The Farmer's Market and Sweet Potato Pie

In the last two months, I have discovered what fresh produce should taste like through the downtown Farmer’s Market. (Friday’s from 9am to 2pm).  My favorite fruit, vegetable, cheese and nut stand is the “Intuitive Forager” owned by Kerry Clasby.  She is as terrific as her produce, and if you don’t see what you want there, she’ll happily get it for you.  

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for most of my life, so any produce I’ve consumed has been picked too soon, as not to spoil before coming to market.  The first time I brought home a small basket of $7.00 strawberries from the Forager, my husband, who doesn’t care for strawberries, thought I’d lost my mind.  After he tasted them though, and did not get the usual allergic reaction of a tongue swell, he requested that I go back and get some more.

Also, I’ve discovered Sweet Potatoes.  I’ve never been much of a fan, but the Forager’s taste fresh and sweet and you can feel the beta carotene feeding your cells with each bite.  Serendipitously, I found a recipe of my mom’s for Georgia Sweet Potato Pie.  I offer the recipe here, with healthier alternatives noted next to the original ingredients if you are so inclined.  

2 cups Sweet Potatoes

2 tablespoons butter (I use earth balance natural buttery spread made with olive oil)

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs slightly beaten (you can use four egg whites but you won’t get the benefit of vitamins B12, D, A, E and K that are in the yolks)  

Dash salt (I use Himalayan Salt)

3/4 cup of Sugar (or 1/8 - 1/4 cup of Blue Agave or real Maple Syrup.  If your Sweet Potatoes are from a Farmer’s Market, the lower end of the sweetener range is better.)

Combine and beat until ingredients are well blended.  

Then add:

1 large can of Carnation Evaporated Milk (this is really good, but is not low in the calorie department.  You can substitute with 1 1/2 cups of sweetened soy milk or coconut milk)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Beat again.  Note:  Beating the mixture provides a more pudding like texture.  If you’d prefer a denser texture, you can use a potato masher to mix your ingredients.  

Pour into a 9” pastry shell (I prefer a graham cracker crust)

Bake at 375 until filling is firm and a knife inserted in the center comes back clean.  Approximately 35 to 45 minutes.  Serves six.

Enjoy!

Why?

While I was on the elliptical machine this morning, sweating puddles and wishing that the wheels wouldn’t creek so badly, my husband was having breakfast and reading the newspaper.  He told me that James Holmes’ killed twelve people, including a six year old child, and injured fifty-eight.   My thoughts turned to the victims who have lost their lives watching a movie, and to the families who are suffering right at this moment because of it.  To what his mom must be going through and blaming herself for.  It’s difficult for sensitive souls like myself to keep time to the music and just go on with life.  I have no way of knowing how horrible this specific tragedy has effected each of their souls, but I do empathize.

My next thought turns to how can I help.  I can’t.  I can’t change what’s happened.  After a few more minutes, I begin to wonder how it could have been prevented.  To say that we need to take away access to guns is like saying that closing all the fast food restaurants will prevent obesity.  If a mind is set on destruction of others and/or self, that mind is going to do what it sets out to do.

I have to believe that somewhere along the line of Holmes’ life, someone had to notice that this guy was more than eccentric.  He did not wake up on Thursday morning suddenly insane, in a room full of booby-traps and ammunition.  Someone noticed something wasn’t right and chose to mind there own business instead of making a phone call to the local authorities.   It’s not about blame, it’s about a person that just might have gotten help long ago if anyone had taken the initiative to notice that his behavior was psychotic.  

We need is to pay attention to what others are doing around us.  We need to get psychiatric counseling, not just pills, not just drugs, to those who can be helped.  For those who are beyond help, we need to be honest and place those folks in an institution for the criminally insane; permanently.

We await the motives behind Holme’s actions, because we think that if we know why, then we can figure out a way to protect our children, our families, ourselves.  Or so we’ll hope until the next time innocent children, teenagers, women and men are massacred at the hand of someone who’s mind no longer functions within the confines of a civilized society.

My husband went to work.  I finished my workout forgetting about the squeaking wheels.  So irrelevant in the light of my family not being killed in a movie theater yesterday.   Before we close our eyes to sleep this night, we will pray for the victims and families of the shooting tragedy in Aurora, CO.  For those who attended an event that was supposed to be fun, supposed to be entertainment, but instead, once again, has brought a nation in touch with her biggest fear.  Evil itself.

Rest in Peace Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron died, on June 26, 2012, at the age of 71.   We may find out any minute that she left one last book of essays or one last screenplay.  If it’s possible to add humor to illness and death, she’s the artist who would have accomplished it.  I feel like she still had something to say. 

As I read through her list of accomplishments I can’t help but imagine how my obituary might read if I died today.  

Jen started a novel, a teleplay and a stage play.  She wanted to write a screenplay with her husband.  Her computer was filled with roughed out ideas, and a file full of miscellaneous pieces of papers had character sketches on them.  She started a blog with good intentions.  Jen never finished what she started.  The carpeting she ripped from the stairs was never replaced.  Her bedroom was found to be painted in small blocks of color.  Apparently she never decided on one.  

It’s not that she didn’t live; she loved life.  She traveled all over the United States with her best friend, who by sheer gift from God, was also her husband.  She loved people and her family so very much.  Some of the love was not returned, but most was.  She was happy.  She had a bent toward sloth and procrastination.  She didn’t die with regret, not really.  She had it all, almost, but didn’t do everything God put her here to do.

