Eating Wisely: Sweets for My Sweet

Sweet stuff. We all love something sweet, but with so much information about sweeteners floating about, it can be hard to discern the truth. You really have to be a label reader to even find out what types of sweeteners are in most products. I am always amazed at the number of product that have added sweetener, which includes everything from canned string beans to frozen lasagna.

Cane or Beet Sugars

This is what most of us call sugar. It comes in many types, but that bag of sugar you buy is usually one of the two or even a mix. In the U.S., it’s usually cane sugar. That’s because sugar cane is grown in Texas, Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico (1). Two brands have on their label that they are pure cane sugar: Dixie and Dominos. However, beets are grown for sugar in the U.S. too. The states that grow sugar beets are Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Texas (2).

There are many types of sugar you can buy depending on what you are going to use the sugar for and also your tastes. Cooks usually need white granulated, confectioner, molasses, and brown.

White granulated sugar is used in making teas and fruit drinks like lemonade. It is also used in many recipes like pancakes, soups, vegetables, baked goods, and many others. Cooks find white sugar invaluable in the kitchen.

Confectioner’s sugar is also in most kitchens. It is used to make frostings, dust baked goods and sweeten some drinks.

Molasses is the by-product of making sugar from sugar cane or beets. Sulfured molasses comes only from sugar cane. The city where I am from was the home of Grandma’s Molasses so I grew up eating that delight. To me there’s nothing better than a hot, buttered, buttermilk biscuit topped with molasses. My mouth waters when I just think about eating this treat.

Brown sugar is used mostly in baking. Some people prefer brown sugar in oatmeal and on other cereals. Brown sugar is less refined than white sugar, but it is more expensive. Go figure that out! One thing about brown sugar that I find annoying is the tendency to turn into a brown brick. Then you have to scrape off what you need or take a hammer to the brick. Since most people don’t use a lot of brown sugar, here’s a tip for you. Take one cup of white sugar and put it into a bowl. Add one tablespoon of molasses and mix well. Now you have brown sugar.

High Fructose Corn Syrup or Sugar

You use it if you want; I avoid it. There is so much conflicting information about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It’s hard to know what to believe. Let me just tell you that it’s in almost every processed food or drink you buy. The major issue with HFCS is that the body doesn’t know exactly what it is or what to do with it. The latest research says that this inability of the body to correctly process HFCS is what causes the problem. You eat food or drink drinks with HFCS, but the brain function that tells you that you’re full doesn’t work due to HFCS’s chemical composition. We do have an obesity epidemic here in the US and many researchers think HFCS is one of the reasons. The producers and retailers of HFCS have their own studies that say it is just fine. I’m just not sure, so I can’t recommend high fructose corn syrup or sugar. That said, I still love Karo syrup, but Karo isn’t the same thing. It’s naturally occurring corn syrup.

Artificial Sweeteners

I don’t like these either. Some are strange chemical mixes and no real long-term research has been done on them as to their effects on the human body. To me, most artificial sweeteners make food and drink taste strange. A partial list of these products includes aspartame, saccharin, NutraSweet, Equal, Splenda, and Sweet & Low. I’m not convinced, but you make your own decision.

Other Sweeteners

There are mainly three other sweeteners that people use. They are Stevia, agave and honey. Stevia is a plant that is naturally sweet and has no calories. Just remember it is potent so start off using just a small amount. You can add more, but you can’t take it out. Agave nectar comes from Mexico or South Africa. Hey, it’s the Blue Agave plant that is used to make tequila. Right now Agave nectar is all the rage for the health conscious (3). I’m partial to honey, especially the local kind. You shouldn’t give honey to kids under two, but it’s great for the rest of us. Besides being a sweetener, local honey can help alleviate those air borne allergens which cause coughing and a stuffy nose (4).

Whew!

Now I need a piece of cake. After all this talk of sweeteners, my sweet tooth beckons me. I don’t eat many sweets, but a slice of good cake every now and then is okay. I tend to gravitate toward either really chocolate cake or one made with fruit.

Sunshine Cake

I can’t remember where I got the original recipe from, but supposedly, it was first published a long time ago in Readers’ Digest. This cake is delicious and is full of fruit so it’s at least a little good for you (SMILE).

Sunshine Cake

Ingredients

• 1 package moist yellow cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil or margarine
• 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (11 ounce) can chopped, drained Mandarin oranges, reserve the juice
• 3/4 cup crushed pineapple, juice squeezed out
• 1/2 large jar of Maraschino cherries, juice drained and cherries chopped

**Note: Make sure the fruit you will be adding to the cake is squeezed fairly dry. Then lightly dust the fruit with a small amount of flour so it won’t sink to the bottom of the pan during cooking.

Directions

1. Combine the pudding and cake mixes together. Beat the eggs, and add them to the dry mix. Add the oil and juice. Now add the Mandarin oranges, pineapple and the cherries to the batter. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Bake the cake for 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 325 degrees F. Insert a clean, dry toothpick into the center of the cake to test for doneness; it should come out clean. Leave the cake in the pan and cool on wire rack.
3. While cake is baking, prepare the frosting. Put the frosting in refrigerator to set. Frost when cake has thoroughly cooled.

Cake Frosting

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar.
3. Add coconut and mix well by hand.
4. Store in the refrigerator after use.
5. After frosting the Sunshine Cake decorate it with Mandarin orange slices and the rest of the cherries.

My husband loves this cake. In our house a cake lasts about two weeks so keep it refrigerated. This time, I used a Bundt pan. Don’t! Why? This cake is too moist and doesn’t slice well. A sheet cake pan works much better.

Endnotes:

1. http://www.almac.co.uk/personal/roberts/cane.html
2. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/sugarbeet.html
3. http://www.allaboutagave.com/
4. http://www.fitsugar.com/Got-Seasonal-Allergies-Eat-Local-Honey-258237

© 2011, Katherine Hegemann

Living Well: What Moves Me?

By Katherine Hegemann (kittyhegemann@embarqmail.com)

Motivation means to induce, move, provoke, prompt, or cause. Simply put, it’s the yearning to do something.

Motivation is an interesting concept. Recent studies have found some very interesting principles of motivation. If the goal is something relatively simple, incentives like money work well. For example, if you work in a retail store, getting a bonus for more sales is a good motivator.

If, however, you earn enough money to cover your life expenses, there are other motivators. These include self-direction, expertise and purpose. Here’s an example: You’ve just been hired at a small company and will be making $45,000 a year. The head of the company asks his employees to come up with a new employee manual. You aren’t going to make more money; however, this is an opportunity to set policy. You also see this as a way to show leadership and develop group problem solving skills.

The same is true if you are setting your own goals. Money or other tangible rewards don’t motivate you as much as doing it for yourself, becoming an expert, or adding another purpose to your life.

Before you get motivated you have to find something to get motivated about. So what really moves you?

After you figure out what you yearn for or what moves you, you have to decide what to do about it. That means you have to figure how to get from desire to reality.

That moves me!

This is an activity-based article so go right now and get pencil or pen and paper. I’m waiting.

First, make a list of five things that move you. Here are a few examples: drawing, community involvement, computers, cars, and good health. Take a few minutes to write down your list.

Now, take your list of five and turn the ideas into action phrases:

• learn to draw
• become more involved in my community
• increase computer skills
• change the oil in my car
• improve my health

What next?

Set your goals

You have to set goals. There are short and long term goals. Short term gets you going and sets a deadline to go from goal to action. Long term helps you develop and expand your life’s purpose.

So next, you should turn the action phrases into goal statements like these:

• I will take a class and learn how to draw children.
• I will contact the Senior Citizens Center and volunteer to help one day a week.
• I will buy a book on word processing and work through the exercises to become more proficient.
• I will get my mechanic friend Bernie to teach me how to change the oil in my car.
• I will call the Mountain City/Johnson County Community Center for exercise classes in my area.

Look at your list and prioritize them using the numbers 1-5 with 1 for most motivated to do down to 5 for least motivated to do.

Take the number one item on the list and write that one sentence as a purpose statement. Example: As a way to become more involved in my community, I will volunteer to help at the Senior Center one day each week.

Now, move on to the next step.

Action plan

You’re motivated and have a goal. Now you need to have a plan to achieve it. You have your goal. I’m going to use the purpose statement to volunteer at the Senior Center as an example. So follow along with your purpose statement.

You don’t want to just walk into the Senior Center and tell them you will deliver Meals-On-Wheels every Thursday. That might not be the help they need right now. Your plan will be to contact the director, find out areas where help is needed, decide what services you can volunteer to do and are comfortable doing, set a schedule, and mark your calendar so you will fulfill the service.

