Foodstyles | Gramma Rita’s Secret Naughty Pancakes

Amelia @ CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

My daughter loves spending time with Gramma every summer and loves Gramma’s pancakes. It’s not really a secret but they are kinda naughty! They don’t even really need syrup!

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup pancake mix of the “just add water” variety
2/3 cup white cake mix
1 1/2 cups water

Mix, and prepare pancakes according to pancake mix directions.

Enjoy!

~Amelia

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Current Events | Day 7 – Locking it Down with CPM

CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

Day 7 – Locking it Down with CPM

Hello from California! We are officially closed! Also, I officially teach 5th grade now. That’s been an interesting adjustment. Fifth grade math is where math started to fall apart for me! It’s those fractions. My husband thinks it’s endlessly entertaining that I work in food and construction, but I don’t know fractions. Yesterday we walked the dog and stretched for PE. Chalk in the driveway for art.

I’d like to take a moment today to talk about toilet paper. I don’t know about you, but I sure have been conscious of how much I’m using. I don’t know if I’ll run out or be able to get more. I know I have paper towels and here’s what you need to know about paper towels, and more:

Only flush toilet paper and poopie.
DO NOT FLUSH PAPER TOWELS
DO NOT FLUSH NAPKINS
DO…

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Foodstyles | Beyond Tea: Aromatic Herbal Infusions for Health and Immunity | New York Institute of Aromatic Studies

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Let’s get right to it. We know we need to stay hydrated and incorporate botanicals (aka “herbs”) into our lives, especially when feeling depleted, sick, overwhelmed (and so much more….). Go over and say hello to your tea kettle: it’s all about drinking botanical infusions.
I often like to pretend I’m fancy and use the word “tisane” when talking about “herbal tea.” Fancy or not, herbal tea = herbal infusion = tisane. Regardless of what you call it, this is about putting herbs in water, applying gentle heat and then enjoying the benefits of this simple but effective way to work with plants.


Stay Hydrated
Every morning when you wake up, have a glass of water to bathe your tissues. Doesn’t that sound FABULOUS? So…decadent! Not so. It is VITAL. Drinking water “…stimulates elimination and acts like an internal shower waking up the body and preparing it for activity” (Catty…

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La’au Lapa’au | Essential Oil Spotlight: Clove Oil

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Clove oil uses are incredibly impressive, ranging from improving blood circulation and reducing inflammation to helping acne and boosting gum health. One of the best-known clove oil uses is to reduce the pain associated with dental problems. Even mainstream toothpaste makers agree that clove oil reduces the pain and swelling that comes with a toothache.

In addition to being a proven anti-inflammatory and pain reducer, one of the common clove oil uses is as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial to keep countless diseases at bay, which is why it can be such a wise choice for boosting your immune system as well as a powerful addition to homemade cleaning products.

Plant Origin of Clove Oil

Indigenous to Indonesia and Madagascar, clove (Eugenia caryophyllata) can be found in nature as the unopened pink flower buds of the tropical evergreen tree. Picked by hand in late summer and again in winter, the buds…

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Equinox Astrology and Live Broadcast

Tara Greene www.taratarot.com's avatarTara Greene,Tarot,Astrology,Psychic

HAPPY SPRING equinox to those in the Northern Hemisphere. And Autumn down under

this astrology chart shows the basis of the year ahead.

Please join me LIVE on FACEBOOK on my Page Tara Greene Tarot Psychic Astrology Friday March 20 at 5:30 pm PDT/ 8:30 pm EDT and Saturday March 21 at 12:30 am GMT i will be talking about 2020, Covid-19 and answering questions about your astrology charts, Join me. https://business.facebook.com/Tara-Greene-Tarot-Psychic-Astrology-Consultant-193065840714514/

Based on Washington DC, the Scorpio, Rising is a signifier of death and rebirth, overhauls, power, secrets, finances, darkness and control. Scorpio as the 8th sign is an inward yin emotional sign. With Mars and Pluto virtually conjunct ruling this chart in Capricorn along with Jupiter Athena and Saturn at the last most critical degree of Capricorn this is one tough chart. THE SUN is also at the very last degree of PISCES, the end of the…

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Foodstyles | Biscuits

Amelia @ CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

Get out your rolling pin, circle cutter and stand mixer! It’s time to make some incredibly delicious biscuits!

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons baking powder
12 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes
1 cup whole milk
1 beaten egg

Preheat oven to 350.

Add all dry ingredients to a mixer and mix. Add butter and mix until you can’t see any butter chunks.

Add milk and mix only until the ingredients come together. Do not overmix.

Sprinkle flour on a rolling surface. Roll out dough to desired thickness (usually about 3/4 inch, but you can go thinner).

Cut with a 3-inch circle cutter (you could cut them into squares if you don’t have a circle cutter).

Place biscuits on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Brush tops with beaten egg.

