ROSANNA'S NEWS AND VIEWS©

September 16, 1998                              

UME PLUMS

They are GOOD for you and the taste kind of grows on you. When you need one, there is no substitute. The Umeboshi Plum, a Japanese import now successfully cultivated in California is a mainstay in our diet and here’s Rosanna’s insight into why:

Plums pickled in salt and Shiso leaves, what the heck is that and why should we make them part of our diet? When we suffer from acid indigestion (eating out of balance) the Ume will come to the rescue….and quickly. Just hold a plum in your mouth and eat it slowly, then hold the pit for a while and your stomach will settle right down, Rosanna says and James testifies it’s true.

Researchers in Japan have discovered many medicinal properties of the Umeboshi plum.   They cleanse the blood and offer relief to a wide variety of symptoms, including motion sickness. Taken before intense exercise they increase stamina and decrease the likelihood of stiff and sore muscles.

A roasted Umeboshi in a cup of Bancha twig tea will relieve cold and flu symptoms (and reportedly offers quick and effective relief for hangovers).

A drop of the concentrate in a cup of tea will offer instant help for tiredness and stress, giving renewed vigor within minutes.

Umeboshi Plum Concentrate is excellent for treatment of any fungus on the body, it kills on contact. Those with fungus in their nails or elsewhere on their bodies can benefit from application of this paste.

For diarrhea and other acidic conditions there is no better remedy than Ume Sho Kuzu.

UME SHO KUZU

Ingredients

1 Tsp. Kuzu (do not substitute Arrowroot)

1 Umeboshi Plum

1 cup Spring Water

Few drops of Soy Sauce

 

Preparation

Break plum in small pieces. Add Kuzu and 1 Tbsp. Water. Mix until Kuzu blends into mixture with no lumps. Add the rest of the water and heat with medium flame, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil. Kill flame, add Soy Sauce and serve.

FALL IS UPON US!

Here come the squashes and we are adjusting our eating habits to prepare our bodies for the cool/cold seasons to come. We consume less fruit and begin to introduce foods that produce the energy required to warm us.

Squash is beautiful and rich in color, taste and nutrients. They are at home in soup, stand alone, in dessert or in an endless variety of combinations with beans, grain and vegetables. In this issue we’ll give you some recipes.

Rosanna goes creative when the squash arrives. We look forward to Pumpkin (later), Calabata, Butternut, Kabocha, Buttercup, Spaghetti, Acorn……….and you name it. Sometimes she buys them without getting the name. They are always delicious.

Here are a few squash recipes to have handy as they come into season and don’t be afraid to substitute types with locally available produce.

SQUASH SOUP

Ingredients

1 Onion

3 Carrots

2 stalks Celery

1 small Butternut squash

1 small Kabocha squash

1 three inch piece Kombu (seaweed)

sea salt to taste

Preparation

In a fairly large pot, place the Kombu on the bottom and add Onions, Carrots and Celery (all cut in big chunks). Remove skin and seeds from Squashes and cut into chunks, add to pot. Add enough water to cover vegetables and apply medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Then lower heat and put a lid, slightly ajar, and simmer until all vegetables are soft. Remove Kombu.

Puree the vegetables and return to the broth. Rosanna uses a hand food mill for this process and puts plenty of her energy into the food. One could also use a blender, food processor, or what have you to make the puree. If it needs to be thinned to work, just add more of the broth, or add water, being careful not to make it too thin. Bring it back to a boil, add salt and serve.

TOFU-SQUASH Medley (Melody!)

Ingredients

4 medium Carrots

½ Kabocha squash

½ Buttercup squash

1 big Onion

1 pound firm Tofu

Soy Sauce or Sea Salt

1 Tbsp. Toasted Sesame oil

Preparation

Peel carrots (Rosanna practically never peels carrots!) and cut them in small pieces and steam until very soft. Mash them in a dish using a fork. Remove seeds and skin from squash. (save the skins and seeds for other dishes, the skins are great in Miso soup, for example)

Steam the squash and mash as with the carrots and mix with the carrots. Finely dice the Onion and sauté in hot oil in a pan large enough for all the ingredients until limp. Crumble the Tofu while adding to the Onions and Oil and sauté five minutes. Add Squash and Carrot mixture and sauté for a few more minutes, add Soy Sauce or Sea Salt and Serve.

SQUASH WITH ORANGE

Ingredients

1 Butternut Squash

1 Orange (grate the rind and juice and combine)

pinch of salt

Preparation

Wash, remove seeds (save them for toasting) and cut Squash into cubes. Layer in a baking dish and pour evenly the juice and grated rind of the Orange. Salt, cover and bake at 350° F for 30 minutes, until soft. Serve.

SQUASH BREAD

Ingredients

2 cups mashed steamed (or baked) Squash (Butternut or Kabocha)

1 cup Whole Wheat flour

1 cup white unbleached flour

1 Tbsp. Baking Powder (aluminum free)

½ cup Raisins or dried Apricots

½ pound Tofu (firm, pureed in blender)

½ cup Walnuts

¾ cup Rice Syrup

½ cup Apple Juice

pinch of Sea Salt

3 Tbsp. Safflower Oil

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

Preparation

Mix all dry ingredients. Blend the wet ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix. Pour into oiled bread pan or dish and bake at 350° F for one hour. Let cool and serve.

 

Directors at Daimler Benz and Chrysler have announced an agreement to adopt English as the preferred language for communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Directors at Chrysler conceded that English spelling has some room for improvement and have accepted a 5-year phase-in plan.

In the first year, S will be used instead of the soft C. Also the hard c will be replased with K. Not only will this klear up konfusion, but komputers kan have 1 less letter.

There will be grown kompany enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome PH will be replased by F. This will make words like fotograf 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, Daimler-Khrysler akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated shanges are possible.

Daimler-Khrysler will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent E's in the languag is disgrasful and they would go.

By the forth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing TH with Z and W by V.

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary O kan be droped from vords kontaining OU and similar shanges vud of kors be aplid to al ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and employes vil find it ezi to komunikat viz ech ozer.

Ov korse al supliers vil be expekted to svitsh to zis for al busines komunikation bia Daimler-Khrysler.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

 

MYSTICISM

Twentieth century visionary and mystic, R. Buckmister Fuller, said:

"World Game

I review planetary resources in terms of today's gained know-how, to see whether there's any way we might be able to do much more with much less, to be able to take care of everybody. All political systems and wars based on scarcity would become obsolete. World Gaming is played, not like checkers against an enemy but against ignorance, inertia, and fear. The World Game proves that John Von Neumann's theory of war gaming, which holds that one side or the other must ultimately die, either by war or starvation, is invalid and offers a heretofore unconsidered alternative way to play the war game in which, as in mountain climbing, the object is to find all the moves by which the whole field of climbers would win as each helped the other so that everyone reached the mountaintop successfully. I think of my World Game as a way to bypass politics, human ignorance, prejudice, and war and put the facts before man and the whole world to try to deal with them coherently. We have never so far made the attempt to take our collective destiny into our own hands, and shape it."

source   CRITICAL PATH, Fuller and Kuromiya

Buon appetito!

Rosanna and James