Chihuly at the Salk

San Diego really has more art and culture than you think. Sometimes we have smaller, shorter shows, but we get to see some great art. Thanks, Kim, for alerting us to the Dale Chihuly show at the Salk Institute. What a wonderful morning it was. Dale Chihuly is probably the most famous living glass maker in the United States, if not the world. The wonderful thing about his work is that it is always evolving. He doesn't just have one style and keep repeating himself. He is constantly creating new and wonderful objects, stretching himself and his glass blowers to the limit.

Chihuly was born in 1941, attended the University of Washington, then went to the University of Wisconsin, which had the only glass program in the country at that time. From there it was off to the Rhode Island School of Design, and finally off to Venice, Italy. It was here that he developed a team approch to glass making. Many of his designs are so large they cannot be handled by one person, so he has 2-3 people working on one piece.

Chihuly likes his exhibits in gardens and surrounded by hard structures, so the Salk Institute was the perfect setting. There were some pieces with 1,000 parts to the structure. Everything is disassembled for shipping, then reassembled. The installers have some lee way in the assembly, so no two exhibits of the same piece are exactly the same. Two outdoor chandeliers were created especially for this exhibit, so even if you don't get to the exhibit before it closes, the chandeliers will be on display until August.

Some of his pieces are so large that his Seattle studio cannot accomodate them. He goes to Finland once a year where he rents a very large space in order to produce some of his large pieces. I'm surprised that he doesn't just rent a larger space in Seattle. I guess he likes going to Finland.

My favorite piece was called Float Boat and Floats. Chihuly purcheses old wooden boat hulls, refurbishes them, then fills them with the most gorgeous blown glass balls you can imagine. Some the larger balls weigh up to 60 pounds. Many balls are piled in the boat, others are scattered around the boat, in front and behind.

Another gorgeous piece was The Sun. This is one of his most famous pieces, but this is the first time it has been seen with the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop. This sculpture had over 1,000 individual pieces fitted into its base. It was truly magnificent.

I urge you to stop by the Salk (you can order tickets on line) before the exhibit closes. It can also be seen at night, which would be a wonderful experience, with lights shining on his work. If you don't get there, remember that the two chandeliers will be on display until August. Don't miss them.

Gourmet Cooking in No Time Flat

Last week I spent a delightful evening at the Encinitas Libray, thanks to my friend Christie. She called to tell me they were having Deana Gunn, the author of a book called Cooking With All Things Trader Joes. She thought it was something I would enjoy, and was she ever right. Christie arranged for about ten of us to meet before the program, picnic dinner in hand, and socialize. Unfortunately it turned out to be the coldest, rainest night in a long time, so we picniced inside. Then we got to listen to Deana speak and demonstrate for about an hour, showing us how she has learned to use Trader Joe's products to prepare good, healthy gourment meals in no time. She had so much information to share, that I will write some now, then blog about this next another time with more of Dean's tips.

First, check out her website and blog, www.cookingwithtraderjoes.com. She has recipes every week and even some free giveaways. She's easy to read and full of great ideas. Deana also has two books out. The first one, Cooking With All Things Trader Joes, is a big, bulky book with over 130 recipes, color photos of each recipe and very beautiful to look at. The trouble is, lots of people making her recipes want to take the ingredient list with them to the store, so her second book is in a small, pocket sized format, with no pictures. It also has about 130 recipes.

One of Deana's favorite products is organic brown rice, ready in 3 minutes. Trader Joe's also has a white Jasmine rice. Both are delicious and a real time saver. Another product that she introduced me to is by Dorot. It is frozen cubes of garlic, in something like an icecube tray, that you just pop out as needed. Fantastic idea. Dorot also makes basil and cilantro in the same kind of packaging. I hate buying cilantro because I only use a little and end up throwing the rest away. This product may actually save me money. Another favorite of Deana's is the fresh bruschetta sauce in the refrigerated section. This tastes like homemade. Fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and and basil combined to make a fresh sauce for bread, or add to pasta with a little parmesean for a complete meal. Or, spread a little goat cheese on a cracker, then the bruschetta and you have a fancy hors d'oeuvre.

These are a few of her fabulous ideas and recipes. I will write another blog about this evening soon and give you more tips for becomming a gourmet and keeping within your budget.

Brunch at The Kitchen

Since I first started coming to Boulder 15 years ago, things have really changed. Not only is it the organic capital of the world, it is also fast becoming a culinary city to be reckoned with. Every time I visit there are new and interesting places to dine, some expensive, some not, but all creative and exciting. Our Sunday brunch at The Kitchen on Pearl Street was my second visit to the exciting restaurant. My first visit was last year for dinner, but they now serve breakfast and Sunday brunch.

The restaurant itself is a community bistro located in historic downtown Boulder, Colorado, open seven days a week. The menu evolves seasonally and reflects the simple and straightforward preparation of comfortable classics. The Kitchen (upstairs) is a relaxed wine and beer lounge. Rustic food is prepared in a wood-fired oven and compliments one of the best beer and wine lists in Colorado.

