Being impressed by God

This is another in my "understanding God" series, with particular attention to God's All Knowingness. Now, I've already used the basic principle of the example I'm going to present to you here, but I think that it is so important and powerful to you to understand that I'm giving you a variation.

But first, I'm going to explain my title, about "being impressed by God." We live in a media and "impact" obsessed modern society. The television program "Saturday Night Live" spoofed this with a series of skits called "Impress Ed Asner." The actual actor, Ed Asner, would sit there and rate various goofy people do funny or disgusting things, to see if he was impressed.

Well, if one really understands the All Knowingness of God, you will definitely be impressed with him. Young people, this is why I think of these examples with you in mind, since you've been raised by your parents and teachers to be good consumers, being impressed with products that you will spend money for. Likewise, you have grown up in a high tech age and so you have a built in tendency to look at everything to assess its functionality, and then decide if you are impressed. This is not a criticism of you, but of course, as you know, I think that being raised that way has lost for you a lot of the genuine mystery and wonderment of life, including, especially, of God. So here is another of my examples of the All Knowingness of God.

A few minutes ago, just before I sat back down in front of the computer, I went into the kitchen and filled my beverage glass (a genuine Coca Cola 75Th anniversary edition, LOL) with ice from the freezer, and then Coca Cola from the bottle I just bought today. I then took my first sip from that glass.

So here is a sample of God's All Knowingness. As I hold the glass, God could tell you all about every subatomic particle that makes up that glass: how many they are, what they are like, and where they came from. So just to select one subatomic particle in that glass, God could tell you when and how that subatomic particle came into being, and where it has been and where it traveled, and what function that particle performed at all points in time. God could then tell you where that subatomic particle, and remember, all of its millions of fellow particles, will go to next, and next and next, all the way to the end of time and space. In other words, God knows what will happen to that glass in the future, even though I do not know yet myself. Will I sell it, keep it, will it be around for a long time, or accidentally broken and then discarded? Whatever happens to it God not only knows where it and all its tiny subatomic particles will be, God also knows all the "could have beens." In other words, God knows what I, and then later other people, will do with that Coca Cola glass, and when its broken or lost what becomes of the particles as they break down and degrade, BUT God ALSO knows all the "alternative futures" if I did otherwise than I will do. In other words, God knows that, for example, I might keep that glass for many years, but he also knows what would have but will not happen to that glass if I gave it to a friend or threw it away, or lost it.

Just so you are not confused, I'm not saying that there are "alternative futures," which is a popular fantasy in science fiction genre of entertainment. There is only one future, because that is the reality of what actually happens. "The future" is reality as it unfolds, as the result of many decisions people make. People do not "change the future." The future is always exactly the same as the Present, since the future is what is happening at the moment in reality. In other words, the definition of "the future" is "the current day reality that has not yet happened."

Today and all the things you did today was as recently as yesterday, "the future." But it doesn't feel like "the future," since it was "today." The future is simply every "today" that has not yet occurred. It's kind of boring but accurate to think of it that way. So God knows in advance what every "today" will be in reality, to the smallest imaginable detail....

However, God is also so amazing that he could tell you what it would have been like if different types of "today" happened in the future. Let's give an example. Today is nearly over with, as I'm typing this in early evening, and so I can type with pretty good confidence that there was not an asteroid that hit the earth today. There's a lot of discussion about the lunar probe that will be crash landed into the moon tomorrow to look for water there. But if one of you were chatting with God, you could say to him, "What if an asteroid had hit the earth today? What would have happened?" God could tell you in all the detail (like in our example, down to each subatomic particle) of what would have been the results of such an event that did not, actually, take place.

How does God do it? How is he capable of telling people, if they were to have such a conversation with him, not only every detail of what will happen, but answer even strange "what if" type of future questions? Here's how you can understand it using some modern analogies.

