BIts & Pieces

[alfreda89]

Have saved a few things:

* Who would have thought it? Roasted barley tea is extremely nutritious. Georgette Heyer and Alton Brown speaketh the truth! And the tea tastes very much like coffee. I think I read once that it was a coffee substitute during WW2?

* Local folk -- I have my DVD of the Lyme documentary UNDER OUR SKIN back in hand, and it may be borrowed by folk of careful habits. It's "A dramatic tale of microbes, medicine and money" and worth seeing...if only to make tick checks mandatory on kids, dogs, cats and adults (don't forget in the hair!)

* HAD TO LOL DEPT. -- Saw a post on a political blog where someone commented that they'd been insomniac for eight years, ever since the birth of the first child. He's been sleeping like a log for a week, ever since the election. I think it's been part of my sleeping problem, too -- why we all thought we needed to be alert for the administration pulling a fast one, maybe that's hubris -- or maybe our ancestors would say: "Well, you've got a rattlesnake den somewhere on the property. If you can't find them and evict them, you gotta keep an eye peeled and a gun or hoe at your side..." ;^)

* OH DEAR UNIVERSE the January, 2009 Fine Cooking magazine has a flourless chocolate pomegranate cake on the cover! I sense buckling during the coming holidays.... And then there's the famous Pumpkin Cheesecake that sparkylibrarian introduced me to, and I tweaked to perfection (pecan crust adds a lot!)

* Third cat check -- even Maisie won't eat any of these cat treats I'd tried to interest Max in...she went so far as to return to food from this am that she'd ignored and eat it!

Comments

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Are you referring to the Japanese roasted barley tea.( O Mugi Cha: my spelling may be off). It has been a favorite cold summer drink for many years. Also was very soothing to my father's digestion when he was going through radiation therapy for prostate cancer and having nasty reactions to it).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. 1/4 cup roasted barley to 6-8 cups of filtered/spring water, cook at a rolling boil for 20 minutes, thin with more spring water, if necessary, and put in glass jars for the fridge? (ERROR -- {Twigs good for 7 batches, always add a tablespoon of new before boiling?} This is the Kukicha Tea, not the roasted barley. You toss the roasted barley into the compost heap.)

Yeah, that stuff!

I'm using a Vega tea from Kukicha for real stomach soothing properties. The kuzu, umeboshi, ginger and shoyu make a remarkably smooth drink, evening out the saltiness and soothing the stomach. I plan to write a little about macrobiotics in "researching your life for story" in the Book View Cafe blog, whenever it's my turn to post.