Bettina Network's Blog - Table Talk at a Bettina Network Home - Page 37

So Much To Do – So Little Time

March 11th, 2011

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2011
A Bettina Host Family’s Reflections

“After reading your blog on Rev. Gomes and looking at my own life – this may be a morbid post, but it is where I am at the moment and I think it needs to be said.


It is great being a host family in the Bettina Network.  Bed & breakfast has focused my life and used all of my talents.  Sometimes, I really didn’t understand why I was going through so much upheaval and unhappiness as I tried to get life together.  I tried several careers, but none seemed to fit.  Each one didn’t like me – so I moved on to something else.  With bed & breakfast, its different.  I like this career.  It allows me to use every talent I have.


Funny thing about that – I started with a very different set of lifestyle values.  I needed to have a perfect house and garden.  I knocked myself out 24/7 trying to make sure the house was absolutely spotless. If a guest came along who knocked into the wall with their luggage going to their room I was right there within an hour with a little sandpaper and paint to take away any indication that humans had passed on that stairway.  I was a nervous wreck.


Now, I am thoroughly enjoying myself and understand this business a lot better.  Guests are returning at a higher rate and we are all a lot better off because of my epiphany.


I realized my home is not a funeral parlor.  It is a place for real-live-functioning-people, who want most of all to find ‘home’ away from their actual home.  There is enormous stress in traveling.  We all experience it and want it to stop, but then we travel again and have high moments of enjoyment, but the stress is never very far away.


My home has become that ‘home’ away from home – if I can be a bit immodest.  My focus has changed.  My concern is about the guest and not the house.  The Bettina people told me to make that my focus when I joined the Bettina Network.  And, they said, I would have a much fuller and better experience than if I made the house the focus.  


Probably because I didn’t understand what they meant I said – yes, yes – and went about making the house the focus.  I now have a bed & breakfast HOME, which is different from a bed & breakfast house and everyone is happier for the transformation.  It is still clean and looks very nice, but not the hyperness of yesterday nor the fussiness of how I used to be.


Thanks folks – Bettina folks and guests too!  You have changed my life for the better and I look forward to a long career as a bed & breakfast host family in the Bettina Network and a researcher (which is what I do in my spare time).  I owe all of you for enriching my life beyond what I expected.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Making Connections, Who are the Bettina Families | No Comments »

Hail Mr. Gomes

March 1st, 2011
 

copyright the Bettina Network, inc. 2011
by The Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett

The Rev. Professor Mr. Peter Gomes  – internationally known as Harvard University’s pastor – died February 28, 2011.  He was 68 years old.

The Rev. Gomes was such a presence within “the college” and its environs that to say he will be missed is truly an understatement.

I first met Peter Gomes – an elegantly dressed young man, complete with watch fob – in the mid to late 1960’s when he was a student at Harvard Divinity School.  He has been a friend ever since.

Initially, when I first met Peter, I thought he was one of the faculty – he had such an incredible bearing.  And indeed, upon his return to Harvard in the beginning of the 1970’s, after his graduation and after spending a couple years at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, Peter had indeed become an officer of the college.  This was the start of his career and tenure at Harvard’s Memorial Church.

Peter’s impact at Harvard has been felt in so many ways: his teaching and preaching; his writings and not least of all, the weekly gatherings of the community for tea at his home.  It is a home filled with antiques – each with their own history.  It was a proper setting for a man who loved life and surrounded himself with so much beauty and elegance.

Needless to say, the Rev. Prof. Gomes’ involvements in the social and political issues of the day were felt beyond the walls of Harvard Yard and are already being recalled in notifications of his death.

Looking back on Rev. Gomes’ life, it is as minister to the college which marks his major contribution.  Beside Sunday worship, his pastoral role was expressed through Memorial Church’s varied programs throughout the seasons and festivities of the school year; not the least of these being daily Morning Prayers and talks in the chapel; the pastor’s role as confessor, counselor and friend to student and faculty alike; and – who can forget Mr. Gomes in his varied roles during commencement festivities.

It is all of these good and happy memories which help overcome our sense of loss and sadness and bids us offer a farewell shout:

                         SALVE!  PETER GOMES!


I will miss you!

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Hall of Fame, Making Connections, Memorials | No Comments »

Use Those Fruit Skins After Breakfast!

January 22nd, 2011

Copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2011

We discovered an elegant way to use the skins from the fruit we have for breakfast.  Sometimes we serve oranges – different kinds – having taken off the skins and separating them into segments, putting the segments on the plate as beautifully as possible.  Normally, we put the skins in the compost after breakfast, but this day, we julienned the skins, put them in one cup water and one cup organic turbinado sugar and let them cook until the temperature reached 240 degrees.  What a great discovery! Oh, before I forget – we put the water and sugar in a pot with the fruit rind or skins and didn’t stir – we didn’t touch it, we just let it do its thing until it reached the proper temperature.

When the mixture reached about 220 to 240 degrees, we took the skins out of the syrup, put them in a pan of organic turbinado sugar and mixed them around until the skins were well coated.  We took them out of the sugar, put them on a plate laying them out very carefully and let them sit overnight.  The next morning the skins had hardened on the outside, were soft on the inside – not too soft, but sill recognizable as oranges – and enjoyed them on a little of everything.  They were great to add a lovely touch to dessert dishes.  We also put them out, in a cut glass candy dish, for snacks.  We served bread pudding and decorated each plate with a few candied orange peels.

We took the syrup left from boiling the orange skins and used it to make Bettina’s Marshmaples – only without maple syrup in the dish we are going to have to rename those ‘sort of’ marshmallows.

This was a great find.  Not only did we now have a use for something we would have – not thrown away, but composted – we had also found a way to add a lovely touch to breakfast and other meals with snacks inbetwen.

Onward and upward.  We have been looking for ways to use the left over ginger root after we boil it to make ginger tea.  What better use than this?  After all, candied ginger costs quite a bit at the store and it is usually neither organic nor made with a really good sugar.  So we put the Corning glass pot back on the stove, added one cup of water and one cup organic turbinado sugar and dropped in the sliced ginger, which had just been used to make ginger tea.

After about 15 – 20 minutes, the syrup reached 240 degrees and we took out the ginger root.  We used the leftover syrup to make Marshmaples and they were also sensational.  Marshmallows that taste like ginger.  The orange rinds produced Marshmaples which taste like oranges.  We have discovered something really great and alleviated the kitchen of leftovers that would be thrown out or composted. The flavor of the Marshmaples are real – not produced by using synthetic flavorings.