The Kitchen believes in protecting our environment, 100% of the electricity for the restaurant is provided by windpower. They recycle or reuse almost 100% of their discards. Paper products are all biodegradable. The remains of uncooked food or open bottles of wine are given to the waitstaff at the end of each day. Discarded food is composted. In short, The Kitchen is a green restaurant, and I love to supports such establishments.

Let's talk a little about the food. Awesome is all I can say. Homemade bakery items are everywhere. Coffee cake, croissants and granola are all homemade. I ordered the goat gouda omelette (I had it with egg whites only). It was served with a simple salad and delicous crusty bread. It was a great meal, and I didn't go too far off my eating plan. Phil had the smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese with chives and capers. Deborah had the The Kitchen sausage strata, a layered casserole type breakfast with eggs, sausage, bread and cheese. It was just delicious. The homemade croissants are wonderful, although we resisted. Other brunch items include Udi's challah french toast (Udi is the owner), crab, lime, avocado and cilantro salad, chevre and hazelnut salad, slow roasted pork sandwich, and much, much more.

I urge you to try The Kitchen for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's a happening place, you can eat at the bar if you're alone, or at the community table in the center of the restaurant. Food is fresh, creative and oh, so good.

Cinco de Mayo Hot Spots

Cinco de Mayo is NOT the celebration of Mexican Independance, as many may think. It commemorates the victory of the outnumbered Mexican army over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Any excuse for a party in San Diego. Fiestas, happy hours and musical events can be found everywhere from Ocanside, to Chula Vista, to Old Town. Here are some of the events you might like to consider attending.

In Old Town, on May 1-2 you can attend music, dance, storytelling for kids and food events throughout the day and night. Go to www.cincodemayo.com for a list of events and exact location. The Bahia Sternwheelers is a paddleboat in Mission Bay that will take you on a cruise of the harbor. It's $10 for adults, with specially priced margarittas and music.

Las Olas in Cardiff will offer their famous pineapple and chile margaritas, in addition to lots of appetizers and other drink options. It's crowded so get there early.

The Gaslamp, always up for a party, will have a Cinco de Mayo blockparty. My guess is that even the non Mexican restaurants will be celebrating.

Other restaurants that have always had a lively party atmosphere for Cinco de Mayo include En Fuego in Del Mar, Fidels in Solana Beach, and all locations of Rockin Baja Lobster.

Happy Hour is always a kick, and the Cinco de Mayo celebrations are just another excuse for us to get out and party. What could be better than a cold margarita, some fresh, hot tortilla chips with a great homemade salsa and some great friends to party with? Not much.

Fourteenth Visit to Taft

Today was a great day for Ron, a visit with old friends, in addition to a visit with his old wife. Phil and Ellen have known Ron for 54 years. They all went to high school together, Phil and Ellen married and stayed in Chicago and Ron moved to Los Angeles. For many years they were out of touch but reconnected about 15 years ago. They now live in Scottsdale and made a trip here with the express purpose of seeing Ron. Now that's a good friend. When Ron was first incarcerated he never expected many people to come see him other than family. After all, if you live in San Diego it's a full day's journey, if you're in Los Angeles it's a six hour time frame. He never expected that people would put themselves out to come see him. But he was wrong. Several friends have already been up to Taft, and in two weeks time he has a few of his Carlsbad buddies coming up to visit. In the future some of his softball friends are also going to make the drive up to see Ron.

It was great. Ron was so happy today. Telling jokes and stories as he loves to do, he was just having a great time. I think he did 75% of the talking in the four hours we were all together. Some of the time was spent catching up on news of high school friends, but much of the day was spent with Ron describing in detail his daily life, talking about the people he's met at Taft, and his plans for the future. I think Phil and Ellen were happy they made the trip. Just seeing where he is, how he looks and his great attitude let them know he is a survivor.

I just sort of sat back and took it all in. Often our visits are intense one on one conversations for hours (which I love), but today I got to watch Ron enjoy himself with old friends. I arrived about 1 1/2 hours before Phil and Ellen. We always have so much to talk about. Today was no exception, in fact there's so much to say that I have to keep a list of topics, lest I forget. Telephone conversations are taped so we wait for visitors day to discuss anything that is private.

All in all it was a great visitors day, and it was great to see Ron's spirits so high. The only downer is that Ron's 50th high school reunion is in June (Phil and Ellen are in charge of the event) and we won't be there. I know that he is sad about missing it, but there's nothing he can do about it. Hopefully we'll be at the next one.

Products That Didn't Survive the Last Decade

Every year thousands of new products are released, and the public will either accept or reject them. Most fizzle out for various reasons such as not enough capitol behind them, poor advertising, or just the fact that it's a lousy product. Here are a few of the products that did NOT survive the first decade of the 21st century. Some of them seemed like very good ideas. It's hard to know why they didn't make it.