It’s a bittersweet obit.  I want to say I’ll change.  I want to say the time is now, but I’ve said it more than once for many years and for some reason it never sticks.  I believe this.  At 50 it occurs to me that my time on earth is limited.  My mom died young.  Nora Ephron has died young.  I plan to die old, but at best, my life is half over and it went fast.  May my epitaph, read, she finally got it at 50, worked her ass off, and left this world with nothing left to say.

I Think I Will Buy Stock In The Power Company

My adorable, darling husband is genuinely the perfect man for me.  He has less than five faults.  I wake up in the morning, look into his sleepy time face, and say, "Thank You Lord for this man of mine."  I get my coffee, sit at my desk and start my day with the gratitude of how richly I have been blessed.  I have found true love, as I am still crazy about him after almost two decades.

When he kisses me goodbye, birds chirp and the children in the playground sing with glory at the love that emanates from our home.  I finish my Morning Pages (as directed by Julia Cameron's Artist Way, http://juliacameronlive.com), I skip out of my office and notice that the closet light has been left lit, despite the fact that I have asked this wonderful man to turn off the closet light when he has finished, no less than 4,927 times.  I look down the hall before frolicking down to the kitchen, and find that light in the den is also blazing brightly.

For 19 years I have been asking him to simply turn off a switch when he leaves a room.  I have left funny notes, angry notes, depending on the time of month, we've had conflicts that last days.  He's an Ohio State educated man.  He's very well read.  Logic and he are best of friends.  Why, I ask, can't he turn off a light switch?!

Most of us as children were reprimanded for a similar violation with the statement, "we don't have stock in the power company."  I remember wondering if we did have stock in the power company, would it be okay to leave the lights on?  On this crisp winter day, when I find myself wanting to send an ill-tempered text message to my beloved, I decide to give up my fight and buy stock in the power company.  The dividends alone will fund our next home, the green one.

Procrastination

or maybe just busy.  When I began this blog on November 11th, I committed to two posts per week.  Well two in one month is ballpark; an extra large ballpark.  I turned 50 in December (more about that in another post) and although the party was small, it still took a lot of planning.

Then there's Christmas.  I had finished the bulk of my shopping before Thanksgiving.  Good for me - told everyone how wonderful I am.  I was going to enjoy this Christmas.

Enter the reality of normal life being ridiculously busy, and the thought of adding just one simple task to an already over responsible day causing trauma (and drama too I suppose).  But add gift wrapping, card sending, tree buying, holiday party going, school play attending, cooking baking... and missing a nervous breakdown by a whisker on Santa's chin is eminent.

I'm 50 now.  I can control tasks, live life one day at a time, all will be smooth under my mature command.  Yeah, not so much, but thinking that it could be brings me great pleasure.

All this to say that I have ideas galore but no time to flesh them out.  On this day, two days before we make the resolutions that will all be broken by January 2nd, at noon,  I recommit to two posts per week.  Check that, one post per week.  Unless of course the stars align with Mars in the second coming of Jupiter; then I will post two per week.

An amazing 2012 to all five of my readers!

Menopause...

...is no joke.  While going through this season of my life,  I've often wondered how our foremothers did not instantly drop dead or go insane upon the first hot flash.  For those who have not had the pleasure, please allow me to describe a hot flash for you.

An engine, located just below your belly button, begins to build steam in your upper body without even asking if it's a good time and it's probably a really bad time.  The steam has no means of escaping because your pores have locked themselves shut.  One would think that this state of being would be uncomfortable enough, but alas it's not, so a bonfire is lit at your heals which then progresses up the back of your legs and spine at just the right pace to be described as, well, torturous.  The steamy burn continues, crawling up your neck, and heading toward your forehead where it will settle for about 30 seconds.  If your lucky, yes I said lucky, your skin will be kind to you, pores will open, steam will be released and you will break into an embarrassing sweat.  If not, the bellowing vapor will rush down the front of your body, dissipating somewhere around the top of your belly button. At his time the steam really is released and rushes out through the pores that have opened to the size of egg yolks, which puts out the fire and causing sweating in places you did not know you could.  The rapid temperature change will have you reaching for your Parka.

Because I am so blessed to be surrounded by family and friends that love me, and I want to keep it that way, I have found a few natural products that help immensely.  I do not have a Ph.D behind my name, I am not a herbalist and am receiving no financial gain.  I just wanted to share what I've learned and if it works for you, please pay it forward.

1.  1/4 cup of freshly ground flaxseeds every morning.  Pick up a coffee grinder just for this purpose.  Whole flax seeds can be found at most health food stores.  1/8 cup of whole seeds = 1/4 cup of ground.

2.  Female Formula by Dr. Shultz, www.herbdoc.com.  Taken as directed on bottle.

3.  FemmenessencePro by Natural Health International.  Take as directed.

4.  Pro-Gest by emerita.  This is the one I use, however, I imagine that there are others out there.

5.  Acupuncture.  Every body is different.  For me, I went about five sessions in a row and felt great.  After that, it varies, but on average I usually have two consecutive treatments every three or four months.

And then there is the magic formula for almost everything - exercise, eat lots of vegetables and lean protein.

Physical issues aside, creatively and spiritually I have found this season of my life to be pretty cool.  And everyone gives me a pass on the crazy because, (in a whisper please) "she's going through the change."

11-11-11

There is something magical about today's date, therefore a good day to start my first blog.

All the "how to's" about blogging state that I should have a subject matter in mind, which I do, sort of.  It will be about life as I see it depending on what's going on at that moment in time.  I hope this description is vague enough to keep me open to many possibilities.