Moon Cookies: A Blast From The Past

Growing up, I have fond memories of baking with my mom.  She was not really much of a baker, but she did make wonderful brownies, snickerdoodles, lemon bars, and moon cookies.  We called them moon cookies, but they are more commonly known as Mexican wedding cookies.  We would bake them on a Sunday afternoon, then freeze them, and dole them out as special treats.  I recently had a little party at my new home.  I decided to make cookies for dessert.  I made white chunk macadamia, snickerdoodles, and moon cookies.  They were all delicious, but Carolyn loved the moon cookies, so I told her I would post the recipe.  The cookies freeze well.  I always make extras, keep them in a cookie tin in the freezer, ready for unexpected occasions.

                                                              Moon Cookies (Mexican wedding cookies)

1 cup butter, softened
1/2  cup white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. water
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Combine butter and white sugar and beat until well blended.  Mix in water vanilla, and baking powder.  Slowly add flour until blended, then add chopped almonds.  I chopped the almonds finely in my Cuisinart.  Do not over chop, or you will end up with almond butter.  Refrigerate the mixture for a few hours, until dough is very firm.  Then, roll cookies in your hands like a snake and shape into crescent shapes.  Be sure there are no cracks in the dough or the cookies will break when cooked.  Leave a bit of space between cookies, as they spread a little bit because of the baking powder.  Cook at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.  Do not let them get too brown.  In fact, they should just be turning brown when they're done.  Let them cool.  Finally, roll in confectioners sugar.  Eat and enjoy!

Do You Live In A Sanctuary City?

Chances are you do, as there are 130 sanctuary cities scattered over 27 states, 28 sanctuary cities being in California.  The term dates back to the early 1980's.  Sanctuary cities began as a religious and political campaign in the U.S by churches of various denominations to support and shelter refugees fleeing Central American Turmoil.  Churches and synagogues believed refugees sent back to their home countries would be persecuted or even face death.  In 1979, Los Angeles became the first sanctuary city.  In the internal policy, the city instructed its police officers to not ask arrestees about their immigration status.  San Francisco began identifying as a sanctuary city in 1989.

Today's supporters for the designation argue local government is not responsible for immigration enforcement.  Focusing scarce local resources and law enforcement efforts to deter unauthorized immigrants might undermine community relations.  The discussion on sanctuary cities has heated up recently due to the Pier 14 shooting of a young woman by a Mexican native with multiple felony convictions who has been deported five times.

Everyone is disturbed by this event and sees a need for change.  The immigration issue is complicated, too much to discuss in this short blog.  Laws protecting illegal immigrants are passed by local authorities for many different reasons.  Federal law is responsible for immigration reform.  Our congress needs to step up, stop playing politics, and come up with a plan for protecting our borders from illegal immigration and finding a way to deal with illegals who are already here.  ( a path to citizenship or legal residency).

I first learned about sanctuary cities when I went over to visit a friend recently.  I walked into the house and heard Rush Limbaugh shouting in the background.  When I asked what  he was talking about, my friend told me "Sanctuary cities."  He said that San Francisco was one of these cities.  I went home and researched the topic, and he was right.  San Francisco is one of the sanctuary cities, and so are over 130 other American cities.  Our congress needs to get its act together and work on immigration reform.  The problem is massive  and nothing will change quickly.

One final thing.  The reported crime rate that some politicians blame on immigration is actually a fallacy.  The crime rate for immigrants is far lower than for native born Americans.  Most immigrants come for a better life for their themselves and their family.  Most are hard workers and will do anything  they can to make it here.  Let's get our politicians to work on immigrant reform so that we can keep our borders protected and have those that want to immigrate, can do it legally. 

Italian Mushrooms

Ron and I went to Newport Beach last week to have dinner with long time friends Mark and Lisa.  We went to an Italian restaurant in Crystal Cove Shopping Center, called Modo Mio.  If you know the area, it's the shopping center that also houses Mastro's.  Anyway, we had a delicious dinner at Modo Mio and enjoyed catching up with Mark and Lisa.  Prior to our meal arriving, the chef sent over a platter of mushrooms in lemon juice and olive oil.  It was delicious, and just the perfect way to start a meal on a warm, summer evening.  Went I got home I pulled out an old recipe I had for mushrooms, Italian style, that I used to make as part of an antipasto.  Here's the recipe.

                                                                Mushrooms Italian Style

1/4 cup lemon juice
3 T. minced parsley

2 T. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

1 pound of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

Combine first 5 ingredients and set aside.  Put cleaned and cut mushrooms in a bowl, then add the lemon juice/olive oil mixture.  Allow mixture to rest for at least an hour.  Serve with crusty bread as a first course.  Another idea is to clean the mushroom and keep them whole, let them marinate for at least an hour, and serve them as part of an Italian antipasto, with meats, cheese, peppers and olives.  They're delicious either way.  Enjoy.

Keep Drinking Your Coffee, It's Good For You

We've been told to limit our consumption of coffee.  It's not good for us.  New studies say that coffee may be better for you than you ever thought.  First, coffee may make you smarter.  Caffeine potently blocks an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, leading to a net stimulant effect.  Controlled trials show that caffeine improves both mood and brain function.

Coffee can help you burn fat and improve physical performance.  Partly because of its stimulant effect, caffeine raises metabolism and increases the oxidation of fatty acids.  Caffeine can also improve athletic performance by several mechanisms, including by mobilizing fatty acids from the fat tissues.

