March, 2010 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for March, 2010

A Change to Your Lemon Tea Bread Recipe

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

by: A former guest

I tried your Lemon Tea Bread recipe several times and love it. The problem has been, it is a little dry for my taste so I added 1/2cup heavy cream – organic, of course and it was perfect for my taste. Others may have the same problem so I decided to share my change with you.

I also have a question. How do I find heavy cream which is organic, but not super-pasteurized? I have looked all over with no luck. The only kind I can find will last in the refrigerator for almost 3 months, but I want fresh, organic heavy cream which only lasts days because it hasn’t been super treated.

Thanks,

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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.

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Stock Market Talk Over Breakfast

Monday, March 15th, 2010

copyright 2010 The Bettina Network, inc.

I love those stock market conversations. This time, I decided to buy the stock and make a few dollars (hopefully). I hope you forgive me for buying the stock before telling you about it – since I only bought a few shares it certainly hasn’t affected the market. I am not really a big spender, the stock I bought cost $.1915/share for this company which mines molybdenum. I know nothing about molybdenum, but that has never stopped me before.

The stock we talked about and that I bought is Avanti Mining (AVNMF). The same person who told us about this stock several months ago came back and we had a more in-depth conversation. When he was here before, I was a little shy about grilling him on his stock interests, but this time I found my aggressiveness and gave him the third degree.

He found the stock through www.stockhouse.com, a web site which is about American, Canadian and Australian stocks, among others. You can find information on Stockhouse about stocks you can’t find other places – like its currently traded price, press releases, comments and a blog hooked to each stock where people, who are buying the company, tell you what they know. They are mostly very inexpensive stocks.

You can do many things on Stockhouse, but if you want to know more, you should check it out yourselves. The breakfast conversation centered around the column and newsletter written by Thomas Calandra. Calandra co-founded ‘CBS Market Watch’. He has been around quite a while and knows his way around buying and selling stocks. Our bed & breakfast guest follows Calandra’s ‘Ticker Trax’, which is a newsletter which comes out on a regular basis, which has made lots of money for its subscribers. It is mostly about gold, silver, molybdenum, uranium, Biotechnology, Diagnostic Substances, drug manufacturers, etc. The stocks in Ticker Trax are low in price, so most of us can buy a nice amount. I should also tell you it is not a free newsletter, you have to subscribe and I don’t know the cost per year. You might check that out too. I think the address is www.tickertrax.com or you might try www.ThomCalandra.com. You can go on Stockhouse.com and get a free copy of the newsletter to see what its like. It will not be the latest issue because he saves that for his paying customers and rightfully so.

Calandra checks out all of these companies, follows their management and keeps up with the health of the company. His track record is impressive. I used to follow and subscribe to another newsletter written by John Embry, who was known as THE person to go to about gold miners and other miners, but he retired and I have been left hanging out trying to decide what to do so we were very interested in knowing what our bed & breakfast guest thought about Thom Calandra since he seems to be Embry’s heir-apparent.

The last stock we talked about on Bettina’s Blog was Ford Motor Co. It was selling about $11/share at the time – check out the blog – and it is now selling about $13/share. WE have also told you about other stocks which were the topic of breakfast conversations. At some point, I will do another update on what has happened to those stocks. In the meantime, you can re-read those blogs and see for yourself what happened to the stocks our bed & breakfast guests discuss.

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

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

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

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

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

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HELP! Google has kidnapped our web-site!

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Google is going crazy with its world control.

What did I do? I didn’t buy a domain name from Google so they could move my blog, I was happy with the domain-seller and server company with whom I do business. I didn’t want to give up my server company to allow Google to be the server company and I didn’t want to buy my domain name from Google. When I tried to navigate their new system for FTP published Google Blogs the Bettina web-site went away and Bettina’s Blog took over the site.

What to do? There is no way to talk to anyone from Google. They have ignored my emails, which have been sent to everyone we could reach at Google – including the new addresses for those supposedly ‘helping’ in problems like this.

In the meantime, we have to find someone to pay a lot of money to so we can re-establish our web-site. In the meantime, our business is being negatively affected BIG TIME!

Take care people – Google came after us in the morning – they will come after you in the afternoon.

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Grandmother’s Wisdom

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

copyright 2010 The Bettina Network, inc.