Most people understand that in business people often do trend analysis. In other words, if data seems to trend in a certain direction, they can, based on experience, guesstimate where the data will move next. God does not have to guess because he knows exactly what reaction results from each action. So God would be able to tell you, in that "what if" scenario, what matter and what energy would react, in the "what if" asteroid collision, down to the smallest detail, such as, as we are discussing, the subatomic particles. So God does not have to "trend line," because God knows what each and every real reaction would be to each and every change... and he knows it all at once, all the time, for any and all times in the past, present and future, and even beyond the end of the universe and time, matter and energy at all (which is the realm of heaven).

So God could tell you what will happen to every subatomic particle in my Coca Cola glass in reality, as it really will occur in the future, and he could also tell you what would have happened "instead" if you came up with a hypothetical change to what has actually happened and what actually will happen. He could tell you the answer to silly questions, like what if human beings still had fur, or if they could flap their wings and fly. God could detail for you exactly what would have happened if that had been the reality.

For example, a lot of entertainers like to produce works based on "what if Hitler had won the war?" Well, God could tell you exactly what "would have happened," down to every subatomic particle (and beyond, since God knows even what is happening in the absence of matter), but God would remind you that he also, of course, knows, and has known all along, what would indeed in fact happen. He could educate and amuse you with answering your questions about "what if," but that's all it would be, since God knows the reality of what each future "today" will be: the sum total of all that actually is happening and will happen.

Now, even to marvel that God is like an amazing computer that can calculate the outcomes of any hypothetical scenario is to sell short God's All Knowingness. That is because the universe is not like a great machine, even though it operates with natural laws of time, matter and energy. God knows two things that cannot be computer "trend lined"... he knows what he will do in response to certain choices that humans make (his divine intervention) AND God knows in advance great shifts that will take place as the Holy Spirit ever works to turn people away from self destructive paths. God is not a passive god who has set the universe like a clock in motion and then sits back to watch, any more than humans are like that. Yes, humans go through terrible times of passivity in the face of evil, despair and indifference, and even ignoring God himself, but humans are not by nature total couch potatoes. So any sort of image of God, or humans, as, respectively, great and perfect, or flawed and imperfect, machines is totally misguided. Just as God's Holy Spirit never rests, human beings never reach a state where absolutely no one is responsive to the yearning for avoiding evil and doing good, and finding the real, and not the convenient, truthfulness of matters. So God knows not only the mechanics of the cause and effect of all past, present and future events, large or minuscule, but he also knows in advance the interaction of spirit and the healing, correcting, and even chastising effects of God's intervention throughout all human existence.

So suppose in the future someone steals my Coca Cola glass from me, LOL. God already knows in advance not only the logistical cause-and-effect of the movement of matter in time, space, with energy, and what happens to the glass, and to me, and to the perpetrators, but God also knows the spiritual goodness and damage that will result from individual choices made in that action. God knows in advance, before the thief steals my Coca Cola glass, that this was his or her intention, and why he or she thought that was a good idea, and what the state of their heart and soul is, and what will be the consequences, both cascading from the specific action, but also spiritually, all the way to the ultimate outcomes of each person at the end of their life, in personal judgment. Thus I am sitting here not knowing if in reality someday someone will steal my Coca Cola glass from me, but God not only knows (down to that incredible microcosm that only he has, such as knowing what subatomic particles of air are jostled as the person takes my glass, imagine that!)... but God also knows whether that person ever will regret, atone, remedy, or, rather, if it is just a pattern of cascading decisions that will result in more loss of potential grace, more downfall, more erosion of spirituality... and implications (such as others being led into sin by observing and condoning the future stealing of my Coca Cola glass). God already knows ALL of these things, all the thoughts and all the deeds, and all the movements of all the particles of the universe, as he has known even before he created the universe at all.

If you were able to exist before God even created the universe, God could tell you, "And some day this lady, Mary Major, will be blogging about me and explain to you my All Knowingness, and will use as an example her Coca Cola glass, and now I can tell you that...." [and here he would tell you what will eventually happen one way or the other to my Coca Cola glass]. God knows everything even before he created anything.

