ROYAL HAWAII'AN RESORT "RESORT FEE" BANANA BREAD

Honolulu's Royal Hawai'in Resort charges $49/night in resort fees. This covers access to the fitness center, WiFi, and a pair of their "signature" banana muffins. Here is the recipe...saving you $49/night....and allowing you to have as much banana bread as you wish. Aloha!>>>>>>> Royal Hawaiian Banana Bread>>>>>>> Makes 1 loaf>>>>>>>> Note: The Royal Hawaiian traditionally welcomes guests with its signature banana bread, still warm from the oven.>>>>>>>> 1 cup sugar>>>>>>> 2 large eggs>>>>>>> 1/2 cup shortening or vegetable oil>>>>>>> 4 to 5 ripe bananas, mashed>>>>>>> 2 cups all-purpose flour>>>>>>> 1/2 teaspoon baking powder>>>>>>> 1 teaspoon baking soda>>>>>>> 1/2 teaspoon salt>>>>>>> 1 teaspoon vanilla>>>>>>> Cinnamon to taste>>>>>>> 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped, or nuts of your choice, optional>>>>>>> 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8-by-4 inch loaf pan.>>>>>>> 2. Combine sugar, eggs and shortening. Add mashed bananas and mix well. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanillato to form a thick batter. Stir in nuts.>>>>>>> 3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.>>>>>>> — Courtesy of Quirino Domingo, pastry chef, Royal Hawaiian, Honolulu>>>>>>>

LISA'S LENTIL AND LEGUME LOVE

How easy is it to make lentils? Easier than Kraft macaroni and cheese! Seriously.. really really. Cheap, easy, and fast-- bad in qualities for your son's girlfriend, good in qualities for your cooking!>>>>>>>HOW TO MAKE LOTS 'O LENTILS>>>>>>> 1 C lentils (brown, cheap, ~$1/# bag).......3-4C water.......1 bay leaf (optional).......bring water to boil, put lentils and bay leaf in boiling water and turn heat waaaay down until the water is barely trembling with a low simmer.....have a life for 20 minutes (no longer!!).......drain lentils and remove bay leaf....that's it!!.......toss with BBQ sauce and put over a baked white/sweet potato.....put on rice with whatever other veg you might have in the fridge/freezer (free-form rice bowl).......or, do what i'm having tonight, and make a packet of Sloppy Joe mix *(.59 packet from Kroger/Smith's) using lentils instead of ground beef, served over toasted Hawaii'an rolls or hamburger buns.....use 1/2 and 1/2 in chili or other recipes that call for ground beef (more protein and less cost and the sauce/spices will make so that no one knows the difference-- double happiness!)>>>>>>>Let me know your lentil/legume success stories!!

LENTILS ARE JUST WAITING FOR THEIR HUMMUS MOMENT...and how to get more a more "lentilly legumey life"!

