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nantucket cranberry pie

If you’re looking for a great dessert, and you want to prepare and bake it yourself, I have a dessert for you. Yes, I do. I haven’t met one person who can resist it. It’s easy to prepare and it’s delicious.

A few years ago I bought the book, MORE HOME COOKING: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin. The book is a delight to read. It’s written in essay form, part memoir, is informative and fun to read. Of course, you’ll want to try the other recipes, but for a start, try the Nantucket Cranberry Pie. I think you’ll like it a lot.

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paul’s letter

December is around the corner. It gets crazy at that time of the year. If we let it. The commercials on television almost seem to demand that we buy, buy, and buy some more; All in the name of that word called joy. A joyous this and a joyous that – if we buy. Every year seems more intense than the last. I was scanning the book shelves of a very important person in my life, and came across THE LOVE BOOK by John Randolph Price www.johnrandolphprice.com . If ever you need to sit quietly and simply restore yourself this coming month you might want to consider doing it with this book. On page 17 is Paul’s letter to the Christians at Corinth. I forgot how beautiful it is. In case you’ve missed seeing it recently, here it is:

“If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crushing cymbals. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but I have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve nothing.
This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience-it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: It is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.
Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.”

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those east broadway buses

On Thanksgiving Day my daughter, Emi, and I boarded an Apex bus scheduled to leave at 1:30 pm at East Broadway – at 2:15 we still hadn’t left, and none of us knew the reason, including the driver. Finally a Chinese employee entered the bus, and when someone asked what happened to our 1:30 departure, she said, “1:30? No problem. We leave 2:30.” And off she went.

At 2:30 we were told to change buses; a more patient group you haven’t met. Bags came down from the racks, coats, and reading materials were collected and we all walked across Division Street to another bus. The reason for the delay seemed to be . . . a secret, no answers to questions were forthcoming. At 3pm we departed; it was a smooth ride to Baltimore. The Baltimore Travel Plaza was the destination for a few of us. When we arrived there the bus stopped by the roadside to let us off and quickly left. It was cold and windy and no shelter was in sight

I tried to confirm our return by phone, but couldn’t get any information, so we went with the time given when I bought the tickets in New York. We stopped by the same cold, windy, isolated roadside and waited for the bus. A bus was waiting but it wasn’t Apex. The driver motioned for us to get on. We did, presented our tickets, and were told Apex bus had left and we needed to pay an extra $20 each. A nearby passenger chimed in to say that he had the same ticket and paid the $20. We said, No thank you, we would wait for the Apex bus, and that it couldn’t have left, we still had time. The passenger who paid asked for the return of his $20 and got off the bus with us. Three Chinese bus employees followed us off the bus. There was a mini conference. My daughter’s ticket and the other passenger’s ticket were reexamined and they asked to see mine. I don’t know what new information was extracted in those few seconds, but we were told to get back on the bus at no additional price. We three looked at each other and boarded the bus again.

In the town of Delaware the driver stopped for more passengers, and as we started to drive away we all heard a banging noise underneath the bus. We left and could hear the driver speaking Chinese on the phone. He stopped the bus three times and went outside to try to repair the problem. All to no avail. Very slowly we inched our way along the highway keeping closely to the right. When we got to NJ we were told another bus would be coming. We waited 45 minutes for the bus. Again we were an unusually patient group. The bus came. We collected our possessions and boarded  another bus. The rest of the trip went smoothly. And I suppose that was all to be expected because when you pay $35.00 for a round trip bus ride from Manhattan to Baltimore you take your chances. But, then again, if Fung Wah can do it right, why not the others?

******* ******* ******* ******* ******* ******* *******

“The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends and will always make the best of his circumstances.” -Aristotle

“. . . The trick to being a good adventurer, of course, is to take all such surprises in stride. Good people keep walking whatever happens, taught the Buddha. “They do not speak vain words and are the same in good fortune and bad.” – Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
www.rolfpotts.com

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thanksgiving dinner in baltimore

We, my youngest daughter and I, like to travel to Boston from Manhattan on Fung Wah bus www.fungwah.com . It makes for interesting travel and we pay all of $60 round trip for two. Fung Wah leaves from Chinatown. No rules and regulations. Just show up, buy a ticket, board the bus and away you go. Fung Wah has given its all through the years to find a place in the bus world. Now they’ve moved from Chinatown in Boston to a spot at South Station. It’s very convenient.

