Some things I have quit eating and drinking

• Meat
  But you knew that already
• Coke of any kind, but especially Diet Coke.
  It's either corn syrup, Nutrasweet or Splenda. I'm thinking any of 'em could kill me.
• Frozen, processed food
  Still eating plain frozen vegetables when fresh aren't available
• Canned food, except tomatoes
  Have to see how many I can put up this summer
• Store-bought potato chips
  As of last night. I "borrowed" the deep fryer my sister was sending to Goodwill. I made homemade potato chips. Both the 2yo and I died and went to heaven. Not buying store-bought again. Ever.

About a year ago, I read What to Eat by Marion Nestle. What a great book -- Nestle, a nutritionist and researcher, examines the food industry from top to bottom -- Meat. Seafood. Dairy. Fresh produce. Canned. Frozen. Corn syrup. All of it. She doesn't condemn it all -- but you walk away from the book knowing so much about where your food comes from. If you're like me, you won't like it.

So, I've been trying to reduce the hands [and chemicals and machines] that have touched what my family and I eat. Please don't misunderstand -- our food industry is in so many ways just a miracle. We're producing so much food in America, so much that I'd hazard to say a substantial percentage is going to waste. The "starving children in China" that we were warned about as children are still starving in some underdeveloped country [or down the street...real hunger still exists in America, in Nashville, but that's another post], and we're throwing food away as fast as we can buy it. Or eating more than two people need in any given day.

So in the midst of such abundance, it seems wrong to me to either waste food or to treat it as a commodity. I'm trying instead to view it as a great blessing, and treat it with reverence. If the food is junk, it's not worthy of me or my family. It has to taste good and be good to meet my standards.

Not to say we're perfect in that -- we had fast food the other night. I'm still struggling to deal with the time required to make every meal nourishing and reverent. And work full time and be president of a nonprofit board and be really, really involved in two other nonprofits and did I mention, I'm a mom to two kids?

But I'm not trying to have a whinefest here. Instead, just saying, we're paying more and more attention to what we eat. And being more purposeful about it.

links for 2008-05-15

• Understanding how you process information to help you get organized | Unclutterer
  Yowza. I scored 6/8 as a visual processor...and 0 of 8 in both auditory and kinesthetic. I knew this about myself, but it is stark to see numbers put to it.
  (tags: learning style)
• Make a Summer Fun Book for the Family | By RealSimple.com
  Great idea on keeping the kids busy this summer.
  (tags: family summer recreation)

links for 2008-05-14

• Here Come the Millennials | New York Times
  Herbert cites a couple of studies that explain why the Millenial generation is so politically progressive -- economically, they're worse off than any other recent generation at the same age.
• The Neural Buddhists | New York Times
  The cognitive revolution is not going to undermine faith in God — it’s going to challenge faith in the Bible.
  (tags: religion science)

Carrot Squash Casserole

So today, I cooked and cleaned all day long. The cleaning wasn't what I wanted to do -- but I did want a clean house. So that was worthwhile. The cooking was for me, though. Excellent day.

I made:

• Parmesan biscuits
• Some random things for lunch
• Chocolate-chip cookies
• Homemade croutons
• Carrot-squash casserole

For dinner, we also enjoyed salads, some quinoa and the sesame peanut noodles I made yesterday.

The carrot-squash casserole is an adaptation of one my mother has made for years. It's really more of a souffle, though I tried to knock it back down a couple of notches toward "not deadly." I was actually safe in this, b/c the NYC sister had already cut the butter by I think 3/4, with good results. I used half the butter the original calls for, 1 fewer egg, and mixed in squash. Good reviews all around.

Carrot-Squash Casserole
2 c. cooked, mashed squash and carrots [one large squash, 5 or so carrots]
1 c. mashed saltines [I've also made it with buttery whole grain crackers [like Toasteds] before and that's delicious]
1 stick butter
1 c. milk
1/4 c. grated onion
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1/4 t. pepper
1 t. salt
2 eggs

Soften the butter but don't melt. Mix everything but the eggs. Beat the eggs until they're puffy and fold them in gently. Butter a 2-quart casserole and pour in the mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. When it's done, it won't jiggle when you shake the casserole.

10 years in one small box

I've been cleaning up a lot around here lately, trying to make room for the fiance, who's moving here when we get married in late June. So far, I've cleaned off one shelf of a bookshelf [still!], sold my CD player and speakers, and gotten rid of a lot of miscellaneous junk that I don't really want him to replace with junk of his own. So not much real progress to speak of.

But I am very proud of this one thing. I had had a bunch of letters and cards in a corner of the utility room for quite some time. They used to be in a sack, which had fallen apart a long time ago. So I thought I'd sort through those and figure out what was worth keeping. I discovered that I'd already sorted through the vast majority of the pile a long time ago, and most of it was good stuff. So I found a nice box to put it in, and now it's all set. 10 years of correspondence in one box.

But [as you're probably aware], that wasn't the interesting part. I was so intrigued -- and saddened -- by the pattern I discovered. In the early to mid-90s, my friends and family and I wrote each other all the time. I found so many letters from high school and college friends in the years after graduation. Some were 3 or more pages, typewritten. Lots of thank-you notes from friends and family. And they started to taper off in the mid-1990s. By the time my daughter was born in 1999, I was down to practically nothing.

I attribute this to two things:

• Email
• Life

Both are pretty easy to understand -- we all started using email more and more. In fact, a lot of the later correspondence in my box consists of emails I printed out. But I think the fact that we CAN correspond for free anytime we want has led many of us to correspond far less often than we should.

And in the years since my daughter was born, many of my corresponding friends have also married and had children. These days, I'm lucky to find time to load the dishwasher. [Side note: I've had an awesome Mother's Day. It included 4 loads of laundry [3 are already folded and put away, go me!], 3 loads in the dishwasher [one more to go after this one], vacuuming, and a whole passel of cooking. And, some nice time with my kids. :) ]

So I'm resolving to send more notes. They are awfully nice to receive and have to reminisce over.

P.S. I will note, I have several family members and a couple of friends who are wonderful correspondents to this day. My aunt Linda hasn't ever missed my birthday, nor those of my children. And practically everyone I'm close with sends me a wonderful Christmas card every year. But that's all I've been doing myself. Mine are not even personalized any more. Sigh.

links for 2008-05-10

• $45 million East Nashville project in the works | The Tennessean
  Great news for East Nashville...the Bank of America property -- SUCH prime real estate -- is finally going to get re-developed.
  (tags: EastNashville)
• Can You Become a Creature of New Habits? | New York Times
  Great article on learning, innovation and habits.
  (tags: learning habits)

Dear fairy godmother

I know I have been going around a lot lately talking about how stuff is unimportant. And preaching how everyone should declutter. And watch Clean House and read the Unclutterer and Zen Habits. So in keeping with that theme, I will be glad to give up 10 items of my most cherished junk, or 1 cookbook, whichever is harder, if you will please just forward these two items to me posthaste:

• A kick-ass digital SLR
• A house with lighting that doesn't suck for taking pictures

Thanks so much!!!

Hugs and kisses,

Laura

links for 2008-05-09

• The Uneven Playing Field - Girls' Sports Injuries | New York Times
  Everyone wants girls to have as many opportunities in sports as boys. But can we live with the greater rate of injuries they suffer? This is a terrifying story, with some hope at the end.
  (tags: sports injuries girls)