Posts on Matriarchy's profile

Janice Cook: A full freezer just means you can take a break from cooking and eat the fruits of your labor!

Janice Cook: i don't usually love velveeta but this mac and cheese recipe has a neat tang from the creamed corn so maybe it would make the velveeta not the predominant flavor? - http://wegottaeat.com/janice.cook/recipes/kienas-creamy-ham-and-cheese-mac. that being said, in general i don't find the reduced fat cheese to be worthwhile. i'll reduce fat in other areas.

Matriarchy: I agree - good cheese is worth the fat. I did make a variation of the Paula Deen mac-n-cheese that was not 5-star special, but was very acceptable for a weeknight. Janice, I will try yours next - thanks!

Janice Cook: Hope you had a good birthday. I'm not always in the mood to enter in recipes but once I get in a groove it's so nice to have them in. The more that are in here the more choices I have when I plan for the week. I also have a huge backlog and more recipes than I could try in a lifetime at the same time.

Margaret : Hope you had a great birthday - sorry I'm so late! Can't wait to see all of your new recipes on WGE! :)

Matriarchy: I need a name for this biz, if anyone has an idea.

Traci Downing: Sounds delicious. How about "Fresh Eats", "Fresh Cuts", "Wholesome Goods", "Junk in Disguise", "Earthy Gems", "Earth Wise", "Earthy Treats", "Grains and veggies", "Veggies Rock".

Matriarchy: This vending plan did not pan out. I have ongoing car trouble, and it seemed like too much of a gamble, if something stopped me from getting there after I bought food. But it is an idea I am not giving up on, just yet. Putting it away for now, to come back to when I have reliable transport again.

Janice Cook: Best wishes with your recovery. I like the idea of putting healthy, pure foods in your body but pureeing them. The processed foods they've created are quite astonishing. It makes my head spin to see all of the "healthy" items that have been created for us.

Dawn Knowlton: Wooohoooo! I am so happy for you. It is such a big step to take...I know. But with the band in place to help you along, some of the "weight" will be taken off your shoulders and mind and you can think about how you can live a healthier and more wonderful life! If I can help in any way, please let me know. Best of luck on this new journey!!

Matriarchy: Thanks, guys! I think I am going to be focusing on putting the maximum flavor and texture into every bite. I know I will feel full quickly, but that doesn't mean I will have had "mouth hunger" satisfied. I have less of the "head hunger" they talk about, and more of a craving for flavor and texture. (Which I am not getting in the puree stage of food I am in right now.) I chewed the juice out of a piece of roast pork and spit the rest out - LOL! I also ate a cracker with hummus, green tomato chutney, and a dab of hot sauce - chewed into nonexistence. I have far less problem with the sugars they keep warning me away from, and more with savory things I cannot have yet. I did find a new flavor combo: cream of wheat swirled with baby food organic sweet potatoes and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Margaret : My thoughts and prayers are with you for your recovery. I hope this past month has brought you closer to foods you can chew! :) And I hope that your recovery is moving along well too.

Dawn Knowlton: How about wraps? Whole wheat tortillas with pimento cheese or turkey and cheese with a little schmear of low-fat cream cheese. You can also make fruit kebabs to make it all utensil free. :)

Margaret : Matriarchy - what a great way to spend the day!! :) And that's areat idea, Dawn! You could also add bean sprouts to the wraps too. Love bean sprouts and cream cheese!

Matriarchy: I have a Groupon that will get me a dozen large fresh bagel-shop bagels for $4. Cut into quarters, that's 48 pieces. I can offer cream cheese, peanut butter, and home-made hummus with them. I don't have to provide the whole menu. But I am going to try the turkey wrap idea on a smaller population of middle-school kids, as a snack at another event. I fell out of my sprout habit when we didn't eat them fast enough. But that's another good idea for an upcoming weekend event.

Janice Cook: Barefoot Contessa (food network) has a blue cheese cracker recipe that looks interesting. We aren't blue cheese lovers but if you are I wanted to share.

