Northwest Bounty — My Fourth Most Favorite Cookbook

4. Northwest Bounty — The Extraordinary Foods and Wonderful Cooking of the Pacific Northwest, by Schuyler Ingle and Sharon Kramis, forward by Marion Cunningham, © 1988

“Lynn’s Baked Chicken Dijon” and “Snickerdoodles” — if this cookbook had only these two recipes in it, that would be enough for me! But it also has recipes for various seafood, vegetables, and fruit dishes that are really very good.

I like the layout and organization of this cookbook — I think it’s one of the best — because the ingredients are listed out separately from the instructions, and in the order that they will appear in the procedure.

The recipes are easy to adapt into healthier, vegetarian, and whole-food options. For example, I like to substitute thick slices of squash, eggplant, or tofu for the chicken in “Lynn’s Baked Chicken Dijon” and whole grain flour, Organic Straus Family Creamery butter, and a fraction of the sweetener in “Snickerdoodles."

Check out the recipe on page 337 for "Manor Farm Inn bread". Coincidentally, I've stayed at the Manor Farm Inn, Poulsbo, Washington and had the pleasure of eating this hearty, whole grain bread there too. It's delicious. Just for fun, I did a web search and found an adaptation of the recipe for Manor Farm Inn bread to use in a bread machine: "Adventures In Bread Making". The recipe is also mentioned on the last pages of a 5-page article of the Manor Farm Inn (January 1, 1989) for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Note: As of January 2nd 2012, I see that Amazon.com has Northwest Bounty cookbooks available for purchase, either as used hardback copies or in a new paperback form.

Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks
The Benefits Of Whole Foods
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes

Comfort Foods

My idea of what comfort food is seems to change as often as the weather! In fact, it changes day to day, hour to hour, even minute to minute.

I'm sitting here on a cold rainy evening with my belly full and satisfied. For my dinner, since there was only a small amount of leftover cooked rice and a little uncooked rice pasta left in the bag, I decided to make two dishes: radish with rice and pasta with radish. I used white daikon radish, which probably isn't one of your typical vegetable choices, but I like it because of its sharp bitterness and cool watery insides.

I first found out about raw daikon radish in George Ohsawa's Zen Macrobiotics, where it's recommended for obesity and I was surprised to find that our grocery store stocked it. When I first bit into a piece of it, it tasted like a milder version of the little round red radishes I was familiar with, which we had all the time in our family's green salads when I was growing up.

But daikon radish is no little thing! I've bought pieces of it at the store that were over a foot long and about three inches in diameter. I've even heard that it grows wild all over in places on the east coast and threatens to overcome the native plants there because it is so hardy and resilient. It's delicious cooked in stir-fries or grated raw like carrots in salads. It's also popular in Japan as pickles, and known to be high in vitamin C.

Dish #1 — Radish with Rice:

I heated a teaspoon of sesame oil (Spectrum Naturals organic, unrefined sesame seed oil) in a medium-size frying pan, spread a layer of grated daikon radish (about 3 handfuls) on top, sprinkled a little sea salt over it, and added my leftover short-grain brown rice on top of that. Then I covered the pan with a lid and lowered the flame, allowing the radish to brown on the bottom and the rice to steam on the top.

Every time I cook this dish, it's always a little different. Sometimes the radish is even a little burned around the edges and it tastes delicious! In those cases, I'll turn off the heat, and allow it to cool down with the lid still on, so that anything stuck to the bottom of the pan becomes loosened and easy to serve.

Dish #2 — Pasta with Radish:

I placed about a cup of water (filtered well water) in a small sauce pan, added the pasta (about a half cup of Trader Joe's Organic Brown Rice Penne Pasta) and a small amount of unrefined sea salt (The Grain & Salt Society) and brought it to a low boil. I cooked it for about 11 minutes, stirring frequently so the pasta wouldn't stick to the bottom, until the water was thick and creamy. Then I turned off the heat and took a few spoonfuls of the fried grated radish from the other pan and mixed it in with the pasta.

It was delicious! The pasta reminded me of my childhood favorite Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (which I always requested for my birthday) and the daikon radish in both dishes was slightly salty and crispy-brown on the edges, providing interest, flavor, and texture to the dishes.

Simple, uncomplicated dishes, with only a few ingredients, that were tasty, warm, and filling. Perfect for a cold rainy evening!

