GrannyXpress

GrannyX LOVES A DEAL…

Filed under: GrannyX Approves, GrannyX Loves Vita-Mix, GrannyXLovesTHE.BAY @ January 7, 2008 11:36 am by healthiacynthia

My son Conrad was home over the Christmas break and he made the whole clan delicious and nutritious Green Smoothies every morning with my trusty Vita-Mix. Because I sooo love the Vita-Mix and use it daily, I became an affiliate so that I can promote its many benefits to others. But I happen to know that if Conrad buys one, he will probably get it over the Bay, because that is the kind of guy he is. You might be looking for a good deal here too. Go ahead and check out my Vita-Mix affiliate site here, and then come back and compare with the possible auction deals below:

Remember, that to see the articles on the above eBay-to-go widget, you just click on the picture as it comes up. It will take you right to the specific picture, where you can bid, or look around. New to eBay?
 Take a look, and then register to become a bidder. It’s a secure and easy process with this proviso: Always look for sellers with a good ratio of positive feedback (I’d say never under about 98% is what I would look for because the competition is high and I would prefer to get the seller with the best rep over someone who might seem to be offering an unbelievable deal who has a less stellar rep).
If you already have a Vita-Mix, you might want to subscribe to my Whirled Soup newsletter so you can get yummy, tummy-warming recipes delivered right to your email box twice a month. Click here to sign up for the recipe newsletter. Go to the Whirled Soup blog and sign up in the left hand frame.

GrannyX and the Recipe Chain Gang

Filed under: GrannyX Recommends, GrannyX Loves Vita-Mix @ December 3, 2007 3:25 pm by healthiacynthia

Somebody hit me up with one of those chain letters that ask for a recipe to be sent to ten people. I’m going to get double time from mine by including them here in the blog… they are supposed to be ones that people can come up with from memory (tried and true)so I’m sure they will be tasty for the little ones as well.

The first recipe is an old- fashioned delicious ’scratch’ cake from Sharon. Sometimes it is called something like “Crazy Cake” or “Elvis Cake”. She calls it:

WACKY OLIPHANT CAKE

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift together in a large bowl:
*3 cups flour
*2 cups sugar
*6 tablespoons cocoa
*2 tsp soda
*1 tsp salt

Make 3 “wells” in the flour mixture and pour one of the following into each
well:
*6 tablespoons cooking oil
*2 tablespoons vinegar
*2 tsp vanilla
Pour 2 cups water over the top of all ingredients and stir/beat until well
blended.

*Add 3 eggs

Add buttermilk until moist enough

Pour mixture into an ungreased 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes.

You can make it without the eggs but it’s better with.

I make a Butter Icing for mine:

*½ stick butter, softened

*3 cups powdered sugar

*a dash of salt

Mix all together. Then add canned milk until it’s creamy enough to spread

And from Margarete in Arizona, here is a lovely tonic to improve the circulation:

This is the best recipe I ever came across for people who have frequently cold hands and feet and it tastes so good. I found it in the recipe book that came with my Vita-mix blender some 15 years ago. I liked the taste so much, that I made it almost every day since we had plenty of oranges on our trees that winter. One evening, I noticed that I did not have cold feet when I went to bed. So, I paid attention and sure enough, no more cold feet that used to keep me sometimes awake half the night before my husband mercifully let me put my icicles up against his legs. I’ve not had cold feet or hands since and I “live” in my Birkenstocks, no socks, year round. :-) Of course, I lived in central California then and now in Tucson, AZ. That is a bit different from Saskatchewan :-).

The cold extremities, of course were due to circulation problems and the ginger in the recipe–probably also the white of the oranges– is what made the difference.

So, here to toasty warm hands and feet, year round:

Ingredients: in a blender
1) 1-2 oranges, thinly peeled, cut in chunks or slices
leave as much of the white below the orange rind on the fruit.
It is rich in vitamin K. One of its best sources.

2) 1-2 heaping spoons of frozen orange concentrate.
Adds a bit more tartness if you like that.

3) 2 inches or more of fresh ginger root.
thinly slice it crosswise to avoid the longer fibers,

4) add cold water to make 12-16 oz. or more, total.

5) instead of all water, you can add some ice if desired.

Start blender and blend for several minutes. If too bland, add more orange concentrate. If too tart, leave it out next time. If you can handle more ginger spiciness, add more but always cut into thin slices. The uncut fibers make it unpleasant to drink. Enjoy!

If you are suffering from cold feet/hands, drink at least 12-16 oz or more each day for the next few weeks and see how one day you realize that your hands and feet are comfortably warm.

*orange juice image courtesy of Ayelie at Stock.xching.

The Healthy Granny’s Kitchen

Filed under: GrannyX Approves, GrannyX Loves Vita-Mix @ August 22, 2007 10:26 am by healthiacynthia

My grannies each spent a lot of their day in their kitchens.

My dad’s mom had a nice modern house with a kitchen that she had some input into designing. I like to think back to the big farmhouse kitchen, though, when I remember Grandma R. The windows above the sink looked out to the grainery and beyond to her beloved vegetable garden where she grew asparagas when many people on the prairies didn’t even know what it was.

She also had huge flour bins built in around the kitchen sink. I’m not sure how much flour each one held, but probably around 100# I’m guessing. She baked wonderful “brown bread” when most people had switched to store-bought white bread.

She also had a ‘root cellar’ which was a sort of small, unfinished basement… unfinished in that it showed off the roots of surrounding plants where more modern cellars would be covered in with cement. She did a lot of preserving of fruits and veggies. I think of her canned crabapples, for example. The favorite of all time preserves, for me at least, was the root beerthat she made a couple of times in my memory. Maybe it was called root beer because my Granny stored it in her root cellar?

I don’t believe that Granny R. had too many fancy appliances. I remember a meat grinder that you screwed on to a counter, and a jelly-making frame with a muslim bag hanging from it when it was jelly-making season. In the old farmhouse I don’t actually recall her using an electric beater– just a manual hand-held one, and the old-time potato smashers and doodads for making pie crust. She probably had a bottle capper for making the root beer. Oh, yeah, there was a cream separator…. but when I was a child they no longer had a milk cow.

In general, my Granny R.’s kitchen was a fascinating place. I imagine if she was my age today she would have all the bells and whistles of mod-con kitchens. I’m pretty sure that she would have a Vita-Mix, because that is one muscular health-providing machine that no kitchen should be without!

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