Matriarchy: Good one, Janice - I will try that. We are a bit snowbound today, so it is a good time to bake up a storm.

Janice Cook: We're snowbound too. Tomorrow will be a big cooking day for us. Today I'll be entering in recipes now and then to take a break from other household chores.

Matriarchy: I might steal that plan! I have a backlog of unentered recipes bookmarked.

Margaret : I've never tried making my own crackers - what a great idea! I just picked up 6 new cookbooks at the library, so I'll be busy most of this week entering recipes!

Janice Cook: It does sound fun . . .especially if there is a recipe for healthy ones. I'd probably be willing to make them myself if they were healthier than what I could find at the store.

Matriarchy: I am going to try this wheat cracker recipe, Janice - I will tell you how it comes out. http://wegottaeat.com/matriarchy/recipes/wheat-crackers

Janice Cook: Thanks - best wishes

Matriarchy: Don't try that recipe! I don't know if I did it wrong, or the recipe is flawed. They are doughy and chewy and taste way too floury. I am going to try other recipes until I get one to come out right - then I will try for "healthy."

Janice Cook: Thanks for keeping us posted. Sorry it didn't work out.

Janice Cook: if you haven't tried Giada de Laurentis' butternut squash lasagna yet it's amazing

Matriarchy: Ooh. I will look for that. I also found Batali's Roasted Squash Pizza.

Eunice : squash ravioli (from wonton wrappers) with a browned butter sage sauce drizzled on top...mmmm...

Matriarchy: Wow.

Matriarchy: This soup is fast-becoming a wonderful cheap base for all sorts of things. It took less than half an hour to make 3 quarts of soup. We can add curry or pesto, all sorts of leftover or grilled meat, veggies, fresh herbs, bacon, seafood. Ooo... saffron.

Lorrae : this is a great experiment! Thats so interesting that it turned out just as good... and even better!

Matriarchy: One trial isn't too much of an experiment, scientifically, but it was good enough to reassure me that my pumpkin recipes are generally going to turn out fine with homegrown pumpkin. Someone one told me that if I freeze the pumpkin, it will be looser, so I might set it in a sieve lined with a dish towel after I thaw it. I can get a lot of inexpensive local pumpkins and squash, and they last well into the winter and late spring.

Matriarchy: Yep. Adding a corn pudding. http://wegottaeat.com/matriarchy/recipes/copes-corn-casserole

Matriarchy: Couldn't get the corn in the oven. Tomorrow, with leftovers.

Matriarchy: FAIL: Biscuits. The bag of self-rising White Lily flour I have been hoarding is too old - the baking powder failed, and I think I made hardtack! Also, filled the house with smoke when the turkey dripped outside the pan onto the floor of the oven. But the turkey was beautiful when it was done. My daughter made luscious gravy from pan drippings and turkey stock I got from simmering the neck. Must get back now... we still have to cut the coconut sweet potato pie my sweetie man made for us.

Matriarchy: Oh, here is the turkey method, if anyone wants to know: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Matriarchy: 3 quart of veggie stock left and no room in the freezer. Lookin' for soup recipes. Something with butternut squash and some zing, I think.

Dawn Knowlton: Matriarchy - I'm curious about this "potato filling." I grew up in PA (Northwest area) and my remaining family is in and around PA Dutch country (Middletown and Reading). Do you have a recipe to share? :o)

Matriarchy: I don't have a written recipe. They tend to vary between families. You basically make a batch of mashed potatoes with milk and butter. Then, you saute diced celery and onion in butter, add a bunch of bread cubes, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning (or fresh herbs) - a basic batch of stuffing. Then you fold the two batches together, put it in a casserole dish, and bake until the top is browned. You could do this with leftovers after the big day, too - which is how I think it developed.