This is why you should be impressed with, and ultimately, love God, and fear him (in the good way, as in fearing that you would ever lose God through your own actions). Not only because his All Knowingness is so awesome and just about indescribable, but more to the point, even knowing all that he does, including what will happen, he seeks a personal relationship with each human being and meets you on a level that you can understand, and have dignity of response with him, through the choices you have, even though he knows all of the choices you will make in advance. God is always totally "in the moment" with each person, not withholding or holding against them what God knows they will do in the future. God does, however, know the sincerity and motivation through which you seek (or avoid) a relationship with him, and so of course he is never fooled.

Just to complete the example, as I sipped my Coca Cola (which I finished while typing this and the ice cubes are just about all melted), God knows how each of the particles of my beverage will pass through my system, which drops of fluid will replenish the moisture of my body, and which is excess that will get voided away into the fine bathroom (ironically said, ha) next door to my room. God then knows where those droplets of water and urea acids and whatnot and whatever will go into the sewage and drainage system, and where they will flow next and what they will do and where they will go, so far into the future and so long as the subatomic particles that make them up survive and exist. And should one have had such a conversation with God, one could ask him what would have been the difference if I had had a glass of skim milk instead, ha. Then he could also tell you what cows contributed to that glass of milk, etc. Really, God does know everything, not only as it happened, as it is happening, but in total into all of the future too, and he knows all of this all the time and simultaneously.

I hope that you have found this interesting, even my beverage choices and the location of the nearest bathroom in this household...

Humor aside, I really hope and pray that it restores, or gives to you for the first time, real comprehension of the awesome dimensions and reality of God the All Knowing.

Food talk: Thanksgiving

I love to design menus, and also to read what other people are planning for their special meals, including the President, but I also like just seeing what people are buying in the stores, and thus I can surmise their menus. For example, being here in the south, I was delighted but not surprised to see one man buy his turkey along with a packet of dumplings. Even though I've had solo Thanksgiving dinners for many years now, I like to still put in an effort to make a unique but easy "dining experience." Here's what I had.

Night before: Pasta

Dice summer sausage or salami and lightly fry in saucepan. Add tomato sauce (this year I used World Classics Six Cheese flavor) and simmer while flavors blend.
Cook penne (Full Circle Penne Rigate) pasta in boiling water with dash of salt.
Prepare serving bowl by lining bottom with fresh miniature tomatoes.
Layer cooked penne over the tomatoes.
Layer grated Parmesan cheese over the penne.
Spoon the cooked sauce over the top. Serve.

(It was so good, if I say so myself, that I had two bowls and really overate!)

Thanksgiving day:

Bowl of fresh peeled and sliced pink grapefruit (wonderfully provided by Wal-Mart).
Slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter.
Thick slice from a pre-cooked ham. Top with pineapple rings and heat.
Plain green beans.

Two choices of desert:
Pepperidge Farm Chocolate 3-layer cake topped with Reddiwip whipped cream.
Schlunder Festtagskuchen "Teatime Cake" with almonds and hazelnuts topped with Reddiwip.

Beverage:
Schwepp's Ginger Ale soda pop.

(Yes, I decided not to have turkey this year and resort to ham with pineapple, which is a traditional family holiday dish.)

A favorite food of mine: prune Hamantashen

These are a holiday sweet for the Jewish festival Purim. I totally love hamantashen, but only the large home made ones made in traditional bakeries and with prune filling. It's "that time of year" where if you live in New York City these are found, and delicious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamantash

Great recipe using leftovers

Here's what I made for dinner just now, and it tasted great!

Earlier this week I had made shrimp salad sandwiches, where I had mixed some mayonnaise with tiny shrimp drained from a 6 ounce can. It was not this brand, but here is a photo of what a can of tiny shrimp looks like. http://www.eastpointseafood.com/shrimp.html?gclid=CJG3086moJYCFQ0xawodm3917A I used half the shrimp/mayonnaise mixture and refrigerated the rest as leftovers.

