Rebuild from Depression Blog

I head to Seattle late next week to participate in a symposium on raw milk, "The Raw Milk Conundrum," sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association. I am neither a veterinarian or a member of the medical community, but I do like Seattle. I am also the only raw milk consumer on the panel and am speaking on free choice. The paper, "Free choice in a complex information environment: The case of raw milk" hopefully will take a whole lot less time to make it to print than did my book currently at the printer. (She says with great hope but with not having finished the paper yet.)

The paper makes an argument for "free access" to food as well as "free choice," where "access" is the legal barriers to purchase and "choice" is the actual decision to buy a particular product. It is not an advocacy paper, rather it discusses a philosophy of food choice. Stay tuned.

The paper makes some use of a survey I conducted of raw milk advocates. You can find some of the demographic information at the FoodGraphs.net site. (Raw milk advocate graphs.) Bloggers should feel free to use any of the graphs on that site with attribution.

While I am on the subject let me just say that speaking at a veterinary meeting is the best way to get promotional materials about taking care of your cat and lizard clients. I will never lack for sources of veterinary supply and should I need them soon, I can find them at Booth #1384 next week.

~~~

The winner

The colander is here but our usual Vanna White (aka seven-year-old Frederick) is galavanting in Berkeley while I bake in 100+ temperatures without A/C. I will draw the name myself but I may need some nutritional supplements right now if there are any that prevent melting. Perhaps I'll win some in this contest, though I would increase my chances of winning by actually entering. Let's see how not entering the contest is working for me...

The winner is Terri Mac.

Terri Mac won by simply leaving a comment on this blog. She is our third winner and the winners all have a key thing in common: they entered the contest! Terri wins a desiccated liver product but recognizing that Terri might not have use for a liver-based product depending on her diet, she can pass and I will add her name five more times to the colander. Terri and all other winners need to contact me within a week of the announcement with a U.S. street address.

If liver sounds like a strange thing to be giving away, I'll put up another post that is going to make everyone envy Terri's victory. Liver, even desiccated, can be great for energy and mood.

Enter to win by leaving a comment here or on any other post (I'm pretty flexible as I melt in the heat of Central California). Enter early and often. See the many ways you can enter. The next drawing is Friday for the jumbo trio pack: Omega 3, magnesium, and B complex. Read the description of the prize package in the original contest announcement.

If you have not read my postpartum depression story, take a look at that too.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, dairy, depression, liver, magnesium, Omega 3, postpartum depression, raw milk

"There's something about liver" is my code phrase for: "We know it is packed with nutrients, but there is something else too. People can get a lift from it."

Adele Davis actually adored liver. She was the go-to person on nutritious home cooking back when my mother was raising me. Adele Davis claimed that liver has an "anti-stress factor." Perhaps the anti-stress factor is the "something," but who knows. We do know that liver is loaded with minerals and vitamins. Liver from animals grazing on grass is also high in the brain-building Omega 3 fatty acid [liver and Omega 3s].

The great thing about liver is that it really is pretty cheap. You can find organic liver for $2-3 per pound. As the center of your meal, a family of four could easily eat well on one pound of liver. Most of us are probably looking for cost-saving food strategies in these bad economic times. You will find more cost-saving ideas at The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter.

Check out Mom's videos below with recipe ideas for liver.

If you would rather pass because of the strong flavor of liver, consider a desiccated liver tablet. The tablets do not have the fats but they are great sources of iron and are actually used in body-building to help build muscle mass. I take liver tablets when I'm dieting to curb my hunger and give me a bit of an energy boost. I take four liver tablets three times throughout the morning for a total of twelve a day. My preferred brand for quality and price is the tablet Terri just won in the last twice-weekly giveaway.