Dawn Knowlton: What a small world, Matriarchy! After you shared this info I rec'd an email from my aunt in Reading, Pa sharing the delights of her Thanksgiving meal - she actually spent the holiday at a friend's house. One item she mentioned, in her own words were "Mashed Potato Pennsylvania Dutch Filling (it's a local thing...spuds are mixed it with bread, onions & celery)." Sounds delish to me! Mashed Potatoes and stuffing are my two favorite dishes on the holiday table. :o)

Matriarchy: Exactly! I live in Reading, PA. You find Potato filling in diners throughout Berks, Lancaster, York, and Chester counties - and probably anywhere PA Dutch families moved. I am betting it moves with the Amish and Mennonite communities as they migrate to find farm land.

Matriarchy: Oh, and I found a promising cookbook at the library: "Double Take: One Fabulous Recipe, Two Finished Dishes - Feeding Vegetarians and Omnivores Together." Can't wait to find time to go through it for ideas. If I like it a lot, it sells used for only 45 cents at Amazon (plus shipping).

Dawn Knowlton: What a great concept for a cookbook!

Matriarchy: I thought so, too!

Margaret : That sounds like a great book Matriarchy! I think I'll maybe pick up a copy - let me know what you think!

Doris Clark: :) My book came today! I ordered a copy because the catalogue search for the book in the metro-library system here had no results.

Matriarchy: She eats dairy and eggs, and is going to eat high-quality fish once a week. So we also have assorted cheese, yogurt, and milk. We don't bake our own bread, but we get whole grain. I'd like to find some kind of flatbread we can produce ourselves.

Eunice : how about miso and dried shitake mushrooms? makes for easy comfort food. soak mushrooms in boiled water for at least 10 minutes; squeeze out excess liquid (retain the liquid for broth) and thinly slice the caps (saving the tough stems for stock). thinly slice or julienne root vegetables like carrots, turnip, parsnip or even daikon, if available. drop vegetable and mushroom slices into a saucepan of already boiling vegetable broth and simmer until vegetables almost tender. remove from heat and add miso. eat with rice. garnish with thinly sliced green onions, chopped cilantro and perhaps thinly sliced omelette strips. tofu cubes can be added at the same time that you are adding the rest of the ingredients to the broth for simmering. i also like to drizzle on chile oil and a twist of lemon. and for the meat eaters, you can add meats of your choice when pouring broth over rice like chicken strips or thinly slice beef fillets like in Vietnamese Phở.

Matriarchy: ::drool:: Dried mushrooms are a great pantry idea. And chili oil. Gonna have to paste that recipe idea of yours into her email. :-)

Traci Downing: Isn't it weird when teens do this? I don't get it. My sister did this and my son's friend is doing the veg thing too.

Matriarchy: It's sorta my fault. She said, "I love vegetables - I think I could be a vegetarian with no problem." And then I said, "Ha! You could never give up the meaty goodness." And she said, "Fine! I'll show YOU!" **sigh**

Eunice : as one of the vegetarians here on WGE, i think that's a beautiful thing ;)

Doris Clark: Peach pie/cobbler is my most favorite of desserts. Can't wait to try this peach recipe. It's really different from any cobbler recipe I've made. I know your family loved sitting down to the table for this meal. Happy cooking and eat'n.

Dawn Knowlton: I wish I had the time to work a recipe up for this. How fun! Unfortunately, every September is a bear of a month. Between school, a yearly fundraiser that I am involved with, and this year we have a friend who is very ill...I don't have a spare moment. Are you going to enter a recipe?

Matriarchy: I feel like I want to - I take food to church potlucks all the time, and even made it a recipe tag. But my stuff is all "homestyle" and I feel like it is not trendy enough for the NYT. But I am thinking.

Eunice : Matriarchy, i think you should. screw trendy; "homestyle" is timeless.

