Working with Children has Benefits

I love working with children. I had a daycare job years ago and have been working with children in church for many years now. I was told that, for my first two years, I would catch every cold and illness that comes along. This is true. I was sick much more often.

The flip side is that I also became immune to many things and today, I do not catch nearly as many colds as I used to. Right now my husband is sick and I am trying to keep liquids down him. It could be a 24-hour stomach virus, food poisoning or whatever, but I am glad that I am able to help him. I felt a little sick yesterday. The feeling left me last night while he seems to have gotten worse.

I've also heard the walking outdoors prevents a lot of airborne illnesses -- probably not just by increasing one's fitness levels, but getting away from indoor airborne germs, too, and getting a dose of outside aur. Of course, nothing is perfect and we still get sick often enough. (But its not all these food experiments I've been doing -- because I am eating them and I am fine! lol)

Grape-BlueBerry-Almond Shake

This was better than we expected: Take 1 & 1/2 cups frozen seedless red grapes, 1/4 to 1/3 cup frozen blueberries, 1 & 1/4 cups skim milk, 10 packets Splenda and a touch of almond flavoring (1/4 tsp or more). Blend it all up until smooth. My husband and I both loved it. We'll be making this again.

Jack-in-the-Box Incident

Snopes.com said that this could be true. At any rate, it is funny. Snopes even supplies access. Here's the text that is going around with this link (thanks to Jennifer C.):

Behind the Scenes at a Car Dealership

My husband sent this link to me. It is a fascinating story of what goes on behind the scenes of a car dealership from Edmunds.com. They sent a spy out into the field for months to learn the truth about how a car is sold and what kind of profits are made -- stuff goes on that I never would have imagined. The most valuable information is on the last page, a quick guide for car buyers -- good advice.

(P.S. The Vita-Mix made an awesome smoothie. I threw in half a frozen banana and some frozen strawberries and blueberries, a touch of vanilla, a few packets of Splenda, a little fiber power and skim milk. It was quick to make. Cleanup is nothing -- just soap and water whirred around in the container. I think I like that part best -- cleaning up is a breeze.)

Real Homemade Bread from Beyond Scratch

I tried making bread. After carefully examining the recipe, I put wheat kernels in the Vita-Mix. It did a beautiful job grinding the wheat to powder. It was not as fine as my electric K-Tec mill does it, but the coarseness was a pleasant change and it was fine enough.

What I noticed is that the wheat gets VERY hot. It needs to cool down for about an hour so that the heat does not kill the yeast. They recommend freezing the wheat kernels first to try and keep things cooler, but waiting an hour seems to work.

It only makes a small loaf. For an average loaf pan, it takes two batches. The bread was okay -- not as good as using the fine flour but it was edible and hearty. The only drawback was a slight bitter taste. I am not sure, but I think getting the flour as hot as it does, causes some bitter flavor to come out -- and I have never seen a recipe for regular whole wheat bread calling for lemon juice. I tried a batch with it and without it and I prefer the bread without it.

Tomorrow, I am making smoothies! From the comments at Epinions.com, this makes the best smoothies on the planet. (P.S. Let me say that Epinions.com is a great place to get advice before buying anything like this.)

Vita-Mix: Got One At Last

After lusting for this for decades (my uncle sold them when I was a child so it was imprinted on me early), I finally got a Vita-Mix. It arrived via UPS in perfect shape. I set it up, watched the video and followed the startup recommendation to put some water inside with a couple of drops of dish detergent then whir it for a few seconds.

This whirring was fine. I wanted to see how fast it could go. I know 2 horsepower is very strong so I cranked it up all the way. Bam! The lid flew off,  sudsy water was thrown out so quickly that it hit my kitchen TV's "on" button and turned the thing on, then soaked the counter and TV -- all in the time it took to blink.

Now, the kitchen counter TV is haunted. It keeps turning itself on and ignores the remote. It does something different every time I plug it in. Right now, it is changing channels all by itself. Before that, it would change the volume by itself. I am still getting a perfect image. Maybe I should have seen that White Noise movie.

P.S. I just didn't have the lid snapped on correctly. I am making bread right now with hard wheat kernels. It ground the wheat effortlessly and made a nice loaf which is rising as I type.

Modern Kitchen Aids