This year Thanksgiving dinner for us is in Baltimore, Md. And to get from NYC to there my daughter found a similar mode of transportation to that of Fung Wah in the form of Apex Bus. Hooray! To make sure all is as it should be, I took a dry run by way of the F train to East Broadway to find Apex Bus. I walked two blocks to where number 88 East Broadway should be, and there it was. Well, that’s not quite how it happened. I walked two blocks from the subway station passing many Chinese stores. I back tracked a few times, looking for 88 East Broadway, and finally ducked into what looked like a mini mall. There stood a traffic cop. I told him I couldn’t find 88 East Broadway. He smiled and said, “Come on.” (I’d found a good guy). Around the corner were a few bus companies with their buses lined up and Apex was the last of them-across Division on Forsythe Street. Before reaching the Apex, the workers for the other bus companies tried to convince me to travel with them. They were very aggressive. But I stood my ground, and finally got to Apex. I saw a Chinese woman with tickets in her hand standing on the sidewalk next to the buses. Her English was limited; my Chinese non-existent, but her big smile was beckoning, and there was enough communication to purchase two round-trip tickets to Baltimore for $70.

Time to go to Chelsea Market at 75 9th Avenue www.chelseamarket.com . Chelsea Market is one big building for food buying. Everything needed for tonight’s dinner, for entertaining, or for a quick meal, is there. Everything. And it’s all really, really delectable. I’m thinking dessert for Thanksgiving Day, and for this occasion, Fat Witch Bakery, buonItalia, Manhattan Fruit Exchange and Sarabeth’s will be perfect.

“Dare yourself to play games with your day: watch, wait, listen; allow things to happen.” -Rolf Potts
www.rolfpotts.com

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happy thanksgiving everyone

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE –

We all have our own reasons for being grateful. But there are times when we simply want to flee the holidays. Times when they’re overwhelming. When we don’t want to eat turkey or see those people or have to talk or laugh. Times when we want to be somewhere else. Times when we’re the first ones in the turkey line. Times when we can’t decide what to get for dessert, or how to cook the potatoes. Times when we get six different kinds of dessert and prepare six different dishes of potatoes. Times when we want to take care of people who need real caring. But, However we feel about the holidays, we can always start with a thank you from the heart and see where it takes us.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

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ode and vegnews

They say that people are either book, magazine, or newspaper readers. It could be true. Usually I like books with just a quick look at a magazine or newspaper. However, while walking along 23rd Street in Manhattan I saw Universal News located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The shop has a huge selection of magazines and newspapers. Customers were focused on reading. I looked around and saw the magazines Ode www.odemagazine.com with Bono on the cover, and VegNews www.vegnews.com with Woody Harrelson on that cover, and decided to join the readers for awhile. These two magazines were packed with information and interesting articles, so I purchased them.

Vegetarians of the past got a bum rap, and maybe rightfully so. Many vegetarians had a pasty complexion and looked extremely thin. And the food, well, it was plain and unappetizing, nothing that would bring a smile to your face. It’s changed! The whole lifestyle is different and exciting. The article on Woody is inspiring because as he says, “I try to ‘walk the talk.’ He’s dynamic. His life is meaningful; he’s doing his part to change our world. And he’s not boring. Check out his website, www.voiceyourself.com, and his book HOW TO GO FURTHER, and the recipe Chocolate of the Gods Mousse. Additionally, there are many websites with pictures and descriptions of what you’ll find on the sites. Definitely it’s worth a look. When you have the magazine in hand don’t forget to read the article on page 20, Spinning Out of Control. Food for thought! It never hurts to know.

Ode has articles on the environment. The articles are relevant to every family because so many of us have allergies. And after reading Ode you’ll have a clearer idea why that’s so. The articles give the facts about our world and make the reader stop to think about, well, many things, the many important things happening that affect us – either directly or indirectly. It doesn’t hurt to read about these things. It’s not boring, reading it is exciting, interesting, informative and helpful.

It seems that Bono has been thinking deeply about what needs changing. And he’s not afraid to speak his mind and to try to understand how changes can be made. Read the article; I think you’ll like what you read.

“If you don’t like where you are, change what you are.” – Henry Knight Miller

“Our remedies in ourselves do lie which we ascribe to heaven.” -Shakespeare

“I want to be alive to all the life that is in me now, to know each moment to its uttermost.” – kahlil Gibran

“Every tine we choose safety, we reinforce fear . . . our world grows smaller and smaller.” – Cheri Huber

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the hand shake in vilcabamba

Someone I saw only briefly continues to bring a sense of wonder to me when I think about him. I saw him in Vilcabamba, Ecuador as I sat on a mini bus waiting to go to Loja, a drive of an hour or so, depending on who’s driving. That morning I was an early passenger waiting for others to come aboard so that we could begin the ride from the valley. The bus would stop often to pick up more passengers, passing small old villages along the way. The ride from the valley around the mountains and its many sharp curves was a perfect way to start the day because there’s so much beauty everywhere.

The last person to board before leaving the Vilcabamba bus station was a ninety-five year old man. This I heard from another passenger. He had a full head of the blackest of black hair and as he stepped up he looked at the bus driver and shook his hand. As he came to the first passenger he continued the hand shake, and, while looking into the eyes of the one whose hand he was shaking, he said a few words in Spanish. I wish that I’d understood what he said. When he got to me, I noticed the most innocent of eyes as he stood before me. They were radiating kindness. Such kindness I’d never seen in eyes before. He sat quietly after the handshakes with a serene expression on his face, and when it was time for him to get off the bus he began again the handshakes.