Bake for 18-25 minutes, depending on thickness, until…

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Health | Satellite Images Reveal A Drastic Drop In Pollution Due To The Coronavirus Quarantine 

People are terrified by the fast-spreading virus that has shocked the world and caused the deaths of thousands of people worldwide. The number of infected people is constantly on the rise, and this boosts the need for quarantine. It is far from easy to remain positive when the future looks grim. Yet, scientists have finally […]

Source: Satellite Images Reveal A Drastic Drop In Pollution Due To The Coronavirus Quarantine – Healthy Food House

Day 6 – Locking it Down with CPM

CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

Here’s something fun to pass the time when you’re sheltering in place along with 8 other Bay Area Counties! I had some cuties that were on their way out. Instead of tossing them, I hand juiced them. Then put the juice into the freezer for another day.

Raise your hands if you’re sick of hearing coronavirus!! I prefer COVID 19. Sounds like we’re going on a spy mission, instead of staying home and cleaning the floor again. We played monopoly yesterday. Monopoly. No one ever wants to play Monopoly because it takes forever. Guess what?! I got time to play Monopoly.

Tide Pods Fresh Scent– A review: Who uses this crap? I just want my clothes to smell clean… not like the air freshener aisle. Also, thanks to dumb teenagers who ate Tide Pods, you may need an engineering degree to open the container (dumb teenagers: they do…

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Astrology | March 18th through 19th of 2020: Sun in Pisces, Anaretic and Saturn in Capricorn, Anaretic

Grandtrines's avatarGrandtrines

March 18th through 19th of 2020: Sun in Pisces, Anaretic and Saturn in Capricorn, Anaretic

This is easy to miss; I almost did.  As such, this entry is later than I would like (i.e., we have entered the 24 hour period as I write this).

The anaretic degree of any sign has been discussed at length.  Specifically, it is the final degree of a sign before a planet moves into a new sign.  Outer planets (capable of retrograde) may cross this region several times.  Cafe Astrology has an excellent explanation of the anaretic degree.  I will not duplicate their work except for a modification.

My original understanding of the anaretic degree came from a presenter at UAC ’98 (I think maybe Carol Wiggers, a William Lilly expert).  She sold me on Lilly.  While my depth of understanding is not “deep” in the ordinary sense of the word…

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Foodstyles Hella Cheesy Stuffed Shells

Amelia @ CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

Title says it all. Hella. Cheesy. In a shell.

Ingredients:
20-25 jumbo pasta shells
24 oz jar marinara sauce, or homemade
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (for the topping)

For the filling:
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
16 oz ricotta cheese
5 oz cream cheese
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup grated romano cheese
1/2 cup (loosely packed) basil leaves, chiffonade
2 sprigs oregano, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic ( I don’t recommend raw garlic for this recipe)

Instructions:
Boil shells according to package directions, but do not fully cook. They should be VERY al dente. Like you probably wouldn’t want to eat it, but it’s sorta cooked. Drain well, then rinse in cold water until the shells are completely cooled. Drain.

Put all filling ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.

Put about 1/3 of the marinara into the…

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What Are the Health Benefits of Eucalyptus?

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Eucalyptus is a fast-growing evergreen tree native to Australia. As an ingredient in many OTC products, it is used to reduce symptoms of coughs, colds, and congestion. It also features in creams and ointments aimed at relieving muscle and joint pain.

The oil that comes from the eucalyptus tree is used as an antiseptic, a perfume, as an ingredient in cosmetics, as a flavoring, in dental preparations, and in industrial solvents.

Chinese, Indian Ayurvedic, Greek, and other European styles of medicine have incorporated it into the treatment of a range of conditions for thousands of years.

There are over 400 different species of eucalyptus. Eucalyptus globulus, also known as Blue Gum, is the main source of eucalyptus oil used globally.

Leaves are steam distilled to extract the oil, which is a colorless liquid with a strong, sweet, woody scent. It contains 1,8-cineole, also known as eucalyptol.

The leaves also…

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Astrology | March 19, 2020: Spring Equinox – Karmic Rebalance + Restructuring

starfaceastrology's avatarstarface astrology

equinox

Last week, the WHO declared a worldwide pandemic over the COVID-19 virus, an extremely contagious novel illness. The fast, far-reaching spread of the COVID-19 has infected 171 countries, over 200,000 people and taken the lives of almost 9,000 individuals. These numbers are expected to keep growing, with governments initiating quarantines and implementing social distancing measures, economies plunging, and health care and emergency personnel on the front lines without the appropriate tools and supplies needed to protect themselves and those who are sick.

People are afraid, unsure, and confined; this pandemic has turned our lives upside down, without any indication of when things will return to normal.

Predictions feel bleak and heavy.

Times are changing; it is inevitable. We have been told this, but now it plays out for us to see.

Where will things go? How will our world move past this? Will things ever be normal again?

A look…

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Foodstyles | Corned Beef

Amelia @ CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

Corned beef is simple to make! You will need:
A 3-4 lb. brisket with seasoning packet
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 small onions
4 cups water
Cooking oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Quarter 2 small onions.

