Bettina Homes - Bettina Network's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Bettina Homes’

More on GRITS!!!!!

Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

Wow! Grits being discussed as a serious topic. Unbelievable. Am I the only Yankee reading your blog?

I used to wonder what was the big deal about grits until I tasted the grits you have described and generously provided a recipe for.

Each time you add something I try it. I thought the “Grits and Greens” were special. That was just the introduction.

I would like to add my two cents to this discussion:

After leaving a Bettina Home with my stomach full of grits I went home, bought Arrowhead Mills Organic Grits and tried it for myself. I started with grits and greens. Came back to buy more grits and couldn’t believe those folks actually put “gluten free” on the box. Didn’t know corn had gluten.

I tried your most recent recipe for grits and added the following:

After adding the 4 ounces of organic cream cheese I also added a package of frozen organic yellow corn and a 4 ounce package of raw organic sharp cheddar cheese. I let them bubble awhile – stirred every once in a while until everything was combined nicely – and then ate the most fantastic pot of grits I’ve ever had. I heartily recommend it to your readers.

Most people would talk about cutting the cheese into small cubes, etc. but i just put everything as it came from their packages into the pot and let them cook. They melded on their own with just an occasional stirring from me.

What most surprised me was that I had a great dish without tons of butter. You go girl!

________________________________________________________________

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, food shopping, Grits, health
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Cookbook, Food Shopping, Grits, Guest comments, Health | Comments Off on More on GRITS!!!!!

Playing with Words

Friday, October 24th, 2014

So much pops up at breakfast and gives one enormous amounts to think about and digest over the day.

This morning it was how heavily laced with superiority and inferiority are our words.

For example;

sympathy – This word came up because of a Bettina Network Blog a guest had read on Sin.

She wanted our feed-back on her thoughts and she got it in strong terms.

She was contrasting sympathy and empathy. We all show sympathy to our friends, colleagues, family, strangers – we sympathize with many we don’t know and many who are close to us. It keeps us in a superior position to them. Sympathy is always shown between and among unequals. I sympathize with you because there but for the grace of God goes I. For a brief moment, I can pull myself up to be heads taller than you when I find something within you and your life with which to sympathize.

empathy – however is a different concept and a different word. It brings us into equality with our friends, colleagues, etc.

Isn’t it interesting that the word we use most often is sympathy and the word which is not even in most of our vocabularies is empathy.

We stay away from the family, of our friends who have just died because we don’t know what to say to them. We want to sympathize with them, but the right words don’t come and we become all thumbs and stutters and awkward. We have not yet learned the facile way to sympathize – bringing ourselves up above them because we are not in that position of grief. Maybe being awkward and not knowing how to sympathize with someone is a good thing.

If one practices empathy one goes inside oneself and pulls up those experiences when we were in that place and we become one with the person with whom we are trying to relate through empathy. In that circumstance there is no lack of what to say or do. It is easy to meet and comfort a friend or family member with whom we feel empathy or can empathize.

There are many such words in the English language – paired concepts. The most common word of such a pair is always the word/concept which elevates us above the rest. The other half of the pair, which we rarely use, are the word/concepts which make us equal to.

We spent an incredible time over breakfast coming up with these pairs and trying to correct the way we talk and relate. Amazingly, it wasn’t very difficult, it was a conversation and an exercise we took to like ducts to water.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, Empathy, Spiritual Exercises, Sympathy
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Breakfast Table Talk, Empathy, Spiritual Exercises, Sympathy | Comments Off on Playing with Words

Kale Chips – Bettina Style

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

The hot new snack across the United States is Kale Chips. They are beginning to come out in many versions – and are very expensive when purchased at food stores or anyplace else.

We tried for about a week to make them and have come up with a fantastic and healthy snack, which we make every day and which is eaten with not even a crumb left.

Buy organic green and/or red kale. Make sure the leaves are perky, healthy looking and not limp.

Rinse the organic kale carefully.

Put it in a food spinner and push down on the top of the spinner for a couple minutes. You need to make sure the organic kale is as dry as possible.

Pull the leaves of the organic kale off the stalks and put them on a cookie tray. A large cookie tray is better.

Make sure you have only one layer of organic kale on the tray – don’t pile the organic kale onto the cookie tray making several layers because you won’t get a good result. If you have more than enough for one layer – either wait to bake the rest or use two cookie trays.

Pour a bit of organic cold pressed olive oil over the organic kale.

Follow this with a sprinkling of himalayan salt, cayenne pepper and Tekka.

We have had great luck with tekka over popcorn and decided to give it a try over organic kale and it makes a huge difference. Be careful with the salt. The tendency is to use too much and then you run into the problem of having an addictive snack because the salt will grab your taste buds (and your blood pressure.) Less is more is the guideline.

Put the cookie tray in the oven at 300 degrees for about an hour.

Take your fantastic organic kale snack out of the oven. Use a spatula to get it off the tray and serve on a beautiful pedestal cake plate.

And NO! You don’t have to wait for it to cool, it is ready for eating straight out of the oven.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, health
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Cookbook, Health | Comments Off on Kale Chips – Bettina Style

The Listening Ear

Monday, October 20th, 2014

“Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the ear that will not shrink from the word that corrects and admonishes – the word that holds up before me the image of myself that causes me to pause and reconsider -the word that challenges me to deeper consecration and higher resolve – the word that lays bare needs that make my own days uneasy, that seizes upon every good decent impulse of my nature, channeling it into paths of healing in the lives of others.

Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the disciplined mind, the disciplined heart, the disciplined life that makes my ear the focus of attention through which I may become mindful of expressions of life foreign to my own.

I seek the stimulation that lifts me out of old ruts and established habits which keep me conscious of my self, my needs, my personal interests.

Give me this day – the eye that is willing to see the meaning of the ordinary, the familiar, the commonplace – the eye that is willing to see my own faults for what they are – – the eye that is willing to see the likable qualities in those I may not like – the mistake in what I thought was correct – the strength in what I had labeled as weakness

Give me the eye that is willing to see that Thou has not left Thyself without a witness in every living thing.

Thus to walk with reverence and sensitiveness through all the days of my life.

Give me the listening ear

The eye that is willing to see.”

Howard Thurman

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Poetry, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Poetry, Spiritual Reflection, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on The Listening Ear

GRITS/RICE – A Great Addition

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

Thanks for your recipe for Creole Grits.

I would like to make an addition, which we have used for quite a long time and feel it has added to our family’s health and good looks:)

Once the water has started to boil, add a heaping tablespoon of Organic Turmeric, preferably the kind with active curcumin which you can get from Frontier Coop, among other places.

Don’t put in the Organic Turmeric before the water comes to a boil, that would be a waste of its active ingredients. Don’t put in the Orlganic Turmeric and then bring the water to a boil, that is not an option if you want to enjoy whatever health benefits you can get from the curcumin in the Organic Turmeric. Then cook the grits as usual. Their color will intensify and look very healthy.

We also put Organic Turmeric in rice when the water boils and just at the point where we put the rice into the pot. It also intensifies the color of the rice, but we find that a distinct improvement.

If you are not sure what kind of Organic Turmeric to buy, call Frontier Coop and ask for Megan.

I love your blog. Keep up the good work. Sending you this blog is the first time I have used my membership in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and will probably begin to get more involved.

Before I wrote this blog to you I checked your visitors’ counter and am really impressed that in one day you had over 2,000 reading the blog.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, food shopping, health
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Cookbook, Food Shopping, Guest comments, Health, Shopping | Comments Off on GRITS/RICE – A Great Addition

Describe Sin!

Monday, October 13th, 2014

We had an interesting question over breakfast and an even more interesting answer.

The question was – can you describe sin?

The answer was – sin is the lack of empathy no matter how or where it surfaces. The most common way it surfaces is in racism and sexism, but it is prevalent in all areas of society, anyplace where human beings live and in anything we do and in any way we function.

The conversation went on – what is the most painful experience in the world?

The answer was – lack of empathy.

Why? – Because we are all connected and someone showing/feeling lack of empathy towards another human being has let go of, cut off that connectedness and experiences moving off into the darkness and un-known-ness of space alone to experience the cold, depression, addiction, extreme loneliness of one cut off from him or herself.

Does everyone experience lack of empathy?

The answer was – yes, at some time or other and in different degrees.

Is there an antidote?

The answer was – yes, but I don’t know what it is.

The question was – how do we know we are experiencing lack of empathy?

The answer was – by the strength of our denial when confronted with our lack of empathy.

It was a very strange and intense conversation and we hope the above captures it to pass its content along.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk
Posted in Bettina Homes, Breakfast Table Talk, Health | Comments Off on Describe Sin!

GRITS – Creole Style

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

I have had several requests for my grits recipe. Sorry it has taken so long to respond, but I really didn’t want to share this family secret. I have two recipes that I hold close. One is the oyster dressing recipe for Thanksgiving turkey that I have already shared and this one for grits. It is simple to make, but as a child my day started with grits for breakfast and I have many great breakfast memories that I keep to myself.

1) Use only organic grits. We use grits from Deaf Smith County and Arrowhead Mills. Why Deaf Smith County? The claim is that they are the only place in the United States where you can get food grown in soil which does not have a DDT residue. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I choose to believe there is at least one place in this country free of all the stuff we poured into our soil poisoning us and the soil.

2) Put one cup grits into four cups water. Add one teaspoon Himalayan Salt. Sometimes I only use 3 1/2 cups water if I want grits with more substance. Stir with a wire whisk for a couple minutes to make sure you don’t have lumps and then stir occasionally with a large spoon. The grits can cook over low heat for as long as you want to cook the grits. The longer, the better, but nothing under 1/2 hour.

3) About ten minutes into the cooking process add four ounces of either a) organic creole cream cheese (preferred), b) organic cream cheese or c) neufchâtel cheese if you want something with less fat. Put in the cream cheese and after letting it cook with the grits about five to ten minutes, stir until the cream cheese and grits become one. And no, I am not giving out my recipe for creole cream cheese.

Some people use milk instead of water in their grits, but I find this a bit heavy. Others drown their grits in butter, but I think this kills the taste of the grits. You are using grits as a way to eat butter.

Enjoy!

What’s great about these grits – they can be reheated and you can’t tell the freshly cooked grits from the reheated grits.

To reheat. Put the pot over a very low light and let it simmer until it looks the way it did when it was first cooked. This will take about 20 minutes or more.

AND ALWAYS – ALWAYS cook your grits in a glass pot. I keep a large stash of Corning pots. My sense of security needs lots of Corning pots in all shapes and sizes, especially for stove top cooking when cast iron skillets are not appropriate for the food I am cooking.

Serve it with all kinds of things – creole shrimp; mushrooms cooked in balsamic vinegar; poached eggs served on top of the grits. You are only limited by your imagination and the part of the country in which you were born and raised. The classic is grits, ham and eggs. If you are from the Carolinas and that part of the U. S. you will drool over and want to add red eye gravy. If you are from New Orleans you will turn your nose up at putting this coffee-based gravy over your grits. You also can’t serve grits without biscuits. I have moved to making my biscuits with organic sprouted wheat flour – they are fantastic, although sometimes I just have to go back to biscuits with organic whole wheat flour.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Biscuits, Breakfast Food, Recipe
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Cookbook | Comments Off on GRITS – Creole Style

“Do Not Be Afraid”

Monday, October 6th, 2014

What follows is a link to a sermon preached on October 5, 2014 in Harvard’s Memorial Chapel by Rev. Jonathan Walton. It quotes a powerful poem written by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, past president of Morehouse College. We recommend a quiet space to listen to this very powerful sermon which addresses a lot of what ails us personally and as a society.

http://www.harvardmemorialchurch.org/media/sermon_audio/sermon_10.05.14_walton.mp3

A guest at breakfast quoted this poem in a most powerful way as he tried to sum up the sermon he had just heard. He was especially moved on hearing the sermon since the poem was one he’d heard many times over his life and one which he committed to memory because he found it so moving. What he found so moving was the context in which the Rev. Walton used the poem in his sermon. We thought our guest should turn professional because his delivery added to the profoundness of the poem

For you – the poem is reprinted here:

“Life Is Just A Minute

Life is just a minute—only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon you—can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it—didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to you to use it.
You must suffer if you lose it.
Give an account if you abuse it.
Just a tiny, little minute,
But eternity is in it!”

By Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, Past President of Morehouse College

Ed Note: Sorry for all the “powerfuls” in this blog. Couldn’t find another word to fit.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments | Comments Off on “Do Not Be Afraid”

Problem Feet

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

I read your blog on ‘Old Feet’. I thought it was great. I would change your title from “Old Feet’ to “Problem Feet.” Most women have a problem with their feet, usually caused by the fashion shoes we wear and as the years pass the stress on those feet from the high fashion shoes increases and puts lots of stress on the body.

I tried your exercises and they work wonders. Combined with the exercises – and I think you may have this someplace else in your blog – I discovered soaking my feet in Organic Apple Cider. It was a god-send. I soaked my feet in a pail with 1/2 quart organic apple cider and I could then go dancing in any kind of shoes. And – I have gotten so accustomed to those feet exercises that I find I do them unconsciously now whenever a few minutes turns up and I have either no stockings on or am waiting for some reason sitting in a chair in some office. I take my feet out of my shoes and sit there exercising my toes. (Yes, I am young enough to have jettisoned panti -hose.) The reaction of the people around me was hilarious. People stare, but I have become immune to caring about what people think. I have come to realize that we will suffer much to ‘fit in’ and not be considered ‘odd’. Somehow, I have escaped this and am enjoying my lonely position immensely.

I was exercising my toes and feet without thinking and another woman came over to ask if I didn’t want to put my shoes back on? Before I could shut my mouth, which had dropped open with her comment/question, a man sitting next to me was taking off his shoes and socks following my example. Maybe we can change the world – although that woman will probably be the opposition trying to keep things as they are and us with all of our inhibitions. It feels so great to get rid of even one and realize you are not alone, but others around are just waiting to follow your lead.

After soaking my feet for at least 1/2 hour, not only did my feet feel great, but the rest of me had energy for several days. It was magical the way my feet responded to that Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. I also use it as a softener for my clothes. So I put in a load of clothes, added the organic apple cider vinegar to the softening cycle, put the rest of the quart bottle of apple cider vinegar in a pail of very warm water, sat back with Egbert Tolle’s book and enjoyed a fantastic morning and was more than ready for the afternoon’s activities. And NO! You cannot substitute White Vinegar. It is a coal tar derivative or some such thing and not a substitute for anything. I don’t even use White Vinegar to clean my house. Only Organic Apple Cider Vinegar does the job.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: Apple cider vinegar, bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, health, health and beauty
Posted in Bettina Homes, Breakfast Table Talk, Foot Exercises, Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty | Comments Off on Problem Feet

Balm in Gilead

Sunday, August 24th, 2014

Who would have expected different guests, not previously known to one another, pick up and read Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot’s book “Balm In Gilead” during their stay in a Bettina Home.

All of our homes have large quantities of books. Host families generally buy them at Estate Sales for very little money so they are able to offer great reading materials to and encourage guests to take a book home with them if they are in the process of reading it and would like to finish the book.

We have such responsible guests that they do take books home and when they return, they bring new books they have purchased the same way, giving them to the host family for other guests to discover. What a lovely interlude!

