Real food

in times of real stress and real need. Today I looked up the raw peach to check the nutritional value. It is low in calories and fat, but high in carbs, so nutritionists seem to think they are a mixed blessing. Not me. When I was a little girl, my nickname was Peachy. I love peaches. Apples, particularly Honey Crisp, are my first choice, but I'm out--only have Braeburn and Gala on hand. So I sliced up two peaches (leave on the skin) and grilled lightly in some margarine, sprinkled with cinnamon and a touch of vanilla, topped with a 1/2 cup of whole walnuts, and I'm enjoying a warm, delicious breakfast almost as much as if I had an apple. My favorite way to eat peaches is in warm peach pie with vanilla ice cream.

If you're under stress because of what is happening to your pension or your plans to buy a new home, you'd better stop with the salty, crunchy snacks that provide pleasure and no benefits and start with some good food. Real food. In the long run, it's a bargain. It will cost you less to eat real food, you'll feel like you're doing something useful (preparing), and you'll get more mileage for your dollar.

Today I chatted with a man at the coffee shop who has a very important job. He was having a large coffee, a large cinnamon roll, and a large chocolate chip cookie. He needs to be kinder to his tummy and brain.

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Jamming in Lakeside

Big power outage last night, and more storms rolling across northern Ohio. I'll have to turn off the laptop soon. Today I hope to sign up for an afternoon class at Lorenzo's Culinary School. It's on making peach jam. Isn't that a great idea for a one shot class? Registration is limited, so I might not get in.

We decided to skip the program last night (it was near 90), and walked down to the dock where we visited with a neighbor and two other teachers from the Rhein Center. The lake was such an unusual color reflected for a hazy sky--almost white. Many kids were fishing with their dads--always a fun sight. We got back to our cottage about 9 p.m. and realized the power was off. It was restored around midnight. So I suppose the program was interrupted too.

I'm enjoying the writing class--Pat is such a fun teacher. Yesterday one of the writers mentioned that she is in a book group with a newspaper journalist who told the group they are taught in journalism school to include opinion in their news reporting to make it more interesting. What a shame! I read a "news" story in today's WSJ about upcoming legislation for "universal" (i.e. compulsory and tax supported) pre-school. Although the reporter (and I use the term loosely) said there was research showing Head Start had not resulted in the hoped for outcomes (I think there is zero carry over after a year or two), everything she cited was pro-government pre-school. She particularly focused on wealthy supporters of the idea. There are so many ways to slant a story--and she (Deborah Solomon) had hit most of them. Having a mother who is married to the father, and who has finished high school, will get far better results than universal pre-school in closing the "rich-poor gap" a favorite economic term of today's journalists.

Update: The peach jam class was cancelled! Not enough people signed up. Also, the power outage was due to a fire in a transformer at Rts. 53 and 163. Most of the Marblehead peninsula lost power.