What's Fresh?

Fresh Baked Bread, Anyone?

2008-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Ah....a lazy Sunday with the chill in the air.

Today I shall, I shall
savor once more my leisure time,
with a slice of bread and a glass of wine.

From my friend Jo comes this AWESOME recipe:

Jo's Rosemary Bread (for bread machine)

1 cup water
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle; press Start.

Fresh bread.....mmm...can you smell it?

Fresh is good!

Not Fresh!?!

2008-11-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Men's Health Magazine has published an article titled, "The 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America".
http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100219935&page=1

This is a very comprhensive read. I will give you a few spoilers, yeah?

Worst Soda

Sunkist (12 oz can)
190 calories
52 g sugar
Sweetened soft drinks account for about 10 percent of the average American's calorie consumption—about 200 completely unnecessary calories a day. For someone looking to lose 10 pounds fast, there is no simpler, quicker way to do it than by canning the soda.

Worst Lemonade

Minute Maid Lemonade (20 oz bottle)
250 calories
68 g sugar
This is little more than glorified sugar water, with only a trace amount of real juice. Lemonade in general is a dubious drink, but if you can't stand the thought of going without it, try Santa Cruz brand lemonade. When you bring the bottle home, dump it into a pitcher and add 4 ounces of water for every 8 ounces of lemonade. Otherwise, you may as well drink a Coke with a squeeze of lemon.

Worst Iced Tea

Lipton Iced Brisk Lemon Iced Tea (20 oz bottle)
325 calories
81 g sugar
Iced tea is loaded with metabolism-boosting, cancer-fighting compounds called polyphenols, but Lipton does its best to undo any potential healthy benefit you might derive from the tea's antioxidants by drowning them in 20 teaspoons of sugar. Your tea of choice should carry no more than 15 grams of sugar per 20-oz serving.

Worst Juice Imposter

Arizona Kiwi Strawberry (23.5 oz can)
360 calories
84 grams of sugar
These hulking calorie cannons (5 percent juice, 95 percent sugar water) are sold at gas stations and convenience stores across America for the low, low price of 99 cents, making this quite possibly the cheapest source of empty calories in the country.

Worst Chocolate Milk

Nesquik (16 oz bottle)
400 calories
10 g fat (6 g saturated)
60 g sugar
Quik and other chocolate milk manufacturers try to sell parents on the bone-building calcium found in their product, but what they don't talk about is the fact that a single bottle of this stuff contains as much sugar as three Haagen Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream bars. Yikes. Make a healthier version yourself at home with 2 percent milk and a scoop of real powdered cocoa—you'll save about 150 calories, plus get the antioxidant benefits of cacao without the high-fructose corn syrup.

The Worst Drink in America

Baskin-Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake

2,310 calories
108 g fat (64 g saturated)
266 g sugar
Let's look at America's Worst Drinks in numbers:
73: The number of ingredients that go into this milkshake.
66: The number of teaspoons of sugar this drink contains.
11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.
12: The average number of minutes it takes to consume this drink.
240: The number of minutes you'd need to spend on a treadmill, running at a moderate pace, to burn it off.

Let's stick to fresh, ok?

Fresh is good!!

Fresh Sheets

2008-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

Mondays are 'Fresh Sheets' day at my house.
I picked that day because Mother did it and I looked forward to fresh sheets on Monday nights. We would have grilled cheese sandwiches and a cup of soup, probably because she had worked all day putting fresh sheets on our 6 beds.

My room was yellow...hideous yellow. Why? I don't know. I was hung up on yellow and Mother went with it. But my hideous yellow sheets were THE softest of the whole house. Even my sister would admit it to anyone but me.

On that note, my cotton flannel sheets are out. They are fresh, waiting for me to slip in with my new paperback. They are not yellow, but pure white. They give me good dreams, especially when they are nice and fresh, every Monday night.

Fresh is good!

Fresh Poetry

2008-11-14T08:15:00.000-08:00

At www.Sharepoerty.com, Annac writes about how enticing it is to write a fresh poem on a fresh, clean, crisp piece of paper. I share with you this poem that made me grab a tea kettle and my good china teacups.

