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Random Acts of Kindness From Family

/ Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

Mom and DadEver since my parents health began to fail a few years ago, my sister Diane and her husband John have pulled most of the weight. My parents have stayed at their home in Denver for long periods of time when they needed special medical assistance. You see, Diane has an amazing network of friends and acquaintances in elder care.

Diane and John in backyardMy big sister just happens to be a national expert in elder and long-term care. She knows medicine and care giving!   As my brother John quipped recently, “It’s like she’s been training her whole life for this job!”  This past March my sister helped my parents move to Denver from rural New Mexico, no small job. Mike and I were in the midst of building our home here and needed to stick around. I so appreciate my sister for going so far beyond the call of duty in keeping my parents safe and happy. I told her so recently in a thank you note.

I have had some experience in care giving with a veteran husband who sometimes suffers from CFS, and a brother who also needs help at times. But John and Diane are the heroes in our family. This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for them!

Do you know a caregiver who could use a little help?  Please go watch this short AARP video about their “Random Acts of Kindness for Caregivers” Campaign and then go see how you can lend a hand to a caregiver you know!

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Element Associates and Midlife Boulevard.

Passive Solar Heat & the First SNOW!

/ Laura Lee Carter / 2 Comments

IMGP4415Monday night was exciting up here! We saw first sleet and then snow falling, and it snowed all night.

As some of you may know, I’ve been recording precipitation data for the CoCoRAHS project since 1998, at the seven addresses I have lived at in that time. Yesterday’s reading was particularly difficult because of high winds and drifted snow, although I did record almost an inch of precip!

Let me put it this way, it was difficult getting out of the house on Tuesday morning. Some places there was almost no snow and it was a foot deep elsewhere. We live on a county road so they took care of the road plowing.

And our solar heating has been working great! For example, outside we got down to around 20 degrees last night and inside we were around 60 this morning, but as soon as the sun started coming in, we jumped up to 66 quickly. We do have supplemental electric heat, which we use sparingly, and I also have hot flashes, which help a lot!

IMGP4413The sunset was beautiful here last night, a constant reminder of why we choose to live up here!

Click on photos for full-size views, and follow us on TWITTER!

A potato by any other name, tastes as sweet! Curried Yam & Mushroom Stew from Me!

/ Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

sweet potatoesThough virtually interchangeable from a culinary perspective, botanically sweet potatoes and yams share nothing.  The yam is a member of the lily family, while the sweet potato belongs to the morning glory family.  And the two plants probably originated from different parts of the world.

Sweet potatoes were a New World plant, discovered by Columbus on his first voyage.  European acceptance of the sweet potato following Columbus’s return to Spain was immediate and enthusiastic. It became known as the “Spanish potato”, and was even elevated to the status of aphrodisiac. Henry the VIII had sweet potatoes imported from Spain and made into many types of confections.

Yams probably originated in Africa. Slaves in the American South called sweet potatoes “nyamis” because they reminded them of a vegetable of that same name from their homeland. Most “yams” available in this country today are really a variety of sweet potato.True yams contain a compound from which the sex hormone estrogen was first manufactured.

The French writer and chef Antonin Careme assured the sweet potato immortality, when he included it in his classic The Art of French Cooking in the Nineteenth Century. Less well known is the vegetable’s popularity in China, where it is sun-dried and used for noodle making, and in Japan, where it has been a staple for hundreds of years. Who can forget how tasty sweet potatoes are in tempura!

Sweet potatoes or yams make the perfect addition to hearty vegetable stews, providing an excellent source of vitamin A and potassium. Choose those that are firm to the touch and have unblemished skins.

Mushroom Yam Stew

Curried Yam & Mushroom Stew from Laura Lee Carter’s Kitchen 2006

Total preparation time: 2 hours, serves: 5 or 6

3 slices bacon, chopped small

3-4 cups. beef bouillon broth

1 med. onion, chopped

1 large yam chopped into small pieces

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup chopped celery

1-2 tsp. curry powder (to taste)

1 cup chopped mushrooms

¾ cup uncooked rice

Saute  bacon, onions, garlic & celery for a few minutes in a couple tablespoons of butter. Then stir in mushrooms (if fresh.)  Add broth, yam, mushrooms (if canned) and one can of soup.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes.  Add curry powder, salt & pepper to taste.

After everything is completely cooked, add ¾ cup basmati rice (my favorite) and simmer 20-30 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until rice softens.

Tastes great with cornbread!