Politics, Wisdom, and Season's Greetings
Politics
Technical Difficulties by MoveOn.org's
Democracy in Action.. I've not looked through the site to see what they say, but the Technical Difficulties site makes a direct statement.
Wisdom
"...I've found in my life that if you look for reasons to be offended, you'll find at least 100 everyday. But if you give a charitable attitude to those around you -- even the rude ones -- you suffer less stress..." - part of a comment Ann Salisbury left for Joel over at Pax Nortona.
Season's Greetings !!!
Happy Holidays !!!
Meditation
I got
this from Chari's and Melanie's super-cool mom. :)
Suzy Homemaker
Make that Earthy-Crunchy-Suzy-Homemaker.
I must be feeling better. Or, maybe I'm just feeling good because I decided yesterday that I would skip school today if there was snow on the ground. I told my teacher. He said the weather forecast was looking pretty good (no snow). So I said, "I'll have to think of another reason." And, I must have put out the "I won't be here tomorrow" vibes, because everyone said, "have a nice weekend."
Last night I felt so free. It was cool. I didn't have to think about going to bed in order to sleep enough before morning. It was great. :)
I wanted to try out the 'mock eggnog' recipe (a few entries down), so I went to the store to buy soy milk. I left with soy milk, but I was also the new owner of a bread machine, two boxes of 'bread mix' (just add water), a cooking thermometer (for the water temperature) and a bread machine cook book.
If you doubt my reluctance to spend time in the kitchen, I must say it is subject to change based on what idea is in my head. But overall, I don't use my kitchen enough for it to be a familiar sight to those who share my home. I'm sure my animals have not seen me use the kitchen for much more than setting out food for them.
I took the breadmaker out of the box and took the 'pan' out of the machine to wash it before using it. When I turned around from the sink, there were four cats (evenly spaced, all in exactly the same position, on the table and a chair) sitting completely still and completely silent, all eyes on me, watching.
I laughed.
The bread turned out okay. I put the leftovers in the toaster oven to wait for morning. The 'mock eggnog' was okay, too. I filled an ice tray with what was left from that and put it into the freezer to save for today.
I've had a total vacation day online today. It's been nice. :)
When I finally was hungry and remembered that I'm trying to do healthy things now (not like sitting in front of a computer all day! lol) I went to the kitchen to rework the creations from last night. I was a good little gadget girl. I fried/scrambled two eggs in the microwave and put them on bread that was toasted in the toaster oven after being baked last night in the bread machine. And, I drank the frozen drink mixed in the blender.
I realize for some people that's not a big deal. You do all those kitchen-gadget things every day. I don't. I always thought preparing foods took too much time and offered too little satisfaction (with the exception, of course, of when the mood strikes).
I took the tray of frozen 'eggnog' and put the cubes into the blender, poured some more soy milk over it to make it easier to chop and blend. When that was nice and creamy, I added a bunch of bananas that I bought recently for frozen fruit drinks (that were never made). The bananas did not even significantly alter the flavor (b/c of so much cinnamon and nutmeg), but they doubled the quantity.
I drank a big mug of this new frozen mix and poured the rest of the batch back into two ice trays. I'll take them out tomorrow, put them into the blender with a little more soy milk and see how the eggnog/banana mixure held up!
It's a never ending frozen drink that doubles every time you try to put it back into drinkable form! I think that's funny. The magic blender. I really like it that it's cold and sweet and tastes pretty good and has almost no calories. That's pretty cool. I could happily eat a quart of ice cream in a sitting. So, finding something like this little frozen drink idea is a great idea for me.
Oh, there is a practical reason for extending this drink with the bananas, too (other than to use them while they're still edible). Some of the information I've read about soy says that as wonderful as it is, you can have too much of it. Now I don't know of anyone in my world who eats or drinks too much soy. Most people I know are like me. They either don't buy it at all (thinking of soy milk or tofu), or they buy it and let it sit for a year or two and then throw it out. I really am delighted to have found a pleasurable way to prepare and eat soy.
The practical reason for extending the recipe with non-soy items is that some sources say you can eat too much soy. They say people should not have more than .... (I'm thinking the amount is 3 or 4 ounces of tofu in one day, maybe I'll find the references later). It is said to be harmful if eaten in large quantities over many years just as it is said to be a healing and heathful food when eaten in moderation.
p.s. - If you're concerned that I skipped school (I know someone will be), it's okay. I already took the class before. I was just going this week to sit in and listen again to catch anything I might have missed before.
KD's birthday
Ooops! I missed it. But, good golly miss molly, you received a zillion good wishes! :)
Happy Birthday KD . :)
Mock Eggnog Recipe
Using soy products, of course ...
But, of course you don't know, because I've just not been able to get myself to blog lately. What is the matter with me???? lol. How could anyone not blog!?
The 'soy products' blog is one that never was written.
On to the
'eggnog'.
It's so easy. It's a blender recipe. Have the soy milk (I used vanilla flavored soy milk) and the tofu (silken tofu) cold when you start.
Dump the tofu (a 12 ounce package) and soy milk (6 ounces) into the blender and let it do its thing until the stuff looks creamy.
Taste it. Boring!
Add honey (or the sweetener of your choice) until it's sweet enough for you (recipe says 1/4 cup).
Then, add ground cinnamon and nutmeg to suit yourself (recipe says 1/2 tsp of each).
Tumeric is optional (recipe says 1/4 tsp). Also, 1/2 tsp of vanilla was in the recipe, and I forgot to add it.
Actually, all the ingredients were twice what I've told you, but I cut it in half b/c I wanted to try it with 1 (12 oz) box of tofu.
It could be that I have totally forgotten what eggnog tastes like, since it has been a whole year (or longer) since I've had any, but this turned out pretty well. It was actually pretty good! Smooth, creamy, thick, cold, with a vanilla and nutmeg and cinnamon taste! (What a painless way to ingest soy products!)
