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

Heavenly Marshmaples

February 2nd, 2009

name ‘Marshmaples” under copyright to Marceline Donaldson 2009

Once you’ve tried these you will never be able to go back to buying a marshmallow in any store.

They are unbelievable. You try to eat them, but they melt in your mouth before you can even begin to chew. They improve hot chocolate – with a heavenly taste – or – make a batch in a glass dish and pick up the entire slab of ‘marshmaples’ placing them on top of Japanese White Sweet Potatoes, which have been mashed with a stick of butter and a pinch of salt, and then put the entire dish in the oven for about three or four minutes. You will never again be able to eat Sweet Potatoes full of sugar topped with Marshmallows full of corn syrup and only God knows what else!

One cup organic highest grade Maple Syrup

One cup water

One cup raw organic turbinado cane sugar

2 packets gelatin

One/half cup water

pinch of salt

French Vanilla powdered flavoring

Put the Maple syrup, one cup water, sugar, salt in a glass Corning pot and let it come to a low boil, cooking until a candy thermometer reaches 240 degrees F. Do not stir this, simply put the above ingredients in the glass pot and bring it to a nice boil.

While waiting for your pot to reach 240 degrees, put the gelatin and one/half cup water in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and let it sit. We prefer the Cuisinart 1,000 watt mixer.

When the sugar and syrup mixture has reached 240 degrees, take the pot to the mixer and turn the mixer to low. Pour the sugar/syrup mix very slowly into the mixer bowl taking lots of care because this mixture is HOT.

Once you have poured all of the syrup/sugar mix into the mixer bowl, cover your mixer with a dish cloth so you don’t ruin your kitchen. This will be liquid and it will jump out of the bowl all over everything.

The Cuisinart mixer has a wonderful plastic cover for the mixer bowl, but it has a small opening into which you can pour additional ingredients. That small opening is enough to allow the ‘marshmaples’ to fly all over the place so PLEASE don’t try this without covering your stand mixer. Those stand mixers which don’t have a cover for the top of their bowls could be a recipe for a day spent cleaning the kitchen.

Turn the mixer to high and let it RUNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It will take a good 10 to 15 minutes for the mixture to fluff up and turn white. When it does, add the vanilla and let it beat a few more minutes. Before you send emails asking the obvious question – no I don’t know why this brown maple syrup, raw very lightly processed sugar (which is also brown), turns white through this process, but it does!!

With organic butter, grease an oblong glass baking dish. Put this mixture into the dish using a spatula or very large spoon, since it will be too viscous to pour.

If you like ‘marshmaples’ about one and one/half inches high you will need two of these baking dishes. If you like them to the top of the baking dish, really big, then use only one.

Cover the baking dish with another oblong glass baking dish and set this aside until your ‘marshmaples’ gel – about 4 to 6 hours. If you want the traditional square shapes of marshmallows you can cut these either with a sharp knife or scissors into squares.

If you want something fancier, use a pastry bag with a large tip and squeeze them out onto a buttered steel baking sheet (yes, with organic butter), in whichever shapes you fancy. Again, let these sit for a few hours for the gelatin to take hold – if you can keep everyone away from them.

They are delicious now or later.

You can make special shapes for your hot chocolate; you can push out all kinds of stars, circles, puffs, etc. for whatever you choose. If you like shiny ‘marshmaples’ leave them alone. If you like matte finish ones pour a little organic powdered sugar in a dish and put the marshmaples’ in the powdered sugar to coat them. Careful with this step because you could be making them too sweet. You might experiment with using less sugar in the sugar/syrup mix if you want them to have a matt finish. Serving them on a cake platter, sprinkling powdered sugar inbetween and on top makes a lovely picture and you can get some of the same affect without using a lot of extra sugar.

The taste makes you want to slap whoever makes and sells those store bought marshmallows because look what you’ve been missing.

Please let us know what you think once you’ve made a batch.

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The Tea Leaf

January 25th, 2009

487 Moody Street hours: Wed thru Sun

Waltham, MA. 02453 11:30am – 5:30pm

781-891-1900 web site: thetealeaf.us

We spent a wonderful afternoon enjoying a ‘low tea’. We could have chosen ‘Cream Tea’, ‘Light Tea’, ‘Children’s Afternoon Tea’ or we could have ordered from the a la carte menu. The only draw back was the fact that none of this was organic.

When one walks into The Tea Leaf, you have to pause a moment to take in where you are. You feel as though you have been transported to another place and time, apart from the one you were in moments before on a busy street with cars and other contributors to 21st century life outside.