Verdura — My Third Most Favorite Cookbook

3. Verdura — Vegetables Italian Style, by Viana La Place, © 1991

"Earthy, Inspired Recipes For A Fresh New Way To Cook From The Co-Author Of Cucina-Rustica"

This is one of the most beautiful, simple, awe-inspiring cookbooks I’ve ever seen. Everything in it is delicious. I got this cookbook in 1991 when it was first published. I loved the way it felt in my hands, and the way it looked inside the pages. And I love to use it when I want to try something new — a particular dish or a vegetable that I’ve never cooked before.

The first recipe I tried was "Baked Layered Potatoes and Wild Mushrooms" (on page 331) and I was struck by how such a simple dish (and procedure) could result in something that tasted so complex and delicious.

I learned how to cook my first traditional polenta from this book — and thanks to her recipe and instructions, cooking polenta has become easy and second-nature to me.


Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks
Green Vegetables
Vegetables For Centering
Other Waves Of Grain

What Is Macrobiotics?

Today I did a Google Search for "What Is Macrobiotics?" in quote marks, and to my surprise, I came up with 17,400 results—yipee! Of course, I don't know how I'm ever going to read all of them, but I'll figure out something. I am so happy that Macrobiotics has spread so far across the Internet, and that more and more people are finding out about it.

I want to recommend a few sites, whose answers to that question are pretty good answers, in my opinion:

1. On the web site for the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation (USA, west coast, founded by Herman and Cornellia Aihara, and now operated by Carl and Julia Ferre), Carl answers the question "What Is Macrobiotics?", which also is an excerpt from his (very handy) little book called Pocket Guide to Macrobiotics available for $7.95 on the web site.

Also on the same web site, Julia continues to answer the question "What is Macrobiotics?" in Part 2 of a beginning series of articles she is writing on the subject.

2. On the web site for The Natural Cooking School (Belgium), an entire tab is dedicated to answering the question "What Is Macrobiotics?"

3. On the web site for the Kushi Institute (USA, east coast, founded by Michio and Aveline Kushi), Phiya Kushi answers the question "What Is Macrobiotics?" including a diagram of a food pyramid to illustrate the point.

Also, here's a link to one of my earlier posts, where I first address the question:

What is Macrobiotics?

Joy of Cooking — My Second Most Favorite Cookbook

2. Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, © 1931

This cookbook was given to me in 1974 by my neighbors, who wanted to thank me for the chocolate chip cookies I had given them. Every year, they made donuts for their Boy Scouts troop using a recipe from this cookbook, so they knew it well. They made a point to show me the page that had a recipe for chocolate chip cookies on it ("Hint hint," they said). I took Joy of Cooking with me to college and later to my married life.

I can’t count how many times I have referred to it for cooking instructions because there are so many — for example, to find out how long I should cook the turkey, how to make a cocktail, or what is a flank steak.

Even as a vegetarian, especially as a vegetarian, I find the meat recipes very helpful to cook for my husband and friends and I can be confident that they’ll turn out good.

Maybe some year, I'll write a cookbook that expresses my own "joy of cooking," that's also packed full of useful information like this one is.


Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks

What Counts As Sugar?

I have this package of Brown Rice Snaps, by Edward & Sons and I'm wondering if I want to eat it, since I am no longer eating sugar. The ingredients all sound great — Organic brown rice flour, organic white rice flour, black sesame seeds, organic tamari (water, organic soybeans, salt, organic alcohol), sesame seeds — until I get to the very last ingredient listed: organic evaporated cane juice. Does that count as being "sugar"?

I know that white granulated sugar is made from sugar beets or sugarcane, and that it undergoes a very lot of processing, each step in the process creating something further away from nature, from a natural food. I also know that white sugar is extremely yin. So what about "evaporated cane juice"? Is it less yin than white sugar? It probably contains the vitamins and minerals from the original plant, but none of the fiber or other yang parts, unless the dehydrating process removed more than just water?

For a diabetic, the answer is probably a "no-brainer" — don't eat it. It's the same as sugar. Or, at least, the effects are the same.

So how strict do I want to be?

I also need to decide whether to continue eating SunSpire's Grain-sweetened chocolate chips, which contain whole-grain malted barley and corn, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and vanilla. (They're delicious, by the way!)

I think that what I'll do is follow the advice I read from one of George Ohsawa's books. I'll wait until I know the answer inside me, and not eat either one of these food products for now. I think that if that makes me feel sad or deprived, then it may well mean that those ingredients are more like sugar than I realized, containing an addictive quality that is unhealthy for me. (Sugar has always affected my emotions and will power.)

