Mindflight

Quick Borchch

I like this very much. I’ve made it a few times now and it’s my favorite borchch recipe. I spell it that way because it’s closer to the original Russian.

6 cups beef broth, canned or fresh 2 cups tomato juice 1 1-lb can beets with juice, sliced (or cubed) 1 small head of cabbage (prefer red), shredded ( or chopped) 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped 3 medium carrots, sliced (or a can of carrots) 2 Tbsp butter Salt and pepper 2 cloves garlic (or more) 2 Tbsp. chopped dill 2 Tbsp. chopped parsley Sour cream (optional)

Combine beef broth, tomato juice, and beets and their liquid. Bring to boil. Add shredded cabbage and cook until cabbage is soft but not mushy, 25-30 minutes. Saute onion and carrots in butter until soft and add to cabbage mixture. Taste for seasoning, amount of salt will depend on saltiness of beef broth. Therefore, unsalted beef broth is better so you can control the levels. Add salt and pepper to taste. Approximately 5 minutes before serving add chopped garlic, dill and parsley to soup. Taste for seasoning, and serve with sour cream on the side.

Who knew I could eat beets without gagging? The dill really helps take away the “dirt flavor” of the beets. You can skip sauteeing the carrots and onions, but if you do, add the carrots with the cabbage so they cook properly, then add the onions with the garlic and dill and parsley.

A new and delicious Sundae

Food and Cooking

This sundae is my own creation. It sounds odd but it is really good.

Start with slicing a banana into the bottom of the ice cream bowl.

Next, scoop some vanilla ice cream on top. The more natural the better. I like Breyers Natural vanilla. It has few ingredients, no preservatives, and is made with pure bits of Madagascar Vanilla bean.

Now, drizzle a little creamy peanut butter on top…

Finally, drizzle some blackstrap, or at the very least dark, molasses on top.

Enjoy! The mix of flavors is unusual but INCREDIBLE. The way I make it, it even gives you some food value.

Relief for a Sore Back

Healthy Living

I haven’t been one for salves and unguents untill recently, but I have to say I love this salve my coworker makes. Much like the Healing Hand salve I mentioned in my earlier post about my ears, this stuff is made with good ingredients and it really works, and works fast. He makes it in such a way that the potency is excellent, and though it has a little lavendar essential oil in it, he didn’t over doe it.

Basically, it’s a salve of skullcap and valerian in a base of olive oil and beeswax. A little lavendar scent. That’s it. I’m not afraid to share the ingredients, because they are listed on his Etsy site, and all the artistry is in how it’s made – but this stuff is really great. The two active ingredients have a synergistic effect and do a great job relaxing the muscles. They don’t make you sleepy either because it’s not being ingested.

I have fixed sore necks and backs several times now, my own and my partner’s, and I am already planning my next purchase. I really like using something that is simple, free of extra ingredients, works better than what I could buy at the store, and is still far less expensive than anything at the pharmacy. Sometime I’ll make my own!

Entertainment: Change for Change’s Sake

Tips for Writers

If we are going to redo a well known story, I hope that the creators have a really good reason to make those changes. I don’t care if a retelling or reboot is different than the original if there’s a good reason other than “hey, we need more fart jokes” or “hey, it was boring when it made sense. Let’s make it NOT make sense.” I also have no problem where reboots or retellings cause the original material to make MORE sense, but this is usually quite rare.

I’m sick and tired of creators who want to tell a story, but are too lazy to write their own Instead they decide to use someone else’s story, and then make changes to it with no rhyme or reason. Take the movie “Starship Troopers” for example. Paul Verhoeven turned a thoughtful, Libertarian story into a film that simultaneously ridiculed the original material and also made it look like it supported fascism. A book that made some damn good points was turned into an orgy of mindless gore and chest thumping faux patriotism. Robert Heinlein is probably spinning in his grave.

There are so many examples of this, if you look around. “Let’s throw in a kid. A kid makes everything better.” “This character would be more interesting if they were a man/woman.” “Let’s take the original character, and completely flip everything around including their national origin and personality.” “How about changing the philosophical intent of the book/movie/game/whatever? That’s a good trick!” “Why? Because we can.”

How about a remake of a book or a movie that went closer to the original intent?

How about you? Have you seen this happening too?

Ben Franklin Goes Shopping

Jokes and Humor, Thoughts About Life

I think I saw Ben Franklin at the grocery store.

Okay, okay, I know it couldn’t have been him. It’s not as if he is some immortal that just goes around shopping at large supermarkets in the desert Southwest, but it sure looked like him.

I was walking into my local Fry’s. It was a weekend and I was on a morning mission for Tasty. As I selected the finest cart I could find and turned it around to go the rest of the way into the store, I saw an older gentleman who was the absolute spitting image of the celebrated Mr. Franklin. He had a roundish face, and a bit of extra on his chin, and brown somewhat fluffy hair, swept back from a slightly receding hairline, and a fine, high brow. He even had little, round, gold spectacles of the same type I’ve seen in many a painting.

