Merry Christmas cookie

Hi friends and family,

Here's a great cookie recipe for ya. I have been craving peanut butter for some reason, and so I've made a batch a day for about 4 days now. Super easy. Wheat-free. I came up with the recipe by trial and error and tweeking a few recipes I saw on-line. I'm calling them...

Sesame Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c. natural peanut butter (chunky or creamy... doesn't matter)

1/2 c. sucanat (or turbinado or rapadura or brown sugar)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1/4 tsp. celtic sea salt (optional)

Set aside: 1/4 c. sesame seeds in a small bowl (optional)

Mix up all the ingredients with a fork... except the sesame seeds. Form into balls. Roll each ball in the sesame seeds to cover with seeds (optional) or just put the plain cookie dough balls on an un-greased baking sheet/ baking stone. Use a fork to gently push down on each ball to slightly flatten it, and then do it again the other way so fork-lines are perpendicular... I love that word. Ha! Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheet so they set-up. Then scrape the spatula under each cookie to lift them to a plate. Melt your favorite dark chocolate in a double-boiler and top each cookie with a big dab of melted chocolate. Allow to cool. Fantastico!

Quick double-boiler suggestion:

The best way I found to melt chocolate is to use my big glass measuring bowl and fill it half-way with water (which means about 4 cups water). Microwave the water until boiling (3 min. approx.). I then break up some dark chocolate squares (roughly 1 cup) and put them into my smaller glass measuring cup with handle. It has a 2 cup capacity. I lower the smaller cup into the larger one's hot water, and hang the smaller's handle over the edge of the larger's rim. It melts very smoothly and just can't burn or overcook. That's what I like about it!

Merry Christmas!

Faith, hope, and love.... but the greatest of these is love!

Amy

Relief

Hi friends and family,

I've struggle on and off with the pain of carpel tunnel syndrome in my wrists, hands, and fingers. It started when I was a teenager bussing tables, and has gotten worse over the years. I just turned 38, so I've been dealing with the problem for over 20 years. Wow. Anytime you claim anything for over 20 years, there's just a sense of oldness. And that's how ailments make you feel. In the past month, the pain shot from my head to my fingertips daily. Throbbing. Severely. So, now you know why I haven't been blogging lately. Using the computer keyboard was too painful. But.... YES THERE IS A BUT! I am really thankful for some great relief lately. I just had my second appointment with a very skilled massage therapist and aromatherapist named Deb Stoltzfus. It's a love/hate kind of thing. I look forward to going there just because the word "spa" is on her door, but this woman is not interested in any foofy pampering. Granted her massage therapy room above her home is beautiful, smells wonderful, and has peaceful instrumental music playing.... but this woman is serious about the therapeutic part of massage. She wants to know your problem and eliminate it. She's focused. She's strong. And just like during contractions before child birth, I found myself trying to breathe through the pressure she delivered, especially to my neck. Since getting 2 massages, the carpel tunnel symptoms have really let up, and so I had to write to tell you about her healing gift. Lately, my arms, wrists, and hands are feeling so much better. God is glorified! Her business is called "Inshanti Wellness Spa" and is located on 48 Slaymaker Hill Rd. in Kinzers, PA. You will also love her essential oils. She has her own lab and is a purist when it comes to choosing and mixing these wonderfully healing oils. Check out her website by clicking on the title of this post or go to www.inshanti.com Thanks Deb!!

Amy

Farm to School

I went to Millersville University last night to see the movie "Two Angry Moms" and hear the discussion afterward. It was really good. It told the story of two moms who mobilized school lunch reform and how they are helping others do the same thing. The words that stuck in my head were "farm to school" because the tastiest meals come from the freshest ingredients... and kids learn best when they see the whole process in action. Have you ever heard of an edible school yard? Click on the title of this post or go to this website to check out what one great Pennsylvania school is doing at: http://kimberton.org/about/food-for-thought

Just may be worth a field trip!

If you want to help your school's staff and families increase their food I.Q. and get healthier hot lunches, let me know. Also, you'll find good resources on the facebook page of "Lancaster Buy Fresh Buy Local." Linda Aleci has posted some really great info! Thank you Linda.

Movie Night Friday

The public is invited to a movie screening of "Two Angry Moms" ... sorry for the late notice on my blog... but I hope you can come! There will be a movie and discussion. I've never been to any of these events... sounds intriguing to me.

Reframing Lunch: Movie screening of TWO ANGRY MOMS

Location:Meyers Auditorium, McComsey Hall, Millersville University

Time:7:00PM Friday, October 15th

Time	Friday, October 15 · 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location	Meyers Auditorium, McComsey Hall, Millersville University
Created By	Lancaster Buy Fresh Buy Local
More Info	Fed up with the deplorable state of school lunches? Find out how 2 angry moms took action! Movie screening and discussion with Dr. Julie Lombardi and Dr. Adele Ruszak of Millersville University. Free and open to the public.

Don't worry...

If you can't prepare a healthy meal tonight because of time constraints, do not eat your fast food take-out with guilt and regret. Stress blocks nutrients from being absorbed. So, just take a deep breath, relax, be glad, and eat with ease and thankfulness. Slowly.

Remember that what goes into your body becomes a part of you. If your meal is poor, make sure to boost wealth to the rest of your body by drinking pure water, breathing fresh air outside, keeping a running dialogue with God, and getting 7-8 hours of sleep tonight.

