"What if I Stumble?"

One of DC Talk's songs asks, "What if I stumble, what if I fall?" The line takes on a new meaning for those of us trying to figure out just what "StumbleUpon" is.

I'd heard about StumbleUpon; I think I actually joined a year or two ago. Not that I knew what "joining" meant. Didn't really have time to figure that out. I thought: Cliff notes on what's so cool about this website would be nice. So, I'll try to explain in a nutshell. Or maybe a coconut shell. (I can get carried away...)

To quote The New York Times: "As you 'stumble' from site to site, you will feel as if you are channel surfing the Internet, or rather, a corner of the Internet that is most relevant to you."

You may wonder why it would be important to whittle down the internet to what's "most relevant to you". I can give one example: Foodbuzz! Oh, it's an interesting foodie website. Certainly moving up in the Alexa ratings. I've even met a few exceptionally cool cooks there. But now that I have all kinds of "friends" on Foodbuzz, my inbox gets inundated with messages. They won't just disappear; they only increase in volume. I might find time once a month to check through those posts, finding a few of interest. But I have to manually delete the other 496 messages, just so I can start fresh. By next month, I'll have 500 more messages!

This is where StumbleUpon comes in. If I have selected a few choice sites to "stumble", StumbleUpon's mechanics can get a feel for what's apt to interest me. Should I feel adventurous, I might click on the little "stumble" button on my toolbar, and StumbleUpon will generate a few suggested websites that might interest me. How cool!

But the number of social network and bookmarking sites one can join can be overwhelming. Can't a person just do Facebook instead? Well, as we Facebookers know, we will get updates from all our friends whether we need those updates or not. It's great to hear about our friends, but then there's the potential "TMI". And Twitter: It seems a bit random. I go there and chance on the latest Twitterings of my buddies, some of which might be interesting.

But I do find it exciting that, through StumbleUpon, I can "twitter" and add to "facebook", AND stumble! It's becoming my favorite place for inspiration. Sometimes, what I really want is to just get the updates of a few friends who faithfully produce interesting posts full of novel ideas. StumbleUpon is a great place for the timeless stuff. No, not the latest on Justin Beiber or other 24-hour trends. And not that "timeless" means outdated. The latest and greatest show up (like sites on local harvests and CSA deliveries, latest gardening tips, etc.).

That said, I haven't quite found time to post a "stumble this" on my pages... Sigh. But I'm getting there. First things first. For now, I need to go roast some potatoes and slice some beef for some friends' 60th anniversary...

Balance in a Not-So-Brave New World

Yes, God's talking to me in the garden again. I ponder how He's set things up in the natural world, as it seems to speak to me about other worldly realms as well.

Today the talk was about being a control freak. Yes, I'm guilty of that! I need to watch myself, or I can easily try to control everything. Let's not let things get messy; let's just control everything and make it "manageable"!

There's something wrong with our tidy, well-controlled world though. As I think of how man and science can aspire to get rid of all the "glitches", mastering DNA manipulation and genetic challenges until we can potentially avoid all those glitches, my stomach sours. So we can assert a preemptive strike, avoiding the birth of any more Down's Syndrome kids (and other "undesirables"?) with a simple screening. I'm not sure that's a good thing. Ask a friend who has a special needs child; many of them will say that, even though it's challenging, they wouldn't have it any other way. At a recent fundraiser, I witnessed one "special" young man who determined he'd won the raffle prize of a jar of spaghetti and some pasta. As he circled the room waving his loot, he hooted for joy over his triumph. Oh, we should all be so enthusiastic!

As we try to get rid of the uncomfortable "irregularities" in society, we might consider the popularity of "Seed Saver" groups, intent on saving those almost-lost heirloom plants of yore. Before there were perfect-looking but bland tomatoes, there were irregularly shaped ones loaded with flavor. A few wise souls have realized: We need to save some of those ancient plants before they're bred out completely!

I've been a control freak in my own garden at times, keeping everything extra tidy, not letting any "outsiders" in (weeds and other proliferators). I thought the garden would be more easily managed that way. Something's lost though, when we try to control exactly what belongs and what doesn't. God's got a master plan, and He's got a perfect design. I suspect the Garden of Eden was a flourishing plethora of vegetation. There's a reason for everything. Yes, even certain weeds; you can sow a particular kind to improve various deficits in the soil. Those weeds have a purpose. The ones with long tap roots reach deep into the soil, extracting minerals that are often washed away from the topsoil. Certain weeds are more alkaline or acid producing, balancing out the soil's PH.