Eunice : Matriarchy, by grainy do you mean it's a harder, crunchier texture than you like? brining with salt should help as contrary to popular myth, it does help in breaking down the cellulose walls of the bean, making the texture softer. it does such a great job of breaking them down, that if you want whole beans, this is not the way to go as it just might disintegrate your beans. vinegar, or anything acidic, is one ingredient that will harden the bean. baking soda, as it's alkaline as opposed to acidic, causes the opposite reaction and makes the beans more soluble. but baking soda supposedly removes precious nutrients so... if you have hard water, that makes for a harder bean. also, the older the beans are, the longer it will take to cook them, so you will have to test them yourself and cook it to the texture that you want it. half an hour of cooking seems too little for your beans. i've also heard of recipes that use pressure cooking to make beans and that that was the preferred method by many bean lovers. perhaps it'll just blast some smoothness into your beans! hope that helps, all my food science geekery.

Eunice : ehhh...and here's a link to food science geekery: Tough beans: which cooking liquids slow softening the most. enjoy!

Matriarchy: Wow. That was magnificent geekery! I do have hard water, and did not think of that factor. By "grainy," I mean that once ground up into hummus, the hummus is not as smooth as that I make from canned chickpeas. I ran it through the food processor much longer than normal, and it didn't get less grainy. It tastes good, and we are eating it, but we all liked the smoother texture better. I just bought a fresh bag of chickpeas, to make sure they are not just old. This time, I am going to just cook them longer, and see if that was the problem. Then, I will grind them with some cooking liquid and see what kind of texture I get, before I add the rest of the more expensive ingredients (tahini, good olive oil, etc).

Margaret : Never tried to make my own canned soup, but I do use a lot of dried ingredients in soups (mostly beans). Those last for ages and ages. Let me know how this works for you though... I'd be interested in hearing about it. Sorry I can't be of any help.

Matriarchy: It is the broccoli and cauliflower that got me thinking. I froze a lot last year, but it comes out mushy and I end up making soup. Seems like I should just make the soup and be done with it. But it will take up a lot of jar space, so I was thinking how to condense it so I could add water/milk later. Love the season where I can pay $1 for a giant head of local broccoli, but I have not yet settled on a way "put some up." We buy broccoli year-round.

Margaret : Can you dehydrate broccoli? We usually get it fresh, but I have some frozen that I use in soups or stir frys. Or maybe you could pickle it, but that won't work in a soup application, I'm afraid. Hmm....

Doris Clark: Last season when we had so much broccoli from the garden, I just made the soup, "Garden Fresh Broccoli Soup" ( don't know how to link this), and froze it in cartons.Good luck working it out and let us know. Incidentally, for the longest time I have been looking and wishing for a homemade way to replace the canned soup (Campbell's) ingredient in so many recipes. I don't feel confident about any of my results.

Matriarchy: Doris, I am going to try your broccoli soup recipe, and if my family likes it, I will use your freezing method. Then I would just make the milk base and add the thawed puree. My family's favorite soup recipe cooks the broth and dairy together, so it breaks when it is frozen. When you say you frozen it in "cartons" - what do you mean? Waxed-cardboard milk cartons?

Doris Clark: Actually, it was (washed, recycled) ice cream cartons. Then I bought some containers from a restaurant supply place near me. Now that you mentioned it, I remember in the past, having used milk cartons. I had forgotten doing that, it's been years since my milk wasn't bought in plastic jugs.

Matriarchy: Good point. Most milk is in plastic. Didn't think of ice cream! Good idea! I buy deli containers from restuarant supply, too, but I like to recycle when I can.

Doris Clark: The milk cartons have a better shape for shelf spacing, my Blue Bell's are round.

Matriarchy: And in the future, I need to do a better job of both making more, and stashing some away where no one remembers to use it until February, when we need to remember that spring is coming.

Dawn Knowlton: I am down to only two jars left of the strawberry jam that I made in the spring! I have a bad/good habit of giving my jams away because everyone keeps asking me for some. :o) I think I may stash one of those two jars deep, deep, deep in the back of the freezer in our garage so I find it many months from now. *lol*

Matriarchy: Next spring, invite all those jam-eaters to a group canning session, so they can help make their own, and stop mooching. LOL

Lorrae : great post! Thank you for the tips, and your suggestion for refrigerator jam! That's been working great for the ones I'll use at home. Thank you!