My camera is one of my favorite tools to help me appreciate my surroundings. "Appreciating" was one of the strategies I used in April to get through a rough patch; I took pictures of anything that was quirky or beautiful, including this picture of "sheets on the clothesline." My hunch is that this picture would not mean a whole lot to everyone, but I love seeing sheets on the clothesline. I think of the smell of fresh bed linens, the freshness that only comes from a clothesline and sunshine. When I am hanging sheets or diapers on the line, I have the added benefit of that great mountain view. The view doesn't get much better than that.

Technorati Tags: photo

Only in a small rural community could we ever have such an Independence Day celebration as we had yesterday. We live in the Sequoia National Forest about fifteen minutes from the southern-most stand of Giant Sequoia trees, the largest trees on Earth. Our mountain community houses about 1,000 people, if you cast a wide net, and includes our little community of California Hot Springs. Nothing much happens here unless you are watching carefully and consider "quaint" to be a "happening."

We majored in "cowboy quaint" yesterday with the Third Annual Fourth of July Parade organized by the local 4-H club.

As we prepared for the big event by finding red and blue shirts I laughed to myself about the fact that there has not been a grand marshall in the parade. I described the parade to friends last year as a parade in which you could "enter anything you want and, better yet, be drunk at the time." Last year as the parade passed one guy's house, he handed out beer to the parade entrants. The Sheriff's Deputy was in the parade and my guess is that the cars before and after his missed this key benefit. We discussed entering the parade this year with our trailer hitched to our station wagon, filled it with drunk cowboys. While I looked for a blue shirt, I wondered who would ever be the Grand Marshall in such a small-town cowboy event. I thought about the local cowboy bar, "They could keep tabs on who has consumed the most beer at the Rabbit Foot during the year and make that person the Grand Marshall." On that thought, we headed to the parade.

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, Facebook, Fourth of July, giveaway, magnesium, Omega 3, parade, Sequoia National Forest

One of our favorite meals packed with produce from our own garden was inspired by a visit to an Armenian restaurant in Fresno, California. Mom writes:

Amanda and I stopped for lunch at a small family-run Armenian restaurant. The meal was fine. But, what we vividly remember is salad. This was served first. And, I tell you, we would have been happy with a big plate of just this salad. I wanted to lick the dressing off the plate when the veggies were gone. We came home and I closely duplicated what was served that day. I share it now with you. Enjoy!

Find the ingredients and instructions below the jump.

For Nourishing Gourmet's weekly Pennywise Platter (which you should read for more money-saving food tips ~~ here is this week's post), I thought I would share one of my favorite frugal secrets -- The Grocery Outlet. If you are located in the western United States, you may just have this discount food store near you.

Shopping at The Grocery Outlet is a shopper's scavenger hunt with seasonal overstocks and the scratch-and-dent equivalent in the food market. You will find aisles of canned goods, cleaning supplies, and even whisky. The key to healthy shopping at The Grocery Outlet is knowing the sections of the store that contain the possibilities for gold.

When I go to the Grocery Outlet, I skip most sections of the store but never miss the dairy and meat case. I have purchased New Zealand butter that was the darkest yellow I have seen. The price rivaled any sale butter in a grocery store (about $2.50/pound) but it had the benefits of grass fed butter. Granted, it was shipped across the sea, but I purchase it nonetheless. I have found deals on gourmet cheeses as well.

Near the refrigerated dairy items I always look at the packaged meat items. You can usually find a gourmet sausage and could well find just about anything else. I skip the bologna. :)

The other primary area I scope is the canned meat section. I find Alaskan pink salmon fairly regularly for $1 for a 15-ounce can, a high Omega 3 depression-fighting fish. They often have sardines, another fish high in beneficial fats.

My mother makes a bee-line to the $1 wine that she uses for cooking. On occasion, she finds a wine she actually likes to drink. My husband makes a bee-line to the gourmet ice cream in the freezer section, though I have to warn that sometimes the ice cream has been partially melted previously and has that not-so-satisfying "crunchy" texture. The prices are great, though, and make it worth risking crunchy ice cream and cooking wine.

Find a location near you: Grocery Outlet store finder.

Happy hunting!

Giveaway results

