The Curious Housewife

Our neighbor's yard, across the street and to the left. When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that if I banged my elbow on the doorway or stubbed my toe on the bed frame, that meant that God was punishing me for some bad thought or deed. (My mom, a disgruntled and lapsed Catholic, was probably simply repeating something that her mom had told her.) I grew up with this hazy idea of a God that could reach his hand down and directly punish you for your misdeeds, bad language, impure thoughts, etc. He was listening and watching, that was the important part. Ours was a very secular-with-odd-religious-overtones kind of a house. Things like prayer were never discussed.  As a consequence of the above and the fact that I didn't attend church regularly (that means not at all), my idea of prayer is vague. As an adult, when I wanted to learn how to pray, I really had nowhere to begin. The only place I had to start was back in my childhood. God was listening, I knew that much. He m...

This week has been a full one for me. I had a lovely hike with friends on Monday and met with my cousin and aunt Wednesday for lunch. Thursday I picked up my new orthotics and on Friday I watched a documentary on Netflix . In between those things, there has been the standard housework (laundry, cooking, etc.) and I have done a fair amount of Internet reading. Hey, you might ask, what have you been reading? Well, let me tell you! Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that my coffee has seemed a little sweet. I am pretty liberal with the sugar, I admit. From past research I know that the recommended amount of added sugar  per day for women (barring any medical conditions I would add) is 6 teaspoons. There are 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon so that adds up to 24 grams of added sugar per day. Added sugar consists of sugar (any kind, doesn't matter what) that you yourself add to the food you prepare, bake or cook and sugar that is added to prepackaged, prepared food like fro...

Fourth of July Lake (in the distance) looking south from just a little west of Round Top Lake, Carson Pass area, highway 88, CA Are those mountains far away or closer than they look? Is that lake small or big? It depends on your perspective! This post was to be about something else entirely but instead of what I was going to write about, I think I will share my experience from yesterday's visit to the doctor. It's been 6 years since my bypass surgery (9/13/12).   Twice a year, I go for a visit with my cardiologist. In advance of that visit, I do some testing to see if my carotid arteries are still in good shape and I have my blood drawn in order to check my cholesterol levels and the functioning of my liver. When I see my cardiologist, I joke with him that I must be his most boring patient! With the exception of one thing, nothing has changed for me in the last 6 years. My cholesterol levels have remained constant, my overall cholesterol ratio is good, my blo...

image from Alternative Baking Website And I thought I was just buying a cookie. Wrong!  A couple of days ago I was at the grocery store and the above cookie caught my eye. Normally, I would have given this a pass but I saw that it was vegan, I was hungry, and I guess that is all she wrote! Into the cart it went. I got home and ate it. The whole thing. And was immediately sort of sorry. Sort of. Once in awhile a little splurge is fine.  The cookie though got me thinking because of course, prior to eating it, I examined the nutrition label. In depth and at length. It's what I do. I am an inveterate food label reader of long standing. Rich won't go with me to the store anymore unless I promise not to read the labels. I get irritated and because I am "that woman" now, I talk to myself out loud, airing my grievances in a quiet and muttering sort of way. Why is there sugar and salt in this can of tomatoes? Why is there added sodium in my frozen peas? (And...

*This blog post will appear in four parts, each part being a review of one specific book. Part 4 of 4  follows below: Of the four books that I have reviewed, Power Plates: 100 Nutritionally Balanced, One-Dish Meals by Gena Hamshaw is my favoritte. It's the book that I turn to most often for inspiration and for recipes that I actually use regularly. If you haven't yet "met" Gena, she is the author of The Full Helping Blog . Her credentials go beyond this though. She is a vegan food educator, cookbook author, and certified nutritionist who is currently working on her DI (dietetic internship). Gena writes with feeling and care about her recipes, her personal insights, and other information relevant to veganism, eating in general, health and well-being. I tune in every weekend to catch her Weekend Reading posts in which she provides links and commentary to all sorts of interesting health related articles.  In this cookbook, Gena offers nutrionally balanced vegan...

This blog post will appear in four parts, each part being a review of one specific book. Part 3 of 4  follows below: The third review in this series focuses on a vegan cookbook published by America's Test Kitchen . People may be familiar with their television show or web site. I admit that I have probably only seen a handful of episodes. I was attracted to this cookbook, Vegan For Everybody , because of a brownie recipe found online. Honestly, the brownies were so good that I figured the rest of the book couldn't be wrong either. ATK has a methodical and scientific approach to recipe development, very similar to Alton Brown if you are familiar with his way of working. The claim to fame for this book is that ATK has taken non vegan recipes and made them vegan, not through simple one-to-one substitutions, but through new cooking techniques and novel ingredient combinations. The book very much promotes veganism as a new way of eating, one that is both tasty and good for...

This blog post will appear in four parts, each part being a review of one specific book. Part 2 of 4  follows below: The Minimalist Baker's    website was one of the first resources that I found when I began my research into a plant based way of eating. I experimented with an apple carrot beet ginger juice.   At this stage of the game, everything was brand new to me: juicing, macro bowls, bean burgers from scratch and tofu prepared in an infinite number of ways. It was all a little exotic and foreign, particularly the flavor profiles. I found Dana Schultz's site (AKA The Minimalist Baker) to offer a generous number of introductory recipes that helped me get used to some basic vegan ingredients and ways of preparing food. Most food/cooking bloggers/authors have a "point of view" or a cooking aesthetic. There tends to be a concentration on categories of food (vegan, vegetarian, paleo, etc.) coupled with something a little less objective and more touchy-f...