Matriarchy: We added salt, pepper, sage, and thyme to the sauce, and ate it with mashed and corn-on-the cob. It was fabulous! I am changing that recipe to turn it into this!

Matriarchy: I think I might have accidentally made turkey confit in a crockpot.

Matriarchy: She said too much onion. But she can "tolerate" the sauce. LOL

Carolyn Beck: This recipe sounds delicious - just bookmarked it to try this weekend - thanks !!

Traci Downing: You are incredible!!! I've never made jams but have always wanted to. I'm just afraid of the canning process. Do you have any recommendations?

Matriarchy: Be fearless! If a batch comes out runny, consider it yogurt or ice cream topping. If it overgels, melt it in a pan and use it as pastry glaze. Experiment! Make small batches of one or two jars and just put them in the fridge, to get started. Buy a "Ball Blue Book" found with the canning jars at your grocery store or Walmart. If you don't have a canner, put a round wire cake rack in the bottom of a stock pot and use that to boil your jars for 10 min. I experiment with less sugar, no sugar, no pectin. There are lots of recipes to be found online. Food blogs, here on WGE, canning sites, you-pick orchard websites. I started just a year or two ago, and I love it. In a water bath canner, I do jam, chutney, pickles, applesauce, tomatoes. I have a pressure canner, but have not tried it yet - I want to can homemade stock and soup. Look for a canning group near you - ask at your local university cooperative extension service; they might have classes. Even a high school home economics teacher might be able to help you.

Carolyn Beck: I love making jelly/jam...my oldest son is diabetic, so I often substituted Splenda for the sugar in my jam recipes, so he could enjoy strawberry, apricot, peach, and even rhubarb jam on his toast and bagels w/out adding any extra carbohydrates.

Matriarchy: Turned out very tender! And the Spinach Pasta Bake I am inventing had a good first trial run. All-in-all, not a bad day in the kitchen.

Janice Cook: What do you mean by catalog the bookmarks? As far as I can see the bookmarks stay in one giant pile. The ones I enter myself I rate as soon as I make them and remove the ones I don't like (or mark them as 2 stars so I can remember to remove them later). But I haven't seen a way to sort the bookmarked recipes. I just try to plan a menu from that section every couple of weeks instead of my core cookbook. Tell me more about your plan - maybe I'm missing something.

Matriarchy: Sorry. That was misleading choice of words. I meant that I have them externally bookmarked in Delicious.com, the bookmark manager I use for web browsing. I don't always have time to immediately enter an interesting recipe discovery on WGE, so I just tag them as "recipe" and save them to my bookmarks. I need to sort through them and enter them on WEG, so I remember to start trying them. The bookmarks on WEG itself - no, I don't have a way to sort or re-tag them in my own tag categories. I only "see" them if I am using Search. If I am just looking from my own tags, I forget to check my WGE-bookmarked recipes. I like your plan of deliberately planning menus from the bookmarks. Wish we had a way to flag them in some way once we try them. I guess the alternative is to re-enter it our own recipes so we can tag and rate it. When I try a recipe that isn't perfect, but I want to try it again with tweaks, I put my suggestions in a note and rate it with 3 stars. I can't do that with bookmarked recipes.

Janice Cook: OK - I just wanted to check. Right now when I get a new cooking magazine I read it and enter in all the ones I want to try immediately (within a day or two). I try to also sit down for a chunk of time each weekend and entered in my "tried and true" recipes or my collection of recipes I want to try that accumulated before I started using WGE but it's hard to catch up. Thanks for clarifying. On those weeks that I cook from bookmarks I delete ones I didn't care for. If I did like it, I make a comment to the person who shared it, and then enter it in as my own recipe so I can rate it (I usually put their name in the title to remind me where I got it from).

