The Household Product Labeling Act has been introduced in the Senate

And it is about time!   HR 3057, the House companion bill, was introduced by Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY).


Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has introduced The Household Product Labeling Act (S. 1697).  This Act would require household cleaning products to carry labels that list all of their ingredients. “Moms and dads have a right to know whether harmful chemicals are present in their kitchen cupboards,” Franken says.

The way it is now, products are required to list immediately hazardous ingredients, but there is no labeling requirement for ingredients that may cause harm over time. The bill would make information readily available to consumers.

Nuts!

Nuts in 2003 received the FDA’s first qualified health claim for a food: “Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.” The FDA announcement was in response to a petition from the International Tree Nut Council’s (INC) Nutrition Research & Education Foundation.

Thanksgiving Lasagna

About a year or so ago a wonderfully talented cook, Madelyn Hood, served Mark and I a wonderful dish of stuffed shells that had a delicious winter squash filling. She has since that time talked to me about a small catering she provided where the main dish was once again a pasta dish using winter squash (or was it pumpkin?). So I've thought about creating a pasta dish with winter squash for a while now.


My family spreads Thanksgiving out over the entire long weekend. Didn't make it to Madison this year (though I managed to deliver a Bavarian Apple Torte and a Blackberry Pie to them) but we still had our small family gathering at home Thanksgiving Day, and then one with Mark's family at a gathering at his sister's in Indy on Saturday. I had made some Brie with caramelized onion fondue for day-long nibbling while dinner was made on Thanksgiving day. The following day I kept working on creating a recipe for a new lasagna for the Saturday gathering and decided to combine the flavors of butternut squash with the brie and caramelized onion. The following recipe is what I came up with.

Caramelized Onion Butternut Squash Lasagna
with Portabella Mushrooms and Brie

Ingredients


4 cups pureed butternut squash*
2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbs minced garlic
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 - 2 cups bread crumbs (from 3 slices of whole wheat)






(I really need to become better at food
 photography.....this photo does not do it justice)




6 -8 medium onions - halved and thinly sliced (5-6 cups)
2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cups thinly sliced portabella mushrooms
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper


1 package egg roll wraps
(trust me .....these work great as lasagna noodles)
1 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese
1 lb. round of Brie
more fresh grated Parmesan




Instructions:


For the Butternut Squash Puree:
I prefer the method shown by the folks at Food Mayhem for preparing puree. While the squash is roasting in the oven you can slice the onions and make the bread crumbs.


I don't bother with the food processor for the puree.  A potato masher works just fine.  Add the puree to a pot in which you have already started the olive oil and minced garlic. Add the vegetable broth ( I usually buy the vegetable broth powder at Bloomingfoods) and cream and the shredded parmesan cheese.  Salt isn't absolutely necessary, but be generous with the freshly ground black pepper.  Stir in the bread crumbs.
Set aside.


For the Caramelized Onions with Portabella Mushrooms:
The technique I prefer for caramelizing onions is the one advocated by Mark Bittman, the New Your Times columnist and the author of How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.  You cook the onions without oil for twenty minutes......if you have to, you can add a little water during this time.  You stir infrequently, with a wooden spoon scraping up the "browning" which is actually the sugar cooking off and stirring it back into the onions.  Once the onions have cooked for about twenty minutes you add the olive oil.  This is when I add the mushrooms, salt, pepper and the fresh rosemary. Stir and cook until the mushrooms have cooked and everything looks yummy!  I have a hard time refraining from just eating caramelized onions straight by themselves.  It can pay to make plenty extra since they keep in the fridge well and improve everything, in my opinion.


Making the Lasagna:


Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.  Mine at home bakes hot at 375 so I adjust accordingly. Grease a large baking dish.  I use a  half-size commercial baking pan, but you can use a heavy 9-12 in. baking dish.

Open the package of Egg Roll Wrappers. Keep a empty dish with a lid on the table to keep them in while in the process of layering so that they don't dry out.  Be sure to peel them apart carefully...they are very thin.  Or you could opt to use two packages and have sturdier noodles, leaving them doubled.  I'm sure this would be fine.


Do the layering any which way you want.....really. But for those of you who want instructions:
Spread a very thin layer of the squash mixture on the bottom of the pan and cover with the egg roll noodles. It will take three noodles - two whole and one cut in halves.  Cover this with a layer of the onion/mushroom mix. You can see my camera phone picture of the strips of Brie I layer with the onions.

Another layer of noodles.  Next layer squash. Noodles. Mozzarella. Noodles. Caramelized onions with portabella mushrooms and Brie. Noodles. Brie. Noodles. Squash....and so on. On top a layer of noodles topped with mozzarella, brie and some parmesan.


