A Sobering Glimpse at a Really Nice House

Yesterday when Rich and I were out-and-about, we drove by a house that had a sign out by the road: Estate Sale. It was one of those newer, huge houses that were common for new construction right before the real estate bubble burst a couple of years ago. Since I'm always up for snooping around someone else's house, we decided to stop in.

It was a beautiful home with a couple of acres of land. There was a winding driveway with those rock-covered pillars on either side out by the road and a rock fountain in the landscaping (non-functioning at this time). The house looked like it might have been about 5000 square feet. It's style was modern with Craftsman-like detailing such as what has been popular in the building styles the past few years - at least in the Pacific Northwest.


But, when we went inside, it was difficult to appreciate the house itself. There were a few pieces of furniture, but mostly boxes of what appeared to be junk, and collections of stuff just piled around on the floors. Clothes, yucky shoes, dishes, toys, videos, and Christmas decorations, to name some. The smell of cigarette smoke permeated a few of the rooms.

Okay, I realize that when a home has been lived in, it will not remain as when it was new. But, I had a couple of thoughts...

First, just because someone has money doesn't mean they have class. Which on the flip side goes to show that one doesn't need money to be classy. Mind you, it certainly doesn't hurt, but it's not the whole picture. And clutter, no matter what one's income level, just isn't classy.

My second thought is longer:
The scene had the appearance of a family who had moved from a smaller space to this larger one and then acquired "stuff" to fill the space. For example, there was a walk-in closet off the family room, lined with shelves with movies and games still there. My guess is the house had been foreclosed on, and the family moved to a much smaller space, having left behind all this miscellanea. For someone else to deal with. Hence the estate sale.

The feeling inside the house was not a happy one, but rather one that felt quite oppressive. It seemed like the inhabitants were looking for happiness by accumulating objects, and that the resulting environment was not the one they had been going for. Nor did it appear they were good stewards of the blessings they had received.

I realize that it was their home to do with what they wanted, and who am I to be judgemental about that... however, I can't help but feel a bit of sadness about this scenario. There are people all over the world who feel overwhelmed by the task of creating and maintaining a positive atmosphere in their homes that blesses the occupants and their visitors. (I know this because I've read Flylady's testimonials from people all around the world. See www.flylady.net.)

This has given me food for thought. I want to re-think my possessions and just go ahead and get rid of the items (clutter? junk?) I don't need. I really would be appalled if anyone had to go through my closets one day. :)

Why and How to Avoid Trans Fats

When it comes to fat, trans fat is considered by some doctors to be the worst of them all because of its double-barreled impact on your cholesterol levels. Unlike other fats, trans fat - also called trans-fatty acids - raises your "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and lowers your "good" (HDL) cholesterol. (from www.mayoclinic.com.) Trans fats also raise triglyceride levels which contribute to heart problems as well.

Okay, here's the deal. Total cholesterol (which supposedly should be 200 or less) is really only part of the equation. The real deal is knowing the levels of LDL (which I remember is the bad cholesterol because it should be LOW), and the levels of HDL (the good kind that should be HIGH). When my total cholesterol came in at 235, my doctor was not concerned because my LDL was so low relative to the HDL. (That was good news!)

Trans fats are found in any food items that list partially hydrogenated oil (of any kind) as an ingredient. The manufacturers add hydrogen atoms to oil so it is less volatile - fats do become rancid as they come into contact with oxygen. The process also makes the otherwise liquid oil become a solid at room temperature (think margarine and shortening). Therefore, foods made with partially hydrogenated oils have a longer shelf life.

Think about it though. Food is not supposed to last "forever," it is supposed to mold, or get stale, or otherwise decompose after a relatively short period of time - depending on its composition of course. And I will not deny that having bread and other food that doesn't mold is quite convenient. I do recall as a kid that our homemade bread could become moldy in our humid Iowa summers in just a couple of days if left at room temperature. *Maybe that's what freezers are for!* And, perhaps if there were no negative impact to that convenience, it would be worth taking advantage of. But honestly, look around. Obesity and chronic health problems are at an all time high. Artificial sweeteners are not solving, but rather, are helping to contribute to the problem. National health care would not be half the problem it is, if only we the people were taking responsibility for lifestyle choices including what we put in our mouths.

