My parents were children of the Great Depression, so leftovers were a regular feature at our dinner table. My mother never threw everything into one pot, like a “hobo stew,” but instead served the drips and drabs on a night we called “Druthers.” It got this name from the question, “Would you druther have this or that?” She believed a little bit of food shouldn’t go to waste if there were children starving in China. We lived far away from China, but her missionary heart invited us kids to consider the plight of others and be thankful for leftovers. After all, we should be glad for the food on our table.
Medically Approved!
Of course, we were children of the prosperous 1950’s, and were brought up on Tang, the drink of astronauts, and Wonder Bread, which builds bodies eight ways with added vitamins and minerals. We wanted interesting food, not recycled food. Yes, we were spoiled. Our parents weren’t having this conversation. Instead, they insisted we remember our humble origins and eat leftovers.
The Jif peanut butter brand was created in 1958
This family drama could have played out in several ways in the next generation. We children could have decided we weren’t going to inflict such indignities upon our own children. We might have done this by “short order cooking” meals to everyone’s taste or getting takeout for every meal. Or by cooking just enough so we had no leftovers (my favorite). If people were still hungry, peanut butter and crackers were in the cabinet and fruit was in the fridge. I also would plan my meals with a soup night in mind, so I could have the leftovers appear as a part of that recipe.
Veggie Soup with Chicken
My traveling nurse neighbor recently went back home to the East coast. She cleaned out her ice box before traveling home. I made a good soup of her “leftovers” and enjoyed it very much. I hope she takes an assignment here next year. She was a delight to have as a neighbor.
Another option is to realize we Americans toss out 30% of our food each year. Repurposing our leftovers is the best way to avoid the greenhouse gasses and economic loss to our pocketbooks. Which brings me to leftover blueberry donuts and bread pudding. I’ve always known how to make rice pudding and stale bread pudding, but donuts are a new favorite recipe.
Leftover Blueberry Donut Bread Pudding
INGREDIENTS:
3 leftover donuts
1 Tbs unsalted butter
2 large eggs
170 grams 5% plain Fage Greek yogurt (3/4 Cup)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup wild blueberries (small enough to get into the nooks and crannies)
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Lightly spray a small baking pan with cooking spray. Add in the doughnut chunks.
In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, Greek yogurt, cinnamon, melted butter and vanilla. Mix well. Add the wild blueberries. Pour the egg and fruit mixture over the doughnuts. Press on top of the chunks of donuts to combine. Allow to sit for around 5 minutes so that the doughnuts absorb the liquid. (I didn’t wait and it turned out great).
Cover the baking pan with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and return to the oven for an additional 25 minutes, or until the pudding pulls away from the edges and the center tests “clean” when a toothpick is inserted.
This makes 3 servings.
Tasker, William, Artist. Help US Preserve Your Surplus…food . Pennsylvania Philadelphia, None. [Philadelphia, pa.: wpa war services project, between 1941 and 1943] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/98518439/.
My old Nannie, who saw rationing in two world wars, was fond of saying, “Waste not, want not.” As a steward of God’s creation, caring for God’s resources so everyone can be full is one way we can live out our Christian witness. Enjoying leftovers is a plus in my book.
Nutrition Information
Joy, peace, and a Happy Thanksgiving to all my Kitchen family!
I’m declaring my Independence from housework, moving fast, cooking on the hot stove, and outdoor exercise. I’m celebrating American Independence Day on July 4th, and National Ice Cream Month all month long. Usually at Cornie’s Kitchen we celebrate all the holidays, but due to the Heat Dome of Doom lingering over my neck of the woods as I write this month, I’m also declaring my independence from my normal themes.
Massive Milkshake for a Patriotic Fourth—Las Vegas style
In the days before air conditioning in the heat of a Louisiana summer, my brother rabbits and I resorted to whatever shade we could find. Under a tall pine or a neighbor’s spreading magnolia tree, we called a truce to whatever sibling squabbles in which we usually engaged. Our mother bunny had banished us from the house because we were on her last nerve and it in our best interest to survive until the cooler days of autumn and school had begun.
At least we all had the evening’s relative coolness to soothe all our frazzled nerves, as well as giant pitchers of Kool-Aid to refresh our thirsty bunny bodies. At night we’d sleep under the ceiling fans with only a sheet covering the least of our bodies possible. Maybe in the depths of our sleep, we might pull that cool cotton over our bodies and enter the depths of our dreams of cooler days, but it might have been our rabbit parents covering us up before they turned into bed themselves.
We added our own sugar. Notice the ice trays in the small freezer.
Our whole neighborhood looked forward to the Fourth of July picnic, even though the weather was always “hotter than a firecracker on the 4th of July.” My daddy always brought this saying out at this time, even though we young bunnies weren’t allowed to shoot the firecrackers, because he didn’t want us to lose our “lucky rabbit’s fingers.” We always got the sparklers, with his admonition not to touch anyone, for these bright wands can burn up to 2000 F.
My pottery kiln in the art room heated between 1800 and 2400 F, so I never turned it on until my youngest students had left for the day. We always train our small ones not to go near a hot oven, but then we put even hotter sparklers in their hands every Independence Day. This ought to be a supervised celebration. After all, one in four rabbits who end up in the emergency room on the Fourth are there due to a sparkler burn.
I always tried to write my name with brilliant light against the black of night.
My family always hosted this neighborhood celebration, since we were located in the middle of the city block. All the families brought food, but what I remember best is the churning of the ice cream maker. We had a hand cranked system. Our mother poured the cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and seasonal fruit into the inner container. The outer container held the rock salt and ice. The whole thing went into an aluminum washtub with more ice, since it was shared with several other hand cranked ice cream machines.
Our ice maker was avocado green.
We children lined up early to take our turn at cranking the handle, for once the concoction inside began to set up, only the biggest rabbits could move the handle. Every one took a turn at the crank, for making the ice cream was a communal event, just as the holiday was a community celebration. This is one of the important aspects of the American Democratic Project. Our forebears didn’t individually decide to secede from Britain and the King. Instead they joined together as a group. As Benjamin Franklin may or may not have said, “We must all hang together, or … we shall all hang separately.” Those of us with gallows humor reflect that the King might have gotten a volume discount on rope and planks for his rebellious colonists.
For those of us today, raised in a media age, used to tidy storylines wrapped up in half hour, one hour, or two hour movie spectaculars, and with attention spans clocking in at 22 minutes on average, we might have found our early war for independence excruciatingly drawn out, much like the ongoing defense of the Ukrainian people’s sovereignty. In the late 18th century, the British Stamp Act imposed a tax on legal documents, newspapers, and even playing cards. “Taxation without representation!” became a rallying cry among colonists who resented their lack of voice in Parliament.
When other goods were added to the tax duty, the colonies began an import boycott and started manufacturing locally. They would have said, “Buy American,” but there was no America yet. The final insult was the Tea Tax, since it served no purpose but to bail out the East India Tea Company, whose prosperity was integral to the British economy. The first independence skirmishes began in Boston with the massacre in 1770 and in 1773 with the Tea Party dumping the goods into the harbor.
Grant Wood: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, oil on Masonite, 1931, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.
Still, the groups weren’t at war yet. Britain sent a general and an army to enforce Coercive Acts in 1774 to bring these rowdy colonists back into line. Gone were colonial governments and in were Quartering of the British Army in citizen’s homes without reimbursement. By April of 1775, the shooting was real. General Gage took his army to Lexington to seize arms and ammunition, and hoped to capture several of the leaders of rebel colonies. Because his plans were leaked, his army took greater losses and the leaders remained free.
From October of 1775 through January 1776, the British navy bombarded two ports and burned them to the ground. George Washington denounced the burning of Falmouth, MA, and Norfolk, VA, as “exceeding in barbarity & cruelty every hostile act practiced among civilized nations.” Leaders of the rebellion seized the burnings of the two ports to make the argument that the colonists needed to band together for survival against a ruthless enemy and embrace the need for independence. This spirit ultimately would lead to their victory.
