New Routine- Life Enhancing Routine- It is April 1st

I do apologize for being missing in action.  The end of the year and beginning of the year have been brutal in terms of family and work demands.  The most challenging was a health scare concerning my husband who is now fine.  But the most fun have been our 2 new puppies- a yellow lab( Davy) and a black lab ( Rebel).  And today I am committing to a new routine.   The puppies are now over 40 lbs. and yesterday, trying to walk the 2 of them together was no fun.  So the new routine is I walked each of them separately this morning- 20 minutes each.  They need it and I do too and I really enjoyed special time with the two different personalities.

I am now more committed than ever to include in my new routine time to help put home-made, healthy meals on the table for dinner.  Last night,  my husband and I received a "medal of honor."  Our oldest daughter, married just last May and working in NYC, texted us the most beautiful picture of her Easter dinner, lamb and roasted brussell sprouts, set on her perfectly selected china and linen placemats.  Priceless that she took the time to create such a memorable moment.  Cooking co-op and a commitment by my husband and myself to regularly have family meals at home together have helped pass on a life-enhancing routine!

One Woman's Crusade for One Thanksgiving

October 3, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated the last Thursday in November.  He believed that even during war, we can count our blessings. But it was the relentless efforts of one woman, Sarah Hale, who for 17 years wrote to 5 presidents, numerous congressmen and governors lobbying to unify the country with one national day  of Thanksgiving.  Up until then, some states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving and some did not.  Sarah Hale was a young widow with 5 children who ran a business making hats for women to support her family.  She also began writing books and poetry.  She went on to become the editor of our nations' #1 women's magazine becoming the Oprah of her time.  She wrote a number of editorials supplying recipes for the Thanksgiving dinner we enjoyed this past week: turkey, stuffing,pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes.  Be inspired to keep the joys and benefits of sitting around the family dinner table week in and week out as you ponder these words of Sarah Hale from her book "Manners: Or, Happy Homes and Good Society All the Year Round" 1868- from the chapter "Our National Thanksgiving."  "Such social rejoicings tend greatly to expand the generous feelings of our nature, and strengthen the bond of union that binds us brothers and sisters in that true sympathy of American patriotism...This recreative joyousness, this return, if you please, to the gayeties of childhood, is good for the soul.  It sweetens the temper, it brightens hope, increases our love for each other, and faith in the goodness of God."

And the rest of the story- Sarah Hale was the author of "Mary Had a little Lamb."

Repeatability

It is Thanksgiving week and we in this country have so much to be thankful for.  Our girls start arriving tomorrow.  My family is so excited about getting everyone together under one roof.  Thanksgiving is also a very special meal.  This is one week we all start planning, making shopping lists, and blocking off time to cook.  A great deal of effort goes into the Thanksgiving dinner- we look forward to this special time and the memories last.  Tom Nordland is a basketball shooting expert and coach from California.  "The few great shooters of today and yesterday mastered simple things, not complicated motions.  Improved shooting is now possible for everybody in the game, and mastery is available to those who sincerely dedicate themselves to it." (EzineArticles)  In an article titled "Basketball Shooting: How to Get Accuracy, Consistency and Repeatability", Norland defines repeatability as "the name we give to a motion that is so learned and mastered it can go on automatic."  So how can we get repeatability into our cooking motion?  Take a page out of the Thanksgiving playbook.  Master the simple things: 1) Find simple recipes that excite your taste buds. 2) Write down a meal plan and shopping list. 3) Set aside time to create and cook.  Get into your zone and play your favorite music knowing you are doing something special for yourself and your family. 4) Make it repeatable.  Sunday is your day to plan and write out your grocery list, Monday is the day to shop and Tuesday night is your time to cook.  If you want to do all the cooking, have a month of family favorites in rotation with a goal of trying one new recipe a month.  Or try a cooking co-op which forces repeatability because when your dinner is delivered Monday and Tuesday night, it is your turn to cook Tuesday night and deliver on Wednesday.  One highlight of the Thanksgiving meal is the tremendous variety- turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberry salad, gravy, green beans, rolls, biscuits, and 3 different deserts.  I have found that without variety, I eat more than necessary trying to satisfy that craving for "something special to the taste and senses." And maybe, in part,  we eat too much at Thanksgiving because it is rare to have such a wide range of choices.  Get the weekly cooking motion going that is so learned and mastered, it is on automatic.   Then family dinners can start shooting the lights out and scoring in an area that really matters.

Why Were Family Kitchens the First to be Destroyed?