And we have found a way to use what would have been left-overs. As days move along, we hope to have lots of the candied fruit rind to offer guests and visitors as idle snacks to be eaten while talking, reading or just looking for something to ease that food craving and our dishes will begin to take on another look as we decorate with candied fruit peels.

P. S. We searched our cookbooks for recipes for this candied peel and found one major difference between their recipes and ours.  All the recipes we found suggested you first ‘blanche’ the rind – in other words put the rind in cold water, bring the water to a boil, let them in the boiling water about a minute.  Some went so far as to suggest you do this two or three times before candying the rind.  A couple recipes suggested you bring water to a boil, put in the rind for about a minute before using them the way we did. We disagree.  We didn’t know about blanching so we didn’t.  We have tried making candied fruit rind the cookbook way and it tastes like a medium of some kind was used to produce another way to eat sugar.  And in each recipe you had to add flavoring to the water and sugar to get the rinds to taste again.  We just put the rind in the water and they came out full of flavor and had flavored the syrup so we could use it for other things.  I can see using the syrup as a flavoring for a lot of different dishes.

________________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Cookbook | No Comments »

Beauty in 2011

January 19th, 2011

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2011

“This is the year I throw out my cosmetics and follow organic beautify treatments.  Not organic cosmetics, but organic foods used the way I have been using cosmetics.


I was part of a fantastic breakfast conversation at one of the Bettina Network bed and breakfasts which talked about – basically – only using on your face, skin and hair, those products that you would eat because within seconds what you put on your skin shows up in your blood stream.


I was the one denying this and talking about the block your skin has from products getting any further than just on the surface – certainly not getting as far as your blood stream.  And then, when I got home I looked up what we were talking about and realized folks must have thought me really ignorant because I didn’t really know anything about the topic.  I didn’t let that stop me from spreading ignorance.  I don’t normally act like that, but these are emotional topics and everyone thinks they are experts.  I thought I knew everything there was to know about cosmetics, etc. because I spent a few thousand dollars a year on cosmetics and here I could have had better results spending only a couple hundred for everything.


I’ve gone over Bettina’s Blog and found some of the things talked about and have tried a few.  The one that has produced the best result for me is the virgin organic coconut oil.  That is the one I objected to over breakfast because over the years, everything I heard about coconut oil was telling me to stay away from it because it was bad for your health.  Imagine my amazement to hear folks talking about how great it was over breakfast and their experiences with it.  And just think how uninformed I was and sounded, especially since I insisted I knew what I was talking about.


This letter is my way of ‘eating crow’ from my bad behavior at breakfast. I hope you will share it by putting it in Bettina’s Blog.  If you don’t I will thoroughly understand.  Also feel free to edit it anyway you feel necessary, in case you have space requirements.


The woman whose beauty regimen I have been following, was very quiet at breakfast,  but she did describe how she uses coconut oil all the time. She looked stunning.  She is not a great beauty – sorry – but she had this aura around her, which apparently comes from her beauty regimen.  She uses coconut oil as an all over massage after her bath (yes, Virginia, she takes a bath – that freaked me out) – who in this day and age takes a bath.


Once I got over her bathing instead of showering – I could hear her again – she massages with coconut oil and uses it to give her scalp and hair a real good massage as well.  Another quiet person around the table suggested coconut oil was being touted as being good for Alzheimer’s and for thyroid problems.  Since I am at that change of life stage, the thyroid sounded good to me.  I don’t have a thyroid problem, but I am at the age where that is possible, so I massage my neck every day with the coconut oil – hitting the spots where I think my thyroid lives.  I know about thyroids thanks to Dr. Oz.


I’ve been using it for a few months and feel great, – I look much better – and my skin and especially my face have taken on the brightness and healthy look of the woman who I admired. I love the soft sheen her face had and that is what I’ve been trying for.  Some of the other stuff talked about I haven’t yet tried.  The use of beta carotene on your lips instead of lipstick struck me as really great, but so far I have been going without lipstick.  Once I get the coconut oil down, I will move on to the beta carotene and then the aloe vera as an alternate massage to coconut oil.


There is so much I heard around that breakfast table that today sounds really great to me – I really regret getting up on my high horse of knowing it all and not really listening.  I could have learned so much more.


Thank you for providing this forum.  I’ve added a lot of good habits to my daily life which I had no knowledge about before staying at your bed and breakfast.  Do all of your homes have this kind of breakfast?  If so, I will never travel another way.  To visit friends and pick up good habits which will last a lifetime and make me look really good, what more could I ask.  Thanks also for putting up with me – I wasn’t the best breakfast conversationalist.  a bit too pushy, but I am really nice deep down.  When I’ve made a nute of myself I always apologize.  In this case, please accept my apologies and my thanks for what I took away from your bed and breakfast.”

Ed Note:  We published the letter we received in its entirety with no edits.

_______________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Guest comments, Health and Beauty | No Comments »

Sew Creative

January 16th, 2011

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2011

Sew Creative
14 Elliott Street
Beverly, MA. 01915
phone:  978 524 8848   fax: 978 524 8858
web site: www.sewcreativebeverly.com

Hours: Tue – Sat 9:30am – 5:30pm; Thursdays until 7pm, Sundays 12-4pm, closed on Monday.

A guest sent us an email suggesting we add “Sew Creative” to Bettina’s Blog. She also sent a review of the shop and urged us to put her review in the Blog.  We were intrigued and went to visit.  It was everything she described.

Her review follows:

“During a recent visit to the North Shore, where I spent several days in a Bettina Network home,  I spent one morning looking for sewing, quilting, arts and crafts stores, – since this is my interest and I always like to see what’s out there when I get the opportunity to visit other cities.


I literally stumbled over ‘Sew Creative’ and almost didn’t stop because I was rushing to meet a friend for lunch.  I doubled back, however, called my friend and she met me at Sew Creative.


It is a wonderful, warm, friendly shop which contains everything you need, to do all kinds of quilting.  Yards and yards of beautifully printed cottons; all the findings – like thread and equipment you might not have or run out of; patterns, and more- but mostly the people who own and work in the shop are unbelievably helpful.  They have classes and regular times when you can just show up and sew with like- minded people.