I would have thought he was from a performer’s troupe only he was wearing shorts and modern clothes. He gave me a knowing smile and little nod, and headed out of the store.

I will probably never see this guy again. He raises in me a great and terrible curiosity. If I ever do see him, I wonder if I will have the brazenness to call out “Hey, Ben?”

(And I thought my DAD looked like Franklin? This guy has him beaten all hollow.)

Secret Weapon: Instant Iced Tea

Food and Cooking

It’s getting hot where I am, this weekend it’s in the teens. Hundred and teens, that is. Needless to say, there is a lot of need for cool, tasty drinks. And I’m a fan of anything with tea in it. The caffeine and l-theanine help me relax focus and the taste keeps me drinking. But brewing can be a pain and nobody likes steam on a hot day!

Enter Lipton’s instant iced tea! It comes in a nice big jar, and all you have to do is add it to water just like instant coffee. There isn’t any sugar, so you can add your own, or stevia, or flavorings, or whatever you want. I love things that are customizable and easy to use.

A really tasty thing to do is to add fruit juice to this, maybe a quarter of a cup, and suddenly you have a Snapple clone with less sugar!

Next, I plan to take dried hibiscus flowers and cold brew them with my instant tea. That will make a good mix, I think, and it seems like hibiscus helps me rehydrate.

Tears are good for you!

Healthy Living

Did you know that it’s very healthy to cry?

Tears serve several purposes. First, they lubricate and protect the eyes. If you don’t produce enough of them you can actually go blind.

Second, tears was away dirt and dust. This is a very good thing.

And third, tears actually carry away stress toxins that build up in the brain. So at those times when you want to cry but you can’t think of any reason to be sad, maybe it’s because you’ve had a stressful time of it and your brain needs to wash those stress toxins away.

If you do have a good, hard cry, you will nearly always feel better afterwards. Think of it as your brain taking a shower!

(If I need to cry, I usually read my mom’s poetry. Some of it really strikes me on a deep emotional level. Working on her anthology just now, I’ve had a good cry, and I can tell you I feel better for it.)

Parsley: the Steatlh Superfood

Food and Cooking, Healthy Living

In many dishes, parsley is just a garnish. After seeing all the benefits this humble leaf has, you may consider finding new ways to sneak it into your diet!

The reason why parsley is such a common garnish is that not only is it pretty, but parsley actualy freshens the breath when you chew it. It also reduces gas, improves digestion, and can even reduce the body odor caused by eating garlic. Garlic is really good for you so this is a nice way to mitigate it’s odorous effects.

Parsley is a mild diuretic, too. If I eat a small handful of it, it clears up the fluid in my legs quite nicely. Parsley root has a much stronger effect.

On top of that, parsley is rich in vitamins and minerals!

From Google:

Parsley contains Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid, Phosphorus and Zinc, and is a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

You could: Add it to pesto or other green sauces Chop it up and sneak it into soups and casseroles Put it into vegetable juices Chop and sprinkle into salad Chop and hide in pizza toppings

Or you can do what I do and just eat a handful, like a barbarian!

Fun With Scrounging

Jokes and Humor, Thoughts About Life

I needed a four by four post, two to three feet in length. I needed it to build a scratching post for my furry friends. I have a major home improvement store two blocks away and it sells lumber. Problem solved, right?

Wrong….

I went there, to the large, well stocked lumber section. Found an employee who was working in that section, assigned to it, not just passing through. I asked her where I could find scrap lumber, and if there were any short lengths of four by four. She said there wasn’t anywhere I could buy scrap lumber, that they threw it all away, but I could buy an eight foot four by four instead. I said fine, left.

I found my one by twelve board I needed for the base of the scratching post, and grumpily picked out a six foot section of two by four. Perhaps I could cut it in half, nail the halves together, and make a four by four, I thought. When I found an employee to run the saw, I asked him if there was any place I could buy a section of four by four – and he said maybe.

We went to the scrap lumber section (that didn’t exist according to the other employee) and sure enough, there was a big ten foot four by four at 70% off! We talked about it, he realized he’d been looking for some chunks of four by four as well, and we ended up each taking part of the wood.

Amazing how hard it is to get a short piece! I’ll remember that for next time.

Writing Tackle: Sealing Wax

Tips for Writers

Sometimes I have fun writing letters. At my best, I had a box full of interesting paper, stickers, cool pens, and even a bronze seal with a stick of sealing wax to use it with. I need to make another one of those, because they are fun!

Sealing wax is neat stuff. It’s more pliable than candle wax, which will just break. You light the little wax “candle” and drip a blob onto your paper, or whatever you want to seal shut. As the wax is still soft, then you stamp it with your seal, which can even be a signet ring. I really wish I’d done a better job making my signet ring in college, I may have to make a stamp from Sculpey clay to replace it.

Of course, seals were often used by kings and nobles in medieval times onward, and are still occasionally used on official documents. It’s a fun way to lend an aura of regality to a letter or note. You can get seals and sealing wax at stationery stores, in all different colors. Look for something that looks like a small square candle, like this: