recreating the wonder beverage

I don't have much to say (or the energy to say it), as I've been through the ringer this week! A nasty virus is going around the island, and it's caused me to be without a voice for more than a week. Then came the fever, the chills, the muscle aches, the coughing, sneezing, and aching head!

I finally went to the hospital yesterday and they said I have a sinus infection and an ear infection. Because they could only prescribe medications that I'm allergic to, I've been using every home remedy I can get my hands on to get rid of this nastiness!

Some actually did some good (sea salt gargle, rice bag on the ear, essential oils around the outside of the ear, apple cider vinegar steam inhalation) and others didn't (you probably don't even want to know what some of them were!)

Then I remembered that when we lived in Reno and felt an illness coming on, we'd always run to Pneumatic to pick up a Wonder Beverage. I haven't had one in years, so I'm sure it's not exact, but this is the closest I've come to recreating it here at home. Since Pneumatic has closed its doors, we may never get to have a "real" one again! Regardless, both the original and this variation will provide a kick to the sinuses as well as a honey-laden soothing to the throat.

**Note: You may want to use different amounts of the ingredients to taste!


Ingredients:

• Glassful of water
• Fresh ginger, rinsed (powdered will do, but fresh is better if you've got it!)
• 1/2 Lemon, juiced
• 1-2 teaspoons raw honey (or manuka honey!)
• Dash of cayenne pepper 

Directions:

• Boil the water. While it heats up, peel and cut the ginger. I recommend cutting four-to-five small pieces (about the size of your thumbnail -- just big enough to keep them from floating). Drop the ginger pieces into the bottom of your glass or mug.
• Once the water is almost at the boiling point, pour it over the ginger pieces. Let it sit for several minutes, just as you would when steeping loose leaf tea.
• Once the liquid has taken on the color of the ginger, add the juice of half a lemon and a dash of cayenne pepper. (Don't go overboard, as a little cayenne goes a long way!)
• Remove the ginger pieces (unless you prefer the ginger taste to continually get stronger), add honey to taste, stir it up, sip, and feel better!

reno refreshments: a gluten (and corn) free guide to eating in reno, part 2

The Reno restaurant scene is growing steadily, especially in the new midtown area. It is this section of town that we found several amazing new restaurants to try out during our stay in Reno.

This is Part 2 of my guide to eating gluten (and corn) free in Reno. Click here to check out Part 1!

One of the restaurants that I have heard about over and over again is Great Full Gardens. A locally owned restaurant, Great Full Gardens makes use of local vendors as well as their own organic greenhouse grown produce. Their restaurant caters to people with various dietary restrictions, as well as those who are looking for sustainable and ecologically-friendly businesses at which to eat.

The first time we visited Great Full Gardens was during breakfast. This being my first time, I asked a lot of questions. Any time the server didn't know the answer, she patiently went and talked to the cooks. They were open, knowledgeable, and flexible. They had several gluten free options, but only a few that were corn free as well. We worked together to create a safe meal out of various menu items, and it was delicious! I basically ordered a combination between the Juli's Saute with lemon oil and the Papusa (it ended up being a mostly Juli's, with eggs and black beans sans salsa, which contains citric acid). The breakfast was delicious and had the perfect blend of veggies and grains/legumes.

The second time we ate at Great Full Gardens was during dinner. We had a large party and I wasn't sure I'd have the same luck with creating something off menu to serve my restrictions, but I was not disappointed! When our server had some questions, one of the owners came to our table and personally answered my questions without making me feel like I was inconveniencing her in any way. We ended up modifying the Chicken Bliss and turning it into a lettuce wrap. They grilled the chicken separately, without their usual corn-containing broth, and I went without the bacon due to cross contamination concerns. Their homemade aioli sauce was more than enough to make up for the lack of broth, and the wrap was fabulous!

I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone with food allergies, as they have proven that they will go out of their way to try and accommodate you as long as you know what questions to ask!

reno refreshments: a gluten (and corn) free guide to eating in reno, part 1

We're in the states again, and as such, we are traveling without all of our safe kitchen utensils. I have wonderful in-laws who have created a kitchen space for me and my special food and utensils, but there are times when it's necessary (and let's face it, fun) to eat out. It's been ages since we've been able to eat out safely, so I was very excited about this prospect. With the gluten free fad, though, I have been a bit nervous about the safety of restaurant eating. Even some of the restaurants I frequented last year are no longer safe, so it's taken hours of researching, calling, emailing, and googling to find safe establishments. Here are some of the places I've experienced so far this summer!

(Keep in mind that everything I have ordered has been gluten free and as corn free as possible. I use the Find Me Gluten Free app, call the restaurant, and then talk to a waiter and/or manager before ordering to ensure the food I am ordering will not make me sick. If I feel like the restaurant isn't safe or that the servers/cooks are not taking me seriously, I will leave with no hesitation. I am also considered "corn lite" in the world of corn allergies, so if you have reactions that go beyond keeping corn ingredients out of your food, you will need to do additional research.)

The first place we always visit when we come back to the states is In-n-Out. There are, of course, In-n-Out restaurants all over California, Nevada, and Arizona, so this isn't necessarily a Reno-specific review. I will say, though, that we look forward to visiting and have never had a bad experience. I let them know about my allergies and then order my burger protein style without any spread (the spread has corn syrup). They will wash their hands and use a special dedicated gluten free section of the kitchen to prepare your burger if you alert them of your gluten issues. The fries are also made in a dedicated fryer, so I almost always order fries well done to go with my burger. I also bring my own ketchup, since they use ketchup that has corn-derived vinegar.

Protein Style w/o spread + fries well done w/cheese = heaven on Earth.

One of our favorite local-to-Reno restaurants has always been Pneumatic Diner. Ben and I have both been going there since our high school days and we are so glad it's still open and as delicious as ever. It's a small, hole-in-the-wall type restaurant that has sort of a cult following. Pneumatic is 100% vegetarian with several vegan options and a few gluten free options. This type of restaurant is typically difficult for me to find safe foods in, because they rely heavily on grain-based foods. Pneumatic has a decent variety of gluten free dishes, though! It was easier to eat there before the corn allergy manifested itself, but despite that, I am still always able to find something to eat at Pneumatic and the staff is always willing to find me something safe to eat. This time, I ordered the combo Bayard and subbed the Jack cheese for one without vegetable rennet as well as the rojo sauce for their cucumber garlic sauce. It was delicious, and I had no issues with ingredients or cross contamination. Pneumatic is one of those restaurants where the environment is just as important as the food, and neither was disappointing during our visit!

Pneumatic! ♥

Combo Bayard with all sorts of deliciousness inside

I love the small size and eclectic atmosphere of this restaurant!

The last restaurant review for this blog entry is another of our favorite Reno restaurants: Cafe de Thai. I knew that they had several gluten free options, but I was weary of trying them out because most Asian restaurants use vegetable oil for their stir fries. After talking with one of the servers on the phone, I found out that if I brought my own oil the cooks would be more than happy to use it for my meal. I took avocado oil and red palm oil so they could choose the oil that would work the best with whichever meal I ordered (they opted for the avocado).

Cafe de Thai

When we arrived, the server I had spoken with on the phone ended up being our waiter so he was familiar with my restrictions. He was extremely patient and took notes so he could review everything with the kitchen staff. When I thanked him profusely, he said he was glad to be learning something new, which is always refreshing to someone who feels like they are being high maintenance (despite not really having a choice in the matter).

I was able to order the fresh spring rolls, and they made me a special spicy peanut sauce to go with them instead of their usual vinegar-containing sauces. As an entree, I ordered the Pad Thai. Similar to Great Full Gardens, they informed me that they needed to cook my chicken a bit differently since their usual marinade includes corn starch. I was also able to order a drink, which is rare in a restaurant. I tried their homemade gingerale, which is made with sugar, water, and fresh ginger.

Homemade gingerale

Fresh spring rolls (left) and specialty spring rolls (right, not gf)

My spring rolls and peanut sauce

The Pad Thai was just as great as I remember it 

The appetizers, drinks, and dinner were absolutely delicious, and the restaurant staff went to great lengths to accommodate and make me feel welcome and safe. It's so nice to know that I can once again eat at some of my all-time favorite restaurants, despite having so many restrictions!

This is just the beginning of our trip, and later this week we'll be trying out some newer Reno restaurants! Check back later if you'd like more information on eating out safely in Reno.

worth coming home to

With the utter dizziness of...life, I haven't had time to write any blogs in quite a while. With all the transition having taken place, life has begun to slow down a bit. It's nice to have the time to write and not feel like I'm wasting precious time that could be spent on something important that needs to be done.
As I mentioned, things have been pretty crazy as of late. (As it always is. It's interesting how that always suffices as a "good answer" for when someone asks you how things are going. "Crazy," I say, and they nod their heads, knowing the craziness in their own lives. Why are we a society that can't seem to slow down and just...take a breather?)
Anyway...