There is an Embroidery Club, a Quilters Boot Camp, which gives you the basics of quilting; a ‘Girls Night Out’ which is $20 and gives you five hours of uninterrupted sewing time to work on a project of your choice and get expert help. The projects include quilts, clothing, using sergers, machine embroidery and some general sewing.  There are also classes for kids with no adults allowed.


What is shameful is that there are so few such stores around today where one can buy the beautiful materials I used to buy on a constant basis, whether I needed them or not.  I have quite a stash, but my heart goes out to those young people who won’t know the joy of finding an exquisite piece of silk for a beautiful suit to take home and sew or stash the material away for rainy days.  They won’t know the excitement which comes from discovering that all the pieces of material you have so carefully stored away – after making a project or cutting up an outfit you can no longer wear – are enough to make a divine quilt.  With the pieces from old outfits, it is especially wonderful to discover you have the kind of clothes and pieces of material which you can use to make a memory quilt.


When I return to Massachusetts I will always make Sew Creative one of the stops during my stay.”

Ed Note:  We sent someone to Beverly to check out Sew Creative.  It is as described and we had a lovely late morning stay.  We also added Sew Creative to Bettina’s Menu of Events.

We had an unexpected bonus from that trip.  Our ‘checker’ found material we were looking for to use to upholster walls. That has been a request from a couple of our bed & breakfast host families, but we haven’t had the time to go searching for just the right under-cloth to use. We will give you a write-up on wall upholstering in another blog – mostly because our host families wanted to know how to do it to save on their heating bills.

____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Guest comments and talents, Shopping | No Comments »

Time to Get Back to Work

January 15th, 2011

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2011

Well, 2011 is well on its way to becoming 2012 and before that happens it is time for us to get back to work.

We have a few emails from our bed & breakfast guests who read Bettina’s Blog.

Let’s start the New Year with a great suggestion for baking.

“I was in the kitchen one morning when my host family was making breakfast.  They baked a wonderful sour cream breakfast cake.  I would love to have the recipe.


Although the cake was really good they had a hard time getting it out of the cake pan.  It eventually came out, but not as pretty as they had hoped.  I gave them a suggestion, which I decided to also send to the blog.  It is one which has served me well over many years – and I never have and never will use that spray stuff you see being put into baking pans on the cooking shows.


When I start to bake a cake, the first thing I do is oil the pan with organic butter and put it in the refrigerator until I have finished with the cake batter and it is ready to be poured into the pan.  I have never had a problem getting my cakes out of the pan.  Once out of the oven, let the cake cool about five minutes (no longer) and then put a plate over the cake pan invert it and the cake will come right out of the pan.”

Ed. Note:  We tried this several times and it worked beautifully.  Needless to say we passed this suggestion on to the bed & breakfast host family who was mentioned as having a hard time getting their cake out of the pan.

________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Guest comments | No Comments »

Looking for Homes to join the Bettina Network

January 7th, 2011

From now through March, 2011 we will be scouring the country for new homes to add to the Bettina Network, inc.

If you have a home you would like to use to  accommodate bed & breakfast guests, call us to find out more about the possibilities.

We have homes ranging from two bedroom apartments, where the host family lives in one bedroom and uses one bedroom and bathroom for bed & breakfast guests, to large mansions.  We are looking for farms, ranches, off-the-beaten track places, interesting host families, etc.  Do you have a dairy farm and want a little help?  Try bed & breakfast with guests who would love to spend a few days working on your farm.

Call us and let’s discuss putting your home in the Bettina Network!  Are you an artist and want to stay home to develop your art – try having bed & breakfast guests to pay your overhead while you give yourself time to develop as a full-time artist.

We have accommodated host families who are very wealthy and want to break out of their closed circle of friends to know more about the world –  to those who were facing foreclosure and bed & breakfast was survival and a way to maintain a home they were about to lose.

Call us to find out more about the possibilities and how this road could be your yellow brick road – except instead of the wizard at the end of the road, you could find knowledge, understanding, wisdom, fun, a world view you couldn’t get no matter how long or far you travelled and extra income.  Keep your home private, but at the same time open it to world travellers to let them see how you live and you find out about them over breakfast.

617 497 9166
800 347 9166 toll free
email – bettinanetwork@comcast.net
web site – www.bettina-network.com

We look forward to hearing from you and exploring the possibility of your becoming a part of the Bettina Network in 2011.

__________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Making Connections | No Comments »

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 24th, 2010

WE wish you much joy, happiness and love!  

We wish for you the care and comfort 
         of being surrounded by friends, family 
         and those who need you and yours!


If we could give to you any gift in the universe, we would give you the joy of giving!  Why? To to be able to give, you must know how to love – must be able to love enough that you give without thinking about what is being given back to you!  It is the gift of this holiday season, the one for which it was created!


TO GIVE – 
     is the ground on which the Bettina Network is built!                                                               
    
To give, unconditionally, is to gain the ability to see truth.


        Give of yourself to others.  You can afford to stop when you see someone in need 
                                          – it won’t ruin your life or your career.

    Order your life so that much of it is engaged in giving!  
           
            To give is a natural part of to live.  


     To give does not mean giving billions to institutionally structured charities – they will only continue this society 
moving in the wrong direction. 


                  To give is a direct act.


 There are the homeless – why can’t we give them homes?
              There are the hungry – why can’t we feed them?
      There are the addicted – why can’t we expect them to give to others?        
       There are those without proper clothing – why can’t we clothe them?

there are those who need little things to facilitate their lives – a ride to someplace they need to be, but don’t have the ability to get there – a conversation with someone who will really listen – honest feedback on what they are doing which is leading them down the wrong path – friends to be with because they have none and don’t know how to change that – a circle of people with whom they differ so they can understand what life means to those in a different place –

The sin we commit, 

which wrecks havoc in this world, 


is what we do to shore up our identity as better than ‘those people’.  

We are particularly careful of our time, so we give to those in places where we think we will benefit.  We work so hard to have the ‘right’ friends, the ‘right’ job’ to live in the most ‘correct’ neighborhood, to have our children go to the ‘best’ schools. We do what we can to keep those out of our neighborhood who would lessen our self-esteem. All of this is tragically life consuming. 

Instead, see those in need, dying, grieving, lost. don’t push them aside –    
                                      You have time!!          

We are rushing toward a horrific end —
we are becoming more isolated.

