Food Shopping - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for the ‘Food Shopping’ Category

Cooking Rice Elegantly!

Wednesday, April 11th, 2018

What if Colonialism had not happened and we gradually moved to a world community – discovering new ideas, ways of doing things, different foods that we are used to eating and cooking, etc. instead of developing a society which claimed some foods and ways of cooking as superior and some to be shunned.?  What a rich and very fantastic place this would be.

What if today we shun that Colonialism and come together as a one world community giving and sharing what we have with others on an equal basis.  Mine as just as good as yours and yours as just as good as mine.  What an incredibly rich place this would be and the knowledge which circulates using the new technology would facilitate an awesome life.  Instead that technology is used to manipulate, persuade, lie to, and we are all the poorer for it and enamored forever in war, brutality, white supremacy, nazism and its cousins, and so much more that destroys us and totally damages our children.

Assuming this first, we look for greatness in societies and cultures and discovered a way of cooking rice that is great.

I didn’t much care for rice, but then I only knew white rice which took 7 minutes to cook and had a skim covering on top that looked like and probably was talc powder. Hope I’ve missed the cancer that kind of rice is rumored to cause and that I discovered organically grown rice in time.  Now, today, with my new found knowledge,  I buy organically grown rice and I am careful whose organically grown rice we buy.

Problem with that was in the cooking.  It would take a long time and I could never count on the rice being great.  Sometimes it turned out in a sensational way and sometimes it was not something you wanted to eat – either too hard or too soft.

A friend came over to show me how to cook this rice and we put on a cooking show for our Bettina Network Hedge School guests.  This now very close friend is not someone who my mother would have allowed into the house as my playmate, nor would she have been a part of the many “play dates” I was taken to as a child.

Those who joined us for dinner were in my Bettina-Hedge-School-Home to learn special cooking skills and so thy were invited into the kitchen to help prepare the dinner.

Rice was the main dish since that was the reason for my very-skilled-at-cooking friends’ presence.

She started by putting what to my eyes and sensibility was a very large amount of butter in the glass corning pot in which we were going to cook the rice. I winced as I saw all of that butter.  (It actually was three tablespoons – but if you try this you should use your own judgment and your own taste.)

She let the butter melt and bubble awhile and then added the rice.  She cooked the rice in butter for several minutes and then added water, a little salt – Himalayan salt, turmeric and I added a dash of cayenne pepper (because every dish I cook has a dash of cayenne).

We put the top on the pot and in about 15 minutes we had the fluffiest rice I have seen.  And the tastiest.  I think I will give up potatoes and take on rice.  Well, maybe I will just add rice cooked in this way as another food I can add to my menus.

Everyone at dinner thought the rice was spectacular.

A SUGGESTION:

If you are vegan, you might want to start this rice in coconut oil, or some other kind of oil with a high smoking point.  I would not use the famous Olive Oil because it goes rancid quickly in heat.  We only use Olive Oil for cold dishes like salad dressings, etc.  As a society we have become so accustomed to what we call th “Mediterranean diet” which is anything but, that we assume Olive Oil is a universal oil and we try to use it in everything.  So much so we have become accustomed to the taste of rancid olive oil and assume that is normal.

Enjoy!

______________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

______________________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
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. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

 

 

 

 

Weight Control and Good Health for a Lifetime!

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

Look around – take a walk – go shopping – to the theatre – symphony – sports event and you will see many, many overweight people.

How on earth did this happen!  My mother’s generation didn’t share this overweightness.  Many in my generation have gaining weight and battling that weight gain as a constant.  In my children’s generation they are taller and heavier except those who border on bulimia or some other eating disorder.  What has happened to all of us? Something radical on this earth and in our environment has changed.

Have you noticed that diet food – diet drinks – exercise and body control programs – an entire industry has grown up and is thriving on your willingness to work hard and sweat even harder while that industry earns substantial amounts of money for either the foods they want to sell you to control your weight or their weight control ideas or body manipulations to feed your dream of  looking as though you are 15 years old again!

It is all a smoke screen!  A way to keep you from realizing the pit you have fallen into and can’t get out. The truth that you need to set you free is obscured and in your very distant past generations, mostly obscured from you by the need to maintain and increase the profit of this new “Health and Fitness Industry”.  That may be what it is called by many, but its goals are anything but.

Most of what you need is not in that Health and Fitness Industry, but in the secrets your past generations took to the grave.  The marketing, with which you were raised,  blinded you so thoroughly you didn’t want to hear what your ancestors had to say nor did you want to carry forward their lifestyles.  You particularly looked down on the knowledge and experience they gained from their lifestyles because you found more relevant the marketing and advertising dreamed up by those probably even younger than you are who were/are busy pumping out pipe dreams to maintain their jobs.

They were trained by experts at creating a new culture and a new lifestyle based on your giving them your money and potential possessions and they giving you the way to a miserable life – whether it be long or short – but profitable to their companies.   Is this what you bought and live by today?

Now, however, everyone around you seems to be calling you back to this glorious past where you will find redemption, salvation, a better life than we have today and at the same time those same people, industries and their marketing/advertising is creating a trap for you so you don’t even know what past you are being called to learn from and buy into.  A mythical, glorious past which actually never existed except in the movies and a scattering of novels.  What used to be sold on the ‘silver screen’ is now being sold as a distorted, pumped up on drugs, reality show which you are being told was the great, glorious past to reach back to, recreate and nirvana will arrive.

They hold out the promise of satisfaction, satiety,  for this something inside that is roiling your gut and telling you something is off and very damaged.  They hold out what looks like the cure to this wrong road you’ve taken.  Their message is full of  pretty pictures or accompanying videos so words alone no longer satisfy and those pretty pictures are characterized as the road to Oz.  But the curtain is seldom let down so you can’t see the wizard behind the screen doing all of this manipulating.

Let me lift the curtain for you – just a little.  To strip the curtain away entirely is something you are going to have to do for yourselves.  Unfortunately, it has been turned into a lifelong search and you are very devoid of the mentors who could shorten the search and reward your efforts when you hit a success spot.