I've fancied growing Mahalia Poppies at one point; I later discovered that they need their own back 40 to grow wild in, as they can easily take over. So I have them growing wild on the back hill now. But even when I thought they might be a nuisance, I discovered they are a perfect addition to the compost pile. Gardeners who compost know that it's important to get plenty of oxygen into that pile; the Mahalia Poppy has a large, hollow stalk to add a sort of natural air vent when composted. Same is true of the stalks of sunflowers and borage (two more plants that can threaten to take over corners of the garden).

At times I was too vigilant in what could take up space in my garden. It was an elite club. I would add fine, rich kitchen scraps to the compost pile daily, imagining what a wonderful end product I'd eventually come up with. (Kitchen scraps come in abundant when you have your own eatery!) Funny thing, though- I had too much of a good thing. I needed other additions to make the compost pile balanced. I started letting borage and sunflowers and Mahalia Poppies go to seed in their favorite spots; I used the plentiful leftover plants when they were done growing, to add that drier fiber to the compost pile.

We can't get too smart and tidy and controlling; eventually we discover that we didn't know the master plan. We have to allow some things to have their space, even challenging or seemingly undesirable things. It's part of God's master plan.

Hebrews 13:5

Hebrews 13:5 says, "God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"

But sometimes as I work through the gardening, I have to remind myself of that. Even while I'm gardening, He's with me. And He will speak to me.

Recently in my gardening mode, I pondered how a particular relative hangs on to some long term resentment about my having "deserted" them. (I had moved from the area.) This event happened 30 years ago, and yet I'm the target of this person's recent outbursts; they are still judging my actions from when I was a young and reckless teenager!

Thank you God for Your grace: You give us what we don't deserve. You give us eternal life even as we bumble through this life, as we believe in Your Son. And thank you for Your mercy! You don't give us what we do deserve, when we've downright evil and selfish and actually deserve hell.

Then I realize that the human race doesn't behave like that; the opposite can often be true. Our human friends and loved ones might very well give us what we don't deserve, but in a bad way! They might give us grief when our actions really didn't justify that. We might by chance actually deserve some love and kindness, yet sometimes we don't get it. Ah, at least our Father in heaven gives us that.

But back to the gardening. So there I was, shoveling away, preparing the ground. After looking at a few plants that never looked quite right, I realized that one plant just didn't belong there. I transplanted it to an area where its colors complemented the other plants' colors (and vice versa). And I thought about God. I felt as if He Himself was telling me: You needed to be transplanted. Yes, you were a crazy, reckless teenager, but you needed to move from one place to another. If you'd stayed where you were, your natural colors would've continued to clash with the plants already rooted there. It would never be your proper home.

So I moved one plant and the whole garden came together. Sometimes some things have to move away. In the process, God told me, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper and not harm you. Plans for hope and a good future." (Jeremiah 29:11) Amen to that!

SF Chefs 2010!

My online buddy Vivian (From the "Visa Outreach People" helping to put the event on) reminded me that the San Francisco Chefs 2010 is coming right up. It will be at Union Square in San Francisco, August 13th-15th, 2010; Gary Danko, Tyler Florence, Thomas Keller and other renowned chefs will be there. All kinds of programs/events are planned;  local chefs Craig Stoll and Anthony Strong (of Delfina's) will face off Family Feud style with Staffan Terje and Sarah Burchard (of Perbacco's and Barbacco's). Should be fun.

Ticket purchases support the Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship Foundation (granting financial scholarships to Bay Area students entering culinary and hospitality programs). That's cool.

Another cool deal: The event is partnering with "Recology", striving for zero waste, creating no landfill at the event. (Recology was previously known as "Norcal Waste Management". It's good to see they're redefining themselves!) Recycled paper products and other serviceware made from corn resin will be composted afterward. I love it.

Of course, when I first noticed the message in my inbox from Vivian, I glanced at the words "SF Chefs 2010" and thought, wow, has Pinole finally made it on the map? They want Jennifer Cote of The New Deli to offer up some appetizers for this event?! Well, Jennifer Cote is no Gary Danko. And Jennifer Cote's pretty busy with family, gardening and daily cooking at The New Deli to notch up to that category! Although my deli friend did comment that she fancied me the "Alice Waters of Pinole". I'll hang on to that generous title and leave it at that.