Lightfoot’s book brought some wonderful reminiscences by the guests. The first days conversation, one woman shared the book with the other guests and on the second day, all contributed because they found the book in their rooms and read it. It was an unexpected gift for me because I knew the family and the southern United States that was under discussion.

Mostly, the book caused the women (no men present) to go over their history rather than critique the book.

One critique, however, was what one woman felt as the author’s anti-southern bias, which she said permeated the book. It talked of relatives going South as a ‘missionary field’ to raise the educational standards of the poor Blacks in the South. That caused a discussion of great emotion since racially the women at breakfast were a mixed group and all but one from the north. That left the poor lone Southerner with only me as back-up and sometimes I can’t be trusted to be loyal.

The truth of life among Blacks in the South is very seldom portrayed accurately. Just like those who most profited from slavery is often skewered with slavery’s Northern interests very seldom revealed.

The Northern women – both Black and White – understood the books bias and didn’t see it as a bias, but as fact. One small part of “Balm in Gilead” describes Margaret and Charles Lawrence, with their very substantial education at top schools not able to find a job in the north and so consequently going south to Fisk and Meharry. The author (their daughter) didn’t seem to know why or rather described the Lawrences as not knowing why. What most Southern Blacks would understand is that -in the day – when you had that top rated education you went South for a job because you were not hired in the North. Black millionaires and other very financially substantial African Americans were Black Southerners or Black Northerners transplanted to the South because they had no place else to thrive.

A veery famous Black New England family moved to Alabama from Boston and worked there in substantial jobs until retirement when they returned to New England and took up their Yankee existence without missing a beat. They moved to Alabama because even with a Harvard Doctorate there were no jobs for them in the North.

There was much talk about “Victory over trauma” – which was portrayed as one way African Americans can survive this society almost intact. “Trauma and strength.”

One particular quote, read to us by one of the women was very poignant. “In order to survive one must confront the deep wound, experience the knifelike pain, move through the zombielike period of ‘depersonalization’ speak about the event, act it out, cry over it, stomp on it and finally emerge from it – usually with a scar.”

“One must transcend. Pain must not be the victor.”

In part of the conversation about Black Anger – “Anger nurtures until you can find more suitable vehicles out of which to act and to love.”

Black male sexism – “He did not denigrate my path, but he blocked it.”

“My mother gave me away to my grandmother.” Since I was raised by my grandmother, when they gave that quote from the book as a way of describing the phenomena of grandparents raising their grandchildren tears flowed from a couple of us.

There was so much more. To get the entire story you must read the book. We recommend it heartily.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, book review, breakfast table talk
Posted in African American history, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, book review, Breakfast Table Talk, Class in America and the World, Preserving Family History and Stories | Comments Off on Balm in Gilead

Making Old Feet New Again!

Friday, July 25th, 2014

I love breakfast in a Bettina Home. No matter how horrible I feel arriving, I leave refreshed.

The last breakfast from my most recent stay was great! The food is always good, but the conversation unbelievable. I am going home to work on my feet so I can wear high heels again. I have a closet full of shoes, which are sitting idly on the floor collecting dust and drying out because it hurts so badly to wear them. The shoes I can wear are so ugly they ruin every outfit I put on.

Would you believe old women at breakfast having a hilariously good time about a conversation over feet?

One woman, who was 80 years old if she was a day, had on these really elegant shoes with high heels in which she was going to spend the day. I advised her to take another pair with her in a bag of some kind because she was going to be finished for the day before she reached her car. She just looked at me shaking her head.

The next morning we were all back around the table and I was packed and ready to go. Before leaving, however, I wanted to know how her day went since she was back at the table in another pair of really fantastic shoes – high heels, of course. She said her day went just fine, like all her days and suggested I learn to deal with my feet if I wanted to get back into something other than the slip slops I had on. Expensive flip flops, but no support, no heels and comfortable as could be.

She took off her shoes and her panty hose, as we all howled with laughter, and we went through her exercise regime. We all shed our shoes, but she was the only one wearing panty hose. She said she wears them for the girdle effect she gets from the panty part – doesn’t want her tummy to ‘pout’. We had on ankle length stockings or knee hi’s under pants. She was clearly from a generation that dressed to the nine’s and she still did with a great figure, beautiful hair and my jealousy is really showing since I am about 20 years younger than she is – at least – and she looks younger.

I really don’t exercise any part of my body – especially my feet. Who would think of foot exercises as being relevant or doing the body any good? My bias is showing, but really, I have enough trouble keeping my energy level up to just getting up in the mornings, let alone complicating my life with exercise.

This woman exercises her feet before going to bed at night and before getting up in the mornings. She widens her toes as far as possible – spread them open like a fan – and closes them while she watches television or reads. She also makes circles with her feet going clock-wise and then counter clock -wise moving her feet in these circles from the ankle and sometimes she does the spread-the-toes with both feet at the same time and the circles with both feet at the same time.

We were sitting around the table exercising our feet making sure we got it right. Unreal! Must be losing it because I was very avid about doing this and intend to go home and take up this exercise every night and morning. Nice that I can do these exercises before getting out of bed in the mornings. Maybe that will help me be diligent about it.

