The other night I watched Kennedy Center Honors and they honored such wonderful people. George Lucas, Seji Ozawa, Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson…..

And then they honored Carole King. Aretha Franklin came on stage, astounding everyone, playing the piano and singing, “You Make me Feel Like Natural Woman.” The audience was singing and crying. Carole King was singing and crying. The President, and First Lady, were singing…… and crying.

Everyone was on their feet. And I was crying.

And then, the show was ending. James Taylor was singing, then, Aretha again, Carole again, from the balcony, and the Obamas, and the audience…. were all singing, “I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet.”

And I was still crying.

At the end of 2015, and at the onset of a new year……. follow your dreams……

“Do, or do not. There is no try.” So, you must do….

Happy 2016. And….. Do!

“Tis the season to be jolly, etc., etc., but it is also the season of turkey, ham, roast beef, veal (baby cows!), chicken, fish, and other foods.

It really makes me sad to think of how many millions of innocent animals have already been killed in the name of THANKSGIVING, and how many millions more will be killed in the name of the upcoming holidays, which all have joyous premises.

How can you be joyous over a slaughtered animal…..  at any time of the year?

Just last week in the supermarket it was SO sad to see the contents of so many people’s carts.  I really wanted to cry.  I did get into conversations with a few people and gave them my “business card” that lists my contact information and the link to my website.  :)

But, still……

If you haven’t seen these articles, which I posted recently on Twitter and Facebook, please take a read-through now.  I know I’m preaching to the choir, but if you pass the articles on to others, maybe a few will consider their choices over the holidays and beyond, and truly have a reason to be joyous.

They are written by Craig Shapiro, an amazing journalist and writer, who is now working for PETA.

Read on!

“A Vegan Holiday Gives Everyone Reason to be Thankful.”
http://www.pilotonline.com/…/article_87df62a1-c82e-52a2-8b2…

“Hear That Knocking? Its Your Conscience.”
http://goodmenproject.com/…/hear-that-knocking-its-your-co…/

I’ve been on a lemon kick lately, as you might have noticed. You might even call it a lemon rant. I’ve been amazed at how expensive lemons are and I’ve been trying to find ways to make the “hit” to my pocketbook less painful. In fact, even better to alleviate the pain all together!

If you’re like me, you’ll buy a few lemons, use a couple, and then they sit in the fridge. And if you dare to try and save money and buy the bunch of lemons in the yellow net bag, you use a couple and the others go bad. Or, they dry out. Either way, you’ve taken a hit to your pocketbook, and you have no lemon for your recipe or cup of tea! There’s got to be a better way.

Eureka! We may be able to solve that!

I happened to be in touch with someone in Israel who is working on a dried lemon product, and I’ve been testing it out. Shelf stable, condensed, keep it in the cupboard until you need it….  catching my drift?

So far I’ve used it in my Lentil Soup, and UN-Stuffed Cabbage recipes, as well as in a recipe for Almond Cheese that I’ve been testing (and love) and don’t have on the website yet.

Delicious in all three!

The product is not available in the U.S. as yet. (No, its not the one you can sometimes find in the supermarket, which is pretty expensive and not really like THIS interesting product.)

I’m not sure when it will be available in the U.S., but the inventor and I have talked about the product a lot (no, I am not being compensated for my assistance) and I hope that it will be here soon. It will be available not only for home use, but restaurant and commercial use, as well.  A big savings, and big convenience all around!

Its great to have fresh lemon on hand all the time, but so frustrating to have expensive lemons go bad and have to be tossed out.  Fingers crossed this new product comes to the U.S. soon!

Yes, its been almost 6 months since I last wrote something and it took my frustration with lemons and their seeds to make me do it!

The delay in writing? Take a read-though “New York, New York, a Hell of a Town,” and multiply it ten-fold.

Still working on ways to move hoooome to New York.  What comes first, the chicken or the egg?  You need a place to live in New York in order to look for work.  But in order to look for work, you need a place to live. The universe is telling me its time to go home.  Argh!

Adding fuel to the fire, being “down-sized” from the job that was keeping me afloat so I could continue working on my veg aspirations and dreams. Not a good combination.

They say, “When life give you lemons, make lemonade.” Well, I’m workin’ on it.  But, even the lemons themselves are frustrating!  But….  I figured out the lemon problem, or at least, part of it.