John Trumbull: Signing of the Declaration of Independence, oil on canvas, 1826, 12’ x 18’, rotunda of the Capitol.
Not until June 11, 1776, did our founders meet to declare their independence from Britain. Six years of negotiations and struggles for recognition had passed before they were sure they had irreconcilable differences. If this were Netflix, it would be an extreme binge watching event with buckets of popcorn and multiple Door Dash orders. (This rabbit can’t go that long without bathing, but that’s TMI.)
When we rabbits gather in a group to come to a consensus, we don’t always agree on everything, but somehow we find a way to get common agreement on the biggest issues and save the rest for another time. In my family, I have at least one rabbit relative that’s always “my way or the highway.” We sometimes have to let him travel solo, since he doesn’t play well in groups. We still invite him to Thanksgiving dinner, even though he’s irritating, because he’s our kinfolk, and we can stand him in small doses. He probably thinks the same about us.
When the five-person committee appointed by the Continental Congress committee was writing the Declaration of Independence, they gave the lead to Thomas Jefferson. This is why Jefferson is often called the “author” of the Declaration of Independence, but he wasn’t the only person who contributed important ideas. The committee also included besides Jefferson: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman.
When writing the first draft of the Declaration, Jefferson primarily drew upon two sources: his own draft of a preamble to the Virginia Constitution and George Mason’s draft of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights. Mason’s Virginia’s Declaration of Rights inspired: “all men are born equally free and independent” and listed man’s “natural Rights” as “Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and Safety.” Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence said: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Jefferson also listed man’s “inalienable rights” as “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
After Jefferson wrote his first draft of the Declaration, the other members of the Declaration committee and the Continental Congress made 86 changes to Jefferson’s draft, including shortening the overall length by more than a fourth. As my old rabbit preaching professor once said, “You don’t have to tell folks everything in one sermon or talk.” I imagine Jefferson merely wanted to make his case completely and with no logical gaps.
Original draft of the Declaration of Independence
Jefferson was quite unhappy about some of the edits made to his original draft of the Declaration of Independence. He had originally included language condemning the British promotion of the slave trade (even though Jefferson himself was a slave owner). This criticism of the slave trade was removed in spite of Jefferson’s objections. Sometimes we have to set pride aside for the sake of the common good. If our goal is to bring all the colonies into the independence effort, then we may have to live with what we see as imperfections in the cause. The good in this case is declaring independence from Britain, even though the slave owning southern colonies have their primary markets with the homeland. As Voltaire once said, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Only John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, and Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Congress, signed the Declaration on July 4th. Most delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, and one didn’t sign it until 1781. No one who signed the Declaration of Independence was born in the United States of America, for the USA didn’t exist until after the Declaration was signed. All but eight of the signers were born in the colonies that would later become the United States.
The two youngest signers of the Declaration of Independence were both from South Carolina. Thomas Lynch, Jr. and Edward Rutledge were both born there in 1749 and were only 26 when they signed the Declaration. Most of the other signers were in their 40s and 50s. The oldest signer of the Declaration was Benjamin Franklin, who was born in 1706 and was already 70 at the time of the Declaration. Franklin went on to help negotiate the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778 and the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783. This was a seven year war for independence. No wonder people today get cold feet when even a just war drags on “too long.”
The first public reading of the Declaration took place on July 8, 1776, in Philadelphia. In the summer of 1776, some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy’s hold on America. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war. Concerts, parades, and the sounds of gunfire from muskets and cannons could be heard during this first celebration.
My rabbit daddy had an old muzzle loading rifle, which he only fired on the Fourth of July. I think he enjoyed bringing out this bit of history for his bunny children and their friends, who would encircle him in awe, at a safe distance, of course, as he poured gunpowder into the barrel, tamped it down with the dowel, and placed the wad and shot. Then he tamped the whole again before raising the stock to his shoulder and aiming for the moon high in the night sky, he pulled the trigger. The whole thing went off in a mighty blast, with fire shooting from the muzzle, much to the delight and screams of the assembled crowd. My daddy always grinned. I think he lived for this moment.
As I think back on this scene, wars must have been very different back in the time of our forebears. Today missiles fly from afar and automatic weapons fire multiple rounds per minute. Then again, life was slower. Or perhaps life was more dear. People had time to write letters and keep journals. They considered the moments of their lives as if they had unique meaning, rather than as experiences to be ravished at an all you can eat banquet until all things began to taste alike. If all we had today were these “original weapons to solve our current disagreements,” my guess is we’d do a lot more of talking folks to death than actually killing them dead. But the originalists who interpret our history and laws today aren’t frequenting my bunny world.
King George III in Hamilton, the Broadway musical.
One thing was certain, the people in the New World wanted to determine their own fate, elect their own governments, and have a say in their own affairs. They were no longer willing to be ruled by an unelected tyrant, especially one who ascended to his position by reason of birth, and not by the will of the people. They were going to begin a new experiment, a representative democracy, or a republic. We know this because of the initial paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
Elizabeth and Samuel Powel’s house at 244 South Third Street, Philadelphia
A decade later, in a journal kept by James McHenry (1753-1816) while he was a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention, McHenry records the events of the last day of that convention, September 18, 1787: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” Then McHenry added: “The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.” Elizabeth and Samuel Powel’s house at 244 South Third Street, Philadelphia, was where the conversation between Elizabeth Powel and Benjamin Franklin might have taken place. She was a socially connected woman who entertained many of the movers and shakers of the new nation.
In honor of the Fourth of July, you might want to try Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for ice cream. The rage for ice cream came over from Europe to the New World in the early 1700’s. Several books on confectionery had been produced and included recipes for ices and ice cream. Our historical records show ice cream was on the menu in colonial America as early as 1744. Housewives would serve these treats to guests in the shape of vegetables, fruits and animals, thanks to special ice cream molds. Scholars believe the first major cookbook written by a woman, in what was until then an almost exclusively male domain, was Mrs. Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Easy (1747).
Jefferson’s handwritten recipe for Ice Cream
One of only ten recipes surviving in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, the recipe for ice cream most likely dates to his time in France. People have been making frozen desserts since before 2000 BCE. Of course, these ice and fruit concoctions weren’t like our ice creams of today, but more like sorbets.
Lantern slide, showing an ancient ice house inside a defensive wall. Iran. Photographed by Gen Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes KCIE. Around 1900. British Museum, London.
How did people actually making ice cream before freezers? The primary piece of equipment was a sorbetiere, a pewter vessel nestled into a mixture of ice and salt. The ice cream mix was then poured into the interior and agitated using the handle, or a flat spoon, known as a spaddle. This technology was surprisingly effective, freezing the mixture in a shorter amount of time than most contemporary ice cream machines. The machinery relied on a supply of ice, but was otherwise simple and portable.
Pewter Sorbetiere with Spaddle in Tub of Ice
Jefferson had traveled to France as the ambassador for our brand new nation, and there he developed a taste for ice cream. Today we’d call it “frozen custard,” since the French recipe has more eggs and a higher milk fat content than even the recipes for our current deluxe ice creams. When he returned home to the young United States, he brought several moulds for this sweet treat, which he served at the White House during his presidency from 1801-1809. Today’s recipes use different stabilizers and fewer eggs, but if you want to try Jefferson’s recipe for ice cream, it resembles my grandmother’s “boiled custard” which was the best comfort food of all time. It was served chilled, but not frozen.
Jefferson’s Ice Cream Equipment
Thomas Jefferson’s (Modernized) Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe:
Beat the yolks of 6 eggs until thick and lemon colored. Add, gradually, 1 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil 1 quart of cream and pour slowly on the egg mixture. Put in top of double boiler and when it thickens, remove and strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Temperature should be 170-180F. (Don’t overheat or it gets grainy.) When cool add 2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla. Freeze, as usual, with one part of salt to three parts of ice. Place in a mold, pack in ice and salt for several hours. For electric refrigerators, follow usual direction, but stir frequently.