We live in a society where there is much discussion about companies – especially banks – which are too big to fail.

Is that a deflection away from the fact that actually, we live in a society where a reigning truth is today businesses can be too small to succeed. If they look successful, the load put on their backs by large businesses increases. No one or two people do this, it is in the structure!

That is sad because small businesses are the engines which create jobs.

Boston has a group formed – the inheritors of the old “Vault” – to talk about job creation. All huge businesses – no small business executives involved and no minorities. Is that to discuss job creation and do something real about it or to blow smoke in our eyes so they can continue building the wall where large corporations are on one side – where the sun shines, buildings are beautiful, money plentiful, executives very wealthy, all owners of private jets – and small businesses are on the other – where the work is hard and never ending, the stress is high and getting higher, their resources are ripped and used by those on the other side of the wall and etc? Hmmmmmmmmm, where have we seen that model?

The last incarnation of the “Vault” had a very questionable track record – this one doesn’t look as though it is going to outperform its predecessor. I suspect there will be several more such groups forming around the U. S. When you live many years you begin to put things together which you didn’t have either the wisdom or experience to do in your younger years. So many carrots attached to very strong strings – why? To quiet those who don’t like what they see and might cause a ruckus? And those carrots are unanimously withdrawn when society’s anger begins to subside. True change could have avoided what we have been through these part couple years.

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

An Update on Bread Baking – Bettina Style

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

copyright 2010 The Bettina Network, inc.

We are unbelievably delighted with our bread baking. Finally, after many years, we have mastered the art of freshly baked bread every morning without getting up at 3am. We mastered this art not in the process of trying to accomplish what we thought was an unattainable feat, but in the process of trying to make great organic croissants.

Our latest breakfast experiment is organic croissants. So far, it has not been successful, but on our way to croissants, we’ve discovered other wonderful bread treats.

We are only willing to use organic stone ground whole wheat flour and everything else has to be real, whole, organic food. We’ve been given many “secrets” to a successful croissant, but they all have made us question even eating croissants. We’ve heard about using everything from a ‘starter,’ to very expensive kitchen equipment. The healthiest suggestion was a Yogurt starter, but when we read the ingredients we couldn’t pronounce some so we dropped that possibility. When we checked out the kitchen equipment there was aluminum in crucial places, so we will continue the effort without those suggestions – and you know we won’t give up.

Our ‘accidental discoveries’ on the way to a successful, organic, whole wheat croissant have been exciting and exceptionally delicious. Our latest discovery is a wonderful bun which can be used for hamburgers; a breakfast biscuit of any shape you desire; a wrap for ‘pigs in the blanket’ or beef hotdogs for those who won’t eat pork; cinnamon buns, which are a little bit of heaven; the best monkey bread you can find and more. Our ‘new’ dough discovery has many applications, however, if you want a great slice of very tasty, nutritious, substantial bread, the original Bettina Bread recipe can’t be beat – especially if you use organic apple juice for the liquid and molasses for a little sweetener.

As we experimented trying to make croissants we mixed half organic whole wheat flour with half organic whole wheat pastry flour. In addition we used one stick of organic butter for the fat in the Bettina Bread recipe. We used organic apple juice for liquid and organic maple syrup for a sweetener. Once we’ve been through the first steps of making bread and have reached the point where the dough is mixed and ready for its first rising, we roll out the bread dough with a rolling pin, cut a stick of organic butter into pats and put them on 1/2 the rolled out dough. We folded 1/2 dough without butter over the 1/2 dough with butter and continued to fold the dough in halves until it reached a small packet. We then rolled that out with a rolling pin – refolded the dough – rolled it out again, refolded it again and wrapped it tightly with a clean cotton towel and put the resulting packet in the refrigerator. We did this in the middle of the day. So at night, before bed, we re-rolled the dough, folded it into a small square packet again, covered it and put it in the refrigerator. If we were up to it we would re-roll and re-fold the dough a couple time before wrapping and putting it in the refrigerator. We found that the dough rises, even in the refrigerator, so it was always pushing hard against its cotton cover. Some people use Saran Wrap for this, but we weren’t happy with that.

The next morning, we unwrapped the dough and cut off the amount of dough we wanted to use for breakfast rolls, rolled out the remainder with the rolling pin, folded it into a small square and put it back into the refrigerator.