Over the past couple generations we have put in place a modern lifestyle which started with our need to work constantly to be able to afford more, even though we were using so many new inventions that cut our work load in half.   We haven’t been able to get off that rodent’s wheel long enough to see if it really was generating the ‘more/better’ it promised.  Most of us are afraid to stop because the bleak future pictured by doing that is something we can’t stand to allow ourselves to imagine.

So let’s take this one thing at a time:

starting with – Our food supply and food habits.  That alone has taken books, videos and endless self-help sessions to describe and to either mislead us or to help us understand what is and what has happened.  The story that starts with once upon a time ends with corporate farms using chemicals and other substances which destroy our bodies a tiny little bit at a time so we can’t identify or point to that as one of the reasons for our current dilemma. The marketing and advertising has us in a constant ongoing argument with each other which both sides lose, because in this great information sharing age, the crucial information is kept locked up and very seldom shared.

Just a couple for instances:

Flour – that which was the staff of life for our forbears and was in many breads and other dishes is something we are warned against today and which has developed around it and trying to take its place – a new industry – gluten free – because so many are now allergic to what sustained life in their past generations.  And gluten-free is a much more lucrative end result of processing than is flour, which is now depicted as the enemy of health in so many characterizations and advertisements.  One little dirty secret = it is substantially more profitable.

How could that be?  Who did this thing?  The one substance which you could practically live off of alone is now claimed as our bodies enemy.  If you are not allergic to it, then certainly you know it makes you fat!

Flour as a profit center is what happened and the machinery went into high gear to figure out how to make ever more money giving even less to the general populations:   Farmers were encouraged to put all kind of chemicals on their wheat and to experiment with new kinds of wheat developed because, thereby,  much more could be grown on a small plot of land and even beyond that – large corporate farms popped up, quietly destroying the farmer.   The substantially increased profit to be made on land growing this ever new kind of wheat was too much for some to pass over and certainly was not to be shared with the non-corporate types.  And so ‘crush them’ was the mantra of the day and it was successful.

Greed called those susceptible, into the flour business, to press as much money out of it as possible giving to the populace whatever smokescreen and story board was necessary to hide the real reasons for that substantial profit increase from something as basic as wheat.  And along came the hiding  and holding back and creating myths for the populace (us).  The wizard was very busy with all of this going on behind the screen.

The best place to start to tell this part of the story is at the end of the processing line – the point at which flour has been robbed of everything that gave us life and all of that replaced with that which takes life and good health away from us.  The large silos in which the “finished” flour was put to be held until it could be packaged harbor many ugly secrets.  Predictably, those silos were infested with bugs and our new kind of logic said bugs needed to be killed with pesticides and that happened.  None of the silos escaped.

There was no way to get the dead bugs out of the silos so let the flour stay until the bugs deteriorated.  No one would ever ask what those black specks were in the bags of flour, if the bags and the marketing were such as to make the flour more convenient to buy and prettier to look at with the mythical story about how much ‘cheaper’ it was.  And the bonus – something light brown or a dark ivory was made very white!  The background color of this ‘revolution’.

There was no way to get the pesticides out of the flour because it just became one with the ground grain.  So the department, in the United States, which kept the public’s food supply safe just issued a proclamation which said there was not enough pesticide in the flour so it wasn’t worth demanding that the pesticides be removed – that would be too costly – nor was there enough to warrant a note on the packaged flour letting the consumer know the product they were buying was tainted.

And so, the flour moved off the shelves into our homes where it wrecked havoc with our health without most of us knowing why we were developing these low levels of something that made us feel not quite up to par;  some of us becoming quite ill with allergies; some of us succumbing to viruses and various bacteria much easier and more frequently than in the past.

….And so another industry sprung up to address that and to take us further down the rabbit hole and those addressing that issue further up the profit margin generator.

Milk – Another one of those ‘basic for life’ foods that we all eat or drink that has added to this horrendous lifestyle we are living.  We have become so accustomed to the problems with milk and other foods, we have simply adjusted and move on.  It is becoming unpatriotic to question.

Many of us are horrified if we have to drink “Whole Milk” – as though this would poison our system.  We have come to believe most assuredly that would put more weight on us and probably fool with our fat/cholesterol count and from that would come hardening of the arteries or high blood pressure or something equally awful.  Some science I remember from a small child doesn’t exist in the public mind anymore – “drink your milk, you need milk fat and milk protein in your system at the same time. ” And that is Whole Milk.  The other kinds of milk simply lowers your health and increases the corporate profit.

But, what if ‘whole’ milk was not the culprit, but the growth hormones fed to the cows producing the milk was at fault.  The growth hormones which apparently move from cow to human and cause our bodies to react by being tricked into believing the one ounce of food we just ate was really four ounces so where we want our cows to become fatter on less so our profits would be more, what really doesn’t matter to those so trapped in that profit center is the fact that they are passing that little tricked-out and chemicalized out food to the rest of us as we get just as fat as the cows and for the same reason.  Doesn’t matter if it is ‘whole’ milk or the other kind with the fat taken out.

What if problems occur because, while the cow needs to be heavier with more pounds per cow on less food per cow to increase profits, humans need to be lighter with fewer pounds per human to be healthier.  So – what to do —

Develop,  to address this problem –  a very large health industry to compensate for the health and wellness problems caused humans by this and other such food developments.  And so it should be and so it is.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

You should get the message by now so do your research and you will be appalled at what you find.  Some have already discovered much of this and adjusted their lifestyle and diets accordingly, but not even close to a majority of us.

Food has been turned into a political topic to maintain its outlandish growth into the nether regions, those where you can legitimately ask if this is really food when it is mostly chemicals and instead of working together for the health of all we are arguing pro and con totally ignoring reality and facts in our arguments – especially the most popular ones.  Listening to the arguments one would think some of us are not human, but our bodies have some other kind of existence.

The real culprit comes into play in our everyday lives and how we have incorporated meals into this growingly outlandish lifestyle.  Out of the food industry has come the processed food industry and the fast food industry – all detrimental to our health.

Once upon a time, meals were a family community event.  Well, that’s gone by the board.  Meals are now a catch when you can thing and mostly made up of the fast foods and/or the processed foods found everywhere.