Carrot Cake: Get Your Carotene Fix!

I needed to make Great Grandma Marie a nice birthday cake this weekend. And it had to be good- she's 88 years old and deserves that!

She's always liked carrot cake. This is good news considering she's not at all fond of other veggies. Yes, carrot cake is as close as we can get! She's of that generation that focused on canned goods and spam; actual fresh foods and veggies were so old-school back then.

But hey, if we can get her to eat this Carrot Cake, we're doing all right. At age 88, I'm sure it'll be of no detriment to her health at this point. I remember trying real hard to come up with the ultimate "healthy" carrot cake, using no sugar in the cake batter; just honey. I posted the recipe here. But really, was it worth the sacrifice of lighter texture to use that honey? I finally decided: Not. The honey-sweetened version was maybe a smidgen healthier (at least according to some perspectives), but it came out heavier than I'd like.

So I finally made a new version using sugar (recipe posted here). We polished off the whole cake in one sitting yesterday. Everyone loved it, even Great Grandma. It's still healthy enough, using good oil instead of butter or margarine in the batter, and a whole lot of grated carrot. And it's got fruit too (from the raisins or dates that go into it). As my daughter-in-law said, "Hey, let's all eat our veggies- hand me a piece of that cake!"

"Email Marketing": For You or Not?

Let's take a quick side tour out of the deli kitchen and into the computer room. I do spend quality time here on my computer; for those of us who always did like creative writing and other creative pursuits, internet stuff can be pretty fascinating.

I've gone from having scribbled recipes on index cards to having all kinds of notes filed away in various folders on my computer (plus a few digital back-ups). Getting so organized made it easier for me to share recipes online too. (It's become quite the fad, to an almost overwhelming degree...)

When I first published my cookbook, back in late 2006, my business-savvy friend suggested that I send out newsletters. I really wasn't used to jumping on the publicity bus, tooting my own horn, promoting myself as an author.  When our 5th grade class got into groups to vote on stories written by various anonymous classmates, I had authored one of the top three stories. But I had decided (at the tender age of ten) that it was more important to conduct a study on social behavior: If I talked my own story down in favor of another author's story, would I be able to sway my fellow classmates to vote for her story instead?

Perhaps my gift lies more in the realm of affecting public opinion than in any actual creative talent. The other girl's story won; my story came in second, no thanks to my self-sabotaging. OK, I was a weird kid. But those of us out there who don't feel entirely comfortable promoting ourselves might understand.

So when this friend of mine suggested that I send out email newsletters, it felt a little like when mom said, "Eat your brussels sprouts." I wasn't eager to do it, but I knew it probably would be good for me. So I did my online research, comparing various companies, and found that iContact appeared to be the most user-friendly, offering the most extras for the most value. A friend or two might use some of the other email marketing companies; there's Vertical Response, and Constant Contact is a popular one too.

In any case, iContact has proven to do me well. I send out a monthly recipe newsletter (subscribe here), and I can also send out updates to various unique groups. Some stuff goes just to New Deli customers, some is of interest to almost all of my subscribers. I had wondered why I had received a bit of traffic on my website, straight from the iContact website; some sleuthing revealed that they'd used my quote on one of their pages (bottom right). It's a little like seeing a picture of yourself in the newspaper. Look, mommie- there I am! Super cool :)

Well, time to get some new email addresses on record at iContact. I'll be sending out a thank-you newsletter to the new subscribers I met at the Chamber Mixer we had last night in Hercules. It was great fun.

No One Buys the Cow if the Milk's for Free!

An online friend of mine is excited about the prospects of publishing her cookbook. She's worked hard at it and is now in the process of finding a publisher.

As a published author, let me offer my perspective! Especially about cookbook publishing. Since establishing The New Deli (in 1985), we had hundreds of customers ask us about recipes. Back then, all my recipes were for very large quantities. But I set about reducing those recipes for the home cook... By 1998, I took what I had to Staples and got a hundred copies, spiral-bound. Those sold pretty quick, so we did another printing in 1999.

I started getting a vision of including photographs, and making a cookbook that included scripture and personal commentary. How fun that would be!

