We Call Her Momma

Received this as an email and thought I'd share it with ya'll.


Life is worth living!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
This is something we should all read at least once a week!!!!! Make sure you read to the end!!!!!! 
 

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short – enjoy it..

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will. 

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it..

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive but don’t forget. 

29. What other people think of you is none of your business. 

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you want.

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Yesterday I wrote about making cucumber Kim Chi.


It just keeps getting better and better. I find myself eating a couple of bites of it throughout the day. Healthy snacking.

This morning I scooped some out and put it over a bed of spinach and onions and topped it with a fried/steamed egg (I put the lid on the frying pan to cook the egg.) Eating the Kim Chi this way cut down on the hotness and made everything even more tasty.

Unfortunately I'm the only one who will eat the Kim Chi.  When T tasted it yesterday she exclaimed,

"Oh, Mommm! (As in get the fire extinguisher to douse the heat in her mouth.)

"This is too hot. Dad will have to try this." 

And BTW, if you've never tried a fried egg on a bed of salad you are missing out on something delicious.  You might not ever want eggs and toast again.  My daughters and I have this almost every morning now...it is that good.  I put a tad bit of dressing on my salad, others don't. And is this ever filling. I first read about this on Mr. H.'s Subsistence Pattern blog . He posted a beautiful picture of one of the salad they eat with an egg on top but I can't find that particular post to link you to.  So I guess you'll just have to go enjoy his blog and find it yourself!

H carried this in last night.


We weren't about to let it sit on the counter and rot so we cut it open.


Orangelo watermelon.


It was sweet but not super sweet like I was expecting. I don't know if it just turned the corner on being overripe, or just underripe, or too much water.

Since H's hands were full with the watermelon I carried in the Armenian cucumbers

 
and purple tomatillos.



If you have a favorite recipe for tomatillos please share. There's only 200, no500 a bunch more of the in the garden.

And for the cucumbers...well the picture above is about a third of last night's haul. Some of them had gotten too big and that got me to thinkin'.

I recalled seeing a link to Cucumber Kim Chi on Mr. H's blog Subsistence Pattern . In recent post, no this one, Mr. H made some Kim Chi that looked fantastic and that why Kim Chi was on my mind. So you know what I did last night.


and




But now I'm getting off track.  Back to the Kim Chi.

After cutting the cucumbers ups and letting them sit on the counter overnight with lots of salt sprinkled throughout I continued the recipe this morning.


I added a few green beans from the garden also.

Like you've never heard before. Turn your speakers up.

Sung by the Four Tenors (Il Divo)

I asked H and K what they want for dinner.

In unison they replied...

MEAT!

Well, after the too sweet Brazilian lemonade I made yesterday a vegetarian dinner was calling out to me. I found a vegetarian/vegan burger recipe a few days ago that looked worth trying so that was the recipe I used.


The recipe is posted on the newly found blog, Oh She Glows.

Our Perfect Veggie Burger

Crunchy, chewy, with a crispy outer shell, these delicious veggie burgers have all the right elements we love in a veggie burger. Light on the beans, these burgers aren’t mushy in the middle, but have a nice mixture of breadcrumbs, chopped almonds, sunflower seeds, and seasonings to round them out. Best of all, they work great in the oven, frying pan, or even on the BBQ. They can also be made gluten-free by using gluten-free oats, Tamari, and breadcrumbs. Don’t have breadcrumbs? Just process a few slices of bread in the food processor for instant breadcrumbs. I used 3 slices of Ezekiel bread.
Inspired by Whitewater Cooks.
Yield: 8 burgers
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• Flax eggs: 2.5 tbsp ground flax + 1/2 cup warm water, mixed in bowl
• 1 cup oats, processed into flour* (other flours might work)
• 1.5 cups bread crumbs (I processed 3 pieces of Ezekiel bread until fine crumb)*
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and roughly pureed or mashed
• Heaping 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (or fresh herb of choice)
• 1/3 cup almonds, chopped (toasted if preferred)
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, (toasted if preferred)
• 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Tamari (soy sauce)
• 1.5 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. oregano
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp kosher salt)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (if baking). In a large skillet, sauté onions and garlic in 1/2 tbsp oil. Mix your flax egg together in a small bowl and set aside for at least 10 mins while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
2. Place all ingredients (except spices and salt) into a large mixing bowl and stir very well. Now, add seasonings and salt to taste.
3. With slightly wet hands, shape dough into patties. Pack dough tightly as this will help it stick together. I made 8 medium patties.
4. Cooking methods: You can fry the burgers in a bit of oil on a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side. If baking in the oven, bake for 25-30 mins (15-17 minutes on each side) at 350F, until golden and crisp. For the BBQ, pre-bake the burgers for about 15 minutes in oven before placing on a pre-heated grill until golden and crisp on each side. Our preferred method of cooking was frying in the skillet!!
GF Note: To make these burgers gluten-free, use certified GF oats, GF Tamari, and gluten-free breadcrumbs.

The burgers were delicious. They were flavorful and had texture, almost like eating a beef hamburger. I processed the oats in the Vita mixer. Because I didn't want really chunky nuts I measured all the nuts and put them in the Vita mixer also. You have to be careful on how much you mix the nuts in the mixer because it will turn to nut butter quickly. The bread crumbs were also mixed in there, separately. Instead of using flax seeds I used 1 egg. The next time I make them I'll use 2 eggs for just a little more moisture. I cut parsley from the jungle of a garden.


I also added about 1/2 cup of cashews, 1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced, and 2 good sized mushrooms, chopped . The chili powder adds a little heat, especially if you use chipotole chili powder. I used 1/2 tsp. chipotole chili powder and 1 tsp. regular chili powder. The burgers were cooked in a skillet on the stove in a little olive oil and butter.

This is definitely a keeper recipe in this house.

Now, after I wrote this I went and asked 2 daughters that are all out carnivores what they thought of last night's burger.

"I'm sorry Mom, I didn't like them," says K. 

Then I asked H what she thought of them. She didn't like them either. I then asked her what specifically she didn't like about them.

"The looks."

"The texture."

"The taste."

I know the vegetarian daughter loved them. She told me so last night.

I probably won't make these for DH since he's a carnivore loving kind of guy.

So that's the taste test results from this household...which is not vegetarian BTW. Still, the recipe is a keeper and it will appear again on the dinner menu!