Monday Memories—lunch with an old friend

We met in 1958 when we lived in McKinley Hall on Wright St. at the University of Illinois. Saturday we had lunch together at Panera’s and it was like no time had passed. Marie and her husband were passing through Columbus on their way to Florida.  But there's always something new to learn, like her parents were Swedish immigrants and she can speak Swedish. She also told me our old friend Anita, an art teacher in the Chicago suburban area, had died. Praise God for long time friends.

Deanna, Marie and Anita ready for the I.F. Ball, 1959 standing in McKinley Hall.

Balls at the University of Illinois were usually sponsored by a campus wide or large organization and held in more public places like the Armory or the Athletic building; dances were for the individual fraternity, sorority or independent residence. Balls always had a nice dance band or small orchestra; dances usually a combo. But it was always live music.  Balls during that era were St. Pat’s Ball, Sno-Ball, Beaux-Arts Ball, Military Ball, Interfraternity Ball and Panhellenic Ball.

I love the cello

Psalm 16:8

Election reform in Ohio

“Two election bills passed the Ohio House and are expected to be signed into law by Governor Kasich next week.

"Golden Week," the week where voters could register and vote on the same day, will be eliminated under the new law. Early voting is now mandated to begin the day after voter registration ends so that no overlap of the two activities can occur.

New law will also make the mailing of absentee ballots requests to voters more consistent from county to county by permitting the Secretary of State to only mail unsolicited absentee ballot requests on even number years and only if Ohio's General Assembly appropriates funds for the mailing.

Previously it was up to the County Boards of Elections (BOE) to decide if they would mail absentee ballot requests to all voters in their county, which historically benefited voters from larger counties because they could afford the mailings.”

From Ohio Voter Integrity Project

Kevin Kookogey target of the IRS

Linchpins of Liberty is an American leadership-development enterprise designed to challenge the imagination of the rising generation. With an emphasis on the study of books about the human condition and about civil social order, Linchpins of Liberty aims to engage tomorrow’s leaders to think critically today about the inter-relation between individual liberty and morality, free-markets, limited government, strong national defense, and the traditional principles of our moral and constitutional order which have been passed down through Western Civilization.

Happy Birthday, George Washington

who introduced the mule to the Americas.

http://blogs.equisearch.com/horsehealth/2011/02/21/george-washington-mule-horse-breed/

John Kerry—listen up

John Kerry thinks climate change is the most serious threat to the globe.  He needs to go where it is really hot. Let him be a tree hugger on his own time, not mine.

Home made peanut butter cups

Ingredients:
16 oz semi-sweet or milk chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions:
In a small glass bowl, heat half of the chocolate in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the microwave once the chips begin to slightly melt. Use a fork to stir until smooth, using the heat of the chocolate to melt the remaining chips entirely. If needed, re-heat in 10 second intervals until smooth. DO NOT over heat the chocolate, as it will burn and seize.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Spoon a small amount (about 2 teaspoons) of chocolate into the bottom of each paper. Tap the pan on your counter top to help smooth and spread the chocolate. Place the pan in the freezer for 15 minutes to harden the chocolate. Meanwhile, prepare the peanut butter.

In a small bowl, beat together peanut butter, butter and confectioners sugar until smooth and fluffy. Remove the pan from the freezer, and spoon a small amount of peanut butter on to the chocolate layer. Again, tap on counter top to level and spread the peanut butter. Return the pan to the freezer and allow to harden for about 15 minutes.

Repeat the first step and melt the remaining chocolate in the same manner. Spoon the top chocolate layer over the peanut butter and return to freezer.

Serve very cold, and enjoy!

from Lemon-sugar.com

Poached Eggs over Spinach & Mushrooms

       

Prep and Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 large free-range chicken eggs
• 1 tsp light vinegar, (rice, white wine, or apple cider)
• 1 TBS chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
• 1 medium tomato, seeds and excess pulp removed, chopped
• 3 medium cloves garlic, chopped
• 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and excess water removed [I think I would use fresh]
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Chop onions and garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to enhance their health-promoting properties.
2. Add 1 tsp vinegar to water in a 10-inch skillet.
3. While water is coming to a high simmer, in a separate skillet heat 1 TBS broth. Healthy Sauté onion and mushrooms in broth for 3 minutes over medium heat stirring frequently.
4. Add tomato, garlic, spinach, salt and pepper and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.
5. When water comes to a high simmer poach eggs for about 5 minutes, or until whites are firm. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and place over spinach mixture.