We are terrified of the germs we might catch from one another
We raise children to inherit FEAR.
Our industries make billions trading on FEAR

We spend billions trying to stay young.
But, in reality,
we only manage to hide from ourselves,
for a little while,
the fact that we will grow old and die.

AND SO WE WARP OUR LIVES.

We keep the sick, the maimed, the dying, in another place so we can go about our lives as   though we are immortal and always young  and healthy!
         
Keep those who are old away from us! “Assisted Living?”
         We don’t want to see them change!

We wish for you the ability to get out of the crowd working hard to store up treasures which moths and rust do corrupt and into which thieves can break through and steal,

for where your heart is, there also is your treasure.


We wish for you a beautiful world.  One in which the flowers are neither all lilies, nor all roses, no matter how beautiful those flowers may be.  We wish for you a world full of millions of different flowers – blooming profusely.


We wish for you a world of people who take the time 
                                      to care for one another – 
                         who even take the time to care for the stranger.  


We wish for you a world and a life full of
     the love and the joy which comes                  
                                    FROM GIVING!!! 

____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Holiday Greeting | No Comments »

From a Guest on Cayenne Pepper

December 21st, 2010


“Before I get swept away by the holidays, I want to thank you for a wonderful blog. Keep up the good work, I’ve used so many of your ideas and I am very grateful. Some have been real life savers.

We also had a wonderful stay at a bed & breakfast in Harvard Square Cambridge for about the umpteenth time. Each time I don’t think it can get better and each time something new and different happens that makes me want to return soon.

This is about your blog on Cayenne Pepper. I read it, thought it was interesting, but didn’t follow through until I returned to the bed & breakfast, which now keeps a bottle of cayenne pepper at the door as you come in or leave. They do it because several guests have requested the cayenne pepper, since that is the last thing you would think to pack and I’m not sure it would get through security anyway. (By the way your blog on “Security at the Airport” is a stitch – probably because there is so much truth in it that it is really funny).

I got into the habit of sprinkling cayenne pepper in my shoes everytime I went out and it saved my life. Travel is hard on my feet and I come home with aching pinched feet. My own fault from the shoes I insist on wearing. This time, I had no problems, walked all over and found lots of energy without aching feet. I don’t know what the cayenne pepper does, but I’ve used it constantly since returning home and it has changed my way of living.

Thank you! By the way I was at the table when the folks from Canada talked about Cayenne Pepper as they sprinkled it in their running shoes several years ago before going out the door to join the hordes of runners for the Boston Marathon. It has taken this long for me to take up the suggestion, even though I saw the guy come back who didn’t have to crawl into the house and crawl up the stairs to his room. He was still walking upright and stopped to talk to me without seeming to be exhausted. Well, I now know how that feels.

enjoy your holidays and thank you so much for the ideas in Bettina’s Blog. hope you continue it for many more years and I can read it for many more years. As soon as I get a minute I am going to go over that blog for other ideas that might help me get through life a little easier.”

ed. note: Thanks for your comments. It is nice to know someone is out there reading and benefitting from what we write.

_______________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Guest comments, Making Connections, Reader Feedback, Travel Bettina Style | No Comments »

Holiday Tradition and Health?

November 29th, 2010

copyright 2010 the Bettina Network, inc.

Isn’t it amazing how our holiday traditions, which go back the furthest, have some connection to health?

We have recommended the web site www.mercola.com in the past as a great newsletter. We hope you have subscribed to this newsletter, which is loaded with research and good information about health, nutrition, etc. It often comes up across the breakfast table and we are delighted to get emails from guests who discovered it on their own and are recommending we write about it in Bettina’s Blog.

The latest information we gleaned from this newsletter (with a guest pointing the way) follows. We hope you think about this when you hang a piece of mistletoe in your entry hallway:

…“certain natural substances can help to restore proper cellular communication. For instance, Dr. Popp found that mistletoe appeared to restore biophoton emissions of tumor cells to a normal level!. Interestingly, even conventional medicine confirmed that mistletoe extract does appear to have a beneficial effect on cancer, with one study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine showing that mean survival rates nearly doubled among breast cancer patients who received mistletoe extract.”

Before you write to ask – no we don’t know who Dr. Popp is, we received the above quote just minutes ago from a guest with the message that “we should look into our traditions with an eye as to how and why they came into being and what message they are transmitting to future generations. Are they short-hand for more than what we realize?”

Enjoy your holidays and research those holiday traditions you keep alive year after year with the above in mind.

_____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in cancer, Health, Holiday Greeting | No Comments »

Brooklyn, N. Y. Co-op For Rent

November 26th, 2010

A beautiful co-op apartment – in an elegant building with doorman – located in the Prospect Park West neighborhood – close to the Botanical Gardens.

$3,000/month with heat. One bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, dining room or den. In great condition having been painted and renovated less than one year ago.

Available starting December 1st for one year. No fees.

Call the Bettina Network for more information. Toll free 800 347 9166. Outside the United States call 617 497 9166 or email the Bettina Network, inc. at bettina-network@comcast.net

________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Apartment for Rent | No Comments »

SECURITY AT THE AIRPORT!!!!

November 24th, 2010

copyright 2010 The Bettina Network, inc.

Are you a sexual pervert? Have you been convicted of sexual abuse against children? Are all of your thoughts about sex and sexual abuse against others? Are you listed in all the public places as a sexual predator and on the governments sexual predator listing? Have we got the perfect job for you!!!! Apply immediately for a job in security at your local airport.

Sounds harsh? Unfair? Not thinking about security? Ridiculous! The government is clearly operating in someone’s interest, but it is not in the interest of continuing the democracy under which we think we live and they have found a great way to do this – it is all in the name of ‘protecting’ us, in the name of ‘security’. These pat downs and machines which show you naked to someone looking through a mirror or whatever they look through at naked bodies all day long – What happens to these airport/government employees after several months of doing this kind of job? They go home and lead normal lives? Not likely? Over time, many of them will probably become sexual predators – how are you going to deal with the large increase in numbers of sexual predators in this society, created in the name of security? Whose security? The financial security of the heads of the corporations making billions from this new form of ‘security’?

Remember the name Chertoff? Think back a bit! Remember Katrina? Who made a grand mess of Katrina for which, some people say, he should have spent time in jail? Try the name Chertoff!