There are only five or six tables (don’t remember exactly) with flowing brocade cloths which also covers all of chairs. Shelves on one entire side line the place with teas of every description all for sale. Another wall has beautiful ‘things’ all tea related – prints in interesting frames, pictures created from layers of paper depicting tea parties, dolls in 19th century dress. Look up over the tea shelves and one finds tea pots by the dozen. One can shop before or after having tea for beaded purses, scarves, tea pots of every description, cups and even clothes. But we were there for tea.

We had two menus – one for tea and one for everything else. What a nice switch from being presented with the wine list.

It took a few minutes for our order to arrive, but we enjoyed just sitting and soaking up the atmosphere. It wasn’t high French elegance, it was lovely, middle class Victorian England with an American entrepreneurial twist.

Our ‘low tea’ was wonderful. You will probably find some of the ideas of this service showing up in Bettina breakfasts and/or afternoon tea in houses which serve such.

Food was served on a three tier tray – scones, with clotted cream and strawberry preserves on the bottom tier, finger sandwiches elegantly made on the second level and small assorted dessert pieces on top. We each had a pot of tea and we ate everything except the scones.

We started with the finger sandwiches which were made for tea service. They were perfection – with the expected cucumber, cream cheese, parsley combination to the unexpected very Italian-like eggplant sandwich. The cut sides of the sandwiches were dipped in finely chopped herbs and they were half white and half wholewheat bread, very thinly sliced.

After a few moments to recover from the swoon, we looked at the scones – tasted one – and decided they would be left. Our organic food bias threw up barriers to scones which looked and tasted as though they were made with bisquick or its equivalent. They were not what we wanted to intrude on our lovely ‘low tea’, in spite of the clotted cream and strawberry preserves.

So on to the ‘assorted sweets’. These began to restore our excitement about The Tea Leaf. They were all wonderful, except, maybe, the Madeleines. – After one bite we decided not to ruin the rest of the sweets by continuing to eat this one.

The proprietor fits the tea house. She was very knowledgeable about her teas and very gracious in her service – which was impeccable.

Our thanks to Thom Roach of Gore Place for telling us about The Tea Leaf and with the above caveats included we elegantly recommend it to you for an afternoon well spent.

One bonus – we eavesdropped on the next table talking about their impressions of the inauguration and they were fun to hear, but after a few minutes we couldn’t hear them anymore because the atmosphere and food of The Tea Leaf changed the focus of our attention.

One does need reservations before arriving because you are greeted when you step in the door by the proprietress who very pointedly asks “do YOU have reservations!”

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Reader Feedback

January 16th, 2009

Thank you so much for your review of Cuisinart VS KitchenAid mixers.

I have been debating which mixer I should buy for several months. Your comments confirmed my research that Cuisinart is a better made mixer than KitchenAid. My daughter and daughter-in-law both own larger Kitchen Aid machines, but after using them I just couldn’t bring myself to buy one.

I just like the design of the Cuisinart.

I have a 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath and Beyond so I will buy the Cuisinart 7 quart 1000 watt mixer this weekend.

Thanks again!

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Kitchen Aid vs Cuisinart

January 15th, 2009

No comparison. CUISINART WINS.

We use a stand mixer often because we cook a lot and love to try new recipe’s, but we don’t like to beat things by hand or wire wisk, if we can find an easier way. This mixer thing has been quite an experience.

We bought a Kitchen Aid – middle of the line – and it lasted about two years before something cracked in the motor while we were whipping butter. After that it would not whip anything heavier then egg whites, but the noise was so great we didn’t even want to use it for that. Trying to use it for anything heavier than egg whites, the machine wouldn’t work.

We called Kitchen Aid and they said – sorry – nothing we can do. You can pay $25 and we will send you a box to mail the mixer back to us and we’ll check it out. Once we’ve had a chance to examine the machine, we’ll call and tell you the cost of repair. Can’t tell you before hand because we don’t know. Can’t even give you an order of magnitude or a rough guess as to cost.

We thought, maybe we did something wrong. Maybe it was too small a machine. Kitchen Aid is the mixer used on all of the elegant cooking shows and in the beautiful magazines so the problem must be with us.

So instead of sending it back and risking a large repair bill, we decided to buy the largest, heaviest Kitchen Aid made – which we did. A couple years later, with much less use, something in the motor cracked (again) and we had the exact same problem we experienced with the first Kitchen Aid we purchased. Again we called the company and found – sorry – send us $32 and we will send you a box to mail the machine back to us, etc. etc. etc.

It was not a great telephone conversation and we were not pleased with the way we were treated so we got rid of the mixer.