For tomorrow, anticipate healthy creativity in the kitchen. Throw together a savory stir-fry with clean meat, shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, chopped broccoli, and sliced red pepper. Start your saute with onions and garlic in cold-pressed virgin coconut oil. End it with a simple sauce of Bragg's Liquid Aminos and fresh grated ginger... both can be found at any health food store or here:

http://bragg.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5

Enjoy!

Amy

My First Public Meeting in Harrisburg

My family's nutrition is sustained by local farmers. What a great concept. They do what they are good at doing... and then I buy their whole foods and milk ...and this helps farmers to keep farming. It's a great relationship.

It sounded strange to my ears the first time I heard someone say that we have to defend our rights to buy affordable high quality food from local farmers. Who are we defending ourselves from? Well, I got a taste of the answer yesterday.

I received an email invitation to a public hearing where government officials would vote on a proposed regulation which would supposedly promote milk sanitation. I am all for milk sanitation, but get this! The regulation would require PA dairy farmers to buy a machine that would bottle and cap plastic milk jugs... and this would have to be done in a separate room from the milk tanks. This sounds simple for a factory, but terribly expensive and ineffective for a small farmer. It's like using a chain saw to cut bread. My needs are being met so well by an Amish girl who fills my glass milk bottles each week with clean hands right from the clean milk tank in the clean milk house. It just works.

Food prices are high enough. If these regulations were put into place, then farmers would understandably have to raise their prices or quit farming. So, I went to Harrisburg yesterday, and I got the privilege of hearing about 20 PA dairy farmers (many of them plain folks), plead this noble case. Wow, it was an intense 3 hour meeting with lots of heart-felt testimonies from people who just wanted to keep working hard on their farms with out being over-regulated.

I arrived at the 10:00am meeting just in the nick of time. It was held on the 14th floor at 333 Market St. in front of the PA Independent Regulatory Review Commission. I would say there were 50-60 people in the room for the same reason. Many of them were dairy farmers. I bet they never saw public speaking in their job descriptions. But they did it anyway. It's nerve-wracking being in front of government officials in suits and ties... oh, and one woman chief counsel... with all the standard protocols that we know nothing about.

When each farmer would get up and tell his/her testimony (with shaking voices) telling why this regulation would be too expensive for them and ineffective, the other farmers would clap supportively for him or her. The chairman told everyone not to do that. He said this is not a broadway musical where were get applause. We need to keep to the business of the law. Well, there was so much suspense in the room, and everyone tried their best to hold their applause until the very end ...when the proposed regulation was actually voted on ...and it was disapproved by a close vote of 3 to 2. Yeah!!!! The whole room erupted in a relief of clapping and cheering that justice was served. The chairman scolded the group again saying, "I asked you not to do that!" What an interesting 3 hours.

I'm sure this is not the end of the story. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission felt that the PA Dept. of Ag. could resubmit a proposed regulation that was separate from the federal standard of mechanized bottling and more suited for small farmers. I appreciate the regulations which keep us safe, but I will support our Pennsylvania farmers as the experts they are in their field. When I got up to speak at the meeting, I simply said that as a raw milk consumer I trust my local farmer's milk sanitation practices because he is serving the same milk to his own family, and he is an intelligent man with many years of expertise in food safety.

Love live trustworthy farmers! Long live just law makers!

Amy

P.S. For more information on behind the scenes defenders of local sustainable agriculture, go to http://www.pasafarming.org/

Baked Pumpkin and The Country Barn

I went on a field trip with my 3rd grader's class yesterday to "The Country Barn" on Donnerville Rd. in Lancaster. Great place, but man... was it cold and wet! We lived to tell about it and had fun anyway. The kids got to walk through the muddy fields and choose their own live pumpkin to pull off the green vine. They also got to watch 4 pigs race and yell suuuu-weeee and all that good stuff. Farmer Jim made a point of informing the kids of where their food comes from. He dug up potatoes for them to see. He was a wealth of whole foods information. He held one of his free-range chickens and her fresh brown egg as he asked the kids how many eggs do most chickens lay in one day? Most of the kids thought it was about a dozen or more. The correct answer is one... with an average of 360 eggs per year per chicken. Brown eggs come from colored chickens and white eggs come from white chickens. It was all good information for the non-farm kids and grown-ups... which would be most of us.

When I (with pride) told Farmer Jim that I had just boiled a big pumpkin the other day and made pumpkin cake roll and pumpkin pie, he informed me that I had poured all the nutrients down the drain after boiling. Hmmmm.... I said to myself, deflated. He said, "Bake your pumpkin and it will be the best tasting pumpkin you've ever had, and it will keep it's nutrients. I have to agree. And will definitely do that next time. Makes sense.

To bake your pumpkin, just wash it, cut off the stem, cut in half, scoop out the seeds and strings, lay it face down on a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour or until soft. Cool. Scoop out the flesh and throw away the peel. I've attached a recipe for pumpkin spice cookies that looks fabulous from "natural papa's" website.

http://naturalpapa.com/food/recipe/ridiculously-good-pumpkin-spice-cookies/

"The Country Barn" is open to the public. You can interact with the animals or shop at their farm market. Here's the website: http://www.countrybarnmarket.com/index.htm

Have another cheerful rainy day! I gotta keep telling myself that. Ha!

Amy