Monthly Archives: December 2017

Giving With Joy

      Making And Mending The Seattle region got a white Christmas for the first time in years, making kids who were already excited about the holidays delirious with happiness. Last night, the island roads were hushed, usually upright … Continue reading

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Accepting Winter’s Gifts

One of the best ways to counter despair and toxic info-overload is to develop a durable practice of gratitude. Gratitude is hot stuff these days, researched everyplace from Harvard to Berkeley. Practicing gratitude brings measurable improvements in health and well-being, in happiness and in generosity and altruism. What’s not to like? And why is it so hard to maintain a daily practice? Just as many of us tried out the daily changes that could help slow climate change but gradually drifted back to our old habits, creating a personal practice takes, well, practice. And persistence, something we are beginning to feel a little fondness for, thanks to the estimable Senator Warren. Continue reading

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Stress-Free Seasonal Fun And Food

Last week, we made sachets of fragrant herbs (cedar and eucalyptus) to put in closets and sock drawers, then made bags of herbal tea as well. For the tea, we filled small, muslin drawstring bags with blends of dried lemon balm, rosebuds, peppermint and lavender that we dried this summer. We set their low table with bowls of ingredients and each kid got a larger bowl and a big mixing spoon. The toddler ended up mixing all the bowls up and stirring with measuring spoons while her brother did some extremely vigorous blending and mixing in one big bowl. They played with the herbs for over an hour before getting restless and although quite a lot of the mix ended up on the floor, there was plenty left over to fill our bags. Swaddled in tissue paper and miles of ribbon, they fill a big bag that rustles mysteriously when prodded by small hands. Continue reading

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Finding Light In A Dim Season

Comfort food can definitely have its drawbacks, especially after this insane year when every day required some comfort. I’ve been working on recipes that deliver the soothing impact of classic comfort foods without the overburden of excessive dairy or sugar or etc. I’ll keep offering these recipes to you as the new year unfolds, along with some that have no redeeming nutritional virtue except that of bliss. Surely bliss nourishes us as much as protein or vitamins? For example, this extremely lemony lemon pie, my usual birthday choice, was a major hit at a recent pie day event (true, much of the competition was pumpkin, but still…). Continue reading

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