Hello Readers,

It is three weeks into the new year 2012. I made several resolutions and have yet to feel I am in a flow with them.

One was to meditate more. I have recently repainted my living room and am making this a peaceful reading/meditation room. My new bookshelves were just delivered and the room is a ready retreat. There are no excuses for not sitting. The only one I usally use is that I need to clean the house first and then the meditation time goes by the wayside. It takes discipline and desire to truly take time to sit in meditation. And what I find is that you need at least 20 minutes to quiet the “monkey mind” enough to feel the peace of the meditation. That requirement can also be an obstacle so I let myself sit for 10 minutes or even 5 if that is all my body will let me do.

Another resolution is to get back to a regular yoga class. I am not good at taking classes at a gym or health club facility. I really like taking yoga at a contemplative yoga studio, where the environmnet is conducive to relaxation. We have a membership at a multi-level health club here in Cincinnati but I just can’t get into the yoga there. So I am still looking for that perfect place. That expectation can also be an obstacle so I have just incorporated yoga into my day until that place reveals itself.

I also want to read more and yet it seems all I have time for is keeping up with the books for my bookclub, which I love. Our January selection is Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain. This book is a travel memoir during the late 1800′s when Mark Twain and a friend decided to travel through Europe on foot. The book begins with his trip in Germany, and since I plan to visit Germany later this year with my sister, I am thoroughly enjoying his chronicals.

So what are your resolutions so far and how are they fitting into the flow of your life? It’s only three weeks into the New Year so you have some time.

Stay with it and begin again!

It’s the Holiday Season and I want to wish all of you a very Happy Holiday, whatever you celebrate!

We celebrate both holidays-Hanukah and Christmas. As many of you know, my husband and I come from different faiths. Our 38 year marriage still strong with more love than ever, has had its challenges. One of those challenges was the holiday. I was raised with Christmas being a very big deal both religiously and full of gifts, great food, and lots of decorations. He was raised with Hanukah which was a much more sedate holiday. For most of our marriage we went to Chicago for Christmas, but last year we ended that tradition and stayed home in Cincinnati to celebrate with our grown children and grandchildren. My husband surprised me with a tree. It did have conditions. It was a pre-lit tree with white lights. And then in individual boxes were several ornaments that he had ordered from Brommers Christmas Store in Frankenmuth, Michigan. They were all Hanukah symbols – menorahs, Stars of David, Israeli flags and dredels. I loved them. Each ornament is beautiful and the tree fits perfect on a small wall in our family room. It made not going to Chicago okay.

This year Christmas and Hanukah fall together. So tonight, Christmas Day is also the 6th night of Hanukah. We will light our menorahs and enjoy Christmas. There are gifts under the tree, some from Santa for our granddaughter. She and her parents spend Christmas Eve with us and then spend the night. She is being raised Jewish but her parents said it was okay for Santa to leave a few things for her. We put that order in. Our youngest daughter is also with us. She flew in from Boston. Later we will all go over to my son and daughter in law’s to continue gift giving and have dinner.

I am writing this early on Christmas day and noone is up yet. I have the turkey in the oven and the gifts and stockings are ready for the excitement when everyone wakes up. I have been up since 5:30 AM. I love the peace and quiet, and was hoping to do some writing.

We will have breakfast and then my husband will be going to the synagogue this morning to set up beds and a home environment for local homeless people. Our synagogue offers parts of the building during holidays. There will be congregants who are feeding them and meeting their needs for the next week.

Well-I must go-I hear someone waking up.

Have a Happy Holiday and I will write more soon.

I would love to hear how you spend your holiday.

Bless you all this season.

How I Spent Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  Yes, it revolves around food, but that’s just the backdrop. Really it’s about family. No material gifts-just the gift of family and the reminder to be grateful. Although this is a busy day for cooking, we watch Thanksgiving Day Parades and even go on an outing during the day. We definitely make sure we get a good walk in or some kind of exercise.

This year we had all of my children, grandchildren, my sister from Chicago and her family for dinner and for dessert we opened the house to my son and daughter’s in laws. They love to nibble on my leftovers so we keep them out along with dessert. The house was full of laughter, the aromas of delicious food, and the feeling of gratitude we all remember at this time of the year.

