ROSANNA'S NEWS AND VIEWS.©

SUGAR

Refined sugar is a menace to health and can easily confuse our thinking processes. Recently we had an interesting conversation with our colleague, Macrobiotic Consultant Lenny Ferro, on the subject of sugar and mental health. This was occasioned by several clients who had come because of mental illness and the desire to return to health, free of drugs. Sugar is a chemical, not a food it acts in the body as a drug. Sugar depletes the body from Calcium and important minerals, for this we get to loose our teeth and get Osteoporosis. Just look at powder sugar next to cocaine, it looks the same, well it makes the same places in the brain to light up, for this is incredibly addictive.

As Rosanna’s consulting practice is growing and James is just completing a construction project, we have had little time to put into the newsletter and that is why this issue has been delayed. Rosanna has now added help in the kitchen and it should be possible to meet our goal of at least one issue every month in the year 2000. We thank all our subscribers for being with us and we invite anyone to send us articles to be considered for publication.

With very little promotion, except for registration with a few search engines we have grown to just under 900 subscribers. The Macro discussion group has about 85 members and growing.



MAIN MEAL

TAMARI BROTH SOUP

Ingredients

  • 6 or more cups Spring Water (depending on the consistency you like)
  • ¾ cup washed Hato Mugi (also known as Jobe’s Tears)
  • 1 Dried Shitake Mushroom, soaked for 10 minutes and thinly sliced
  • 2-inch piece of Kombu
  • 1-Cup Broccoli Florets
  • 1 Carrot, sliced Julienne style
  • 2 Scallions diagonally cut
  • 1 small Onion, cubed
  • Tamari Soy sauce to taste

Preparation

Put Grain, Kombu and Water in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes and remove Kombu. Add Mushrooms, Onions and Carrots and continue to simmer for 10 more minutes. Add Broccoli. Finely chop Kombu and return to pot and add Tamari (easy does it, you can always put more). Cook for a few more minutes and serve.



GREAT NORTHERN BEANS

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Great Northern Beans, soaked overnight in plenty of water
  • 2 Stalks Celery with leaves, washed and diced
  • 1 Medium Yellow Onion, finely diced
  • 1-inch piece Kombu
  • 1 Tbsp. Light Miso
  • Spring Water

Preparation

It is best when cooking beans to use a clay pot. They are readily available and not too expensive. We find ours in a Chinese Supermarket in Philadelphia. Put Kombu in pot first and add Onions, then Celery and top with the drained Beans. Add enough Spring Water to cover the Beans. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and cover. It is best to find a lid that will just fit inside the pot and rest on top of the beans. Cook for one hour without stirring. Temper Miso with hot broth from the Beans and add to the pot. Mix well and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve.



CORN ON THE COB

Ingredients

  • 4 or more ears of Corn, shucked and cleaned
  • 1 Tbsp. Umeboshi Paste
  • Spring Water

Preparation

Add corn and enough water to cover to pot. Bring to a boil; then simmer for twenty minutes. Remove from pot; with fingers or spoon lightly cover with Umeboshi Paste. Serve.



STEAMED ESCAROLE

Ingredients

  • 1 head Escarole, washed, separated leaf by leaf, stacked and cut in half
  • Salt

Preparation

With about ¾ inch of water in steamer, bring to a boil. Add Escarole, cover and steam for 1 Minute. Sprinkle with a pinch of Salt, mix with tongs. Serve.



PRESSED SALAD

Ingredients

  • 1 small head Endive, washed and cut into small pieces
  • 2 Cucumbers with seeds removed and sliced into thin half-moons
  • 2 medium Carrots, grated coarsely
  • 2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. Brown Rice Vinegar

Preparation

Put all vegetables into pressing bowl; add Soy Sauce and Vinegar. Mix well. Press by putting a plate with a heavy weight atop the salad. Rosanna uses a heavy stone to do this job. Press for one hour minimum, toss and serve. (If it tastes too salty, wash and drain part of the salad and toss again.