Cover the casserole with foil for the first half hour of cooking time, and then uncover to let the cheeses get a nice and bubbly look to them.






Let the lasagna set for a good ten minutes before cutting into portions.  A hint from the kitchens (I manage Food Works for Middle Way House) is that you cut through the first layer with scissors. Then you follow these cuts with a knife to get perfectly evenly cut portions of lasagna.

This is a very rich dish!  Smooth and creamy.  Enjoy!!!!

Today's Going To Be A Good Day!

Hello and blessings,

It has been a while since posting here. Working on "Simply Healthy" and as ever grateful for the abundant opportunities unfolding in my personal life and the generousity of beings! The link is an example. If you know me personally, you know that I love dance. I love dancing and appreciate every single performer who has ever inspired me to movement!

This morning I received this and the thought of 21,000 people dancing together is amazing and did bring me to tears.

Love and dance! May you have both in abundance in your own lives!

Namaste

Local First Indiana

There is finally a group forming in Bloomington, Indiana to become part of the BALLE Network. BALLE is The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and works to promote local businesses.

Local First Indiana had its first steering committee meeting in late July.

Local First Indiana is a non-profit organization committed to supporting and promoting locally owned independent business by educating the public, facilitating collaboration, and engaging in outreach in order to create a more economically and environmentally sustainable local community, while preserving the unique local character."

This is how Local First Indiana is defining local:

1. Is the business privately held (not publicly traded)?
2. Do the business owners, totaling greater than 50 percent of the business
ownership, live in your local region?
3. Is the business registered in your state, with no corporate or national
headquarters outside your region?
4. Can the business make independent decisions regarding the name and look
of the business, as well as all business purchasing,practices, and
distribution?
5. Does the business pay all its own rent, marketing expenses, and other
expenses (without assistance from a corporate headquarters)?

If you would like to learn more about becoming involved with Local First Indiana, contact Amanda at


or Una at

The Hair Cut

A forward from a good friend.

The Hair Cut...

One day a florist went to a barber for a haircut.

After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, 'I cannot
accept money from you , I'm doing community service this week.' The florist
was pleased and left the shop.

When the barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a 'thank
you' card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the
barber again replied, 'I cannot accept money from you , I'm doing community
service this week.' The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a 'thank you'
card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill,
the barber again replied, 'I can not accept money from you. I'm doing
community service this week.' The Congressman was very happy and left the
shop.

The next morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen
Congressmen lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the
citizens of our country and the politicians who run it.

Another Diet Directive

I love the people at Organic Authority. But I am getting tired of the diet experts out there. Just a tad frustrated.

A new post states " Eating breakfast—especially one that includes whole grains—reduces your risk for heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart failure, according to the May 2008 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter." and goes on to say that a prominent physician, Matthew Edlund, MD, "suggests that if you’re watching your weight, there’s an optimal time to eat your first organic meal of the day: within 15 to 30 minutes of waking up, and no later than 8 a.m." and told Redbook magazine: “If you don’t eat breakfast, your body thinks it’s in starvation mode, and you’ll eat more food later on.”




I don't disagree with the original hypothesis of Covert Bailey in "Fit or Fat". I have struggled with changing my set point off and on for years.

However, I believe strongly that we cannot be standardized in the way that Matthew Edlund, MD suggests. He is just one among many in the science community guilty of this, so I don't really mean to pick on him. My point is, the fact that he is a prominent physician and has written a book does not give him an authority on every body type and metabolism type out there. The studies that exist, if you look closely, are often trying to extrapolate data from 35 to 50 people at a time to a U.S. population of over 304 million people. This is getting to be ludicrous.

People need to listen to their own bodies and develop their own approach. There are too many factors, work schedules, life styles, etc. for a one-size fits all approach to scheduling one's diet. I agree with the healthy and organic meals advocated, just not the broad generalization.

World Population .....yeesh! we have multiplied!

The US population is now at 307,098,995 and the World population is at 6,775,839,727.

Let's see. That means that the U.S. is only 4.5% of the world's population! This is a humbling thought. One that we need to remind ourselves of once in a while.

On another note.....Let's look at China. Their current population is 1,319,175,359. Which means they are 19.46% of the world population.

Peace be with all of us.

Did you know that their are more Chinese internet users than the entire US population?

According to the folks at SearchEngineWatch.com "The number of internet users in China has surpassed the population of the United States, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Last year their use of broadband passed US numbers, so the level of service and number seems to be growing at a much more rapid rate than people had predicted."

I keep trying to think if I have anything to sell to China. :-) Nope. I will just send them thoughts of peace.

Bamboo Biodiesel Taxi

This Bamboo Taxi Van runs on coconut biodiesel fuel. Looks so pretty and fun for a trip around town.

Picture and article are at Fast Company.