Before I showed up at a Bettina Home I was a little depressed about my feet becoming so old and stiff, limiting my shoe wearing possibilities. , so this did cheer me up a little bit! I wanted to take pictures, but the women were adamant they didn’t want their feet showing up in pictures anyplace – so respecting that – and you certainly aren’t going to see my naked feet in pictures, you will have to imagine the scene.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, foot exercises, growing old, health, health and beauty
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Breakfast Table Talk, Foot Exercises, Growing Old, Guest comments, Health, Health and Beauty | Comments Off on Making Old Feet New Again!

Eggs and Lime

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014

We made a wonderful discovery at breakfast – and we have to thank a guest from Mexico for the new information.

Breakfast consisted of soft-boiled eggs in egg cups, which is one of our favorite breakfasts. Our guest remarked that she loved soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, but was accustomed to eating them with a bit of lime juice. My stomach wrenched. I could not fathom putting lime juice in a soft-boiled egg.

Fortunately, we had organic limes in the refrigerator so we brought them out and watched.

She cut the lime into four pieces, then cut off the top of her egg. Before putting in her spoon to eat the egg, she squeezed the 1/4 piece of lime into the top of the egg with a little salt and enjoyed her breakfast immensely. What came to mind as I watched was Margaritas.

We decided we would have to be polite and follow suit. I was prepared to have to push down the eggs while trying to smile at this inconceivable new taste combination. I could not conceive it as being anything but really horrible – at best, something for which you would have to acquire a taste. It is one thing to have been raised on this taste combination, quite another to have it sprung on you brand new at breakfast, the time of morning when your stomach cannot handle many new taste sensations.

Imagine my surprise when I had my first spoonful of the egg, doused in lime juice, and it was fantastic. I don’t think I will ever have soft-boiled eggs again without lime juice. It lightened the taste of the egg considerably and gave it a light, exceptional taste which even topped the fact that the eggs were already great because they were organic, super large eggs.

From here on, you will find organic limes on the table whenever we serve soft-boiled eggs!!!

Is this how cultures pass information from one to another in today’s very mobile society? May it continue and accelerate – bring on the next new taste sensation!!!

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Networks Cookbook, Breakfast at Bettina's, Recipe
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina's Cookbook, Health and Beauty | Comments Off on Eggs and Lime

How Exciting is This!!!!!

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014

Sometimes life gives you lemons, sugar and beautifully clear water all at the same time and all mixed together ready for you to drink.

That is how we feel this morning in Bettina Networks little community.

Why?

Something very small, but very important in the way we live and are with each other.

At the end of a Bettina estate sale, everything left goes to the Bettina Network Foundation and we look for those who are in need and work with them to help them establish a better, more productive lifestyle. We prefer helping those who are recently homeless, because they have the greater need.

Well, one such person established a new policy with these sales. It is called “When you are given something, give back.” No matter how little you have you can always find a way to give to others.

One young woman, in difficult circumstances, was given a dining room table and chairs from one of our sales – something that didn’t sell. She called the person from Bettina’s who gave her the gift and said “I would like to help on your next sale.” And help she did. She didn’t help in the actual sale, she helped during those evening hours after the sale when we pack and move what is left to clean out the house and leave it ‘broom clean’ for the next inhabitants.

We couldn’t have finished our last sale without her help. What she did was to make it possible for someone else to receive a gift as she had and to make sure the gifts could continue to be given because we were fulfilling our obligations to those who were ultimately providing these gifts.

At the end of her work evening – and she worked unbelievably hard – she decided she wanted to join our small band permanently. She liked what we did – the way we were with each other – and felt she had a lot to contribute.

She also wholeheartedly joined the rest of us who do this work for the benefits of weight loss and the exercise it provides. We don’t have to join a gym to work out we have our own calisthenics and weight loss machines to help us reduce fat and move it around the body from one place to another:) I won’t give her name. You will see her around Bettina Network activities and hope you will reach out to embrace another human being who has decided it is time for all of us to look out for each other – without agendas.

We all need to give back. No matter how independent we think we are and no matter how strongly we consider ourselves ‘self-made’.

Sometimes, we just don’t know how to give back or to who. Well, Bettina Network Foundation is providing a way for you to do that. Join us and help us to help more people get their lives on a new footing. We are lawyers, doctors, management, sales people, bankers, therapists, psychiatrists and the very young learning to live in a way that we thrive realizing and committing ourselves to make sure that others thrive also.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Scattering Sale, estate sale, furniture
Posted in A Scattering Sale, An editorial just because, An Estate Sale, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Moving Sale, Shopping, Thought for the Day | Comments Off on How Exciting is This!!!!!

Another Bettina Moving Sale

Friday, June 20th, 2014

COME AND SPEND THE SUMMER SOLSTICE WITH US.

Saturday, June 21, 2014 is the day. From 10am-4pm is the time. And if you miss that we will do it again on Sunday, June 22 from 3-5pm.

We would love to add pictures, but the ones we have are larger than the 2MB limit Word Press allows so if you would like to see more go to

www.estatesales.net/estate-sales/MA/Waltham/02452/661158

The address: 24 Mallard Way – Waltham, MA. 02452. Look for the flag blowing in the wind. That is where we will be. Come by to say hello; to look around; and to buy something you can’t do without.

Instead of going to the mall, come and spend your money with us. We take American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover Cards – what more could you want?

What will you find?