I set two tables. One in the dining room and one in the kitchen. The two rooms are near each other so we can listen to the conversations at both. I let everyone decide where they want to sit and mix children with adults. I use my best china, and decorate the tables with autumn adornments.

I am the cook and love making the turkey. We keep kosher so I always order my turkey from Kroger’s kosher butcher a couple of weeks ahead of time. I order a fresh turkey and pick it up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I know that a turkey gobbled days before I buy it, and I do thank him for giving up his life for us. This year I bought an 19 pound fresh turkey. I stuffed it and put it in at 9 just in time to watch the parade. I roasted the turkey covered and basted occasionally and  it was done by 4:30.

The dressing I make is a recipe passed on through the generations from my grandmother. Grandma loved to cook. Her dressing always had lots of eggs and butter in the bread, onion and celery mix. I have lightened the recipe by sautéing my onions and celery in olive oil and moisten the bread with vegetarian chicken broth or bullion. I also sneak in extra fiber by adding wheat germ and ground flax seed. Nobody notices anything but the moist flavorful taste of the dressing. I do use several eggs, but throw out half of the yolks. I don’t use a lot of seasoning, just salt, pepper, and a bit of fresh rosemary along with lots of parsley.

We always have lots of vegetable side dishes. I make a green bean casserole from scratch by sautéing mushrooms and onions and adding non-dairy mushroom soup that I thicken with a little flour or cornstarch. Then I add salt and pepper. I use either fresh or frozen green beans and mix all together with the fried onions you see in the classic green bean casserole recipe. I sometimes add some cut up asparagus and a little garlic.

Usually I make a roasted vegetable medley with Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and root vegetables tossed with olive oil, garlic, maybe some fresh rosemary, baked at 400 degrees. This year I made  sauteed brussel sprouts and sauteed green beans. I had the traditional mashed potatoes but also made a turnip, cauliflower mash for those who don’t eat white potatoes.

I made my sweet potatoes in the crock pot. I cut up the sweet potatoes and added three cut up apples. I seasoned with salt, pepper and a little Smart Balance butter substitute. Without any sugar added, the kids said “they tasted like candy.”

I served whole grain rolls, white rolls and my daughter’s whole made challah bread. I think next year I am going to make my own rolls. They are so much better when I make them from scratch with my own whole grain flours and yeast.

Can’t forget cranberry sauce. I confess, I bought the canned sauce-one whole and the other the cranberry gel.

I served a variety of desserts-cakes, pies and fresh fruit. We had coffee flavored with Baileys. We had an assortment of red and white wine with dinner. This year we bought our pumpkin and apple pies from Costco. We love the chunky apple pie, but the pumpkin was just okay. Next year, I may make my own pumpkin pies. I like to make a whole grain crust and use fresh pumpkin. We shall see.

I don’t worry that my house is immaculate. I just wanted everyone to come, relax, and enjoy the day, the meal, the people, the conversation and the experience of remembering the value of gratitude and joy. It was a wonderful holiday.

I hope you all had Happy Thanksgiving  and I wish you a Season of Joy!

It’s holiday time starting with the treats of Halloween and celebrating through New Years.

I love the holidays, the food, cooking, baking and celebrating. Having just taken a class on Mindfulness, I thought this would be a great time to share a teleclass I did around the holidays on Mindful Eating. You will hear about my the “diet” book that changed my life and how to eat with joy instead of fear.

Listen and Learn-Grab a cup of tea or download the podcast and listen later. Enjoy!!

Mindful Eating

Hope you are all enjoying life wherever you are, and whatever you are doing. I hope that if life is unsettled or there are problems and you are feeling down, that you are at least picking out those moments where all is good. Regardless of how life is going for you, we all have many moments that can be appreciated as good.

Here are some you may not have noticed. They all require looking up:

Look up in the sky in the morning and the sun come up. Or at dusk look up and see a sunset. Or at night look for the moon. I have two 3-year-old granddaughters and they love looking to see if the moon is visible at night. We look up and enjoy it’s shape and the fact that we may see a face on it or not. Sometimes it’s a crescent or a half moon. Sometimes its full. Sometimes you don’t see it at all.

