Paula Deen, Thank you

No really, thank you. Revealing your Type 2 Diabetes status, admittedly three years after diagnosis, has prompted me to reveal some shocking news from the Bean household. Two weeks ago, I under went a screening for diabetes at a Tucson Medical Center event and crap if I didn’t get prediabetic high sugar levels. Now, I’m sure that the drug companies will be knocking down my door to offer some sweet (pun intended) deal so I can push my rich decadent processed recipes and the drug at the same time. Okay, maybe not.

Now, I don’t want my vast Paula Deen like audience to be led astray. I still have to have this prediabetic level confirmed, but I figure that it isn’t too early to start taking action. After a little research, including talking with some medical professionals and accessing some basic information on diabetes, I understand that with some weight loss, some healthy choices in diet and vigourous exercise 5-7 times a week there is a pretty good chance I can reverse this prediabetes situation. It is going to require vigilance.

An early diagnosis of full diabetes could also most likely be managed with diet and exercise management before it progresses to the point where it needs medication. Although even with careful management I understand that many will need the medication eventually. Type 2 Diabetes is a progressive disease. The thing is, Type II Diabetes is, for most of us, completely preventable too.

I have some characteristics that make me a high risk candidate, a family history of Type II (there is a genetic propensity), cardiovascular problems AND I’m overweight. I’m not heinously overweight, but my BMI at 28 is squarely (or should that be roundly?) in the overweight range. I wonder if the Y will sponsor my membership for my promoting healthy living on this blog? Actually, I understand that the Y has a fabulous diabetes prevention program which I should probably look in to. Oh wait, I just gave away that information without a paid endorsement. That is why Paula waited three years. Must learn not to share information that might help others without compensation or I’ll never have Paula’s respect.

For what it is worth diabetes scares me sh*tless. I’m committed to getting my weight, my exercise and dietary habits under control. The cool thing is, the habits that will help with preventing or staving off diabetes, also help with managing heart issues and reducing cancer risk. I’m putting these recent test results out there to make myself more accountable. Maybe I’ll check in here occasionally to share where I’m at in my goal to reduce my BMI and get exercise. Thanks Paula Deen.

It was this article by Debbie Koenig that alerted me to Paula Deen’s decision to use her large audience, developed through the sharing of the very types of food choices that led to obesity, to pedal diabetes drugs rather than concrete ways to avoid this horrible disease.

Sing Me a Lullaby

You can live in a different country for o’er twenty years, but a babe in my arms has me singing sea shanties and folk songs from that cold wet place and feeling mighty homesick. It was the same with Bean. In a search for forgotten lyrics I found this. Beautiful.

Disjointed Thoughts on a Winter Desert Hike

January in the Sonoran Desert – time to explore what becomes off limits as the mercury rises in the summer.

A little desert hike for the family this MLK weekend.

Fox’s first hike into the desert canyons, creeks and among the cacti.

Bean’s first hike where she isn’t carried at any point.

Ventana Canyon, Green’s favorite Tucson canyon.

Water and green among the scrub.

I fantasize about being in good enough shape to make it back up to the window arch by the end of this year. Like I did 15 years ago.

Bean just enjoys.

Pride aka Full Spectrum Rainbow Cookies

You’re impressed aren’t you? I have to admit I’m pretty impressed too. You should see the Full Spectrum Rainbow Cookie post that inspired it. Debbie‘s rendition is much prettier. Mine was pretty damn yummy though, if not as pretty. I was captured by the ingredient list which, along with chocolate (can’t go far wrong there), included almond paste. I love marzipan and the ilk. Thankfully, I wasn’t put off by her unusual comments that this was a tad fussy. I don’t think it actually is. Well maybe compared to other Debbie recipes, but still. Worth the fuss. Check out the bowls. Beautiful eh?