Earlier this week I microwaved a Stouffer's package of six manicotti (that's the family size of this product line). http://www.stouffers.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10861&ServingSizeId=0&ProductGroupId=0&SearchText=Easy%20express&ServingSize=&ProductGroup=&cP=1&isPOn=True The package contains a generous amount of flavorable Italian tomato sauce that has a garlicky flavor, so after I ate my portions of the manicotti using only a few spoons of the sauce, I saved the rest of the sauce in the refrigerator for use on leftovers.

Tonight I boiled a serving of Full Circle 100% Organic Penne Rigate pasta. I buy this brand because I really like a 100% organic pasta that is also 100% Italian durum wheat based. When the pasta was fully cooked (I like it softer, not al dente) I drained the water but left the pasta in the hot cooking pot on the stove, adding the leftover tomato sauce and the shrimp. I stirred while the sauce and shrimp heated to the same temperature as the cooked pasta. Right before turning off the heat I took one piece of mozzarella "string cheese" and dropped stringy pealed-off pieces of the cheese on top of the pasta mix so it would melt. Immediately take it from the heat and serve.

I must say the results were great and had such a good restaurant or authentic homemade taste, so I thought I'd share it. So when you have like I did a lot of Italian sauce left over from one convenience food, don't just toss it in the garbage or down the sink, but save it for use in a really good leftover combination.

Surprised that world's largest pig was near home

The world's largest pig just died and I was surprised to see that during his illustrious reign that he was located near my HOME TOWN! Who'd have thought it???

Condolences to those who raised him as a pet and cared for him.


http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/big_norm_the_worlds_largest_bi.html


No wonder low salt bacon was on sale at the local Jerry Lee's (where I live now). I sure bought two packages!!

The best cake I ever tasted

My German grandmother back in the 1960's when we visited her in Berlin, made her own version of Pflaumenkuchen, the famous plum cake. It remains the best tasting cake I have ever eaten. She would set aside a day to make it because she would bake several large sheets of it. I don't have the recipe and while there are many on the Internet, and I have baked my own a few times many years ago, it is not the same. It is hard to duplicate the garden fresh plums, the flour and pure farm butter of those times, and so the most basic of ingredients just are not the same, plus even details like the old fashioned baking sheets she used in the old fashioned oven. Even my mother could only come close, but not totally duplicate in her American kitchen, Oma's pflaumenkuchen. True cooks and pizza connoisseurs know what I mean, that the ingredients and the details make a very big difference. Anyway, Oma's pflaumenkucken set the standard for me of the best cake I have ever had.

Guilt free popcorn recipe

Warning: Experienced and careful adult cooks only please! This involves working with hot oil.

I don't like fake butter and I've read the same as all of you about the dangers of the ingredients that go into the yellow goop that bagged microwaveable popcorn contains. So here is how I make my popcorn.

I use a large frying pan with a transparent lid top. I use Emeril cookware and love it. Use popcorn that you buy in a jar or a sack that is not packaged for microwave, such as what I am using, "Orville Redenbacher's Original" that comes in a 30 oz plastic jar.

Pour olive oil into the cold frying pan to a depth that is more than coating the bottom. A good gauge is to put one kernel of popcorn in the center of the pan, the oil should come up about half way up the kernel in depth. Leaving the one kernel in the pan, cover and bring it to high heat (on my range I heat to 7 out of 10). Stand by and wait for the test kernel to pop. When it does, pour the remaining popcorn in quickly, which you have pre-measured (I find about 7-8 spoonfuls work in the large pan). Immediately cover. You don't have to shake the pan continually, but I tend to tip it from side to side so the oil moves a bit until the corn all starts to pop. It will pop quickly, and when the sound of popping stops take it off the heat right away. With a transparent lid you can also see how the popping is going, and that's always fun. Kids can peak but shoo them away before you remove the lid, for reasons I explain below. Also be sure the lid fits well and that you did not use too much popcorn. If the lid is not the right size for the pan it is very dangerous because hot oil will spatter through the crack. Likewise if you use too much popcorn it will force the lid upward as it expands, pushing it out of position and also creating a hot oil spatter hazard. Experiment with small amounts of popcorn first to see what amount fits your pan's capacity.

