Rebuild from Depression Blog

My camera is one of my favorite tools to help me appreciate my surroundings. "Appreciating" was one of the strategies I used in April to get through a rough patch; I took pictures of anything that was quirky or beautiful, including this picture of "sheets on the clothesline." My hunch is that this picture would not mean a whole lot to everyone, but I love seeing sheets on the clothesline. I think of the smell of fresh bed linens, the freshness that only comes from a clothesline and sunshine. When I am hanging sheets or diapers on the line, I have the added benefit of that great mountain view. The view doesn't get much better than that.

Technorati Tags: photo

"There's something about liver" is my code phrase for: "We know it is packed with nutrients, but there is something else too. People can get a lift from it."

Adele Davis actually adored liver. She was the go-to person on nutritious home cooking back when my mother was raising me. Adele Davis claimed that liver has an "anti-stress factor." Perhaps the anti-stress factor is the "something," but who knows. We do know that liver is loaded with minerals and vitamins. Liver from animals grazing on grass is also high in the brain-building Omega 3 fatty acid [liver and Omega 3s].

The great thing about liver is that it really is pretty cheap. You can find organic liver for $2-3 per pound. As the center of your meal, a family of four could easily eat well on one pound of liver. Most of us are probably looking for cost-saving food strategies in these bad economic times. You will find more cost-saving ideas at The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

Check out Mom's videos below with recipe ideas for liver.

If you would rather pass because of the strong flavor of liver, consider a desiccated liver tablet. The tablets do not have the fats but they are great sources of iron and are actually used in body-building to help build muscle mass. I take liver tablets when I'm dieting to curb my hunger and give me a bit of an energy boost. I take four liver tablets three times throughout the morning for a total of twelve a day. My preferred brand for quality and price is the tablet Terri just won in the last twice-weekly giveaway.

Continue reading "Energy-boosting, mood-lifting, and frugal: A liver round-up" »

I head to Seattle late next week to participate in a symposium on raw milk, "The Raw Milk Conundrum," sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association. I am neither a veterinarian or a member of the medical community, but I do like Seattle. I am also the only raw milk consumer on the panel and am speaking on free choice. The paper, "Free choice in a complex information environment: The case of raw milk" hopefully will take a whole lot less time to make it to print than did my book currently at the printer. (She says with great hope but with not having finished the paper yet.)

The paper makes an argument for "free access" to food as well as "free choice," where "access" is the legal barriers to purchase and "choice" is the actual decision to buy a particular product. It is not an advocacy paper, rather it discusses a philosophy of food choice. Stay tuned.

The paper makes some use of a survey I conducted of raw milk advocates. You can find some of the demographic information at the FoodGraphs.net site. (Raw milk advocate graphs.) Bloggers should feel free to use any of the graphs on that site with attribution.

While I am on the subject let me just say that speaking at a veterinary meeting is the best way to get promotional materials about taking care of your cat and lizard clients. I will never lack for sources of veterinary supply and should I need them soon, I can find them at Booth #1384 next week.

~~~

The winner

The colander is here but our usual Vanna White (aka seven-year-old Frederick) is galavanting in Berkeley while I bake in 100+ temperatures without A/C. I will draw the name myself but I may need some nutritional supplements right now if there are any that prevent melting. Perhaps I'll win some in this contest, though I would increase my chances of winning by actually entering. Let's see how not entering the contest is working for me...

The winner is Terri Mac.

Terri Mac won by simply leaving a comment on this blog. She is our third winner and the winners all have a key thing in common: they entered the contest! Terri wins a desiccated liver product but recognizing that Terri might not have use for a liver-based product depending on her diet, she can pass and I will add her name five more times to the colander. Terri and all other winners need to contact me within a week of the announcement with a U.S. street address.

If liver sounds like a strange thing to be giving away, I'll put up another post that is going to make everyone envy Terri's victory. Liver, even desiccated, can be great for energy and mood.

Enter to win by leaving a comment here or on any other post (I'm pretty flexible as I melt in the heat of Central California). Enter early and often. See the many ways you can enter. The next drawing is Friday for the jumbo trio pack: Omega 3, magnesium, and B complex. Read the description of the prize package in the original contest announcement.

If you have not read my postpartum depression story, take a look at that too.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, dairy, depression, liver, magnesium, Omega 3, postpartum depression, raw milk

While I was pregnant and not paying any attention at all to our videos on YouTube, Mom became a celebrity. I have yet to find the traffic sources, but someone out there likes mom too. Check this out:

• Over 25,000 people have watched Mom describe how to make deviled eggs and, more importantly, how to peel the egg in the first place.
• Nearly 12,000 have watched her grilled vegetable technique.
• 5,000 each have viewed "Marinated Tomato Salad," "Minced Garlic," and "Flash cooked liver."
• 3,000 watched her describe uses for overgrown zucchini, a seasonal favorite.
• Nearly 2,000 have watched "Roasted Peppers" and over 1,000 have watched the also seasonably relevant "How to freeze peppers."

All of these were filmed with a very old camera. I apologize. The new ones are a lot better in picture and sound quality. They are all filmed right here in our kitchen.

In the year of pregnancy while my mom was becoming appreciated for her culinary arts, I got a number of emails asking me to put the videos on various other video sites. I paid no attention because I was busy being pregnant. Sorry Mom for not appreciating your celebrity status better than I did. You probably need a different agent.

When she's not cooking or gardening, Mom is working on her scripture prayer CDs on her website.

Technorati Tags: eggs, garlic, liver, peppers, grill, tomato, zucchini

Future contest alert: Check this blog to see if you have won. You have a week to claim your prize. I'll keep all names in the colander through July but you can increase your chances my leaving more comments on the blog and via the list of suggestions below.


I have an old aluminum kitchen colander here with somewhere over 100 people in it, in some cases multiple times. Diane earned extra points for pasting information about the website across the Internet, to the sad exclusion of StumbleUpon, which may well be why Marjorie won instead last time. Pilar is sure that only leaving a comment means that you don't have a check to win since all entrants are able to earn points doing any of the following:

• Friend me or follow me on Facebook(here) or Twitter(here): 1 point each
• Stumble this entry, one of the food science pages, or anything that has caught your fancy.: 1 point.
• In Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn provide a link to some of the content here (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 1 point
• Provide a link to this contest from your blog: 2 points (but gosh, this just increases your competition, LOL)
• Blog about some of the content on this website (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 3 points

I had to copy that list from the old post because the list itself is no inane there is no way I can remember it.

Gentle e-mail messages to me have suggested the same:

"I have to do *what* to enter the contest?"

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, giveaway, liver, magnesium, Omega 3

Continue reading "Check out the new giveaway and we have a winner" »

Our summer garden has gotten a late start and we are an hour away from a produce market. Earlier this week we ran out of produce and stood around scratching our heads about what to eat. Salmon sounded good and we have some frozen, but salmon with what? Scallops sounded real good too. We could put on rice but since I am passing up the grains this season, I would just be chasing garlic and butter on a plate with each tender scallop.

What to eat?

The garden did have a solution: It is an abundant producer of the high Omega 3 weed edible plant purslane (which I wrote about last summer in a similar predicament).

The little "leaves" on the succulent-like plants make a great stir-fry and are particularly good in scrambled eggs.

Technorati Tags: eggs, Omega 3, scallops, salmon

This hen lays nearly an egg a day. When she's able to get out and scratch for bugs and seeds, she makes eggs high in Omega 3 fatty acids. She is even a babysitter on occasion, as she is in this picture.

Technorati Tags: chickens, eggs, Omega 3, photo

It may be the beginning of a large archive, the graphs at FoodGraphs.net. You may recognize many of them -- most made their appearance first here on the Rebuild Blog. My business specialty is graphic display of data and this food graph archive ties my two interests together nicely. Bloggers should feel free to use the graphs with attribution.

FoodGraphs.net

Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet has been discussing how to get by in tough economic times and still eat well. She has asked bloggers to contribute ideas in her Pennywise Platter blog carnival. You will want to check out the many ideas to find some that suit your cooking style and taste.

Here in this house, one of my favorite meals for convenience, flavor, and price is a green salad topped with some sort of protein (usually a nutrient-packed depression-fighting food). In the depression-fighting department, there are few foods better than wild salmon, high in Omega 3 fatty acids and in minerals. I find it regularly at a discount store for one buck. It is canned, but hey, the price is right.

Continue reading "Frugal, easy, summery meal: Salmon-topped green salad (with salad-making tools)" »

I was truly overwhelmed by how many people entered the giveaway. I was deeply touched by the supportive comments that people left there. Thank you very much. Such support gives me such a boost today.

I may well need a boost too because I have spent a goodly bit of time just trying to get this raffle set up. Ninety people? Tweets and Facebook feeds? "Be careful what you ask for" comes to mind right now. I still haven't gotten to the email on this account. Sorry.

Early in the comments, Pilar expressed her dismay that she and the rest of the people who didn't Tweet or link to the contest would not have a chance. It turns out that just over a dozen of the ninety people found me on Twitter or Facebook, so Pilar had a lot of company in just leaving a comment. Pilar got an extra point for being on my email list, as did a whole lot of people who commented.

I thought it would be interesting to test Pilar's concern. I entered everyone in the contest the old-fashioned way: tickets in a kitchen colander. On your ticket I wrote how you won the point. (I am now realizing why this contest has taken me so long.) The winner in sheer point value is easily Diane at Peaceful Acres (who has pictures on her blog of the cleanest cow udder I have ever seen). Look for Diane to win one of these packages with her high odds. I didn't calculate the odds of someone winning who just left a comment, but figure it is fairly even money. (Many people left only a comment.)

The Winner

Continue reading "Giveaway results (an outbound Goody Bag) and on to another giveaway" »