We moved again. Actually we've moved two or three times since my last update. We're living in beautiful California now! I'm so excited to have left the drab brownness that is Reno to replace it with the fresh vibrance of green that is Northern California. We live (literally) RIGHT next to a beautiful lake, and less than two miles from another one. It's awesome, because, while the two lakes feed off of each other, they are completely different. One has the stereotypical atmosphere of a lake: calm, serene, and "room-temperature." This lake's temperature follows the weather, so in the summer it's nice and warm; it never gets too frosty to enjoy it. This lake has a laid-back personality to it. The other lake, however, flows like a river and has an aura of determination about it. It's always freezing, but it likes it that way. It dares to be different and it dares you, the enjoyer of lakes, to be different as well. Really, it's nice to be near lakes with personalities, you know? You can go to either, depending on your mood. Or you can just go swimming in the pool. Whatever.
Our apartment is awesome! It's so nice to have our things out again. (We were living with some friends for a while. As great as it was, it's nice to have our own space with our own possessions.) It's amazing how much I missed having MY things. It's like we identify with our "stuff." While, to some, it might seem vain or materialistic, I DO identify with my stuff. The things I own and decorate my home with reflect a little (or a lot) of who I am. The living room and dining room are cozy and country-ish, with wild flowers on the table and comfy couches. The porch has a comfy swing and windchimes that just call to you, "Come, Sit, Relax." The guest room is black and white, with the old falling-apart bookshelf that I proudly fixed, refinished, and painted to match. There are several photos (some of my own) adorning the walls. That room is my creative outlet. It's who I am. Then, the highlight of the place: the bedroom and bathroom. They display my wild side, full of tropical landscapes and bright colors. Some of the pictures are places I've been and some are fantastic places existing only on canvas. It's amazing how "at home" you can feel when you have a place that you can decorate with "your stuff." It just makes it worth coming home to.

the debate is everlasting

There are numerous views on topics concerning America’s public school
system, a more recent one involving the issue of school vouchers. “Voucher
plans, first suggested in 1955 by conservative economist Milton Friedman, are
designed to return tax monies to parents of school-aged children for tuition use
in a variety of authorized public and private educational settings. There are
those, including Commentary editor Gary Rosen, who believe school vouchers are a
valid means of improving both public and private education; and then there are
those, among them the National Education Association, who oppose vouchers,
saying that they only serve to destroy educational integrity.

Those who support the idea of school vouchers, including Rosen and Denis Doyle
claim that “competition will spur public school improvement, vouchers will
reduce the cost of education, students who get vouchers will show dramatic
achievement gains, and vouchers are a success in most industrialized nations.”
The NEA article, entitled School Vouchers: The Emerging Track Record tries to
prove that vouchers are destroying the public school system. The author divides
the article up into points of failure that the voucher systems in place already
have shown. Rosen composes his article, entitled Are School Vouchers
Un-American? to disprove the claims that the NEA and other anti-voucher programs
have previously stated. Three major points he, in rebuttal to the article by the
NEA and other works by authors including Janet Ferguson and The American School
Board Journal, talks about and then sets out to prove/disprove include the
constitutionality of vouchers, whether vouchers will act as a “subterfuge for
segregation,” and whether voucher schools can be held accountable.
Rosen begins by explaining the views held by the NEA concerning the
constitutionality of vouchers, quoting the NEA’s position that “a lucky few may
be helped by the government’s willingness to underwrite private education, but
society as a whole…will inevitably suffer from a policy so contrary to our most
fundamental civic principles and institutions” and that “vouchers violate the
bedrock principle of separation of church and state [by forcing] all taxpayers
to support religious beliefs and practice with which they may strongly
disagree.” Rosen then goes on to battle these ideas by citing numerous Supreme
Court cases in which the court has ruled in favor of public aid to private
(often religious) schools. Some of these included the significant Zobrest v.
Catalina Foothills SD, Agostini v. Felton, and Witters v. Washington Department
of Services for the Blind. These cases all involved issues where, according to
the Supreme Court, monetary assistance was “permissible when it [came] about as
part of a broader, religiously neutral program and when its benefits accrue[d]
to religious schools only indirectly, through the private decisions of
individuals.” In the issue of school vouchers, Rosen points out that the voucher
programs already in place in cities such as Milwaukee and Cleveland fit the
requirements laid down in these cases: that “families may opt for a religious or
a secular school, and the schools themselves receive public funds only as a
result of these private choices.”

Another crucial point to the NEA’s disputes against school vouchers includes
the idea that they serve as a “subterfuge for segregation” and that they will
turn “public schools into an enclave of the poor.” The NEA claims that the
voucher system has a “destructive effect…on America’s democratic ethos” in the
way that students with vouchers are selected to attend private and alternate
schools. Representatives from the NEA claim that those on the higher end of the
academic and socio-economic spectrums are the ones benefiting from voucher
programs, and that, because of this, schools are being segregated once again,
this leading to “further racial, socio-economic class, and religious isolation.”
Rosen disputes this, claiming that private schools are a better model of the
so-called American idea of the “melting pot” in that they typically “enroll
students from different parts of the community,” while public schools “tend to
reflect the ethnically homogeneous make-up of their neighborhoods.” A positive
effect of this is that private schools tend to be “more racially integrated than
public schools” and “are also home to more interracial friendships and less
race-related fighting.”