1. Segway. Launched in 2002, this two wheel personal transportation vehicle received a great deal of hoopla. Some said it would be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy. It didn't pan out, due to its price point being too high, over $3000. You still see them on a limited basis in big cities. They're used for the most part by police and messenger services.

2. Microsoft Vista was released in 2007. It was created to improve security. It created a nightmare for many PC users. It had so many glitches in it that many people, including myself, uninstalled it on their new computers and replaced it with Microsoft XP.

3. Palm Pilot. This device was released in 1996 as a personal organizer. It seemed good at the time, but when Blackberry came along, Palm Pilot developed difficulties. It's still on the market, and they have plans to release a new version of it soon.

4. Microsoft Zune was launched in 2006. It was meant to compete with Apple iPod, and we know how that worked out. It just couldn't compete.

5. YouTube. It's the largest video sharing site in the world, but most of it's content is of such low quality that advertisers do not want to put their dollars there. It is unlikely they will turn a profit anytime soon. It is estimated they will lost $470 million this year.

6. Mountain bikes. They just never caught on with the public, and although they're still around today, they are used mostly by public service officials (police, etc).

7. WebTV. This product seemed like a winner when it was first released, but over the next few years technology of other products made webtv seem outdated. Surprisingly, Microsoft bought the company, but then scrapped the brand.

8. Cocaine. This was a high energy drink with 3 1/2 times more caffeine than Redbull. It was pulled from the market byt the FDA in 2007. They said it was being sold as an alternative to street drugs.

So here you have it. A very short list of the thousands of losers from the past decade. It's funny how something seems like such a good idea at the time, and then, poof, the public is on to something else. Remember Krispy Kreme?

Food Expo Part 2

There were so many interesting food products at Food Expo that I hardly know where to start. A number of vendors were at the show from Australia, Korea, Canada, France and Spain. Many were here to introduce their product to those in the food industry, but don't have any distribution in the U.S, at this time.

I was so disappointed when I tasted Simply Delish chunky dips from Australia. They're not available here yet, but should be within the next six months. Don't forget this name. They're the best prepared dips I've tasted, with flavors like pumpkin with nuts and parmesean cheese. Another great one was a mild chile dip.

Another interesting product from Seville, Spain is Ines Rosales Sweet Olive Oil Tortas. They are delicate, crisp tortas, crispy and covered with sugar. They're individually wrapped, and are a great snack or cookie. They can be found in major speciality shops (mostly Mexican grocery stores). I could not find an exact list of where they're sold.

Steels Gourmet (www.steelsgourmet.com) is an interesting company. Right now their products are only available online, but take a look. They sell sauces sweetened with agave. No sugar is used. They have chutneys, carmel, sweet and sour, barbeque. In addition they have fruit spreads, pie fillings and salad dressing. The sauces were just delicious, great for diabetics and dieters, low in calories, and they have great taste.

One of my favorite products at this year's show is Gourmet Mist. It is similar to Pam, but better. First, it is not an aerosol spray, but a pump spray, which is much better for the enviornment. Second, it comes in several varieties, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, canola oil, balsamic+pomegranete, and balsamic+raspberry. The latter two are delicious, so good in fact that you can just spray them on green as a salad dressing. At 5 calories per serving, it's a great product to have on hand. Locally they can be bought at Ralphs and Bristol Farms. I plan to get one or two varieties to keep on hand.

Redwood Hill Farm was at the show sampling their goat milk cheeses. Boy, were there great. I especially enjoyed the smokey cheese. Their products are available at Whole Foods.

Aussie Crunch is a gourmet popcorn company not from Australia, but from Georgia. Go figure. The popcorn is fantastic, and comes in several wonderfully sweet, crunchy flavors. Look for it at Whole Foods and other specialty stores.

Finally, a new product to me, but one that's been around for over 2000 years and originated in the Middle East, is Freekeh. It is green wheat, picked before fully matured, then parched, roasted, smoked and dried. The result is one of the most nutritious super-grains available with more than 4 times as much fiber as rice. I met Bonnie, the woman selling this product. She was recently on the Dr. Oz show telling her story. Basically, she says she lost 130 pounds eating freekeh. You can go to the Dr. Oz website to find out more about it. This is another product from Australia. Freekeh is available at Trader Joe's. It's a crunchy grain, similar to quinoa or brown rice. Check this one out.

I hope this gives you an idea of the vast array of products presented at Food Expo. It must be difficult for buyers to decide which products to carry. There is so much to choose from. It's great for us, the consumer to have so much choice. I hope you will look for some of these new products and give them a try. On my next visit to Trader Joe's I will pick up some freekeh and start experimenting.

Are Salads A Healthy Choice?

Several months ago I blogged about all the restaurants that now include nutritional information on their menu, or provide a separate nutritional guide. Restaurants include California Pizza Kitchen and Cheesecake Factory. What I discovered was that most salads they offer are NOT healthy choices. They are loaded with saucy dressings, nuts, crunchy won tons or rice sticks, cheese and more. Often a sandwich is a better choice. However, there many steps you can take as a customer to make a better choice.