Caffeine may lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.  In observational studies, coffee has been repeatedly associated with a lower risk of diabetes.  Eighteen studies with a total of 457,922 participants show that each additional cup of coffee per day lowered the risk of diabetes by 7%.

Coffee may lower your risk of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  In prospective studies, coffee drinkers have up to a 60%lower risk of Alzheimer's and dementia.  Coffee may also be good for your liver.  Multiple studies have shown that coffee can lower the risk of cirrhosis by as much as 80, the strongest effect for those who drank four or more cups per day.

Finally, coffee is loaded with nutrients and antioxidants.  It contains 6% of the RDA for Vitamin B5, 11%of the RDA for Vitamin B2, 2% of the RDA for B3 and B1, and 3% of the RDA for manganese and potassium.  So drink up, coffee is good for you.

Losing Your Best Friend

A friend of mine just had to put her 12 year old Springer Spaniel, Lady, down.  I saw Lady just a few days before she died, and am convinced that Rena made the right decision at the right time.  Lady was no longer enjoying life.  She was laboring with every breath and had lots of trouble walking.  It's the hardest thing in the world, making the decision on when to euthanize a pet.  For me, it's important to distinguish between keeping a pet alive for you, or keeping him alive because life is still worth living for him.  When you're keeping an animal alive for yourself, and he has no quality of life, it's time to say good bye. Lady's death brought back memories of my last few months with Barney, whose picture still appears on my blog.

Barney lived to be 19 years of age, and had I not euthanized him, he might have lived another 6 months.  I put him down when he no longer smiled at me in the morning, when he no longer wanted to go for a walk in his little red wagon, when he no longer perked up when he heard the garage door open.  I put him down when he gave me a look that said, " I've had enough."  Everyone said Barney would tell me when it was time to go, and he did. I'm sure that Lady did the same for Rena, and as hard as it to live without a pet that's been part of your family for years, it gets better.  You give it some time, get another dog (or cat), and grow to love that new pet more than you ever thought possible.  That's what happened to me when I got Pepper 4 1/2 years ago.  Now, I can't imagine life without Pepper.

 This was written for all you animal lovers.  I know some of you that are not pet owners and lovers cannot understand how we cry and grieve over the death of a dog, but anyone of you reading this who has a pet, knows exactly what I mean.  For the rest of you, you'll probably shake your head and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Is It Too Hot To Walk Your Dog?

On a visit to Phoenix I was surprised to realize how hot the ground was.  Asphalt or cement were both too hot for me to walk barefoot, something I do often, when taking Pepper out for a short walk. So how do you know if it's too hot for the pads of your dog?  Although they walk on them all the time and can withstand rocks and uneven ground, they're not used to extreme heat, and if it's too hot, the pads of their feet will burn, just as yours would.

I saw a recent article where I learned how to tell if the ground is too hot to walk your dog.  Take your hand, and with the back side on the ground, hold it there for 5 seconds.  If you can do that, your dog is good to go for a walk.  If not, keep him inside, or walk on dirt, grass, or woodchips.  This information was from a veterinary hospital, so I assume it is accurate.  Anyway, it's a good way to measure whether it's safe to walk your dog on concrete or asphalt.  If you can't stand it, chances are, your dog can't stand it either.  We don't want to burn those pads, that's for sure.  Just a handy little tip for all you dog owners.  To me, there's almost nothing more important than keeping my dog healthy and happy.

Are You Recycling Correctly?

You probably thought as I did, that recycling was easy.  Put paper in the paper container, plastic in the plastic container, plant matter in the green container.  Turns out, it's a little more complicated than that.  In my community, all recyclables are tossed into one container, and sent to the processing plant.  The problem is that this reduces the value of batch of recyclables as a whole, because non-recyclable materials can get mixed in with and contaminate recyclables.

So what is the eco-conscious consumer to do?  It turns out that there are some things that aren't worth recycling because they end up doing more harm than good at the plant.  Small scraps of paper, for example should not be put in the blue recycling bin.  It is virtually impossible to separate shreds of paper from other materials rolling down a conveyor belt.  They should be put in a paper bag, stapled shut, and labeled "shredded paper" on the outside.  A person at the processing plant may recognize the bag, and remove it from the rest of the recycling stream and sort it into paper products.  Really?  I just can't see that happening in reality.

Condiment packets like soy sauce and ketchup packets are made out of plastic or an aluminum-plastic combination.  Nobody's recycling them right now.  You're better off throwing them in the trash.  Polystyrene foam containers are almost never recyclable because of their lightweight and are typically soiled with food residue, which will contaminate the whole batch of recyclables.  Paper cups are usually coated with plastic, so they can't be recycled with other paper products.  It's a good idea to check with your local waste management authority to make sure you are disposing of them properly.  Plastic bags are a big hassle at the recycling plant too.  They often fly off or clog sorting machinery, which causes the operation to be shut down until the clog is fixed.  At one plant in San Francisco, they have to shut down the machines every night for at least an hour to go in and manually pick out all the pieces of plastic bag that have jammed up the various machines.  A better idea is to take plastic bags to your local grocery store.  They usually have a plastic bag recycling bin at the entrance.

>p>We all think we're helping the environment by recycling, but not all products should be recycled.  Waste management gets paid for what they bring to be recycled, and the value of the recycling materials can be reduced if contaminated.  This is something I didn't ever think about until now, and I just thought you should know.