This time, we were a lot more careful. Instead of buying a machine whose company spent a lot on marketing and advertising to suck us in, we did tons of research and discovered – the Kitchen Aid probably has a design flaw, which they weren’t willing to admit. In addition it has only a 275 or 375 watt motor and a warranty for ONE YEAR! I hadn’t thought about warranty’s before, didn’t seem necessary, everything we bought before the Kitchen Aid we still have in good working order years later.

Our research pointed us towards the CUISINART, which we absolutely love. It has a 1,000 watt motor, a warranty for three years with a five year warranty on the motor. It is much more elegant – works better – the top comes up when you are mixing so you can scrape your bowl with ease and it is cheaper than the top of the line Kitchen Aid – with its one year warranty and much smaller, lighter motor.

I wondered why we bought the Kitchen Aid in the first place – and in retrospect – it was because it was extensively marketed, had a great image and we had it in our minds as the machine one bought if you were a really great cook and had a well equipped kitchen.

Well, we are poorer and wiser, but with a GREAT Cuisinart mixer and making better, easier, pastries and other foods with our new mixer.

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Bettina’s Macaroon Cookies

January 11th, 2009

An elegant cookie which takes just five to ten minutes of your time.

Great for using those egg whites you keep and don’t know how to use.

A good duo to make – chocolate pudding and these cookies. The pudding uses three egg yolks, this recipe uses three egg whites. You pass out from sugar shock when you finish tasting during the cooking process, but it is worth the short coma!

+ three egg whites

+ 1/2 cup organic turbinado raw sugar

+ pinch of salt

+ french vanilla syrup (we use flavorganics)

Put the egg whites into a mixer. You can also use a wire whisk, but we are never that energetic. In todays fitness world, using the wire whisk to beat the egg whites will probably substitute for a day at the gym. However, eating the cookies you bake takes that back so go and spend your time at your gym.

Beat the egg whites until they hold a peak. Then add the sugar, french vanilla syrup, salt and continue beating until the egg whites look wonderul, white and are nice and well beaten. Don’t ask what ‘well beaten’ means. Common sense and taste govern cooking – it is a cookie, not a scientific experiment which you will be asked to repeat exactly! And it is hard to mess up turning egg whites into meringue!

+ 2 cups organic dark chocolate pieces

more or less! We like chocolate and so do our guests. You might be more circumspect and want to actually taste the cookie!

Hand stir in the chocolate pieces, coconut, ground almonds, and/or anything else you want to add to the cookie mixture. (As time goes on you will find what you like best added to these cookies.)

Butter a cookie sheet by making rounds wherever you are going to drop a cookie. Drop the cookies onto the cookie sheet using a large spoon or, if you are really good you can put them in a pastry bag and squeeze them out into beautiful shapes. – bake at 225 degrees for about 40 minutes. They should be a beautiful ivory color when done – not white nor brown, but ivory!

Turn off the heat and let the cookies stay in the oven for an hour or more until they have dried out and can be easily removed from the cookie tray. If you have a hard time trying to remove a cookie – quit trying and put them back into the oven to dry a bit more. You know they are ready when you can easily lift them from the cookie sheet.

Enjoy!

We like these best with chocolate and coconut added and Amaretto syrup substituted for the French Vanilla syrup.

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A New Bettina House in Washington D. C.

January 11th, 2009

Each new addition to the Bettina Network is more exciting than the last.

This house, which will now welcome some of Bettina’s bed and breakfast guests is in Takoma Park, MD. Just 1 block from the D. C. line; a short walk to the metro, restaurants, easy access to the beltway and in 10 minutes you can be at the Capital, on the National Mall or?

Takoma Park itself is a fantastic area to visit! It is a small town with a population of about 18,000 people. It is northeast of Washington, D. C. and was a place of retreat during the Washington D. C. summers because its high elevation eliminated mosquitos and malaria so prevalent in the city. It was the world headquarters of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which has a college, hospital and radio station in Takoma Park. It is also a Sanctuary City. Sounds like another city we know – Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.

Your home away from home in this location is wonderfully furnished with its own private entrance. You have a bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen – all to yourself. In the bath there is a jacuzzi and treadmill – to keep your energy level up while making those great and difficult business decisions.

The bedroom has a king bed with luxurious linens, and lots of comfort. In the living room there is a Shiatzu Massage Chair to welcome you home after a long day of meetings, or touring, TV with cable, wii games, sofa, desk, wireless internet, fax machine, telephone and more. In the kitchen you have laundry facilities so you don’t have to worry about running out of clothes, and the kitchen is fully furnished with lovely porcelain, crystal, pots, coffee, tea, etc. Everything has been newly renovated just to welcome guests.

A lovely way to travel, especially in and around the nation’s capital, which can be a hectic place on its best days.

