May 2, 2012 · 7:01 pm

Gluten-free – Dairy-Free Blueberry Banana Muffins

These are aweome. I gluten-freed them from the original recipe which I found on http://www.cooks.com.

BANANA-BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

2 med. extra-ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
2 eggs
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. Earth Bound Spread, melted (or margarine or butter if you prefer)
3/4 c. frozen blueberries, thawed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. Gluten-Free Flour
1 tsp xantham gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine bananas, eggs, sugar and butter until well blended. Stir in blueberries and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Carefully add flour mixture to banana-blueberry mixture. Spoon into muffin cups.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Thanks to the awesome folks at Cooks.com and you can get the standard version (that is wheat and butter) of the recipe right here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Desserts and Cakes, Recipes

Tagged as ,

April 29, 2012 · 6:24 pm

Do I Really Want a Dog? (Read Before Diving In)

I posted this some time ago when I was going through dog trauma with our neighbours who grossly neglected their dog and I found myself in the improbable situation of regularly walking their dog while mine was being expensively shepherded about by his dog walker. Mistreatment or neglect of animals can often arise as a result of not having enough information before diving in and bringing them into your family.

Here are a few things to consider before going out and getting a pooch. Do I Really Want a Dog?

Leave a comment

Filed under Dog Stuff, Random Musing

Tagged as , , ,

April 27, 2012 · 5:18 pm

It’s a Dog’s Life – My Dog Eats Better Than Me!

Canned soup for us – rice, beef, sweet potato, squash and beans for Roobie doo!

You can be a slave to your pooch too! Check out pet diets

Leave a comment

Filed under Animal Activism, Dog Stuff, Random Musing

Tagged as , , ,

April 25, 2012 · 5:37 am

The Accidental Life

I worked with a woman called Nicole Ciomek for awhile a few years ago at Arsenal Pulp Press . Over the years Nicole and I have stayed in touch through Facebook and we’ve a also  become mutual readers of each others blogs.  Nicole’s blog is quite different from mine. Condofire is a magazine of my interests and the most personal I have gotten is the “Conversations with My Mother” series I wrote because I found my mother quite funny.

From time to time I have considered writing more about certain aspects of my life,  particularly the wild flying leaps I’ve taken over the years but I’ve shied away from it for a number of reasons. Partly I don’t want to get hurt – partly my family’s privacy.

But I think it’s an interesting and worthwhile thing to do because at the end of the day the one thing social media can do is globally connect people with similar experiences. Connecting with others makes life less lonely. But it takes courage to write openly and truthfully about your life and particularly about the things that by nature, choice or accident make you different from the norm. It takes courage to reveal yourself.

Nicole has done something with her blog that I have been unable to do – she talks openly about her life, her love, her triumphs, her terrors, her hurts, the cancer that changed her life at 28 years old and the life altering fact that she can’t give birth to children and how this makes her feel.  Her life was changed for her. The accident of her life irrevocably changed her journey as much as she had it planned.

I love reading Nicole’s blog because she makes incremental decisions every day in spite of the obstacles and the strange change in plans she’s had to encounter,  to live and embrace her life with love and intelligence. Like Nicole I can’t/couldn’t/didn’t have kids. I understand how difficult it is to be standing in front of someone who has just asked you if you have kids and when you answer “no” says immediately “The best thing I ever did was have my kids”. Well, really.

How does she deal with these messy issues? Like this:

“To be in the moment. To put aside fears. To let go of control over things you cannot control. To give love without an expectation of return. To be thoughtful and kind. To laugh. To enjoy. To look to the bright side. To give out praise and support. To be open to change and what the future holds.  Well, this is really living isn’t it?”

 Alison McGhee stopped by here awhile ago and left a comment about a book I want to read. She described the book this way “What a weird, giant, sprawling, messy beautiful book.” Wow, I loved that sentence because it’s the best description of life I’ve ever seen. “What a weird, giant, sprawling, messy beautiful life.” You can plan it but those plans will change. So thanks to my online friends for the things they do. Keep your hearts and minds brave and bold.
And one last thing – Nicole’s post Infertility: Women Without Children ‘Have Nothing’? was picked up by the Huffington Post which is awesome. Give it a read:)

1 Comment

Filed under Random Musing

Tagged as , , ,

April 20, 2012 · 1:45 am

Stephen King: 11 22 63 – Book Rave

I just finished reading my first Stephen King novel and what a great experience it has been. Truthfully I’m a slave to all things beautiful and there are so many exquisite moments captured with language that I remain and will forever be a devotee of the literary novel.