Make sure you include in your commitment to anyone involved in your plan your schedule conflicts like weather, doctor appointments, vacations, or previous commitments.

Rewrite time. You need a final complete statement of what you want to do and how you will do it. Finished statement: As a way to become more involved in my community, I will volunteer to help serve lunch at the Senior Center each Wednesday for six months.

Control yourself

You’ve found motivation, set a goal, developed a plan, and you’re excited that you are ready to start this new adventure. It’s a challenge you have chosen by and for yourself.

Excitement is a motivator all by itself. “There’s always time for a new adventure” is my motto. If you have difficulty with new adventures, try something small at the beginning. Doing something small or large helps you enjoy living. Personally, I love a new challenge plus I’m goal oriented. Those character traits make me very willing to try something new. If I make it or fail, in my mind I’ve at least tried. The trying is as much a success as completing the goal. I’m a lifelong learner and find great excitement when I step out of my comfort zone. Not everyone is like me, but you can start just a little out of your comfort zone and build on small successes.

Share what you are going to do with a friend, spouse, or other family member. That reinforces your motivation and helps you do the follow through.

Because you have done the work and planning to make sure this is what you want, you will get much more pleasure by actually completing the goal. You KNOW what you want to do and HOW to do it.

If you’re not excited by now, it’s time to go in another direction before you actually commit to the action. Heck, I’m almost ready to call the Senior Center myself, but I don’t have the time right now. That’s where evaluation comes into the plan. Maybe you have found out that this isn’t really what you want to do. That’s okay. So move on to the second item on your list.

Sometimes things just don’t work out as we would wish. The reasons may be centered on who you are or outside circumstances. It is important to be honest with yourself and move on to another yearning.

Often we want to do something but never get around to actually doing it. That’s called procrastination, and most people have at least a touch of it. One way to overcome procrastination is to make a decision and write on your calendar a one week time frame in which to keep your commitment to yourself. Consider asking a friend or family member to help you stay with your schedule.

The most successful people I’ve met are ones who break down a task or problem into easy-to-achieve steps. You complete one step at a time. That’s part of why this whole motivation and goal setting is given the way I have done. As long as you complete one step at a time, each one completed helps you stay motivated enough to go on to the next step.

Occasionally, you are motivated do something you yearn for but find it just doesn’t work out. There are times you have to give up. Maybe other obligations come up that are critical; you get sick, you move to another location, you realize that you have misplaced aspirations. You make a decision and move on. However, if you have made a commitment to other people, you need to give them adequate notice that you are quitting or fulfill your obligations.

Limits are a reason to not do something even if you want to do it. What limits? They might include physical, mental, work, family obligations, or money. When we moved here, I would go to Boone three times a week to swim. I loved it, and swimming made me feel good. Besides, I have a disability, and this was something I could actually do. Unfortunately, the price of gas increased from less than two dollars a gallon to over three; it was time to look at my priorities. I decided that I could no longer afford to spend the amount of money for gas. So we bought a low impact exerciser, and I set up a yoga schedule for myself. I’ve done fairly well with keeping up my exercise although I do go through periods when I am not very faithful about it.

I just recently read that discipline is not the same thing as habit. That rang a bell in my head. After thinking about it, I realized that this is so true.

A habit is something you do over and over until you don’t really think about it anymore, but any divergence in the habit can cause discomfort. I try to put kitchen items back where I found them so that I can always find what I need. If an item gets put in the wrong place, I get ticked off. That’s a habit.

Discipline is following a set of rules or guidelines to develop or improve a skill through training. I complete a simple yoga routine three times a week. If I find one pose causes me pain or becomes too difficult to do, I skip it and find another one I can do. If health issues make me unable to do my yoga for a time period, I go back to it when I am able to do so. That’s discipline.

Just do it

Taking the first step is the hardest part of all this. Starting small, staying on track, and completing your goal are the greatest motivators of all. Once you successfully finish small goals, it’s much easier to move on to larger, more complicated ones. Success!

If you did your writing, you should be able to use your motivation to set a goal and use the action plan to fulfill your yearning.

Ready, set go!

Resources:

1. Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (http://www.stephencovey.com)
2. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (http://www.purposedrivenlife.com)

© 2011, Katherine Hegemann

Grow It: Time to Start Planting

If you haven’t begun your summer garden yet, there’s still time. You can grow some of your own food even if you put plants in your flower beds. That can work out really well. It’s called companion planting. Plants naturally mix it up so that different species help each other. So why shouldn’t you do the same in your garden? But what is a companion with what?

