“The One and Only Ivan”
I too find it hard to believe there is a connection across time and space, linking me to a race of ill-mannered clowns.
In 2012, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate was awarded the Newberry Medal for children’s literature. Ivan, a 400 pound Silverback gorilla has been living in a large cage at the Exit 8 (off I-95) Big Top Mall and Video Arcade for the past 9,855 days (27 years). Trapped as a baby and transported to the US, Ivan was raised like a human by Mack, his owner. When Ivan got too big to handle, Mack put him in the cage at the local mall and used him to attract shoppers. Read more 
The Excalibur Fruit and Vegetable Dehydrator
My daughter turned 17 recently and when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she replied “an Excalibur” meaning a food dehydrator, not the sword (big sigh of relief). Dried fruit is a favorite snack in our home but finding dried fruit without additives, sugar, or preservatives is difficult and often expensive. An Excalibur Food Dehydrator is the Cadillac of home dehydrators with the three attributes every dried food enthusiast wants: sufficient cubic space, a timer, and accurate temperature control. Read more
On the go? Go Picnic
We all need a meal to go from time to time but often sacrifice taste and nutrition for convenience. No more. A company – Go Picnic – has finally created a boxed shelf stable meal to go that is nutritionally balanced, tastes great, and is easy to tote along. The ingredients are impressive and within each box are recognizable high quality foods that contain no trans fats, high fructose syrup, MSG, or artificial flavors or colors – just real food that tastes good. The boxes require no refrigeration, heating, or preparation and fit into a briefcase, backpack, or purse for an easy meal on the go. Read more
Asian Cole Slaw
Cole slaw is always a tasty side dish but every once in a while, you need to shake things up. Consider making Asian Cole Slaw – a variation on the old standby that doesn’t compromise the flavor of the freshly chopped vegetables or the delicious dressing that pulls the salad together. Start with fresh raw vegetables – Chinese cabbage (Napa), zucchini, carrots, cucumber, scallions, and golden beets – add a light peanut dressing, chopped peanuts, and lots of fresh green cilantro – and the result is Asian Cole Slaw – a refreshing tasty salad with lots of crunch and flavor.
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“The End of Your Life Book Club”
Really, whenever you read something wonderful, it changes your life, even if you aren’t aware of it.
Mary Anne Schwalbe has just returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan when she is diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer which is almost always fatal within months. Unwilling to give up, Mary Anne decides to fight and seeks treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, where she lives with her husband, Douglas. Her adult son, Will Schwalbe accompanies his mother to her chemotherapy sessions where they pass the hours reading and discussing books they’ve read or are reading. The End of Your LIfe Book Club is Will Schwalbe’s account of the last two years of his mother’s life and how two people – a mother and a son – used books to share, discuss, and disclose their thoughts, feelings, and love for each other. Read more
Mamie’s Cheese Wafers
Mamie’s Famous Cheese Wafers are an old-fashioned southern cheddar cheese and pecan appetizer made of five ingredients: cheddar cheese, flour, butter, pecans, and cayenne pepper. Crunchy and nutty with a sharp Cheddar cheese flavor, Mamie’s Cheese Wafers are convenient (kept in the freezer), super quick to make: slice and bake (12-15 minutes in the oven), delicious…and addicting. Read more
Beanfields Bean and Rice Chips with Sea Salt
I love chips – all types. When I was a child, Fritos, Lay’s Potato Chips, Pringles, Doritos, and Tostitos were a regular part of my diet. It wasn’t until I grew up and learned to read labels that I realized chips don’t have to contain artificial colors, flavors and additives to taste good; the best chips – like the best foods – are those with the most natural and fresh ingredients. Read more
Build-A-Bar at YouBar
Have you ever spent 20 minutes in the nutritional bar aisle at the grocery store reading ingredient lists on the back of energy bar labels hoping to find the perfect snack bar? Maybe you read a label and thought a certain bar would be great if only it didn’t have whey powder, or nuts, dairy products, or dried fruit, or an added sweetener. If so, YouBar is the go-to resource for you or anyone who truly appreciates customization because at YouBar, you create your own bar by choosing every single ingredient. Read more
“Charming Billy”
Those of us who claim exclusivity in love do so with a liar’s courage: there are a hundred opportunities, thousands over the years, for a sense of falsehood to seep in, for all that we imagine as inevitable to become arbitrary, for our history together to reveal itself as only a matter of chance and happenstance, nothing irrepeatable, or irreplaceable, the circumstantial mingling of just one of the so many million with just one more. Read more
Going to Boston? Try Bob’s Italian Foods
Over the past several months, I have been taking my daughter to visit schools so she can figure out where she wants to attend college. After a few of these scouting trips, the college information sessions started to sound the same and although the campus tours were unique and offered a glimpse of student life, I learned to make the trips more interesting by finding great places to eat or markets in the towns we visit. On a recent road trip to Medford, Massachusetts (5 miles northwest of central Boston), I found a place called Bob’s Italian Foods that Zagat gave a resounding 26 out of 30 prompting me to plan a stop for lunch. Read more
Paddock Post 