Okay, this is what I'm going to do today. I'm giving the rice crackers to my friends and I'm packing up the chocolate chips and putting them in the freezer. Then I'll do some more research on how these two food ingredients are made — evaporated cane juice and malted barley or corn — and observe how I feel without eating them. Sounds like a plan.

Farm Journal Homemade Cookies — My First Most Favorite Cookbook

1. Farm Journal Homemade Cookies, by the Editors of Farm Journal, edited by Nell B. Nichols, Farm Journal Field Food Editor, ©1971

There was no hesitation, no doubts in my mind when Michael asked me what my top ten favorite cookbooks were — this one is my number one favorite. I love this cookie cookbook! I’ve had it ever since it came out in 1971 — that's 40 years ago! — and I use it as my main reference for all my cookie making ideas. The very first thing that I liked about this cookbook was the eight color photos/illustrations because they gave me immediate inspiration.

The next thing I liked was the incredible amount of recipes it contains — for hundreds of dozens of different kinds of cookies. Every recipe that I’ve ever tried over the years has been a success — and I think that’s because they were tested before being included in the book and because the written instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

I was greatly inspired by the chapter for making cookies from a mix that you've made yourself. It includes how to make three different kinds of basic cookie mixes (including one for high altitude baking called the "Colorado Basic Cookie Mix") that you can make up ahead of time to use later for lots of different recipes. When you want to bake a "hurry-up batch of cookies," you can pull out your basic mix and add eggs, water, chocolate and nuts, for example, to make brownies.

This idea lets you make your own cookies from scratch while still having the convenience of a ready-made mix that's fresher and better than what you could buy off a store shelf. And even if you don't always make the cookie mix ahead of time, you'll always know it in your head, and will be able to whip it up in a hurry, that is, as long as you have the ingredients on hand!


Related Blog Articles:
My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks
Trying Out New Cookie Recipes
Using Kokkoh In My Dream Diner Burger Recipes

My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks

I have a very large collection of cookbooks. One day, my husband gave me an assignment: to write a list of my top ten favorite cookbooks and then to write three or four sentences about each one. So I did. And now I'll start putting it into this food blog...

My Top Ten Favorite Cookbooks (off the top of my head):

1. Farm Journal Homemade Cookies, by the Editors of Farm Journal, edited by Nell B. Nichols, Farm Journal Field Food Editor, ©1971

2. Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, © 1931

3. Verdura — Vegetables Italian Style, by Viana La Place, © 1991

4. Northwest Bounty, by Schuyler Ingle and Sharon Kramis, forward by Marion Cunningham, © 1988

5. The Village Baker’s Wife, by Gayle Ortiz, © 1997

6. Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen, © 1977

7. Great Whole Grain Breads, by Beatrice Ojakangas, © 1984

8. Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, by Julia Ferre, © 1987

9. The Good Cake Cookbook, by Diana Dalsass, © 1982

10. The Greens Cookbook, by Deborah Madison, © 1987

Plus a bonus favorite:

11. Zen Macrobiotic Cooking, by Michel Abehsera, © 1968

Re-reading "Zen Macrobiotics"

It's time for me to once again read my favorite macrobiotic book, Zen Macrobiotics, by George Ohsawa. This is the first book I ever saw about macrobiotics. I was in a grocery store in Santa Cruz, California, browsing through the small collection of books they had for sale. At the time, I was starting to get into eating healthy, vegetarian food. I had been hearing the word "macrobiotics" for a long time, but I had no idea what it was about. So, when the title of this book jumped out in front of me, I grabbed it. And I've been glad that I did ever since!

It is a small book, 207 pages long, and cost me only $9.95. But it is now the most valuable book I own. I re-read it about once every one or two years, and each time I read it again, I am inspired, reaffirmed, and encouraged to go forward. I think that it has been called "the bible of macrobiotics" or the "macrobiotics primer." Well, it has been that for me, and it is certainly the best of all the books that George Ohsawa or any others have written about macrobiotics.

The reason I say this is because in just a few short pages, this book has handed me the tools to work with for the rest of my life. If an answer is not here, it inspires me to go look for it. I can't say that it is a "How To" book, unless it is only to tell me that I have to learn "how to" do it all by myself. George Ohsawa is not going to tell me.

I have always been a firm believer that in order for me to really learn something, I have to do it myself, see it for myself, experience it for myself. Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted that — I remember once having a philosophical conversation with my dad about something he didn't want me to do. He said to me (in order to prove a point he was trying to make), "If I told you to not put your hand on the top of the stove because you'll burn yourself, would you do it anyway?" I emphatically replied, "Yes!" He just shook his head. (I was a hopeless case.)

