The Portal to Boomeranger World

That's the Way the Cookies Crumble re Bush and Minions, but If You Nibble on Nancy's Own Lemon Ginger Shortbread Cookies the World Will Seem a Little Sweeter

All things Bush gets me so agitated that I cannot stand it. So munching one of Nancy's Own Cookies soothes my fevered brow and makes my heart sing. I like my Nancy's Own Lemon Ginger Shortbread cookies with a cup of fair trade and organic Earl Grey. Delicious! Nancy Newman the baker of these delectable cookies will be offering them in the Vaboomer Book Cafe and Tea Shop in early August when Vaboomer expands. Here is a bit about her.

Nancy Ann Newman, 52, a French-trained chef, has 25 years experience as a cooking instructor.  She has taught home cooks, executives and children.  She has also been the Executive Chef for corporations in NYC and NJ. She has also spent over two years substituting in public school system in grades K-12. She has two children ages 10 and 13 and teaches privately to others individually or in groups. She is now in process of creating live-stream cooking classes to reach a larger audience.  She bakes and sells cookies called Nancy's Own.  They are: Lemon Ginger Shortbread, Cheddar Shortbread with Spiced Pecans, Crispy Chocolate Chip and Almond Crisps with Chocolate Mint Kisses. She attended La Varenne in Paris and worked at Peter Kump's and the Institute for Culinary Education in Manhattan for 15 years.

She was with King's in New Jersey for eight years.  Her experience includes a stint at Ladies Home Journal and with an interior design firm in Manhattan, L.I., and Connecticut for two years.  Nancy’s Own Cookies Lemon Ginger Shortbread cookies are a delectable 2-bite delight. Melt-in-your-mouth texture with a delicious ping of lemon and a back hint of ginger. Try with a steaming cup of Earl Grey. As a technical note for lemon ginger cookies-they are made with a coarse Caribbean "spiced" lemon sugar and crystallized ginger.  This makes them extra flavorful, and crispy. 

The Crispy Chocolate Chip cookies are made with a "secret " ingredient to make them richer and with organic chocolate chips. They would go fine with a steaming mug of fair trade organic java!

The Almond Crisps are topped with a chocolate mint kiss and are studded with chunks of almonds. The Cheese Short Biscuits are meltingly fine with aged Cabot cheddar and topped with spicy pecans. Rich and delicious with a tickle of heat.

The Homemade Healthbars are nutritionally packed with Irish oatmeal, applesauce, orange zest, and raisins.  At only 103 calories, 3 g. fat, these bars will add fiber and be a good energy source.
I'll be on the road for the next 3-4 days on our way to MICH. I'll try to post from the road. That will be a new one for me.

In the meantime think sweet cookies--not Bush and his waning days of presidency.

Money on Monday: Understanding Your Worth

 

This  post comes to you via a forwarded email from a friend--it is no doubt making the rounds of the internet, and seemed very apt for my Money on Monday post. Clearly there are others out there who feel the same as I do and it is good to hear that.

One Flaw In Women

Women have strengths that amaze men.
 They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take 'no' for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what
makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

Mountain Gorillas and Polar Bears Endangered: Human Energy Needs to Blame

OK, you say, now I'm supposed to feel guilty about polar bears AND gorillas?

What has that to do with me? Nothing directly...if you are in the developed West, you didn't pull the trigger that brutally murdered--some execution style--10 of a family of 12 Mountain Gorillas in Virunga National Park in Central Africa last summer. Moms and dads, teens and kids--leaving the babies to starve to death. A warning to all to back off from investigating illegalities in the park.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/virunga/jenkins-text.

You are not part of the $30, 000,000 illegal trade in charcoal that is decimating this most stunning national park--a park that for its environmental and ecological diversity and sheer beauty many scientists and environmentalists call the jewel of THE PLANET.

You are not one of the many 1,000s of families that have been displaced due to the wars in Rwanda. Due to the decades-old (several century-old) conflicts between The Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, all that border the park. You are not a Tutsi or a Hutu. You are not desperate for the life-giving charcoal that will heat the water to cook your mealie meal to feed your hungry kids.

Nor are you purposely running your car on oil, wearing oil based clothing, heating, cooling with oil, drinking water out of oil-based bottles, walking on oil-based carpeting, sitting on oil-based furniture, bringing home food packaged in oil-based wrappings and bags, right?   That's just all there is to choose from, right?

You are not directly responsible for the carbon emissions that are melting the ice floes at the North Pole and shrinking the ice pack that normally sits about 50 miles off the northern coast of Canada to more than 200 miles? SO...you are not responsible for the loss of PLANKTON that is locked up in the ice and feeds all the subspecies that feed the Polar bears and larger polar creatures, are you?

Humans have an insatiable NEED for energy--whether it is charcoal the production of which is descimating the old growth hardwood trees in Virunga Park: No trees=no habitat. No habitat=no gorillas.Or whether it is oil to power our "modern" comfortable life.

And yes, I do believe we are all responsible--not in a guilty way--guilt paralyzes and causes us to turn away. But in a way that is a Global Wide Call to Action and on our own selfish behalf. We are selfish creatures--well, really we have a basic driving inner force to LIVE. Each of us has this need, this drive--all creatures do. But now we must realize that unless we are selfish together and take selfish action together for our own benefit, we will all go the way of the dodo. And our beautiful Blue Marble will be a smoking empty desert hulk.