Now look at the airport machines. Wasn’t it Chertoff who first lobbied for them while he was in government and then went to work for the company which manufactures, distributes and sells them when he left government? A great ‘retirement from government pension plan” and look at his salary and bonuses today? Has Mr. Chertoff become a very wealthy man by sexually exploiting the American people? Is he now a very wealthy man because you are being sexually groped and your children being trained to submit to sexual predators at the airport by your government? And you are excusing this in the name of “security”? Are our memories that short?

Some people say Chertoff should have gone to jail for the way he mishandled New Orleans and other areas along the Gulf during the aftermath of Katrina, but instead he has become a wealthy man and compromised your right to privacy; your democracy; your future and the future of your children. Looking at Mr. Chertoff’s ‘progress’, I hate to think of what his third act will be?

All of this done in the name of making you secure? And listen on television to the small comments by people very willing to give up their rights and more importantly your rights, calling you names because you don’t want to be naked in the airport, oppressed by machinery and groped!

Take a look at the increase in lobbying monies spent by the companies who manufacture and sell these machines. Substantial increases in spending made before the machines were adopted. The return on investment to those companies for their money spent lobbying to get their machines installed in airports; for what they spent hiring Chertoff and his government buddies, was money well spent to increase their bottom line – and it has done that in a substantial way.

Who engineered the increase in corporate spending? Chertoff? Take a look at who these companies have hired in addition to Chertoff and then saw their business sky rocket as these ex-government employees, now corporate employees and lobbyists, brought home the bacon.

Why did the man, prominently featured on television, remove his sons shirt while going through this disgusting ritual? To keep him from being overly groped by strangers? What kind of lesson did the little boy learn from his father – who was trying to protect him – and what did he learn from the strangers groping him? Will he be more amenable to the advances of sexual predators in the future? That certainly is the message most young children are getting. Groping is government back and sanctioned – is this the message you want your children to get? Or have you thought that far in advance?

What are you going to do about it? Submit and keep on with your life as usual because its better than rocking the boat?

This isn’t about security people? This is about corporate greed and lack of corporate values and total disrespect of the American public and disrespect of those who travel on American planes.

If we are so concerned about security, why is it the TSA has never implemented a process through which every traveller is known before they board a plane? Why is the system which allowed terrorists to board planes and do damage and the airlines find out who they were AFTER the fact, still not fixed – but this sexual invasion of privacy has been very expensively implemented instead? Is there not enough money being spent on lobbyists and hiring ex-government employees to see that such a really secure system is implemented? Is this really about security or is something else going on here?

We certainly have the technology to change that and to make sure everyone who boards a plane is known!!!! What will searching individual people in such obscene ways do – the terrorists most certainly will be one step ahead and find ways around this security – or better still – find ways to use this security for their own purposes.

Why hasn’t the TSA corrected the problems which caused Ted Kennedy to be stopped because his name was on a suspect list? If we can’t distinguish between a potential terrorist and one of our own Senators, we are in a sorry state indeed. El Al has a system in place by which they don’t have to do these ‘strip’ searches and gropings – they know who is travelling on their airplanes and they did not have a 911 incident. We don’t have a clue! Names have reached the gate after suspect people have boarded planes and the planes taken off. Why aren’t you demanding better than this from your government? This is an outrage and we don’t see many of you reacting and demanding a stop to this corporate greed.

In the name of faulty and ineffective security we have become a police state in which money is being scammed and power is being constantly channeled to fewer and fewer people with the rest of us being squeezed into a very oppressed condition and are being conditioned to accept that position in the name of “security.” I have seen the oppressor and it is us. US, who do these things and US, who accepts them in the name of whatever excuse is offered. Us who picks up these lame excuses and judges others of us negatively because we don’t buy the corporate/government line. By the time you wake up and see what’s happening in this country it will be too late.

These are some of the breakfast conversations about what is happening at the airports in the name of security and it is downright scary. Especially since we don’t see America fighting back, but excusing these intrusions into our bodies and privacy. The right to privacy, guaranteed by the constitution seems to have been put into abeyance.

________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A Great Web Site for Those Who Cook!

November 16th, 2010

Passed around over breakfast was the web site www.ChefTalk.com.

We checked it out and it is great!!!! It claims to be “a food lover’s link to professional chefs and indeed it is.

Ask your questions and get many answers in record time. There is a section of articles. A Forum. Reviews and more. My first greeting from the site was an article on “DeConstructing Turkey Gravy.” The title made the article too tempting to skip over.

I have been threatening to make sausage and don’t have a clue. All the sausage I know about comes in some animals gut and is wrapped in plastic. I redeem myself by buying only the sausages labeled “organic”, but I still don’t feel good about the purchases so the series of back and forth question and answer on this site is really excellent for someone with very little knowledge. The site graduates from the rank beginner to the professional chef. It was nice being in such diverse company.

There are the serious/funny question and answers – like the most recent on saffron started by someone who knew nothing about saffron, but was questioning which was the very best. Whoever this was wanted to cook with saffron, but didn’t know how it tasted, how to use it in anything, but was going for the top of the line. I couldn’t help but be amused to think a cook someplace was going to start trial and error with saffron which costs – probably more than gold, instead of experimenting first and improving the ingredient when experience took over.

You won’t regret taking a look at this web site – if you enjoy cooking, talking about cooking, looking at pictures about cooking from a place which is a substantial learning center.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Kitchen Equipment Review, Shopping | No Comments »

Travel, Embedded in a Community

November 4th, 2010

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2010

How do you do that? By travelling via the Bettina Network.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Whole Foods Out of the Box

October 23rd, 2010

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2010

October is Non-GMO month and we are acutely aware of those who are working to eliminate food grown with GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED and those who are the great transgressors. Whole Foods has become a leader in the Non-GMO movement and we commend them on that effort and praise them for making such a timely choice. So we are removing Whole Foods from the Bettina’s Box of Shame.

We noticed several other reasons to take them out of Bettina’s Box of Shame. One of our big concerns, at the time we put them in the Box of Shame, was their frozen spinach, etc. from China, especially since, at the time, melamine was being found in foods from China. We find they no longer stock such frozen spinach, however, their current crop of frozen spinach is from Brussels – some from France. While we think those countries are great, we don’t think stocking frozen foods from outside the United States is so great. We hope they will change that practice. There are too many signs around their stores touting “buy local” for them to continue to engage in the practice of having some of their frozen foods come from other countries with no choice given to those who actually want to buy local – even frozen foods.