WHY AMERICANS SHOULD EAT LENTILS EVERY DAY...OR AT LEAST MORE OFTEN! >>>>>>> Lentils conceal their superpowers with a dowdy exterior. Pound for pound, raw lentils have more protein than steak. While not as protein-dense once cooked, they pack even more iron than meat, in addition to other vitamins and minerals.>>>>>>> Fast to cook, easy to store and exalted enough to be buried with the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, these seeds have sustained empires. Roman soldiers lived on the essential portable protein over their long campaigns.>>>>>>> Today, the lentil is again on the front lines. This time, against climate change. While start-ups scramble to engineer a sustainable protein, from lab-grown meat to fake burgers, lentils are a ready solution, one with a proven record. The rest of the world has known this for millennia. From India’s red lentil to the French Le Puy to black “beluga” lentils, so named for their resemblance to caviar, the world grows about 6 million tons every year. Unlike corn and other grains, lentils can thrive on arid lands with little water where many other crops wither — while building up the soil. When it comes to combating climate change, the lentil may be the perfect legume. They’re also, as the caviar mention implies, delicious. So why do Americans eat fewer lentils than almost everyone else?Here’s how you can return the lentil to its rightful place at humanity’s table.>>>>>>> HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO LENTILS HAVE?>>>>>>> Lentils are pulses, or the edible seed of a legume plant. This category of dry beans or seeds — as opposed to fresh green beans — encompasses everything from black beans to chickpeas to pigeon peas. They’re older than agriculture, as archaeological evidence suggests humans collected wild varieties more than 13,000 years ago.>>>>>>> There’s a good reason. While not as dense or digestible as meat once they are cooked, lentils become a complete protein similar to meat when combined with many grains. They’re also a slow burn, satiating hunger for hours. And unlike red meats, particularly those that have been processed, lentils have none of the saturated fats and additives that raise the risks of cancer and heart disease. They also contain iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium and vitamin B, as well as most of the essential amino acids. “That’s one of the beauties of lentils,” says Bruce Maxwell, a plant ecologist at Montana State University. “It’s really high in the precursors for human health.”>>>>>>> HOW MUCH LEGUMES (BEANS) AMERICANS EAT:>>>>>>> Yet legumes remain sparse in the American diet, says Tim McGreevy, CEO of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, a trade group. While Indians consume about 40 pounds of pulses per person annually, and Spaniards come close to 20 pounds per person, Americans remain in the low teens. One study estimated just 8 percent of the U.S. population eats pulses on any given day. That’s changing, as Americans expand their knowledge of lentils beyond the ones most people know: green, brown and red. Hundreds of varieties grown around the world, each with its own terroir, or characteristic flavor imparted by local soil and weather, are making their way to the United States, including the black “beluga” lentils; speckled, dark green French Puy; and large, lighter green Laird gaining popularity. McGreevy is just waiting for lentils to have their “hummus moment.”>>>>>>> For anyone not in the legume industry, the impact of hummus on American pulse consumption is hard to appreciate. While the general profile of legumes has risen alongside the popularity of plant-based food, particularly the Mediterranean diet, it was hummus that ignited Americans’ love of chickpeas, and the pulse family more broadly, says McGreevy. U.S. acreage devoted to chickpeas soared from virtually nothing in 1995 to around 1,200 square miles, more than twice the size of Los Angeles, by 2017, though it has since come back down somewhat. “Hummus was a paradigm shift. It was amazing,” says McGreevy. “Hummus is the gateway pulse.”>>>>>>> In March 2020, pulses received another boost when much of the United States shut down. During the pandemic, they flew off grocery shelves, and lentils were in particularly high demand. Sara Mader, CEO of Palouse Brand, one of the largest online pulse retailers, says the era of lentil sales can be divided into times before and after the pandemic. Annual sales of its brown Pardina lentil rose 860 percent after shutdowns in March 2020, compared to a year earlier. They haven’t slowed much since. Lentils are now one of Palouse Brand’s top three sellers, Mader says.>>>>>>> What’s good for you is also good for the land. America’s most popular crops, like wheat and corn, often degrade the soil over time. Legumes like lentils rebuild it. That’s what happened on Mader’s family farm, which grows crops under the Palouse Brand name. For 125 years, the family has farmed the rich soil of Washington state’s eastern flank, which has sediment deposited there after the last ice age. But after a century of cultivation, the region’s fertility was eroding fast. So in the 1930s, Mader’s family tried something different. They rotated chickpeas, peas and lentils into their wheat fields. By the 1980s, they also adopted no-till farming, leaving organic matter on the surface instead of plowing it.