I ate at the Souplantation last week and had a very healthy salad. I decided I would only eat fresh vegetables from the salad bar. I did not touch the prepared salads. They are loaded with dressing, cheese, and nuts. I piled my plate with everything I like: beets, tomatoes, carrots, kidney beans, radishes, lettuce and a little chopped egg. I used balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil for the dressing. It was a delicious salad for about 200 calories. Compare that to a Chinese Chicken Salad from CPK for over 1,000 calories!

Quizno's offers a Honey Mustard Chicken Regular Chopped Salad. It contains 900 calories and 65 grams of fat! That's unacceptable for a salad.

Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad is even worse. It contains 1,400 calories, including 88 grams of fat. Chili's does have a better option, a small Caribbean Salad with Grilled Chicken, for only 490 calories. I know the Quesadilla Salad probably tastes better, but is it worth 1,000 calories? You're probably better off just ordering a regular quesadilla.

Last night I made my version of Chinese Chicken Salad. I had to fight to keep the calories and fat down. I use a low fat dressing from Feast From the East (available at Los Angeles Costo stores). I had to limit the number of fried chow mein noodles to keep the calories under 400 calories, but it was delicious. Sesame seeds, scallions, 1/4 cup crispy chow mein noodles and 3 ounces of chicken + 1T. of salad dressing made this a delicious salad. The Chinese Chicken Salad from CPK is about 1,000.

It's really quite simple. Sauces are a no no, fresh, uncooked veggies are a yes. Find a low calorie dressing that you like and you can keep salad a healthy choice. One of my favorites is Paul Newman's low fat Balsamic Vinegrette. You can do as I do, and take a small container of your own dressing with you to the restaurant. You'll probably cut out at least 100 calories. So enjoy your salads, just be conscious of all the above potholes that might turn your healthy salad into a fat and sodium loaded meal.

It's Earth Week Again

It seems like we just celebrated Earth Week, but it was a year ago. How time flies. It used to be Earth Day. Now they have Earth Week and Earth Month. April is Earth Month. April 18-25 is Earth Week, and Earth Day is April 22. It's a lot to keep straight. In any event may retailers are offering freebies or price reductions to get you into the store and get you thinking about conserving our planet.

Last week I told you about a number of specials for tax day. Now I have some Earth Week specials to tell you about and some websites where you can get coupons. I know I said I was getting away from telling you about coupons, but the planet is very important to me, and I will do anything I can to get people thinking about reducing their carbon footprint.

Target is giving away a great reusable bag until they run out. I was there on Sunday and they had plenty more. Walgreens is offering a $1 inkjet refill on 4/22. The National Parks Service is waiving entrance fees from April 17-25 in order to help encourage Americans to use and enjoy the parks. Great idea. The Disney Store is giving away a free baseball cap on 4/22 to anyone who comes in with six empty water or soda bottles. Scholastic. com is offering 15% off on all purchases with code AFFEARTH. Hope you can take advantage of some of these.

Also, there are many organic food companies that are offering discount coupons on their food items if you go to their website and register. A few of the many companies I found were Cascadian Farm, Stonyfield and Knudsen. Go to the website, register, and download the coupons.

Every little bit helps in these difficult times. Earth Week also raises our awareness about the planet. If you're like me, you get complacent and slip back into bad environmental habits if you're not constantly reminded. This week will remind us all that we must continue to work hard to reduce our carbon footprint.

Thirteenth Visit to Taft

Staying connected. That's one of the most important things I want to do while Ron is gone. I want to keep him connected with my life here, his friends here, and I want to try to get to know some of his new friends through the stories he tells about his daily life. It's so easy, as the days and weeks go by, to become disconnected.

Often inmates get into their own little routine and feel their new life is something that their wife or friends can't or don't want to understand. Often the wife or friends on the outside are reluctant to share what they are doing. They feel it will make their loved one upset to know what they are missing. Luckily, Ron and I don't think that way. He is eager to share everything with me. He loves to tell stories about new friends, books he's read, new activities he's become involved in. I too, want to tell him what's going on in San Diego. He wants to know what I'm doing each day, how my bridge game or golf game went, who I had lunch with. In other words, he wants to stay connected with me and his community. I want to stay connected to him, and learn to understand as much as I can about his new life.

We never took the Union Tribune when he was home, but now he asks me to send it to him. He wants to know what's happening in San Diego. ($5.00 to get the Sunday UT delivered to him!).

One special way that Ron wants to keep connected to me was quite a surprise. He has started to go to the Friday night Shabat service, something he never did in his life, and now tells me he looks forward to all week. It's a chance for him to connected with like minded inmates for an hour each week, and to feel part of a group. Last week when we were together he asked me if I would buy an electric Shabat candle and light it every Friday night, the same thing that he's doing, to help us connect. I said absolutely. As I said, anything that helps to keep us connected is something I want to do. I am going out next week to buy my candle. We will both light our candle at the same time every week. I'm looking forward to that.