For many years I have scorned (well maybe not quite scorned) but was closed to other kinds of literary experiences (and really what’s that about?  I am the person after all, who spent almost all of my teenage years and early twenties ploughing through one Harlequin romance after the other interspersed with whatever naughty book I could get my hands on.

But back to Stephen King – I was lured into reading it because part of the book took place during the late 50’s which was close enough to the 60s ( my favourite decade of all time) to make me take a leap of faith. Plus it has a nifty time travel element that allows the reader (and the writer) to explore the kind of place America would be if  America’s favourite president of all time escaped assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald  –  and was saved by the time travelling protagonist of the book.

I don’t care if there isn’t a pretty sentence in this book (and there isn’t). This is a great read – and according to my Stephen King loving colleague – the book contains all the great elements of great King storytelling – a creepy little town, a teacher hero,  two little wiser than their years dancing kids and no doubt countless other similarities.

This book reads like a mountain of candy. I couldn’t put it down. It’s scary, it’s light, there’s a love story, an awesome time travel element, and King creates a great sense of place – particularly when our hero time travels back in time to 1958 to  save President Kennedy‘s life.

12 Comments

Filed under Book Reviews

Tagged as , , , ,

April 19, 2012 · 5:25 am

Poem of the Week: The Best Moment of the Night by Tony Hoagland

(I love this poem in particular – thx for sharing Alison McGhee:)

You had a moment with the dog,
down near the base of the butcher-block table
just as the party was getting started.

Just as the guests were bringing in
their potluck salads and vegetarian lasagna,
setting them down on the buffet,

you had an unforeseeable exchange of warmth
with this scruffy, bug-eyed creature
who let you scratch his ears.

He lives down there, among the high heels
and the cowboy boots, below the human roar
rising to its boil up above. Like his, your evening

is just beginning –but you
are lonelier than him. You think
that if you disappeared tonight,

you would not be missed for years;
yet here, the licking of the hands and face;
and here, the baring of the vulnerable belly.

You are still panting, and alive, and seeking love;
yet no one who knows you
knows, somehow,

about your wet, black nose,
or that you can wag your tail.

–
For more information on Tony Hoagland, please click here:http://www.tonyhoagland.com/
–
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alison-McGhee/119862491361265?ref=ts

 
 

4 Comments

Filed under Book Reviews, Random Musing

Tagged as , , ,

April 17, 2012 · 4:02 am

Mean Green Juicing Recipe: Road to Wellness

Hi everyone,

This post has been contributed by Leslie Lancaster who left comments on  a post I wrote a while back called Anti-candida, no wheat, no gluten, no dairy no sugar, no nuttin’ diet. I wrote the post when I was having severe stomach problems brought on by candida and as yet undiscovered food intolerances.

Leslie, who has been on her own journey of wellness shared this recipe.

Mean Green

1 bunch of kale (4-6 leaves with stalks)
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber (peel first unless they’re English cukes)
2 Granny Smith apples (core removed due to pesticide concentration)
1/2 a lemon (peel removed)
ginger root

“I’m now on Day 5 of a juice fast and feel unbelievably good. Sleeping much better without apnea and waking up refreshed with a ton of energy. Am also losing a bunch of weight (almost 20 lbs. already) and my skin is beginning to glow with significant reduction in pore size. Bathroom breaks are more frequent due to drinking eight 8 oz. glasses of water (either plain or with ACV) a day on top of almond milk and six 16 oz. glasses of juice.

I can promise you won’t be hungry simply because your stomach is always full of something and vegetables take up more room than the same quantity protein or fat.