The rate for this self-contained space is $175/night including breakfast – which you can make yourself, join your host family for conversation and networking, or ask for a tray brought to your apartment so you can enjoy breakfast in bed – or take a different option each morning of your stay!

What more could you want!!! Lie back, read the Bettina Blog, learn about Takoma Park, visit Washington, D. C., take care of your business there and head out of the city for a quiet evening retreat away from the hectic city. Or…. head home for a quick nap, refreshing shower and back to Washington D. C. for a night on the town – it is close enough to make that possible.

Add much depth to the rest of your life with this serendipitous exposure to people you wouldn’t meet otherwise and you don’t have to go out of your way to Network via Bettina’s.

Shopping? You will find many unusual items in Takoma Park to take home – how about antique kimonos! There are wonderful places to eat, parks to stroll, plays to take in and more.

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Tags: Bed and Breakfast in Washington
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Bettina’s Chocolate Pudding

January 11th, 2009

There are few dishes as comforting as chocolate pudding! And, there are even fewer desserts, which are easier to make and harder to fail than chocolate pudding.

We try to keep chocolate pudding in elegant pudding dishes in the refrigerator for those moments of high chocolate need or unexpected guests or after breakfast treat. We also find guests slipping down to the kitchen late at night to get a dish of chocolate pudding before bed.

+ 6 overflowing tablespoons organic cocoa powder

+ 2 tablespoons organic corn starch

+ 6 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup organic turbinado raw sugar

+ a pinch of salt (careful, don’t make this a big pinch, just enough to sweeten the dish-the way a little salt sweetens cantaloupe.)

Put the above ingredients in a saucepan and stir with a wire wisk until well mixed, no lumps and looking as though they have been sifted.

Put heat under the pan and add:

+ 2 cups organic milk

+ 1 cup organic heavy cream

+ 3 egg yolks, plus 2 eggs (organic eggs only, please)

stir constantly and slowly as you add the liquids until the above mixture begins to thicken and comes to a slight boil – don’t let it become a rolling boil – just bubbles around the edge of the pan.

Once mixture heats up add

+ 1 cup (or more to your taste) semi-sweet organic dark chocolate bits

mix this in with everything else and continue to stir.

When the mixture thickens, mix in

+ 1/4 to 1/2 cup organic butter (depends upon your taste)

+ One or two tablespoon of vanilla – or amaretto – or raspberry syrup – or etc.,

also depending upon your taste.

(These are the syrups sold, usually in the coffee section of the grocery store, to add to your morning coffee – yes, Virginia, they are organic. One brand is “Flavorganics”. There must be others. We like the result these syrups give over the extracts.)

Using a ladle or large spoon, pour pudding into the dessert cups or whatever you are using, top with a small saucer turned upside down, to cover, and refrigerate until cool and set. The saucers keep a coat from forming on top the pudding and saves on waxed paper. No need to recycle the paper, just wash the saucers after you’ve eaten the pudding!! A nice touch is to use saucers to match the dessert cups and use the saucer under the cup when serving.

For breakfast, this is nice served warm as a breakfast dessert, freshly made.

You can serve this – once cooled – with whipped cream on top and/or all kinds of other toppings.

You could also use three whole eggs instead of three egg yolks, but the resulting pudding will be lighter, very loose, jiggly and of a totally different texture than the Chocolate Pudding we have come to know and love. Also very nice, if you like that texture pudding.

A suggestion for use of the left-over egg whites would be to make ‘Bettina’s Macaroons’ – a five minute cookie.

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A Holiday Message to our Astro-Physicist friends

January 9th, 2009

MAKING CONNECTIONS;

Galileo died January 8, 1642

Stephen W. Hawking was born January 8, 1942

Elvis Presley was born January 8, 1935

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Harvard University’s Labyrinth

December 11th, 2008

Labyrinth’s have arrived. Harvard University introduced its new labyrinth and, of course, we had to go and see.

Oh my! What a disappointment. It looks as though someone from the Harvard Divinity School pushed and pushed at the administration until they acquiesced and did a – too small, just barely adequate labyrinth. Its a shame, because just across the way is an elaborate grass and granite “design thing” which must have cost a small fortune and is nothing except an ode to the designer and not a very good one at that.

When you approach the Labyrinth a sign says it is handicap accessible. Well that gives you a hearty belly laugh. If you show up in a wheel chair you probably cover three or four rows and really can’t navigate to get the full effect of the meditation, which you could get if Harvard had invested more in the labyrinth and less in its “design thing” across the way.

But, a Labyrinth is a Labyrinth and I guess its better than nothing. – —-On second thought, not really because if they hadn’t done that half-way job, there would still be hope for Harvard producing a really first class, carefully thought through and large enough Labyrinth for the generations-to-come to enjoy.