A third dispute between the supporters of the NEA and the supporters of school
vouchers includes the amount of accountability provided in the voucher system.
The NEA sites that the voucher systems already in place in Milwaukee and
Cleveland are not being held accountable either financially or academically.
According to their statistics, “Milwaukee voucher schools do not have to…report
test results” and that four of these “were shut down because of fraud,
mismanagement, or negligence.” The author goes on to claim that voucher schools
in Cleveland were even less accountable than those in Milwaukee, with one of
them employing “instructors [who] did not have teaching licenses, and one
[having been] convicted of first-degree murder.” The article also claims that
five of these schools “were able to collect $1.4 million in vouchers prior to
completing their application process, resulting in schools with serious fire
code violations, health hazards, inadequate curricula, and unqualified
teachers.” Rosen admits that accountability with these schools can be difficult,
and even goes on to admit that private schools vary in quality and some have
been “truly awful.” He counters, though, that “the vast majority are reasonably
well managed and…employ educators profoundly committed to their disadvantaged
students; most working for a fraction of what their unionized public school
counterparts earn.” Rosen then goes on to state that, even more important than
this is the fact that private schools are held to the same standards as public
schools concerning state regulations on “health, safety, attendance, and the
basic structure of curriculum” and that “in order to qualify for vouchers, they
often must meet other requirements as well, some of these including
nondiscrimination laws and accounting practices. He claims that the NEA and
other anti-voucher programs seek to require more standards in the private school
setting merely to “drive away as many private schools as possible.”


I can’t say that I fully agree with either side of this debate. In order to
make a fully-educated decision, it would be necessary to do quite a bit more
research from other, not-so-biased, people and organizations. Each of these
articles, though, had good points to ponder concerning vouchers. I definitely
have to disagree on the abolishing of school-assignments based upon home
addresses in public schools, which was a point brought up in the pro-voucher
argument. I think this would cause more stress than anything else. As mentioned
in my previous essay, if this happened in Reno, we would end up having half of
Reno parents trying to get their children into schools like McQueen and Reed
while Hug and Wooster are left with no students. There would be no benefit
whatsoever to this. I do, however, agree that vouchers help to create a more
diverse “melting pot” of students with the inclusion of those of different
ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, and religions.

All in all, I’d say that I stand somewhere between Rosen and the NEA, saying
that the voucher system is by no means perfect, but it definitely has potential
to be a high-quality educational substitute to the school system we have now.

man-made picture of beauty

Today we got up at 4:30 am and drove to Rancho to watch the annual balloon races..people come from all over the world to see it. The best part is Dawn Patrol..before the sun rises (it's pitch black) five or six balloons rise above the park and it's awesome to see them glowing in the dark..so worth getting up early to see. This picture can't even begin to justify the real thing. It's one of the most breathtaking man-made creations in existence. (Well, at least in MY existence.)

it's that time again...

It's that time again: Hot August Nights. Throughout the month of August, people come from all over and it's like the city goes back in time to the 50's and 60's. All the classic cars are on display, there are races the likes of which were filmed in American Graffiti ..tons of events, and free concerts of bands that were big back then.

This is my baby - the '57 T-Bird I am SO in love with. Swoon.

Most of my friends have never heard of any of these bands. I drag them along anyway, because, really, who likes to go to concerts alone? Each of them has found their own favorite classic rock/oldies band, now. This year, we went to as many as we could. Who can beat free concerts?!

Tonight we saw BJ Thomas, who sang "Hooked On a Feeling" and "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" at Harrah's downtown. It was a bit ironic, since Ian and I had gone to Carmel last week and had heard the dang song 40 times during the trip.

I saw Fleetwood Mac on Friday (it wasn't a free concert, but I did happen to win a free ticket to it). 14th Row, baby! This was really a once in a lifetime event for me; they're one of my absolute favorite bands. The concert was amazing.

Tuesday, we will be seeing the Rascals and Three Dog Night. Thursday is the Lovin' Spoonful and/or Grass Roots. Friday will be Herman's Hermits, which I'm always excited about. This is the concert we make sure to go to every year. A few of us will go early in the day and set up our lawn chairs. People will show up throughout the day to save our seats while we walk around looking at the classic cars (hopefully my coveted '57 T-Bird will return for me this year...the one in the picture above was a different one) But really, I think Peter Noone has got to be one of the only guys over the age of 50 who can pull off wearing leather pants. Lord knows Keith Richards can't.