Go buy some tea for Taiwan

The Tillerman Tea Company, one of the storefronts in Napa’s cute l’il Oxbow Public Market, just sent off a press release saying it would donate 10% of all its sales, both in-store and online, through Sept. 30 to support relief efforts in Taiwan. In case you weren’t following the news (and I was, because a good friend of mine was there), Typhoon Morakot dumped about 100 inches of rain within 24 hours on Taiwan. 100 inches is about one year’s worth of rain. The death toll is at more than 500 people, many hundreds more are still missing, entire villages have been virtually wiped out due to mudslides, and allegedly Taiwan is still refusing aid offered by Japan and the U.S.A. and possibly other countries–but that’s a whole ‘nother story and I digress.

So, back to the press release, and I quote: “Damage to tea-growing areas was substantial. Among the hardest hit was Alishan township in Chiayi County, one of Taiwan’s best tea-growing areas and the source of several of Tillerman’s teas. ‘We are very happy to report that all of our friends are safe,’ said David Campbell, proprietor for the Napa-based tea shop. ‘But the destruction is significant and saddening. There will be no more tea from Alishan for the rest of this year, if not longer. We cannot even begin to imagine how this will affect the livelihood of these tea growers.’”

So if you’re a tea-drinker, this is a good way to help send support. Face it, your cupboards were growing empty and you can never have too much tea anyway.

Adventures in babyfood

Avi, now six months, has been eating fruits and veggies for about two weeks and let me tell you it has definitely been an adventure. A wonderful adventure! As I have stated I love to save money so I figured why not make his baby food. I am telling you, if you have about an hour to spare every few weeks, making homemade baby food is a breeze.

I started with steamed carrots. I blended them up in the Magic Bullet, which works out perfect. I have had the Bullet for years and never really used it until now. There are other machines you can buy that are specific for baby food such as the Beabe Babycook that runs for about $140. Yes, this machine steams and blends the food all in one, but why buy a one-trick-pony when all you have to do is use a pot and a blender?

I knew that if I was going to keep up with making Avi’s baby food I needed something to freeze the food in. First I bought the Baby Food Storage Cubes by Baby Cubes at Babies R Us for $9.99. These are great. There are two sizes, one ounce and two ounces, and they come with a storage tray for the freezer. While I really liked these for storing food I didn’t so much for the freezing. The negative about the cubes is that the food is stuck in them once frozen, which doesn’t work out so great if you want to make more food than will fit in the 8 containers.

Instead of buying another set of 8 cubes I bought the Perfect Cube ice trays at Sur La Table for $12 for a set of two. These are food grade silicone, each tray has 15  cubes that are 1 1/4 ounce each.

These are the best thing! The silicone makes it easy to get the food out  once it is frozen and the size is perfect for mixing flavors. Once frozen, I store each flavor in plastic freezer bags in the freezer.

Corn, edamame, green beans and strawberries

Now frozen and ready to go in bags

All I do now is pull out what I need; it only takes about 20 seconds in the microwave to unthaw.  The best part of these trays is when Avi is done with pureed foods I can still use them for ice or other things. I love tools that can multi-task.

So far Avi has experienced carrots, roasted yams, peas, avocado, banana, strawberry and nectarine. Oddly the banana is the only food he is not too fond of. I am eager to give him the corn, edamame and green beans I made last night. I have to add, I do not add anything to his food. No salt. No butter. Just the fruit or veggie.

Avi's first peas

Purple Mountain’s Majesty

I’ve found it! After years of wonder I have found the purple mountain, and it’s in Clear Lake, California. (I’d say it was somewhere else but I can’t even figure out what “purple mountain majesties” is supposed to mean!)

Here, take a look:

There it is! Dead center in the hazy distance...