And in-between those very unsatisfying fast food meals are the fast food and sugar or salt loaded snacks.  Today, however, it is increasingly salt and sugar in the same food product because it was recently found that combining the two makes for a quicker and more substantial addiction.  Hungry between meals?  There are thousands of snacks you can pick up to get from one “meal” to the next – competing for the title of “I can damage this body quicker than you can”.

I could go into other food groups in addition to milk and flour, but you have to do something!  So I will leave that to those interested.

Alternatives?  What did our ancestors do!

Soup:  Was a ‘go to’ dish.  Not the soup one makes with individual ingredients like pumpkin soup or butternut squash soup or, etc.  But the soup, kept on the back of the stove, constantly hot so if anyone was hungry between meals you went for a bowl of soup.  You simply found a soup bowl, ladled out as much as you felt you wanted to eat and enjoyed a very filling, satisfying and nutrient rich ‘snack’ that kept you satiated between meals and did not add extra pounds or lower your immune system making you susceptible to whatever came along.  A side benefit from this ‘family soup pot’ was the fact that if company dropped by unexpectedly you had something very lovely and elegant to serve them and in an instant.  Set the table, ladle out the soup and enjoy your visitors.

Everything was put into that soup.  Vegetables left over – instead of letting them spoil they were cut up and put into the soup.  Meat-turkey-chicken-venison, whatever,  left over from some dish or other or was not being used as quickly in another dish as expected because time to use it had run out – that was added to the soup.  It was constantly adjusted with different spices to make it something really special, very filling and incredibly nutritious to keep you in good health.

Custards and puddings were constantly being made.  Left over rice went to make rice pudding as did bread that was beginning to go stale.  As was ——etc.

Breads were used even when stale.  All one had to do was to pass the bread under the faucet to wet it a bit and then put it in the oven to heat.  The result was bread that tasted as though it was freshly baked and just out of the oven.  Today, we throw away stale bread and rice and other grains instead of reusing them and keeping them in the refrigerator for their next use – that is, those of us who still eat such things.  Or we keep them in the refrigerator, expecting to use them, but once we finally remember them when going through the refrigerator, we find them full of mold.

Cakes were baked from scratch.  They can be baked today and just as quickly as those from the box – tasting far better and with more nutrition.  The boxed cakes give you nothing.  The freshly baked cakes are a dream.  For a recipe – try the 1-2-3-4 cake.  Easy recipe to remember.  With a mixer it takes less than 15 minutes to put together ready for baking.  Make enough for more than one cake – use the stale left overs to make custards more interesting.

So many recipes are available for quick and nutritious foods – made from scratch.  But even our cookbooks have been compromised.  When I see one which says take a can of…… out it goes in the trash.

Looking for the old cookbooks is difficult because they have been so cast aside.  I find mostly the file boxes in which someone has filed recipes they had from grandparents, aunts, uncles, old friends who brought food stuff for the sick and shut in, including the recipe they used to create the dish they brought.  That doesn’t happen so much anymore – can’t when you’ve stopped at a quick food store to pick up something on the fly.

We could go into the cosmetics industry, the environment, and more – but the clouds start to form and those with vested interests become interested in us and we like to travel under the radar.

Life can be really simple because that even goes to how you clean your house and the substances you use with which you clean.  Our mantra is simple – don’t use anything to clean with that you would not eat.  Well, not as a snack, but you get the message.  And don’t put anything on your skin you would not put in your stomach.  It winds up in your bloodstream in seconds.

All of that marketing and advertising on which we have been raised is hard to undo and get out of our minds.  We have given top priority and attention to what which is put out for the purposes of selling a product – the mythical world – rather than anything factual about that product.  And far too often, that which our family and older friends have tried to teach us gets thrown out with the dirty wash water.

Our conditioning is almost complete – except for the cracks in the wall that a few have been trying to widen to let back in the flood of information that has to be kept out if our current – modern – lifestyle is to be kept and built upon.  That lifestyle is a building built on sand.  What you need for yourselves and your family is a building with a strong foundation.  The story of the three pigs comes to mind.  Each built a house on something different and the storms came or was it the fox who huffed and puffed and blew all of the pigs houses down except the one who built on that solid foundation.

The same goes for all of us as we build our lives and try to pass along the lessons we’ve learned to our children.  Hopefully, something happens which gets them to listen.  I’ve given up on that and have written many notes for them to read after I die.  That isn’t a sure thing either – because most of your belongings are given away or thrown away after death so some other way has to be found.  Libraries were one way, but the internet has sounded their death knell – so the search goes on.

In the meantime, I realize this topic needs a book not an article so let me stop here and leave the rest of this up to you.  Hopefully, you will walk the path that puts you in good health and those around you in a wonderfully supportive environment.

The one great discovery I’ve had is that walking that path gets rid of simple things like a cold.  We haven’t had colds in over five years.  They are not normal, as we have come to accept, but an indication that something in your life and in the lives of your family members who come down with colds and other such temporary illnesses has a cause that can be eradicated if you change your lifestyle.

All of these such illnesses were unheard of two generations ago.  The movement to build a huge and lucrative health industry, which depends upon regular outbreaks of bad health, has grown very quickly.  Such outbreaks are necessary for that industry  to grow, expand, and constantly see increased profits. New viruses and other infectious agents have to multiply and get stronger for the health industry to continue on its upward path and we have not disappointed.

It is not an industry that is working to put itself out of business by helping the populace in its move towards better health.  When we notice that hospitals have become profit centers with stock holders and all the other trappings which require regular profits and substantial increases in profit each quarter and year over year, we realize our health is being preyed on directly as is our food supply indirectly.

Your feedback and/or new information is always appreciated.

____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

___________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

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

A Japanese/New Orleans Creole Breakfast

Friday, March 4th, 2016

I stumbled onto this breakfast, but it is one of the best yet.

You do have to have a cosmopolitan taste for this – it is not ham, eggs and sweet breads.

……………………………MENU…………………………………

Fresh, organic fruit – Satsuma Mandarins, if they are in season

Grits (See recipe in Bettina Cookbook in this blog).  Do not use anything other than organic grits and cook it according to the Bettina Cookbook recipe – or you will be disappointed.  Instead of great grits you will have something roughly akin to white starch – good for ironing, but not for eating.

