. Maybe I'll find something in there.

Based On My 2009

Based on my experiences in the past year, I would recommend:

• Reading Half the Sky
• Watching Food Inc.
• Visiting Santa Barbara (especially the farmers' market, beach and mission)
• Visiting Bozeman, MT
• Saving more and spending less
• Wearing more lipstick
• Wearing less make-up on your face
• Using sunscreen
• Using eye cream
• Playing with babies
• Acupuncture
• Dancing and singing unabashedly to Michael Jackson. (While you're at it, go out and rent This Is It.)
• Eating more kale
• Wearing converse sneakers
• Investing in relationships - they're worth the time, energy and cost of travel!
• Watching Glee, Castle and The Good Wife on TV (I'm addicted!)
• Playing Bananagrams
• Taking risks!

Things I would not recommend:

• Joining L.A. Fitness
• Spending the 4th of July in a dry forest with a bunch of low-IQ, high-blood-alcohol-content Eastern WA folks with access to way too many fireworks
• Going on a horseback ride in the Dominican Republic (sorry, inside joke)
• Wishing you could change or control others - you can only control yourself and your response to them
• Getting married on a beach - from my keen observation, it's impossible to walk gracefully!
• Over-sharing during wedding toasts. (Keep it short, people! Less is more!)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Courtesy of the amazing Judy Garland.

Merry Christmas to all! (And especially my sister, Jenni, who is in Phoenix and who we really miss this year.)

May the new year bring us all adventure, joy and peace.

P.S. I was so in love with Judy and this movie, that I had my mom make me a deep red velvet dress for Winter Dance my senior year of high school

Food Inspirations

All sorts of fun food info and links around the Web this week! I wish I had time to try some of these out. I'm half-tempted to get some chestnuts from the farmer's marketing this weekend and make a soup!

Chestnuts

This chestnut soup definitely caught my interest, and it's the one I may actually attempt to make: Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto.

But, always enlightening NPR also just posted a nice article on chestnuts with some yummy sounds recipes, particularly the Slow Cooker Lamb with Chestnuts.

Incredible Layer Cakes

As much as I love making cake, I don't think I'll ever attempt one of these cakes highlighted in a New York Times article.

Dinner Tonight

How about this? Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms with Swiss Chard