I love making kale chips and my kids like them too. They are always a hit at a party and people are always a little surprised when they like them. They are great for parties and I use them as a somewhat healthy snack. For me they really do replace chips. I love how my friends eat them skeptically and get a surprised look on their face. “These are really good,” they say. “Yes,” I reply. “No, I mean really really good,” they say “I know. Have I ever served you bad food?” I say. Try them for yourself! 1 Cup Almonds or Cashews, soaked in water for 24 hours, water discarded 2 bunches of Kale, any type 1 Red Bell Pepper 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast 1/4 cup Wheat-free Tamari 1 Jalapeno, seeded (optional) 1/4 cup Cider Vinegar (optional) Start by soaking the nuts. By soaking them, it accomplishes two goals. The first is to remove an enzyme that makes them harder to digest, the second is to make them soft and creamy for the kale chips. Make sure to discard the water. Next, prepare your kale. You are going to remove the fibrous stem. I fold the leaf in half and use scissors to clip down the back. Tear the kale into bite-sized pieces. Preparing the sauce: I use my Vitamix to blend the rest of the ingredients. If you don’t like spicy, then leave out the jalapeno. If you don’t want tang, then leave out the vinegar. They are also delicious without these ingredients and more kid friendly. Toss the kale in the sauce and spread out on dehydrator trays. Dehydrate under 115 degrees to maintain raw temperature. Keep them in the dehydrator until they “crunch” when you taste them usually about 4 hours. I find it best to flip them around to loosen them from the tray after about 2 hours so they don’t stick to the tray at the end. I keep these in a zip-lock bag in my...
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I imagine this post may not sit well with the liberals, but it has been swirling around in my head for a while now and I wanted to capture it. I think minimum wage is one of the major problems getting in the way of economic recovery. I believe our recovery will happen, but I think this one construct is challenging the market’s ability to correct. When we have minimum wage, it contributes to the culture of those who have a job and those who don’t–the have/have not culture of employment. When a huge market of unemployed people exist, minimum wage starts to create a very strange economy. The only way to get a job with minimum wage in place is to compete with everyone else in the marketplace. I just posted a 10 hour per week cleaning position and I have gotten over 30 responses. The poor, the unskilled, and those who don’t have a great skill at presenting themselves, or those who don’t speak English well are competing with everyone else that the marketplace has pushed out of other higher paying jobs. As someone who occasionally employs people (or at least hires some help in my life), I can see that the quality of applicants is pretty high. So those who are competing for jobs have to hit a certain threshold in terms of skill. Those who don’t fit that threshold are screwed. If they can’t compete in the marketplace then they are forced to look for income some other way. They could start some kind of business where they can discount their services–many business owners make less than minimum wage or fail completely in the first 3 years. Alternatively, they can stay on public assistance. As a business owner, why shouldn’t I get a price break when I hire someone when there is a competitive marketplace for jobs? I would be able to hire someone quicker at a lower rate as I am rebuilding my business after taking a hit in the...
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Question: What was it like moving to Canada? Jennifer, Lethbridge Alberta We had been together about a year when Mel started interviewing for tenure-track jobs. He really was excited about McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario because it is well-known for its research in evolutionary psychology. He knew several of the professors and thought it might be a great job for him. There are 3 universities in North America that excel at evolutionary psychology: UC Santa Barbara, McMaster University, and the University of New Mexico. He did his PhD at UC Santa Barbara and NM wasn’t hiring that year, so McMaster really was a very exciting opportunity. He was very excited about the job offer and it seemed right for him. I didn’t think it would be wise to put him in the position of choosing between me and the job. I agreed to check it out since I had never been to Canada before. “We’ll need to live in Toronto,” I said. We visited in April and I fell in love with all the amazing old houses in Hamilton–a city of about 500,000 people. We were pretty sure we were coming–in fact we met with a realtor while we visited and put in an offer on a house. It was a go. We bought a house in a little town which eventually amalgamated into Hamilton. Moving to Canada has been amazing, challenging, occasionally annoying, and it is becoming home. We seem to have gone through stages. In the first couple of years we were fairly anti-American and pro all things Canadian. We were adventurers. In the next few years we flip-flopped and were annoyed by some things Canadian and became more patriotic about the US than I ever expected to be. We were homesick. Now I feel like I have found a comfort level with my two countries and I love them both with all their up-sides and down-sides. The Five Weirdest Differences to Get Used to Between Canada and the US There are...
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My media guy asked me the other day how restaurants fit with the central theme of the Crucible bookii, which is about falling in love with Mel. For me, when I go to restaurants, I am also alone with Mel, and it is when we have some of our most intimate conversations. Food and restaurants are so much a part of the flavor of our lives that I can’t imagine leaving them out. I love sharing my thoughts and experiences when we explore a new place. I just want to share these times with you in a way that allows you to get a glimpse of what we experienced. When we were ready to go live with the bookii launch and were looking through the articles, I realized I had 3 different reviews for Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas, ON. This is no accident. It is one of my favorite places to go for a special meal and I always want to take pictures because their food is so beautiful. We have decided that we really don’t like to eat out too often because if we go to the places we can afford, we end up spending a fair bit for a family of 4 or 5 and we usually eat better at home–we can spend $35 at Wendy’s or we can save up and go someplace special. When we choose to go out, we like to have the kind of meal that we will really remember. Apparently, Quatrefoil is this year’s favorite. I’ve combined 3 different reviews into one entry so you can compare and see them as a whole. These 3 meals happened between October 2012 and April 2013. I have only been to Quatrefoil in the fall and winter which seems silly, since they have a gorgeous patio. We’ll have to try the patio sometime soon. 1. Lunch With Sela Sela and I had an opportunity to have an amazing lunch at Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas before she left for Chef School....
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