This started out as Grits and Grillades, but it hopped off the train to New Orleans and jumped onto the one to Japan.  Not entirely Japanese, but there is a hint of the country in the middle of this New Orleans Creole breakfast and the combination is fantastic.

Cajun/Creole/Japanese Style Grillades

This recipe will serve four people.  For more, you want to double or triple the amounts.

……Slice organic onions sort of thin.  For four people, one onion will do nicely

…….Slice an organic green pepper, also sort of thin

…….Slice organic garlic – several cloves, about four or five

Put the above three ingredients in a cast iron skillet in which you have melted organic expeller pressed coconut oil and let them fry together for several minutes.

……Add pork grillades (sold at Whole Foods – this is organic thinly sliced pork).  Grillades are ‘little pieces’.

……Stir and let cook a few minutes until pork turns from pink to brown

……Add organic Teriyaki Sauce to taste

……Stir and let cook another few minutes.

This is better served plated.  Serve your plates with grits in the middle and the pork Grillades mixture on top and around the sides.

This dish would have been Creole Grillades, but for the seasonings.  If I had put thyme, oregano, salt, red pepper as a seasoning instead of the Teriyaki, etc. the taste would have been very different.  It would have been Grillades from a middle-class New Orleans Creole family.

If, in addition to the above Creole seasonings I added chopped tomatoes and let the dish cook a few minutes so the different ingredients would merge – or better still, cook it the day before and just heat it up for breakfast, that would have been Grillades from an upper-class New Orleans Creole family.

The difference?  The addition of tomatoes.

Add biscuits and you have an outstanding breakfast.

For dessert – serve organic fig preserves to put in the biscuits.

For a biscuit recipe – see Bettina’s Cookbook.  Only with this Menu use only organic Whole Wheat Pastry flour for the biscuits.  They will be light, fluffy and have a taste you just can’t put your finger on, especially if you add a bit of grated nutmeg to the flour before adding the rest of the ingredients – if you are on the road to Japan.

______________________________________________________

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

Bettina’s Weight Control

Sunday, December 14th, 2014

From a Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member:

“Well I read through the blogs for the diet but did not find one. ”

However, I did find some great tips. I am drinking lime juice now…..  It almost instantaneously curbed my hunger.  This was so on time with this being my day of clear liquids and the gad between now and my last meal of an egg sandwich right before midnight.   Thanks for this, I will be using up my limes today.

In the spirit of giving back: before you squeeze the lime or lemon, peel it thinly, hang it to dry out.  In a couple of weeks, take it, break it apart, throw it in a processor and grind it.  You will  end up with two consistencies, the more coarse consistency on the top.  I separate the coarse pieces and set them aside to use:   to make tea; for seasoning sea food; for baking;  making marmalades; to garnish certain foods or desserts.  The finer consistency I store in a vial and place on the shelf with my baking spices.  A 1.5 oz bottle of lemon peel goes for roughly $10 and up , with organic coming in higher.

In baking I use the peel of approximately 1/2 a lime in the eggs, it helps to cut the fresh smell.  I remove the fresh peel before baking.  The dry peels I add as an ingredient and those go through the fire.  I have gotten creative in making cranberry orange muffins.  It is quite delightful to bite into tidbits of orange peel.

Lime/ lemon peel tea is great for sore throats, cold or flu. ”

By:  CN

Ed Note:  Thanks for those tips.  We are certainly ready for anything to cut colds or flu – especially if it does not have to be injected into our bodies at Drug Stores.  Oops! Sorry – you can tell my age by that slip-up.  They changed the name of those stores for this current generation.  They are now called the Pharmacy.

Ed Note:  We do not believe in diets and you won’t find the traditional kind in Bettina Network’s Blog – if you are talking about the  listing of  menus giving you what to eat at which meal on a particular day.  We believe that has developed to shore up the Diet Industry that is growing by leaps and bounds and making some people lots of money but getting the rest of us into an obese condition.  That kind of diet justifies those company‘s where you send for your meals  by the week and still don’t lose weight, except for the weight loss by the lightness of your pocketbook.  A diet for us is to squeeze an organic lemon into a cup of warm water and drink this when you first wake up in the mornings.  AND about 4pm squeeze four organic limes into a cup and drink it before you go off eating everything in sight.

________________________________________________________________

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.

More on GRITS!!!!!

Tuesday, October 28th, 2014

copyright 2014 by Bettina Network, inc.

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.

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.

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.

Food and Pharma Connected?

Sunday, June 1st, 2014

copyright 2014 Bettina Network, inc.

We had another one of those breakfasts and we are all still reeling, having put different backgrounds, experience, education, parts of the world together we came up with a startling conclusion:

The discussion centered around Bettina Network’s attempt to keep Bettina Homes as organic as possible – in cleaning, food, and everything else.  We don’t succeed 100%, but it is a constant effort and we think we do a pretty good job – considering all the outside negative influences that press in on us to go in a different direction.

One person brought up the chemicals – especially Potassium Nitrate – in most of the foods being processed and wanted to know more about it.  Another person piped up with the fact that Potassium Nitrate, when he was a boy, was called ‘Salt Peter’ and some private schools used it in the food to keep the young men toned down a bit sexually.  Well, that wasn’t new.  It was something we all had heard from time to time and we all knew the affect “Salt Peter’ has on the body.

Another came up with the connection between the processed food industry and big pharma.  The processed food industry was putting ‘salt peter’ into our food supply to give the foods they process a longer shelf life.  In the meantime, that was dumbing down and destroying the sexual performance ability of many – especially males – since that is what salt peter is supposed to do.

Enter Big Pharma with their development of the block buster drug for men called ‘Viagra” and other names.  Each company which produces it has its own name.

What a pass through.  The food industry creates the dysfunction – big pharma develops and sells the drug to address the dysfunction.  No wonder so much money is going out of the pocket of the middle class into the pockets of both the food industry and the pharmaceutical companies.

Our question was – what else has such a symbiotic relationship?  Was this a deliberate collaboration or accidental?  Some didn’t believe in accidents like this?  Others weren’t so sure! Others felt we needed to step back and take a look to see how we could expose this early on before fortunes were made, peoples health negatively affected for profit, etc.