Serves 4

How far can they count?

The Book Thief

Yesterday my neighbor and I went to see the early bird show of The Book Thief for the bargain price of $1.25.  The reviews had been lukewarm, but a friend had recommended it and Joan hadn’t seen a movie in a long time—about 10 years.

As we walked down the dark hall to the theater (something like 12  theaters) we saw a man on the floor by the door, and my first thought was he was fixing something, then we both realized he had fallen and couldn’t get up—he was quite heavy. So Joan took one arm  and I took the other, and by using the wall we got him up.  He insisted he was ok, so we went in. Before the movie started I could see him in his seat, because if I didn’t see him I was going to go back out. As we left the theater when the film was over we stopped by his seat and asked if he was OK.  He and his wife both thanked us.

It is not a happy story, but has tender moments and some humor to break the tension. Based on a best seller by the same title, it takes place between 1938 and 1945 in Nazi Germany.  Liesel, played by the beautiful and talented Sophie Nelisse, is taken from her mother, a Communist, and given to a German couple as a foster/adopted child.  Her brother died on the trip to the children’s new family and she keeps his photograph and the memory of her mother. Her new parents, Hans and Rosa,  are played very effectively by Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.  The boy next door, Rudy (Nico Liersch) becomes her friend and protector.  Liesel does not know how to read although she is an adolescent, but has one book which she and her Poppa work through until she understands the words. He begins a huge dictionary for her on the walls of the basement. Hans has an accordion with which he entertains the little family which belonged to a friend who saved his life in WWI, and that man’s son, Max, comes to the house to find safety.  He is a Jew.  Hans, Rosa and Liesel hide him in the basement and nurse him to health.  Max and Liesel become friends and he makes a book for her. . . a diary.  Meanwhile Liesel is befriended by the wife of the wealthy Buergmeister who has a huge library whose son died in WWI.

And that’s all I’ll say about this movie, except it is about love, hope, courage,  family, forgiveness, redemption, friendship, and of course, the love of books.  Many moral and spiritual values, but not in an overtly religious sense. We liked it a lot.

Good news about tea

I’ve never been particularly fond of tea, but I do get a little hankering for something hot and liquid in the afternoon, and a tea bag passed through some hot water with a little orange juice really hits the spot.  Nice to know it’s good for you. The 8 glasses of water a day thing has pretty much been debunked, and since I get most of my water in decaf coffee, tea or food, I’m pleased they’ve found some value in tea (the coffee blessings came out a few years ago).  The big push for drinking more water was from the companies that sell bottled water.

In a survey of existing research published in the European">European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the authors report that not only does tea rehydrate and quench your thirst as well as water does, it comes with additional health benefits too.

“Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water,” Dr. Carrie Ruxton, a nutritionist and the lead author of the study told the BBC. “Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it’s got two things going for it.”

http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/14/study-tea-is-healthier-than-water/#ixzz2tzHYdaXZ

http://www.foodgenetics.com/2010/06/17/drinking-tea-as-good-as-drinking-water/

http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4280

More on orange peel from World’s Healthiest Foods

I’ve written about orange peel before. And here’s some more information that appears in a long article about the health benefits of oranges for cholesterol at World’s Healthiest Foods.

Compounds in Orange Peel May Lower Cholesterol as Effectively as Statin Drugs

A class of compounds found in citrus fruit peels called polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) have the potential to lower cholesterol more effectively than some prescription drugs, and without side effects, according to a study by U.S. and Canadian researchers that was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In this study, when laboratory animals with diet-induced high cholesterol were given the same diet containing 1% PMFs (mainly tangeretin), their blood levels of total cholesterol, VLDL and LDL (bad cholesterol) were reduced by 19-27 and 32-40% respectively. Comparable reductions were also seen when the animals were given diets containing a 3% mixture of two other citrus flavonones, hesperidin and naringin.

Treatment with PMFs did not appear to have any effect on levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol, and no negative side effects were seen in the animals fed the PMF-containing diets.