I have really enjoyed reading blogs by people entering the contest and I need to get more organized. I think I'll put them all in Google Reader together to keep track. I know I am missing some, so please put your blog on this post so I can add it. Should I ever get really organized, I'll put the RSS feeds on the blog later in case anyone else wants to follow our blogs.

Here are the blogs I have found (pasted from previous posts), though I think I have found others not on this list. That is why I need to get organized.

• Jenny and her great recipes (and a kefir grain exchange).
• • Erika's personal blog describing her ministry work and also providing updates on the health of her baby Asher (who has experienced a lot of miracles already it seems).
  • Peggy, aka "Islander" with an alternative health message board.
  • Barb with a site with her photography (and she made the pendant I'm wearing in the blog banner picture).
  • Jen's blog about parenting-related issues.
  • Leslie's ebooks on Solar Cooking and Cooking with Retained Heat.
  • Gisele's Etsy store where she will have handmade felt items.
  • Sharon writes a lifestyle blog for Christian women.
  • Melissa is a postpartum doula in Fresno right in my neck of the woods.
  • Stephanie has a new food-related lifestyle blog with a great-looking recipe for nettle chai tea that I must try.
  • Helwa sells organic vanilla beans and handmade body care products.
  • Grains of Hope writes a lifestyle blog.
  • Beulah writes a frugality blog Savings Makes Cents which we probably all need right now.
  • Justine writes a lifestyle blog and lives on a boat. (How cool is that?)
  • Megan writes the "Happy Hippies" blog.
• Traditional lifestyle blog Under the Maple Canopy.
• One Bite at a Time written by hippy chef lactivist Kay.
• Cooking Traditional Foods message board and Kerry Ann's famous menu mailer
• Stephanie from Keeper of the Home who is expecting a baby in four short weeks. Good luck Stephanie!
• Lindsay from Passionate Homemaking who just wrote a review of the Nutrimill grain mill (I'm grain-free right now so I think I notice these sorts of posts even more).
• Kimi and her timely Pennywise Platter blog carnival at the Nourishing Gourmet.
• Katherine at postpartum progress with a list of resources for postpartum depression on her blog.

What's your blog? Post a link in the comments so we can find you. :)

Technorati Tags: blog

I can hear the firecrackers popping as I make my way north to Seattle for the raw milk symposium sponsored by the American Veterinarian Medical Association.

It appears that some speakers are worried that their talk will be the most controversial. Most of us prefer not to have that designation. I spoke to another speaker today who said, "You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun one other person in the group."

With that advice in mind, I packed flat-soled shoes. I should have looked for something in camouflage as well. Bill Marler on the Marler Blog and David Gumpert on The Complete Patient have posted a bit about the meeting.

Raw milk politics is strangely and somewhat absurdly, highly contentious.

The giveaway

Congratulations to my new Facebook friend Teresa Stone who has won the triple fun pack of Omega 3 oil, B complex vitamins, and easily absorbed magnesium. Teresa should contact me sometime in the next week and I will get her package to her. Facebook would be a good place to do that or simply here in the comment. Leave your U.S. mailing address and I'll remove it before posting the comment.

Speech Teresa?

Previous winner Terri Mac will be getting desiccated liver tablets to help her through her dissertation. I sure wish I had them back then.

Enter to win in this twice-weekly giveaway by simply leaving a comment on this blog, anywhere at all. (U.S. addresses only.) In the coming week, I will announce two winners later in the week after I have recovered from the above-mentioned symposium. Winners will receive the desiccated liver product (Ultra 40 on this page). Increase your chances doing these things:

• Friend me or follow me on Facebook(here) or Twitter(here): 1 point each
• Stumble this entry, one of the food science pages, or anything that has caught your fancy.: 1 point.
• In Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn provide a link to some of the content here (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 1 point
• Provide a link to this contest from your blog: 2 points (but gosh, this just increases your competition, LOL)
• Blog about some of the content on this website (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas or check FoodGraphs.net): 3 points

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, dairy, giveaway, magnesium, Omega 3, raw milk

I have survived the AVMA raw milk symposium and, more importantly, survived the flying with a seven-month-old baby. Seattle is as wonderful as I remember it and even provided us with two clear, sunny days while we were there.

