The lushness of Huntington Gardens in California, May 2007

Driving through Lancaster County last week with my husband, the one word that came to my mind was “lush.” Ribbons of green plants covered the fields, reflecting the early lushness of summer and the promise of more green to come. Amish farmers plowing their fields with mules, young Amish women with long dresses planting seeds, and trees blossoming with leaves all gave me the feeling of how each season has its beauty, and summer is the season for lush green plants everywhere.

The pictures we took of the fields did not do the countryside justice, so instead I will sprinkle this posting with another kind of lushness, that of Huntington Gardens in California. It is similar to Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, whose pictures I featured in the May blog. Huntington Gardens is also a former estate of an industrial magnate (DuPont in PA and Huntington in CA), but the flowers and plants, especially the cacti, are very different because of the climate, which you will see in the photo of my husband Alan and me in the Desert Garden.

Summer is not only a time to enjoy the lushness of Mother Earth, but also a time to enjoy the slower pace that this season seems to bring. Since summertime, like the song, is “when the livin’ is easy,” I have combined June and July, and probably will do another late summer posting in early August. Then again, I may get lazy and do nothing until the end of August, so feel free to be lazy, too! We can all use a little summer activity called “doin’ nothin.’”

Because warm weather does slow me down a bit, I like to cook less and eat more raw foods. Therefore, the recipes will be as uncooked or as simply prepared as possible. Cooking less not only saves time and energy (heat from the stove and oven), but also may have health benefits, which I note in Kitchen Nutrition with Recipes. You may also want to check Products and Services, since I feature stevia, a natural herbal sweetener that you can use in your summer beverages. Also check the other categories to see more photos and more information, such as the two books reviewed in Book, Film and Website Reviews and also Peek to Pique, where you will see picture for an August recipe and an artist for my next woman-to-woman interview. (I’m beginning to feel just like Oprah!)

Whatever you do this summer, take time to enjoy the seasonal fruits and vegetables. My husband likes to barbeque when we have company, so I checked the Internet for some safer ways to BBQ, which I put under Health Flashes.

Take time to sit under a tree and sip some herbal lemonade and read a book or magazine. Let’s do what the kids say: Just “chill out!”

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A tree in the Desert Garden of Huntington Gardens, May 2007
Looks like a giant Ponytail Plant or a tree from one of Dr. Seuss’ zany books, doesn’t it?

P.S. Many thanks to Jay, my son-by-marriage, for taking these photos while we were in California on our visit.

February is a busy month. First, we have the traditional Valentine’s Day hoopla and all its ramifications, both commercial and emotional. Then we have Heart Healthy month, which is being promoted in magazines and media to apprise us of the importance of eating well for healthy hearts.(February 2nd was Wear Red Day for promoting healthy hearts.) Finally, we have a latecomer, V-Day, which is another way of celebrating February 14th, initiated by Eve Ensler, author, playwright, and performer of The Vagina Monologues and The Good Body. (See Book, Film, and Website Reviews)

Concerning recipes that are heart healthy, I have found that if you eat healthy in general, your heart will benefit, as will the rest of your body, so my recipes for February (See Kitchen Nutrition with Recipes), as all my previous recipes, are, by definition, heart healthy. When Mary Tyler Moore found out she had diabetes, she adopted a diabetic diet and claimed that everyone should be on this diet. Thus it is with a heart healthy diet: eating healthful foods benefits every organ of the body, not just the heart.

Under Health Flashes I put a somewhat longer Flash (and called it a Special Report) about women and heart disease. I was toying with the idea of a new category called Feature Article, but not sure I am ready to tackle that. However, I have added a sub- category under Products and Services entitled P.I.C.: Product Information Corner, to feature foods that I buy and feel are worth mentioning, like this month’s food bar made with pure chocolate, dried fruit, and flavors such as cherry, orange, and chili peppers, for a mole (a chocolate sauce spiked with chili peppers) bar. With no added sugar, I can munch on this for a snack and feel I am feeding my body a good food.

February in the North is still cold, so I included a soup recipe that uses some cayenne pepper to perk up you palate. ( I also have a chili recipe from my friend Steve Kochersperger in State College that was picked as the winner for a recipe contest. It’s longer than most of my recipes, so I did not include it, but if you want a copy, email me at menupause2006@yahoo.com and I will send it to you.) I helped him make it and it is delicious, but the number of ingredients makes me hesitate to post it, since so many of you are busy enough without long-winded, although good-tasting, recipes.

Since exercise is good for the heart, I have left the profile on Joan Waldbaum, even though swimming may not be an exercise specific to cardio-vascular health. Just getting your body moving is what’s important for all of us for our general health. I like to mix and match: swim, do yoga, walk the treadmill. All of these are “good moves” for our midlife-and-beyond bodies.

So stay warm, sip some simmering soup, sprinkle on some hot pepper flakes or cayenne powder in your recipes, (Cayenne pepper in your socks will keep your feet warm!) and cuddle up with a sweet-heart, be it your partner, your dog, your grandchild, or just someone you love enough that you want to be with him or her in love and friendship.

P.S. I am still playing “Catch Up” with the Recipe Index and Glossary, so if you don’t see everything in these two categories, I’m workin’ on it!