The pan will be enormously hot so be careful. When you remove the lid, tilt it slightly holding it over the popcorn still in the pan. Some hot oil will have collected on the lid and what you want is to tilt it so it runs back onto the popcorn. It will hiss and be very hot so be careful. When you've done that dump the popcorn from the pan into your serving bowl, and a glass one works great. Season the popcorn with salt (I like using coarse sea salt from a grinder). Serve.

See, you are not using butter or margarine (or fake goop) at all for the flavoring; it all comes from the olive oil, which is 100 percent healthy and safe. It's more subtle than butter but it is delicious. I'm eating some now in fact as I type this. If you just use olive oil instead of butter even half the times you have popcorn, it's a great improvement, since olive oil is one of those heart and other bodily organ healthy "miracle foods."

I re-emphasize only adult cooks experienced with cooking in grease or oil should do this. Remember that the pan will be very hot when you are done and will make a steam explosion if you put it into any water, so let it cool off first on one of the back burners of your stove. When you do start to cool it with water, use professional cook safety instructions which is to start with just a few drops of water to trigger the steam, very very VERY gradually dripping a few drops of water over the surface. One of the basics you learn in cooking is that a pan that has been heated with grease or oil becomes very hot and the remaining oil can create explosive and damaging steam if doused with water before it has completely cooled.

Enjoy! And please do this safely!!!

Pork on my mind

Mmm, I love bacon and pork. That's one reason I am glad that I don't have that dietary restriction for religious reasons :-)

My ex-husband was Jewish, but not observant. This delighted my mother, who worried that he would be unable to eat one of her specialties, baked ham with pineapple rings, brown sugar and maraschino cherries. That was actually one of the first things she asked me about him, if he could eat her ham.

Another family specialty is breaded pork chops. So both my mother and I were glad that he loved them too. You have to cook them very thoroughly in very hot oil.

We both liked bacon, and saved the bacon fat to pour over our pet dogs' dry dog food, which gave them valuable fat to combat dry skin and keep essential oils in their fur coats.

Now that I'm single and only cooking for myself, I eat at Chinese buffet a lot "my home away from home." They use bacon in their cooking quite a bit. It can be very healthy. One of my favorite choices is turnip greens with some pieces of bacon.

Food talk: Cake

Growing up in a poor household we baked our own cakes for special occasions. So I liked to bake and actually became better at baking desserts than cooking main meals at first, though that later reversed. I wanted to share a memory that a lot of Americans of a certain age will relate to. When I was a kid that was when "Sara Lee" first came out with frozen cakes and pies. We could not believe how wonderful they tasted and what a treat they were. However, they were "expensive" relative to our budget, so I doubt I had Sara Lee desserts more than a handful of times in my entire young and young adulthood! Now we all can take them for granted, and today if I feel the urge I tend to buy from the grocery store bakery. The price of food is a common topic and concern so I thought I'd share the Sara Lee story. Maybe I'll buy a Sara Lee on my charge card LOL.

Food Talk: Homemade fish sandwich recipe

Here's what I'm having tonight and it's a fun and healthy food for individuals or families.

Select sandwich size fish fillets. Defrost if frozen by running under warm water a few minutes.
(I used 1 small cod fillet from the bag of frozen fillets I bought at Walmart).

Place the fillet in a microwavable glass pan. Include enough fluid (water, milk or fish fluid) to have the bottom of the glass pan coated. Sprinkle on the top of the fish either paprika (for the taste) or cinnamon (for the taste and its a traditional health wise spice). Microwave for about a minute and a half until it's cooked through (flakes with fork).
(I used the fluid from the inside of the cod fillet's plastic bag and I used cinnamon).