Several years ago I saw a movie that touched me, and I thought about it as I was writing this blog. It was called "La Misma Luna", a Spanish language movie, about a mother separated from her son. She tells him before she leaves that each night she will be looking at the moon and thinking of him, and he should do the same. That is how they stay connected. Staying connected is what it's all about.

Sushi Lovers Beware

Several months ago I reviewed the movie The Cove, which won the Academy Award for best documentary this year. These filmakers took many risks in their undercover filming of illegal dolphin slaughter in Japan. Their newest undercover operation has revealed a restaurant in Santa Monica, Hump, which is apparently serving whale meat, which is illegal.

With video cameras and tiny microphones, the team behind the Oscar winning film "The Cove" orchestrated a Hollywood-meets-Greenpeace-style covert operation to ferret out what the authorities say is illegal whale meat at one of the most highly regarded sushi restaurants in Los Angeles.

Their work was coordinated with law enforcement officials, who said that they were likely to bring charges against the restaurant for violating federal laws against selling marine animals.

In the clash of two Southern California cultures-sushi aficinados and hard-core animal lovers-the animal lovers have thrown a hard punch.

The sushi sting actually began in October, when the documentary's associate producer and director of clendestine operations, Charles Hambleton, heard from friends in the music industry that the Hump was serving whale. Tiny cameras were created to film the sushi being served and eaten. The undercover activists ate some of the whale, then put the rest in a zip lock bag. The contents of the bag were sent to a Marine Mammal Institute for analysis, and the results confirmed that the meat was from a Sei whale, which are found worldwide and are endangered, but are sometimes hunted in the North Pacific under a controversial Japanese scientific program.

The restaurant is now closed, and federal officials indicate that indictments against the restaurant may be forthcoming. This story is far from over. It is one of those "under the radar" stories that you really have to look for, but I will keep and eye on it and let you know how it develops. Its' great to have activists that are willing to take risks to expose wrongs in our society. As long as things are done peacefully, as this was, they are making an important contribution to our world. It's when things turn violent that I have a problem. So far this group of filmmakers has done everything peacefully, and for this I applaud them.

It's Tax Day

This is the day everyone dreads, April 15. Even for those getting a refund, the process of preparing your taxes is daunting, even if you have a professional actually crunching the numbers. Retailers feel your pain, and to lighten the burden a bit are offering freebies to everyone today, and some all week and all month. Take a look below at just a few of the many freebies available.

Starbucks is offering a free coffee today.
Cinnabon is offering two free cupcake bites from 6pm-8pm (must be the slowest time of day for them)
Dunkin Donuts is offering a free donut with coffee
Taco Del Mar is offering a free taco with coupon (not sure they're in our area)from their website, today only
Botston Market is offering one free meal for each one you buy Thursday through Sunday.
IHOP is offering a free dinner for kids under 12 all month.
McCormick and Schmidts is offering a full meal for $10.40 (get it? check out their website. I heard about this last night and did not have a chance to confirm it)
Jack in the Box is offering free fries on Friday, April 16.

So, while you empty your wallet for Uncle Sam, take advantage of some freebies and fill you bellies. Hope you enjoy.

More Stuff

Ever since I wrote the blog about restaurants that were offering gluten free items on the menu I have seen gluten free offerings everywhere. Everyone wants to get into the gluten free fad. Maybe it's not a fad, only time will tell. In the meantime, I have a few things to tell you. Sammy's and Rappongi both have gluten free menus. They have over 30 gluten free items on their menus, from appetizers to desserts, so check them out. They're both favorites of mine.

I was just at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch this week and discovered they have a new mini menu called "small cravings." It's for those with light appetites. I had a Mediterranean plate for $4.29. Hummus, feta cheese, and a composed salad of cucumber, tomato and onion+ pita bread. It was just perfect for me. Other items on this small menu included asparagus and arugula salad (topped with parmesean cheese), white corn guacamole and chips, crispy artichoke hearts with remoulade sauce, and sweet corn tamale ravioli. All items were under $5.00. There is no nutritional information on these items yet..

Finally, Friday April 16 is freefry day at Jack in the Box. As a way of introducing their new fries (I'm not sure what's new about them) they are offering all their customers a free order. That's a great promotion.

That's all for now. Happy and healthy eating.

The History of Soda Pop

Go in any grocery store and you will see an entire row of carbonated beverages. Millions and millions of gallons of the fizzy stuff are consumed every year, but how did we get so crazy about carbonation? Well, here's a brief history of soft drinks and how we came to love them.



Soft drinks can trace their history bak to the mineral water found in natural springs. Bathing in natural springs has long been considered a healthy thing to do, and mineral water was said to have curative powers. Scientists soon discovered that gas carbonium or carbon dioxide was behind the bubles in natural mineral water.