I was staying at a friend’s lake house in Clear Lake last May. It was a beautiful place not even a mile northeast of Konocti Harbor Resort. We were all hanging out on the deck when we looked directly across the lake and saw this odd purple mountain … within a mountain … thing. We couldn’t figure it out and even went so far as looking through a telescope to get a better idea. I would have driven there but the lake was so big it probably would have taken a day out of the trip to get around and back, so we just stared at it sporadically throughout the weekend with glorious wonder. Eventually I spoke to a local about it and he said the earth over there is just “like that.” Great. That really says a lot for me. But at least someone else was aware of it and we weren’t simply hallucinating before the majestic Clear Lake. Regardless of the story behind this colorful anomaly, it was quite a beautiful site to monitor throughout the day, especially with the peacefulness of Clear Lake all around us.

Google Maps' aerial view of what I believe to be the purple mountain/pile of majestic dirt that we'd been staring at. Feel free to comment with a plausible explanation...

Solano County Fair, yay!

We all know the typical happenings at the fair, whether it be the rides, games, food or barnyard animals—we know what to expect, and that’s fine! I had a blast. I was actually at the fair every single day—EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!—performing improv with the Rats in the Alley. The Solano County Arts Council & Creative Arts Consortium collected all sorts of artists from around the county to perform in the “Fine Arts & Flowers” building by the children’s area. For the shows our slogan was: “Come for the flowers, stay for the improv.”

Meandering about I noticed something rather exciting: A robot! A real-life artificial being! (real + artificial / same sentence = oxymoron?) The bot would roll around greeting people as they approached. Kids would ask it questions and it talked back with relevant answers! I knew something had to be up:

Turns out the man in the back, trying to get out of the picture frame, was controlling the robot from his waistpack and the straw in his beverage cup was concealing a microphone! Brilliant!

After speaking with Dale (the mysterious controller man, also a representative from Atlas Robotics in Santa Rosa) I learned that his robot was actually quite friendly—it even asked me for a hug!

I think I made the robot blush. Can't you tell???

Meandering elsewhere I came across a tank; the last thing I expected to see written on it was Solano County Anything, and yet, there it was:

DON'T MESS WITH SOLANO COUNTY! OR the sheriff. WOW, can you imagine? That's quite a threat being able to tell someone, "If you break the law I'll either arrest you, or shoot you and investigate your body myself." That's ... quite a threat, indeed: Stanton rules!

Then my friend and fellow Rats in the Alley trouper Stewart Evan Smith walked up to the tank and said: “You don’t look so tough!” The tank had news for Stew:

(Don't worry kids, he's faking it. "That's what SHE said!" Hey! Who said that? "SHE did!!!" ... WhAt!?!!!?!??)

Health bits & bites

So, London is just full of interesting news these days. Within the last half-hour, I’ve come across these two stories:

(1) Tanning beds absolutely, positively, definitely can cause cancer. That is, they have been upgraded from a previous classification of  “probable carcinogens.” From the story: “The new classification means tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.”

OK, I get that you need enough evidence to legally/officially/whateverly upgrade something from One Class to Another Class, but the overall notion that your skin being exposed to heavy-duty ultraviolet radiation is harmful is like a big DUH. What happens to bread when you put it in the toaster? You get toast.

Hey, I struggle to remember to reapply my sunscreen just like everyone else, and I’ve had my fair share of burns. But I’d rather be lily-white forever than a baseball mitt by age 50 and/or dead of skin cancer by 60. So there.

The other story is:

(2) Organic foods are no healthier than conventionally grown foods. That is, there’s a negligible difference in terms of nutrient content between the two. However, I noticed that the article seemed to only focus on nutrient content (your vitamins and minerals, etc.) and not considering the fact that organic foods may still be healthier because you’re putting fewer pesticides into your body. I wonder if that’s the second part of the study. As my brother says, Pesticides are preservatives! Anyway, interesting food for thought, no pun intended.

It’s amazing what we are learning about our world and our bodies and our health day by day. Scary, and information overload, but amazing.  Pick and choose your poisons and your causes, and do with it what you will.

Toothache

OK, so here’s my rant about dental insurance: Is there even a point?