Keeping this going – we re-rolled the dough at night before going to bed and the next morning, took off the piece we wanted to use for breakfast rolls, re-rolled the rest, covered it, put it in the refrigerator, etc. You get the picture. There is always dough in the refrigerator if you would like freshly baked bread, pizza, etc. with very little work and time spent. It would take anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 hours for the dough to rise and that didn’t depend upon the dough, but upon our time once we shaped the dough into its final form. If we didn’t have much time, 1/2 hour gave us a beautifully risen sheet of breakfast biscuits which took about 15-20 minutes to bake. If we were busy and didn’t get back to the rising dough for an hour or more it was still in great shape.

We did find that organic yeast was the best to use if we didn’t want bread dough which would smell like ammonia if we let it rise too long. The other stuff we had to watch carefully or we would have to throw out the half-made bread and start over again. One day we will try keeping the dough going using some of the old dough to serve as the rising agent for the dough being newly made, but that’s another year and another blog. We are feeling good about all of this bread baking, but not that good!

As we saw that we would run out of dough the next morning, we started another recipe of dough so it would continue being available. We used the dough for three mornings before we ran out so we don’t know what would happen to the dough if you kept it in the refrigerator longer than that.

The pizza we made from the dough adding tomatoes, parmesan cheese and whatever else we had in the refrigerator which fit, was unbelievably fantastic! It was so good a couple bed and breakfast guests who saw us make the pizza the night before and tasted it, requested pizza for lunch and came home from their all-day business meeting to eat pizza. That isn’t something we normally do or encourage, but we loved every minute of preparing that pizza and enjoying lunch with guests.

That’s our story! Let us know what happens if you try this, or some of your experiences making croissants. We are seeking information to make great organic croissants with whole wheat flour. We clearly don’t know how to do that!

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

L. A. Burdick’s – A Restaurant Review

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

copyright The Bettina Network, inc.

52-D Bratle Street
Cambridge, MA. 02138
Phone: 617-491-4340
website: burdickchocolate.com

Hours: Sunday 9am-9pm, Monday-Thursday 8am-9pm, Friday-Saturday 8am-10pm

Visiting the newly renovated Burdick’s was a bit of a disappointment. I passed many times, but didn’t stop because I didn’t have time to wait in the line which seemed to be perennially outside the door – to the point of having signs telling you not to block the neighboring store and how to stand in line to wait.

I passed with a friend about noon this week and was able to get in without waiting and to even get an empty table.

Given all the people in line, I expected an outstanding list of offerings and there was my first disappointment. The lines formed because there are only ten tables in the restaurant and those are tiny table which can barely accommodate two people. On one side there are six tables with seating for two – on the other side there are four table with seating for one at each table unless you want to scrunch in and squeeze next to the two people at the neighboring table trying to do the same thing.

People seemed to be there for the hot chocolate since that is what was on everyone’s table. That was great, but I wanted something more. Friends have given me boxes of chocolate from Burdick’s, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was like a teaser, which wasn’t followed through on by what I found in the restaurant.

We had two chocolate pastries, which were good, but they took me back to when such pastries were introduced in the U. S. about 1980’s. It was kind of ho-hum and not really spectacular.

Getting tired of being pushed into the people at the next table, I bypassed the hot chocolate and wanted to go home where I had organic chocolate waiting for me.

It is very hard to enjoy a restaurant when you have accumulated a bit of knowledge about real food and your taste buds have moved definitely way beyond your childhood tastes.

Bottom line for us – Burdick’s is a nice place to go if you want to buy a gift for someone and you think a pretty box of chocolates would do. Beyond that I don’t see the attraction.

I went to Burdick’s before they renovated the store and I like the old store better. The tables were larger, you could sit with your friends and enjoy conversation with what you were eating. This is neither one thing nor the other.

The bare wood floor down the middle of the store which divides the tables – looks as though an aisle was made so those coming in to buy something would have room to wait in line while others eat on the sidelines. As a consequence, the light color of the wood may have been a nice idea on paper, but it has worn and looks as though it needs more stain to cover the wear which is not that appetizing as you sit and try to enjoy your dessert. Neither is it great to sit at those tiny tables, trying to balance yourself with people coming and going and sweeping past you. The concept of the store leaves a lot to be desired and is not the sophisticated place Burdick’s marketing claims.

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 


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