Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 6

Nutrition Misinformation: Kale. Superfood? Or Superhype?

Kale.

Before I say anything more, let me say this– human beings are omnivores. We are not Koala Bears, living on nothing more than eucalyptus leaves, bark and buds– which contain tannins (that spells toxic to us).

Koala Bear and his eucalyptus.

Our bodies dobest with a varied diet. All things in moderation. Therefore, if you’ve swallowed the pap about kale being the superfood to end all superfoods, and you eat kale every single day, even two or three or four times a day, well, sorry. Best of int...

Pickles for the Fourth of July!

Pickles!

What are you going to do with your harvest? Make pickles! I had extra turnips and as always I have loads of zucchini, therefore Imust make pickles!

Julia’s SourYellow Turnip Pickles

8cups white vinegar or white wine vinegar

2 cups water

3 Tbs. Kosher salt

1 Tbs. mustard seed

2 Tbs. black peppercorns or 2 Tbs. Grains of Paradise (I used Grains of Paradise)

2 Tbs. tumeric

pinch sugar

Bring the above ingredients to a simmer in a large saucepan.

Add 6-8 large turnips, peeled and sliced thin but not...

Here’s What My Daughter Said About Winnerland–

We were texting back and forth as she waitedto board a plane, after she deplaned and while she waitedfor her shuttle.

“Loving Winnerland!”

“Your analogies are great!”

***

“Finished it on the plane. Fucking Jael. I get it but I’m just sad for Caleb.”

“You know me. I don’t cry from stuff like that. But I had the chills.

***

“Really well done. I’m proud of you.”

“I’m impressed you got so much character development in such a short book.”

“It’s really good. Great characters.”

Gotta love that kid! Buy Winner...

Jake and the cheeky squirrel.

Every morning a gray squirrel sitsin one of ourredwood trees. He’s waiting, impatiently I might add, for Jake to leave on his walk so he, the squirrel, can have the run of the yard. He cavorts! Drinks his fill out of our fountain, chases the birds from the feeder and gorgeson birdseed, stashes away his acorns in my garden– where they grow into little oak trees the following year because he’s forgotten all about them. He’s a hoot. And Jake hates his ass.

The little bugger…

Jakeknows he’s up ther...

One Four All, by Julia Rachel Barrett (That’s me!)

So I got the cutest review over on Amazon forOne Four All – which matters because you know I only have three, wait, let me repeat that, threereviews in total. So onemore review is a 33.33% improvement over what I had previously. Right? Am I right? You know I’m right!

I can’t post the entire review because all reviews belong to the reviewer. You can read it here– One Four All — but I can quote it:

I really enjoyed how Julia brought all the characters to life. Sometimes in menage stories the men...

Nutrition misinformation – That pesky psoralen.

The following foods contain psoralen.

Celery Root.

Celery.

Parsley.

Parsnips.

Not to mention carrots, anise and anise seeds, caraway, dill, cumin, grapefruit, figs and fennel.

You might ask, what is psoralen? Good question!

Psoralen (a furocoumarin)is a naturally occurring toxin found in the above foods (and others) that can make the skin more sensitive to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. In other words, psoralen is carcinogenic. Merelyhandling foods rich in psoralen can make your skin...

One of My Very Favorite Sunday Songs.

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Friday’s Recipe- Gluten free gooey brownies for my gluten free friends.

Gluten free dark chocolate brownies.

I’m not a big fan ofgluten free, but these brownies are perfect for anyone, gluten free or not– these brownies are rich, dense, extremely chocolaty and super easy to make. Just besure you have a square brownie pan. I don’t have one so I had to bake mine in an 8″ layer cake pan. Makes for slices instead of squares.

In a medium saucepan over low heat melt:

10 Tbs. unsalted butter

Stir in:

1 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup + 2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Half-w...

My own, my precious. Die hard book hoarder.

Sure, I appreciatemy E-reader. No doubt about it. My Kindle Paperwhite is convenient, the text of any document is easy to read– I can read books in record time. Flipping pages reminds me of water skiing. It’s that fast. I can adjust font, font size, lighting, look up additional information about a book or an author, highlight, use the cloud, subscribe to journals, even review, all from one lightweight flat tablet. And even better, it fits in my purse. Using an E-reader is a no-brainer. Easy a...

Between Futbol Games.

Jake in wait mode.

Didn’t think I’d enjoy the World Cup half as much as I am. Go futbol!

So Jake and I were playing basketball and he broke containment andescaped out of bounds. When I finally got the ball back I threw it into the court. It hit the pole, bounced back out of bounds, off my forehead and back into the court, hit the pole, bounced back out of bounds off my chest and back into the court. Looked kinda like this:

That’s life in Jake’s world!

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