“Night”
NIGHT. No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us. Were this conflagration to be extinguished one day, nothing would be left in the sky but extinct stars and unseeing eyes.
In May, 1944, 15-year old Elie Wiesel and his family – his mother, father and three sisters – were ordered from their home in Sighet, Transylvania (the central part of Romania) and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Separated from his mother and sisters, Wiesel and his father managed to stay together for eight months, before his father died in January, 1945. Three months later in April, 1945 the camp was liberated and Elie Wiesel began the journey of “one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night…” Read more 
How ’bout a Date?
Several years ago while living in Switzerland, a friend gave my family a tray of dried fruits – figs, dates, and apricots – from the Middle-East where he often traveled. The jumbo sized dates formed my idea of what a date should be: sweet, moist, creamy and delicious. Unfortunately, the standard date available at grocery stores (and even Whole Foods) does not live up to the dates from lands far away, which led me to look for for a high quality date in the US. My search led me to a Indio, California which is about 23 miles southeast of Palm Springs, where Shields Date Garden is a major draw for locals and tourists alike. Read more
The Sili Squeeze
When Kristin Ahmer couldn’t find an easy way to feed her children pureed foods and smoothies, she decided to create her own patent-pending spill-proof design that keeps food in their mouths and not all over their clothes or surroundings. By combining the best attributes of a bottle and a disposable food pouch, Ahmer came up with the Sili Squeeze: a reusable pouch (made from 100% food grade silicone) that can be filled with purée, smoothies, and any ready-made snack like yogurt or applesauce. Read more
Dave’s Killer Bread: What the East Coast Needs
Every time I travel to the west coast, I make a point of buying Dave’s Killer Bread, painstakingly packing the loaves in my suitcase and bringing them back to the east coast to enjoy. Made in Milwaukie, Oregon, Dave’s Killer Bread is available in nearly 4,000 grocery stores in 17 western and central states (and Guam, if you can imagine)…but not on the east coast (hint, hint Dave…we want your bread on the east coast). Read more
“Glow”
It is October 31. Halloween. I have long lost my love of masks and phantoms.
So says, 26-year old Amelia “Mia” J. McGee, a woman of Cherokee and Scotch-Irish descent, and a writer for the NAACP and WEB in Washington, DC who has returned to Hopewell County, Georgia to find her missing 11-year old daughter, E.F. “Ella” McGee. Three days prior a rock had been thrown through the McGee’s window with a note that said “The next one won’t be a rock.” Fearing for her daughter’s life, Mia put Ella on a bus to Georgia and arranges for her brother, Buddy to pick up the child at the bus station. But when Ella doesn’t make it, Mia decides to vacate her plans to march in the largest picket in Washington, D.C.’s history on October 31, 1941 and return to her childhood home to find the little girl she named after Elizabeth Freeman, “the great suffragist and speaker.” Read more
Quin Candy
Located in downtown Portland is Quin – a candy shoppe featuring handmade gumdrops, lollipops, caramels, sours, and marshmallows by the foot. Owner and chief candy maker, Jami Curl never outgrew her passion for sweets which drove her to use high quality locally sourced ingredients to create traditional types of candy without artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. Made in small batches by hand, Quin relies on sugar, fruit purée, gelatin, butter, heavy cream, vanilla beans, natural flavors and extracts, lemon zest, and more to make a delicious modern interpretation of old world favorites:
Bragg Organic Sprinkle
While shopping at a food coop in Middlebury, Vermont last month, I picked up a jar of Bragg 24 Organic Herbs and Spice Seasonings – a blend of all natural herbs and spices which adds flavor without sodium to soups, salads, pizza, vegetables, rice, beans, potatoes, marinades, and more. Formulated by Paul Bragg (a health crusader before his time and quite a colorful character) more than 80 years ago, Bragg Organic 24 Herbs and Spice Seasoning was aptly named because 24 herbs and spices go into making this flavorful seasoning. Read more
“The Kraus Project”
Our Far Left may hate religion and think we coddle Israel, our Far Right may hate illegal immigrants and think we coddle black people, and nobody may know how the economy is supposed to work now that our manufacturing jobs have gone overseas, but the actual substance of our daily lives is total electronic distraction. We can’t face the real problems; we spent a trillion dollars not really solving a problem in Iraq that wasn’t really a problem; we can’t even agree on how to keep health care costs from devouring the GNP. What we can all agree to do instead is to deliver ourselves to the cool new media and technologies, to Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, and let them profit at our expense. Read more
The Ultimate Weapon: The Water Bottle
I’m tired. Bone-weary, dizzy, worn out. More exhausted than when I had a newborn, or when I flew back from Hong Kong with my infant daughter and swore to my husband that I must have a brain tumor because I was so off-balance that each step gave me vertigo. Handing him the baby because I didn’t trust my coordination was all I could do before I hit the pillow and fell into a deep sleep. Of course, I didn’t have a brain tumor; I felt fine the next day. But my current condition is different. I am chronically sleep deprived. Read more
It’s Time to Freekeh
Every time I cook up a packet of Organic Freekeh – all natural roasted green wheat – I think of the 1978 hit song by Chic – Le Freak because that’s exactly what I do – freak out . Yes, I really do sing that song changing “freak out” to “freekeh” in my head – Ahh, Freekeh, Freekeh, c’est chic!...(out loud if no one is home) and then freak out over the flavor (nutty and smokey) and texture (firm and chewy) of a big bowl of Freekeh, especially when mixed with steamed broccoli florets and stems or fresh sautéed asparagus. Read more
Paddock Post 