[the_old_crowd] happy merry

[Kat Macfarlane]

Just curious. Why no fun spicy stuff? Not only does spicy stuff not 
irritate the stomach (at least as far as my reading goes), it actually 
aids digestion and, as any chili-head will tell you, triggers the 
release of all sorts of endorphins, explaining the euphoria many people 
feel at the end of a fiery meal. What you need to watch out for is the 
fat, especially hard fat, that is usually part of such an ethnic or 
fast-food meal. I have learned the hard way that every time I eat at 
McDonald's, I get throwing-up sick, and food in an Indian restaurant 
goes through me like a hot knife through butter (too much ghee; when I 
cook Indian food at home, no problem).

I don't know what part of the world you're in, but out here on the 
central coast of California, organic is the word of the day, and both 
mainstream and alternative markets are pushing it for all they're worth, 
both fresh and in cans, bottles, tubs, plastic wrap,...well, you get the 
picture. Organics include beans of all sorts, meat of all sorts, 
tomatoes and other fruits and veggies of all sorts, and dairy products 
including cheese. I bring up organics because if they are in cans, 
bottles, etc., they are usually missing the preservatives and other 
chemicals you and I and most of the people I know want to avoid.

If you can't have gluten but are a pasta-head, check out rice-flour 
pasta. My ex-roommate, who was allergic to everything, got along well on 
rice-flour pasta and pizza.

Are you at all interested in cooking? If so, I will refer you to my 
Virtual Cookbook <http://www.katnmac.com/VirtualCookbook.htm>. As one of 
my friends said after working her way happily through it, "If you are 
what you eat, you're cheap, fast, and easy."

A couple of questions to ask your ever-so-prohibitive doctor:

    * Where does fiber fit into all this?
    * Am I allowed to cook with/drink wine?

I've read /Beedle the Bard/, and found it a graceful exploration of the 
folk tale/fairy tale genre, though it will never replace Howard Pyle's 
/Wonder Clock/ in my heart. /Beedle/ is one of those books that just 
cries out for beautiful illustrations, and of course publishing 
companies these days think lovely illustrations are not cost-effective. 
 >:P Thank goodness I grew up in the early (1943-?) twentieth century, 
and was blessed with books illustrated by N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, 
Monroe Leaf, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, E.H. Shepard, Maxfield 
Parrish, Norman Price, oh, too many to name. Those illustrations shaped 
my character, just as the text did, made me the highly visual, aesthetic 
person I am. I was raised on /My Book House/ and /A Picturesque Tale of 
Progress/. The text, as I recall, was pedestrian enough (Piltdown Man 
was advanced as a classic example of pre-human /Eoanthropus whoosis/), 
but the illustrations were just glorious, and I learned from looking at 
them, becoming enthralled, and then going back and reading the 
pedestrian text that talked about them. Never underestimate the power of 
illustration to stimulate a child's interest and imagination! Even 
today, when I find a well illustrated children's book, I buy it if I can 
possibly fit it into the budget. Tomi Ungerer (/A Story Book/, 
/Zeralda's Ogre/) and Wallace Tripp ("He found a formula for drawing 
comic rabbits...") are two of my all-time favorites.

Happy Solstice to you too!

Culinary purrs,

--Gatta

fhmaneely wrote:
>
> I check the site every now and then, however totally missed December.
> So, Happy Merry to Everyone.
>
> I can't believe you guys have been talking about food. I developed some
> stomach intestinal thingy in August and have been on a gluten-free,
> presative-free, fast food-free, bland crappy diet. Bah! No fun spicey
> stuff for me.
>
> Anything else going on??? Anyone read Beedle the Bard?
>
> Cheers,
> Fran
>
>  



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]