I had a root canal last October, when I had no dental insurance whatsoever. I figured, five months of tooth pain and not being able to eat on one side of my mouth was enough–I had to get it done. My endodontist kindly gave me a 5% discount for not having insurance. That amounted to $50 off an $850 bill. (Discover Card, I know you were worried because I’d almost paid you off.)

Well, knowing I’d probably be facing another procedure–not least because this one didn’t solve the tooth pain–I enrolled in an insurance plan with a company that shall remain nameless but does use a word from the Greek alphabet. Now, I know that even the best insurance doesn’t cover everything. But I thought it might cover SOMETHING. When I went to schedule a second root canal, I discovered that of the $1100 the endodontist would charge (it was a molar, hence more expensive), the insurance company would end up paying a total of … $150.

All right. Well. I guess $150 is SOMETHING. [insert eyeroll here] And I guess that when they say they cover 100% of certain procedures, they really just mean 100% of what they deem is an appropriate price for said procedure. So what I want to know is, on what planet is a root canal only $300? Because that’s the planet I want to live on.

I’m not asking for an argument about universal health care vs. the crap system we have now, but seriously? Something’s gotta give. Because I can name friend after friend who is dealing with tooth pain–fragile teeth without the crowns they need, inability to eat or drink anything hot or cold, inability to BITE–because they can’t afford the dentist. Because rent or groceries or kids come first. Nearly everyone knows how overwhelming tooth pain can be on a minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day basis. Imagine dealing with that for MONTHS. And dental health is more than a cosmetic or digestive issue; it can indicate so much about your overall health. (This is a good place to pimp the dental story we’ve got coming up.)

That’s all, the end.

Caramel Popcorn

So one of the great things about being a trained chef is I can whip up pretty much anything I want to eat at anytime with what I have on hand. But, that is also the bad thing. Like a few nights ago. I had a hungry sweet tooth and no sweets in the house. What I did have was popcorn kernels (I don’t buy microwave popcorn. Popping it in a pot tastes better and is cheaper), sugar and butter. What does that equal? Caramel popcorn! That’s right, the childhood favorite can be created in just a few minutes.

Pop your popcorn, microwave or pot.

For the caramel you will need:

2 cups white cane sugar

1 tablespoon heavy cream (in my case, I didn’t have heavy cream but I did have vanilla coffee cream and it was just as good)

1 tablespoon butter

pinch of fleur de sel (French sea salt)

In a saucepan, heat the sugar over high heat. Now it is very VERY important that you do not walk away from the sugar–it will burn in a blink of an eye. Stir the sugar to help it melt. I can’t give you a time frame, but what you are looking for is color. The sugar will be done when it is a caramel color. You will want to take it off the fire before that because the sugar gets so hot that it has serious carryover cooking. OK, so when the sugar is a nice caramel color add the heavy cream. Stir to combine. Add the butter. Stir to combine. Finally, add the fleur del sel. Stir to combine. Be careful how much you add because a little goes a long way. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir it all up until the popcorn is coated. The popcorn will have sweet, salty and crunchy all in one. Enjoy.

Separation

I love the Internet! The reasons are too numerous to count. But the most recent addition to that list is free video calls. My husband and I were able to talk via Skype, and he was able to see his son on his first Father’s Day.

I should back up a bit. My husband, a jet specialist in the Air Force, is currently in U.A.E. He has been there since mid May and won’t be coming home till mid September. This is the very first deployment that we have been able to see each other during it. That being said, the call was bittersweet. Even though we were able to see each other, he is still thousands of miles away from home and away from his baby boy. While we have been through many deployments in out nearly 8 years of marriage this is by far the hardest. Not so much for me but for him. He is missing the little milestones that Avi achieves every day. I think as a military wife, or any other family member of a deployed service member, we often think about how hard it is for us to be without our lived one—we have no help with chores, our best friend is gone and we are taking care of the kids alone. But we have it easy by far. We are at home, in our own bed, and we GET to be with our children every day while our loved one is in a strange land, with strangers for the most part, in shitty beds, with shitty food and working their asses off for peanuts.