>>>>>>> While uncommon at the time, the Mader family’s embrace of legumes in Palouse, Wash., was prophetic. Today, about a third of the farm is always planted with legumes. And farms like Mader’s in North America now produce more than half the world’s crop of lentils in fields stretching from the Pacific Northwest to Canada’s interior. That’s rebuilding the region’s soil, and lowering carbon emissions. Lentils, like almost all legumes, pull nitrogen out of the air and deposit it underground, thanks to bacteria on their roots. Not only does this fertilize the legumes, it enables the soil to hold more nutrients and water for the next crop, displacing carbon-intensive nitrogen fertilizers. Even better, lentils generally need no irrigation, surviving on rainfall alone.>>>>>>> Farmers across the region now rotate lentils into their former monocultures of wheat. Mader says the soil health on her family’s farm is better than it has been in anyone’s lifetime. And we’ll need more farms like hers. In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission, a collaboration by dozens of leading scientists, designed a diet capable of sustaining 10 billion people and the planet by 2050. The findings, peer-reviewed by the respected British medical journal Lancet, recommended doubling the amount of legumes in our diet, roughly equal to the amount of animal protein. “Food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth,” the scientists wrote.>>>>>>> HOW TO EAT LENTILS;>>>>>>> If there’s a challenge for lentils in the United States, it’s that their biggest fans don’t live here. McGreevy says North American farmers are still shipping about 55 percent of their crop overseas, often to India and Europe. To expand lentils across the United States and Canada, farmers need a stable domestic market.>>>>>>>(still reading? send me a note telling me that you read this and i'll send you lentils..or a gift certificate to Ruth's Chris to get your bloody meat instead) Steve Sando, the founder of Rancho Gordo, is proving it’s possible. The founder of the heirloom bean purveyor, he has turned the humble bean into a coveted crop. Growing up in California’s wine country, he wondered why legumes weren’t accorded the same regard. So he started Rancho Gordo, sourcing and selling tasty beans from around the world. His “Bean Club” started as a joke, inspired by Napa’s pricey wine clubs. It now claims 20,000 members, with even more people on the waiting list. Yet as a child, even Sando disdained lentils. “I grew up on old bins of brown lentils at the food co-op,” he said. “I hated them.” That echoes many first impressions of the pulse: mushy, tasteless and boring. But new varieties and exciting preparations are on hand.>>>>>>> Fresh lentils are better, but you can store dry ones almost indefinitely (reportedly, they were still edible after thousands of years in Egyptian pyramids, says Tim McGreevy, CEO of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council.) Lentils are fast food. They cook in 20 to 40 minutes without soaking. You can brine them in salted water (4 cups water, 1 tsp salt for one hour) before cooking for extra flavor and to avoid bursting. Make one pot of lentils on Sunday. The same pot can be added to multiple meals, from a ginger-coconut soup to a mint-feta salad to curried onions. If a recipe calls for brown lentils, substitute other varieties (except red lentils, which break down rather than hold their structure). There are many lentil recipes. Here’s a collection to get creative. And of course, my favorite: braised lentils with red wine, heavy on the pour.>>>>>>> There’s the lentil-rich burger at the Burger Stand in Taos, N.M., topped with feta and roasted red pepper sauce. Refried lentils have been a crowd favorite at Viva, a Las Vegas Mexican restaurant. Barbecue lentils. Chocolate lentil brownies. Old-world classics like lentils and carrot salad with mustard vinaigrette, and lentils mushroom ragout. And of course, my favorite: braised lentils with red wine, heavy on the pour. Sando is a convert. Not only does Rancho Gordo sell multiple varieties of lentils, Sando eats them regularly as an indulgence — never as a sacrifice. “I’m an omnivore, but I love them so much I just eat less meat,” says Sando. “Food should be joyful, not penance.”>>>>>>> Could they ever become as American as apple pie? McGreevy says it’s just a matter of time. Not a day goes by when he doesn’t have a bowl. “I really have lentils for breakfast every morning,” says McGreevy, who cooks a pot each Sunday, enough for the entire week. “It sounds crazy, but my wife and I put a little butter and salt and pepper on them with an egg. I can go well past lunchtime before I need a snack. They just carry you a long way.”>>>>>>>