The first marketed soft drinks (non carbonated) appeared in the 17th century. They were a mixture of water, lemon juice and hone. In 1676, the Compagie de Limonadiers of Paris were granted a monopoly for the sale of lemonade soft drinks. Vendors would carry tansk of lemonade on their backs and dispensed cups of the soft drink to thirsty Parisians.



In 1767, the first drinkable man made glass of carbonated water was created by Englishman Doctor Joseph Priestley. Then, in 1810, the first U.S. patent was issued for the "means of mass manufacture of imitation mineral waters" to Simons and Rundell of Charleston. However, carbonated beverages did not achieve great popularity in America until 1832, when John Matthews invented his apparatus for the making of carbonated water. John Matthews then mass manufactured his apparatus for sale to soda foundatin owners, and America began its love affair with soft drinks.



In the late 19th century, the first patent was issued for a glas blowing machine for the automatic production of glass bottles. It was at about this time that Pepsi, Coca Cola and Dr. Pepper, were all invented. What timing. By the 1920's the first "Horn-Paks" were invented. Horn-Paks are the familiar six pack beverage carrying cartons made from cardboard. Automatic vending machines also began to appear in the 1920's. The soft drink had become an American mainstay.



On March 12, 13 and 14 I will be in Anaheim for the Food Expo. My son has a booth there, and I always try to attend (this year as a babysitter for my grandson), as I love food and am interested in what's happening in the food industry, new products, trends, etc. This year, as always, there will be many new drink options. I will report on that after the show, but expect to see more carbonated water, tea and fruit drinks than ever before. Americans just love the bubbly.

Twelfth Visit to Taft

Back to me. How am I doing while Ron is away? I think I'm doing just fine. Am I lonely? Yes. Do I have times when I'm down? Absolutely. But I have those times when he's here too. I have dedicated Fridays to Ron, but other than that, this period in my life is all about me. I don't know if that sounds selfish or not, but I have decided that while I am alone I will focus on improving myself, both physically and mentally. Up until now my life has always focused on taking care of others or working. I think this is my time.

What that means is that I will work hard to get healthier, take care of all my medical issues (that can be fixed) and work on developing greater physical and mental strength. Losing weight, working out, meditating, practicing yoga and lots of walking are what I'm doing. Oh, and of course writing. I find that very therapeutic. Everything is going well. The medical conditions are being taken care of and the weight loss and exercise are both going in the right direction.
Everytime I feel like I'm losing focus and starting to deviate from my goal I think about Ron and what he's going through. He's going through something very difficult. What I'm doing doesn't compare, so I should stop complaining and just do it.

Thanks to my many friends and family for all the support you have given me and Ron during the first few months. I know that often people lose interest in asking about someone after a while, but I don't think that will happen. The weeks are rolling by quickly (not quickly enough) and summer will soon be here and Ron will be home next summer!

I had eye surgery a few days ago. Thank you Jan, Marlene and Mom for helping out. I needed drivers to take me to and from the surgery. My mom spent two nights with me, and that was very special. We had a great time together and she chaffeured me around town. It was hard not having Ron here, but he called me soon after the surgery and was constantly checking on me. I've come to realize that I need to make adjustments during my time alone. I need to be stronger, as I won't always have someone here to lean on. I do feel strong and able to take care of most things myself, but it's always great to know that help is just a phone call away.It's amazing what we can do if we have to.

Pay It Forward in Practice

Not long ago I wrote about the concept "Pay it forward." Tyra Banks promoted this idea on her show, there was a movie about the idea, and I've heard on the news many times about good people trying to help others. Well, today I heard about a friend of mine who actually put the idea into practce.

I was out with a friend of mine, just having a good time, when my friend starts to tell me about her trip to Hooters last night for dinner. Her husband loves the chicken wings at Hooters, so they drove all the way to Hooters in Vista, just for the chicken wings. That's about a half hour trip for chicken wings. Anyway, if you've ever been to the Hooters in Vista you know that it is frequeted by lots of marines from Camp Pendleton. Well, my friend and her husband picked up the check for three marines sitting at the next table. This is excatly what Pay it Forward is all about. Spontaneous acts of kindness. When I asked my friend what the marines said, she told me they were shocked but very appreciative. I plan to perform one spontaneous act of kindness next week. How about you?

Wandering Around San Diego

Once a month, along with my sidekick Fran, I plan an outing to one of the many unique neighborhoods in San Diego. This week we visited Kensington, a small enclave of homes and shops near the 8 and 15 freeway. What we got was more than we bargained for, and our best trip yet.

As always, Fran and I scoped out the area in advance, got information on the history of Kensington, found a great restaurant for lunch, and mapped out an interesting walking tour. There were 31 of us today and some of the locals in this quiet neighborhood came out of their homes to see what was going on. We weren't one block into our tour when we came upon the home of 87 year old Irene Cantos. She owns a beautiful Spanish style bungalow, well maintained with a nicely landscaped garden. She was standing on her front porch wondering what all the commotion was about. I went up to her, introduced myself, and told her we were exploring her neighborhood and were admiring her home. She hugged me like we were long lost friends. What followed next, you won't believe.