I think I was in the presence of an angel. No one uttered a sound or complained about the time it took for two round-trip hand shakes. That day I knew I would always remember this special person. I cannot forget his radiant eyes and the way he looked at people as he approached each one, or the honesty in his handshake. Sometimes it’s the simple things at the most unexpected moments, that can make a day extraordinary. Someone unexpectedly enters your life for a brief time, and brings you to another kind of understanding about life and how it can be lived.

“The deeper the self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.” -Swami Sri Yukteswar

“Our ability to relax into life reflects our willingness to trust.” -anonymous

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love those quotes

I love good quotes. Sometimes they set the stage for the day, or they propel us into capturing the essence of an idea that, for the longest time, hovered at surface level, or they give insight into a way to graciously manage a difficult situation, or, they allow us to experience a feeling of complete freedom.

A good quote can awaken a part of us by touching our core. Good quotes allow us to know and help us to understand that, although there are a lot of broken down things in our world; simultaneously there are lot of good things happening. A good quote jolts us into remembering things we just might not want to forget.

A few good quotes . . .

“Walk down as many roads as possible.” -Paul Cousineau

“There are no means of safety against superior qualities of another person but to love him.” -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.” -Thomas Paine

“. . . It boils down to having the courage to trust your instincts. You have to realize that life . . . was not . . . designed . . . to be as hard . . . as you want to make it.” -Tom Huth

“Nothing endures but change.” -Heraclitus

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help at tocumen airport

I wouldn’t mind being in Panama right now. There’s a place in the Chiriqui area called Boquete, and just like Vilcabamba in Ecuador, life is unspoiled, people are kind; they don’t rush, and there’s so much beauty in the surrounding mountains. Once you’ve stayed a bit, and experienced the way life is there, you never forget it. The days are sunny, humid in Panama City, lovely in Boquete. People walk in the rainstorms in Boquete, rainstorms that leave you completely soaked. Those rainstorms-they start quickly and stop quickly.

From Nice, France, I arrived in Panama City. The trip was a long one and I hadn’t made hotel reservations before leaving Nice. I started thinking about this in Miami after boarding the last leg of the flight. That night there were few passengers on the Miami to Panama flight so it was easy to talk with the flight attendants. They were a happy crew and when I asked one attendant about hotels, he said I shouldn’t have a problem. I learned not to be anxious, okay, not to be too anxious, because when traveling casually and solo you get used to asking yourself what’s the worst thing that could happen if . . .

There were only a handful of employees at Tocumen Airport at about 4:00 am, and after following the usual arrival steps, I walked over to the only employee I saw in the area, and inquired about hotels. He asked me to follow him to an office where we could talk. He asked a few questions and suggested that he call his girlfriend’s father who is a taxi driver. He then made another phone call to a friend inquiring about hotels. I had a taxi driver and a reservation at a “good” hotel within a short time. It was interesting that the people he called were awake at that hour. He was young, mature, and handsome. He was confident, had a nice smile and a generous spirit. We talked until his girlfriend’s father arrived twenty minutes later. He said he enjoyed speaking English. I couldn’t have done better had I made the plans myself. The next day it occurred to me that I didn’t know his name. So, this is to you, wherever you are. Thank you very much.

Giving to others selflessly and anonymously
radiating light throughout the world
and illuminating your own darkness,
your virtue becomes a sanctuary for yourself
and all beings.
-Lao-Tzu

www.pension-marilos.com
www.tocumenpanama.aero

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for energy and serenity

When the mood strikes, I prepare this simple meal. It’s definitely not what Emeril would prepare in his kitchen. But then again, you never know. This meal is delicious and can gives energy and serenity. It works when you’re tired and want to sit quietly chewing easily, or when you’re hungry and want a boost.

NO RUSHING- IT NEEDS TO COOK SLOWLY. Begin with steel cut oats. I use Arrowhead Mills. Put in about half a cup, depending on the number of people waiting in line for this wonderful meal in a bowl. Add lots of water, filtered or bottled. Place on very low flame in heavy small pot. Stir often so that it doesn’t stick to pot. When you think it’s cooked to your taste, try it, add chopped organic calimyrna figs when it’s almost cooked. Stir a little more. Now, put into a beautiful bowl. Add about two spoonfuls of a good quality olive oil. This also to taste. Stir. Add stevia. If you haven’t tried stevia, use very, very little til you get used to the taste. This last part is totally up to you. Put in a bit of organic hemp seed butter. I admit, this is different. But, if you stay with it, it’s wonderful and good for you. Bring your beautiful bowl with its delicious contents to your favorite sitting spot; take small spoonfuls, chew well and eat slowly. Bon appetit.

www.stevia.com