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Hair Beauty and Aloe Vera

December 6th, 2008

Anonymous Guest 2

“I tried the Aloe Vera Gel after bathing, using it to give myself a massage, and it was great.

Not having anyplace to go when I tried it the second time I went a step further and massaged Aloe Vera Gel into my hair. What an incredibly fantastic result. I hate using the “setting lotions” promoted by the cosmetic industry because they dry out my hair. The Aloe Vera Gel (organic) did what I wanted setting gels to do although better. I am hooked.

The second time around I tried Aloe Vera Gel after a steam bath and how sensational was that. I must admit I was a bit worried because when I put it on my face, my face turned bright red and became pretty hot. I wasn’t sure what I had done to myself, but I used your avocado oil on top of the Aloe Vera Gel and lightly rubbed it in. After about five minutes the redness and heat went away. I felt as though I had just had a face lift when I looked at myself in the mirror. Maybe you have to be old and wrinkly to get the same results, but I had a wonderful time that day as I ran my errands. Just about everyone I talked to that day commented on how great I looked. Comments like – ‘you don’t even have those bags under your eyes anymore’. That was a difficult comment to hear because I wasn’t aware I had dark bags under my eyes.

That result didn’t last a long time, however. Two-three days later I looked tired again.

I have used the Aloe Vera Gel regularly (twice a week) and I can’t believe the results. Twice weekly because I don’t want the tired look to come back and it hasn’t. I’ve looked ‘tired’ since I was about 60 and while friends sometimes commented on my ‘tired’ look, I didn’t feel tired so it was a bit frustrating. That’s all gone now, thanks to you.

I now use the avocado oil over the Aloe Vera Gel and my skin looks smooth, shiny and very elegant. I look 20 years younger and a few million dollars richer. My skin now has that dewy, shiny look that I used to love. It had a dry, parched, wrinkly look that I was resigned to.

When I don’t want such a shiny look – which is when I get dressed in the evening for a special event I use your dry milk idea and put dried milk on a tissue and use it the way I used to use powder. It has a little whitish look right after I put it on, but in a few minutes that is gone and I look mat-finish great.

My problem is – I was not able to find organic avocado oil. Do you have a source for this? Please advise soonest because I have become a total organic freak from reading and trying stuff on your blog. You will probably hear from me often, but please, if you publish my notes to you (emails when I learn the computer), please, please, don’t use my name.”

Thanks,

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Reusing Those Important "Things"

December 6th, 2008

An anonymous guest

A bed and breakfast guest added an instantly spectacular idea from a friend of hers. Her friend made a christening gown for her grandchild out of the train of her wedding dress.

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A BEAUTY SECRET told around the Breakfast Table

October 29th, 2008

We discovered what we consider another sensational beauty and health aid.

One of our guests was talking about her beauty regimen in the mornings. She was sharing because when she arrived she asked if she could put her Aloe Vera Gel and Aloe Vera Juice in the refrigerator. She was carrying it in one of those lined bags in which you can keep things cold. Because we are curious, over breakfast, we asked what she did with her bottles. She is the first person to arrive carrying her own Aloe Vera and we were all ears with lots of questions about her answer.

She uses the Aloe Vera Gel in the mornings after her shower to give herself an all-over massage – she said for health reasons, but her skin was glowing. After she gives herself a massage she waits a few minutes for the Aloe Vera to be absorbed into her skin and then gets dressed for the day. Many questions followed.

What does it do? She didn’t know, but if it is good for burns, etc. she decided it must be good for wrinkles and general health and she feels and looks good after her morning shower. She brought the bottles out of the refrigerator and we were impressed that the Gel and Juice contained nothing but the Aloe Vera plant.

A couple years ago, I remember a guest from Australia telling me she used Aloe Vera Gel after bathing the way other people use lotion. It didn’t register at the time. Maybe the second telling by another person helped open our ears.

I’ve tried it for about a month now and it is GREAT! I tried her way – which was to alternate between using the Gel and the Juice, but I made such a mess with the juice we had to shampoo the rugs in the bedroom and give the bathroom a good cleaning. I’ve decided to stick to the Gel and alternate it with milk baths, milk facials and Vitamin A and E facials and massages. I don’t want my skin to get used to one thing and then have that stop working after a while. Variety is a great beautifier.

The Gel – after a couple weeks – gave my skin a softness and a glow which it hasn’t had for a lot of years. Another guest is trying it and she has promised to let me know if it does anything special for her. She is 83 years old and has lots of wrinkles so she should be a great test case. I hope she doesn’t take offense, but if it works on her and smoothes the wrinkles and improves her health, it should work on those much younger.