Although a variety of citrus fruits contain PMFs, the most common PMFs, tangeretin and nobiletin, are found in the peels of tangerines and oranges. Juices of these fruits also contain PMFs, but in much smaller amounts. In fact, you'd have to drink about 20 glasses of juice each day to receive an amount of PMFs comparable in humans to that given to the animals. However, grating a tablespoon or so of the peel from a well-scrubbed organic tangerine or orange each day and using it to flavor tea, salads, salad dressings, yogurt, soups, or hot oatmeal, buckwheat or rice may be a practical way of achieving some cholesterol-lowering benefits. The researchers are currently exploring the mechanism of action by which PMFs lower cholesterol. Based on early results in cell and animal studies, they suspect that PMFs work like statin drugs, by inhibiting the synthesis of cholesterol and triglycerides inside the liver.

Twenty six days until Spring says John Tesh

COWS Washout

The Central Ohio Watercolor Society will be exhibiting in March at High Road Gallery, 12 East Stafford Avenue,  Worthington, Ohio, by members who have been juried into the organization. They have titled their show WASHOUT AT HIGH ROAD GALLERY. Show dates are February 26 to March 22. Meet the artists and awards reception is Sunday, March 2^nd from 2-4 PM. The gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12-4 p.m.

I know my husband has some paintings in the show, but I don’t have photos, so here’s one by Jeri Platt.

Browse some of the great paintings by members at this web site, including my husband. 

http://www.centralohiowatercolorsociety.com/member-gallery.html

Exercise is important . . . butt

Un-stuffed cabbage rolls

I love cabbage rolls, and although this has no rice (which I recall is in my recipe), I think this sounds yummy—in fact I think I’ve made it and just didn’t have a name. From Fifty Plus and Getting Fit.  I usually skip oil and to test it I’ll probably use half the amounts or we’d be eating it for a week.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds lean ground beef or turkey
  1 tablespoon oil
  1 large onion, chopped
  1 clove garlic, minced
  1 small cabbage, chopped
  2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes
  1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
  1/2 cup water
  1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  1 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, stirring, until ground beef is no longer pink and onion is tender.
Add the garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute.

Add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes, tomato sauce, pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cabbage is tender.
Yield: Serves 6 to 8

Weatherman sings about our winter (Let it Go)

 

The actual song from the movie Frozen

Beating the bushes to find the uninsured to sign up for Obamacare

“Planned Parenthood and other liberal political organizations to find the law's intended beneficiaries: "The hunt for the uninsured in Broward County got underway one recent afternoon when 41 canvassers, armed with electronic maps on Samsung tablets, set off through working-class neighborhoods to peddle the Affordable Care Act door to door. Four hours later, they had made contact with 2,623 residents and signed up exactly 25 people.
"Many of their targets, people identified on sophisticated computer lists generated in Washington as unlikely to have health insurance, had moved away. Some were not home. Many said they already had insurance through Medicare, their parents or a job. A few were hostile at the mere mention of President Obama's health care law. 'We're going to repeal that," one man said gruffly as he shut the door in the face of a canvasser..." “ James Freeman, Wall St. Journal 2-19-14

Will they blame this on the GOP opposition to the forced-to-buy-product-or-be-fined, or will they go back to blaming Bush?.

Mike Rowe—dirty jobs pay well—where are the workers?

I’ve seen Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame on Fox and Friends and on Glenn Beck talk about the importance of training our young people for jobs that are going begging.  Today he mentioned Tulsa Welding School to which he offers scholarships—it has 800 jobs it could fill, if it had the students. He has a foundation to support scholarships and has published a book, Profoundly disconnected.

He said that at the height of the recession in 2008, he was filming at locations that had “help wanted” signs.  There were not enough trained American workers to do the “dirty jobs.”

Meanwhile, Rowe is being attacked for making an ad for WalMart (he did the voice over) which talks about the value of hard work, and that Wal-Mart will be investing $250 billion in the American economy and American made products in the next decade.  On his Rowe’s FB page Sean Murray says, “I thought you were good person. But I just saw your AD that WAL-MART paid for. Your a corporate suck, Rowe.” And that’s mild compared to some I read.

So those who griped that Wal-Mart had too many foreign made products and didn’t pay their workers enough, who picketed their construction sites, are now complaining that Wal-Mart is helping the U.S. economy.  This means it was never about American jobs or American workers, but about trying to destroy a very successful business.

If you want to see hate in action from the ridiculously uninformed anti-capitalists, just read the comments submitted to these videos.  You wonder if they even watched them, or only saw it was about Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart haters have their own Facebook page.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-wal-mart.html

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703960004575427143390869962?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703960004575427143390869962.html

http://digiday.com/brands/walmart-social-media/