STIR FRY

Ingredients

  • 1 Onion, diced in ½” pieces
  • 1 Carrot, cut into thick shavings (as though you were sharpening a pencil)
  • 1 Parsnip, cut into thick shavings
  • 1 small head of Broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 1 handful Snow Peas (just pull off the tips)
  • 5 or 6 Water Chestnuts
  • Shoyu Sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. Grated Ginger Root
  • 1 Tbsp. Toasted Sesame Oil

Preparation

Heat oil in sauté pan to high temperature (not so hot that the oil smokes), add onions, and stir over high flame for a minute or two. Continue with high flame while adding Carrots, Parsnips and the stem of the Broccoli. Cook over high heat for another minute or two, stirring with a wooden spoon, then add Broccoli Florets, Snow Peas and Water Chestnuts, stirring as you go. Lower flame to medium low, place a lid on the pot and cook for 2 minutes. Add Shoyu to taste and Ginger. Mix well, maintaining low flame for 1 minute or less. Serve.



BLUEBERRY KANTEN

Ingredients

  • 1 pint fresh or frozen Blueberries (We have lots in the freezer at US $.75 per pint)
  • 4 cups organic Concord Grape Juice
  • 1 Tbsp. Kudzu (do not substitute Arrowroot, please as Arrowroot is acidic and Kudzu is not)
  • 2 Agar Agar bars (transparent seaweed readily available in Chinese markets and some health food stores)
  • 1 cup Spring Water
  • 1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

Preparation

Bring Juice and chopped Agar Agar to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the Agar Agar melts. Mix a little water with the Kudzu until it is liquefied and very well blended, add with rest of the water to the boiling Juice. Stir continuously until I thickens, then add Blueberries and Vanilla Extract. Return to a boil over medium flame. When it reaches a boil, pour it into a shallow serving dish. (Rosanna uses stainless dishes for this purpose). Cool to room temperature (it will thicken as it cools) and ……….Serve. In hot weather, it is great to serve it chilled.

Buon Appetito!

 

Rosanna & James JOKE BOX

From our friend TanzenTwo Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in it, the craft sank. Proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too.Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: “I’m looking for the man who shot my paw.”Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused his dentist’s Novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”There was a man who entered a local paper’s pun contest. He sent in ten different puns, in the hope that at least one of the puns would win. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named “Amal.” The other goes to a family in Spain they name him “Juan.” Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his mom. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, “But they are twins–if you’ve seen Juan, you’ve seen Amal.”These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise the funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, the rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good Brothers to close down, but of course, they would not. He went back a second time and begged the friars to close. They ignored him.In desperation, he asked his mother to go and ask the friars to get out of business. They ignored her too.So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most Vicious thug in town to “persuade” them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, and told them he’d be back if they didn’t stay closed.Terrified, they did so-thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can Prevent florist friars.

 


WISDOM of our Sufi Brother

Tanzen Two Feather

Okay, let’s start with a cage containing five apes.

In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before long, an ape will go tothe stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water.

After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result – all the apes are sprayed with cold water. This continues through several more attempts. Pretty soon, when another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes all try to prevent it.

Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs and is attacked as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are participating in the beating of the newest ape.

After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes, which have been sprayed with cold water, have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?

Because that’s the way they’ve always done it and that’s the way it’s always been around here.

And that’s how company policy begins… come to think of it, that’s the way all institutions begin, including religious and governmental. smile

“The macrobiotic way of life recommended by the ancient wise people and practiced widely for physical, mental and spiritual development consists of the following arts; the way of eating, the way of breathing, and the way of daily life. Because a human being is part of his environment, and has evolved through biological development covering more than three billion years on this planet, his physical, mental and spiritual conditions are based upon what he consumes from his natural environment and his food. The way of eating is the most essential factor for his development.”

Michio Kushi, THE BOOK OF DO-IN (ISBN 0-87040-382-6)

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