There wasn’t enough time over breakfast to solve the problem, but we certainly left with something to think about!

________________________________________________________________

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.

Gluten Problems??????????

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

copyright 2013 Bettina Network, inc. for Marceline Donaldson

Many years ago I worked for The Pillsbury Company – for a brief time – with a long following law suit – which is the stuff of legend around my neighborhood. I offer that fact to you in the interest of full disclosure.

One, of the many things that upset me, happened when I was moved to International Marketing with one of my responsibilities being over the Silos.  It wasn’t something I actually did, it was an old hangover from another time, but the job description was never amended.

In the process of this tenure, I received a telephone call from the real manager of the Silos, the one who had been at Pillsbury for many years and who did the day to day managing of the Silos.  He informed me there was an infestation of bugs in the Silos and asked what he should do about it.

My immediate response was – throw out the flour in the Silos – you can’t sell flour to people which is or has been full of bugs.

He thanked me and hung-up.

Shortly thereafter my boss came along and said “Marceline, we can’t throw out the flour.  He wasn’t calling to actually get input from you on what to do, he has been doing this job for many years and knew what to do.  With your new job description he needs your signature and go ahead to proceed.”

Well, what did that mean!

It means his procedure, set up by who knows, was to spray the flour in the Silos with pesticides to kill the bugs.

Being confused, I asked my boss how did they get the pesticides out of the flour and how did they make the flour clean again from bug feces, etc.

He told me they didn’t.   The FDA said the pesticides were not enough to negatively affect human health and by the time the flour was packaged and reached the grocery store shelves no one ever questioned what those little black specs were or where they came from.

Being really mind blown, I checked around the industry and discovered that was common practice and why did I have a problem with it?  It was normal – everybody did it – and given that fact, they wouldn’t do such if it was problematical or would cause the public health problems.

Well, I didn’t sign off on it – the job description was finally adjusted and we all settled down to a very uncomfortable co-existence.

From that time onward, whenever I go to the store for flour I buy organic whole wheat or organic some other kind of flour whichever has minimum processing of the flour.  That has been my practice since that time in early 1970.  And given the fact that I bake quite a bit, it is possible to make extremely delicious breads, cakes, etc. using only organic whole wheat flour.  All those recipes and comments from Chefs which say you have to add White Flour or your baking won’t come out right are a lot of baloney.  Most recipes, which call for White overly processed flour translate on a one to one basis – they were probably translated from the organic whole wheat lightly milled flour to what we have today. – who said “Without a knowledge of history, we are really seriously handicapped in the way we live.”

We have had several people for breakfast lately who’ve said they don’t eat wheat because their doctor said they were ‘sensitive’.  They didn’t have celiac disease – full blown- according to them, but their ‘sensitivity’ to wheat made them – on their doctors’ advice – eliminate wheat from their diet.

It has occurred to me to question if they are ‘sensitive’ to wheat or if they are ‘sensitive’ to and/or ‘allergic’ to the chemicals used to debug the flour.

I’ve raised the issue, but this pesticide treatment of flour has been a closely guarded secret of the flour processing companies for decades.

There was not this ‘sensitivity’ to flour when I was growing up.  Its only recent that we are running into people who refuse to eat wheat because of it.

Since their doctors have no idea what’s in the wheat – they, I am sure, as well as everybody else  have no clue as to this treatment of wheat.  So, why would they test their patients for a sensitivity to the pesticides sprayed on the wheat before it is packed and shipped.  Why would they look at whether their patients are allergic to the bugs and bug droppings in the wheat when they don’t know that such exists.

It really should be investigate to determine its real affect on humans and investigated by scientists other than those related to the flour industry.

This is one of many stories I have about what happens to our flour.  We all need to be vigilant and on our toes about the food we eat, especially the food which has been processed.  The FDA doesn’t seem to have done such a great job.  But then, maybe I am confused as to whose interest they are protecting!

If you’ve stayed in our home you know some of the other stories about the wheat and the FDA – especially the strawberry story.  I won’t bore you with repeating them.

Good eating!!!  And stay responsible for your health and therefore your diet.  What you eat determines who you are and your present and future health.  Exercise is fine, but it is only about 10 percent of the equation – and – is it so highly touted to be the red herring to throw you off looking at the real problems.

________________________________________________________________

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.

Ultra-Pasteurized = Ultra-Junk-Milk

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

copyright Bettina Network 2012

Today is very discouraging.  I spent yesterday looking for organic milk and am discovering the good milk is being replaced all over the city by the ‘ultra-pasteurized’.  It is as though stores are saying ‘we will carry organic milk, but we don’t think it will sell so we will stock the ‘ultra’ kind and therefore it will last for years on the shelf waiting for buyers.’

It is amazing to me that any store would carry ultra-pasteurized.  People who are into the organic movement, or are concerned about their health and want to maximize the nutrients they take in are those who know a lot about food. Very few of us will buy anything off the shelf without first reading its ingredients.  And many of us subscribe to that new adage, if you can’t pronounce one or more of the ingredients leave it on that shelf.

So why would anyone replace organic milk with organic ultra-pasteurized?  That is a contradiction in terms.  I would never spend my very hard earned money on such a product and neither would anyone I know.

So – take that stuff off the shelf.  Complain about it wherever you see it and demand that store owners/managers/buyers get real and start producing quality organic products for the money they charge.

I will pay – but not for junk-milk or junk anything else, organic or otherwise.  Hope you are with me and let it be known that you will not tolerate being asked to buy junk-food.  Hmmmmm!  That ultra-pasteurized milk would go well with hamburgers made of pink slime, —-on buns made with white flour left in silos and then sprayed with pesticides to kill the bugs and then sold without either removing the pesticides or the bugs (they decay – every notice the little black/brown specs in your white flour?) and without noting the pesticides on the list of ingredients in the flour, ——–french fries soaked in beef stock and sold as a vegetarian product ——and etc. etc. etc.

We are putting “ULTRA PASTEURIZED MILK’ in Bettina’s Box of Shame.