For you,I tolerate clichés and
and the wary words of warning
that prelude your poetry
,these bashful bouts of modesty
show their face only in times like these

and I’ll missthe feel of a fresh poem
scribbled onto the fresh pages
of your impossibly neat
first drafts
raw and ready for my
subjective scrutiny

soon, you’ll be downfurther and farther
from the temperamental weather of
New England and New Me
and you’ll claim home
where the heat is
where the sun will melt you
slick onto pages
and you’ll mix with ink
and paint the most beautiful verses

maybe, they’ll go unread
or maybe, be offered as gifts
for older-than-these birthdays
but those new odesto whoever feeds your fervor
won’t meet me,
and you’ll never know
which words sparked my fancy
and which I’d demand you erase

and I’ll miss
our harmonies,
your first draft fresh poems,
the anticipation of
the secret we’ll share
in the pleasant surprises
of our loveliest lines

***
Was this not just enticing?

I anticipate reading this my the fire sipping my tea
or eating fresh biscuits.

Fresh is good!

Fresh Lemons

2008-11-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

What did I do with my fresh lemons? Well, I had to get creative because the crate had 32 in it.

Well, if you must know, I presented some of the lemons inside a beautiful bowl as a present for our wonderful hostess at the B&B we stayed at. I found the bowl and a lovely moss green velvet ribbon at a thrift store nearby. I tied it all together with my best attempt at a bow and made Ms. Judy very happy.

The other lemons came in the kitchen and I convinced Barbara Ann (the splendid cook) to let me share with her my grandmother Aline's Lemon Poppyseed dressing.

The recipe:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons diced onion
1 teaspoon Dijon-style prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
4 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1 cup cashews
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 apple - peeled, cored and diced
1 pear - peeled, cored and sliced

DIRECTIONS
In a blender or food processor, combine sugar, lemon juice, onion, mustard, and salt. Process until well blended. With machine still running, add oil in a slow, steady stream until mixture is thick and smooth. Add poppy seeds, and process just a few seconds more to mix.
In a large serving bowl, toss together the romaine lettuce, shredded Swiss cheese, cashews, dried cranberries, apple, and pear. Pour dressing over salad just before serving, and toss to coat.

Fresh is good!

Fresh and Easy?

2008-11-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

No, it is not a pickup line.

I came across this market while on vacation in California and I was pleasantly surprised. Peter greeted me at the door with a sample of fresh pomagranate juice that had just come out of one of the store's juicers. YUM!!!! The juice, not Peter. Well....maybe....

ANYWAY!!! For people in California, Nevada and Arizona, they have markets in your area. If this is something that interests you, check out their website http://www.freshandeasy.com/ and I have to admit, I am very curious about how well they are going to do.

What did I buy? Pomagranate juice (of course), pine nuts, dried cranberries, and beautiful plumpy lemons.

Fresh is good!

Fresh air please!!!!!!

2008-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

Experts are warning us that indoor pollution is a major problem. With winter coming right around the corner we will be smug in our homes with all of the windows shut.

Why not grow some fresh air inside????

Most indoor plants are very easy to care for and they are very forgiving!! I have to admit, I have some indoor plants but probably not enough to "clean up my air".

Here is a useful article (short and to the point!) about some plants to consider.
http://www.plant-care.com/indoor-plants-clean-air-1.html

Now go and get some plants, clean your air and beautify your home.

Fresh is good!!!

What's Fresh?

2008-11-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

fresh: adjective-

1. newly made or obtained: fresh footprints.
2.recently arrived; just come: fresh from school.
3.new; not previously known, met with, etc.; novel: to uncover fresh facts; to seek fresh experiences.

We love, love, love fresh:
-air
-coffee
-bread
-fruit
-fresh linen fabric
-paint
-magazines
-pizza (of course)

So why not? Why not write about what's fresh? When talk about what's fresh, we talk about what is different, innovative, inventive, newfangled, novel, original, unfamiliar, unprecendented, new.....and so on.

Feeling fresh? Read on then!