So how do we avoid trans fats when it seems to be in everything? I first began paying attention to this about three years ago when I first began seeing Dr. Heather who is an integrative physician, and she directed us to the book, The Fat Resistance Diet by Leo Galland, M.D. It is very clear about the need to avoid all trans fats. Alrighty then. Doctor's orders.

There were two things I did to start. Since we were inclined to eat at fast food restaurants fairly regularly at that time (mostly for lunches), I went online to find and print out the nutritional information at each place we were likely to eat. I three-hole punched and placed the pages into a report cover thing with the clear front like you use in school to turn in a report. I went through the pages with a highlighter, and noted the most acceptable choice(s) at each restaurant, and if there were no acceptable choices, we quit eating there. It was simple to go down the column showing grams of trans fats and looking at the ones with zeros, and checking the rest of the data to make a decision. I kept this notebook in the car, and referred to it often, until it was no longer necessary. After a while, it became easier to remember what was a problem, and what was okay to order. Also, it was about this time that I began packing my lunch more often. A hearty salad with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt and pepper became preferable because I knew what was in it. I could add leftovers from the night before and a piece of fruit and feel good about what I was using to nourish myself.

The second thing I did was begin to read all nutrition labels. I really can't recall throwing food out of my pantry, mostly because that would conflict with my "thrifty" gene, but I may have donated some to the food bank. I do know I paid a great deal of attention at the grocery store. I also have a really clear memory of being in our lunchroom at work, picking up the container of non-dairy creamer which I had been using daily, and reading the label. Sure enough, partially hydrogenated oil. Even though the number of grams per serving read 0. Turns out the food companies are required by the FDA to round to the closest half gram when it's less than 5 grams per serving (and to the closest one gram when it's more than 5) but also are mandated to round down to zero when it's less than .5 grams per serving. I suppose this follows the same guidelines they have for showing levels of vitamins and other positive components, but still, this is misleading for the general public. And also speaks to the importance of reading ingredients, not just the numbers.

But wow. This was overwhelming! What was I going to eat?? At first I made the choice to only pay attention to the numbers. This meant I was still using the creamer in my morning half a cup of coffee, but forgoing the doughnut that had numbers showing for trans fat. After a couple of weeks, I had adapted and was ready for the next step, which was to read the ingredients and avoid using the product if it listed partially hydrogenated oils. By this time, I discovered that Silk makes a wonderful soy creamer and it comes in fun flavors like vanilla and hazelnut. Okay, now how cool is that, to be able to find a really yummy alternative that fits in with the health criteria we decide on - I love that!

And on it went. No pre-made pies. But I could make a pie and choose my own ingredients. No crackers with trans fats, but when I found a brand without, I bought them. Same with cookies. Either make them yourself or find a brand that has acceptable ingredients.

When that became second nature, I targeted high fructose corn syrup. The cheaper whole grain bread I had been accustomed to buying (Country Oven brand) did not contain trans fats ingredients, but did contain HFCS. I had a decision to make... get the bread with "crap" ingredients, or get the higher priced quality one?? At the time, I chose to split the difference and got one of each. And guess what? Food manuafacturers are paying attention to consumer demands. Within a couple of months, Country Oven stopped using HFCS in their breads! So it just goes to show you, just because they contain an ingredient at one point, they can change.

It was a challenge, but I was able to find barbeque sauce and ketchup without HFCS as well.

Remember, WE VOTE WITH OUR MONEY!! At the conclusion of the movie, Food, Inc., a farmer was shown stating something like: Hey, if the public demands organic food, we'll grow organic food. But right now it appears all they want is cheap food that doesn't have the quality, so that's what we're producing.

How profound.

Another Way to Make Coleslaw

I have never been a fan of coleslaw. I think it's the creamy dressing that gets to me. I recall as a child not liking dressing at all - and of course salad without dressing is rather bland so as I remember it, salads were somethingt to get through at the very beginning and then get on to the "good" parts of a meal.

And I don't mind cabbage itself - it's lovely sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a touch of salt. It's always my preference at Mucho Gusto over lettuce - beginning with the time I was taking half my burrito back to the office with me for lunch the following day and I anticipated the cabbage would not get soggy when reheated as would lettuce. I was right about that and although I hardly ever save half a burrito for the next day, I still enjoy cabbage in it.