Anyway, this little book, Zen Macrobiotics, points out to me a new way to measure how healthy I am, and how I can improve my health.

The only criticism I ever had of this book is that it doesn't have an index. But does it really need one? Without an index, I'm forced to really know the contents, and to figure out the answers on my own. (Incidentally, I HAVE started writing an index anyway — it might come in handy when I want to quickly cross-reference a home-care remedy or a certain ingredient in one of his recipes.)

This book is available from the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, still for only $9.95.

Peanut Butter — My Oldest Most Favorite Food

My mom tells me that they couldn't get me to eat anything when I was little unless it had peanut butter on it. That doesn't surprise me. I've always loved peanut butter. I even named my first puppy after it. When I was on a "ketogenic diet" as a young overweight kid, I was so happy because peanut butter was an "allowed" food on account of its high protein content. I ate it as a spread on celery sticks, carrots, lettuce, and whole wheat bread. Later, as a young adult out on my own, I ate peanut butter on my hot dogs, pizza, and in meat sauces.

We were lucky because my mom insisted on serving only pure peanut butter — Adams Natural Peanut Butter (since 1922), which had no added shortening or sugar. Later, I remember when she got us to try grinding our own peanuts in the blender. Wow, that was good. It was warm from the grinding and aromatic and tasted simply delicious! These days, you can grind your own peanuts in some grocery stores.

I still have a recipe for peanut butter cookies from our family Pillsbury Cookbook... the 3x5 recipe card where I copied it is very old and worn.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2/3 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

OVEN: 350º F, 8 minutes to 10 minutes

That's all I wrote down on the card. The rest I just remember by heart: Mix the "wet" ingredients first, mix the "dry" ingredients second, then mix them together into a stiff dough. Use a spoon to scoop out small amounts, roll them into balls in your hands, and place them on a cookie sheet. (I don't think the cookie sheet needs to be greased first, but it probably wouldn't hurt to do so.) Using the back of a fork dipped into a small bowl of water, press each ball of dough flat and make a criss-cross pattern with the tines of the fork.

That's about it! And now, many years later, I've modified my recipe using whole wheat flour instead of the white flour, whole Sucanat sugar instead of the brown sugar, butter instead of the shortening, and fertile eggs because they provide more life energy. I also like to double the recipe and change the proportions so there's a lower ratio of butter and sugar to the other ingredients.

This year I think I'll modify the recipe even more, this time eliminating sugar completely and finding a suitable sugar substitute... Or maybe I'll come up with a completely different kind of peanut butter cookie? This could require a complete breakdown and analysis of all the ingredients as well as the overall design of the cookie. Interesting! I'll include a yin/yang analysis based on what I've learned so far in my macrobiotic studies...

P.S. Here's a link to the "Peter Pan peanut butter" web site, answering the FAQ "Is there a difference between regular peanut butter and natural peanut butter?" PETER PAN PEANUT BUTTER

Movies About Food

Did I mention that I love food? Well, I also love movies — great, visual, audio, food-for-thought, movies! Awhile ago, we visited a place that had posters framed and mounted on their walls that were all about movies that were all about food. "What a wonderful thing!" I thought.

So I started my own list of movies about food. The most recent one was a Lifetime T.V. Christmas movie, called "Recipe for a Perfect Christmas," made in 2005. They aired it this December 2010. It's starring Carly Pope, Christine Baranski, and Bobby Cannavale, was written by Rachel Feldman and Susan Nanus, and was directed by Sheldon Larry.

It's about a young woman who is suddenly promoted to Food Critic for a prominent New York City food magazine, just a few weeks before Christmas. Her mother unexpectedly shows up to stay with her, and a young man desperately seeks her food review because he is about to be evicted before he gets a chance to show the City what a great chef he is and what a great new restaurant he has to offer.

I liked everything that had to do with preparing and presenting various foods, and the fact that she could always identify the contents of something just by tasting one bite. I also enjoyed the fantasy that she could eat anything and everything that she wanted and still remain an attractive and slender young woman! And in the end, it also sounded like she could write pretty well too. It was light hearted and fun.

Here's my list of movies about food so far (in alphabetical order) — I haven't seen them all yet:

1. Babette’s Feast
2. Cafe au Lait
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
4. Clue
5. Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart
6. Diner
7. Eat Drink Man Woman
8. Food Safari: Breakfast
9. Food Safari: Lunch
10. Julie and Julia
11. King Corn
12. Lady Iron Chef
13. Like Water For Chocolate
14. Mystic Pizza
15. Ratatouille
16. Recipe for a Perfect Christmas
17. Tampopo
18. The French Chef with Julia Child
19. The Real Dirt on Farmer John
20. The Secret Life of Bees
21. What’s Cooking?