I share this...what do you think?

Opinion >>>>>>>What if climate change meant not doom — but abundance? By Rebecca Solnit>>>>>>> A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable.>>>>>>> This vision, I think, is what has been missing when we talk about the climate crisis — and how we should respond to it.>>>>>>> Much of the reluctance to do what climate change requires comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, and trading all our stuff and conveniences for less stuff, less convenience. But what if it meant giving up things we’re well rid of, from deadly emissions to nagging feelings of doom and complicity in destruction? What if the austerity is how we live now — and the abundance could be what is to come?>>>>>>> Look closely, and you can see that by measures other than goods and money, we are impoverished. Even the affluent live in a world where confidence in the future, and in the society and institutions around us, is fading — and where a sense of security, social connectedness, mental and physical health, and other measures of well-being are often dismal.>>>>>>> This is the world we live in with fossil fuel — the burning of which makes us poorer in many ways. We know that the fossil fuel industry corrodes our politics. We know that worldwide, breathing air contaminated by fossil fuel kills more than 8 million people a year and damages many more, particularly babies and children. And we know that as fossil fuel fills the upper atmosphere with carbon dioxide that destabilizes temperature and weather, it increases despair and anxiety.>>>>>>> All of this has particularly affected the young, who are justified in their fury and grief. But in truth, we’re dealing with a broader sense of helplessness and even guilt — the impact on the psyche of witnessing or feeling complicit in something wrong.>>>>>>> This is moral injury, and many of us suffer from it. Or we try to avoid seeing and thinking about it, and adopt a numbing, willful obliviousness.>>>>>>> Such numbing breeds inaction, when this crisis demands specific action: a swift transition toward renewables, improved designs for the built environment, better care for the natural world in all the ways we interact with it.>>>>>>> The good news is, the knowledge that we are not separate from nature but dependent on it is already far more present than it was a few decades ago. Everywhere, I see people rethinking how they work and live, turning this knowledge into reality.>>>>>>> I see farmers who consider not just crops and profit but the sustainability of the wild things and waterways and nature around them — who work the land for this year’s harvest and for the long-term well-being of the whole. I see the resurgence of Indigenous power and vision in climate protests, but also in ideas about food, time and values. I see champions for the oceans and their denizens, for the forests, for the whole miraculously beautiful biosphere.>>>>>>> Such projects need participation, defense and expansion; we need to cultivate and amplify this knowledge until it’s how the world works and how we understand the world.>>>>>>> To accomplish that, we need a large-scale change in perspective. To reframe climate change as an opportunity — a chance to rethink who we are and what we desire.>>>>>>> What if we imagined “wealth” consisting not of the money we stuff into banks or the fossil-fuel-derived goods we pile up, but of joy, beauty, friendship, community, closeness to flourishing nature, to good food produced without abuse of labor? What if we were to think of wealth as security in our environments and societies, and as confidence in a viable future?>>>>>>> “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers,” William Wordsworth wrote a couple of centuries ago. What would it mean to recover those powers, to be rich in time instead of stuff?>>>>>>> For so many of us, being busy with work has leached away our capacity to pursue true riches. What if we were to prioritize reclaiming our time — to fret less about getting and spending — and instead “spend” this precious resource on creative pursuits, on adventure and learning, on building stronger societies and being better citizens, on caring for the people (and other species and places) we love, on taking care of ourselves?>>>>>>> When I was researching a book on how people respond to disasters, I was struck less by the fact that most people were brave, altruistic and able to improvise new social networks and means of survival, and more by the fact that amid these improvisations, they found something they craved so much that even amid death, ruin and disorder, their joy shone out.>>>>>>> To respond to the climate crisis — a disaster on a more immense scale than anything our species has faced — we can and must summon what people facing disasters have: a sense of meaning, of deep connection and generosity, of being truly alive in the face of uncertainty. Of joy.>>>>>>> This is the kind of abundance we need to meet the climate crisis, to make many, or even most, lives better. It is the opposite of moral injury; it is moral beauty. A thing we needn’t acquire, because we already have it in us.>>>>>>>

snappy happy napa

SNAPPY HAPPY NAPA (cabbage sauté)>>>>>>> 1 head napa cabbage (about 8C), sliced+++ 1 onion, sliced+++ 2t garlic+++ (2T oil)+++ Sauté to wilted while assembling rest of ingredients++++++ 1t paprika+++ 1/2t red pepper flakes+++ 2T soy sauce+++ 1T fish sauce (do NOT drop this bottle...or you will have to move house)+++ 3/4C water+++ 2T sesame vinegar/2T sesame oil+++ mix in to above veg, cover and let steam+++++++ 2T water + 2T cornstarch to make slurry+++ add slurry to veg when napa is wilted and all seems to be coming together+++++++ stir and sauté until sauce comes together/gets creamy+++++++ serve over rice sprinkling of sesame vinegar/sesame oil/sesame seeds+++++++ i served with sautéed shrimps but chicken might be good, or egg(i eat A LOT of eggs) or just veg