I might add that we pass these ideas along that we’ve heard about and that we try and friends and other guests try, but they and you do so at their and your own risk.

Since we are talking about organic food (yes, the Aloe Vera Gel and Juice must be organic), there should be no harm done, but just in case, don’t go off trying something because we talk about it on this blog. From the writing on the Aloe Vera Gel bottle, the company apparently assumes you bought it to drink. We haven’t gone that far – although we know anything you put on your skin is in your bloodstream in seconds.

Before we use any beauty products, we make sure we can, at least, pronounce and know the names of all ingredients in any and everything we put on our skin – or use to wash our hair. Since we have a long acquaintance with the Aloe Vera Plant we didn’t have any hesitation trying either the Aloe Vera Gel or the Aloe Vera Juice.

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Flour Bakery

October 23rd, 2008

editor’s note: This is a restaurant Alice’s daughter takes her parents to when they are visiting her in Boston and they all look forward to stopping there and love the place. (Please note – the food is not organic).

1595 Washington Street

Boston, MA. 02118

telephone:617-267-4300

hours: Mon-Fri 7a-9p; Sat 8a-6p; Sun 9a-5p

web site: www.flourbakery.com

One of the delights on the way to the new ICA Museum in Boston is to stop at Flour Bakery for lunch! Besides the mouth watering pastry, coffee cakes and cookies, Flour Bakery features wonderful and generous portions of soups, salads and sandwiches.

Joanne Chang, the owner and fantastic baker was an honors graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics. She left a career as a management consultant to enter the world of professional cooking.

I like that one can find the very rich and also the more basic cake and bread. Flour Bakery was featured on “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” on the Food Network in which Joanne’s sticky buns won over Chef Flay’s judges.

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Lemlem’s Gallery (updated)

October 6th, 2008

12B Eliot Street This brick and mortar store is gone, but her handmade
Cambridge, MA. 02138 handblown glass lamps with elegantly made shades are
Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 1pm-5pm still seen in other stores around the Boston area.
telephone: 617 547 1447
fax 617 547 1449

A very elegant discovery! We like to pop in at least once a week just to look at all the beautiful art works which appear with great regularity. Our favorites are the lamps – hand blown glass bases with truly special shades which you won’t find anyplace else because they are all handmade and one of a kind.

There is a small collection of clothes which could be put in the category of Fine Art; Sculptures, including mobiles with small people and places to hang in your window or some unexpected place in the home; Wood carvings; clock which will astound you with their imagination and impeccable craftsmanship; jewelry with stones used in interesting ways with wonderful rings; and much, much more.

If you don’t find anything else you must take home a pair of the slippers which will remind you of this gallery for a very long time as you pad comfortably around the house.

website: www.lemlemsgallery.com

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MORE ABOUT BLUEBERRIES

August 25th, 2008

from a letter received 8/25/2008

I read your blog and loved every word. I would like to add something I read from a newsletter i receive on a weekly basis. It is excellent and I would like to recommend it to your readers. “Blueberries offer many health benefits, including protection against urinary tract infections, cancer, age-related health conditions and brain damage from strokes. The European blueberry, or bilberry, is known to prevent and even reverse macular degeneration.”

This is from mercola.com. If your readers want to subscribe to this newsletter they just need to go to the web site and sign up – it is free.

Markus
Pennsylvania

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LEMON TEA BREAD

August 23rd, 2008

A wonderful cake/bread which is delightful for breakfast and with tea anytime during the day – or try it with hot chocolate before bed.

8 ounce package organic cream cheese (Creole Cream Cheese makes this fantastic)
1/2 cup organic unsalted butter
1 and 1/4 cup organic Turbinado Raw Sugar
2 organic eggs rich in Omega 3’s
1 and 1/4 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup organic whole wheat regular stone ground flour
1 tablespoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas (organic – which you let ripen until the skins turn black)
the bananas are not a pretty sight on the side board while they over ripen,
but the taste and nutrition they add to this cake/bread are worth the eye sore
for a few days.

Sauce for After Baking

2 lemons
1/4 cup organic Turbinado Raw Sugar ( much better than powdered sugar for the
flavor and texture it adds to the bread.

A. Put butter in a mixer and let it whip until the butter becomes light and fluffy.

B. Add the cream cheese to the whipped butter and let it take a turn in the mixer
until the two ingredients have combined and are even lighter and fluffier.

C. Add sugar very slowly – Pouring it into the mixer turned on high until all three
ingredients are blended and look very light and fluffy.

