Slow Down
Who
hasn’t felt the press of time? The “not
enough time to get it all done” feeling?
Have we perhaps come to the point of believing that doing rather than being
is the ultimate goal? Of course we do know our time here is fairly brief and we
don’t know how soon it’s going to end. So doesn’t it behoove us to take what
Samuel Johnson called “the golden moment” and remember simply to be?
Take
food, for instance. It offers the chance to relish grocery shopping, relish
cooking, relish eating, and relish the company we eat in. Last year I joined Slow Food Boston, part of
Slow Food USA:
http://www.slowfoodusa.org. Slow Food is a twenty-year old movement to
preserve local tastes and production. As
an educational organization, it has local chapters through which members can find
others who want to participate in a “delicious and sustainable future.” The Slow Food emblem is the snail (see
right), both tasty and slow.
Consider joining or at
least adding your name to the distribution list for slow food related events
and notices.
Food Focus: Millet
If
you’ve ever had pet birds, you’ve probably fed them millet. But have you eaten
it yourself? Common in Asia and Africa
for human consumption over the last four or five millennia, it’s rare on a menu
in the U.S.
However, as more and more people are
diagnosed with Celiac/sprue (intolerance of gluten), millet is appearing in the
grocery stores. It is in there with the
other grasses whose seeds we regularly eat: wheat, rice, oats, barley, and so
on.
What
does millet have to offer you? For one
thing it is an abundant source of Lutein and
zeaxanthin, which you may remember are anti-oxidants that help protect the eyes from
macular degeneration. Furthermore,
according to Paul Pitchford, millet is good for many things: it strengthens the
kidneys, it sweetens the breath by “retarding bacterial growth in the mouth,”
it alkalizes the blood – useful if you have a high sugar or high meat diet –
and, if you roast the grains before cooking, it can help ease diarrhea.
(Healing with Whole Foods, Paul
Pitchford, N.Atlantic Bks., 1993, p. 427.)
Recipe of the Month: Francie’s Millet
Ingredients
1 cup of millet
2 cups of
boiling water
Butter or
olive oil
1 “half a
thumb” of ginger root
Directions
Wash the
millet thoroughly and throw away the water;
Put it in a
saucepan over low/medium heat, stirring till it’s all dry;
Continue
stirring so that it toasts a bit -- if it starts popping it’s too hot;
Add 1 teaspoon
of butter or olive oil;
Add the minced
ginger root;
Add 2 cups of
boiling water and bring to a high boil;
Stir
vigorously for 2-3 minutes while the millet is boiling;
Add half a
teaspoon of salt (optional);
Cover and
simmer for 20-30 minutes;
Add more
butter or olive oil to taste and serve hot.
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