However you celebrate this long holiday weekend, remember to hydrate with water, since alcohol is a dehydrating beverage. Also use plenty of sunscreen and keep your cold foods cold and hot foods hot. You don’t want to have any bunny tummy troubles that keep you out of the fun. I’ll be inside chilling with cold iced teas due to a past bad experience with heat exhaustion that has ruined me forever. The bad heat is a bad bunny for this rabbit. I plan on making Jefferson’s peach ice cream as a diversion.
5 – The art of cookery made plain and easy; : which far exceeds anything yet published. Containing … to which are added, by way of appendix, one hundred and fifty new and useful receipts, and a copious index. / By a Lady (Hannah Glasse 1708-1770)—ice cream recipe. Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031021678
On this Monday, a good strong cup of coffee (or any caffeinated beverage) helps me to remember God gave us a rainbow as a sign the earth would never be destroyed by a flood again. This rainbow is used in the Emmaus Walk Community, the Tres Dias Community, and the other Cursillo Communities around the world as evidence of God’s love for all creation. ALL really means ALL, without exception.
Monday Rainbows and Coffee
This is why people who have been pushed to the margins, vilified and unfortunately, often targeted for exclusion or death, have adopted the rainbow as their sign also. Because God is a God of abundance and not a god of scarcity, those of us who believe in an awesome God aren’t holding onto the rainbow as “ours.” After all, as Paul reminded the Philippians (2:5-8):
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
If the Son of God had thought he was too good for our human flesh, and wasn’t willing to give himself utterly and completely, even to the point of a criminal’s death on a cross, where would we be now? Each one of us would still be trying to earn our way into the good graces of a distant and unforgiving world, in which the goal line just keeps moving farther and farther away.
Three Crosses: paper, shells, plastic jewels, crochet, and other embellishments
Yet God had the wisdom and the compassion to send his own Son to bring us back into a close relationship with him, even when our families or society turn their backs to us. This is the promise of the rainbow for all people: we can only see the beautiful colors after a period of rain. Perhaps only those who suffer will know joy, for they will know the truth of God’s abundant love and this will set them free to live and love and serve.
ALL really does mean ALL.
This is the tail end of Pride Month, but for each and every one of my Kitchen Peeps, I want to tell you I love you for putting up all year long with my chatter. I also hope I share some few words of wisdom and encouragement along the way. Every one of us is unique in some special way, for we all have a back story of joys and pains that affect our lives today. Look always to the rainbow and not to the clouds!!
Dieting is an abnormal way to eat. It may lead to temporary weight loss, but for most people, the weight comes back and then some. This leads to yo-yo weight cycling, and a person’s loss of self esteem. As the years go by, they either give up and gain weight year after year, or put their body through the feast and famine cycle of fad diets. This can lead to disordered eating if the person didn’t have a disorder to begin. In years past, smoking tobacco was a “cure” as was “amphetamines.” No reasonable person today recommends these for weight loss anymore due to adverse effects.
If soap could wash away body fat, I’d stay in the shower till it turned cold.
Diet culture is so pervasive today the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reports 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets. Back in the dinosaur age, I never heard the word “diet” when I was on the swim team or going to camp. Today 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives.
Giacometti: Multiple Sculptures
I’ll admit I often skipped breakfast in high school and cut lunch periods to drive around with my friends. I chose a soda pop and Hostess Frosted Donuts for lunch. I wasn’t crash dieting, but I wasn’t eating properly either. By mid year, I paid for this disordered eating with anemia. My Dad wrote me a prescription for three square meals a day and eight hours of sleep per night. It wasn’t a punishment, but a lesson in discipline for what’s good for my body. I needed to learn this before I went off to college on my own.
The vitamin B1 doesn’t cancel out the fat and sugar. This is called “health-washing.”
While only 9% of the U.S. population will have an eating disorder in their lifetime, this still represents 28.8 million Americans. Eating disorders are among the deadliest mental illnesses, second only to opioid overdoses. 10,200 deaths each year are the direct result of an eating disorder—that’s one death every 52 minutes. The economic cost of eating disorders is $64.7 billion every year. Another sad statistic is about 26% of people with eating disorders attempt suicide annually. Athletes of both sexes and LBTQIA+ persons are likely to present with disordered eating patterns, either to be underweight or to “bulk up.”
Approximately 98% of patients with eating disorders have functional GI (gastrointestinal) disorders. In most cases, the eating disorder comes first, but for a few disease states, where people are either afraid to eat or restrict their food intake because they blame food for their symptoms, maladaptive eating can be triggered.
Botero: The Dancers
We need to change our goal from “losing weight” to “developing healthy habits.” This way we can focus on not only the foods we choose, but also the reasons why we eat, our activity patterns, and our sleep habits. How we manage stress also plays a part in our overall health, as do our friendships and social connections. Finally, our spiritual health needs to be in a positive connection with our “higher power,” and we might find a spiritual guide or certified counselor helpful to keep that positive attitude from month to month. We don’t have to be sick to see a counselor, but a counselor can help us keep our heads tied on straight.
Unless we have a confirmed allergy to a particular food, demonizing certain foods or food groups only plays into the diet culture. Many people are unaware of the advancements in the food allergy space and don’t know they may be able to take measures through a process called oral immunotherapy, or OIT, to minimize their risk for severe, life-threatening reactions. For the rest of us, eating from all the major food groups during the week allows us to get our micronutrients. Eating consistently sized portions of vegetables, grains, meats, fish, and fats in our meals allows our bodies to absorb the foods and not overwork to digest a huge meal.
Everyone’s body is different. Even though I have prediabetes, my pancreas still produces insulin, although I have “insulin resistance.” I can still have ice cream treats on occasions. I choose the best ice cream, since it has fat, carbs, and protein. I find it stays around longer than the sugar free type, which drops my blood sugar quickly. I have a friend who takes insulin injections, and he never touches the stuff. At least not when he’s with me.
It’s the portion that matters. When my mother was being treated for pancreatic cancer, I was at the hospital in my hometown all week long and back at my church on the weekends. I ate cheesecake every day during that traumatic experience. After she died, I grieved hard, but finally came around to taking care of myself. It was difficult, because I put others first.
It’s been a long journey, but I’ve lost 50 pounds slowly. If I keep to the plan I’ve made, I’ll be slimmer and healthier year by year. Making a lifestyle change is a long term commitment and investment in your overall health and wellbeing. Now if I want to eat ice cream, I have two scoops, every couple of months, knowing it isn’t going to kill me. I just have to remember not to add an entire take out pizza along with the ice cream.
Surely, we can reorder our thinking about how we eat and why we eat. If we change our attitude, we can change our behavior, and if our behavior changes, then we’ll get different consequences. As always, food for thought…
My under caffeinated brain did not at first appreciate this fine, but terrible map. When crunch time would come during my working life, I often had to admit I wasn’t Wonder Woman. Eventually too many extra duties would mean take out meals or delivery instead of a home cooked dinner. I only have so many brain cells, and the holidays or other stressful times would fry what few I have left. I don’t have “the I’m working and I have too much to do” excuse now. I just seem to get more easily stressed as I get older. Hello, Domino’s?
Biltmore Mansion Sitting Room Christmas Tree
I also have come to grips with the reality my “fantasy Christmas decor” is guided by the champagne pocketbooks of the Vanderbilt family, who undertook a six year building plan to create the nation’s largest residential project near the turn of the 19th C. The family opened the Biltmore Estate to family and guests on Christmas Eve, 1895. Named for a Dutch town from which the Vanderbilts hailed and “more,” a word for the rolling hills of North Carolina, the home itself covers over four acres of floor space, and has 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. Every living area gets a Christmas tree or holiday decor, but the work rooms were kept scrupulously clean, of course. My Christmas decor is more a beer or Diet Coke pocketbook in comparison.
Biltmore Mansion Main Kitchen and Copper Pans
During the Great Depression, the family opened the home to tourism to help the Asheville economy and in World War II, the National Gallery of Art stored America’s priceless art treasures here, away from “ground zero.” Today, the Biltmore is a National Historic Landmark and offers tours of its buildings and extensive grounds. It also has a winery, as well as deluxe (champagne) accommodations for guests. I stayed with a friend nearby and took the grand tour. With 8,000 acres of grounds, we took the auto tour!
