Places– of charm

Merry Christmas to you, wherever you spend it.  Our family is heading up to Big Bear Mountain where we have rented a lakeside cabin.  Tomorrow, it is actually going to snow.  We are bringing lights and fake gingerbread decorations for whatever tree we can find left in a tree lot. 

Eat– for Good Health

Indulging once in a while is perfectly okay in moderation, but if your cravings become regular, calm them by eating a crisp pickle.  Strong tasting foods like pickles, hot peppers,  and olives overwhelm our taste budes.  This cuts cravings.   Enjoy an entire pickle with a half sandwich, and you will feel satisfied! 

People craft– getting along with relatives

Still looking for the just right present for your mom or best friend? Find the perfect gift in seconds without heading up to the North Pole

or anywhere else.  Head to your computer and GiveAnything.com and find something special with an electronic gift certificate good at more than 300 online stores!  The certificate will immediately land in the e-mail box, ensuring that it will arrive in time for Christmas.

Eat– for Good Health

Originally from Sicily, blood oranges are now grown in Texas and California.  Blood oranges, orange oranges (ha, ha) combined with pine nuts and thin slices of red onion make a refreshing salad over field greens. Packed with anti-oxidants, they have a sweet-tart flavor that pairs well with any entre. 

People craft– getting along with yourself

Drive safely on winter roads.  Winter car accidents have dropped greatly in the last decade, say road safety experts.  One reason: folks are checking their computers before hitting the road to avoid poor conditions.  Do this by logging onto Traffic.com or any other local news station site for the latest travel advisories.

Steer through a snowstorm with these rules from the National Safety Transportation Board– if you can’t see well through the flakes, stay calm.  Safely navigate by 1) leaving at least three car lengths between you and the vehicle in front of you, and 2) drive at half the posted speed, and 3) avoid skids by slowing down on bridges and overpasses.  These areas freeze sooner than other sections of the road because cold wind strikes them from both above and below.

Eat– for Good Health

If you have turkey left over from Christmas dinner, freeze turkey and broth for  Spicy Turkey Vegetable Soup that you can make a few days later.

Ingredients serve 6

• 1  cup  finely chopped celery (about 2 stalks)
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped onion
• 1/2  teaspoons  bottled minced garlic
• 1 1/2  pounds  ground turkey breast
• 3  cups  water
• 1  cup  penny-slices carrot (about 2 large)
• 1/2  cup  frozen French-cut green beans
• 1/2  cup  frozen whole-kernel corn
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  ground cumin
• 1  teaspoon  chili powder
• 2  bay leaves
• 2  beef-flavored dry bouillon cubes, chopped
• 1  (15-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1  (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
• 6  tablespoons  shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add celery, onion, garlic, and turkey. Cook 5 minutes or until ground turkey is browned, stirring to crumble. Add 3 cups water and remaining ingredients except cheese; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Discard bay leaves. Ladle 1 1/2 cups soup into each of 6 bowls; top each serving with 1 tablespoon cheese.

Places– of Charm

From now through December 30th, Marcia Roberts’ paintings are on display at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery at Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica.  Roberts’ slim planes appear to be floating perpendicular to the space of the picture plane.  Her works are softy mechanical, don’t you think, with a soothing quality.

	Marcia Roberts © Courtesy of the Artist and Rosamund Felsen Gallery

Exercise– for Body and Spirit

Improve your body/spirit image!  Almost all of us have days when we look in the mirror and wish we were thinner, taller, or more athletic.  Women (and men, too!) are plagued with negative perceptions of themselves.  According to Journal of Health Psychology’s national research, as many as 60% of American adults are dissatisfied with their bodies.  If you’re one of them, take heart.  You can change how you feel about yourself through exercise.  You know what happens next– with more confidence, you lose weight and increase muscle strength.  How you “see” yourself makes a huge difference in how you look.  Exercising thirty minutes a day meets minimum requirements to lower levels of anxiety and depression that manifests in body image.  Everyone now and then gets into a self-destructive trap– it might be drinking, overeating, smoking, or just plain sitting around.  A walk is a terrific way to break out of a pattern.

Eat– for Good Health

What I like about a Crock Pot or any other variety of slow cooker is the tenderness of meat while vegetables are not over-done.   For this pot roast recipe, combine meat with soy sauce and garlic into a zip-lock bag to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.  The next morning, after a bit of browning, it goes into the cooker to simmer, take off for the day, and come home to a perfect meal such as a pot roast with red potatoes, onion, spinach, carrots and mushrooms.  A generous serving is 380 calories and will satisfy any  urge for meat and potatoes.  Serve a salad of greens with low calorie dressing.

Ingredients serve 8

1 2-lb boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut in chunks

1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup beef broth

1 pkg mushrooms, any type

1 T. cracked pepper

3 T. tomato paste

2 medium onions, quartered

1 16-oz package carrots, cut into pieces

16 small red potatoes, halved

1 T. canola oil

1 1/2 T. flour

3 T. water

As mentioned above, marinate meat with soy sauce and minced garlic overnight or eight hours.  When ready to begin cooking, bring broth to a boil in a sauce pan, add mushrooms, and then place broth and mushrooms in a bowl, and gently stir in tomato paste.  Heat oil in a large skillet, brown meat, and add flour which will create a gravy with the broth.  Put all ingredients into a slow cooker.  Cook on high for an hour and then reduce to low for 8 hours.

People craft– getting along with relatives

You know grandparents aim to please.  Our grandson D’mitri, in the second grade, is a reader.  Because of reading, his vocabulary and world knowledge is beyond most, according to his teacher.  My daughter-in-law can’t keep him in books since he reads about one per day. Guess what he wanted his grandparents to buy him for Christmas?  Grandpa (dear heart) bulked, “Don’t kids need toys?”  We compromised by ordering some hobby rockets along with the second generation Kindle and felt lucky to get one since it was the number one seller across all categories in November.  The Nook e-reader from Barnes and Noble completely sold out.   More choices are coming down the pike, but son Johnny tells us the great feature is the ability to order books immediately and easily with wireless technology.  I enjoy that about my eBookwise which costs under $100.  All I have to do is order books from the eBookwise web site and then download with the telephone line.  (The website knows the identity of the e-reader because I entered the serial number and my phone number when I registered it.)