So while my husband is away, doing his part in for this war—or  whatever the politicos are calling it now—I  am doing everything I can to capture all the wonderful things our son does through pictures, which I email and load on Flickr, and videos that I post as private on YouTube, all so he can see Avi. But for Avi, I don’t want him to not know his daddy, but that is hard since he was only three months old when his daddy left and will almost be 8 months old when he returns. So, I show him videos and pictures and talk to him about his daddy—where he is and how much he loves him. I do know how lucky I am though; my husband was home throughout the whole pregnancy and he was by my side for Avi’s birth. There are so many fathers who are far away in some crappy desert tent city missing that precious moment and many times the whole first year of their child’s life. But it is not only fathers who get separated, there are tons of new moms out there that have to go on deployment; the military’s first priority is not the family unit. It is hard enough knowing what my husband is missing, I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes as a mother missing those same things. My thoughts and prayers go out to all military families who are separated.

The heat is on

I am feeling very yelly these days. It doesn’t help that my place has sporadic air conditioning (bear in mind I live in Sacramento) so I’ve been sitting at my home desk trying to concentrate while I have two fans blowing at me from either side. My cats are drooping somewhere in the corner; they’re fine, but droopy. My girl kitty tends to get overheated so I do keep an eye on her. So far we’re all right.

And then I come across stories like this: Seven show dogs die in hot van.

… and it just makes me even yellier. How many animals (and kids, for that matter) have to die in hot cars before people realize that ANIMALS AND KIDS FOR THAT MATTER CAN DIE IN HOT CARS?!? I mean, honestly, lady, you couldn’t just bring the dog into the house with you?

Look. Numerous studies done have shown that the internal temperature of a car can rise at a shockingly high rate in a short amount of time. The education is out there. So is the personal experience. Most of us know what it’s like to get into a stuffy, overheated car, when the steering wheel is even to hot to be touched. And remember how much good cracking a window does? As in, none at all? Yeah. So why would you let anybody suffer in there?

Take care of the goofy guy in your life

Here’s one study that shows an hour-by-hour increase. And here’s another on NewScientist.com–excerpt following:

“On 16 cloud-free days in Northern California, the team measured a car’s inside temperature at 5 minute intervals for one hour post-parking. Ambient temperatures on the study days ranged from 22°C [71°F] to 35°C [95°F]. They found that, regardless of outside air temperature, the car heated up at a similar rate – gaining 80% of its final temperature within 30 minutes. Cars that started out comfortable 22°C [71°F], for example, rocketed to over 47°C [116°F] after 60 minutes in the sun. And keeping the windows open a crack hardly slowed the rise at all.”

If you can’t bring the dog in with you, don’t take the dog with you. It’s really that simple. REALLY. And then you don’t have to try and find a way to tell your kid why the dog didn’t come home with you.

So that’s my rant. I was going to rant about dental insurance, but I think I’ll save that for next week.

Fare thee well, Maddy St. Clair!

Bye Maddy! You're the greatest!!!

When I began working at Solano Magazine in October 2007 (WOW!) Magdalena (Maddy) St. Clair was instantly my new best friend, well, best WORK friend I know it’s not right to pick favorites … but … if it was life or death I’d pick YOU Maddy!!! (Don’t worry, readers, the other staffers could really care less. )

This is simply a formal farewell to the loss of a great co-worker. She’s moving on to bigger and better things. The ONLY reason I accept her departure is because she promised to support my comedy endeavors in the future So thanks in advance for that! Her last day is Friday, sadly I won’t be there as I’m departing to VEGAS (woot!). If I win big, Maddy, I’ll give you five whole dollars! Hey, it’s the least I could do! Well, I guess $0.01 is the least I could do. Maybe I’ll just get her a shot glass or something…

Goodbye Maddy! The office won’t be the same without you!

::what’s the emoticon for a hug???::

(((Maddy)))

%^D

p.s. The photo above was taken at the Blue Frog Grog & Grill in Fairfield, CA. Gotta love their stuffed mushrooms and Hefeweizen!!! All day … every day … mMmMmMmMmmmm.