Tuber Tonic
‘TIS THE SEASON December 01 2014
Well, the cooler weather finally rolled into the Mendocino Coast and with it some much-needed rain storms. This time every year, I find myself reaching for a hot cup of tea a lot more often. Because I don’t want to get too caffeinated, I look to the herbals. Our HERBAL CHAI is always been a favorite in our house, with its tasty blend of warming ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. The hearty rooibos base makes for a very satisfying cup on a cold day. VANILLA ROOIBOS is my wife’s favorite. She brews it with brown sugar and this year, added some whipped cream –leftovers from making a Thanksgiving persimmon pudding. Wow! An instant (caffeine-free) addiction!
I also caught my first cold of the season. Sunny day so I put on a light jacket ( didn’t wear a hat) took the dog to the beach. Well, a chilly wind blowing from the East got me……. “You should have brought a hat,” my wife told me when I got home. Anyhow, I turned to my two faithful remedies: CINNABERRY and GINGER-LEMON teas. Delicious and soothing on the throat! Certainly ‘tis the season for holiday cheer and warming herbal teas and….don’t forget your hat and gloves!
Festivities November 30 2014
If you are like me, you have a steady stream of friends and family traipsing thorough your house from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. While it's fun and I welcome them, it's also exhausting and almost impossible to keep my house in order.Here are some things that I have found to be a big help:
Put all your tea or coffee making supplies in one place, including cups and spoons, so that you are preparing and cleaning up in one area.
Keep your sink and the area around it as clear as possible so that you don't feel overwhelmed.
Put things away and wipe down your bathroom sink and swish out your toilet once a day, so you don't have to deal with any kind of build-ups.
Bake when you can, if you can, or have some kind of healthy snack available to share, or make chocolates and keep them in an air-tight container for unexpected guests (recipe to follow).
If you have a hot pot or carafe, make up some CinnaBerry or Ginger Lemon tea early and you will have it readily available for yourself and any guests all day
These are things that have come to me as I clean up after Thanksgiving. I'm sure there will be more. I am one of those people who would prefer to be always creating, and never cleaning up the mess made in the process. Over the years, I've had to figure out ways to help me overcome that.
The first Thanksgiving dinner I cooked was in 1966, the first year that we came to Mendocino. It was a lot harder then, but I was only twenty one and had a lot of energy.