I did transition into this liquid diet for two weeks by eating a diet of primarily vegetables, cutting out caffeine, chocolate and sugar and sticking to the selected carbohydrate diet recommended for SIBO. Since I’m still very determined at this stage, I’m going to set my target for a 10 day juice fast. If all’s well upon reaching that goal, I’ll be going for 30 days. Will keep you apprised.”

Thanks for sharing Leslie and keep us posted on your progress!

I will add my two cents worth  and say that when I cut out dairy, gluten and sugar I never felt so healthy in my life. I no longer eat gluten and eat very little sugar but I love goat cheese and have allowed that to slip back into my life. (I can’t eat cow dairy). So those of you who are going to go for it – trust me the pain of the diet is well worth the effort.

4 Comments

Filed under Recipes

Tagged as , , ,

April 3, 2012 · 3:58 pm

Today’s Giggle – Victoria’s Secret Model

Leave a comment

Filed under Random Musing

Tagged as , , , ,

March 29, 2012 · 3:52 pm

Poem of the Week: Diagnosis:Birds in the Blood by Anna Journey

The hummingbird’s nervous embroidery
through beach fog by our back

patio’s potato vine
reminds me of my mother’s southern

drawl from the kitchen: She’s flying,
flying like bird! I’ve heard that

as a child I involuntarily flapped my hands
at my side during moments

of intense concentration. I’d flutter
over a drawing, a doll, a blond hamster

in a shoebox maze. There are ways
to keep from breaking

apart. My guardians. My avian
blood. I believed

birds bubbled inside me—my own
diagnosis—though the doctors called it

something else: a harmless
twitch. A body’s

crossed wires. The lost
birds of my childhood

nerves have never
returned. But when you held

my elbow as we walked the four
blocks to the boardwalk,

we saw the brief
dazzle of a black-

chinned hummingbird—the first
I’d ever seen. It sheened

and tried to sip
from my sizzled wrists’

vanilla perfume. I knew
a single one

from the magic
flock had finally found me.

–
A big thank you to Alison McGhee for her curation of these beautiful poems.
For more about Anna Journey, please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Journey
–
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Alison-McGhee/119862491361265?ref=ts

Leave a comment

Filed under Book Reviews, Random Musing

Tagged as , , ,

March 25, 2012 · 3:25 pm

Vikram Vij’s boatman’s curry (Prawn Curry)

This is delicious. As my mom used to say (in Dutch) Vij could make a shit taste good which is the ultimate compliment. This prawn dish is different than any other curry I’ve made because most of the recipes I’ve tried are Northern Indian and this is South Indian. I can’t actually describe it so you’ll have to try it for yourself.

I couldn’t find cokum so I used tamarind instead – neither did I add the 11/2 cups water because I am almost compulsive about not being able to follow a recipe. It was still fantastic. I served this with a rice (roti) – I was planning on making Eggplant Bharta with it but ran out of time. This came by way of the Globe and Mail.
Here goes:

Chef Vikram Vij is the owner of Vij’s in Vancouver.

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ready In: 1 hour
Ingredients

½ kilogram prawns
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon red chili powder
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/8 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 cup onions, sliced length-wise
4 shallots
1 teaspoon ginger, sliced long and thin
12 cloves garlic
3 green chilies, split in half, seeds removed
8 curry leaves
4 ¾-inch-round pieces cocum fruit, washed and soaked in water (or substitute 1 tablespoon tamarind paste)
1 cup water
2½ cups good-quality coconut milk
Salt to taste
Method

Wash and devein prawns and set aside. Combine the coriander, chili powder, turmeric and red chili powder.

Heat the oil in the pan over mediumhigh heat. Add mustard seeds.

Add fenugreek seeds, onion, shallots, ginger, garlic, green chilies and curry leaves and fry until the onions turn golden.

Add the powdered spice mixture to the pan and fry over low to medium heat until fragrant.

Add the cocum fruit or tamarind paste.
Add prawns and coconut milk and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes on low heat until the prawns are cooked. Add salt to taste.

We ate this roti style with slices of tomato, cucumber and onion with lime juice and salt and pepper. Delish!

The original article is right here

2 Comments

Filed under Recipes

Tagged as , , , ,