On the good and most amazing side at Whole Foods – which started to turn our thinking, – several times this summer we found Whole Foods had organic fruit at a price lower than conventional fruit – strawberries, in particular. That practice needs to spread to other foods. It is cheaper to raise organic foods – eliminating the high cost of Monsanto Seeds, pesticides and other offending crutches some farmers use, should eventually result in the lowering of the cost of organic foods.

We found that lower cost particularly exciting and loaded a cart full of the fruit, sending emails to all we could think of to tell them that news and invited friends and colleagues over for tea with Whole Foods fruit and small labels on the table asking them to notice that the price of the organic fruit they were eating (the strawberries) was $1.00 lower than the price of the conventional fruit – $1.00 higher.

We commend Whole Foods on its leadership in the non-GMO movement and will follow and support their activities in this realm. We hope you will too. CUDOS, Whole Foods, on a job well done. Keep up the good work and stay out of Bettina’s Box of Shame.

_______________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Box of Shame, Food Shopping, Health | No Comments »

A NEW BREAKFAST HABIT – FRESH COFFEE

October 20th, 2010

The Bettina Network, inc.
copyright 2010

We have started a new tradition, thanks to a guest, from Oxford in England, who makes Espresso for himself every morning with a popcorn popper and good, green espresso coffee beans.

It was a fascinating conversation to realize something which I had dismissed as complicated, time-consuming, etc. is being done on a regular, daily basis by a young bed & breakfast guest who has lots of other things to do – a busy life, research, moving his career forward, etc. We tried to get him to write for Bettina’s Blog, but in spite of much begging and pleading, he resisted. Maybe in the future he will relent and write a blog about his morning coffee ritual.

We will have to report this third hand. As you try it, please give us feed back to help us and you refine the process.

The guest referred us to a web site – www.sweetmarias.com. We went all over the site and learned much, which we are trying to put into practice.

First, we had to find the right popcorn popper – mainly because the coffee roasters we found are way up in the hundreds of dollars and only last, according to what we’ve read, about two years. So the popcorn popper is our beginning. Who would have thought you could have really fresh coffee made with beans roasted in a popcorn popper. But who knows, if we become really good at this we can spin off a Bettina coffee roasting company. You can have your coffee beans shipped overnight mail so you can have really fresh coffee in the morning – Bettina style. I suspect some Bettina host families might put up a fuss if we started to require all homes have fresh coffee in the mornings, but stranger things have happened.

I learned, right before the guest left, that the popcorn popper we had would not work. His advice was to get one with holes in the sides of the well where one would normally put the un-popped corn. The hot-air popcorn popper we have has a screen over the hole in the bottom of the well, but no holes in the sides of the well. The holes in the side are needed to keep the coffee beans rotating. They won’t roast and pop out of the popper the way corn does – they will crack and the outer shells coming off the beans as they crack, will fly out of the popcorn popper the way the corn does. For lack of a more professional word – I call that flying stuff ‘shaft’.

We found the right kind at a second hand store for about $3.50. So off we went with our green coffee beans. We had no idea about quality in coffee beans, but since this was a trial, it didn’t matter.

The beans went into the hot air popcorn popper, plugged it in, put a glass bowl where one normally puts one to catch the popped corn which comes out of the popper and out came ‘shaft’ – after the first crack.

Oh, I forgot the cracks! One must wait, while the beans roast, with an incredible smell filling the house until you hear the beans ‘crack’. After this first ‘crack’ the ‘shaft’ – or what I think is the outside covering of the coffee bean – will come out of the popper since it is light and the hot air just blows it into the glass bowl. The directions from our guest says wait until almost the second crack and your beans are done. I had no idea when the second crack would come to be able to anticipate and take the beans out of the popper at that point so I waited a minute or two after the first crack and took out the beans.

The next direction was to make sure you cool the beans by using two pans and pouring the beans from one to the other until the beans cool down or they will continue to roast as long as there is heat and you have lost control of the roasting process.

I stood in the kitchen, pouring the beans from one sifter to the other thinking I had really lost it in my search for perfect breakfast foods and had I gone too far this time? There are perfectly good organic coffees – ground and whole beans, which I could grind – on the market. What was I doing messing up the kitchen and destroying this popcorn popper trying to do what? I didn’t even know if I had good beans or not.

After cooling, I continued to follow the guests directions and let the coffee beans sit overnight. I’m not sure why, but I follow directions pretty good. I don’t deviate until I have tried the prescribed directions and they don’t work and then – all bets are off.

This morning, I am sitting in my office having the best cup of coffee I have ever had in life. Its like the difference in quality between buying a bag of popcorn which was popped probably a month ago, packaged and stored in a too hot warehouse and popping the corn in your kitchen in a kettle popper, eating it fresh and hot out of the popper.

The coffee is incredible. Remarkable!

Now – I am going to try again. This time after reading a bit about coffee beans, learning something about differences in quality of the beans and refining my roasting and grinding technique. I might even buy a coffee grinder, instead of using the grinder we use for nuts to grind the coffee beans.

Growing up, my great-grandmother made her coffee from green beans every morning. She had a wood burning stove in the kitchen and once that stove was fired up, she roasted coffee beans and had a coffee grinder screwed to the wall – a glass jar contraption – and into that grinder she put her coffee beans and had really fresh coffee daily. It was normal! That was just a part of her morning ritual!!! No one considered that strange or special or anything, that was just how you made coffee.

How far we have come from such basics. – Today we have ‘decaf’ coffee which, if you spill on the flame it lets out an incredible stench and the smell of burning ‘decaf’ coffee grounds is a horrible, horrible odor. It always amazes me when guests ask for ‘decaf’. I wonder if they know the process and if they have ever spilled any of their ‘decaf’ coffee grounds on the stove in the flame or electric element.

All the ways we have coffee. Is it because we’ve lost touch with simply roasting your beans, grinding them and making your coffee in a small french press? That is an exquisite way to start your day.

This is going to be quite special, discovering different coffee beans, filling the house with the smell of freshly roasting coffee beans. The one consistency, which ties back to everything else – ALL THE BEANS WE EXPLORE WILL HAVE TO BE ORGANICALLY GROWN! I’m sure you’ve guessed that.

______________________________________________________

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina's Cookbook, Food Shopping, Kitchen Equipment Review, Making Connections, Preserving Family History and Stories, Shopping | No Comments »

Eggs for Breakfast?