Five years later, I discovered that, despite the endless hard work, my vision could not simply be printed up at Staples. Photographs require that a more expensive machine be used to produce copy. (And a dollar a page was just cost prohibitive...) So I started thinking about finding a publisher.

So there's the first tip, potential cookbook authors: Do not try to include photographs unless you have a real cushy deal, signed up already with a good publisher. Because, upon going to a publisher, I discovered that they too had their limitations. Books with photography couldn't be POD (print-on-demand), although the publisher I was using (Winepress) did have a special branch, a step up from POD, that could accommodate my needs. It would just cost more, that's all. And it would be a larger commitment. 3,500 cookbooks later, I still have plenty reserved!

Which brings me to where I am today. I got that cookbook published in late 2006, as the number of online recipe websites was beginning to soar. Little did I realize, as I compiled the manuscript and took pictures, that upon the cookbook's release, the internet would be saturated with endless free recipes.

It amazes me that recipe websites can be so popular. The recipes aren't necessarily tested, tried and true, but they are free! I'm overwhelmed at times with information overload; I don't have time to try all those recipes!

But hey, if you have your heart set on publishing your cookbook, I wish you the best. Every now and then, an author pops up with the ambition to continue on, after publishing, with the daunting task of promotion. Maybe I'll even do that some day. But for now, I'm too busy running that New Deli and keeping up with the family and the garden. Celebrity Authorship will just have to wait!

Cool Social Media Buttons

I chanced upon a real fun blog the other day; just looking for cool "social media buttons". You know, something that might fit my style a bit more. I had tried putting a facebook button on my pccuisine website, but awk. The blue. So not going with my other colors!

I'd seen a real cool set of buttons at scarymommy.com. Discovering the site to be full of the interesting musings of a creative writer who's also a mom and wife got me fairly side-tracked. Ah, but isn't that the case for the ADD generation? I don't even think the whole Attention Deficit is refined to younger generations. The whole modern way of life encourages us to be easily distracted by every latest thing. Isn't that what advertisers want anyway? We can't just drive along and meditate on the goodness of life. We need to be distracted by the billboards jumping out at us, appealing to our inner insecurities, inner desires. The big companies can much the better profit off of us that way, right?

Oh, but I veer from the course. I was just talking about social media buttons. For today, I'll try to focus on that. You can stop on by Scary Mommy's for fun. But for a full list of all kinds of options, for those of you also looking for cool social media buttons, check out these sites: Ezuka.com has a list of 55 free buttons; wpmods.com has even more.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to install some cool buttons that actually work on my site... But that's another story!

Tips from a Professional Chef

Recipes abound, like for Italian Dressing, but how do you make "homemade" practical? Everyone has a favorite recipe, but how do we find the time to make up a fresh batch of this or that when our schedule gets tight?

At The New Deli, we get plenty busy all right... And I'm not married to my work, so I don't want the business to take over my life. So, how do I maintain our reputation of offering freshly prepared foods, without spending all my time on it? I look for time savers; I create my own time saver for every recipe I can!

We have a few tips for producing quality food efficiently... One tip: We make up concentrated batches of the dressings. For our Italian Dressing Recipe, we process the fresh garlic, herbs, and salt, portioning up the paste and freezing. We can then mix in the oil and vinegar in batches, as we need it. The flavors stay fresh, without us having to go through the whole process of making a new batch from scratch. Fresh and homemade doesn't have to be complicated. Give it a try in your kitchen!

NO Thank you for ordering Wellness-Hub.com!

Aw man, I was so excited to have a value-priced resource for my Vitamineral Green. I went to GotBody.com and ordered 5 large jars at a time (saves on shipping).

Well, I won't be doing that anymore. I just got an email from some folks I've never heard of before: "Wellness-Hub.com". If you check out their website, it's a complete scam. None of the links are even active! But they will take your money. They offer a 14 day trial membership; it sneaks up on you when you place online orders for your healthy supplements at GotBody (and possibly other websites). If you don't notice the tiny little box that's already checked (by default), indicating that you've already agreed to the offer, then you will get that trial offer, AND monthly charges for $29.95 thereafter. You have to notice and uncheck the box to avoid this hassle.

Someone else on the "gotbody scam" complaint board said they might even be hooking people up with the offer through what's mentioned in their "terms and conditions". It's pretty outrageous. I wanted to comment on the complaint board about the validity of the post, as I too had been scammed in this way. I never did post though; you have to enter in too much information, and alas, now I'm getting more wary of doing so online...