Set aside the packet of seasonings included with your corned beef. Rinse rinse rinse the meat. Rinse all the salty brine off.

Dry rub the meat with garlic powder and black pepper.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, drizzle with oil. Sear meat on each side. Remove the meat to an oven safe baking dish. Sear the onions in the same skillet.

Add 4 cups of water and packet of seasonings to the skillet, bring to a boil. Pour water and onions over meat. Cover with foil. Bake for one hour. Shut off the oven and allow it to rest for one hour in the oven. The internal…

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Day 5 – Locking it Down with CPM

CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

It’s been years since I spent much time sitting at the computer, typing away. I don’t quite type 70 wpm anymore, but I’m still pretty fast. I had forgotten how cold it gets sitting at a desk and typing. My fingers feel like popsicles. [Pours another cup of coffee]

We dusted off the Playstation 2. Literally dusted it off – it was covered in sawdust, sitting on a shelf in the garage. I’ve been holding onto it forever because I love the game Burnout 2. I am terrible at video games and more so at driving video games, but the object of Burnout 2 is to crash the car! I’m exceptionally good at crashing video game cars. Mad skills, old school, with a corded controller.

Construction of our LEGO city continues. I made what was supposed to be a schoolhouse, but I thought it looked like a saloon then added…

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Aloha Pō’ahā

Aloha kākōu ā me aloha kākahiāka. Kona kūpanaha Pō’ahā. Hō’oūna aloha ī nā mea a pau o’ ōukōu. Loāʻa hē nūi lā a me hōʻomau minoʻāka kākōu. Ō kā maluhia nō me ʻoe.

Hello and good morning. It’s a wonderful Thursday. Sending aloha to all of you. Have a great day and keep smiling, everyone. Peace be with you.

Locking it Down with CPM – Day 4

CPM's avatarCook Plant Meditate

NOW were on lockdown… I got that going for me! They’re not calling it lockdown or quarantine though, they’re calling it “shelter in place”. I’m lucky enough to live in one of the six San Francisco Bay Area counties who have been shut down. I had a panicky minute (or 30) after I realized that I’d be at home with a mouthy pre-teen for 22 days. At minimum. They’ll let us know later if we can leave our houses on April 7.

How to Monday the Mondayest Monday ever:
1. Get provisions
2. Get put on lockdown for 22 days.
3. Beer thirty.

I’ve been saying “I’m not going to the store.” I folded yesterday. I had explained to my daughter that we’re not spending 22 days staring at our phones. We’re going to read, do math, cook food, learn to do new things. She said she wanted to learn…

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La’au Lapa’au | Can Fungi Ease Disease in Bees?

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

by Connor Yearsley

Many people grew up with Winnie-the-Pooh, the good-natured bear who was often looking for “hunny” in rotting tree hollows. Renowned mycologist (fungi expert) Paul Stamets, however, maybe the first person to wonder if some bees are drawn to rotting wood partly because of the health benefits that the fungal mycelia can provide as they break down the wood. Mycelia are the vegetative part of a fungus’ life cycle and consist of threadlike tubes called hyphae that spread in every direction.

With researchers at Washington State University (WSU) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Stamets’ hypothesis that fungi can help bees is being validated with extracts of the mycelia of two fungal species: amadou (Fomes fomentarius, Polyporaceae) and reishi (Ganoderma resinaceum, Ganodermataceae). In laboratory and field trials on the Western or European honeybee (Apis mellifera), these extracts significantly reduced levels of viruses…

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La’au Lapa’au | Food as Medicine: Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra, Adoxaceae)

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs's avatarCrooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Plants commonly known as elder belong to the genus Sambucus and consist of 20-30 species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the Adoxaceae, or moschatel, family.1-3 Sambucus species are native to forested temperate and subtropical climates and grow to an average height of 32 feet (10 m).1,3 Elder shrubs have light brown or gray stippled bark and narrow, dark green pinnately compound leaves with five to nine toothed leaflets.2,4 In early summer, elder plants produce flat to roundish clusters of tiny, cream-white, saucer-shaped flowers. Depending on the species, the clusters of small fruits, botanically characterized as drupes, are blue-black, black, or red (and rarely, yellow or white).2,3 The only elder species with a history of culinary use are those that produce blue-black or black fruits. Elder species are highly adaptable and readily naturalize in an area, making them potentially invasive outside their native range.3 This…

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Daily Words of the Buddha for March 18, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for March 18, 2020 — pamoda— delight, joy

Yato yato sammasati
khandhānaṃ udayabbayaṃ,
labhatī pītipāmojjaṃ,
amataṃ taṃ vijānataṃ.

Whenever and wherever one encounters
the arising and passing away of the mental-physical structure,
one enjoys bliss and delight,
[which lead on to] the deathless stage experienced by the wise.

Dhammapada 25.374
The Discourse Summaries by S.N. Goenka