I may post an analysis on the Ethicurean but until then, I thought I would add here that it was great to meet the food safety professionals who did speak to me. I had lunch with raw milk blogger David Gumpert, California food safety advocates Michele Jay-Russell and Michael Payne, Maryland State Public Health Veterinarian Katherine Feldman, and Claudia Coles from the Washington State Department of Agriculture. Also in attendance at the symposium and at our lunch table was Mary McGonigle-Martin, mother of Chris Martin, a child sickened in the 2006 California E. coli outbreak linked to a raw dairy. (Mary and her son Chris are pictured at right.) We had a fun and energetic discussion at lunch that involved a tennis match of sorts between David Gumpert and Michael Payne. I may be an odd duck but I agreed part of the time with Payne and part of the time with Gumpert. Coles showed us some photos from Washington raw milk dairies and described how dairy practices could be improved to increase raw milk safety.

In my own talk I presented results of the raw milk advocate survey that described views of raw milk advocates. I include the slides and the abstract below the jump. My basic argument is that consumers should have open access to raw milk but that they should also be informed about their choice. "Free choice" of raw milk cannot be made in the presence of misinformation. As I write on the Ethicurean, there is some incorrect information about raw milk that is impeding consumer choice. In that context, I described some of the views held by raw milk consumers during my talk. The audience laughed that "flavor" is one of the reasons for consuming raw milk. A previous speaker had mentioned that they only way they could replicate the flavor of raw milk in a taste test was to add fecal matter to pasteurized milk. When I mentioned "flavor" as a reason, the audience laughed. I said, "Hey, I like the taste." They laughed at a number of other views as well. I was not particularly surprised. A previous speaker called raw milk consumers "stupid." One veterinarian interrupted my talk to say, "How can educated people believe this? This is gibberish."

They would really laugh at some of the things on this blog or in my lifestyle. I do not have a television. I am sure that makes me nutty but it also saves me a lot of time. If I had less time, I might not have the time to hang my sheets on the clothesline and to admire their beauty as they sway in the wind with the Sierra behind them. If I had a TV I also might not have time to heat my food in a skillet or oven and instead heat it in a microwave. That would be a shame but not because I think using a microwave is going to radiate me but because I think it is a good way to ruin the texture of the good food that I do eat. I have my own laying hens and love the flavor of their eggs even though they take more time and money to maintain. Besides, who would babysit Frederick if not for these hens?

Some of us just live in a different world.

Ironically, it was food injury attorney Bill Marler who defended alternative lifestyle choices at the meeting (pictured at right with the very tired Alastair). Recently, commenters on his blog have accused him of being in the pocket of "big ag." In the symposium, he did imply that he would sue raw milk advocacy group the Weston A. Price Foundation over providing false product safety information to consumers, he also took the heckling group to task on their behavior during my presentation. He asked them how they could expect to understand raw milk consumers if they laugh at them and call them stupid.

A number of people were apologetic to me at the end of the day, apologizing for the behavior of their colleagues. I really didn't take offense and I was touched that many were so concerned that I was offended. Actually, I would not expect everyone to understand the sheets on the clothesline either. Not everyone has the luxury of sheets dried in fresh mountain air.

Added for clarification:
"he also took the heckling group to task on their behavior during my presentation."
The whole group didn't heckle. Most were great. A good number did laugh at the survey responses but there was one participant (and non-presenter) who interrupted with questions that could have offended me. The moderator and conference organizer Michele Jay-Russell shut down her comments and apologized. Later, many people apologized to me. Apparently someone took a good guess at what would boost my mood and complimented me on having beautiful skin.

Technorati Tags: Ethicurean, raw milk, Weston A Price Foundation, William Marler

We haven't had a craft phase in this house in well over a year, but Frederick is making up for lost time. In his last big phase, he made the "Pollan Paintings." While I was in Seattle, he crafted this paper mache cow. My favorite part is the water balloon udder (pictured below).