I'm probably just going to have to get old-fashioned and buy my stuff at the store.

PS: The latest updates are as follows:

JULY 21: I had a talk with the gentleman at gotbody.com, who assured me that they'd make good on the $29.95 mishap I experienced. Andrew from gotbody was intent on winning back my trust, but the effort has failed. I do not want to have to scour all websites and all bills for that extra payment they might have tacked on...

JULY 22: I was mailed a check for $29.95, but in the meantime, I talked more to the Wellness Hub lady, who contradicted what the GotBody guy said.

The Wellness Hub Lady claimed she would've been the only one to have talked to GotBody, and that what he was saying couldn't possibly have been what she said. (What he said: "Wellness-hub told me that they'd experienced a glitch and hadn't sent out their emails in time." What SHE said, "We had no glitch. You must have missed the first email we immediately sent, when it went into your spam box.")

Wellness Hub Lady also said she couldn't be responsible for the fact that I'd overlooked their GIANT BANNER informing me that I was being automatically signed up for their service. She wasn't going to listen to me explaining that placing obnoxious banners up only makes a lot of us avert our eyes. (I try to avoid most of those ads. The latest one popping up on me told me I could "Find Desirable Men Over Fifty!!!" Is it any wonder that I avoided examining their banner that closely?

I'm still quite unhappy with the whole experience...


FEBRUARY 8, 2011: So here's the latest update, that GotBody has emailed me the following:

"Dear Cote,


We're sorry for all the inconvenience and frustration caused by our involvement in the Wellness Hub/Fitness Factory health trial offer. We're very sorry for violating the trust you put into us, and we wanted to let you know that we no longer have any affiliation with any 3rd party offers of any kind, and have not since the end of last year.


Since we've last communicated, we've launched a completely new web platform, and are rapidly introducing new features that will deliver even more value to you - our customers.


We're writing because we'd like an opportunity to earn your business back. To that end, we've set up a $15 discount coupon in our system specifically for you. It's limited to use by your email address (this one), and all you need to do is enter the code: (XXXXX) at Step 3 of checkout and the coupon will be automatically activated. Please note, that this coupon is not transferable and can only be used by you.


I hope you'll give us another opportunity and explore our new site. We have much to come, and hope you'll rejoin us!


Yours in health,


Andrew (Managing Director) and the rest of the GotBody.com Customer Response Team


Well, I'm still not buying it. Once bitten, twice shy...

Cooking Veggies: Best Methods

A few of my friends are getting their CSA deliveries. I'm jealous. One of these days I might start getting my own boxes. Meanwhile, I don't feel too guilty, since the garden's producing an abundance of seasonal fruits and veggies. So that's cool. But for those who can't really garden (or whose fruit trees, grape vines, etc., haven't matured yet), a number of "Community Supported Agriculture" services are cropping up. (No pun intended...)

"Farm Fresh to You" is a local one established for us Bay Area folks. They explain more about why anyone might choose to get CSA deliveries in an article here. I noticed that when you google the term "CSA delivery", a number of websites pop up. It just doesn't do a lot of good, if you live in New York, to discover in some small print at any given website that that particular company is based out of Texas (or what have you). One of the first websites to pop up is one delivering to Southern Westchester County (NY) and Stamford and Greenwich (CT), called "My Farm Share".

So if you're looking into it, do a search for CSA deliveries in your locale. But I did run across a good website, "Local Harvest", that simplifies things by giving you local suppliers, no matter what area you're in. They've got info on online stores, farms, CSA Farmers' Markets, restaurants, grocery/Co-op stores; they've got suppliers for local honey, local meat... At their online store, you can buy all sorts of things from producers who use locally grown ingredients to make their products. (The soap line is impressive.)

Local Harvest also has info on the Ark of Taste project, which is cataloging forgotten flavors, documenting rare breeds and excellent food products that are in danger of disappearing. In partnership with Slow Food USA, Local Harvest lists growers and producers of these items throughout the US.

I love their website!

There's more information on sustainable food here, at the "Sustainable Food Lab" website. We really ought to think a bit more about what it takes to put food on the table! (Isn't it easy to take things for granted?!)