As we get ever closer to the “NIGHT,” for those who believe in Christ and celebrate his birth, sometimes we forget simplicity, love, and worship are more important than rich gifts. After all, only the magi from the east brought gifts fit for a king. Everyone else came to be a witness.
Adoration of the Christ Child, Book of Hours, France, 16th C, manuscript illustration, The Morgan Library
If you don’t have something checked off your to do list by now, don’t stress about this being a “terrible Christmas.” Mary and Joseph weren’t with their family, or even at a Motel 6. They shared the cave and manger where the animals spent the night. None of their family came to help them birth the savior. Angels announced his birth, but only lowly shepherds heard the good news, so they came to adore the little one.
Sandro Botticelli, The Mystic Nativity (1501), London National Gallery
No one back then had credit card debt to pay off in January, which just adds more stress to our already crazy lives. The Holy Family did have to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod, who ordered all the children under two years old to be killed, for the magi had told him a new king had been born. (Egypt is the top right corner on the map above).
Odilon Redon: Rest on the Flight into Egypt, oil on canvas, 1900-1903, Musée d’Orsay, France.
Another place TO GO is your local church for Christmas Eve: most churches, including First UMC in Hot Springs at 1100 Central Avenue, will have an evening candlelight service with carols.
My Antique Santa Mug, from which I drink a small toast to Santa every Christmas Eve, since I was eight years old.
Relax with a mug of hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music on the radio, the tv, or your phone, and enjoy the life and love of the Holy Family poured into your family’s hearts and minds. Hug each other and be thankful. Even for those of us who live alone, remember, we are united into the great and unbroken love of God with all the saints beyond and all the saints still living. We are one large family, part of God’s holy and beloved family.
God bless and Merry Christmas to my Kitchen Peeps!
Just in time for the feasting season, Cornie’s Kitchen comes to remind you of portion control. Yes I know I’m a nag, but I have science behind me. How many of us will attend not one, but two or more thanksgiving meals this year? In this era of blended families, young people can have two sets of parents and at least four sets of grandparents if they’re still living. I hope they all live close together or the car gets good gas mileage. This is why we need to practice portion control.
Turkey Leg Dinner
When I was young, I ate a full thanksgiving lunch at one grandparent’s home and a full thanksgiving dinner at the other’s. No wonder as a small child I fell asleep, head down on my plate, with the giant turkey leg in my hand. Before my aunt passed on, she reminded me of this every single thanksgiving, and now my first cousin has taken up that duty. No doubt, each of you in Kitchenland have some ancient trauma about which you’ll be reminded on thanksgiving. All I can say to you is “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Also, “this too shall pass,” for thanksgiving comes but once a year. As my mother used to say, “laugh it off, you’re better than the people who try to make you small so they can feel big.”
Time for Super Stretchy Pants
Thanksgiving is usually when we wear our stretchy pants, so we won’t feel the after effects of the feast. My mom always wanted to serve dessert directly after the meal, while we were still at the table. None of us had a bit of room for that. She was met with groans. We’d clean up the table, put all the food up, and settle in for the Cowboys game on the tv. About halftime, coffee and pie would begin to sound good to everyone. After the game, we’d “glad the leftovers” to those traveling onward.
Thanksgiving Pie by a Famous Arkansan Baker
The bad news is the feast this year will cost about 20% more, due to several factors. Farmers have to pay larger fuel costs for their tractors and harvesters, just like we’re paying through the nose at the pump when we fill our vehicles. Also, many commercial fertilizers use petroleum byproducts, which also have increased in cost. The flour shortage, affecting stuffing and rolls, is a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to statistics by the US Department of Agriculture, Ukraine was the world’s seventh-largest producer of wheat in 2021/22 with 33 million tons.
American Drought Map
We also have to factor in the long running drought in the USA, which has not only diminished crop size, but also has shrunk the rivers on which the crops move. The Mississippi River is so low now it’s only about eleven feet deep in places. Its mighty width, once a full mile, has shrunk to half of that. Barges are now running lighter loads so they don’t run aground. Moreover, since 2019, the cost to ship grain down river has gone up over 2,000%. My Kitchen math doesn’t go into those stellar realms. My calculator just screams “Holy Cow!” and melts down like a popsicle in the Arabian desert.
Cooking Together in the Kitchen
Now for the good news: cranberries will cost less, due to overproduction. Also, smaller turkeys will be available, which will cause less of a hit to our pocketbooks. If you have a larger group for your feast, think about cooking a breast along with the smaller bird. Then you’ll have plenty of pan drippings for real gravy. Please don’t buy that instant packaged thing. Real pan gravy is way too easy to make, and so much better. Plus you’ll get your merit badge for Making a Roux. The word is French, from beurre roux, or “brown butter.” Read on for Pan Gravy:
First Cook the Turkey or Chickens
What you need: pan drippings, flour, chicken broth (canned or reconstituted bouillon), wooden spoon or wire whisk, white wine (optional), and 15 minutes max. If you are watching your salt intake, omit the chicken broth and use water with added herbs.
When you’ve taken your turkey out of the oven, pour the drippings left in the roasting pan after cooking the turkey. This includes fat that has melted and any bits of meat that have fallen off. from your turkey into a large bowl. Tip the pan away from your body and be careful not to burn yourself!
Now let the drippings sit for a minute, allowing the fat to naturally separate from the rest of the drippings. You’ll notice the fat will rise to the top, leaving the drippings and liquid on the bottom. Use a large spoon or ladle to skim/remove most of the fat from the top of the the drippings.
To make the gravy, use a large sauce pan and add 1 cup of drippings to the pan over medium heat.
Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour to the pan and whisk flour and drippings together until you have a smooth paste. At this point, you’ll need to use a little of your own judgement. If yours seems a little greasy, add more flour.
Making a Medium Roux
When you’ve found the right consistency, whisk the mixture slowly over the heat as it begins to brown. You’re creating a roux. You should be feeding a little giddy now!
Once you get a nice golden brown color, or a “medium roux,” slowly add 4 cups of chicken broth and 1 additional cup of drippings. Keep stirring!!
Allow the gravy to cook, whisking constantly for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until thickened.
Once you’re happy with the consistency of your gravy, taste it. If it’s too salty, add a squeeze of lemon to offset the saltiness. Another trick to take away the saltiness is to add a wedge of raw russet potato and simmer the gravy with the lid covered for about 10 minutes. Add pepper for sure. If the turkey was brined, the gravy might not need salt.
Store leftover gravy covered, in the refrigerator.
As an option, you can heat the chicken stock with 1 dried bay leaf, 1/2 sprig of rosemary, 2 sage leaves, and 2 sprigs of thyme if you want more flavors. Discard these before adding stock to gravy.
No matter what you cook for your dinner, or if you buy all or most of it precooked from the grocery store, remember the one ingredient necessary to make your meal complete: a heart full of love of God and neighbor. This love allows us to express our gratitude for the blessings in our lives and to share with others who have less.
From my Kitchen to yours, I wish you
Joy and Peace,
Cornie
In Cornie’s Kitchen, everyone gets the bigger wishbone!
It’s October first, also known as National Hair Day. When my daughter was young, Princess Leah buns were all the rage. This hair do from the Paris Couture Fashion House Spring Collections may or may not find public acclaim. If not, I invite you to try it for your Halloween look.
Puppy Ear Twists
My old daddy rabbit used to say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It’s an old saw or epigram, first recorded in 1849 by the French critic, journalist, and novelist Alphonse Karr in Les Guêpes, a monthly journal he founded: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The month of October, we rabbits know, is the season of Pumpkin Spice. Everything and Everywhere.
Pumpkin Spice Oreos: because it’s not chocolate!
Once limited to muffins and pies, this ubiquitous spice now appears in Greenies pumpkin spice flavor dog treats, Pumpkin Spice Oreos, and Pumpkin Spice Peeps, among others to numerous to name. I’m not biting on most of these, since adding sugar to a salty food isn’t in my taste palette. If it works for you, then you’re welcome to my share.