Lemons are SO expensive these days.  Why is that?  And they’re not as lemon-y as they used to be.  And they seem to have an awful lot of seeds. Of course, you want to get as much juice as possible out of each lemon, and deal with the multitude of seeds as little as possible, so….  voila!, I started putting a fine mesh sieve (colander) over a bowl, squeezed the lemons into the sieve, and got all of the juice while trapping the seeds. Eureka.  I have found the answer!  Even better would be if the price of lemons would drop (why are they so expensive?), but getting all of the juice out without picking seeds out of your food is a start!

Now, if I could just find a place to live in NYC (anyone need a house-sitter for a year or two while you go on sabbatical?), and a good job, so I can forward my veg aspirations and TV show, all will be good in the world.

Any input, send it my way.  And, don’t forget to make lemonade!

New York, New York. A hell of a town. The Bronx is up and the Batterys down. Hmmm…. sounds familiar.

Sure is a hell of a town, and I want to go home. Yes, I’ve been all over the world, but have you heard? You can take the girl out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of the girl.

“So, how do you do it?” you ask?  Beats me. Apply for jobs online? Not working. Contact people directly. Hasn’t worked yet (except for a couple of interesting contacts with Disney/ABC, so we’ll see where that goes.) Ask people on Twitter if they have any ideas? Nothing much has come out of that so far.

HOW do you move home? HOW do you find an affordable place to live? HOW do you find work…. especially when you’re a TV/radio/foodie/writing/media-ite?

I’m keeping a roof over my head (nope, not in New York) in a job that’s interesting….. if you want to work in that world, but I really don’t. (I fell into it accidentally.)

I have TV/radio/foodie/writing/media-ite yearnings, and talents. HOW do you make the switch? HOW do you find funding for your vegetarian cooking and travel show? HOW do you move home to New York?

Genie, can you cross your arms and blink a few times for me? Barbara? Barbara Eden. Are you there?

Anyone else there? Spread the word! All ideas (and contacts), accepted! It’s past time to go home and do what I’m supposed to do!  :)

Its dangerous out there!

No, I’m not alluding to the fact that sugar levels are going to be sky high later today after trick-or-treating-ing, or that there are some new medical challenges in the world, which we will overcome.

I’m talking about the food in your supermarket. Yes, YOUR supermarket!

Consider this a Public Service Announcement!

I eat a relatively healthy diet, as you can imagine. Lots of fruits and veg, and grains, etc., etc. But, boy, was I shocked when I woke up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago with food poisoning. No need to go into detail, but I thought I was gonna die.

WHAT did I eat that could have caused that? Obviously, no meat on the menu, so it had to be either fruit or veg. What did I eat that wasn’t cooked? A variety of herbs, bought in two stores, which were thrown into a salad, and a container of melon chunks. Well, I’ve seen the people in the store, wearing gloves, cutting up the melon, so it HAD to be the herbs, right?

Since I bought the herbs in two stores and didn’t know which had caused the “poisoning,” there wasn’t even anyone I could go back to and say, “Hey, what is WRONG with you?”

So, I dealt with the food poisoning, laid in absolute misery and silence on the couch for 4 days, along with my very confused dog who stretched out next to me, who I didn’t have the strength to walk (thank goodness for the yard), and wound up in Urgent Care with an IV in my arm, and a handful of prescriptions to fill.

Whatever I had, it was a heck of an ordeal and it’s been a slow recuperation. That being said, back to, “It’s dangerous out there!”

This past weekend I was in one of the supermarkets and had a verrrrry interesting conversation with someone who works there, who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. She asked if I had bought anything in THAT store and I mentioned the melon, and the herbs, and that I thought it was the herbs, and she got a strange look on her face.

“You bought the melon HERE?” “Well, yeah, but they always cut the melon with gloves on so I’m sure it wasn’t the melon.” “Did you know that any cut fruits MUST be refrigerated within 30 minutes of being cut? I used to work in that department, but I got out of there!”

That was a HECK of a surprise, and a warning, and….. I took the container of cut melon that was in my cart back to the produce section and put it back on the shelf!

Did I tell the store? I considered it, but didn’t want them to figure out who told me about the melon.

So, WARNING, if you want chunks of melon, buy a melon and cut it up, and make sure you get the cut melon into the fridge within 30 minutes of cutting it. The sooner the better. It’s a pain, but I can assure you you don’t want to wind up with whatever I had a couple of weeks ago. Oh, my!

So, be careful out there. It’s dangerous!

Now, where did I put my ginger ale…….. lol