Get out there – be vigilant – protect our food supply.

________________________________________________________________

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.

The “Perfect” Storm

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

How does a Bettina home survive a storm which threatens to down power lines, flood areas and generally disrupt life as we are accustomed to living it with all that we take for granted?

To give you an idea of how we do it, what follows are a few tips from a couple of Bettina Families:

1)  We discourage your buying water in those plastic water bottles, for all the reasons articulated many places.  We notice when you go to the store,  just before a storm, the aisles are full of boxes of those water bottles, just waiting for you to come and spend a small fortune stocking up.

What to use instead?  Try natural, organic, unadulterated coconut water.  It is good for dehydration, will give you a small amount of nutrients and keeps your thirst quenched longer than plastic water and it won’t add chemicals to your system, which the plastic bottles can do by leeching out some of their troublesome chemicals into the water.  That happens especially when the plastic bottles of water are stored in warehouses at too high a temperature, which facilitates their  discharging a bit of their plastic into the water and you don’t know which are or were not so stored.

2)  For food – try the simple things, which your parents and grandparents probably knew by instinct.  Buy several dozen organic eggs (without the ‘Omega 3 added’ label.  Just plain organic eggs from cage free chickens which roam around in the sun pecking as chickens do.  Hard boil a dozen or so, depending upon the number of people in your home during the storm and put them aside in case you need nourishment without electricity.

3)  Try wild canned sardines in olive oil.  Several cans with great organic crackers as a treat.  You can also add dry organic cereal – lots of fruit – organic nuts, raisins, dried cranberries and other such foods, which are good to eat after and don’t introduce problems into your body which you will regret after the storm passes.

Hope these few tips help you prepare for the storms coming up.

________________________________________________________________

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.

A Fantastic Diet for Good Health!

Friday, September 21st, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

We have discovered, through many conversations with guests, an incredible diet to end all diets.  We have put this together as we gleaned information a little at a time and experimented to make sure this is workable.

It does work for a couple of us, but we aren’t guaranteeing, advising, or anything else, just reporting on what we’ve observed and experienced.

We started to hear about limes when a guest from India talked about her need to have limes in the afternoon because it was advised by her nutritionist who she absolutely trusted.  So we found a source for organic limes for her and every afternoon she would squeeze four limes into a cup and drink the juice.

We knew about having an organic lemon squeezed into a cup of warm water and drinking that first thing in the morning to get your day started on the right foot and your body regulated – through a regular morning trip to the bathroom.  We didn’t know anything about limes except for the jokes about the English ‘Limeys’.

Later came others who looked for lemons and limes – never organic – but we added that to what they were doing and suggested that might be a better way than just ordinary limes and lemons that you didn’t know what was sprayed, dug into the dirt, washed into the fruit and that would show up in later years affecting your health in bad ways.  And they would thank us, take their lemons and limes in various ways and on different time tables to be able to travel and live without a sluggishness which brought them to their regimen with the lemons and limes in the first place.

We began to notice something amazing as we tried to do the same thing – varying it with every guests’ different usage to test for ourselves.

As we tried all these different regimens and combinations of ways to use lemons and limes, we found our weight dropping even when nothing else in our diet or lifestyle changed. We even had one guest  use a lemon to rub on his face in the mornings after shaving.  He was cute!  We noticed it when he came to breakfast with a couple lemon bits still on his skin.  When we asked what he’d been doing with the lemons – after an initial embarrassment he admitted to using one lemon each morning to smooth over his face to deal with any cuts or etc. that he might accumulate.  Another guest used cut lemons to rub on her elbows and knees.  And there were more!  It has been a great learning for us!!!

What we have taken from all of these possibilities:

First thing in the morning, we have a lemon or lime with the juice squeezed and put into a half-cup of warm water.

Throughout the day we also have lemon or lime juice – organic, of course, – and at very particular times, which we feel is the secret to this ‘diet’.

When we come in from meetings, shopping, working in the garden, doing whatever that has made us ravenously hungry and pushes us to         reach for any and everything we can to satisfy that hunger .- Instead of reaching for those 5 cookies, ice cream, instant whatever that can quench the thirst and hunger, we stop, have one lemon or lime squeezed into a half-glass of warm water and our hunger and thirst is satiated enough that we can think before we reach for those diet disasters and health saboteurs.   We have the time and space to work through putting together a substantial, organic meal or snack before we move on to the next thing.

What we’ve found – not only is our hunger satisfied with that half-cup of freshly squeezed organic juice with warm water – but our energy is revived and we are ready to continue our day.

I’ve found that two or three such lemon/lime pick-me-ups during the day satisfies my needs, but it also has me losing weight.  Not because I am dieting, but because when I have gone longer than I should have without eating, my hunger and thirst don’t lead me to poor choices.  It gives me space to think through what it is I need to eat and time to prepare whatever my choice.  I also look better.  Somehow, there is a shining through from this regimen that is fantastic.  No make-up could do for me what is done to me by those half-cups of juice and warm water.  I use half-cups because it is so sour that is all I can get down at one time.  And no, I don’t want to use those ‘helpers’ that make lemons taste like sugary confections.  Over time, I am becoming more accustomed to the sour taste and my sugar tastes are becoming intolerable of that really sweet stuff.  Before this, nothing was too sweet for me and I could never pass a cookie without picking one or two or three up and carrying them away with me.

A couple other friends, who have tried the same thing, have come back looking better, feeling better and are proselytizing their friends in this new way of taking care of their body’s nutritional needs and staying off the bad stuff.

One organic lemon or lime squeezed using a glass juicer – you know the kind, – non-electric, manual labor needed – with 1/2 cup warm water added and off you go to a new life.

If you have a difficult time finding a glass lemon juicer – we found this one and many more at www.laurelleaffarm.com/pages/kitchen&table/antique-glass-reamer-1909-patent.htm

Photo of old antique glass reamer, orange or lemon juicer w/ 1909 patent date

 

________________________________________________________________

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.

Bettina’s Tapioca Pudding

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

copyright 2012 Bettina Network, inc.

A long-known comfort food.   We have hearkened back to memories of childhood when desserts were homemade and not full of so many of the non-food ‘stuff’ they now contain.