Lovely Harvest Home Décor: I admit, I have “door envy,” since I no longer live in a house. I don’t get to decorate my condo hallway since it’s a Fire Hazzard.
House decorating is in full swing, however, since we can decorate our rabbit dens in full pumpkin harvest mode, or go extreme “spooktacular” with high haunted house décor. Or you might find your humble rabbit abode decorated with streams of toilet papers, as mine once was when I taught school back in the day. I’d just returned from trick or treating with my kindergarten child, when I met two of my junior high students dressed in black garbage bags walking past my home. Their giggling, guilty faces told me I needed to walk up the block to visit with their parents. We had a nice drink and a little chat while they sent their son and his friend down to clean up my TP’ed tree and house. They were a tad old to be out trick or treating. At their age, they were mostly up to tricking. Also, high pressure water from the garden hose is the best way to remove the high remnants of the evidence. The folks who used fire risked damage to their tree and a spread to both their home and to their neighbors’ homes. Conflagration isn’t a rabbit’s best choice.
Toilet Paper Trees: A Pre Pandemic Pastime
Dressing up in costumes is always loads of fun. Parents and holiday hosts are of two minds about the “dark side” of Halloween, even though this holiday has its roots in the ghouls and goblins which haunt the world in advance of All Saints’ Day. The same rabbit parents, who only allow “positive costumes” at their Harvest Festivals, most likely spare their bunny children the traumatic stories of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I wouldn’t expose the very youngest bunnies to these often frightening stories, but older rabbits (age 6 or 7) can learn to face difficult situations and address important issues in fiction before they have to meet them in real life. We do see these same themes in Disney movies, however. Our young bunnies can learn to be resilient heroes by imagining themselves as part of these stories.
Every year when I was a young bunny we made our costumes, but now people love to buy their dress up outfits. In my closet, I always had a “pile of dress up clothing,” cast off from my mother. It was a literal pile, for I wasn’t exactly a neat child. My mother used to scare me into cleaning it up by saying, “A rat will come out of there one day!” Children are always afraid of boogeymen and monsters, things that go bump in the night, as well as creatures both real and imagined. I was in college before I could sleep with my closet door open.
We small creatures have real fears, as Peter Rabbit was right to fear Farmer Brown in the garden. When we watch Sharknado movies or Japanese horror movies about atomic energy creating Godzilla or other ginormous monsters, we can let these vicarious experiences carry our fears about real things in our world. Yet we also have “unfounded fears,” which are figments of our imagination. In this harvest season, some think no matter how much they gather, they’ll never have enough. They live with an attitude of scarcity, while others have faith in God’s providence and abundance. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8—
“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
In my spiritual formation training, I’ve been impressed by the Enneagram system. It’s named for the Greek words for Nine and Writing. According to the Enneagram, each of the nine personality types are defined by a particular core belief about how the world works. This core belief drives our deepest motivations and fears— and fundamentally shapes a person’s worldview and the perspective through which they see the world and the people around them. Our core beliefs aren’t necessarily incorrect, but they can be limiting and operate as “blinders” for people.
Enneagram Pattern
Understanding our Enneagram type and how it colors our perceptions can help us to broaden our perspective and approach situations more effectively.The Enneagram represents personality patterns as defense mechanisms, which are fundamentally driven by certain basic fears as explained in “The Wisdom of the Enneagram” (Riso & Hudson, 1999). Each of the nine Enneagram types therefore is likely to show the following inherent fear:
Type 1s: Fear being wrong or lazy—Perfectionists aim to be principled, good, controlled and intentional. Not having high standards or being unexceptional is unacceptable to these individuals. They can be expected to overextend themselves in order to achieve, and to steer away from what is wrong towards what is virtuous.
Type 2s: Fear being unloved and unwanted—Helpers feel that they need to be strong and generous towards others. They prove themselves worthy of love and acceptance by taking the responsibility to help and support others to the point of sacrificing their own needs.
Type 3s: Fear being worthless and disrespected—Achievers or Performers strive to achieve success and recognition by being ambitious, competitive, persuasive and adaptable. They feel that they will earn the admiration, trust and love of others through their reputation, image and self-image and impressive achievements.
Type 4s: Fear meaninglessness—Romantics or Individualists avoid being boring, normal, superficial, uninteresting, average or mediocre. They seek depth, meaning, intimacy and self-expression and earn love by being emotionally intense, creative, expressive, artistic or dramatic. They may also come across as temperamental or spiritually inclined.
Type 5s: Fear not knowing—Observers or Investigators aim at being in control by understanding their world. They are ruled by the head as opposed to the heart, seek learning and insight, and avoid feeling ignorant, inadequate, helpless and clueless. They earn the respect and acceptance of others by being competent and effective.
Type 6s: Fear chaos—Loyalists or Guardians deeply engage with others and their environments to ensure that all is well. They have a strong sense of responsibility and respond to their inner distrust and doubt by being vigilant, supportive of others and controlling. They are loyal and strive for security and connection with others.
Type 7s: Fear deprivation—Enthusiasts seek sensation, fun, stimulation, variety and fulfillment in order to avoid disappointment, pain, sadness and/or helplessness. Their spontaneous and versatile behavior is aimed at pursuing desires that they fear will not be fulfilled by others.
Type 8s: Fear being controlled—Challengers come across as assertive, willful, self-directed and confident. Their core fear is to be controlled, violated, betrayed and/or limited by circumstances. They avoid this by taking control in a powerful and self-sufficient way to ensure they get what they want.
Type 9s: Fear being confronted—Peacemakers are fearful of conflict, disharmony and being disconnected from others. They therefore refrain from questioning or challenging themselves or other people and instead accommodate others to maintain peace, harmony and stability.
A Tale of Two Gold Foil Covered Chocolate Rabbits
One fear all bunnydom can lay to rest for the future is the authenticity of their chocolate Easter bunnies, the ones wrapped in gold foil. Other chocolate products are also sold at Easter time—crosses, eggs, and nut or cream filled eggs. Only Lindt gold foil wrapped chocolate bunnies are copyrighted. When another manufacturer began to sell a nearly identical product, of course the rabbits brought in the lawyers and a yearlong court battle ensued.
The Rabbit Lawyers
After a years long legal battle, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland sided with Lindt and found that Lidl’s chocolate bunnies could be confused with Lindt’s chocolate bunnies, which are protected under Swiss trademark law. (This rabbit was even confused by the chocolatiers’ names, which look similar at first glance. I had to remind myself not to speed read!) In one case lasting eight years, Lindt and Austrian rival Hauswirth fought over their chocolate bunnies (and whether chocolate bunnies could even be trademarked). The court ruled in favor of Lindt and ordered the latter to stop making its product. But it wasn’t until 2021 that Germany’s federal court ruled that the gold-colored wrapping for Lindt’s chocolate bunny had trademark protection. Lindt also won this latest case, so any remaining Lidl chocolate bunnies will be melted down and find new life as eggs or other shapes.
So Much Candy
Some of us bunny types will eat ourselves sick, unless we portion out our Halloween Haul of treats. My parents introduced us to “restrictive eating” when we were young bunnies. Of course, they couldn’t account for what we ate while we raced eagerly from house to house in the gathering darkness, but once we got home, they gathered up the goodies. I always ate my ration of the chocolate and nut items from my collection, and was glad to share the pure sugar candies with my brothers. I was a chocoholic from an early age, and unrepentant at my current hoary age.
St. Francis believed All Creatures were Our Brothers and Sisters On October 4, all bunnies and other living creatures celebrate St. Francis, who recognized the hand of God in all of creation. This day also marks Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins with a feast before sunset, continues faith fasting for 24 hours, before resuming with another meal. National Grouch day is the 15th, so we can get the grumps out of our system before the holidays come around.