One Week Since No More Sugar

Yesterday was the 7th day that sugar was in my body, a week since New Year's Eve and partying. I heard that sugar stays in the body for seven days, so today it should be gone. I think the candida know that — they've been clamoring for more sugar, making my ears ring even louder all week long. But actually, I noticed that today the ringing has been subsiding, so we'll see.

I had a rather unusual breakfast this morning because I wanted to have it quickly and be ready to go. (It's Saturday and we were heading up the coast to take some pictures.) So, I had a small cup of 1-bag twig tea, a small bowl of strong barley-miso soup (without any seaweed, unlike what I had yesterday), and a bowl of 3 kinds of dry cereal flakes with boiling water poured over them — corn flakes, buckwheat maple flakes, and kushi wheat flakes (all organic and fruit-juice sweetened). After it cooled down a little and "rested," it formed a warm, moist cake-like consistency that was chewable rather than mushy or watery. It was pretty good.

Normally, I would have had steamed leftover rice or quinoa or a pot of oatmeal, but all my pots and pans were dirty and I didn't want to take the time to wash them. (Now I know why it's always a good idea to clean as much as you can while you're working in the kitchen so just this sort of thing doesn't happen!) Anyway, I managed to be ready in time, and off we went for a scenic drive up the coast.

We went to Pescadero for lunch, at Duarte's Tavern. It's a wonderful old place, filled with warm, friendly people and good food, and it's comfortable. They have a limited menu for practicing Macrobiotics and vegetarians. In other words, there were no whole grains available of any kind (except maybe they have oatmeal at breakfast time?) and chicken broth was in most of the soups. But the grilled cheese sandwich on wheat tasted really good and the hot tea selection was a lot of fun. I chose "Organic African Nectar" tea from Mighty Leaf Tea, which I had never heard of before. It had "organic African rooibos leaves" — also known as "red tea" — "teeming with mango, vanilla, and blossoms" and it smelled and tasted wonderful.

Afterwards, we had a nice long walk around town. Pescadero, California has several interesting shops and grocery stores, a post office, a couple of photographic churches, two cemetaries side-by-side, chickens, cows, goats, a really good bean farm (Phipps Ranch), and I know personally of at least one Great Blue Heron!

Hummingbirds and Seaweed

These two things popped into my head when I woke up this morning. I love hummingbirds. People very dear to me love hummingbirds too. I also love seaweed, something I never thought I'd say a few years ago! Anyway, I decided to cook up some wakame seaweed today because I need to alkalyze (there's that word again) and I really like to eat wakame in a miso soup. And I also thought that I'd try to find an alternative to the sugar water they want me to put in the new bird feeder that Gundy gave us for Christmas. Sugar can't be good for hummingbirds, can it? I don't know...

Wakame Seaweed and "The Black Stallion"
I discovered that after I soak the seaweed for at least 10 minutes (it usually ends up soaking longer than that while I'm doing other things) and rinse it thoroughly, there is practically no "seaweed smell" when it cooks. It tastes delicious, not at all what I was expecting the first time I tried it -- it tastes kind of nutty.

The first time I put some in my mouth, an image came to mind of the shipwrecked little boy eating sea kelp to survive, in the movie "The Black Stallion." He looked so satisfied while he was eating it! (The boy was named Alec, played by Kelly Reno, in the 1979 version of the movie.) And it was that image that helped give me courage to eat the seaweed, which turned out to not be needed at all — I loved it!

The seaweed I got from Rising Tide Sea Vegetables in our grocery store, and the directions for cooking it I got from Julia Ferre's cookbook, Basic Macrobiotic Cooking, which is available for purchase at the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation's website. This is a really good cookbook, and the Rising Tide seaweed is top-notch!

Food for Hummingbirds
I hold a lot of admiration for hummingbirds. They can travel incredible distances without stopping to eat or drink. They are remarkable!

The instructions that came with our new Hummingbird feeder says "1 Part Sugar to 4 parts water; No sugar substitutes; No Honey; Heat to Dissolve Allow to Cool." I don't know... maybe I'll just hang it as a decoration next to our Hazel and Fuschia bushes, both of which I know for a fact the hummingbirds flock to when the flowers are in bloom.