Sidetrack/ January and February are all about rainbows here in the desert. Not in that incredible rainbow-every-single-day Hawaii way, but beautiful subtle rainbows over mountains and desert promising much needed moisture to the desert. We actually have two rainy seasons. The big dramatic monsoon storms bring relief and theater in Summer II (July and August) and a gentler, softer drizzle soaks a parched desert in January and February. Yep, rainbows. We might not get much rain here in the Sonoran Desert, but we get rainbows and even more fabulous sunsets when we do./End Rainbow sidetrack

Back to the baked goods. Debbie is part of the reason I’ve got back into cooking from scratch, or almost scratch. I’m not sure if I ‘got back’ to, or just started. Cooking in England is much more from scratch, at least it use to be, than family cooking here. Somewhere between moving here at 19 years old and post college I got sucked into prepped risottos and eating out. I still use them occasionally.  There were a couple of other reasons for the return to cooking. Seven months spent in Florence, Italy where the produce was phenomenal, the grocery stores new and different and I had more time  (I had more time than ‘just stick it in the microwave’). A year after we returned to the US, I packed in my job and our belts tightened (if only my actual belt could be tightened. It just feels tighter.) and so cooking at home became more important. Debbie’s recipes, especially her Pantry Cooking section, have been used again and again in our house. Her first cookbook, Parents Need to Eat Too is about to come out. I’ve got my copy on order from Antigone Books, our fabulous local feminist bookstore. Green and I were testers for the book so I’m excited to see how it turned out. The recipes we tested were fabulous, with one exception, but I think that was because I didn’t follow the instructions.

This rainbow season we’ll be making these Rainbow Cookies/Cake again for Bean, who was born under a desert rainbow sky.

Debbie,
Thank you. Your blog, your recipes brought real food to our family dinners.

ps. I think you might want to change the name to Pride cookies. Several friends of a certain demographic were totally taken with these and renamed them Pride Cake. I even received marriage proposals.

Fifteen Weeks

He is getting so big. His head control is amazing. Oh, and how he giggles. It is just a delight.

Beyond January 8th – Celebrating Life

January 8th
We had just been at the  Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s Just for Kids program when we heard the news on the radio. The news was confused and shocking and we didn’t want to shut it off, but in the back was Bean, three almost four years old and she could understand that we were upset. Pulling up at Time Market on University, we saw others hugging, consoling one another, sharing the awful news. We turned the radio off. The news was only repeating what they didn’t know.

For months after our daughter talked about that day, talked about the sick, sick man, the people who were hurt, the young and the old whose lives were taken from them. We talked. We reached out and connected, our little – big town.

This Saturday, January 7th, we move BEYOND. There is a whole host of events organized around commemorating those who died, celebrating the spirit of togetherness that we share in this beautiful place, committing to building a stronger community. BEYOND was conceived by members of Gabe Zimmerman’s family in the weeks following January 8th, 2011. Suzi Hileman has a lovely event planned as part of BEYOND too. We’re going to do what Tucson does, we’re going to remember and celebrate this home, this place, these people, this community that we love. Tucson friends are you going? Here are some of the particularly family friendly events highlighted.

Visit

Yeah! A visit. A sweet visit with Fox’s mama this week, our first since one shortly after placement. We’d had scheduled visits, but then circumstance and fear got in the way. The visit was lovely.

Fox surrounded by lots of love, from Big Mama, Big Sis and Bean. 

Season’s Greetings

What have we been up to?
Well there was the fabulous very homespun Parade of Lights back in mid December. We gathered at TucsonMama’s and then walked down to observe. Always a lovely time. My favorite bit? The 501st Legion (Star Wars) at the end.

There was a flurry of making food from the homeland including toad in the hole (no comments about what this looks like, it tastes fabulous with onion gravy.)

The making of Peppermint Bark a la Orangette. Ostensibly for the teachers at Bean’s Preschool, but I did manage to have a little.

Fox continues to grow and while this photo doesn’t show it, he is a super smiley boy. As well as bloody huge. The kid is already in 6month clothing. Bean was still wearing newborn stuff at this point.

There was salt dough ornament baking and painting as we lost our tree ornaments to the attic.

Oh, and the 4th annual cookie baking/eating event. Somewhere there are pictures of the two eldest children covered in frosting and sprinkles from each of the previous three years. This year E and Bean were joined by their younger siblings. Next year I expect all four will be covered in frosting.

I look forward to frosting everywhere on all four kids. Happy New Year one and all.

Solstice

As Winter Solstice passes and this morning we wake to a day a little longer, Spring a little closer (let’s not mention summer okay?), I offer you this poem by Susan Cooper. I was just introduced to it by a friend. Lovely.

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Finalization

It is silly maybe, but it meant a lot. Today was the finalization of Fox’s adoption. He has been part of our family for 12 weeks, now in the eyes of the law this is also the case. Next thing, a passport and an international trip for our young boy. Well, soon.