This dressing over cabbage is way yummy! It also goes really well with Mexican food because of the cumin I dare say...

(Maybe it would be better to call it Mexican Cabbage Salad)

Cabbage Salad:
Juice of one lemon
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves pressed garlic
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin


Mix together and mix with chopped or shredded cabbage.


I had the leftovers from last night for lunch today - added in a handful of chickpeas... yum! OH! This would be fab over any manner of raw vegies. Hmmm, I'm going to have to try that, especially when the garden tomatoes arrive!

Comments...

By the way, I figured out how to change the settings for comments to allow anyone to leave a comment, you don't have to register first.

Of course, if you want to be a blog "follower" you'll need to register. Oh! And how about starting a blog of your own! Then you'll need to register as well. And if you do start your own blog, let me know so I can follow yours.

Suz

Let's Compost!

So I was thinking about things that annoy me. For example:
- Cobwebs.
- Little white fluffy dogs.
- Wasting things.
- Taxes.
- Putting recyclables in the landfill.
- Rude people.
- Smelly garbage. I hate putting anything in the bin under the sink that will stink, like onion peels and coffee grounds.
- Opinionated blowhards like Rush and Hillary.

Turns out that composting takes care of the smelly garbage and helps with the putting recyclables in the landfill issue. Oh yeah, and wasting things.

We always had a compost pile when I was young. Actually, our trash was divided as follows: Food scraps from produce, (what we called "garbage") went to the compost, food scraps like meat and bones went to the dog (this was back before dogs knew chicken bones might hurt them), uneaten food off plates... oh yeah, there wasn't any. :) Sour milk got flushed, paper scraps went into the "wastebasket" which when full was used as a fire starter in our wood-burning furnace, tin cans and glass were what we referred to as "trash" and were collected in a bucket in the garage and that ended up going to the dump. I can't really remember that we had that much plastic - I think the wrap type of plastic got burned with the paper and the odd bottles went to the dump - Ha! the very stuff that can be recycled now. Hmmm... But, it goes to show how little trash one ends up with when not relying on pre-packaged foods. So the "garbage" was collected in a container, and at times when there was no official compost pile, Mom would hand over a bowl of scraps and tell one of us to "go throw this over the fence," meaning the fence in back of our house that separated the backyard from the corn field.

When Rich and I got married, we lived in his house which had a "reverse" floor plan, that is, the front door was at the top level which was even with the street. This is where the kitchen, living room, dining area, master bedroom and bathroom were. Downstairs were three bedrooms and a bath. And that second level down was still one whole story from the ground on the other side of the house. Now, our only lawn was two little strips of grass up by the street, one on each side of the garage. The rest was a rather steep slope that had ivy growing on it, and towards the bottom of the slope and beyond the house, was brush and trees. Imagine my delight when I realized that the rail of the deck off the dining area (three stories from the ground below) made an excellent "fence" to toss compost-able scraps over! They just fell into the brush and deteriorated. Although it turns out all items do not decompose at the same rate. One summer when Rich was down there with the weed-eater, he encountered a bunch of watermelon rinds and corncobs. Oops! Those were supposed to land in the ferns...

In case anyone is wondering, I did not go make a proper compost pile down there at our old house because I actually went down into the bottom yard as little as possible. There was poison oak growing down there. A lot of poison oak. And I was very allergic to it. But that actually will be the topic of another entry sometime.

When we bought the empty lot across the road and up the hill a bit and started planning to build a new house, I was quite excited about having land all around that was the same level as the house. This meant I could plant things right into the ground instead of in containers on the deck, and we could have a dog, and I could have a compost pile!

"There's no room for a compost pile," Rich told me when I brought up the subject.

What?? How can that be? We have land all around our house! Well, okay, so it's not a large lot and the patio on one side goes all the way to the property line, at the back of the house there's about six feet (maybe 10, how do people eyeball these things?!) to a retaining wall that marks the property line at the back. Then the other side - well the driveway is actually on an easement over the neighbor's side, but sheesh, there's all this woods and brush and it's really far to the next houses over there... (not our land Rich reminded me). So that leaves the front which actually goes all the way down to the street but that neighbor's driveway bisects it since they have an easement. Oh the joys of living on a hill. It's cool though, the view is fab!