At first she didn't want to talk about her house, but after a bit of prodding, she opened up. We ended up touring the inside and outside of her home and hearing stories about herself and her family that entertained us and will keep us talking for quite a while. It turns out she was a well known opera singer back in the day. She loves show business, and after she warmed up to us we couldn't stop her. Her home was gorgeous on the inside, with many original elements of the house in tact, including the fireplace with beautiful Spanish tiles. Everything was tastefully done in this 90 year old home, which Irene and her husband have called home for 46 years.

What a treat. Irene was a pleasure to meet and I won't soon forget her. We spent so much time with her we had to cut our tour short, lest we be late for lunch. We ate at Bleu Boheme, a French bistro on Adams Ave. in Kensington. The food and service were excellent. Drive through Kensington next time you're in the area and discover why it is one of the best kept secrets in San Diego.

Gluten Free Menus You Can Enjoy

I've been going to the big organic and natural foods Food Expo in Anaheim for the past few years. One thing I have noticed is that many companies are trying to produce gluten free products for an ever growing number of customers with allergies to wheat. Honestly, most of the products don't taste very good. I recently discovered (thank you David) that many restaurants are offering a separate gluten free menu, or at the very least, offering some regular favorites in a gluten free form.

A good website to check all the chains offering gluten free items is This site lists all the chain restaurants that offer gluten free. Another good website is.

The following is a list of restaurants in our area that offer gluten free alternatives: Boston Market, Chilis, Flemings, On the Border, Outback Steakhouse, Flemings, P.F. Chang, Claim Jumper and Olive Garden. This is by no means a complete list, but you get the idea that there are a lot more options than you thought. I love P.F. Changs, and they have many gluten free items including their famous lettuce wraps, egg drop soup, Singapore Street noodles (shrimp, chicken and rice noodles in a gluten free sauce), moo goo gai pan, and mongolian beef. This is just smattering of the many options from which to choose.

Olive Garden, amazingly, has many gluten free items to choose from . A Caesar salad without croutons, many pasta dishes can be made with gluten free penne pasta and fish and steak dishes with vegetables. No the bread sticks are not gluten free.

Take a look at Boston Market . Their website will tell you exactly which items contain gluten and which don't. Then it's easy to figure out what to eat.

On the Border has an awesome website. It tells you what to order, depending on your food allergy. They list all the items you can eat with peanut allergy, milk allergy, egg allergy and so on.

Finally, Garcia's a local Mexican restaurant in Carlsbad and Encinitas (I reviewed it a few months ago) offers gluten free tortillas. It's great to see so many restaurants getting on the healthy food bandwagon. It's nice to know that even with food allergies you don't have to settle for broiled chicken and steamed veggies anymore. If you know of other restaurants offering gluten free menus in our area, please post them after this blog and help our friends that love to eat out but just haven't found restaurants that cater to them.

Thyme Cafe and Market

A wonderful new cafe and market has opened on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica. It's called Thyme Cafe (www.thymecafeandmarket.com). It's a neighborhood kind of place, with wooden tables, flowers everywhere, food displayed beautifully in cases, and sweets to die for just out of reach. We were there for an early dinner, as they close at 7pm, and many single men and women came in to pick up dinner. Also, many singles were eating in the cafe, most seem to like the community table.

Thyme Cafe is open from 7am-7pm. The food is healthy, creative and abundant. The chalkboard lists the soups, salads and sandwiches for the day, plus a printed menu tells you the standard items. I had a three salad medley. I picked from the 10 or so prepared salads in the case, which was already a difficult decision. I had roasted beets (yellow and red)with goat cheese with just a little olive oil. Fresh and delicious. I also had curried lentils that I devoured. My favorite salad was a roasted butternut squash with bacon, walnuts, dried cranberries, and cheese. That was fantastic. One of the best salads I've ever had. My mom had a thick ham and cheese sandwich on rustic bread and a bowl of homemade soup. We were too full for dessert.

Desserts looked exquisite from lemon bars and brownies, to carrot cake, chocolate ganache cake, to mini cupcakes which vary from day to day.

The breakfast menu is short but full of flavor. Scones, coffee cake, croissants, homemade granola with yogurt and fruit, challah French toast, BLT egg sandwich, and banana pancakes are what they offer. The rest of the menu for lunch or dinner is many salads, like curried chicken salad, greek salad and chinese chicken salad, and lots of sandwiches such as cuban pork, grilled cheese, turkey meatloaf and steak sandwich.

If you're ever in the Santa Monica neighborhood, Thyme Cafe is a great spot to stop for a light meal or just to pick up some great food to take home. I wish there were more places like this. I might never cook again!! (just kidding, I love to cook)

Can We Get Children to Eat Healthy?