October 15th, 2010

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2010

Needless to say, there has been much talk around Bettina breakfast tables about eggs – given all the media coverage which concentrated on one large farms’ transgression and didn’t give any coverage to the alternatives we have to keep away from eggs with salmonella and other bad things. This summarizes some of what was discussed:

Basically, the question was – what has happened to our food supply that this pops up and the media coverage paints every farm that raises chickens and sells eggs with the same brush. We didn’t see any really good investigative articles on this whole area.

Does this mean we are soon going to see only pasteurized eggs allowed on the market? Was this entire scare a set-up by the large corporate farms to require a large investment pushing out small egg farms? Similar to what happened to raw almonds?

One thing that is scary is the chlorine baths which many large corporate farms put their eggs through. It is mind-boggling to think that we then eat those eggs. Whatever happened to having a clean farm, raising healthy chickens, letting them out in the sun to forage and gathering the good eggs they produce – free of disease. How have we reached this point of having our food produced by large corporate farms which do horrendous things to our food supply and expect us to buy and eat what they produce, no matter how vile or harmful to our health? That is what happens when you turn over responsibility for your life and health to someone else or some other group or corporation. You wake up one day and you are in a mess and don’t know how you got there or how to get out!

If you want to know more, in detail, try www.cornucopia.org – they did research on eggs and have rated some of the farms which produce organic eggs.

One of the healthiest food you can eat is raw eggs. How can we continue to eat raw eggs with all this swirling around?

The Bettina Network asks all of its host families to serve organic eggs from a local farmer whose farming habits they know. This is not about ‘trust’ – trusting the farmers. It is about taking responsibility for your life and health and food supply. Asking questions like – Are the chickens given organic feed? Do the chickens have space to live and run around in the sun and pick and peck in a large space without bumping into other chickens because of lack of space AND especially, do not live in cages stacked on top of one another with their feces dropping on the chickens in the cage beneath them? Is that outdoor space in the sun and not just a small porch which satisfies the organic criteria, but violates the spirit of that organic label?

How do we work full-time, travel the world and still keep up eating organic eggs – and not a bad substitution by those trying to gain the extra money for their product, but not produce the product properly?

No one had an answer to those questions, but some of the discussions were lively. Bottom line – you are responsible for your health and the health of your family and friends and somehow, you have to navigate the sharp rocks which have been put in our paths by a food industry which seems to be getting more and more irresponsible as they concentrate on maximizing profit even if it means compromising their customers’ health. We must all stay vigilant and earn a living. If we all take care, it lessens the load on each one of us because sharing information, having these conversations, helps keep us going in the right direction and maximizing our health.

___________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Food Shopping, Health | No Comments »

Breakfast Apples

October 14th, 2010

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2010

One of the Bettina Host families has finally sent us her recipe for the apples which are a trademark of her breakfasts. Every morning, you can count on geting these apples, no matter what else she serves.

We loved them from first taste. They are not stewed apples, which break down to a kind of mush and are nice with certain dishes. These apples pretty much keep their shape and taste fantastic.

They are quick and easy to make if you have the right equipment and what you need is a very good apple corer and a VERY sharp knife for slicing.

“I use organic Granny Smith apples for this dish and buy them by the box. Needless to say a box barely lasts a week.

I wash the apples carefully because I use the peel. It gives a nice semi-caramel taste and texture to these apples. With organic apples I don’t have to worry about strange and awful stuff on the outside because that isn’t allowed, but I still wash them with great care.

Core the apples with an apple corer.

Slice the apples with a very sharp knife. The width of the apples depends upon your taste. Experiment! When you came to stay with us I was slicing the apples about an inch thick, now I slice about half an inch and I like that better.

Put a generous amount of butter in a flat, iron skillet. The skillet probably has another name, but I don’t know what it is. The flat skillet with a little lip around the side is perfect for these apples. The lip catches any butter that strays.

Once the butter starts to bubble, but long before it browns, put apples in the butter and let them fry for just a minute. Turn them and fry on the other side.

Sprinkle the apples with a generous amount of organic turbinado sugar (I read the blog and changed from what used to look like sugar to me and now looks like white death, to this wonderful coarse brown-in-color sugar). Some people think I fry them in brown sugar, but the organic turbinado sugar is different. Most brown sugar (see I do research too) is white sugar with some molasses – which was originally taken out of the sugar – put back.

Once you’ve sprinkled them with organic turbinado sugar, let them fry about another minute on both sides and take them out with a spatula. The ‘no-no’ with this dish is to avoid the temptation of frying the apples too long. A very quick fry on both sides is all you need – this is not apple mush, but fried apple rings and apples will mush very quickly. This is the step which makes the difference between my apples and everybody else’s. (Wow, I’ve been around you too long, my ego is shooting to the moon).

If you need more you can continue to fry the apples in the same skillet adding more butter and sugar as you go along. The last batch is usally the best and I save that for me while I am cleaning the kitchen. Enjoy and stop hassling me for recipes and articles for the blog. You now have my most treasured recipe.

It takes time to really get these right. I made them for weeks before I got the hang of frying them in butter so that the apples would come out in whole slices and look really gorgeous on the plate. Don’t give up, just keep trying and one morning it will click.”

ed. note: I hope our readers’ appreciate all the guff I take to bring them the best from bed & breakfast host families and guests.

___________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Bettina Network Info, Bettina's Cookbook, Who are the Bettina Families | No Comments »

How to Settle an Upset Stomach

October 12th, 2010

A common problem among those who travel is an upset stomach. A traditional remedy is a cup of peppermint tea. From breakfast conversations and from our work with the Philippa Schuyler Committee we discovered charcoal tablets. Those were recommended by Dick Gregory and Josephine Cogsdell Schuyler for her daughter Philippa who travelled extensively giving piano concerts.

We also discovered, from guests from Bangladesh who travel the world constantly that another very helpful stomach settler is to have yogurt – the first thing every morning. Yes, even before your coffee and, according to them, you can eat or drink whatever is put in front of you including the water and not suffer ill effects. Since they have travelled for many years and haven’t yet had to stop or slow down their activities because of an upset stomach, we took that advice to heart and add Yogurt or Kefir as preventives – to eat (yogurt) or drink (kefir) first thing in the morning, before you have to deal with an upset stomach.

_________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Health | No Comments »

INTERESTING AND UNUSUAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES

September 28th, 2010

NOLA Business Alliance – Chief Executive Officer
Application Deadline: October 15, 2010

“NEW ORLEANS – The Board of NOLA Business Alliance is now seeking a Chief Executive Officer. For the right individual, the CEO position could be an extraordinary opportunity – to lead a critical new organization, for a world-famous city heading in a promising new direction.

