Sweetie's Holland Cookies

As promised, here is Sweetie's Holland Cookies recipe.

Helping Out

One of my sister's working place had a bake/craft fundraiser yesterday to raise money for two of its coworkers to help them with their medical expenses.  

Me and my sisters met on Sunday to work on our donations.


Geri made the pecan tarts.




Sweetie and Didi made Holland Cookies.  


Sweetie used the recipe that she saved from her high school homemaking class, wouldja believe.   I'll share her recipe with you in my next post.


I made Pizzelles.  If you don't know the story on how I scored this pizzelle iron, you can find out here. 


Didi put together some fruit mui which she had prepared earlier.


She helped Sweetie make and assemble some somen salad.




My mom donated some of her crocheted dish towels.


These are bracelets that I made with mostly swap meet finds. 


Geri made this ruby, pearl and quartz bracelet.


We had some ramen and Sekiya okazuya food for lunch.  


It took us about 7 hours to complete everything, but the time just flew by.  It was a great way to spend the day . . . and for a worthwhile cause too.

Eye Shadow, etc.

I mentioned previously that the only makeup I use nowadays is eye shadow and eye liner.  This is my favorite eye shadow.  It's made by MAC.  I bought it at the swap meet, new and unused, from a gal who sold cosmetics there.  I got it for around $7.




This is all that's left of it.  Unfortunately the girl hasn't been at the swap meet for awhile so it looks like I'm gonna have to fork out $15 to replace it.


And while we're on the subject, if you're ever in Marukai, try hang out around the cosmetics section.  You might get lucky and receive some Conju samples from the lady there.  Me and my sisters scored at the Ward store and then again when we went to the Dillingham branch.  We stay getting all smooth skin on our faces now. 


I would show you guys my smooth face but this is the best that I could do.

Update on My Lemon Plants

Look what Wendell made for me so that snails would have a hard time getting to my lemon plants.  So nice yah!




Even so, this is what happened to one of the plants a couple of days ago. Believe it or not, it was actually making a comeback after being chewed up by snails.  Now, this is all that's left of it.  I noticed it when I got home from work and went out to water the plants.  I was about to blame the snails again, until I saw the real culprit.  


Some kind of caterpillar.  I scooped it up and put it in the front yard far, far away from my lemon plants.  It is the fourth predator of my plants.  Citrus leaf miner was the first.  Then came Damn Rabbit.  Then the Suckin' Snails.  And now this caterpillar.  Good thing I didn't give all of my lemon plants away and kept a bunch for myself.  Hopefully at least one will make it until "adulthood". 

Landon's Microwaved Artichoke

Landon learned this technique for microwaving artichokes from his coworker. 



First Landon chopped off the tips of the artichoke.


Then he drizzled on some olive oil.


And sprinkled with some garlic salt. 


He kinda did this to spread the oil and garlic salt around.


He placed the artichoke upside down into a microwave-safe bowl with about a 1/2 inch of water.  Update:  My sister Geri said that all of her water evaporated and her artichoke burnt. So maybe better to put a little more water.


He covered the bowl with some wax paper and microwaved it on high for about 15 minutes. Then he let it rest for around another 5 minutes.  The time will probably vary according to your microwave and the size of the artichoke.


Lan made a simple dip with mayonnaise and garlic salt.  It was very good.

More on Eggs

My friend Shar shared this Star-Advertiser Take a Bite article by Nadine Kam.  I thought it was so interesting: The Easter hen came a-layin'.  Thanks again, Shar.

Tools of My Trade

Last month marked the end of my 32 years as a medical transcriber.  I never really believed it would happen, but voice recognition technology stole my job away from me.  Luckily, I didn't get da boot.  Instead, my company created a new position for me . . .  scanning our old records into the computer. We have charts stored away in boxes stacked high in a huge room on a separate floor from our main office.

You might think it's a boring job . . . scanning . . . but I love it. No longer the lead of my department, I feel burden-free and stressless.  Me and Bien, the guy who does our laundry, have the room all to ourselves.  We have a grand ole time talking story while we each do our separate jobs. I look forward to going to work now. 

It doesn't hurt that I have state-of-the-art equipment like this totally-da-bomb stable remover.  Our charts were held together by staples.  Notes and forms were also stapled on. There are staples everywhere. This staple remover is ergonomic and works really well. It's worth the $6.50 price tag. I got it from Amazon.  Click here to check it out.



And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is my supa dupa, blazing fast, takes-any-kine-size, thick or thin, does-front-and-back simultaneously, upside-down-no-matter, amaaaaaaaaazing Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500, which I lovingly call My Precious.  I would love to get one for my home, but it costs around $450. 



This scanner scans so fast, that I sometimes feel like Lucy in the candy factory. 