Oriental Rugs – room size and scatter rugs; dining room table and chairs; lots of miscellaneous in very good condition – they have been well cared for; interesting collectibles; clothes; very large cabinet for your very large television set as well as other technical-electronic pieces; sheet music from popular songs of years ago, Schirmer Publishing collections, Organ music, xerox copies of special arrangements; pocketbooks and sportsbags; silver serving pieces; pots and pans – some brand new still in the box and more.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Information, Moving Sale
Posted in An Estate Sale, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Moving Sale, Shopping in Waltham | Comments Off on Another Bettina Moving Sale

An Intensely Religious Week

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Intensely Religious – how do we turn that into – gloriously Spiritual! I hope it is not the intensely religious who have brought about so much bigotry in the world and the gloriously Spiritual who have given us so much freedom! Maybe my values are a bit screwed.

It is one of those years when the religious celebrations around Spring are shared in close date proximity by several Religious faiths. That doesn’t always happen. After the winter we had and after the destructive forces hitting at the economy and the terrorists hitting at all of us it is no surprise that this Spring season finds some of our religions practically intertwined date-wise.

Within all of this hectic ceremonial time – and there is now a lot of ceremony going on all over the place – with its requirement of watching our diets; scheduling around many religious services – there came that still small voice in the form of guests in one of the Bettina Homes. It was such a reprieve and a taking back to what we are all about and what is really important that we found ourselves being really grateful for the reminder.

A family came from England to America to witness to the life of a friend, and isn’t that what it is all about. To take time from very busy lives; to spend money traveling to another country for just a few days to say by your physical presence that this person mattered. He was important to us and our lives and we want to just stand with a group of his friends to give witness to his life. In that small act – which today isn’t so small when you consider that most of us would be worried that our lives would fall apart if we took time out to do such a thing and we could better spend the money on something for our family – these guests and friends, by their presence and the reason for their visit, gave me reassurances about the goodness of humans who can still sometimes come through with what is most important in life in still, small ways.

I am now ready for these Spring Religious Holidays. I can get through all of the trappings because I know there are people who still care and get it right. I am human and sometimes frail and one day I won’t be here anymore. Will anyone witness to my life? Did I reach out and live so that someone will stop and in the silence give thanks that I lived?

We are fast becoming a society where we don’t and won’t take that time away from the hectic busyness in which we constantly involve ourselves to keep from becoming conscious of the fact that we are slowly and sometimes at a faster pace marching to our own deaths. We go to great lengths to cover-up that fact so we are not conscious of our limits as humans. We walk across and away from those who have no home; those who are not so successful; those who are not interested in getting caught up in that busy, busy cycle of life. We can’t after all be around those who would remind us of our own humanness.

I give thanks today for the family that took just a couple days to acknowledge the importance of the life of another human being.

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.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Fame, breakfast table talk, growing old, Guest Comments, Making Connections, Spiritual Reflection, Who are the Bettina Families
Posted in An editorial just because, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Fame, Breakfast Table Talk, Guest comments, Making Connections, Spiritual Reflection, Who are the Bettina Families | Comments Off on An Intensely Religious Week

Class in America

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

We run into this ‘issue’ so often in a covert way we thought we would make it overt and write under the title of “Class” to try to help all of us distinguish between quirks, ways of being, personality…..and class. This will be a serial because we think too much of ‘class’ information can give us indigestion – a little at a time is better.

First let’s make a difference between ‘class’ and ‘elegance’. Elegance is an aesthetic and way of living that crosses all classes, races, ethnicities, financial standing, whether we are male or female, etc.

Class is a definite way of being because of our family, finances, history, country of origin and more AND has a very long history in this world.

Don’t take any of this personally. It is being laid out generally so we and our children can either read it and weep; read it and have a hilarious good time in the process; or take it seriously and self-evaluate – how do we make decisions about the concrete world around us and our way of being in it – spending money, making vocation choices, clothes choices, what we eat, where we go….based on choices other than class. It is no accident that there are crowded spots in the world where we all try to move in and exquisite spots that no one even thinks about visiting or living.

Bettina Network, inc. puts an emphasis on ‘elegance’ – class be damned! But we have had a few questions, comments and great breakfast conversations around this issue, so lets clarify all of this:

Estate Sales are a great place to observe and understand class. They are phenomenal educational tool. Want to understand class better? Go to as many estate sales as you can. Look around the houses. See how the family lives. Understand their taste in furnishings, etc. That tells all – as far as Class goes. You can look around a fairly poverty stricken home and understand quickly that poverty is first generation or long standing. Either the generation prior to the one that has fallen on hard times was from an upper class or the current generation is one of the fallen warriors.

Particularly, it becomes clear if the family is of substantial means. Class screams at you when you enter the front door. For starters lets look at what we will call Third Class English-style class. The house is full of new – expensive – and generally bad taste furnishings. Very little is ‘real’ – wood-like items are not really wood, glass-like is not really glass and on and on. All of the things that the current marketing and advertising people have been selling as “upper class” are present and shows a Wannabe Family or one that is what we used to call Nouveau – very Nouveau.