When you are busy with your day, take a moment to look up in the sky. Look at the clouds. See what shapes and forms you can make out. Look at the colors. Take some deep slow breaths as you watch the clouds move and reform. Notice the spaces between the clouds and notice when there are no clouds, just a clear blue sky.

When it rains, stop for a moment and feel a rain drop. Look up as the drops fall from the sky. Sometimes we are so quick to put up our umbrellas, yet there is something mystical about being in the rain and feeling raindrops fall on our skin. Accidentally on purpose step in a puddle and splash. We all did it when we were kids but shy away from puddles as we get older.

It’s Fall and in many areas the leaves are changing. Look up at the trees and notice all the colors of the leaves. Notice the spaces between the leaves and notice the wind as it blows the upper limbs from side to side. Take a slow deep breath as you watch a leaf fall from the tops of the tree to the ground. Where does it land? Simply notice.

When we were little we had to look up all the time. We looked up at our parents and adults. We looked up at the walls where the pictures were too high to see. We looked up.

Remember the movie UP where the grouchy old man, who had lost his wife, had to look up and actually go up with the balloons.

When you are feeling down, it may make you feel better, even if just for a moment if you look up.

Last night we tried a new Cincinnati restaurant-actually a new restaurant for us, a new location for them. We also went out with new friends, who suggested we all try something new. “How about Local 127?” I read some reviews and then went to my favorite source, Trip Advisor, and this restaurant was rated as a Cincinnati favorite.

The restaurant is known for its eclectic menu of small and large plates. They are also known for creating the menu based on local foods. That sounded interesting. I was a little leery when I checked out some sample menus and they seemed to serve a lot of pork in their menu options.

My husband, Steve and I don’t eat pork, nor do we red meat. We do eat poultry occasionally and fish at least once a week. We call ourselves flexitarians, having been strict vegetarians for years and now being occasionally inclusive of meat.

This widening of our diet has also widened our choice of restaurants and our ability to socialize with non-vegetarian foodies.

So we had an open mind. We had reservations for 7:30 and were seated within 10 minutes of our arrival. I wondered if we were in the right place when I saw the large red pig sitting above the rafters. There were also posters from the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham. Hmmmm-they do like pork.

We had a perfect table, not too close to the front door or the kitchen. Our friends said the restaurant reminded them of a Paris Bistro, and the location used to be the home of a bistro. It was an open restaurant with decorating as eclectic as the menu.

We started with a round of water and each ordered a glass of wine. I ordered the house red. A glass of the house red was $5.00 and it was actually quite good- a red zinfandel. Steve ordered a pinot noir, which was also nice. I always like bread with the wine while ordering. Their specialty is corn bread and it was sweet and delicious.

The menu had several choices of appetizers. Our friends ordered the smoked trout aperitif. The next course was soup and salad. They ordered the beet salad. Steve and I ordered French Onion Soup and a simple mixed greens salad.

We all tasted the trout, which tasted like lox that was cut up in very small pieces. I am not a fan of lox so was glad I did not order it. Our friends also said they would probably not order that again because even though it said pickled, they did not anticipate what pickled really would taste like. Their beet salad looked delicious, but it was made with prosciutto so we passed on tasting it. They loved it. The French Onion Soup was decadent and I would guess, not light weight. The salad was nothing extraordinary. The greens were fresh and the presentation was nice with the large croutons and blue cheese sprinkles. There was also goat cheese spread on the side of the salad bowl.

Our friends ordered scallops and duck. We ordered scallops and the char. The scallops were very good. The plate came as three scallops on top of a small serving of mashed potatoes and garnish. The duck was a breast, cooked medium rare and sliced with vegetables and garnish. I took a bite of the duck and it was good but we all agreed it could have been cooked a little more. Having eaten chicken several times this week with the High Holidays, we decided to order fish. The char was excellent. It was served over the mashed potatoes with a garnish of green beans and topped with a gourmet version of potato chips and onion rings.