Below is an abbreviated chart you can use (1). Click on the link at the end of this article for further ways to use companion planting.

Plant	Companion(s) and Effects
Asparagus	Tomatoes, parsley, basil
Basil	Tomatoes (improves growth & flavor); said to dislike rue; repels flies & mosquitoes
Bean	Potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, summer savory, most other veggies & herbs
Bean (bush)	Sunflowers (beans like partial shade, unless you live up north, sunflowers attract birds & bees for pollination), cucumbers (combination of heavy and light feeders), potatoes, corn, celery, summer savory
Beet	Onions, kohlrabi
Cabbage Family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi)	Potatoes, celery, dill, chamomile, sage, thyme, mint, pennyroyal, rosemary, lavender, beets, onions; aromatic plants deter cabbage worms
Carrot	Peas, lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, rosemary, sage, tomatoes
Celery	Leeks, tomatoes, bush beans, cauliflower, cabbage
Corn	Potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, squash
Cucumber	Beans, corn, peas, radishes, sunflowers
Dill	Cabbage (improves growth & health), carrots
Eggplant	Beans
Garlic	Roses & raspberries (deters Japanese beetle); with herbs to enhance their production of essential oils; plant liberally throughout garden to deter pests
Onion	Beets, strawberries, tomato, lettuce (protects against slugs), beans (protects against ants), summer savory
Pea	Squash (when squash follows peas up trellis), plus grows well with almost any vegetable; adds nitrogen to the soil
Potato	Horseradish, beans, corn, cabbage, marigold, limas, eggplant (as a trap crop for potato beetle)
Pumpkin	Corn
Radish	Peas, nasturtium, lettuce, cucumbers; a general aid in repelling insects
Spinach	Strawberries
Squash	Nasturtium, corn
Strawberry	Bush beans, spinach, borage, lettuce (as a border)
Tomato	Chives, onion, parsley, asparagus, marigold, nasturtium, carrot, limas

Update

I took my fence down. I don’t want to buy metal fence posts this year; however, I do intend to fence in my corn. There are just too many critters that love corn as much as I do, and I don’t want those danged marauders beating me out for corn.

I’m almost ready to transplant my spinach. There is a bed ready down in the garden. By the time you read this, I will have harvested the last of the fall garden spinach, Swiss chard and kale. There might be enough to blanch and freeze a couple of quarts each.

All my tomatoes have germinated. Bell peppers, herbs, cabbage, and broccoli are also doing well so I will be transplanting the last two within a week.

What’s next

I still need to buy seed potatoes. I won’t be planting too many of these as my root cellar didn’t protect last year’s crop from the intensely cold winter. I just loved going to get some potatoes and they were frozen solid. Well, at least I had a chance to practice my over handed pitch.

Some folks in the county have their early vegetables out. Up here in Trade, we’re at 3200 feet so I don’t put out much of anything until mid-May. You folks at the lower levels can begin putting out the cooler weather veggies now. But wait until mid-May or later for most of your summer crops.

It’s best to not put out tomatoes until the last week or so of the month. We just get too many late frosts, and you don’t want to lose the plants. I’ve lost all my tomatoes in the past. I cried the morning I went outside to see really, really green tomato plants. It didn’t take long for me to realize the reason was the plants were frozen. As they thawed, they melted and turned to slime. Yuck!

I’ve been saving gallon jugs to use as mini-greenhouses. Cut off the last inch of the bottom. Make sure you keep the lids to keep the heat in your greenhouse; you’ll want them if we have cool nights or a bit of frost. When you put out tomatoes or peppers, take the jugs and push the bottom down about an inch or two. Mound three inches of soil around the outside of the jug. Finally, carefully water through the top as needed. When I put out transplants, I always drench them in the morning and evening for three days. That helps prevent stress and gives the roots a chance to acclimate to real soil. You do not want to leave the lid on during the day, or you might cook the tender transplants.

There are only two vegetables I wait to plant the first part of June. That is corn and okra. Both need the soil warm for proper germination.

Prevention starts now

There are three garden headaches you need to prevent from even starting. They are disease, pests, and weeds. If you start as you turn over your garden soil with prevention, you will spend a lot less time fighting the elements.

