Camy Tang's Blog, page 132
May 4, 2012
Health benefits of tea!
You knew I had to blog about it when I read it, right? :) This article goes beyond just talking about antioxidants to mention 3 teas and 3 tisanes that are good for your health. I didn’t know that puer tea lowered cholesterol, though. I’ll have to get more chocolate strawberry puer tea from LupiciaUSA.com, now! {wink wink}
Rich tea biscuits
Speaking of biscuits ...I mentioned earlier about the dark chocolate digestive biscuits I bought due to the Betty Neels books I’ve read. I also bought these rich tea biscuits which I’d read about also.
McVitie’s is apparently a well-known maker of digestive biscuits (and I think they’re the ones who originally came up with the chocolate digestive biscuit) so I naturally had to try their brand of tea biscuits.
They remind me of a slightly sweet cracker, but more dense than a soda cracker. I have to admit, they are PERFECT with tea because you can dip them and they are just sweet enough to satisfy without being overly sweet.
They also settle my stomach as well as a soda cracker, which I discovered yesterday with the lemon juice stomach problems I had. I ate a couple tea biscuits and my stomach felt much better.
Anyone else had these? I really like them! Maybe not as much as the McVitie’s digestive biscuits, but they’re still really tasty.
Author Elizabeth Ford
I first discovered Elizabeth Ford when I enjoyed a Victorian romance she wrote under her other pseudonym, Mary Ann Gibbs, titled
Horatia
. I completely enjoyed the book--it had great characters I liked and admired and a softly rolling plotline that kept me interested to the very end. I discovered I had picked up some of her other titles through garage sales and thrift stores, so I read them, too, and they were all highly entertaining.I did more research and discovered she also wrote mysteries under the pseudonym Elizabeth Ford, but when I tried to find those books at online booksellers, it was really hard because they were all hardcovers that had been issued only in the UK. All her Mary Ann Gibbs romances were mass market paperbacks published (or reprinted) in the US.
I got all Mary Ann Gibbs’ romances but pined for Elizabeth Ford’s mysteries. :(
But I recently got a new contract with Guideposts books, writing work-for-hire for one of their book club series, and I realized I haven’t bought myself a present in a while.
So last night I went online (why is it I tend to buy books late at night online? Hmm...) and bought a bunch of Elizabeth Ford books from UK online sellers!!! Can you hear the scream of disbelief as I realize what I did???
I used Bookfinder.com and was able to find the best prices for each of the books, although I did end up paying a dollar or two more for some of them because I’m trying to refrain from buying books from Amazon and so I bought them from other online booksellers like Abebooks.com and Biblio.com.
Yes, I, um, spent a lot of money. {sheepish look and glancing around to make sure Captain Caffeine didn’t hear that. Or at least doesn’t know yet.} But these are books I’ve wanted for a very long time. I even had them listed in my book catalog with the note to myself: “GET THIS BOOK!”
So now I am happily awaiting some hardcover books winging their way to me from England. I anticipate some wonderful nights reading with a pot of tea and a plate of biscuits!
May 3, 2012
Bacon on a stick!
(Speaking of piggies ...)
Read this article about how Camden Yards baseball stadium serves a hunk of bacon on a stick. Yummo!
But even more than that, I’m drooling over the crab cake burger and the crab mac-n-cheese dog! Holy cow!
Captain Caffeine smokes his own bacon and it’s AWESOME! So much better than store bought, meaty and it doesn’t shrink like store bacon.
Now aren’t you craving BACON???
Read this article about how Camden Yards baseball stadium serves a hunk of bacon on a stick. Yummo!
But even more than that, I’m drooling over the crab cake burger and the crab mac-n-cheese dog! Holy cow!
Captain Caffeine smokes his own bacon and it’s AWESOME! So much better than store bought, meaty and it doesn’t shrink like store bacon.
Now aren’t you craving BACON???
Bento Guessing - Piggies
Yum, just in time for lunch! Here’s another bento box from the batch of pics my mom sent to me. (What’s a bento box and why am I doing this? Click here.)
I have to admit, this bento box is adorable and it looks like it actually wasn’t that much work. The box shape is sooooo cute and it’s PINK!
The piggies are made from hard-boiled eggs, and then I think they soak the eggs in soy sauce for an hour or so to give it that brownish color on the surface of the egg white. I’m pretty sure the ears and legs are just mushroom pieces, but I’m not sure how they did the snout.
I like that this bento has lots of little veggies in it and a slice of kiwi. :) And that orange and white flowerlike thingy I’m pretty sure is bought, not homemade. It looks like the sweet bean paste “cakes” we used to get for Japanese holidays.
I think this would have been cute but morbid if they included some marinated grilled pork (char siu) in the box. :)
Stomach problems from lemons?
I’ve been drinking water with the juice from half a lemon for dinner the past few nights, partly because it’s good for bloating and I’ve got my, er, time of the month, and partly because I just like the taste of it.
But tonight I’ve had an acidic stomach and while it’s not quite queasy, it’s uncomfortable. I’m starting to suspect the lemon juice.