Best Foods for the Budget AND for Health

ALL YOU (Motto: "Enjoy life for less") posted some info today about the 10 best natural foods with plenty of value for the price. Hum, wondered who "All You" is; apparently it's a magazine owned by Time Inc (who also publish Time, People, Southern Living, Real Simple, and Sunset, to name a few). I guess you can find them at Walmart stores, or you can subscribe.

I like to know where the source of the info is; if it's the American Dairy Association or Pillsbury, well, you know those folks might be a bit biased in their presentation. (Money and profit drives so much of the information exchange, doesn't it?!)

The following is the "All You" list, with additional commentary by me. Got to run it through my filter, don't ya know...

• Peanut Butter: Seems like a natural choice, full of protein, calories, and unsaturated fat. (It costs about 20¢ for 2 tablespoons. Such a deal.)

• Eggs: Good; lean protein and other nutrients, at just around 13¢ per large egg.

•  Oats: Healthy, whole grain. Also, did you know you can get a good organic oatmeal at the health food store for a decent price?  It's way cheaper to buy dry grains (like oatmeal) than boxed cereal. Consider that you add water to it to cook it, getting even more value, pound for pound. Plus, boxed cereals (even from the health food store) have been extruded. Come on, you know you don't want that! (Devoid of the nutrients that would naturally occur, hard to digest...) Quick-cooking oats cost about 17¢ per 1/2 cup.

• Apples: Now the "All You" article mentions this fruit, but consider that apples are often heavily sprayed. I wouldn't put them on my "healthy AND cheap" list. But if you don't mind the potential pesticides, they are only about 60¢ each.

• Spinach: I would include this veggie on the list only if you can find organic. Sometimes organic is on sale. Otherwise, spinach is another leafy green that can be exposed to considerable pesticides. It's got lots of nutrients (vitamin A, C, K and folic acid and manganese). It might have pesticides too though. But it is reasonably priced; around $1 for 5 ounces of fresh spinach.

• Beans: The article I checked out mentioned beans too, but showed a can of beans. I would go a step further: Cook your own! If you want to make your carbon footprint just a bit smaller, don't buy pre-cooked foods (full of extra liquid). Think of how much less energy is spent transporting a pound of dry beans (which, after cooking in water, will yield up to 3 lbs. of beans). Dry beans are an incredible value, full of fiber and minerals, at quite a good price. If you do cook up a big batch of beans, they freeze very well. We keep packets of frozen garbanzos on hand at The New Deli, ready for salads, and portions of frozen Black Bean Chili on hand too. But even a can of beans is cheap too, about 35¢ per 1/2-cup serving.

• Frozen vegetables: I can't argue that frozen veggies need to be on this list. Picked at their peak and quickly frozen, they retain lots of nutrients and are easy to use as the need arises. They don't deteriorate in the refrigerator drawer. (You save a lot of money by NOT throwing out those veggies that got too old before they were used.) And most frozen veggies cost only around 40¢ per serving.

• Sweet potatoes: This veggie is low on the glycemic index, and it's filling too, with fiber and vitamins to boot. All for about $1 a piece.

• Brown rice: Now we're talking healthy. Now we're talking value. Less carbon footprint, too, transporting this dry good from farm to your table, at about 37¢ per 1/2 cup of cooked rice.

• Canned tuna fish: I just wouldn't put this on my list. If you're hard up for protein at a cheap price, why not go for the eggs, or beans? There's been too much talk about the metals found in fish. But tuna does have a lot of lean protein, for only 75¢ for 3 ounces...

Hot Summer Drinks

I remember Rachel Ray showing us how to make a simple syrup; getting her saucepan out, adding sugar and water, simmering it until the sugar dissolved. I said to my husband, "That should be called 'not-so-simple syrup'!" After all, if you want a really simple syrup, like to make a cool and refreshing spearmint tea, strawberry lemonade, etc, you can much more easily just put some sugar in a ceramic bowl, add a bit of water, and microwave until hot. The sugar will get good and dissolved, and you don't have to heat the kitchen at all (by warming it up on that burner). Lord knows we need to keep our cool as much as possible when summer temps are through the roof...

The current heat wave sweeping the nation has put recipes for cool, refreshing drinks in the headlines. You can almost lose your appetite when it gets that hot. (Maybe a perfect time to try that juice fast?) A few of the latest drink recipes caught my eye. Here's my list of faves, plus my personal commentary:

• Strawberry Basil Lemonade: If you have access to good strawberries (no, not those flavorless ones from the grocery store), then you might try this. These flavors are perfect together! A friend turned me on to the idea of adding basil to fruits. (Fruit kabobs are great with a bit of basil syrup drizzled over.) I would try the microwave for the strawberry basil syrup; just microwave the sugar/water until piping hot, then let the basil and strawberries steep in it. (Or rewarm the mix in the microwave a bit more, to extract more flavor.)