Technorati Tags: cow, Michael Pollan, photo, craft

I should venture on to YouTube more. You never know what you are going to find and if it makes you laugh, all the better.

Here is a Chris Rock interview on a natural cure for depression.

Nope, it's not weed. It's hard liquor. There is a classic moment at 2 minutes 5 seconds where Rock says, "But isn't alcohol a depressant?" (Indeed alcohol is a depressant.)

The expert says, 'What's in the measles vaccine, Chris? Measles! It works by introducing a mild form of it in your system."

Guys in white coats cart the expert off at the end of the video.

***

The contest winners for this past week are still pending. I am having trouble getting into my FaceBook profile to add names to the colander. Hopefully I'll announce them tomorrow and we have a new round this week. Check back to see if you won. The ever-active commenter on this blog, Diane, posted her winnings on her own blog.

The book is apparently just about ready.

I have been checking out the blog and finding some tidbits I had forgotten about.

It is easy to make a lot out of the loss of nutrients in processed food -- we likely are not getting all of the nutrients we need if we eat primarily out of packages of ready-to-microwave food. But what about the nutrient loss in our own kitchen? I wrote a list of suggestions you can use in preparing your fine food to help get a larger portion of the nutrients out of it. Some of the suggestions from "Nutrient loss in your kitchen" are: Don't overcook, braise don't broil, cut in larger pieces. Follow the link if you are interested in reading more.

There is also a pretty interesting way to maximize the nutrients in your diet and that is by purchasing heirloom vegetables. I wrote about nutrient loss in the food supply, describe food composition data collected in the 1940s and 1950s compared to that collected fifty years later. Vegetables are less nutrient-dense today than they were fifty years ago. The likely culprit is the new hybrid varieties of vegetables.

Technorati Tags: heirloom vegetables, nutrient

This book is so long in coming, I have written two versions of the Afterword.

The "Afterword" in a book is supposed to be that last-minute, stick-it-in-there-before-it-hits-the-press part of the book. You are supposed to write it and then actually print the book. If you write it and then suddenly get pregnant and stop all of life, you might end up with two versions of the Afterword. To show how slowly the wheels of publishing can sometimes turn, you will note that even the new Afterword is a bit dated if you have already read my more recent postpartum depression story. I thought you might find it of interest to read both the old and the new posted below the jump.

If you have not seen sample chapters of the book, you can find them on the book page (where, finally, you can conveniently even buy the book).

Or learn more about the book.

I am making up for lost time in these giveaways since I was running around at a milk symposium. Last week was supposed to be a week of the desiccated liver giveaway. "Yummm," you say sarcastically, but I have to say, there is something about the product that gives me a lot of energy. I take the Ultra 40 product on this page. I like it for price and quality. Liver may be one of nature's best depression-fighting foods.

I'll give away three right now to get us reasonably up to date. Last week's winners announced one week late (paralleling the very late appearance of the book on this website) plus the first winner for this week are:

• Kari who left a comment a few weeks ago on a giveaway post.
• Jenny who left a comment on the Grocery Outlet post.
• Gandree on Twitter.

Congratulations ladies! Contact me within the next ten days to claim your prize. If you ladies don't want to try desiccated liver tablets, I'll send you a book since they are here this week. Leave a comment here, add your U.S. address to it, and I'll remove the address before I post it. My rebuild email is under the weather today.

I will announce the next winner later in the week. The winner will receive a package of Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, and B vitamins.

If you are just joining this contest, enter to win by leaving a comment anywhere on this blog. I will ship to any U.S. address. Increase your chances by doing the following (the Diane and Leesie method):

• Friend me or follow me on Facebook(here) or Twitter(here): 1 point each
• Stumble this entry, one of the food science pages, or anything that has caught your fancy.: 1 point.
• In Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn provide a link to some of the content here (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 1 point
• Provide a link to this contest from your blog: 2 points (but gosh, this just increases your competition, LOL)