If you have a healthy garden with healthy soil, you will be ahead of disease. Cleaning out the old, leftover plants from last year is the first step. Any diseased plants from the last season should be taken far away from your garden and either burned or buried. The rest of the leftovers can be stacked a little distance away and allowed to compost. I usually layer plant matter with a sprinkle of lime to help the composting process.

Mulch helps keep the soil from getting too hot and dry. It also helps prevent disease. I use red mulch with my tomatoes and have been pleased with the results. On the other hand, if it is a wet summer, be careful with the mulch. It can become a disease breeding ground with continued high humidity. You can always pull the mulch back if the wet period isn’t going to last too long.

Pests like unwanted bugs are the bane of most gardeners’ existence. However, having healthy plants makes a difference. The right amount of water and nutrients help the plants protect themselves. Companion planting is a helper too. I usually plant marigolds in my garden as they help repel many pests. Iron Weed draws those nasty Japanese Beetles away from your garden. We encourage its growth away from the garden. As a matter of fact if you come up my driveway during the summer, you’ll see it all along the sides.

Insecticidal soap is easy to make and works. I mix one gallon of water with one tablespoon of canola oil, a pinch of ground cayenne pepper, a pinch of powdered garlic, and three tablespoons of Ivory dry detergent. Why Ivory? It is very gentle and the formula is always consistent. You pour this mix into a quart spray bottle or us a one gallon pump sprayer. It works folks!

To help keep potato beetles away, I dust my potato plants with burnt lime when the plants are between one and two feet tall. The lime discourages pests and helps prevent the fungus that attacks potato plants. Additionally before planting potatoes, I always dust the pieces with garden sulfur and let them sit in a paper bag for a day or two.

If you have an invasion of Japanese Beetles, another way to take care of those really nasty bugs is to go out twice a day with a jar of water with salt, vinegar and dish detergent in it. Pick them off and dump them in the jar. They die instantly. I go out beetle hunting in the morning and before dark. I always drop a few on the ground so I can jump up and down on them. I hate Japanese Beetles.

Weeds can make you grind your teeth in frustration. They don’t have to, and you don’t have to buy poisons to get rid of them either.

Smothering. Yes, you read that right. You can smother weeds with mulch. When I pull up plants at the end of the growing season, I lay them down in the garden. When I’m ready to use that space, I collect the plant matter and add it to the compost pile. You can even take cardboard and lay it down between rows and cover with mulch to keep weeds off the paths. When you use even a light layer of mulch, you can easily pull unwanted weeds. Many people use their hoe to mound soil up next to their garden plants to smother weeds.

Hoeing. The right hoe can make all the difference. I keep a stirrup hoe in the garden area, which if kept sharp can cut weeds off at ground level. A regular hoe or pointed hoe is what most people use; just be sure it’s sharp. I have a friend who ground his regular hoe so it is only about two inches deep and has rounded edges. He swears by it as his number one garden tool.

Stop tilling. You might need to till your garden space the first couple of years or if you have a really big garden. However, if you make permanent beds and rows, you don’t need to till. Use a pitchfork to loosen the soil. Get a long-handled garden cultivator with three or four curved prongs and use it to turn the soil and pull out weeds. If you till, that process brings up weed seeds and roots. Then they start growing. You know the rest.

Vinegar works too. Mix half apple cider vinegar and half water in a quart spray bottle. Spray weeds at the root and you’ll kill them off. Be careful to not spray garden plants because vinegar will kill them also.

Let’s get at it

I go out every day, weather permitting and do a little to get my garden going. Everything is just about done. By next week, I’ll be planting. All I need is some good, organic compost to place on the garden and turn it into the soil. By being very careful to nurture my garden space, the soil is fluffy and easy to work. It holds water but doesn’t compact. It is full of the nutrients needed to grow healthy plants. Now it all depends on the weather and a little will to keep up with the work to have a productive garden.

I would love to hear from you folks. Do you know a garden tip that really works? Share it and I’ll pass it on. Do you have a garden problem you just can’t solve? Let me know. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll try to find out. Perhaps you want to share a garden story? Send me an email for tips, problems and stories. If possible I’ll include them in the Grow It column.

Endnotes:

1. http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_55/companion_planting.aspx

© 2011, Katherine B. Hegemann (kittyhegemann@gmail.com)