her home was not a home of calories

and her secret ingredient was love, in equal parts for all.

Each week, I will be sending out a tribute to someone that tugs at mi corazon. This week its my Grandma Victoria.

I have been doing a lot of networking, including cyber-networking. Since starting this blog, I have sent out an array of emails to those who may (or may not) care to read what I have to say. Today I thought of someone that would love this blog –for its spunk, its strength, its simplicity, and its beauty. That someone is my Gram. She passed away while I was in the midst of securing a place in the world after high school. I wanted her to have a part in my place, but she had a better place to be part of. My healthier than a horse 86-year-old-and-still-cooking-fried-rice-and-chicken Grandma was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died a beautiful death. She had the most radiant soul. Hours after her death, lying in her eclectic and well-loved living room, her body maintained a powerful energy and loving grace, as if her soul was so concentrated it had diffused into her skin and bones. She raised ten kids in that house, my Dad being numero 7. She found the best way to get her whole family in the same room: Food (and the more food, the longer they would stick around, so lots of food). This strategy continued no matter how large the family became. For my childhood Thanksgivings, the whole fam-damn-ily crammed into the house. If the house were the turkey, we would all be a piece of the stuffing and its important to stuff that bird or it will dry out. She was a doctor in my kind of medicine, the medicine of food and togetherness. Your not feeling good? Eat some rice. How can you be sad when there is a freezer with gallon bag-fulls of chocolate chip cookies? She taught me more than I could ever express and I am challenged to not be sad when I think of her, rather I would like to be empowered. This one is for you Grandma, for you, for making myself heard, and for the power that rests and awakens within my soul. I think it is awakening now.

http://www.leadertelegram.com/people/obituaries/article_24c55be4-2566-56e4-bc24-cf4a9be9a03b.html

late night squash bake becasue I know what I want for lunch tomorrow. Squash: olive oil, cinnamon, cloves, and thyme bake at 400 until a fork slides in easy. Lunch (not pictured) squash, quinoa, peanuts, craisins, hot sauce and the dried piece of kale at the bottom of the veggie drawer.

farm house, early Thursday morning. hump day is real.

morning time=carrot + pb + a cupfull of brownie crumbles scraped off of the pan + a spanish composicion due shortly

dinner is winner: cous cous, zuchhini, kale/squash/tomato trifecta, craisins and peanuts and hot sauce (these 3 items are becoming staples in my farm house eat-venture)

following it up with some vegan pb banana cookies.

the moon or my sourdough starter.

popcorn for a kitchen full of laughter: pour oil in pan so that there is a layer on the bottom of the pan = 1/2 of the width of a popcorn kernel, pour in enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pan w/o many overlapping kernels, cover, heat on high, listen for popping, shake occasionally, recognize the slow phasing into pop-less-ness, turn of heat. Season with salt, nutritional yeast, pepper, and curry powder. Sha-zam

SHA-ZAmm

blog time=banana time. or is it a banana phone?