• Blog about some of the content on this website (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas or check FoodGraphs.net): 3 points

Technorati Tags: B vitamins, giveaway, liver, magnesium, Omega 3, Twitter

A couple of years ago my mother put together two nutrient-packed foods into one exceptional package. She mixed bone broth from a leftover leg of lamb with vegetable juice from vegetables that were wilting too much for other uses. I drank it like a drink; my husband ate it like a soup. It is good stuff. I particularly like that it used foods that many people throw out. In this economy, people are looking for ways to use what they have. This broth and juice concept fits our current economic needs well. In fact, I will post this idea on this week's Pennywise Platter at Nourishing Gourmet where there will be other great ideas for saving money.

Mom has instructions for bone broth, vegetable broth, and some simple soup recipes on this site already. I use bone broth in one of my top 5 meals of desperation.

However, on the bone broth and juice concoction, mom made a video and wrote down a bit of wisdom as well. She uses lamb broth, but you could use any bone at all (or a combination). Enjoy!

~~From Mom:

If you love lamb, you will love lamb broth. Simply collect the bones from your lamb roast, leg of lamb, etc and prepare them in your slow cooker following our directions for bone broth. If you don't have many bones from one meal, save them in a container in the freezer until the stash builds.

This broth in itself is a great drink, but you can way increase it's nutritional value by adding some fresh vegetable juice. There is no need to by anything special for this juice. Use whatever veggies you have on hand, in the frig, or in the garden. Did you overbuy on some special at the supermarket? Juice it before it goes bad!

Add the juice to the already heated lamb broth. Do not reheat lest you lose those heat-sensitive nutrients. Test for salt and pepper. Make adjustments and enjoy.

This is a super mid-morning pick-me-up!

Here's the YouTube direct link: Lamb broth power drink.

Technorati Tags: broth, economy, juice, Nourishing Gourmet, Pennywise Platter, lamb, soup, vegetable juice

I know that when people look for a book for years and cannot find it, that they may be in disbelief that it does actually exist. Apparently it does. My husband reports a sighting. For my part, I slept for fourteen hours last night and missed the first book sighting in this household. I am told it's a good-looking book.

You can find out more about the book, Rebuild from Depression, on the book page. There is a buy button there as well and below. If you buy from this site, you will receive a signed copy. The retail price is $19.97 and you will get free shipping as well. Californians are taxed, of course. I considered taxing everyone and sending the revenue to the California State Board of Equalization because it really needs the money but I decided that 8% of a few book sales won't really go very far to bridge the $26B gap in the latest budget talks.

If you have won the book in one of the now ages-old contests on this blog, leave a comment and I'll get it to you. Otherwise, it may be a while before I can track you down.

Read the two versions of the Afterword as well if you would like. The book page has excerpts and endorsements as well.

The book is about depression, not specifically postpartum depression. However, my own story that makes up part of the book is about depression in pregnancy and postpartum depression. Based on the story and the nutrition information in the book, Nina Planck mentioned it in her newest Real Food book.

Nina Planck wrote:

The best book on postnatal depression and food I've seen is Rebuild from Depression, by Amanda Rose, who understands the condition from bitter experience.

Technorati Tags: Nina Planck, Rebuild from Depression

I was reading the Afterword for the book (which is now available) that I wrote about six months ago now. I describe in the new version of the Afterword how emotional I was when I realized that not only did I have another baby, but I had a second that looked just like the first. Postpartum depression steals so much from you. You cannot enjoy those tender moments with your baby and they grow up so fast. I had grieved the loss of Frederick's infancy a great deal over the past seven years and found myself so emotional when I realized that not only did I have a second healthy baby, I had one who looked just like the first. I wrote a recap about a month ago about the postpartum depression story on Alastair's six-month birthday.

In this context, I thought I would be self-indulgent and post pictures of these twin-like boys. Here is their birth, also twin-like in the c-sections and their NICU stay for pneumothorax:

Here we are at about a month or so postpartum:

I may be just about the luckiest person in the world.