The 17th is National Pasta Day and World Trauma Day. My recommendation would be for the cook in your kitchen to make a hearty whole grain pasta dish and savor each morsel in prayer for the hungry and displaced by war and famine in Africa, the Ukraine, and also for those fleeing Russia. These groups are the worst in need right now. You can add lean meat, mushrooms, fresh spinach, or precooked beans to your dish for extra flavor and nutrition. If you have extra, a gift to your community food bank will help the hungry through the winter.
Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, begins on October 24th and lasts for five days. Each day is dedicated to a different god or goddess, and the whole holiday is full of generosity and love. Believers celebrate the victory of light over darkness and life over death. Closing out October are National Pumpkin Day (26th) and Halloween on the 31st. Pumpkins grow on most continents, with the United States producing over 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins every year. The Chinese actually lead in pumpkin production and have a proverb to match: “One cannot manage too many affairs; like pumpkins in water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.”
If life gets too chaotic as we approach the season of successive holiday celebrations, this old bunny suggests breathing deeply and simplifying your list of things to do. Not everything is a life or death situation, or a hair on fire moment. Sometimes we bunnies are just having a bed-head day, so we don’t need every fire truck in the county to show up at our front door. Some things we assign a 10 on the scale of 1 to 10 are actually 3’s. Not everything is a 10 all the time. Of course, when I was very young, I hadn’t yet learned I could survive these “#10 crisis events,” so when I was older, I had some history of surviving them. As we know from 1 Corinthians 10:13—
“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and God will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing God will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
Fire Engine To the Rescue!
May the ghouls and goblins do you no harm and you find no candy corn in your Halloween bucket.
It’s Saturday. In only two weeks, it’ll be Christmas Day. Every young parent is stressed to the max. I remember those happy days, even though they were marked by my poverty of single parenthood. But, there was always the magic of Layaway, so I could buy a few items without credit charges.
The year my daughter wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Christmas was tough to pull off. The grandparents covered the pink strawberry shortcake bicycle, I got the matching dollhouse, and I painted a bedsheet with strawberries to make a canopy for her twin bed. She was most amazed by the canopy, as I recall, for it changed her ordinary room into a “princess room.”
Santa Mug
Today, I’m in total relaxation mood. As I drink coffee from an old Santa mug, I’m thinking about cooking some cheese straws or cookies, or maybe I’ll clean house to ready it for Santa. Always clean if expecting guests, even if only for a brief time, and even if they only exist in the imagination of our inner child. Then again, I might just let the elves do some of the busyness of this holiday season. Mr. Oven is worthless as a housekeeper, but an excellent cook. We all have our gifts.
My hand painted ceramic Santa mug from the 1950’s
Take time in these next two weeks for yourself and your family. I include as family all those near and far, both the family who brought you into the world and the people you chose as the family to keep you sane in our crazy, sometimes heartbreaking world. Have coffee with them, or tea if that’s your drink. Sit and savor it in the present moment.
It’s a gift you can give one another, to be with each other, even if we zoom or FaceTime. We can catch our breath. If you stay still, you may have a moment to reflect on your true purpose. Christmas and the other seasonal religious holidays at year’s end remind us the best gifts come from God: life, light, and joy. If we can share these with all people, those gifts caught up on some container ship in a supply chain boondoggle won’t seem very important after all.
Global economy and the world wide pandemic are two causes of the supply chain problem
Our true gift and our best gift every day is love, which is never measured in material things, but in the presence, the peace, and the blessings of giving. After all, it’s not the size of the gift, but the generosity of the heart that matters. As 2 Corinthians 8:12 reminds us:
“For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.”
Taking time for coffee, as I wish you Joy and Peace,
This rabbit has returned home from a three week sojourn to the far country of North Carolina, where I visited with old friends and family. I attended my nephew’s wedding celebration at his home and met his Mexican in-laws. I ate too much, but that’s a sign of a very good feast. I consider it practice for the Thanksgiving feast yet to come.
In November, we rabbits need to hone our cooking skills or learn to delegate the meal provisions to the local grocers, caterers, or call the family to say, “Let’s either potluck or go out to eat.” I remember the days of two large meals at both grandparents’ homes on the same day. I was as overstuffed as the turkey, for neither of my parents could say no to their parents. I think that might have accounted for the persistent tale my cousin brings up every year, as she tells of the time I fell asleep face down into my dinner plate, while holding the turkey leg in my little hand.
My grandparents had a hired lady to help them with the extra cooking and cleaning over the holidays. I can’t imagine one person rolling out all the food for ten people. My mother began cooking several days in advance for Thanksgiving once the great feast passed into her hands. I know I sometimes had trouble just getting food out for three all at the same time when my child was young!
Yet November isn’t just about turkeys and dressing, or green bean casseroles and pecan pies. We have more food related holidays than Thanksgiving. On November 1, we recognize All Saints’ Day with prayers for the saints and martyrs of the church, and for all who’ve died in Christ. Some eat oval almond flour cookies resembling bones in memory of the dead. The same goes for the Catholic All Souls’ Day on November 2.
Sugar skulls are sold in many forms across Mexico. This colorful group has sequins for eyes in Mercado Benito Juarez.
In Mexico, November 1 & 2 are the Day of the Dead celebration, marked by graveside visitation, sugar skulls, decorated cookies, and flowers. Families also construct altars to honor their deceased family members.
Sugar Skull Cookies
Also in November we rabbits in some places can make our voice heard in Statewide Elections on the first Tuesday, and either celebrate or drown our sorrows with a bit of the good stuff. Thank a Vet on November 11, Veteran’s Day and on November 13, engage in an act to bring about World Kindness Day. On November 15, be a part of America Recycles Day, by sorting out your plastic soft drink and water bottles for reclamation.
November 5th has two unusual days. We celebrate Bank Transfer Day as a reminder the “too big to fail banks” don’t care about your small account, so they charge you big fees for the privilege of holding your money. It’s time to transfer those funds to a local bank or credit union. Also on this day, the British celebrate Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night, to remember the failure of a revolt against the king. Just as we don’t celebrate the Civil War, we don’t celebrate any similar event such as the insurrection on January 6, 2021 at our nation’s Capitol, when an armed mob attempted to disrupt the counting of the electoral college ballots.
Rutgers vs. Princeton (New Jersey)
November 6: American Football Day—The first football game in 1869 between Rutgers and New Jersey (Princeton) had rules far different from today’s game. The teams were made up of 25 players and the goal of the game was to kick the ball into the opponent’s goal. Aside from kicking, players were allowed to bat the ball with their hands, feet, heads and sides. Carrying or throwing the ball was not permitted. It was most likely a wild melee on the field.
Canned Cranberry Jell: Ridges for Slicing
Now to the important food holidays in November. This is a harvest time, a celebration of the plenty, and we rabbits can feast on the abundance of food holidays, if we aren’t too overstuffed from a surfeit of Halloween candies. These are all self explanatory, but I question the wisdom of Eat a Cranberry Day. Who can eat only one? These are best eaten in jellies, sauces, and jams. They are a communal food, much like the Thanksgiving table with which they’re associated.
Look at this list of food holidays in November alone! Plus we have November 25 dedicated to the feast of all feasts, Thanksgiving. As a reminder, the average person consumes approximately 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving day, between the meal, appetizers, drinks, and deserts. If you fall asleep in the middle of a televised sporting event, don’t blame the turkey.
November 1: World Vegan Day November 3: National Sandwich Day November 4: National Candy Day November 6: National Nachos Day November 6: International Stout Day November 8: National Cappuccino Day November 12: Happy Hour Day November 12: National Pizza with Everything (Except Anchovies) Day November 12: Chicken Soup for the Soul Day November 14: National Pickle Day November 16: National Fast Food Day November 17: Homemade Bread Day November 23: National Espresso Day November 23: Eat a Cranberry Day November 25: Thanksgiving Day November 26: National Cake Day November 28: National French Toast Day
National Brush Day—Two Minutes, Twice Daily
With all the food celebrations in this penultimate month, we rabbits can take note the month begins with National Brush Day. Rabbits have 28 teeth, but only the big four front incisors get all the attention. While rabbits rarely get diabetes due to their vegetable diet, World Diabetes Day is celebrated on November 14 for the rest of the world, since it’s relatively common in humans, dogs and cats. Type 2 diabetes, which is brought on by poor diet and lack of exercise, as well as family history, now affects 1 in 10 Americans. Maybe it’s time to ask your bunny friends to come over to Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day on November 15. This way you can make room for those extra goodies you’ll make for Thanksgiving, as well as remove old, spoiled foods, or foods with low nutritional value.