To finish off our meal, although we were all quite full, we chose two desserts to share. We ordered the chocolate cream, which tasted like a rich chocolate mouse. Our other choice was the cheesecake made in a mason jar. The cheesecake mixed with fruit and graham cracker crust was very good. The coffee was served with whipped cream, natural sugar and chocolate chips.

Needless to say, this was not a light dinner, but it was what Saturday night dinner with friends should be. Great food, in a great atmosphere, and great conversation.

We all share the love of exercise and a healthy lifestyle, which affords us the pleasure of enjoying a great meal knowing we would go back to eating in moderation during the week.

I would recommend this restaurant. The food was delicious, and I should also mention the service. Our waiter, Taylor was delightful and was able to explain every aspect of the menu and answer all of our questions.

I would be interested in your own review or recommendations of new places to dine in our area.

My friend Susan bought me a hummingbird feeder for my kitchen dinette window and today I saw my first hummingbird come to check it out. What a thrill! I don’t know what my husband and I were talking about, but whatever it was, in that moment I forgot it and jumped for joy. I was so excited to see that little bird at my window. Now they know they can come and visit anytime.

Did you know that hummingbirds are the smallest bird. They can flap their wings 30-90 times per second. Can you imagine their metabolism? It is the highest metabolism of all animals. Their pulse rate (heart beat) averages 1200 beats/minute. I am a nurse and I would have to be a wonder nurse to count that pulse. The neat thing is that they are able to lower their heart rate to 50-180 beats per minute at night, at rest, or when they don’t have enough food. Compared to humans-the average heart rate is around 70. A good resting heart rate is 50 (very healthy heart of a conditioned individual) and 180 would be the maximum heart rate for a 40 year old.

They eat nectar from flowers or sugar water from feeders. They can visit more than 100 flowers a day. Their diet is sugar, water and salt.

I used to work in the dialysis unit at Christ Hospital. This is where people with kidney failure would come for an “artificial kidney” treatment. It was interesting to me that hummingbirds can actually slow their kidney filtration rate when they are near dehydration so that when there is a lack of water for the kidneys they do not go into failure. Wow! what an animal!

They are also the only group of birds that can fly backwards and their flying patterns have been studied by aerodynamic experts.

My father, John Mack, was an artist, and one of his paintings hangs in my foyer. It is a hummingbird. Thank you Dad.

For more information on Hummingbirds, there is a great website hummingbirds.net.

I hope you enjoy some hummingbirds this summer.

Mary

Bummer!! No aerobics for 6 weeks.

No, I did not break anything. Actually that’s my granddaughter and a young girl with the same cast after being treated for a broken foot.

I know more people who have had to lay off exercise because of injuries, surgery or severe arthritis. Exercise is the best medicine for the mind and the body. But what if you can’t exercise.

When I posted that I needed exercise for more than just staying fit, but also for staying mentally balanced, one person commented, ” I need an injection of exercise.” When you can’t move, that makes you all the more stressed and needing the anti-depressive effects of exercise.

Here are some ideas for ways to exercise without bearing weight. Be sure to talk to your doctor and consult with a physical therapist or certified personal trainer before engaging in any of these suggestions.

1. Exercise with hand weights in a chair. If you are not used to hand weights, start with no weights and just do arm exercises. Then start with the lowest weight and be sure to use good form.
2. Do Pilates mat exercises on the floor. This is non-weight bearing and a great way to work all of your muscles without leaving your spot on the floor. Find a good Pilates instructor to guide you the first few times. Work from the core-abdominal muscles and you can get quite a workout.
3. Do chair aerobics. I found this link to Judy Stolove’s Chair Dancing and it looks like a nice workout without any impact.
4. If you are a yogi, there is a wonderful breathing exercise using what is called Kapalabati breath. You need a good teacher to learn the technique but this form of breathing calms the mind while burning calories. There are also many yoga poses that are gentle but stimulating and will not promote injury.
5. Water exercise and Swimming are great forms of exercise when you can’t bear weight. You can just get in the pool and move, dance, tread water or swim.

If nothing else-Forgive yourself while you recover and allow your body to heal. Then when you are back to being able to exercise, start slow, preferably with the guidance of a good physical therapist or personal trainer.