I'm a fan of the Food Network, and several years ago I fell in love with Jamie Oliver. At the time he was a simple young man from London, cooking simple wholesome food in his apartment for his show "The Naked Chef". Today he is a superstar on a mission. He wants to change the eating habits of our youth by changing what they are fed at school. To that end he has a new program on ABC called "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution." I saw it at 9pm on a Friday night, but I don't know if that is it's permanent time.

What an eye opener. Jamie has started his mission in Huntington, West Virginia, called the unhealthiest city in America. He started with one elementary school, revising their lunch program, going into the classrooms and talking to children, and demonstrating for both parents and children why most of what they are currently eating is unhealthy for human consumption. Jamie walked into a classroom and held up several vegetables, one by one, and asked who could name the vegetable. He showed them tomatoes, cauliflower, eggplant, beets and potatoes. Not one child in the first grade class could name a single one of these vegetables. To me that is shocking. It tells me these kids have not been exposed to even the most basic fresh foods. Do they carry these foods in the local supermarket? Even if their parents don't buy fresh vegetables, don't kids learn about these foods from going grocery shopping with mom? My kids used to always ask "what's that?" as we walked up and down the fresh food section. I guess these children don't have that exposure. In any event, they sure knew what chicken nuggests and french fries were. They did not even know where french fries came from!

Jamie did a demonstration with meat patties, showing that the meat they were being served came from the worst part of the cow, contained lots of fat and cartiledge and hormones and additives. Did they still want to eat it? Yes they did. They did not care that it was unhealthy and gross.

Jamie also visited a family, all of them morbidly obese, with children at 4 and 12 already pre diabetic. The parents seem willing to try to change the family diet, and this is what it will take for them to be successful. You can't put a 12 year old on a healthy eating plan if the rest of the family is not supporting him.

The meals Jamie made for the school lunch program were vastly different than what they were accustomed to. Regular milk (no flavored milk), fresh cole slaw with carrots and raisins, pasta with cheese and fresh veggies and yogurt or pudding. Most of the kids did not like the food in the beginning. They all wanted their sugar fix from the milk and more foods high in carbohydrates. The administration of the school is going to let him continue his food program for several weeks to see if he can turn some of the kids around. He realizes he must get the parents involved, so he is doing that too.

I commend him for his efforts to revolutionize the school lunch program. This is similar to what Michelle Obama is working towards. They really have their work cut out for them. I hope they make some progress.

If health care companies would come to their senses and realize that if they had their insured eating healthier from the get go, they would not get sick as much, would not develop diabetes and other life threatening diseases, then they would have options in their coverage for nutrition education and exercise. It's certainly cheaper to pay for nutrition education or part of a health club membership than it is to pay for lifelong chronic conditions like diabetes. Good luck to Jamie and Michelle, and let's all do our part to teach the youngsters in our life about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Four Days in Boulder

If you've got grandchildren you know that if you don't see them often they won't remember you, and you will miss so many stages of their development. So I decided I've got to see my grandson every few months of his first year or I will miss everything. I've just spent a few wonderful days in Boulder. Lennon is now six months old, and has changed so since the last time I saw him at three months. He's got teeth, a delightful giggle, and a desire to get moving. He's such fun.

I also know that when I come to visit my kids I will have some memorable meals, both in and out of the house. I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, just in time for a lunch of leftovers. You don't mind leftovers at this house. Phil had made a huge pot of hot and sour soup. It was so authentic and delicious. I will give you his recipe below. He does not cook from a recipe or write anything down, so he's amounts are always a guess. Taste everything and adjust accordingly. Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients. Most items can be purchased in a regular supermarket. Once you have all the ingredients the soup is quick and easy to make. Also, make a big pot. It will freeze beautifully. Enjoy


Phil's Hot and Sour Soup

6 cups chicken broth
duck breast or chicken breast meat, cubed raw (about 1/2 cup)
1 lb. cubed tofu (firm)
12 shitake mushrooms, dried, quarter and rehydrate in hot water
1/3 cup wood ear fungus- wash (use liquid in the soup)
6 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
3Tablespoons srishasha (hot sauce) or to taste...maybe add less and then taste
3/4/cups rice wine vinegar (goes in at the end)
20 dried tiger lilly flowers (rehydrate and shred)
3 Tablespoons cornstarch-mix with water and add at end to thicken
2 eggs, beaten- add at the very end in a thin stream

Simmer broth, add rehydrated items and chicken or duck meat. Cook for 5 minutes, then add soy, sesame oil,vinegar, srishasa and finally cubed tofu. Cook a few minutes, add cornstarch to thicken and finally add the beaten eggs in a thin stream. That's it. Control the heat of the soup with the hot sauce. Be sure to taste. This is a wonderful meal, and very healthy and low in calories. Delete the chicken or duck for an even lower calorie meal. Enjoy.