Organic Tapioca is the basis for this pudding.  I searched through many recipe books and came to the conclusion that organic tapioca is a necessary – well maybe I also started out with a bias.  However, I came to the conclusion that the tapioca should be organic because of the overwhelming number of recipes which call for cornstarch as the thickening agent in this dish.

At first, I couldn’t understand why one would need a thickening agent in a dish whose core ingredient is itself a thickening agent.  Tapicoa is used in many sweet and savory dishes as a thickening agent and it works very well without changing the taste of the dish.  I realized why all of these recipe’s contained corn starch when we bought several kinds of  Tapioca from Organic to overly processed with a coating of talc to make it look whiter and more matte.  The corn starch was necessary because in the processing of tapioca, which is not organic,  it loses its thickening properties.

The white matte-looking tapioca was incredible.  It was so overly processed that using it made no sense ! – Why was it coated with talc, especially since much of the talc was seen floating in the water or milk that we used to test the tapioca.  It was floating in the liquid but it was incorporating itself into the tapioca pudding so we would be eating tapioca and talc.  That meant to us its use was purely aesthetic.  An aesthetic that gave us a stomach ache since  talc is rumored, and in some experiments has shown itself to be a carcinogen.  At least that is what we have read.  Why especially would you use this kind of overprocessed and staged tapioca in a dish you feed mostly to young children and those longing for their many-years past childhood?

For those of you who don’t know its genesis, tapioca is extracted from the cassava.  It is a staple in many areas of the world and is used as a thickening agent in foods.  It is gluten-free.

If you have a difficult time finding organic tapioca we suggest you try www.frontiercoop.com and have it mailed to you.  It is worth the trouble.

We started with:

——— a small light under 3 cups organic milk in a glass pot.

——— as bubbles formed around the edges of the milk we added 1/2 cup organic tapioca

——— and stirred and stirred making sure nothing was sticking to the pan.

——————-We also added  a small amount of himalayan salt to the pan and continued to stir.

———when the milk mixture looked as though it was about to boil we added 1/2 cup sugar

——————-and stirred and stirred and stirred , especially since we did not want the mixture to boil over!!!!!!!

==================We broke two eggs into a mixing bowl and whipped the eggs until they became lighter in color and texture.

==================We added a little of the milk mixture to the eggs very gradually so as to bring the temperature of the eggs up to the

==================temperature of the milk mixture and then added the eggs to the milk mixture

———and stirred and stirred and stirred somemore!!

We continued stirring until the mixture looked like a very good and thick pudding!

We added liquid organic vanilla to the mixture, took it off the heat and stirred until the vanilla was incorporated.

We then poured the mixture into four beautiful stem glasses for serving and put the pudding into the refrigerator.

———If you want more than servings for four – simply double or triple the ingredients!

We let the pudding sit in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes because we like warm, but neither hot nor cold pudding!

When we served this organic tapioca pudding it was excellent and fulfilled every one of our childhood memories.

And when we went to bed that night we stirred and stirred and then stirred the already eaten pudding some more!!

Once you’ve satisfied your longings for tapioca and your childhood you can then add all kind of extra ingredients to create memories for your children unique to their upbringing, but turning back a little to your own:

—————–raisins – coconut – soft nuts or nuts you have crushed – chocolate chips – grated ginger – cinnamon – nutmeg – orange juice –

and the list goes on…………………………

________________________________________________________________

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.

A Weight Loss Tip!

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012

Over the breakfast table we heard about cinnamon and weight loss.  We tried it and amazingly it works.  We tried the suggestion which said have a cup of warm milk (whole milk – preferably non-homogenized and non-pasteurized, but if you can’t get that the regular pasteurized milk is fine.  The non-homogenized is available under the “Sky Top” brand available at Whole Foods and possibly other places.

Make sure the cinnamon is the real cinnamon or Ceylon Cinnamon.  After trying it for a couple weeks I am down 6 pounds.

I would suggest you try this for a few weeks and then go off the cinnamon.  The body is an amazing thing – it acclimates to what you are doing very easily so to keep the cinnamon for weight loss viable, give it up after a few weeks and take it up again later.

You might try raspberry ketones as a substitute for the cinnamon in warm milk when you give it up.  We have not tried this, but I heard about it on Dr. Oz.  He said his “medical group” looked into this and found it effective for weight loss.

We also ‘googled’ cinnamon for weight loss and found many articles saying how great it is – so our bed & breakfast guest who talked about this and got everyone excited about the possibilities knew what she was talking about.

We also understand it might be effective against diabetes because of how Ceylon cinnamon acts in the body relative to your blood sugar levels.

________________________________________________________________

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.

Bettina Having Fun!

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

Our technology knowledge is moving fast.  You will find grapics, videos, music and more on Bettina Network’s Blog.

You will also find information about companiess and reviews of events.  For the company – these are not paid advertisements – we do not take paid advertisements.  These are comments and information from a member of the Bettina Network Community who has used the company’s services and/or products, thinks they are special and wants to share that information with the rest of the Bettina Network Community.

For events – someone from the Bettina Network decides which events we will attend and review.  If we attend an event, that does not mean that attendance will result in a review.  All of that depends upon what we think about what we have seen, heard and experienced.

Hope you enjoy the results – especially now that we have entered the picture age.

________________________________________________________________

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.

The Concord Cheese Shop

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

copyright 2010 by Julie – Traveling Taste Buds

Hours Open: Tue-Fri 10am-5:30pm and Sat 9:30am-5:30pm

web site: www.concordcheeseshop.com
email: peter@concordcheeseshop.com

29 Walden Street
Concord, MA. 01742-2504
978 369 5778

One of Concord’s celebrated establishments, a perennial “Best of Boston,” not to be missed by any visitor to the town center, has lured foodies down Walden Street since 1967. Its current (and third) proprietor, Peter Lovis, has been serving out samples of the 150-200 varieties of domestic and international cheeses since 1976. You will never buy a cheese there that you can’t taste first! But cheese is not the only food for sale at the Cheese Shop. There’s a vast and excellent (including some bargain specials) selection of wines; there are many gourmet items including chocolates, pastries, spices, olive oils, holiday treats, nuts, pickles, jams, and more. The Cheese Shop Deli is famous for its chicken salad, for carrying “Famous Phil’s Subs,” for its terrific charcuterie, coffees, and its many fabulous freshly made preparations. Besides its warmth, the overwhelming attribute of the Cheese Shop is its internationalism: indeed, at one count the shop’s offerings represented 80 different countries!