One day at the library, I picked up a book called "Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces" by Patricia Lanza. (I thought it was going to be about growing things used in Italian cooking.) Not quite. It described a method of gardening that requires no digging or anything hard from the sound of it. Just layers of stuff like newspapers, leaves, compost, and such. So while I was a little disappointed it wasn't about Italian cooking, I did learn a few tips. One of which is that anyone can have a compost pile! Really! Anyone! Even people living in an apartment. Okay... So, I followed this advice and bought an 18-gallon Sterlite plastic tote with lid, and drilled quarter inch holes in the bottom (important for drainage). I did this using my cordless drill with this thing called a "paddle bit." (Is anyone besides me impressed I know about this?!) I have to admit, I got a teeny bit jealous and decided I wanted my own tools when my friend Kathy helped me install our closet systems when our house was new and we moved in without anything in the closets to hang stuff on and she brought her own tools. Which are pink. And totally suit her because she really is a girly-girl, much more than I could ever hope to be. She's really tiny and cute and has gorgeous jewelry... and her own tile saw. And knows how to use it! So when Harbor Freight Tools had a sale on cordless drills, I got one, only mine is orange. It's the one that was on sale. :) I also got my own toolbox and over time collected my own tools. Not that Rich doesn't have tools. He does. Only they're never around when I need them. They end up at his shop, or in the pickup of one of his workers, or anywhere other than where I can find them. My tools say SUZ on them so there is no question.

Oh yes, the compost bin!

The really cool thing is, you throw in all your produce scraps and bada bing, bada boom, you get really rich loamy compost. If you want it to happen more quickly, it's helpful to add water or other liquid (I'm thinking leftover coffee here) and chop things like watermelon rinds into smaller pieces, add a little soil, and to stir it once in a while with a sturdy stick like maybe a broken broom handle. If you don't want to, no big deal, it just won't decompose as fast.

As I kept adding "stuff" to the first bin, I was thinking I would need to get a second bin any day. The weird thing was, as full as the bin was one day, by the next it would be way emptier. Things just shrunk. I put all my produce waste in for the whole summer - and I'm talking corn husks and cobs, watermelon and muskmelon rinds, orange, lemon, beet, and carrot peels, egg shells, you name it. It was a lot of stuff! And it wouldn't get full! After a winter of continuing to add to the bin, I decided at the beginning of the next summer to go ahead and begin a second one. Mostly so that the first one could go ahead and get finished once I quit adding to it.

For anyone who tries this at home: be sure not to add any animal products like meat, bones, or cheese and other dairy products. Eggs and eggshells are okay. But the other bits will cause a stench you will not like. Think mainly plant based waste.

Now I should probably consider growing more stuff so I have a place to use the compost...

Kids... :)

So Aidan tells me last night, "Mom, I thought I'd let you know none of my friends like our food."

WHAT!? What do you mean?

"Courtney wanted something to eat last night and she thought all your food is weird. Which it kind of is."

What are you talking about?

"Well, there was nothing in the fridge she wanted."

Why didn't you show her the fruit bowl? There're oranges, apples, kiwi, bananas...

"She didn't want fruit. I let her look through the whole fridge and there was nothing there she wanted."

Well if she didn't want an apple I guess she wasn't that hungry...

"She even looked through the pantry and said we have nothing to eat."

Okay, well I realize I have more "ingredients" than pre-made food, but what about all the nuts and dried fruit?

"She didn't want any of that."

Okay, well Aidan, I'm glad you're not that picky! And, since I'm not buying "crap" food for your friends, I guess they can just go home and eat.

Also, you can tell them it's because the typical American diet makes people unhealthy!

"Or you can tell them it's because your mom's weird," Rich adds helpfully.

"That's what I did tell them," Aidan says with a smirk.

*Sigh*

HA! I happen to know three of your friends who like my dinners! Remember Zach who said, "Mmmm, this is good! You should make this every time I come over." Even if Nathan's been bringing his own snacks for some time now. haha

*Okay, calm down, he'll appreciate it one day... HEY! This would make a great Blog topic!* Exactly!

*And I do keep tortilla chips on hand, okay they're plain not Doritos but hey! Nobody eats the whole bag in one sitting that way, do they? They go good with salsa! And the gingersnaps I get... I had to look pretty hard to find a brand with no high fructose corn syrup and no partially hydrogenated anything and taste good...*

You'll thank me later Aidan!!