The Wall Street Journal(Oct. 27-28,2012) in it's book review of "The Great Famine in China 1958-1962" by Zhou Xun described how Mao Zedong's drive to make China an industrial giant resulted in the deaths of 45 million people.  Mao's goal was to turn China into a "communist utopia and leading industrial nation."  Mao started the "Great Leap Forward" by turning the country into 26,000 communes.  With the help of the military, these communes became work-slave brigades.  Mao's rallying cry was: "go all out, aim high, and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in socialist construction."  "Family kitchens were destroyed; even utensils were taken over by the commune or fed to "backyard furnaces" and melted down into useless iron lumps.  All food was served in canteens and distributed according to merit; for the uncooperative, starvation was the punnishment of first resort.  When food ran out the canteen closed and peasants were left to scavenge." Mao went on to say "We can start communism with food, clothes and housing.  Collective canteens, free food, that is communism."  In 1962, Mao was politically outmaneuvered. "The communes were dismantled and China's peasants were able to cultivate and grow and cook their own food once more.  Harvests improved dramatically."  So why were family kitchens the first to be destroyed?  Did not even want to leave reminders, such as utensils, of a more civilized way to eat.  Perhaps we take the freedom to grow and cook our own food for granted.  Perhaps we do not realize how vital it is to our own well-being and our community to cook and eat family meals together.  70% of those applying to our military do not qualify and the #1 reason is fitness- obesity.  The studies show more meals eaten at home result in more fruits and vegetables consumed.  It is important to ourselves to be healthy.  It is important to our national security to have more than 30% applicants qualify.  Family kitchens are vital to the well-being of America.

My Web Site is Back Up and Running

I had to change hosts to my web site so please share with others - www.mynight2cook.com.
As fall approaches, it is a great time for the Slow-Cooker Brunswick Stew on the recipe tab.
And I have a new e-mail @ gcbowie@comcast.net.  Let me know your thoughts and questions.
Many thanks for your patience in getting my web site back up to speed.

What's Your Plan for Higher Food Prices?

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article last week and here are some of the excerpts: " Helen Li is helping fuel apple fever in China, and it isn't of the iPhone variety.  The 30-year-old administrative assistant said she has been buying more apples since she moved from a small eastern Chinese city two years ago to Shanghai to work for a U.S. company.  "Chinese people are eating more and more fruit...as our lives get better"...Fresh apple consumption in China, which produces more than half of the global supply of the fruit, has soared 80% from the 2007-2008 crop year to the crop year ending in June 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture...The U.S. imports about two-thirds of its supply from China."  Who knew that China supplies most of the apples in this country?  Our apple and other food costs are rising due to people in Asia having more money to eat more in quantity and quality. In fact the WSJ says the average price of Chinese apple-juice concentrate in August was $10.25 a gallon.  I know this first hand because I went and paid $7.25 for Fuji apples on Friday (about $1.25 each) and even the check out clerk questioned if that was right.  We all need to rethink and come up with a plan to keep our food costs down.  The reasons that cooking co-op works is by cooking in quantity, you save time, lower your purchase costs because you can buy in  bulk, and you save more money with fewer trips to the grocery store(fuel costs) and you save money since your weekly meals are more planned and have less waste.  You save also by having less temptation to eat out or grab expensive fast food since you have a cooking co-op answer to what's for dinner and ready to eat in 5 minutes.  If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, cooking co-op can be an answer to how to manage higher food costs.  So "what's in your wallet?"  It could be more money.

A New School Year- Stability Matters

"Marriage Haves and Have-Nots", an article written by W. Bradford Wilcox (director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia) highlights such facts as : "In the nation's affluent and educated precincts...the future of marriage is bright.  After succumbing temporarily to the marital tumult of the 1970's, college-educated Americans have been getting their marital act together in recent years... divorce is down, infidelity is down...and the vast majority of children are fortunate to grow up with both their mother and father...But in poor and working-class communities...the future of marriage is bleak...For the majority of Americans who do not hold college degrees, divorce rates remain high, infidelity is up, nonmarital childbearing is way up...The privileged reap the benefits of stable marriages, whereas poor and ordinary families are burdened by growing instability and conflict in their lives."

So it is a new school year and where and how can we start to stabilize an instable environment?  We can start by bringing back the family dinnertime.  Many years ago, Reader's Digest did a study on Rhode Scholars- what was the determining factor in these students excelling?  No, it was not whether they had two vs. one parent, female vs. male etc.  The one common thread among Rhode Scholars was they regularly ate dinner with their family.  I was sharing this fact with a recent college graduate in my company's marketing department.  She said that was absolutely true.  She was a Rhode Scholar and her family always ate dinner together.

Studies show that eating 4 or more meals together/week leads to better grades, better health and less risky behavior.  It is a time for parent/parents and children to celebrate the day, discuss the trials and successes, and a time just to enjoy each other.  We are human beings- not animals or cars- and mealtime is so much more than just filling our stomach or tank.  What if the privileged were the families who despite all challenges regularly had dinnertime together?  What would result from more stability and   less conflict in their lives?  What if dinnertime was celebrated and lifted up as a status symbol in America?  What obesity, fitness, and educational barriers could be broken?  It is a new year full of new possibilities!