Has anyone had any acidic stomach problems from lemon juice?
But tonight I’ve had an acidic stomach and while it’s not quite queasy, it’s uncomfortable. I’m starting to suspect the lemon juice.
Has anyone had any acidic stomach problems from lemon juice?
May 2, 2012
I am a bad aunt
So here’s what happened at Christmas:
Captain Caffeine and I ordered our nieces’ and nephew’s gifts well before Christmas but because postage takes longer in December, we had the gifts mailed to where we would be staying over Christmas rather than to our house. We figured it would be safer than waiting to see if we’d get them in time before traveling.
However, when I was doing the ordering, I made the mistake of having the gifts sent to MY name rather than the name of the person whose house we were staying at.
Needless to say, the gifts were returned as “undeliverable” because the post office said that “Camy Tang” does not live at that address. Which I totally don’t get because we get mail addressed to other people at our address ALL the time.
And so we showed up at Christmas and had no gifts for our nieces and nephew. Bad aunty and uncle.
So now I am making sure we got refunded for the gifts that were returned as “undeliverable” and I’m reordering them to send them to our nieces and nephew. Five months late. I think that’s almost worse than not showing up with presents at Christmas.
Captain Caffeine and I ordered our nieces’ and nephew’s gifts well before Christmas but because postage takes longer in December, we had the gifts mailed to where we would be staying over Christmas rather than to our house. We figured it would be safer than waiting to see if we’d get them in time before traveling.
However, when I was doing the ordering, I made the mistake of having the gifts sent to MY name rather than the name of the person whose house we were staying at.
Needless to say, the gifts were returned as “undeliverable” because the post office said that “Camy Tang” does not live at that address. Which I totally don’t get because we get mail addressed to other people at our address ALL the time.
And so we showed up at Christmas and had no gifts for our nieces and nephew. Bad aunty and uncle.
So now I am making sure we got refunded for the gifts that were returned as “undeliverable” and I’m reordering them to send them to our nieces and nephew. Five months late. I think that’s almost worse than not showing up with presents at Christmas.
Breakfast-hater
I admit it, I’m a breakfast hater. I have never liked it because I have always woken up with a slightly queasy stomach. My family has a history of acidic stomachs, so my genes might have something to do with it. (I used to live off of TUMS and Zantac and just got tired of needing to take something every day for a queasiness that lasts only 60-90 minutes.)
I have tried forcing myself to eat a large breakfast, especially because most research shows that people who eat breakfast tend to be more successful at losing weight. But forcing myself to eat made me so sick I’d usually either skip or postpone lunch, both of which are bad.
When I read this article on quick and healthy breakfast ideas, I expected the usual stuff like a smoothie or egg white veggie omelet (which are listed). But I was also pleasantly surprised to see a few ideas I hadn’t read before, like making waffles, freezing them, and toasting them in the morning. For some reason I hadn’t thought of doing that, although I have tried freezing pancakes and microwaving them (yuck).
The casserole idea wasn’t entirely new, because I used to sometimes have dinner leftovers for breakfast when I was living at home, but for some reason it sparked the idea of making a breakfast casserole or a veggie frittata, which I hadn’t tried before. There are lots of unusual breakfast casseroles I think I’d like to try, and they don’t have to be just eggs and sausage ones.
Any breakfast ideas you have for me?
I have tried forcing myself to eat a large breakfast, especially because most research shows that people who eat breakfast tend to be more successful at losing weight. But forcing myself to eat made me so sick I’d usually either skip or postpone lunch, both of which are bad.
When I read this article on quick and healthy breakfast ideas, I expected the usual stuff like a smoothie or egg white veggie omelet (which are listed). But I was also pleasantly surprised to see a few ideas I hadn’t read before, like making waffles, freezing them, and toasting them in the morning. For some reason I hadn’t thought of doing that, although I have tried freezing pancakes and microwaving them (yuck).
The casserole idea wasn’t entirely new, because I used to sometimes have dinner leftovers for breakfast when I was living at home, but for some reason it sparked the idea of making a breakfast casserole or a veggie frittata, which I hadn’t tried before. There are lots of unusual breakfast casseroles I think I’d like to try, and they don’t have to be just eggs and sausage ones.
Any breakfast ideas you have for me?
May 1, 2012
Trade Secrets from the SparkPeople Coaches
I really liked this article about the lifestyles of the SparkPeople coaches. It’s interview-style and pretty insightful because these are not super-skinny, athletic people who get up at 4 a.m. to exercise for three hours every day.
I was actually surprised a lot of them exercise after work--it makes me feel better that I tend to exercise in the afternoon and early evening, too. I’ve lately been exercising just before my tea time, which is around 5 p.m.
I think I am going to try to exercise every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes on the exercise bike. I can totally do that, and I know little things add up.
I was actually surprised a lot of them exercise after work--it makes me feel better that I tend to exercise in the afternoon and early evening, too. I’ve lately been exercising just before my tea time, which is around 5 p.m.
I think I am going to try to exercise every day, even if it’s only 10 minutes on the exercise bike. I can totally do that, and I know little things add up.
