One In A Trillion

My husband and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary last week. He has always been creative about organizing special outings to mark our special day, but this year was exceptional. We started the morning at a light-filled chapel dedicated to the minister who married us, going over the wedding vows in the Book of Common Prayer. Then on to Charlottesville to tour Ashlawn-Highland- James Monroe's home near Monticello. We had a delicious lunch at a new find in C-ville. We then drove the Constitution highway to Orange, Va for a night's stay at the Inn at Willow Creek. The home was built in 1778 and after a $2 million renovation, this magical inn represented fox-hunt traditional with Elle Decor NYC modern edge. The food was absolutely over-the-top outstanding. The next day, we toured Dolly and James Madison's recently renovated home, Montpelier. Marriages get crowded with busy schedules and to take time-out and spend time with that special someone- no distractions- is such a blessing. That's also why we need to take time-out to enjoy dinner together as a family. It takes planning and some extra effort- think of the time it took my husband to plan and organize this celebration. And what are the odds of me meeting and marrying someone this special- one in a trillion!

RAMS RULE RICHMOND!!!

Congratulations VCU! You gave us one memorable week. I was front and center at the pep rally to see VCU off to Houston for the Final Four. I was on TV and interviewed by the Washington Times and WRVA. Going to the VCU bookstore to get my family Final Four t-shirts and seeing throngs of people smiling and full of excitement. I didn't even mind waiting 30 minutes just to get out of the parking deck. Then Friday night, 10pm, waiting in another long line at the grocery store to get my food supplies for friends coming over to watch to watch the big game. The man at the check out said the day had been Super Bowl 2- everybody getting their party food. We came up short but it's amazing to put VCU in the same b-ball category as Kentucky. Also this week, I heard an expert from Boston discuss substance abuse and he encouraged families to think about what really makes them happy. Is it worth missing family dinnertime to make more money, go to one more meeting, gymastics for 7 year olds etc. and then not know what is going on in your children's minds? Before the big game, the team eats their meal TOGETHER. "The ball goes up...and there you are...a shooting star...it's more than a contest, it's more than a race...you reach deep inside." Have "One Shining Moment"-daily!

RAMS REACH FINAL FOUR! WE ARE HOOPSTOWN!

The celebration for the 400th anniversary of Richmond was good, but not this good! Richmond's Mayor Dwight Jones was quoted in the Richmond Times Dispatch's biggest and most special section ever: "VCU advancing to the Final Four is the stuff dreams are made of! This is a team of players who believe in each other, a coach who believes in the team, and a city that believes in dreams coming true... VCU is putting Richmond on the map like never before and we'll see the nation at the Final Four." This is a true story of an underdog, a Cinderella defeating major powerhouses. Same thing with food. Move over Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Jamie Oliver. You have powerful coverage that we little, everyday cooks don't get. We don't always cook in the most beautiful kitchens, but we have recipes and good, satisfying meal ideas that help our family and friends celebrate life on a daily basis. So Esther made home-made potato soup for our church supper yesterday and Rebecca brought a special apple crisp made from apples in her backyard. Umm-good. I will meet you Saturday at the Seigel Center to watch VCU-Butler. I plan to fix double decker turkey, havarti cheese, red pepper and bacon club sandwiches. How about becoming a dedicated reader of this blog in which I try to encourage you to celebrate life with your own home-cooked food. DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'...You too can cook with the best of them. Start coping by cooping Hoopstown! LET'S GO V-C-U!!!

Hoopstown USA: VCU, UR in Sweet 16

That's the headline of the Richmond Times Dispatch this morning. Only 4 times in 25 years have 2 teams from the same city reached the Sweet 16. The only other cities to accomplish this feat is Los Angeles and Philadelphia. But the news in our local paper also headlines that "Virginia ranks 22nd for health" and while Virginians are smoking less, we are getting fatter. Diseases such as higher blood pressure and diabetes go hand in hand with being overweight. The paper continues with "Special report inside: Working on a healthy future." Jodi Fuller, MeadWestvaco's director of global benefits says "Employers all across the country are struggling with how to contain (health care) costs." With increasing health insurance costs, many companies are trying to motivate employees to eat better and excercise more. I truly believe that if companies would entice employees to just try co-op cooking for one month, we could improve health by encouraging healthier eating patterns. Entice? Offer early leave one day for healthiest, best tasting recipe- most creative monthly calendar, best logistics in delivery etc. What if Richmond could be Hoopstown AND Coopstown? So if someone asks you how you are coping with all the tragic news in Japan, Middle East, high costs of fuel and food, your response could be I'm coping by cooping. GO VCU, UR and my hometown TARHEELS!

Holding the Holy Grail

I have in my hands Lucy Page Simons cookbook- Recipes from Kith and Kin printed in 1979 "as an attempt to chronicle some of the recipes of the past generation of very good cooks in our common and in-law families." Lucy was a fabulous cook who blessed our church with those incredible home-made white Parker house rolls, numerous cakes and even home-made ultra thin Moravian Christmas cookies. It was Lucy who got me thinking about exciting the taste buds with quality home-made food- not just settling for last minute thrown-together packaged volume. As she fought Leukemia, she lamented her food tasting like tin due to her chemo treatments. Julia Child was a wonderful cook, but it will be my priviledge to try to follow Lucy's blazed trail of putting the energy and love into serving others with a ministry of good home-made food. How about you? Band together with cooks better than yourself and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Appreciate Your Taste Buds

I am out with a horrible cold and one bad side effect is that food has no taste. How we take out taste buds for granted. Cooking co-op brings a variety of foods to your table. Plus you learn new recipes because everyone is putting their best foot forward. Since you are only cooking once a week, more energy and creative talents can go to work to come up with memorable meals of substance. Appreciate daily your sense of taste by eating quality!

My 100th Post-- Count the Cost

One of the world's largest suppliers of rice and cotton, Olam International,said in a Bloomsberg TV interview 2/14/11 that corn prices will escalate to a record, pushing up food inflation costs and thus increasing hunger. They believe that the climate around the world is changing and that will cause massive disruptions. Corn is involved in much of the food we eat- animals feed on corn, drinks contain corn fructose and the owner of Montana Bread mentioned that when corn prices are high, wheat fields are instead used to plant corn, causing less supply and higher prices for wheat. Now add higher fuel cost to all this, count on your food costs to go up. Look what I read last night in "American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism 1865-1900" by H. W. Brands. We can learn from the industrial giants. Andrew Carnegie (the steelmaster)"...obsessed over cost because it was the one part of his business he could control. Carnegie never wanted to know the profits...He always wanted to know the costs...Carnegie's genius ...was his talent for organization." John D. Rockefeller, creator of the Standard Oil empire, was also "...relentless [in his] pursuit of efficiency." It's time to count the costs- know what it costs to make a meal verses eating out and then work on the efficiency of cooking in quantity with cooking co-op. That is capitalism at it's best!