Toast two regular slices of bread. Put on them a spread of your choice, such as butter, mayonaise, or mustard. Steer away from cocktail or tartar sauce because they overpower the taste of the fish and thus it's not very zen, since you're only tasting the very strong tangy sauce and not the individuality of the fish. Also it's a way to avoid yet another processed food additive.
(I used butter because I love the taste of cod and wanted subtle. Otherwise I would have used the wonderful Zatarain's Creole Mustard).

Place the filet on one toast and salt and pepper to taste. Put the other slice of toast on top and cut the completed sandwich in half. Serve.
(Here's a tip if your fish is very flaky. Cut the toast into halves before you put the fish on it. That's what I do so I don't mash the whole sandwich when cutting it into halves. I cut the toast into the sizes I want to serve, halves for example, apply the spread, then cut the fish in the pan and put matching sized pieces on each part of toast).

Additional suggestion: If you really like the taste of the fish itself, halve the use of bread by making open faced sandwiches. So you serve the fish on the bottom slice of bread and don't use a topper slice of bread. This allows you to taste the fish itself more. But if you are cooking for your kids I'd give them a good size of fish and both slices of bread per sandwich.

If you are trying to get your kids to sit down at table with you here's a suggestion. Bring the toast and the pan of cooked fish fillets to the table and let them choose from among a variety of spreads that you have collected. If you have interesting variety of mustards, barbecue sauces, and spreads often kids will enjoy even "healthy" fish sandwiches when they customize them to their own taste, and it's something to talk about during dinner. Even if you have to resort to a cheese sauce option for the really fast food and picky eater, that's fine because the sauce can be a little fattening in the service of getting them to eat the healthy fish and good nutrition bread! Just think how great it could be if you get your kids to eat one fish sandwich a week and they enjoy it with their own spread.

Remember, by microwaving fish cooks up VERY fast (even a thick fish takes only about 3-4 minutes) and you are not frying! You are avoiding all that grease and fat. Instead of "breaded" fillets with fat, grease, food additives and un-nutritious bread crumbs you are cooking the fish with no fat or additives and then putting it on clean and wholesome slices of bread of your choice.

Food talk

I've been buying ingredients to bake bread. I'm going to make what is called a sweet bread or a nut bread, which is a bread that is not made with yeast and does not rise. So while at Winn-Dixie earlier today to buy fresh organic eggs what do they announce? That a new batch of hot French and Italian loaves of bread have just come out of the oven. Mmmm. So I bought the eggs but I also bought a loaf of Italian. I ate a huge piece of it while it was hot as soon as I got the groceries into the car!

And my dinner tonight is four slices of the bread, two with butter, and two with olive oil, and a sliced tomato in olive oil, with pepper and salt. Bread is called the staff of life for a reason. It is about the healthiest day to day thing that you can eat. People were healthier and had less diabetes and so forth when they had home made full grain bread (though Wonder bread remains a favorite of mine) and most importantly, they had it in sandwiches, or like me, Italian style, drizzled with olive oil (another wonder food of health) and with glasses of milk. Men drank milk back in the World War II generation and rarely soft drinks. Coffee or tea helped with waking up. But men and women often ordered a glass of milk with their lunch or dinner. Have you ever wondered why dieters are so against bread? Modern dieters are against bread because they recognize that it has a lot of nutrition. Dieting has become so insanely unbalanced. Rather than having healthy moderation in all the way past generations lived, now there are phoney food wars with people looking for magic weight loss remedies and as a result turn away from the healthiest and most stable of foods, like bread. If you truly have Celiac or some other syndrome that is one thing, But if you are not allergic or sensitive to wheat you ought to eat good healthy bread at least once a day and twice is even better. I don't get fancy like having dinner rolls (especially just cooking for myself) but often I have a slice of toast as a "side dish" for my main meal!