~~~

Giveaway
Congratulations to Jessica Flohr, my FaceBook friend, who won in the latest supplement giveaway. She wins the jumbo pack of Omega 3s, B vitamins, and magnesium. She should contact me within the next week or so to claim her prize. Jessica could leave a comment right here with her address (and I'll remove the address before posting) or contact me on Facebook. Apparently I have been having comment problems here, problems with my email, and my Facebook account was hacked this morning. So if you have problems, it's probably on my end. I wonder who has time to hack.

We have two more winners in the coming week, one for the jumbo pack like Jessica won and one for a desiccated liver product. Early in the week is the liver, later the jumbo pack.

If you are just joining this contest, enter to win by leaving a comment anywhere on this blog. I will ship to any U.S. address. Increase your chances by doing the following:

• Friend me or follow me on Facebook(here) or Twitter(here): 1 point each
• Stumble this entry, one of the food science pages, or anything that has caught your fancy.: 1 point.
• In Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn provide a link to some of the content here (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas): 1 point
• Provide a link to this contest from your blog: 2 points (but gosh, this just increases your competition, LOL)
• Blog about some of the content on this website (see the recent food science post for a lot of ideas or check FoodGraphs.net): 3 points

Remember to contact me to claim your prize.

Technorati Tags: giveaway, postpartum depression, pregnancy, Rebuild from Depression

Frederick's first choice of birthday cakes is those half-sheet cakes from Costco with huge frosting balloons on them. Knowing his preference ordering, we didn't actually ask him what we wanted this year. I said, "Frederick, how about I make a Kentucky Butter Cake, my favorite cake from when I was a girl, and we have it with whipped cream and strawberries." "Mmmm. That sounds good, Mama."

Check.

As we prepared to bake two of these cakes, I said to my mother, "I'll get out the grinder. Let's use half whole spelt and half white flour."

"Do you want him to ask for the Costco cake next year?" mom responded. (I once made this cake that was not at all a hit...)

In the picture is a 100% refined white flour cake with no frosting. As children were arriving I realized that no frosting means no decoration. You can't have a plain cake! I found a white milk glass vase and filled it with flowers left from a bouquet. It all felt like a little mix of Martha Stewart and Ma Ingalls.

Technorati Tags: birthday, cake, flour

Our garden produce is only now rolling in well but I know many lucky people are probably up to their eyeballs already in produce from their own garden or from a friend's. I have a few "Mom videos" in the pipeline on using and preserving summer produce but thought I would first direct you to some of the Rebuild classics. Some are so classic they were made with a now-7-year-old camera.

Mom describes our method for freezing vegetables by cutting them into wedges, laying them out on cookie sheets, freezing them, and then bagging them once they are frozen. She explains why and how in freezing produce. I like freezing to store food. It does require energy to run the freezer but the nutrient loss does not tend to be as great as it is in home canning. Of course, not all foods lend themselves to freezing.

You probably all end up with some of those monster zucchini squash at some point in the summer. Mom has ideas on what to do with overgrown zucchini.

If you are lucky enough to run into a mountain of sweet Italian peppers, you must read about mom's technique for roasting peppers. It makes me hungry to think about it.

If you have an assortment of various vegetables and not a lot of time, consider this grilled vegetable technique or the Armenian grilled vegetable salad. Personally, we have been enjoying a lot of marinated tomato salad. But if you have crates of tomato, I have a video on drying tomatoes coming down the pike. I think there may even be a video on fruit leather! (Mom is such a gem.)

Technorati Tags: peppers, tomato, vegetables, zucchini

There is a story in the news today that is really too horrible to repeat but I thought I would write something briefly about postpartum psychosis. I would really discourage people from searching for the story.

In my first pregnancy I did actually believe that my baby was "infested" with demons. I had someone pray over them to remove them but do not remember being satisfied that they were exorcised. It was only years later in reading accounts of postpartum psychosis, thinking back on those days, and thinking to myself "you know, there wasn't a whole lot of evidence for that demon thing," that I realized that my view of the world, which I held so firmly to be true, really wasn't true at all. You simply live in another reality.