Daylight Savings Time— Fall Back One Hour, Consume Copious Cups of Caffeine
As a reminder, November 7 is when Daylight Savings Time Ends. As a reminder, it’s “Fall back one hour,” and you’ll get multiple messages about this from all your rabbit friends, but your trusty cell phone will fix the time for you. Just set your alarm on your phone for the time you want to wake up. The phone knows when daylight time moves back to standard time. It’s the analogue clocks at home we need to concern ourselves with, and that gives rise to our feeling of jet lag on November 8 or National Dunce Day. This holiday is named for the philosopher John Dunns Scottish, who invented the dunce cap.
This rabbit’s body often takes a few days to resynchronize with the new time, so on the 9th, Chaos Never Dies Day seems appropriate. This holiday just prepares us rabbits for the pellmell pace of the holidays ahead. If we expect it, we can approach these coming days with calm hearts and find quiet places to catch our breath in the midst of the rush.
The deepest wounds are often invisible.
Forget-Me-Not Day was established in 1921 on November 10, to remember the disabled veterans returning from World War I. In 2019 about 1.66 million veterans had a service-connected disability rating of 70 percent or higher, while nearly 13 million had no disability rating at all. This is a disability rate of about 13% of the people who served our nation. The most common disabilities are tinnitus, hearing loss, and PTSD, either from battle or sexual assault while in service.
I Love to Write Day on November 15 would be an important day for all of us to pick up a new habit: journaling. As a young rabbit, I kept a diary of my hopes and dreams, as well as my thoughts of the day. Yes, they were mostly limited to the boys I had a crush on at the moment, and I sometimes wrote out my name with their last name afixed, as if by magic I could will them into reciprocating fondness for me. I learned early on my words had no such magic power, but words can help heal our inner pains by expurging the puss from our wounds. Some rabbits are too timid to face their trauma once again, but remember words on a paper can’t hurt us. They are for our healing. We see them, we survive them, and we surmount them. We have power over our words, rather than the other way around.
On November 17, we can celebrate National Unfriend Day by telling toxic people to celebrate National Take a Hike Day. Yep, some rabbits we don’t need in our lives. Then we can go out into nature on the morrow and enjoy ourselves. Turns out we don’t have to be a doormat to bad actors, even if it’s in our rabbit nature to be nice and cuddly to everyone.
Have a Bad Day Day, November 19, is made for everyone in customer service. With the ongoing pandemic, chronic worker shortage, supply chain snafus, and lack of child care, nearly every business is feeling the strain of meeting customer expectations. The vaccinated rabbits want to shop safely, while the unvaccinated want access as a “right.” No one is happy right now. Makes a wage slave want to grit their teeth and say ever so sweetly, “Have a bad day.”
November 19: World Toilet Day
Over half of the global population or 4.2 billion people lack safe sanitation. 40% – or three billion people – of the global population live without basic handwashing facilities with soap and water available at home. Climate change is accelerating. Flood, drought, and rising sea levels are threatening sanitation systems – from toilets to septic tanks to treatment plants. Floodwater can contaminate wells used for drinking water or flooding might damage toilets and spread human waste into communities and food crops, causing deadly and chronic diseases.
By 2050, up to 5.7 billion people worldwide could be living in areas where water is scarce for at least one month a year, creating unprecedented competition for water. Even in the US, almost half a million households lack basic indoor plumbing, with renters and people of color in some of the country’s wealthiest and fastest growing cities most likely to be living without running water or flushing toilets, new research reveals.
On November 25, while you’re sleeping off the pumpkin pie, you can dream of your Holiday Gift List on Shopping Reminder Day. Most of the large stores now plan to be closed all day, except for the smaller drugstores. They’ll all open Black Friday, November 26, bright and early for all you bunnies, who like to get out there bright eyed and bushy tailed. I won’t join you. I’ll shop on line, or wait till mid December.
Red Planet Day commemorates the launch of the Spacecraft Mariner 4 on November 28,1964. The 228 day mission of Mariner 4 brought the spacecraft within 6,118 miles of Mars on July 14, 1965. Elon Musk, who launched his red Tesla roadster on the Falcon Heavy rocket test flight in 2018, once said, “I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact.” The Tesla and its dummy passenger Starman have since traveled far enough in space to drive the equivalent of all the world’s roads 82.7 times.
How far will you go in the month of November? Some of us rabbits will go over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s and grandfather’s houses, and some of those old ones will make the trek in from the countryside to be with us urban dwelling bunnies. However you celebrate the great feast, with your family of origin or your family of choice, say a prayer for those who’re hungry or lonely. Remember them in this coming season, and may God bless your generosity with an abundance in return.
Proverbs 22:9 Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.
Until I drag the tree out from storage, I wish all my bunny friends
One can only imagine what “physical culture applied to facial muscles” might be. When I had braces, I also had four teeth removed, since I had the right number of teeth but too small of a mouth. This left me with “floppy lips,” so I had to drink all my liquids through a straw. I suppose it worked, for I’m usually smiling in all my photos, unlike this poor, distressed person.
Distressed Person Advertisement
What will give you a glowing face? The Physical Culture Movement, which persists in Pilates exercises today, incorporated what we call “clean living/eating” and hygiene. This was a big part of the Physical Culture Movement, which began in the 1870’s as a response to the presence of tuberculosis hygiene and was taught in German schools. These classes covered topics such as the importance of breathing fresh air, good sleep habits, nutrition and bathing.
Some people believe the skin should be left totally bare so it can “breathe,” but this is a misguided notion. The top layer of the skin is dead, so it doesn’t ‘breathe.’ When people talk about skin ‘breathing,’ they’re usually referring to whether the skin is occluded or not. Occluding,or blocking up the skin, can cause pimples, whiteheads, or blackheads. It can also cause skin to look dull—especially if a heavy amount of makeup is applied and not removed. The lower, living layers of skin get their oxygen and nutrients from the blood supply, or from what you put in your body.
This is why what you eat and drink is at least as important as what you’re putting on your face. This is also a good reason to clean your face before bed and in the morning once again. Also, wearing a moisturizing sunscreen daily is important for good health and quality skin tone. That’s why a Kitchen blog doesn’t just concentrate on recipes, but speaks to the health consequences of the foods we eat and the whole body experiences of our food environment.
Summary of Physical Culture
The summary points of Physical Culture show this practice has influenced current wellness and self-care thinking:
1. Pure air and sunlight whenever obtainable; through ventilation of living rooms.
2. Wholesome diet of ‘Vital foods, well masticated, eaten only at the dictates of a normal appetite,’ plus frequent fasting of a day or two if need.
3. Reasonably regular use of the muscular system throughout the entire body in work, in the gymnasium, on the athletic field or otherwise.
4. Thorough cleanliness, which requires frequent baths – cold baths for a tonic, hot baths for cleanliness – thorough dry friction with the open hands, brush or towel is also valuable.
5. Right mental attitude; thinking is a powerful factor in maintaining vital health and can be constructive or destructive. The mind can build you up or tear you down.
Critique of Self Care and Wellness Movement
We need to ask if these goals are attainable only by a select few who have the time and leisure to make them a priority, or the social location to organize their lives make them happen. Modern wellness and self care regimens often require expensive and rarified ingredients, such as the extravagantly priced $1,618.26 LUNAR 28 Anti-aging and lightening treatment by 111 Skin. Someone must be buying this, since it’s sold out on their website. Looking on Amazon only gets hits for acne products and composting toilets, neither of which promise “to repair and protect the skin in future lunar phases.”