Matriarchy: I think I have most of my tried-and-true in here now, but I have a big backlog of clipped recipes, and now a large lot of family recipes from cleaning out my mother's house. And the internet recipes just keep coming! I promised myself not to save any more until I catch up, so hopefully I will stick to my plan to enter a handful every day.

Janice Cook: Oh I have no restraint with saving recipes. What if that had the potential to be my new absolute favorite recipe!! I have like 10 recipes that I can't imagine my life without and all of them were surprises. I can't tell yet when I make something for the first time what it's potential is. Good luck with your project!

Matriarchy: Thank you! For months, I was kind of overwhelmed with the task of de-hoarding my mom's house. Food got less homemade. But now I gettin gback into some of my old patterns of better cooking. Not quire ready for cheese-making. Hoping to start making yogurt again this week. I did find lots of vintage cooking and serving pieces. Nice to have "heirloom" cast iron, canning jars, and cake stands.

Dave Weaver: Actually it was because you have done a lot to help shape the direction of our website. But you do have a ridiculous amount of recipes ;)

Matriarchy: I am going to try to get more involved again. Lots of great stuff happening here at WGE. I have been distracted.

Eunice : welcome back, Matriarchy! hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Traci Downing: That was a really nice gesture! Kudos!!

Eunice : what a lovely idea! bottled aromas of food!!! so you could make us all even more jealous and our stomache all grumbly for the wanting of eating your food. sorry that you have to shoulder so much though.

Eunice : my grandmother taught me how to make the cream puffs. she passed away last December and i think of her every time i make them. so to think that it's made in commemoration of someone else...i'm getting weepy typing this.

Matriarchy: It was a lovely service for a beautiful woman who mothered many people and was universally loved. She and I were on the board at our church. People sang and read poetry and shared stories. I found out that she got her a pilot's license when she was 16 - in 1939. She died in April at 86, and it took until now for her family to feel that they could handle a memorial service. It was well worth your grandmother's cream puffs (and getting up at 6am to make them). I made two batches of small puffs - only took 22-24 minutes to cook. I let the custard cool while I went to church, then came back and filled the puffs with a pastry syringe right before the service, so they would not be soggy. Everyone loved them, even though the competition was tough. Isabelle was known for her pie, and her family members brought lots of it. I am getting Isabelle's recipe for very good Shoo Fly Cake. I love having recipes from people I know - it's a memory I can visit over and over again.

Eunice : i hope that in my mumbling weepiness, it didn't come off as disapproval on my part. rereading my post, i can see that it might have sounded that way. i'm so glad that the cream puffs were used for her memorial and proud! and it was beautiful that everybody else contributed with recipes for which she was known. this is a testament to the love that your friend inspired in people. you are so right! there's something special about recipes from people you know and love, especially from those who are no longer are here for you to share the bounty with. my heartfelt condolences to your friend's family and friends. my grandma struck quite a figure in our huge family and going back to visit...it's just not the same. so the fact that a recipe that brings so such a flood of memories to me is used to commemorate somebody else's great life, did cause me to be weepy, but only because of the appropriateness that it was used that way, to memorialize somebody who is greatly missed and still dearly loved.

Matriarchy: Oh no - I did not read disapproval in your message. Just giving you more details to weep over. :-)

Eunice : thanks for the details!

Doris Clark: mmm...Coconut sweet potato pie sounds yummy. Would the hubby share the recipe or is it privileged information. When you start cooking, the aunties might as well sit down.

Matriarchy: But I wonder... should I let the aunties win, and beg for the recipes, to preserve family harmony? It would be OK if the favorite nephew won.. but the nephew's mouthy woman? On the other hand, I want them to know I have mad skillz.

Matriarchy: I decided to go use my brother's food processor. So, now I have pesto to freeze in lumps. When we moved here, I packed most of our kitchen into storage to bring the least possible to Mom's stuffed house. And, I knew she had appliances. But they hadn't been used in 10-15 years, and obviously did not hold up well. I'll go dig out my food processor.

