ROSANNA'S NEWS AND VIEWS© 

November 2001

Once again, we are pleased to introduce new authors in this letter, with two outstanding articles.  The first, A Treatise on Buckwheat, is a contribution from Ilanit Tof, who is well known to members of our macro discussion group.  The second, SUGAR BLUES by William Dufty, excerpted from NEXUS MAGAZINE and reprinted with their gracious permission, continues the series on the dangers of sugar and gives more insight into this harmful substance.

We are sorry to report that our garden experiment, leaving it up to nature to cultivate as we described in our last newsletter, resulted in failure.  We did get one carrot to eat and  a huge crop of weeds.  It will take lots of work in the spring to sort out this tangle.  Since we were traveling all summer the poor little plot was left to its own devices and we again have learned that you don't get something for nothing.  Ah well, we knew that!

Our travels have taken us to North Carolina's Outer Banks for three weeks of delightful camping and then on to Italy for an extended stay.  The picture was taken in Castelli, a mountain town in central Italy where local artisans have specialized in ceramics for many centuries.  We made good friends there and enjoyed our stay immensely.

MAIN MEAL

BARLEY SOUP

 Ingredients

1 cup pearled barley, washed and drained

1 carrot, diced

1 medium onion, diced

2 parsnips, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 cup cabbage, finely cut

1 cup yellow winter squash diced

3 inch piece of Kombu

3 tabsp. Soy sauce

sea salt to taste

few blanched snow peas for garnish

spring water for consistency you like

PREPARATION

Put barley, Kombu and spring water in pot and bring to a boil, then simmer for 45 minutes.  Add vegetables and bring back to a boil, then again reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes to one half hour add water if required (bringing back to boil, then simmer).  Add soy sauce and salt, cook another 2-3 minutes; add snow peas for garnish;  serve.

MILLET LOAF

Ingredients

2 cups millet

1 cup cooked chick peas

1 carrot, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 onion, diced

1 tablespoon sesame butter

1 tablespoon almond butter

soy sauce

PREPARATION

Wash and cook two cups millet with 4 cups water for 20 minutes.  When it’s cool enough to be handled, add vegetables, mixing well.  Dilute sesame butter, almond butter and soy sauce with lukewarm water and pour into the mixture, again mixing well.  Lightly oil baking pan and coat with flour to prevent sticking.  Fashion mixture into loaf (see picture), bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 20-30 minutes; serve.

ARAME

Ingredients

1 cup dry arame, soaked

½ pound tofu

1tbsp kelp granules

2 tsp. Tahini

1 tbsp. soy sauce (Shoyu)

toasted sesame oil

Preparation

Lightly oil sauce pan with toasted sesame oil.  Heat, then add arame and enough water so it doesn’t burn.  Simmer for 20 minutes adding water so it doesn’t get dry.  While this is cooking, in a cup, mix ½ cup hot water with the tahini, then add kelp and a few drops of soy sauce and let it stand.  Crumble the tofu into the simmering seaweed, mix and continue to simmer another 5 minutes.  Add sauce, stir, cook another 2 minutes and serve.

PRESSED SALAD

Ingredients

1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced

½ head escarole, washed and chopped

7-10 leaves endive, washed and chopped

½ cup red cabbage, thinly sliced

sea salt

Umeboshi vinegar

Preparation

Mix all vegetables together and add a good sprinkling of sea salt.  Mix well and press with a heavy weight for one hour.  Rinse, drain and add vinegar to taste; serve.

BLANCHED BRUSSELS SPROUTS AND DAIKON

Ingredients

about 2-3 cups Brussels Sprouts

1 medium daikon radish

1 quart spring water

2 inch piece of Kombu seaweed

Preparation

Add Kombu to water and bring to a boil; after two minutes, remove Kombu and reserve for another time.  Add sprouts to boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes (until they test tender with a fork) then remove with a slotted spoon.  Cut Daikon diagonally in 1/2" chunks and put into boiling water.  Cook until the desired consistency is reached (not too soft) and remove from water with a slotted spoon.  When sprouts are cool enough to handle, cut them in half and combine artistically with daikon in the dish.  Serve.

KALE

Ingredients

1 bunch kale, washed, drained and chopped

1 quart spring water

2 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in a little water, 1 tbsp. mirin and a few drops of soy sauce

Preparation

Bring the water to a boil, add kale.  When the water returns to a boil, remove kale with a slotted spoon.  Chop the mushrooms and add to the kale with a little of the mirin soaking liquid, mix well and serve.

PEAR-BLUEBERRY CRISP

  Buon Appetito!

Rosanna & James 

JOKE

WISDOM of Ralph Waldo Emerson

From Essay 10, Circles

Nature centers into balls,
And her proud ephemerals,
Fast to surface and outside,
Scan the profile of the sphere;
Knew they what that signified,
A new genesis were here.

The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already deduced, in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action. Another analogy we shall now trace; that every action admits of being outdone. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.

This fact, as far as it symbolizes the moral fact of the Unattainable, the flying Perfect, around which the hands of man can never meet, at once the inspirer and the condemner of every success, may conveniently serve us to connect many illustrations of human power in every department.