Many things will be missing – particularly items from the previous generation. This Nouveau/Wannabe generation has sold all of the furnishings, clothes, trappings from their family – as those family members died – and they generally looked down their noses at the items left to them by a generation or more of family. Just about everything in the house will be NEW – VERY EXPENSIVE – in fact, outrageously so – and any antiques will be reproductions, probably from Korea or China.

You won’t find pictures of past generations of family – those were thrown out. You won’t find files of papers with information about past generations, which cultural and other historians would love to get their hands on – those have also been tossed as worthless. The value in this house is on the artifacts and preferably from the top stores in pristine condition.

That is generally, a group of people who came from a lower class family and have lots of shame about their beginnings. Wipe the slate clean and maybe no one will notice or even talk or ask about their family, their childhood, their upbringing, their values. – all of which are copied and adopted from the marketing/advertising media as great style/design that you need to be that person in the pictures.

This group is trying hard to climb that ladder – or several ladders at the same time. Consequently, they have no time or patience for those on the bottom – who might, actually, in many cases be above them class-wise.

Those homes are generally filthy. They look pristine upon entering, but they are mostly the ones which support the huge industrial complex of products which make you sick over a long period of time because of the off-gases from the cleaning products used, and the chemical ingredients in the other products used.

We should add, that what we are describing is the English class system, not the French. That is a whole other story for another article. Let’s call this Third Class English as our discussion progresses on Class. And lets expand this class discussion from America to American plus the rest of the world.

Chime in with an e-mail, if you dare.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk, Class in America, estate sale, furniture
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Class in America and the World, Estate Sale Analysis and Info, Health, politics | Comments Off on Class in America

Bettina Network, inc NEWS

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

Bettina Network, inc. NEWS is a new addition to the Bettina Network Blog. Appearing periodically, without timetable predictability, this is a way for you to keep up with all that we do – where you will find a Bettina person, event – some definitions and redefinitions of who we are and what we are doing – updates on past events, activities, and more.

MOST RECENTLY – we infiltrated Harvard Business School Women’s Conference “Let’s Go!”

One of our leaders was the second woman to be accepted into and attend one of Harvard Business School’s Executive Programs and the conference was a part of celebrating fifty years of women at Harvard Business School.

It was a great event with over 1,000 women and a very few very brave men who just couldn’t stay away. We met one man from Milwaukee, Wisconsin holding up his sex and his company. His company sounds as though they are doing much to help this world become a more equal place. We say “sounds as though” because long years of experience tells us not to give kudos for such without much investigation and that we have not done – thus a comment without man or company names.

It was a kind of shock to see the way of the world in large, fairly new companies which are there because of the advent of the internet. Their representatives talked about “teams”, “mentors”, “sponsors”. In large multi-national companies with world wide exposure through their life on the internet this, apparently, is needed to keep you, as one of their employees, from getting lost and becoming one of the minions instead of one of the management and on-your-way-up-people.

We tweeted, re-tweeted, favorited and more. It was great fun and much learning. Although the food wasn’t great. Not one organic anything from dinner the evening before for the conference speakers and panelists, through breakfast, lunch and by dinner the next evening we declined what was offered and went hunting for organic goats milk yogurt and kefir to make that food pass quickly through the system.

Yes, we did have a presence on a panel on hospitality and technology spreading the Bettina Gospel, during which we met some very impressive and very accomplished women from whom we hope to hear more. We have started to think on how to get them involved with Bettina Network, inc. – Interns, Partners, Consultants? If you have ideas, please let us know!

WE ARE GETTING FEEDBACK FROM YOU on the recent beginnings of sending out passwords and memberships in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

Mostly, your questions have been about the password allowing you access to Bettina’s Menu of Events and how much basic influence this gives you. It is wonderful getting the suggestions. We hope you will ADD EVENTS and use the Menu when you are looking for ELEGANT, GRACIOUS, WELL ORGANIZED EVENTS WITH SUBSTANTIAL Bettina-style content in which to take part.

We have had many requests for passwords from people who want to be a part of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community and how to sign up! We are sorry to have to tell you, but there is no ‘sign up’ page on our web site or anyplace else for that to happen. To become a member you have to use the services of Bettina Network, inc. and the people at the point where you use Bettina Network’s services must recommend you for membership. Act ugly and no amount of money spent will get you that password.

BETTINA HOMES

We have been in conversation over this for a long time. This Newspage announces that homes which belong to Bettina Network, inc. and those joining in the future are and will be Bettina Homes. Bed and Breakfast is quite inadequate to describe one of the services we offer. Bed & breakfast has become a term overused, misused, describing everything from a hostel to a five star hotel room and the name carries nothing to begin to describe what you can expect in terms of quality or anything else.

We acknowledge the history of from whence we have come, but moving through the present into the future, Bettina Homes is the creation from that history by Bettina Network, inc.

For us to be able to be more specific and so you will know the basic quality you can expect from just hearing the terms, we have adopted and will use Bettina Homes to describe the places, services offered, etc. We do stand out and it is time for the name of one of the very particular services we offer to reflect that stand-outness.