Eunice : glad you're back, Matriarchy! would love to send out a care package to you as it sounds like you've had a very full year and could use some homemade nourishments.

Doris Clark: It's great to have you back, Matriarchy. You have been on my mind so much and wondering how your mom is. (I left my home in Chicago to be my mom's caregiver)It's a tough go. So glad you are past the transition, hope things will be easier now. I look forward to the news from your kitchen.

Eunice : the honey-mustard steamed carrots sounds great! do you have that as part of your gi-normous list of recipes?

Matriarchy: Nope. Just julienned them, steamed them while I made the salad, then tossed the carrots with a bit of butter, a squeeze of honey, and a dab of Dijon.

Eunice : brilliant! will have to try that. thanks Matriarchy!

Eunice : good luck! i would miss all that butter and cream and cheese, too.

Matriarchy: It's weird. My mother's normal healthy diet worked for years. Her cholesterol is 190 and her blood pressure is low. The carotid artery testing said she has almost no plaque, and she has no heart problems. But now that she had the mini-stroke (probably brought on by heat exhaustion), they put her on BP meds and a statin to lower her lipids, saying that diet already got her as far as it would, and that they wanted her readings to be "below normal" to reduce her stoke risk. So - is the medication going to do the heavy lifting? The "Heart Healthy" diet they recommended was already how she ate. I'm not sure I want her to starving for the last few years of her life, just to stick to "the standard regimin" for stroke patients. The literature a refers to patients that already had health problems and ate poorly. It seems to have nothing to sat to patients that did all the right things for decades - and had a stroke anyway! I think she oughta be able to eat the occasional cup of decent soup.

Eunice : oh that's harsh...and so unfair. i recall reading somewhere how fat in moderation is actually good for you. i need to see if i can re-find that article and send that info to you.

Carolyn Beck: Unfortunately, now that your Mom has had her first stroke, statistically her stroke risk is automatically elevated, despite "doing all the right things". Right now the statin is the important additive to her regimin to keep her lipids on the low side, but I say go for the occasional cup of decent soup as well! (I am an RN who manages the Stroke Registry at the hospital I work at) Even if you do all the right things, people can have strokes despite your best efforts at maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It sounds like you and your Mom are doing all the right things, so I bet that you will find a way to incorporate your delicious recipes into your mom's lifestyle. Good luck !!

Matriarchy: Thanks, Carolyn! At some point, it's just "your time to go," no matter how many right things you do. She's 82, so I have a limited interest in making her last years a miserable effort to achieve some magic blood test numbers, at the cost of her enjoyment of life. Personally, I think I would rather go quickly from a stroke than linger with cancer or a degenerative illness. Now, fortunately for Mom, some of her favorite things are also very good for her - fresh green beans from the garden, crunchy salads, fresh fruit, baked sweet potatoes, etc.

Matriarchy: I don't know how to look at stats - where do I find that info?

Eunice : it's part of your Profile on the tabs on the right...a whopping 353 hits! you still reign supreme. site is looking pretty nifty, don't you think? hope you and your family are doing well. how's your mom?

Eunice : you are one inspiring powerhouse, Matriarchy...in awe with all the things you've managed to accomplish with all these events swirling around in your life. wishing you and your family much good vibes and all that. by the way, everyone should check out Matriarchy's blog. it's excellent! http://rampingup.blogspot.com

DELETED DELETED: I'll take some jelly please!

Eunice : ...Tyler's hungry. perhaps it's a prolonged case of jetlag?

Matriarchy: Things are still swirling, and it's been raining a lot, but I hope to pick strawberries on Saturday morning, and crank out some jelly in the afternoon.

Matriarchy: Oh, and Bing Cherry picking opens next weekend on my birthday! I love me some cherries!

Eunice : raining here in Chicago, too. woohoo, Matriarchy's back!! happy birthday!