D. Add the eggs and mix until well blended. Because at this point, heavy mixing does not increase the goodness of the bread, but too much mixing will make it very rubbery, be careful that you don’t overmix when adding the eggs.

E. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a glass bowl with a whisk until all the
ingredients are mixed together and look as though they are full of lots of air.

F. Mash the bananas until they are the consistency which you would try for if
you were going to feed them to a baby.

G. Add the flour mixture – alternating with the mashed bananas – and mix slowly
until well blended, being careful not to overmix.

H. Pour the batter into two buttered glass loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for about
40 to 45 minutes. Glass loaf pans because when you look at your cake/bread you can
readily see the amount of doneness and are not likely to let this cake/bread get too
dark and because we think glass bakes this cake/bread beautifully. We tried it in
black steel and it wasn’t as good.

We would NEVER bake this or anything else in Aluminum
no matter if its in the core surrounded by tankers imported from Iraq to protect us from the bad that we believe Aluminum puts into your food – we just wouldn’t take the risk. Life is
too short and too full of disease as it is – why risk adding more.

I. Test your cake/bread for doneness by inserting a thin knife into the middle, which
should come out dry. – OR – we just touch the top and if it doesn’t feel like
hot whipped egg whites, but closer to a substantial bread feel we know its done.

J. Make the sauce to pour over the hot bread when it comes out of the oven.
Scrape the rind off two lemons and put it on the side. Squeeze the juice out of
the two lemons and mix the juice and rind. Add the 1/4 cup sugar, mix and spoon
this over the lemon cake/bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

K. Let your magnificent creation sit and cool and absorb the juice from the lemon mixture.

L. When it has come to a nice, barely warm state – cut and serve it with organic hot tea –
your favorite kind or try it with Bettina’s Red Tea (known in other circles as Hibiscus Tea.)

The person who gets the end of this Lemon Cake/Bread Loaf is indeed a happy camper!!!

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WHOLE FOODS vs ARROWHEAD MILLS FLOUR

August 10th, 2008

We have been noticing what looks like a regular marketing practice in some of the Whole Foods stores. We can’t say all because we have not visited all.

When Whole Foods is about to push or introduce a new Whole Foods brand – the other brands seem to disappear from the shelves – or – they are sold in other sizes – smaller and less popular sizes just to maintain a presence.

We’ve been looking at this phenomenon around Organic Whole Wheat Flour. Our choice is Organic Whole Wheat STONE GROUND Flour. In that group our choice is Arrowhead Mills Organic Whole Wheat Stone Ground Flour.

We’ve seen the Whole Foods brand of Whole Wheat Flour appearing on the shelves immediately adjacent to the Arrowhead Mills Flour. At the same time we’ve noticed the Whole Foods brand has depth in its positioning – usually, large bags of flour four abreast being placed either two or three bags deep on the shelves.

At the same time the Arrowhead Mills’ position is shrinking. Only one bag long and one bag deep and most of the time there is none available. When we ask, we are told it is due in tomorrow. Tomorrow comes and the shelves still do not have the Arrowhead Mills Flour and we get the same response from the Whole Foods employee – tomorrow!

We looked carefully at the prospect of changing to Whole Foods flour and decided against it because the Whole Foods brand is “Organic Whole Wheat Flour”. It is $1 less per bag, but it is not STONE GROUND. It is apparently ground with heat making it much less nutritious and with all that such milling implies. If you are going to get serious about this and are willing to spend more for organic products, make sure they are the best you can find. Make your money count. Eat less of the right food and save money even at higher prices.

While in one Whole Foods Store recently, we were standing in front of the Organic Whole Wheat flour and watched a woman pass quickly by, pick up the Whole Foods brand, advise us to do the same because it is $1 cheaper than the Arrowhead Mills flour. We stopped her and asked if how the flour was ground meant anything to her. “Of course,” she said. We asked her to read the label of the Whole Foods brand carefully and tell us if it was what she wanted and what she thought she was buying. She looked carefully at the label and expressed her shock at realizing this was not flour ground properly for it to have the Organic label. Why pay more for flour so milled. She put the Whole Foods brand back and instead bought the only two small bags of the Arrowhead Mills “Organic Stone Ground Whole Wheat” Flour. She was quite upset that Whole Foods had ‘tricked’ her (her words not ours).

So – shop carefully and healthily as you shop for flour and if you don’t like the Arrowhead Mills’ Flour, please read the labels slowly and carefully and make sure your “Organic Whole Wheat Flour” is STONE GROUND” – ground without heat to destroy the nutrients.

Whole Foods is changing. While they have some great organic products, they are not the store they used to be and look as though they are on that slippery slope to becoming just an ordainary grocery store with a few organic products, most of which are their own store brand watered down from what they should be.