The "New" Old New Leaf Market

Keeping in mind my resolution to completely eliminate sugar from my diet, I bought the following groceries to start off my new year. This was at the first New Leaf Community Market established in Santa Cruz, California on the Westside, which has since become the oldest one in a small chain of grocery stores. Then it moved to a new location and once again became the newest New Leaf. This particular grocery store has won my respect for consistently offering the very best quality in fresh organic produce, which hasn't changed even after they moved — it's still the best.

The food I bought supplements the food I already have at home, which includes plenty of rice, oats, quinoa, barley, wheat, buckwheat, and rye, not to mention various kinds of beans and seaweed.

• Broccoli (organic)
• Kale, Dinosaur (organic)
• Cabbage, Green (organic)
• Celery (organic)
• Alvarado Street Bakery's Sprouted Wheat Buns (6)
• Amy's Black Bean Burrito (1, frozen)
• Camel Chocolate Halvah candy bar (in case I get a sudden sugar craving?)
• Rising Tide's Maple Chewnami (Seaweed Sesame snack bar, also for a sweet tooth)
• Eden's Ume Plum Vinegar
• Ohsawa Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce) — Ohsawa® Organic products are available from Goldmine Natural Foods.
• Miso Master's Organic Barley Miso (traditional soy paste) by Great Eastern Sun
• Sunridge Farm's Zen Party Mix (salty peanuts, almonds, and mini-rice crackers)
• Sunspire's Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips
• Choice Organic Twig Tea (Kukicha tea)

Lunch at P. F. Chang's

I remember reading somewhere in one of George Ohsawa's books not to worry about whether I'd be able to find good, wholesome food like brown rice — because as soon as I decided that this is the food I want to eat, things would work themselves out so that it would become available. As soon as I read that, I believed it. And ever since I read that, I have had no problems finding the kind of food I want to eat, even in the most unexpected places.

My friends have also helped me tremendously by being on the lookout for places that serve brown rice, for example, or other vegetarian fare. A newly opened P.F. Chang's China Bistro was such a place, where my husband took me for a birthday dinner. I loved it! Not only did they serve brown rice — they served all-you-can-eat refills, free of charge! I could eat all the brown rice I wanted for one price. Their vegetables and vegetarian dishes were a special treat — new and interesting, always fun to try.

Today, after several years since that first time, my husband took me to have lunch at another P. F. Chang's. (They have several restaurants now in their chain.) For a total of forty dollars, we got lunch for two people ($32.61) and an extra-generous tip for our waiter. I had a large bowl of brown rice, a plate of vegetarian dumplings, pan-fried, with dipping sauce, a lettuce-wrap filled with tofu and veggies, and a really good pot of organic green tea.

We didn't have to buy the groceries, cook the food, set the table, vacuum the floor, or wash the dishes. We got to enjoy the music, the warm, nicely decorated room, and the soft murmur of happy, contented people. The food tasted great and the service was very nice. All in all, it was a special lunch and I feel like we got our money's worth.

For me, it was all about eating good food in the company of others who shared the same desire. What would be ideal? If the next restaurant we went to served all of the above plus everything would be organic — especially since anything that's truly organic pretty much guarantees it won't contain any genetically modified organisms (a very dangerous and unhealthy thing) by definition.

Here's to good, healthy food for everybody — cheers!


Related Blog Articles:
Organic Farmers And SOS-Earth
Adapting Our Diets To The Situation

Guidelines for Classifying in Terms of Yin and Yang

 
The blue sky in this picture is yin compared to the browns, blacks, and yellows of the road, which are yang. The greens in the plants are yin compared to the browns in the building.

As a seed of grass germinates in the brown dirt, it begins as yang and slowly changes to yin as it grows up. At the end of its cycle, when the grass has grown up green and tall and then flowered and gone to seed, it dies in its most-yin state, and the seeds that it produced will then each start a new cycle over again. This is how life perpetuates itself, by producing more seeds than it started with.

Yang is at the bottom.
Yin is at the top.
Vertical movement is yin; horizontal movement is yang.

Chapter 9, Yin-Yang Theory, begins on page 110 of Zen Macrobiotics by George Ohsawa by listing some of the categories for classifying what is yin and what is yang. We can use this information to classify anything else.

For example, how would I classify a pumpkin compared to an apple in terms of yin and yang? And what can I do with that information?

A pumpkin is more yang than an apple because it grows horizontally on the ground, rather than vertically on an apple tree.