Pura Vida Story Time

Put on your jammies. Pop some popcorn. Settle in for Pura Vida Story Time.>>>>>>> Yes, the weather where you are is kinda crappy. Yes, i live in Costa Rica, don't work a 9-5 (or longer) job, and have a daily schedule that involves nothing more taxing than studying foreign language "homework" and walking a couple miles at 7 in the morning.. It's easy to think that all is "happy-happy, joy-joy" but let me tell you a couple of stories.>>>>>>> We bought our house in Atenas in October, 2019 and it had a 10 year old refrigerator and 10 year old freezer (separate units, installed next to each other in the kitchen). The whole house was10 years old. That first year, we had to get a few repairs to the roof for leaks...which didn't address the problem....so we had to get a whole new roof installed, two layers, and installation infused(there was none before) to keep the iguana influx down and decrease the noise from the rain to the roof. And we needed a new refrigerator and freezer. The problem? The units that we had were BIG and the only models available, Frigidaire, were being "updated" and not available in the US, much less Costa Rica. Then COVID. So, the models were even longer to be available. Our freezer in Costa Rica leaked water and didn't keep everything "hard frozen". Frozen foods were pretty​ cold but not hard frozen. I was a bit uncomfortable with fish/chicken in the freezer and tried to keep the stock reasonably low, thinking that any day now we would be able to replace the units. >>>>>>> Pura Vida.>>>>>>> Three years later, this past month, we were able to replace the refrigerator and freezer. It took seven (7!) men, seven(7!) hours to install the two units, which are 1" wider and 4" taller than the old units...requiring us to move cabinets to accommodate the "built in" units. There is now a hole above the two units as the wooden piece that had been there is too high (by ~4") and too narrow (by ~1"). But the "best" part? This installation somehow knocked out the power to the wall switches in the bedroom (behind the kitchen) and the lights on the ceiling of the kitchen. The lights in the kitchen work...if i use one set of switches but not the other one. So, to light up the kitchen, i have to turn it on at the hall entrance...walk across the kitchen....flip the switch on the other side of the kitchen...and the room lights up. To turn on the bedside lights in the bedroom or charge my phone overnight or use a plug in the bedroom (vacuum, etc).....not possible. The overhead fan and light work but that's it. >>>>>>> Pura Vida.>>>>>>> We called an electrician (who was there for the refrigerator/freezer installation) only to be told that we need a bigger fuse/power box and that he can do that. Apparently, according to the electrician, we always needed this but it was, as many many things are in Costa Rica, "jury rigged" and "worked just fine" ....until it didn't. He said that he'd come on Monday but needed a deposit of $700 (yes, dollars, not colonnes) to get supplies then the remaining $300 when he came to repair/replace the box that week. It is Tuesday....eight days after he is coming for the explanation and to pick up the deposit. We are still waiting.>>>>>>> Pura Vida.>>>>>>> Oh. And our electric bill for last month (including a week or so of the new units) came. Ten times the amount that it was the month before. No, not $10 more than the month before. Not 10% more than the month before. 10x the amount of the month before. >>>>>>> Pura Vida. >>>>>>> I have another story for you but am too wound up now reliving this "fun" to continue. So...hold onto your popcorn for story time later in the week. I'm off to have an ice pop (freezer works! ) and try to calm down and be appreciative of the blessings that i DO have. Good marriage to a good guy. Good health. Able to swim outside every day of the year (and not as a "polar bear plunge"). Life IS good...>>>>>>>

angels among us?

Christian was, as is his nickname, a runt as a baby. He just DID NOT SLEEP. He was, literally, up and screaming from 12-4 every night. Walking, breast-feeding, singing to him....nothing worked for long. It took about an hour to nurse and sing to him until he fell asleep in my arms and tuck him in bed at 8pm...then he would be up again often at 9 and i'd start the whole system again (nurse/change diaper/sing in the dark until he fell asleep in my arms...then he would be up at midnight and screaming until he finally pooped out and fell back to sleep at ~4....then up for the day at 6. He didn't regularly nap, he might do two hours of sleep during the day but i had Alessandra so i couldn't "sleep when the baby sleeps".>>>>>>> So, Christian was 10 months old (and had been doing the above sleep schedule every night for all of those ten months...). We were in the park, on the swings when another woman came over to the swings with her 10 month old. "Don't you just love having a 10 month old?!" she gushed and i snarled "no, it sucks. he doesn't sleep..i'm off all lactose so i cannot have my coffee-with-milk (the only way that i could drink coffee but had to stop b/c the doctors and we thought that maybe Christian was so fussy b/c he was lactose intolerant). This mom, who introduced herself as "Angel" proceeded to tell me that the secret was to put him down for a nap in the afternoon...and then, at night, NOT to nurse/sing/tuck in the dark. Nurse him, give him a bath, then.....just put him in bed and turn out the light. "The more they sleep, the more they sleep".>>>>>>> I was CERTAIN that this was not going to work but what else could i do? What i had tried before was SO not working. So...i tried it. The first week, he cried for two straight hours (he is stubborn, who knew, right?!) but then....it "took" and he slept through the night. 8pm-4!! Victory!! It only took 10+ months.>>>>>>> Oh, and that women? Never saw her again. I asked around the playground to other moms and the apartment complex for which the playground was designed and no one had ever heard of or seen her. We to this day believe that she was truly an angel sent to me to save me from the Hell that i was in and help me to bond to my son (after 10 months). I loved him...but didn't like him all that much sometimes (like 12-4 am....). Angel and her "sleep therapy" worked like a charm!>>>>>>> Have you had instances where you felt that something had to be a God-thing? That more than just chance could explain something in your life? I've had a few others that i might tell you about in a future blog posting. Enough reading for today...i don't want to bog you down with an overly long posting (blog-bog?).>>>>>>>