The necessary legal trappings to insure that only homes in the Bettina Network, inc. can carry that name -can call themselves a Bettina Home – have been applied for. While we do not go after people who use our blogs, even though we put a copyright on them, we will go after people who try to call themselves “Bettina Homes” because we do not want to see created the kind of confusion around Bettina Homes which exists today around bed & breakfast or Inns, or Guest Houses, or etc. When you make a reservation to stay in a Bettina Home we want to insure that you have a good basic idea as to what you can expect. All of our homes are not exact replicas of one another and they vary and will continue to vary by location, kind of services offered, physical architectural look of the place, price, etc. There are basics which they all share which is why we take one and not another home into Bettina Network, inc. and that quality is what we want you all to know and be able to expect.

So – until the next time we meet in Bettina Network, inc. NEWS, — keep safe, stay human and be responsible for yourself and others.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, breakfast table talk
Posted in Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Making Connections | Comments Off on Bettina Network, inc NEWS

Organic Peanut Butter Pie

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

for crust:

organic graham crackers (14 crackers)

One stick organic butter

for filling:

One 8-ounce package organic cream cheese

Four tablespoons organic butter

Two cups organic turbinado sugar

12 ounces organic peanut butter – freshly ground, if possible

16 ounces organic heavy cream

Organic Hazelnut syrup to taste

Prepare crust:

1. Put the graham crackers in a food processor and spin under turned into crumbs

2. Melt butter, turn on processor and gradually pour butter into the graham cracker crumbs

3. Pulse until the entire contents of the processor look well mixed.

4. Butter a deep pie plate, pour in crumbs and push them around until the crumbs are generally covering the

bottom and sides of the pie plate. Press them down all around, packing them tightly in the pie plate to create the pie crust.

5. Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes. Let cool before pouring in filling.

prepare filling:

1. Whip Cream Cheese for at least 5 minutes in an electric stand mixer

2. Add 4 tablespoons butter and continue whipping for another 5 minutes.

3. Add sugar and continue to whip for another five minutes.

4. Add organic Hazelnut syrup and peanut butter and whip until mixed.

Be careful at this stage

Do not over mix as the peanut butter will separate from its oil

If that happens, it is not a disaster – just continue and ignore the oil, it will reincorporate into the pie filling when you add heavy cream.

5. Slowly add heavy cream and continue to mix until the filling is light and fluffy and all the ingredients seem to be one. A good filling resembles light brown whipped cream.

Pour the filling into the pie shell and freeze for at least two hours.

MY NOTES:

There is no such thing as a free lunch

To make good food it takes an investment of time, thought, energy and the very best organic ingredients one can find.

You can tell the level of a persons ability to care and take responsibility by how well or how ill they cook. Beware the one who burns lots of things and whose food comes out tasting pretty awful. Stay far – far away from them.

Some Random Thoughts

If you have to buy peanut butter in a jar, it will be separated into oil (on top) and butter (on bottom of jar). Don’t let the health nuts get to you – resist the temptation to discard the oil. That action will ruin your pie and it will be far less nourishing.

Did you know the combination of peanut butter and milk makes for a complete meal?

You can use organic peanuts and grind them into peanut butter. I am dedicated, but not to that extent. The taste, I conjecture, would be far superior.

Try smooth or crunchy peanut butter. Either makes a great pie – it depends upon your taste.

Or use smooth and grind a few peanuts saving a few to sprinkle on top of the pie before serving. That might satisfy the need to grind your own. And it says to whoever sees the pie what kind of pie it is.

While mixing this pie, make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since the pie has to be refrigerated and/or frozen for several hours before you can cut and eat it, this should satisfy the craving to instantly cut and taste.

Have a cup or organic tea with your sandwich while you make notes about the pie that you don’t want to forget or that you want to incorporate into your next pie. I like half Earl Grey and half peppermint leaf. It is a nice accompaniment and also helps you to digest the pie, especially if you are over 60.

If there is no one around to take away your mixing bowl to get the leavings – instead of the sandwich, scrape the bowl yourself onto graham crackers and have that with your tea. It makes just as nice a treat as the peanut butter sandwich. You can’t do this when others are in the kitchen because you will only have enough left in the mixing bowl for one.

While eating the pie and drinking the tea, write a few notes leaving your thoughts to posterity. Your notes could be about the process, an improved technique, your changing the ingredients or totally unrelated thoughts which you had while making and eating the pie. All are relevant to the creative cooking process. A book could be created just with such notes.

________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes
Posted in Bettina's Cookbook | Comments Off on Organic Peanut Butter Pie

Posts Tagged ‘Bettina Homes’

More on GRITS!!!!!

Playing with Words

Kale Chips – Bettina Style

The Listening Ear

GRITS/RICE – A Great Addition

Describe Sin!

GRITS – Creole Style

“Do Not Be Afraid”

“Life Is Just A Minute

Ed Note: Sorry for all the “powerfuls” in this blog. Couldn’t find another word to fit.

Problem Feet

Balm in Gilead

Making Old Feet New Again!

Eggs and Lime

How Exciting is This!!!!!

Another Bettina Moving Sale

COME AND SPEND THE SUMMER SOLSTICE WITH US.

Saturday, June 21, 2014 is the day. From 10am-4pm is the time. And if you miss that we will do it again on Sunday, June 22 from 3-5pm.

An Intensely Religious Week

Class in America

Bettina Network, inc NEWS

Organic Peanut Butter Pie

Blog Search

We are the Bettina Network

Categories

Archives

Bettina’s Lifestyle Community