One pumpkin might be more yang than another pumpkin because it's smaller, rounder, heavier, and more orange — or it may be more yin because it's bigger, taller, and white.

I can eat more pumpkins more often than apples and still be in balance during the cold winter months (especially after I've cooked them), unless I'm sick with the flu, in which case, I would avoid both. Incidentally, I can only hope that I never get sick with the flu again as my understanding of macrobiotics becomes better and better. I know now that eating sugar, which is extremely yin, would make me very vulnerable to the flu bugs, especially during the cold, yin winter months.

One of these days, I'll write a page of yin and yang categories...

Related Blog Articles:
The Colors Of Yin And Yang

Four Basic Food Groups—YIN—YANG—ACID—ALKALINE

The Yin And Yang Spectrum of Food, Part 1

The Acid And Alkaline Dimension of Food, Part 1
What is "Macrobiotics"?
Peanut Butter — My Oldest Most Favorite Food

What Is "Macrobiotics"?

I think that "macrobiotics" means many things to many people. A couple of years ago, I did a Google search for an answer to that question, and I was surprised at how little information out there actually addressed the question specifically. So I've decided to ask this question over and over as I search the Internet, and report my findings here in my food blog as I go. In the meantime, I'll tell you what I think macrobiotics is:

Macrobiotics is a term coined by a man named George Ohsawa when he wanted to find a name for his special cause — a movement to educate the "western world" about an ancient eastern philosophy as well as to bring the philosophy up-to-date in his current world in the far east (Japan). This philosophy he made practical by translating it into how and what we eat, among other things.

Macrobiotics means how to study and practice the art of life in a holistic and natural way, by following the natural laws of nature, described in terms of "Yin," "Yang," and "Constant Change," which he called "The Order of the Universe" or "The Unique Principle."

As George Ohsawa spread "macrobiotics" around the world, he gained a following of disciples, students who then became teachers themselves: In the United States, four of those teachers were Herman and Cornellia Aihara and Michio and Aveline Kushi, who set up macrobiotic learning centers on the east and west coasts. Others followed after them to continue to teach and spread the word.

The reason why George Ohsawa was so passionate about this movement was because he wanted as many people as possible to know about what he had learned — how to save his own life when doctors had told him he would die, just like his mother and siblings had died, of tuberculosis. He cured himself, when others thought he was a hopeless case, solely through diet. Although I don't know precisely what that diet was, I'm guessing that it had to do with eating whole grain brown rice, miso (aged soybeans, grain, and sea salt), and not much else, except maybe a little water to drink.

On one hand, macrobiotics is very simple and on the other hand, it is very complex. It reminds me of the Basic computer language — zeros and ones — that can be used to build complex computer programs, except in this case, the zeros and ones are yins and yangs.

When I look at food and water in terms of yin and yang, I usually visualize it on a large scale or teeter-totter. Extremely yin foods are on one end, extremely yang foods are on other end, and foods with a more equal combination of yin and yang are in the center.

Short grain brown rice (whole rice) is thought to be perfectly in the center of that scale for humans, because for one thing its potassium-to-sodium ratio of 5 to 1 reacts beautifully with our internal workings.

Sugar, processed white granulated sugar from sugarcane or sugar beets, is on the extremely Yin end of the scale.

Salt, meat, and animal products, are on the extremely Yang end of the scale.

It took me awhile to figure out how these foods got to be classified this way, but I figure that meat is probably considered to be so yang because all animals (including humans) are red-blooded and red is yang. Vegetables, on the other hand, are "green blooded" and green is yin. Sugar is really off the charts because it has been stripped of all its characteristics and made into something that I would call synthetic — not a natural food at all!

George Ohsawa's book, Zen Macrobiotics, as well as other books on macrobiotics, provides charts and guidelines for classifying foods in terms of yin and yang. And not just for food — for instance, sunshine is yang, water is yin, air is yin, and the seasons continually change from yin to yang to yin again.

Everything always has some yin and some yang in it. It's the proportions at any given moment that distinguishes something as being either "Yin" or "Yang." Because, you see, everything is always changing. Yin changes to yang and yang changes to yin.

Well, that's enough for now. George Ohsawa and his followers have made classifying foods into yin and yang very easy to get a person started on a basic macrobiotic diet for health/healing and so many people have given, and are giving, us their own personal stories of how macrobiotics has helped them to heal in one way or another.

For me, macrobiotics is a language for helping me to understand my life and personal health, and to gain control for how I want to live.