My guess is the Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers that earn a median pay of $22,140 aren’t buying this product either. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they are lowest-paid people in the employment supply chain and this is the main reason why fast food and restaurant workers are always at the center of higher living wage debates. With an hourly rate of about $10 (and even less in some states), this category of workers are the lowest paid in the country.
Lunar 28 Skin Care System
This intensive skin care routine is spread out over a period of 28 days, during which the skin should return to brilliance. First, the enzyme serum corrects the texture of the outer dermis. Week two begins the lightening serum, to brighten and enrich the skin by fighting stains and minimizing pores. During week three, the face welcomes a daily dose of intensive lightening serum. The last phase is marked by the repairing and protective serums, which “places a seal over the treatment applied during the prior weeks, protecting the epidermis from future skin issues during the coming lunar phases.”
If you read carefully, that last sentence is a dead giveaway as to the spurious claim of this product. Just as in the first newspaper advertisement, which is an appeal to “secret esoteric knowledge known only to a few, but can be shared for a request (and a small cash contribution),” this description mixes scientific jargon and our modern desire for ease to blow smoke in our eyes. My Mother always said, “Smoke follows beauty,” but Daddy would follow with “And a con man blows smoke with his many words to befuddle your thinking.” Or as the one hit wonder song went, “She blinded me with science.”
Warning: Science Ahead!
Blinded with Science
In the first place, humans shed their epidermis (entire outer layer of skin) every 2-4 weeks at the rate of 0.001 – 0.003 ounces of skin flakes every hour. Those flakes contain skin oils, including cholesterol and “squalene,” and are a major constituent of the dust that accumulates on tables and other surfaces in our homes and offices. And you thought an ill wind blew all that dust in from the cotton fields from out beyond your latest parsonage or suburban home. If you also spent $1600 to “seal your epidermis from future harm,” a fool and his money were soon parted.
Gendered Difference in the Outer Microbiome
In a scientific study of the microbiome dynamics of the human epidermis following skin barrier disruption, there were pronounced differences between males and females. Several physiological and anatomical gender differences that influence skin properties, such as hormone production, sweat rate, sebum production, surface pH, skin thickness and hair growth could account for the microbial differences observed between genders. This is the fancy pants way of saying women’s and men’s bodies have different microbiomes, both in size, quality, and quantity.
Hand washing
Women showed a significantly greater bacterial diversity than men, even when controlling for hand hygiene (women tend to wash hands more often), and these differences between genders become more apparent with time following hand washing. Given the observation that men generally have a more acidic skin surface than women, it’s thought that differences in skin pH may be influential, since microbial diversity is often lower in more acidic environments.
The Unmade Face, with Sunscreen Only
Makeup is another gendered topic, for most people today. Men had higher bacterial diversity from forehead samples compared to women, but when samples from women using make-up were excluded, these gender differences fell away. The conclusion is the use of make-up strongly interferes with the microbiota composition of the forehead epidermis. This is a good reason for cleansing daily, but not for spending exorbitant amounts of money. We may also want to investigate the health benefits of less makeup over the cultural expectation of full face makeup expected for professional women.
In the meantime, keeping good facial hygiene and other simple practices can give us both renewal, refreshment, and help us lead a healthy lifestyle.
Breakfast and a FaceScrub Both
Skin Brightening and Acne Fighter Scrub
Prevent (and treat) pimples with this fruity acne-fighting, yet soothing, face scrub. If you’re bothered by persistent breakouts, or dull, oily skin, this scrub will help brighten, clear and reduce surface bacteria. Mix all ingredients and lightly buff the blend onto on skin. Leave on for 15 minutes, then rinse with warm water. Use twice a week, with a few days rest in between.
Recipe: 1/2 cup plain yogurt
½ cup mashed strawberries
½ cup almond meal (flour)
A splash of raw apple cider vinegar
Brightening Oatmeal Face Scrub
Radiance, revealed! This rich, creamy face scrub is perfect for dull, tired skin, as it softens, calms redness and gives skin a much-needed boost. Combine all ingredients and mix until you achieve a thick, yet grainy texture. Using your fingertips, buff gently onto your face, then rinse. Twice a week should be enough, for you don’t want to look younger than your grandchildren.
Recipe: 1/4 cup honey
1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
Food
To improve your skin naturally, start with your food plate. Our bodies need a wide array of nutrients to be able to function at their best. If your diet is lacking major food groups, your body won’t have the energy and reserves it needs to continue to make collagen, bone, or skin, not to mention have the energy to lead a very busy rabbit life.
A poor diet can lead to premature skin aging and sagging, not to mention disease and lack of energy to ward off the bad bacteria that come our way. Eat a wide range of foods, prepared simply, and with the least amount of processing possible. Learn to cook ahead and reheat. Life comes at you fast sometimes, so it’s good to be able to pull a quick meal out of the fridge.
Exercise
Investing in a regular time to exercise, even if you’re walking around the block, is good for the body, mind, and spirit. People who exercise have less stress or they can handle the stress that does come their way more easily. Exercise lowers the heart rate, the blood pressure, keeps the blood sugar steady, and helps us lose weight if we don’t stop by the local doughnut shop every time as a reward for good behavior.
Hydration
Sometimes our skin looks dull and dry because we’re parched like a desert. If we’re fully hydrated, we’ll glow. Maybe you don’t want to be looking for a restroom too often, or you think you’ll look fat in your clothes, so you don’t drink enough water to stay fully hydrated. Then you get constipated and feel worse. Now your face needs “physical culture applied to the facial muscles.” I know you, I went to school with you. I was you. We’re grownup now and we can take responsibility for our needs without shame. Drink another glass of water, or make it decaf tea. I just discovered the delights of decaffeinated watermelon strawberry tea.
Sunscreen Year Round
The wind and sun can age our protective outer skin, especially in the summertime, but also all year long. Wearing sunscreen with a moisturizer is a beneficial act for recovering our skin health. If we’re out on the lake or by the pool this summer, we need a high number sunscreen applied after every dip in the water. The vacation I spent in the cabin on the beach while everyone else had fun in the ocean should be a lesson for you smarter folks that sunscreen is a necessity and not an option.
As I write the close of this note to my Kitchen peeps, I have on my heart the twin coasts of our nation—from sea to shining sea—as the old song goes. The Northwest and California are under extreme heat advisories with the possibility of wildfires. An eleven story condominium in Miami built in 1981 has collapsed with many people unaccounted for. Rubble now sits where once people shared food, companionship, and the activities of daily life. In a moment’s time, the tower came tumbling down.
Sunset View, Historic High Rise built by Kemin Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inns
Perhaps I feel close to this disaster, since I also live in an historic ten story condominium built in 1963. The only difference is I don’t live anywhere near the destructive forces of the ocean’s salty air and rising seas, which can affect the aging concrete, iron rebar, and steel beams of high rise buildings.
The adherents of Physical Culture back in the early 20th century were just beginning to tease out a noble idea, one borrowed from the ancient Greeks. Pilates wrote, “These people were nature lovers. They preferred to commune with the very elements of nature itself—the woods, the streams, the rivers, the winds and the sea. All these were natural music, poems and dramas to these Greeks who were so fond of outdoor life.”
These trees were cut down to level a lot for development
I am blessed to live in a National Park, in a place set aside and reserved to be at the intersection of both nature and civilization. Here in Hot Springs, we’ve learned to live in harmony with our human history as well as our natural beauty. We sometimes have to go to bat for one or the other, to keep the balance, but we seem to work it out. This requires us to remember to speak for the voiceless and the unseen, and for us to see visions of a future with everyone at the table.
Many Hands at the Table
My hope is one day we can all be moved by the tragedies of others, lay down our swords, and everyone will pick up our shovels and buckets to bring home both the survivors and the dead to their families. We can have both a celebration and a wake at the same time, for everyone will be crying and laughing together.
Votive relief of the funerary banquet type from Eleusis (4th cent. B.C.) at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens
“I’m glad for you,” the bereaved will say, and “I’m sad for you,” the glad will say.
“It doesn’t matter, we have each other now.”
Stay healthy, my friends.
Never miss an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
Cornie's Kitchen 