Bread also stabilizes the digestive system. So many people with heartburn and bathroom issues don't realize that bread helps to stabilize all of those problems. (Again this applies to the vast majority of people who are not allergic). It takes an effort to reintroduce what used to be the staple of our food now that pressures of fast food and health nut faddish style of eating take people away from classic bread and toast. Grabbing a muffin instead of toast could result in your consuming an extra, yes, not a typo, 500 calories! A slice of bread is about 100 calories before adding butter, peanut butter, or jam. A muffin ranges from 400-700 calories and has unhealthy oils and other additives. When I commuted if I had to "grab a muffin on the way to work" I would always go for a corn muffin, figuring it was tasty but also still marginally healthier. But when I have time I always make toast. So try to get in the habit of having more toast of a good healthy bread and less of pre processed buns, muffin and so forth that are packed with calories and often chemicals and are less nutritious. Also on light nights when you want a simple dinner, you can't do better than what I just did, such as having fresh baked Italian bread with olive oil and a fresh vegetable like a tomato on the side.

I just remembered something about how we ate in the 1950's that will help with this understanding. We never bought hamburger or hot dog buns, we always used slices of bread! So when we made hamburgers at home they were served on toast, and when we made hot dogs we wrapped a slice of bread around it as the "bun." First of all it was expensive and wasteful to buy buns so being poor we'd never think of doing it. But secondly they ("store bought buns" as we called them) are empty bread products, valued more for their shape than their bread content. So here is another example to help you see how toast worked its way into many meals back in those days. In the 1960's we started making "minute steaks," which are those thin sliced cuts of beef that you can fry and you guessed it right, we served each slice on a piece of buttered toast. It was a cheaper and tougher cut of meat so by putting it on buttered toast it became really tasty and easy to digest and very healthy, as the only fat was the healthy and good small bit of dairy butter. I still remember as a kid when we'd have hot dogs and we'd wrap the bread around the dog and it was great tasting, unlike the "cardboard of store bought."

Am eating some hearts of palm vegetable

I love hearts of palm. These two pieces I am having are from a jar, and the palm was grown in Costa Rica. It tastes great. I've read some greenies complain because palm trees are cut down and only the centers are harvested for the actual vegetable to eat. I mean, duh. You would think my ex-vegan and whatever friends would cheer whenever I eat a vegetable or fruit dish, which I do quite often. But no, they always have something to complain about. Here's a big secret: "Psst! Palm trees can be regrown just like heads of lettuce and bean sprouts! It just takes a lot longer so it has to be well planned, like with any tree farm! Duh!"

Someone I once knew emailed me to ask me if I was bothered by the fact he washed his hair with $300 shampoo. I think he was surprised (and probably did not believe me) when I had no problem with it. When I hear something like $300 bottles of shampoo I think two things: 1) obviously he can afford it financially and 2) how great that there are jobs that people have making this shampoo. It's probably all filled with natural ingredients and so forth, so I think of the farmers and the processors who earn a decent wage for their family because someone creates and supports this niche market. I have no problem with that at all.

So when I have a treat food like these hearts of palm I think about the farmers who grew and took care of the trees, part of which I am now eating. It makes me happy that I can buy a jar of heart of palm and know that farmers in Costa Rica have at least this means to support themselves and their families. I trust that they are able to manage their natural resources wisely and have no reason to believe otherwise. God bless them!

Sudden urge for Cuban food with plantains

Something like Pinon, with meat, except I when I cook I tend to use thinly sliced steak instead of ground beef. I love Cuban cooking, especially if there's plantains somewhere in the ingredients. Well, I have the Emeril cookware (which I highly recommend by the way) but none of the ingredients :(

oooh... I just found on foodnetwork.com a recipe for Cuban Style Salt Cured Beef with Crispy Plantain Chips *faint* .... it sounds so good!!