I know this is a natural health website and seeking help from mental health professionals and taking pharmaceutical drugs is anathema to many people who read this blog. However, the infanticide story that is in the news is a reminder that there are things far worse than Zoloft. I realize that a famous case involved a mom on psychiatric medication but my core point is that we need to find some way to become stable first and then do what we need to do to get better from that point.

Any approach that helps you become stable is good. You need to be monitored closely until you become stable.

In my second pregnancy I actually arranged for the director of a county mental health agency to serve as my personal case manager. I knew if things got real bad, I would get conventional psychiatric treatment. I look back on those psychotic moments with my first baby and I know that what very likely makes me different from people who have made the news is simply dumb luck. I was lucky with my first child that in response to a supposedly demon-infested baby, I attempted to have him exorcised. It could have been far worse. There is really no particular reason it wasn't.

Technorati Tags: postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, Zoloft

After writing that last post, I sure do need to laugh. I figure we should work it in this blog one way or another. With the new month coming up, I thought I would change up the supplement giveaway and find more opportunities to laugh.

There may be nothing that helps our brain health quite as much as laughter. For the next couple of weeks you can enter to win by making us laugh out loud or by simply amusing us. Leave a comment on this post with a funny story, a link to your own funny story, or a link to something really funny on the Internet. Alternatively, tell us about something you did that made you laugh.

It really should be family-friendly, though I would sure hate to exclude innuendo. :) If you have a blog and have a funny story there, feel free to link to that. Write a funny story if you have not already done so.

You can leave multiple funnies in multiple comments. I will select a winner at random from the comments on this post late next week (around August 7).

In the coming week we will have two winners, both of whom will receive the fizzy magnesium and a copy of the book.

I'll start by leaving some silly pictures we took this week. I use a Mac and have software called "Photo Booth" which can provide hours of entertainment, as you can see. I actually have a few here that can make children cry. Alastair really did cry after seeing one of them. I'll post the family friendly pictures. :)

Giveaway results
I'm headed to the Sacramento/Davis area tomorrow and so I am going to announce two winners now, the weekly allotment. Both will get the jumbo pack of Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium, and B vitamins. They simply must contact me within the next ten days with a U.S. mailing address to claim them.

It's just as well I'm re-working the contest rules because Twitter has truly gotten out of control. I wondered if an Internet marketer or diet pill salesman would win the contest after following me on Twitter. But, in fact, no. We do have a winner from Twitter but she is a dyed-in-the-wool real food Tweeter who everyone should follow just to stay up on the news. Our second winner comes from posting a comment on this blog. The lucky winners:

SeasLife on Twitter (who had massive amounts of tickets in the colander)
Carrie who commented with the now-hilarious: "If you're too down and exhausted to read all through this properly, will you still be eligible for the drawing? I'd like to be in the drawing please." Supplementation on the way Carrie!

Congratulations ladies!

Technorati Tags: giveaway, laughter, magnesium, photo, Rebuild from Depression

I'm on the road and remembering some of the pictures from home. This is a wild rose, grown from the root stock of a hybrid rose that long since froze back. Some of the newer varieties don't hold up well, but the roots they are grafted on to may produce surprises of their own. In part of my effort to appreciate things in my daily life, I take pictures of things that strike me, like this wild rose on our property.

Technorati Tags: appreciating, rose

We've been on the road and just about every piece of technology has broken down. It hardly matters, though: We have enjoyed Sacramento and Davis. We caught the farmers market in Davis on Wednesday night and will catch it again in the morning. The Davis market has great prices on beautiful-looking food, a good bit of which we already grow at home with our wonderful summer garden. They had live music Wednesday night with lots of people having picnics with farmers market food.

Alastair is having a great time as well. He is totally taken by busy intersections. It's like he's never seen them before when, in fact, he's seen them about a whole dozen times.

In my time here, I've taken advantage of the UC Davis library while I've been here and collected more rat studies than I would have imagined. I have rats on vitamins, rats on nicotene, rats on beef liver, radiated rats, and, of course, depressed rats. I think I'll do some rat studies at home. I wonder if PETA would protest?

Thanks to everyone who has purchased the book.

Technorati Tags: depression, Davis