Mochi Pizza

Sooo different.  Make sure you watch the guy eating his creation.  Looks sooooo goooooood.



Thanks for sharing, Shar!!

Cy's Natto Pupu

My brother sent me and my sisters an email showing us how to make his natto pupu.  

Start with natto from Jalna.

Add black natto from Don Q.

Ahi

Nori from Costco.

Green onions

Wasabi

Shoyu

Learning About Eggs

OMG, now I'm into eggs which is No. 2 on the PPQ coenzyme list (see previous 4/8/14 post).  Since, try as I might, I can't seem to get into No. 1 on the list (natto), I'm now shooting for eggs . . . and once again it seems . . . like the kind they got in Japan.

I found the following info from the Mother Earth News website:

LATEST RESULTS: New test results show that pastured egg producers are kicking the commercial industry's derriere when it comes to vitamin D! Eggs from hens raised on pasture show 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D as typical supermarket eggs. 

RESULTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS STUDY: Eggs from hens allowed to peck on pasture are a heck of a lot better than those from chickens raised in cages! Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol• 1⁄4 less saturated fat• 2⁄3 more vitamin A• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids• 3 times more vitamin E• 7 times more beta carotene 

These amazing results come from 14 flocks around the country that range freely on pasture or are housed in moveable pens that are rotated frequently to maximize access to fresh pasture and protect the birds from predators. We had six eggs from each of the 14 pastured flocks tested by an accredited laboratory in Portland, Ore.

I also found this informative video on YouTube:

Omega-3 Eggs

I feel stressed.  People are still receiving spam emails from me even though I changed my AOL email password.  On the advice of some people I changed my passwords for other accounts too.  I have a hard enough time remembering all my different passwords, and now I got dollar signs or numbers added in or totally new passwords.  Even so, if the spam emails don't stop, I might need to cancel my AOL account which I've had for 15 years.  

I do have an alternate road runner email address that I can use.  This evening, I started to change some of my accounts like Amazon and Flickr so that they'll be using the road runner address from now on . . . but there are CHOKE more to change . . . not even counting notifying friends and family. **sigh**

I decided to take a break from all of the above and share some pictures with you.  I still no more my PC back from Cowabunga yet . . . they actually still haven't even called me.  But at least I learned how to load my photos onto my Mac.   

Cool yah, this shot. I had my camera's sensor cleaned.  Good photographers clean their sensors all the time.  My camera is 5 years old and the sensor had never been cleaned before. It was filthy.  Had whoppa duza specks all over the place. Now it's sooooo clean . . . like brand new.  Anyway, I got these eggs from Marukai. They were $5 for a dozen.


Can anybody tell me what 地玉子 means?  I tried looking it up, but drew blanks.

This is all the good stuff that caught my eye.  Actually, I just wondered if it tasted better than regular eggs.


The yolk looks a little more orange than usual to me. No? Cute plate yah.  Swap meet . . . I think it was 25 cents.   I once called somebody (I forgot who) and asked how you could tell if an egg was fresh.  She said that if the yolk is well formed and rounded it's fresh.  The yolk will flatten out as it gets older.


I made the egg my favorite way . . . with a little shoyu and sugar, topped with some furikake . . . 


and then rolled.


It went well with some shrimp tempura sushi, but I honestly can't say if it tasted better than regular eggs.  I'd probably do 50/50 in a blind taste test.

Don't Open Suspicious Email from Me

In case I missed you, here's an email that I just sent out:


i think i got hacked. 

from da for real jalna

da one whose computer just wen crash.

da one whose dog's name is kona.

da one who gets all nervous wen computer stuff go wrong.

da one whose lemons plants got eaten by snails.

so i changed my aol password.

anything else i should do besides tear all my hairs out?

Broken Computer

Computers are scary things to me.  When they break, I panic. Some of you may know that when my PC caught a virus, I bought a Mac.   I kept the PC because all of my photo-editing software is on it.  So now I do all my internet-related things on the Mac where I feel safe and sound, and I do all of my photography things on the PC. 

This morning my PC broke.  It won't even turn on. Instead it hums and makes a clicking sound.  I'm taking it to Cowabunga tomorrow morning.  I don't really wanna spend money to fix it . . . especially if it's a lot of money.  I think it's around 7 years old.

Unfortunately, I was in the midst of editing photos from a senior shoot that I did this past Sunday.  Luckily, I still have the images on the memory card.  Right now I'm trying to figure out how to load the pictures from the card onto the Mac.  I don't even have a card reader.  My PC has a puka for the card.  My Mac doesn't.  Maybe I can put the card into my camera and attach the camera to the computer and load it directly.  I dunno.  