• Ginger Ale: The idea for this is good. Use some fresh ginger juice for optimum flavor. Yes, you can grate the fresh ginger and strain the juice out. We did this once for a wedding, when we wanted to add lots of ginger flavor to the sauce at the last minute; we used our Champion juice to juice a pound or two of fresh ginger. Made ginger ice cubes out of it and had that fresh ginger juice handy for months. (Without the pesky pulp floating around with it.) The recipe posted includes vanilla for more flavor, and some seltzer water (or soda water). But I say it fails by suggesting Stevia. I have concerns about the use of stevia. I'll post my theory on that in an upcoming post. I would opt for sugar granules myself.

• Watermelon Strawberry Lemonade: Super easy recipe; just blend the fruits with some sugar and lemon juice. What a great way to have that refreshing watermelon flavor, without all those rinds floating around!

Can't wait to try these!

Growing from Seed: Where it Works (or Not)

I've heard that parsley can be hard to grow. I know it's been a challenge to me! I could scatter the seeds in the open soil, but apparently, the birds would eat all the seeds.

I'd also heard that parsley seeds take some time to germinate. So I would try again, soaking them overnight, eventually sprouting them indoors on damp paper towels, to plant in the garden after they'd sprouted. Again, probably tasty food for some critter or insect. No survivors with this method either.

But I finally got one parsley plant to take off. I'd bought it in the herb section of the local nursery, planted it, watered it. It was going strong. I decided I'd let it go to seed. Perhaps if it produced lots and lots of seeds, a few of them might take.

Several years later, I have quite the parsley patch. But I thought it was interesting where it had decided to grow. I had sprinkled some of the seeds in one plot of dirt, and other seeds among the spearmint. (Spearmint will grow like a weed, so there's always some spearmint growing.)

I have a theory on why the seeds sprouted up into parsley plants in the spearmint bed, while the seeds in the other bed failed completely: Those darn birds again. They can easily find the seeds in a perfectly plowed, prepared plot. Ah, but they don't bother with the seeds sprouting beneath layers of spearmint. Perfect!

As we've been doing a study on stress with my woman's group, I considered the application for this truth of nature. In our study, it's mentioned that there is good stress and bad stress. The bad stress is that which we've created for ourselves. Imagine that the perfectly plowed, prepared plot is the stress we've created for ourselves. When the "birds" of our lives come along and eat what we've planted in this perfect plot, we become so frustrated. How could this happen after so much work?!

But imagine that the spearmint bed is God's perfect stress. It's the things in our lives that naturally pop up, even appearing "weed-like". Potentially stressful. But if we view those "weeds" as something that God allows, so that something even better can grow in our life, then the potential stress melts away as we realize, "God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28)

A verse mentioned in our stress study says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11)

In years past, I viewed the spearmint bed as something of a nuisance. It would easily get overgrown, expanding its territory into other regions, out of control. I learned to keep it pruned back a bit, containing it in one specific area. And that's where my parsley has come to grow.

Organic Gardening, Easy Style

I'm so excited to try this idea for regrowing celery, from Providence Acres. My newly found friend Sheryl posted this at her blog. Apparently, you can "regrow" celery by cutting the bottom off and planting it in your garden. Sheryl recommends letting the celery bottom sit on a saucer of water overnight, which probably helps. I personally found that, if left long enough in the refrigerator drawer, old celery will eventually start sprouting new growth. So I'm sure this is going to work.

More info on this subject appeared on a "Chickens in the Road" blog. Some folks say you can do the same for pineapple. Cut the top off, plant it, and it should produce a new pineapple! Amazing! Someone from Idaho said it worked for her, so perhaps it might work for some of us other folks too.

Someone else mentioned that you can replant the bottom ends of green onions too. I've got a whole big, empty part of the garden where I've been putting extra compost; think I'll use it for my experiment. Considering how many celery bottoms we get at The New Deli (so much soup and tuna and chicken salad...), we just might end up with a great bounty!

Another poster mentioned that celery likes cool weather. I might have success then, here in the Bay Area, with the cool Bay breezes. The pineapple might not like it as much. But I'll keep you posted :) What a great way to get some organic gardening going on, free of charge!

Canned Foods: Good vs. Bad

A good buddy of ours at The New Deli is always looking for salt-free food. He and I both are big fans of our Black Bean Chili, which has zero salt in it. Not that it's easy to make food with no salt; so many ingredients are already full of it. Even canned tomatoes. But check out a can of tomato paste, and you might be happy to discover: No salt! So I add tomato paste to our Black Bean Chili; it adds plenty of tomato flavor without the sodium. Very cool.

Today I noticed a recipe for Steak Sauce in my inbox. I thought it might be interesting; I always like to make things from scratch. Less additives, and less costly too, usually. Ew- I was a bit disappointed to find out that the major ingredient in this "steak sauce" was Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup. Loaded with sodium, don't you know...

Ah, but "Campbell's Kitchen" is one of the "partners" at allrecipes.com, where the recipe was coming from. So I guess that explains the promotion for a recipe using stuff that's already been "prepared". Personally, I would classify "cooking" as preparing your own recipes with basic ingredients. If you're just using processed foods as ingredients, perhaps it should be called "assembling"?

Also, if you're big on the Locavore movement, trying to eat more and more of whatever is grown locally (and not shipped miles and miles from farms to processing plants to warehouses to grocery stores to home kitchen), then it makes sense to prepare more foods truly from scratch. But, of all the canned foods to consider using, I must cast my vote for tomato paste. Consider that some farm out there is growing tons of tomatoes and processing them in no doubt a highly efficient way that can hardly be duplicated in the home kitchen. The product that is shipped is concentrated, so no extra gas is spent transporting a watered-down product. That's all good, right?

As we aspire to do good in our communities, respecting the planet by reducing waste and pollution, perhaps we need to put our minds to it, to see what changes, even small ones, we can make. Switching to recipes that call for more basic ingredients is a start. But this concept is harder to sell; basically, there's just not as much money in it. Less middlemen.

When our society revolves less around money and profit at any expense, perhaps more folks will live more righteously in tune with the planet. We can only hope!

Safe List for Produce: Which Are Better Organic?

With all the fresh fruits and veggies available during the summer, I find myself trying to memorize the "safe list" for produce. Since finding out that spinach and strawberries generally contain more pesticides that certain other picks, I try to steer clear from making them an everyday staple in my diet. I don't get compulsive about it, but if I'm going to have a salad every day, I'll try to find some organic greens before I grab some of that spinach that's on sale.

I found it helpful to pretty much memorize the list of vegetables and fruits typically highest in pesticides, and which are typically safer. An MSN Delish article gives more details, but here's the streamlined list of non-organic produce that you can probably eat safely:

• Asparagus
• Avocados
• Banana
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Corn
• Eggplant
• Kiwis
• Mango
• Onions
• Papaya
• Peas
• Pineapple
• Sweet Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

On the Watch List are:

• Apples
• Carrots
• Celery
• Cherries
• Kale
• Grapes
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Peppers
• Salad Greens
• Strawberries

Potatoes left the Watch List- I'm encouraged by that. But they might get treated with fungicides as well, so use some caution. And I don't even want to mention how that morning cup of coffee might be laden with pesticides (must they take it all away from us?!).Well, we'll do the best we can, right?

Cooking Perfect Potatoes for that Potato Salad

Cooked up some red potatoes today for Potato Salad tomorrow. For connoiseurs: A great way to cook them is in a pressure cooker with just an inch of water. Bring up to pressure and cook gently until tender (20 minutes for average size). This method retains the most flavor and nutrition. (You don't pour off all those vitamins and flavors like you can do when cooking the potatoes in boiling water to cover...) In all my years of cooking potatoes at The New Deli, this is the absolute best way to cook potatoes for potato salad!


At the shop, the "All-American Potato Salad" is the most popular potato salad. It's a simple recipe using green onion, a touch of mustard relish, fresh grated black pepper, celery, and mayo. But a personal favorite recipe of mine is for a German Potato Salad. If you're looking for something besides the typical, All-American style, check it out! A touch of celery seed gives it extra flavor, and some apple cider vinegar, sugar and olive oil make for an alternative to the typical mayonnaise-based potato salad recipe. I love it!