DO the Change you want to BE. SOmeone out there invent a little portable and cheap solar cooker that can be GIVEN to all the displaced families around Virunga Park. And SURELY we are not that lazy, worthless or stupid to not be able to invent cheap and easy wind turbines and solar or human powered and CHEAP means to power our needs.

I recently received a sampler from the Sundance Channel about a new environmental program called "big ideas for  a Small Planet." As I view that sampler, I' ll share with you.

So think about what you can do today--one action taken in millions can really change things.

$$ Money on Monday: What Do you Need to UNlearn?

 A few years ago in a conversation with a woman who turned out to have blind dated my ex  (after we were exed!), I had an epiphany about my inner vision of money. In this picture, I was like Kilroy pining after the riches on the other side of a thick wall. (I related this story in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating because of the deep lessons I am still unlearning.)

After being smote with this sad image, I had another bloom in my mind's eye--this one was of the wall transforming into a very BIG dam in front of an even bigger reservoir. 

I have spent a lot of time in the past months imaging on that dam and the reservoir and the streams and rivers that feed the reservoir.

UNlearning that inner image was a deep lesson that connected to all kinds of myths, personal histories, and assumptions about money.  The most basic one for me was that I was not a person who would or could receive money/riches/abundance in any form.

And undeRstanding that this image, expectation, basic deep belief was in my mind's eye literally set in stone in the form of a BIG STONE WALL, was one of the most profound UNlearnings.

I began thinking about walls and all they can do for us beyond separating us from what we want and need, besides being barriers to abundance, wealth, good health and love.

WALLS can:

• Protect from attack
• Have magical properties with magical openings
• Can be high or low
• Be beautiful to provide structure and definition
• Contain--water, gardens
• Retain--shore up and strengthen and support and hold up structures and information
• Guide in dim light
• Safe enclosures
• Provide borders between

Walls then are a very good thing and much needed. This I have firmly in mid. What is not so clear is RECEIVING the contents of the reservoir that my VERY BIG DAM is retaining.

In your life--what do you need to UNlearn? What is a deep lesson that you learned at an early or vulnerable stage of life that is preventing you from some desired end or state?

Mine now is to UNlearn not receiving and RElearn to receive--love, abundance, health, long life.
In terms of health...I am UNlearning laziness. Here's a simple tip for you. Keep a set of small hand weights in the bathroom. Do several sets of exercises during the day. I have been doing 3 sets of 10--biceps, flys and triceps everyday for the past several weeks. Makes it very easy and since the weights are right there on the floor beside me, I am reminded to do these quick repetitions. Remember brain plasticity--the hallmark of a "young" brain is building new neurons and exercise is a key method to doing so.

What are YOU UNlearning??

The Beatles Taught Us "Money Can't Buy Me Love," But If There Is Too Little, It Compromises Health, Happiness and Longevity

Can't buy me love, can't buy me love, can't buy me love--nononononoooooooo...

The Beatles definitely got the larger picture right. Money can't buy love.

But according to www.realage.com in an article on happiness and age (http://www.realage.com/WellnessCenter/Articles.aspx) the stereotype of getting older, being lonely and unloved,  and getting crotchty is just that--a stereotype.

Older people today--or we boomers--are by and large happier and happier as we age, because larger and larger numbers of us are being very attentive to our health. And the connection between good health and happiness has been documented in numerous studies.We certainly have been knocked for being too concerned with self--The SO-CALLED ME Generation--trailing edge Boomers are called.

But what this really means is that Boomers in general have begun to unravel some of the secrets to happiness--that given enough money, decent health care can be purchased.

That massages, and other destressors can be gotten. That choosing to focus on the good things in one's life even in the worst of circumstances contributes to a happier frame of mind.

And this happier mindset contributes to overall calmer condition, lessening stress hormones, better heart health and a stronger immune system. And given a happier frame of mind, we have more heart to share with the world and with and on behalf of those who are suffering from severe lack.

To wit Bill Moyers Journal reported on PBS tonight (last night, because my post would not upload!!) about the collusion between OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) under the Bush (mis)administration and companies such as poultry plant owners in 27 states, with huge numbers in SC and NC. Not only has there been tricky reporting by the companies that obscured the outrageous numbers of injuries to workers. But under Bush the key OSHA rules that set critical standards were removed in 2002 as was a column on injury report sheet that previously had collected data on injuries.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

In order to slide around reporting that would have flagged a plant for inspection, employers have forced injured workers to return to the plant directly after surgery--thus avoiding lost work time reports. Because these workers are at the bottom of the labor market--poor, largely immigrant and sometimes undocumented, they are terrified of losing their jobs and are generally economically, politically and health-wise disinfranchized. See that six part story in the Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotte.com/716/index.html).

And Karl Rove has the nerve--no arrogance--to call Sen Obama arrogant! Beggers the imagination. Read Rove's remark here   Rove and his other ARROGANT Bush minions have been the architects of  this inhumane administering.So while money can't buy us love and by extension happiness, we can choose our happiness in the small moments of life. One of those acts of happiness is to be grateful for one's blessings and to serve others. Keep a positive attitude, get laughs.

VOTING THE BUMS OUT would make me VERY happy!

Boycott House of Rayford chicken products.

And let's not forget McCain't who thinks is it funny to make a wife-beating joke McCain's joke.

That's a sick idea of love.