The CEO will lead NOLA Business Alliance’s economic development efforts in New Orleans to attract new business and industry into the area, retain existing businesses and promote new business development efforts. The CEO will report to the 17-member Board of Directors, and specifically to the Executive Committee and its Chairman.

Other important working relationships include: owners/executives of businesses with operations in New Orleans; representatives of prospective businesses, both domestic and international; representatives of other economic development organizations in Louisiana, chambers of commerce, port authorities and other entities; the Governor and his administration; federal officials and members of the media.

Anticipated compensation is to be in the range of $150,000-$200,000 per year, commensurate with experience and salary history, in addition to a competitive benefits package.

Major Duties and Responsibilities of the CEO

Overall management and performance of the NOLA Business Alliance
Develop and implement the organization’s vision and mission
Develop and implement the economic development strategic plan
In partnership with the Mayor, GNO, Inc. and others, recruit new businesses to Orleans Parish
Develop a proactive effort to retain existing businesses and help them expand
Build collaborative partnerships, align organization’s activities, and structure development plans with both local, regional, state and federal economic development organizations and stakeholders
Advise the Board of economic development issues that affect Orleans Parish’s economic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on a regular basis
Prepare and execute an annual operating budget and economic development plans
Identify and procure new sources of revenue to support the general organization purposes as well as specific programs
Hire and manage a professional staff capable of meeting the goals of the organization
Create and manage measurable performance benchmarks for staff and organization
Serve as a spokesperson with the media and as primary liaison with elected and appointed governmental officials, major trade and professional organizations and other constituencies
Represent the City of New Orleans at official functions on local, regional, state, national and international levels

Minimum Qualifications of the CEO

A bachelor’s degree is required; an advanced degree in business, law, public administration or related discipline is preferred.
Five to ten years of progressively responsible experience in economic development or comparable experience in public administration, business administration, not-for-profit organization or closely related field.
CEcD designation a plus, but is not required.
Residency in Orleans Parish upon accepting the position.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities of the CEO

Economic development: economic development experience and expertise that has led to a comprehensive knowledge of the principles and practices of economic development. This includes the full range of economic development skills, retention, entrepreneurship, marketing, economic development finance, real estate development, redevelopment and tech-led economic development.
Government relations: experience in the process of local, state, regional and national government and government organizations.
Fiscal management: demonstrated ability to manage financial affairs of an organization.
Communication: strong background in interacting and communicating with multiple audiences at the public, private and media level.
Organization management: ability to analyze, assess and direct operations for the entire organization; establish and implement program procedures, policies or guidelines. Experience with governance issues and Board of Director interactions.
Public/private relationships: demonstrated track record of developing effective partnerships between the public and private sector. Must be able to establish and maintain strong work rapport with leading government officials, business executives, and community leaders.
Community/regional development: effectively manages interactions with community and regional organizations.
Management experience: strong human resource and staff development skills, can effectively coach, mentor and empower a staff and create a team focus.
Strategic planning: experience in developing and implementing strategic plans.
Entrepreneurial: takes initiative; a proactive person who demonstrates leading edge thinking with strong initiative and results oriented personality.
Key Personal Traits of CEO

Collaborative: demonstrates a willingness and ability to work with and through others; values consensus-building. Must be able to seamlessly interact in a synergetic environment that exists between local, state and federal officials.
Communication skills: excellent listener; outstanding written and oral communication skills; effective presentation skills to multiple audiences.
Leadership: a take-charge individual with vision and the means to get there; can lead change, manage, motivate, challenge and delegate to others.
Energetic: a self-starter; genuinely enthusiastic; strong personal work ethic.
Organization skills: results oriented; meets established goals and objectives.
Ethical: possesses honesty, integrity and the highest ethical and moral standards.
Analytical: a problem-solver with the ability to analyze problems carefully and conceptualize solutions.
Political savvy: able to maneuver through complex situations effectively and quietly to leverage local, regional, state and federal economy and resources.
Strategic thinker: has the vision to see beyond daily operations toward broader strategic goals; understands “the big picture.”
Application Deadline and Procedure

Interested applicants should send a letter of interest, a resume and salary history by email to Patrick McHugh at pmchugh@iedconline.org no later than midnight CT on October 15, 2010.

NOLA Business Alliance Structure and Mission

The NOLA Business Alliance is a not-for-profit corporation that will serve as the City of New Orleans’ official public-private partnership for economic development. Its mission is to grow jobs and wealth in the City of New Orleans, with a focus on business retention, business expansion, prospect engagement, prospect negotiation, small business services, entrepreneurship and strategic planning.

A start-up organization, its formation and its Board were announced by Mayor Mitch Landrieu on August 13, 2010. It is led by a 17-member Board of Directors composed of a cross section of New Orleans leaders including the Mayor and a variety of business professionals. To fund the operations of this public-private partnership, the City of New Orleans will contribute $1.5 million from its Economic Development Fund and the private sector will contribute a minimum of $500,000 annually.

The “new” New Orleans – the New Orleans that is emerging from the extraordinary challenge of Hurricane Katrina – is a place of remarkable potential. The culture and history that have made New Orleans a beloved international city are being celebrated with renewed pride, while the issues that have kept New Orleans from reaching its full potential are being addressed with unprecedented vigor and success. In the five years since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has created and maintained over 90,000 jobs bringing local employment up to 86% of pre-storm levels. The City has been touted as one of the top cities in the nation where Americans are relocating and a “hive of entrepreneurial initiative.” For more information on the City’s progress in the aftermath of the storm, see, for example, An Overview of New Orleans Index at Five: From Recovery to Transformation and Twenty Indicators Measuring Greater New Orleans’ Progress Toward Prosperity (http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2007/08neworleansindex.aspx).

A major driver of this turn-around will be economic development: the creation of quality, high-paying jobs and the growth of successful businesses. To this point, however, New Orleans has lacked an organization with the mandate and resources to lead economic development for the City. Now, that has changed. The newly created NOLA Business Alliance, working in close partnership with the City and the Mayor, will be that leading economic development entity and will drive the economic success of the “new” New Orleans.

***

NOLA Business Alliance is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law.”

_____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Posted in Job Opportunities | No Comments »

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