NOT TO BE MISSED AT THE CHEESE SHOP:  Make a note to spend December 1st in Concord so you can be present at the Cheese Shop’s Cheese Parade.  A 400 pound wheel of cheese is rolled down the red carpet with music and rose petals.  Be there for this fun event!  Missed this year?  Mark your calendars and make your reservations at one of the Bettina Network homes in Concord to be present at next years Cheese Shop’s Cheese Parade.

A special feature offered by the Cheese Shop deli is their “Friday night supper” menu. $75 brings home a three course gourmet dinner for two, including a baguette and a bottle of wine. All you have to do is heat up the entree; often as not you’ll have enough for lunch on Saturday, too. Many Concord couples make this a monthly treat, but a “Friday night supper” could also be ideal for those taking advantage of ‘eating dinner in’ at the Bettina Network Bed and Breakfast where they are staying. The hosts are always happy to lend the service of their oven or microwave. Just remember that the meals are not offered during the holiday season, which is an extra busy time for the Cheese Shop.

In short, any visitor to Concord would enjoy doing what concordians do: take a stroll down Walden Street for a taste trip around the world. As Peter Levis says, “don’t come in a rush!”

________________________________________________________________

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.

Whole Foods Out of the Box

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2010

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

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

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

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

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

_______________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[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.

A NEW BREAKFAST HABIT – FRESH COFFEE

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

The Bettina Network, inc.
copyright 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The coffee is incredible. Remarkable!

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

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

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

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

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

______________________________________________________

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.

Eggs for Breakfast?

Friday, October 15th, 2010

copyright The Bettina Network, inc. 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

___________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[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.

Searching for Goats MILK!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We are searching for Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk Kefir! If we can’t find the Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk Kefir – if you know of a source for Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk let us know that to – we will make our own Kefir.

We have received lots of mail about one of our bed & breakfast home’s morning Smoothie Drink which is available to their bed and breakfast guests as an addition to or instead of the regular breakfasts they prepare. We would like to make the recipe and information available on the Blog, but sources for the Goats Milk are impossible to find – except in the most hidden places. What country is this? A democracy? Or has our open government been replaced with a dictatorship when we weren’t looking?

Don’t know why those foods that are best for us are the hardest to find? Are we being marketed and programmed into sickness and problem health issues?

The smoothie made with Organic Raw Goats’ Milk Kefir is getting rave reviews from some of our guests. One guest credits it with getting rid of his “pot belly” which he cultivated by drinking beer and which exercise did nothing to flatten.

The recipe:

Put the following in a blender –
1 cup organic raw whole goat’s milk kefir
Add a frozen packet of your favorite organic fruit – blackberries, pinneapple, cherries, strawberries, etc.
Add one organic banana – very ripe
Add organic maple syrup to taste

If you like your smoothie very cold and a little like a soft ice cream add about 4 ice cubes
If you prefer your smoothie more liquid, don’t add the ice cubes and you will get a wonderful thick drink.

Blend for several minutes – depending upon how you want the outcome – experiment until you get your favorite consistency.

We’ve started trying it, but can’t get the proper milk. We are using organic whole milk pasteurized cows milk kefir. Its still good, but not as healthy, nor does it give the kind of results the organic raw whole goat’s milk kefir is giving and we are jealous of the results and frustrated in this search.

At least we can find the organic whole milk – Lifeway is the only label we’ve found selling the organic whole cow’s milk kefir.

I am sure you all know the difference between the whole milk and low fat. We are discovering claims that low fat is what is producing the osteoporosis epidemic. All the research we’ve done and the breakfast discussions we’ve been made aware of talk about the difference and the false bill of goods, particularly women, have been sold thinking low fat milk products will help them control their weight and provide their needed calcium, etc.

Apparently, milk fat and milk protein have to be present in the body at the exact same time and the only way that can happen is if your milk is “whole”. All the unnatural things that are being done to milk is amazing. What ever happened to good, plain, clean milk straight from the animal without all the expensive equipment now needed to produce a bottle of milk to sell to consumers. It certainly has limited who can go into the dairy business and produce the end product – And, especially – who receives the real profit from milk. It looks as though that will not be the farmer with the dairy animals producing the milk. That is only the first step – after which those who make the real profit on milk step in, collect milk from many dairy farmers and up the price beyond anything any dairy farmer could hope to make.

There have been some hot breakfast table discussions about milk lately. We buy organic milk, but hadn’t thought much beyond that. We now have been pushed to look at a lot more and think carefully about this whole topic. There is even a bit of controversy over kefir. Are there 10 or 12 probiotics in Kefir or are there 36 and are we being short changed even in that area?

Bed and breakfast opens doors we didn’t even realize were doors and throws open windows we couldn’t see through. What a startling new view through those windows with the painted glass panes. This milk business is certainly an area that has us dizzy. And it all started with smoothies for breakfast.

______________________________________________________

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.

Saw Palmetto over breakfast

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

copyright 2009 The Bettina Network, inc.

Great breakfast conversations today!  The bit of information I would like to share is from the gentleman who had to stop at the GNC to pick up a bottle of Saw Palmetto before leaving the country.  He buys a couple bottles each time he is in the U. S. because he can’t find it in his country.  He uses it to keep his prostate healthy and swears by them.  First time I’d heard of this, but I will take it seriously, he is several years past retirement is very healthy and has been doing this for a number of years.  I wanted to ask if he’d had prostate problems or was this in response to prostate cancer, but I didn’t know him well enough and he didn’t go beyond where he could find a GNC store.  Maybe he will return and knowing him better we can get a bit more into his business.

___________________________________________________________

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 try www.bettina-network.com

 


Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!

Bettina’s Lifestyle Community

Making a difference in this very difficult and changeable world.

Bettina's Lifestyle Commnity!

Join us!