I want to personally thank George Ohsawa and all of his followers for introducing me to macrobiotics. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

No More Sugar

I can’t count how many times I’ve made the New Year’s Resolution to stop eating sugar. Maybe this year I’ll be able to make it and keep it for good? For a year, at least? I am so addicted to sugar that once I eat a small amount, like the pieces of chocolate peppermint bark Lyndy gave me for Christmas, or the cookies that someone made at the party, or the cafe mocha I had the other day when we were downtown visiting with friends we’d just run into, I just keep wanting more and more of it. Alcohol is another bad thing for me, because when I drink it, even if it’s only a couple of ounces of beer or wine, my willpower is greatly reduced and I want sugar even more.

Okay, I know now, after years of making the resolution to stop eating sugar, what’s involved. I know how sugar affects me. I know how bad it is for me. I know that it stays in my system for seven days. And I know, without a doubt, that it feeds an overgrowth of candida in my belly that then is a direct cause of the ringing in my ears. I know this because I have been able to actually stop the ringing in my ears by not eating sugar, and eating whole grains and vegetables and not eating other refined products. I even managed to reduce the size of my belly by half -- until now, after blowing it during the holidays. Sigh.

So I have to start all over again.

• I have to eat a balanced diet of whole grains with alkalyzing vegetables, seaweed, miso soup, and kukicha tea.

• I have to exercise regularly, which for me is going on daily walks.

• I have to keep a balance of rest and physical activity. A balance of consuming and eliminating. A balance of work and play, of mental stimulation and meditation. Etc., etc.

• I need to re-read George Ohsawa’s book, Zen Macrobiotics, Herman Aihara’s book, Acid and Alkaline, and Carl Ferre’s book, Acid Alkaline Companion.


Cup of Hot Water
Today, the first day of the new year, I began by drinking a cup of hot water (about 6 ounces), which I always do now ever since Julia Ferre talked about how it helps to rehydrate you after a night of sleeping and getting dehydrated. I found that it really works, and I feel instantly better and ready to start the day. (I think she talked about it in a magazine issue of "Macrobiotics Today" not that long ago?)

Exercise Before Breakfast
Then I went on a nice long walk (about 1 1/2 hours). Then I had breakfast: Barley Miso soup, short-grain brown rice with ume vinegar and maple syrup on top, and a cup of 2-bag twig tea.

Late New Year’s Day Lunch and a Special Dessert
For lunch, I had grated daikon radish with leftover quinoa browned in sesame seed oil, and 3-bag twig tea. I ate this in two parts, with about an hour and a half in between the parts. (Today, being a holiday, is way off any normal kind of routine for me!)

Then for a special dessert I had a Camel Halvah snack bar, which is basically sesame seeds (pure-milled), malted corn barley syrup, cocoa liquor, molasses powder, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and egg whites. This candy bar is made in Canada by Noble Foods, Inc. It’s delicious and very yin! But I figure it’s more alkalyzing than granulated white sugar, and therefore not as likely to cause my candida to grow? At any rate, it’s a way to celebrate the new year with a sweet that’s not nearly as bad as sugar. I just don’t plan on having any more of it for a while!

Sugar is Extreme Yin
Because sugar doesn’t leave your body for seven days, it will accumulate if you keep eating it. And if you’re not eating enough yang to counterbalance it (such as meat, which is very yang, and which I do not eat, because I’m a vegetarian) then you can get “Charlie Horses”--muscle cramps that start in the feet and work their way up your legs, all the way to your heart. Looking for a good way to have a heart attack? Keep eating sugar!

I think that because I don’t eat meat (extreme yang), it will be easier for me to avoid sugar. This is because Yin is attracted to Yang and Yang is attracted to Yin, like positive and negative sides of magnets. The more yang (meat) one eats, the more “attractive” sugar can become.

Good Food Challenge
I love food and I love to eat. There are no “buts” about it. And I’m actually looking forward to this challenge of not eating any sugar, because now all I have to look forward to is eating food that’s good for me! It will be fun trying to find good foods to eat while I’m traveling too.

By the way, I am not going on a “diet.” I am still going to eat whatever I want, whenever, and however much I want (as long as it doesn’t have sugar in it). The difference is that it will be me and my brain controlling what I eat -- not the effects of sugar. I am hoping, however, that as a result of not eating any more sugar, I will lose weight and get my candida overgrowth under control.

So here’s a toast to No More Sugar!

Notes:
• Zen Macrobiotics by George Ohsawa, Acid and Alkaline by Herman Aihara, and Acid Alkaline Companion by Carl Ferre are available on the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation website.