We are going to call the Arrowhead Mills company to see if we can’t get the large bags of their stone ground organic whole wheat flour because what we see on the shelves at the Whole Foods Stores is small bags of Arrowhead Mills Flour and even those small bags are out most of the time now and we want a constant reliable source for our flour. Whole Foods seems to want to reduce and finally eliminate the competition, leaving us with lesser quality and less healthy products.

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Toss Viagra, Try Zinc

July 11th, 2008

We had a very exciting breakfast – some would think it was x-rated, but it was a family-friendly discussion.

Apparently, the power of zinc is beginning to circulate. I thought we knew all there was to know about nutrition, vitamins, etc. but this bit of knowing was new to us. It can be a bit disconcerting when you realize you don’t know it all!!!

A couple people at the breakfast table talked about how they discovered, in the process of taking zinc lozenges to get rid of a cold, or to dampen its horrid impact on the body, that they had interesting side affects. Not realizing exactly what caused those side affects, they experimented with several things they had been eating and much to their surprise it was the zinc lozenges. At this point, the breakfast table broke up into peals of laughter.

Much to our surprise, a quiet voice, from a woman at the end of the table verified that she also had the same experience and having tried it over and over again, the results were always predictable. She decided to take away her husbands viagra and substitute zinc. She did and he didn’t notice the difference.

Could this be a great new scientific breakthrough? Or has this been known for hundreds of years only to be hidden from this current generation! Have we discovered something new or did our table talk rediscover what was generally known before we became so alienated from one another?

I hope this knowledge doesn’t result in zinc being taken off the market the way the effectiveness of almonds was destroyed through that pasteurization process.

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New Findings on Baking Bread

July 10th, 2008

Much to our surprise we discovered dramatic differences when baking bread by simply changing the oil we use. Different oil combinations will change the texture of the bread. By being careful what you add it also changes the goodness the bread delivers to your body. And – I will quietly say – it keeps you regular, which has to do good things for your immune system.

We started using Virgin Organic Coconut Oil in other recipes and decided to try it in the Bettina Bread Recipe. We first tried half butter and half VOCO. That was fantastic. The bread was light, but thick with no big holes as you slice it. Its consistency was amazing and the texture quite wonderful.It was really great when we tried 1/2 cup organic butter (one stick) and 1/4 cup VOCO. Totally amazing with 1/2 cup each, but that’s a stretch for a lot of you – only the dedicated need try those proportions.

Using organic apple juice plus the VOCO and organic butter produced a much lighter bread and still that wonderful texture.

Throw in raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, organic turbinado sugar – wow, how fabulous with coffee in the mornings. Put some organic butter on that bread and it warrants quiet time to enjoy a bit of heaven!

No more white flour – water – and salt bread for us. Just think of the nutrition our ancestors got from bread. No wonder it was called the “staff of life.” Didn’t understand that saying until we started experimenting to produce a loaf of bread that was great tasting and good for us.

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Antico Forno

June 23rd, 2008

In our recent trip to Boston we visited one of our favorite restaurants in the North End. (The traditionally Italian Section of Boston).

Antico Forno
93 Salem St. North End
Boston, MA 617-723-6733

When you walk into Antico Forno, the first thing that will strike you is the noise. Happy diners seem to love to chatter. As soon as your friendly server approaches and gives you bread and a wonderful white bean spread, you’ll be one of the group.

We started with Caprese (with fresh buffalo mozzarella) and a Caesar salad. Two appetizers fed three of us with leftovers.

We then went on to linguine chock full of clams, pizza and pasta with homemade sausage and mozzarella.

Everything was generous and delicioso.

Almost everything is finished in their high-heat brick oven, which gives a lovely crusty topping.

Make a reservation so you won’t be disappointed. And don’t do what we did — leave room for dessert!

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Received via e-mail 6/20/2008

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Heavenly Marshmaples

The Tea Leaf

Reader Feedback

Kitchen Aid vs Cuisinart

Bettina’s Macaroon Cookies

A New Bettina House in Washington D. C.

Bettina’s Chocolate Pudding

A Holiday Message to our Astro-Physicist friends

Harvard University’s Labyrinth

Hair Beauty and Aloe Vera

Reusing Those Important "Things"

A BEAUTY SECRET told around the Breakfast Table

Flour Bakery

Lemlem’s Gallery (updated)

MORE ABOUT BLUEBERRIES

LEMON TEA BREAD

WHOLE FOODS vs ARROWHEAD MILLS FLOUR

Toss Viagra, Try Zinc

New Findings on Baking Bread

Antico Forno

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