My Lightroom program came in a PC and a Mac version. Yay!  I just loaded it onto my Mac.  I think.  I don't even know how to access it yet.  I don't see an icon. I'm still not used to maneuvering around the Mac.

My Photoshop program is the PC version only.  It cost me a few hundred bucks (student rate).   I guess I got my money's worth from it. But somehow I still feel jipped if I don't get to use it anymore.  I had it just to my liking too . . . with shortcut keys to various functions, like resizing for web viewing, etc.  I also had presets and actions to help enhance my photos. Luckily, I'm too cheap to have spent money on those.  I only got the free kind. 

Anyway, if I'm missing from action for a bit, you'll know why. I'm kinda in a daze. 

*update*  I was able to upload the photos from Sunday's session directly from my camera onto my Mac.  Lightroom is working okay on the Mac. I gotta figure out what my preferred export settings were. I can't remember.  But at least, if no can fix my PC, I still can work on Sunday's pictures. No more Photoshop though, so I no can enhance um how I like, but maybe it'll still be okay.  Gulp.  I need a drink.  That frozen Pina Colada was horrible BTW.  I dumped um.

Not Natto

Not natto. And not healthy. But soooooo ono.  Smoked pork belly from Whole Foods.



Wendell's been buying this a lot lately.  And I don't mind.

PQQ Coenzyme

Honolulu Aunty shared this with me.  I found it very informative and interesting . . . especially since food no. 1 is something I'm trying to like and food no. 2 is something that I already love.

Al Sears, MD 11905 Southern Blvd. Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411 April 7, 2014 Dear Reader, When your cells can’t make enough energy, you feel it. It’s a pretty good description of getting older. And that’s no coincidence. They go together. But you don’t have to go through that. Nature, in its wisdom, has provided us with a nutrient that can triple … even quadruple … your energy in just a few days. It works by massively increasing the number of cellular “engines” you have. Then it protects those engines and keeps them humming along. The engines I’m talking about are your mitochondria. They’re tiny, independent cells within your cells. Their job is to take nutrients and make energy for you. Not just energy to run around but also for pumping blood, blinking, and even reading the menu and deciding what to order. But the same thing happens to mitochondria over time that happens to an old car engine. Oxidation (in a car it’s called rust) breaks down the engines so they don’t run as well, or produce as much power. You also have fewer of these engines as you age, and they’re undersized, and degraded. Unless you do something about it, you get all the consequences of aging I just described. Slowing down like that is one of the things that bothers my patients the most about aging. But when I introduce them to PQQ, everything changes. I love PQQ because it combines the two things that I have most specialized in; anti-aging and energy production. PQQ can reverse the energy loss that happens as you age, and keep your cells young and robust. In one study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers fed mice a diet supplemented with PQQ. The mice grew a staggering number of new mitochondria in just 8 weeks.1 But PQQ is a powerful antioxidant as well, which is not very well known even in the anti-aging community. A new study gave five men and five women a single dose of around 10-15 mg (depending on their body weight) of PQQ. Then researchers measured changes in their antioxidant capacity. Over the next two days, PQQ significantly reduced their markers for oxidative stress. Even better, in a second part of the study, the people got daily PQQ for three days. All of them had increases in metabolites showing their mitochondria were working much more efficiently.2 They got more energy with less effort. Which means PQQ is like a whole-body energy tune-up. Plus, PQQ works harder and for longer than any other antioxidant. It’s so stable and strong it works for thousands of antioxidant cycles.3 Other related antioxidants, like the ones in green tea, break down quickly. But PQQ keeps right on protecting you hundreds of times longer. No one else is talking about PQQ, and it’s mostly because they don’t know about it. It’s brand new, and unless you’re reading scientific journals you won’t have heard of it. They’re certainly not teaching this in nutrition classes, and you’re certainly not going to find out about it from your doctor. Once you know how important it is, it is possible to get some through food. Right now no one is getting enough through food because they don’t know it’s there, or what to eat. But it is possible. It’s in a few, specific foods, and here’s what they are: The food with the most PQQ is natto. Natto is the Japanese fermented soy product (without all the processed soy waste like there is in Western soy foods). Eggs are the next best food for PQQ, which is one of the reasons eggs are a perfect food. The herb parsley has some PQQ. Kiwi, a fruit with lots of healthy fat, also has a small amount of PQQ. Green tea has PQQ in it, too, to go along with its other health benefits. Beyond that, you get some in green peppers, and whiskey. Also, you can get PQQ in supplement. But here’s what you need to know: Most supplements only use a 5 mg dose, but you need 10 mg. PQQ is expensive, and many supplement makers want to get away with giving you either lower quality or a lower dose. It’s also a good idea to combine it with CoQ10, which is the fuel mitochondria use. If you take CoQ10, make sure you get the kind your body absorbs best, ubiquinol. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD