TSUNAMI ADVISORY

We got a phone call very early this morning from our

friends in Colorado wondering if we had seen the news

about the earthquake in Chili yet. Since they are 2 hours

ahead of us they had already heard about it.

Our town is currently under a Tsunami advisory, meaning

they expect a small wave to hit here about 3:00 pm AK time.

Our house is at 92 feet sea level and they advise you to

get to approx. 100 feet to be safe.

What a strange feeling to stand at the living room window

and wonder if there is a destructive wave that originated in

South America headed in our direction.

Please continue to keep my Mom in your thoughts and

prayers. She is still in the hospital with a blockage and

we are still waiting to hear what is going to be done

about it.

THE DREADED TICKLING THROAT

Well I guess we are not going to get winter this year.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining, no siree.

But it is still only February and already people in this

household are having scratchy throats and itchy eyes

that can only mean one thing--plants blooming!

We have alder trees near our house and those buggers

really cause havoc for people with allergies. The

house next door was just listed for sale so my husband

said maybe he should cut the alders down before the

new owners move in and lay claim to them. People

can be so weird about trees!

My husband came home for lunch so we walked

across the street to the beach with the dogs. What

a treat to live in such a beautiful place! The air

is squeaky clean, fresh smelling and pure. The

salt in the air is very healing and I always feel

so good after walking along the water for awhile.

We all notice the difference in the air quality

when we go down south for awhile. I think when

you live with air pollution all the time you don't

truly know what clean air smells like. Last time

I traveled down to Seattle I couldn't get over

how bad it smelled as soon as we got outside

of the airport. Blech.

The dogs go crazy over the seagulls that just sit there

and taunt them. They let them get within a few feet and

then just calmly fly a few feet away. Every single time.

Cracks me up.

Always watching...(said in Roz's voice

from Monster's Inc)

See these? In a few hours they will look like this:

I had to make a dessert buffet yesterday for a customer

and I had a hard time handing over this apple pie to them.

The chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream was

difficult to let go too.

The customer was all OH it's all so pretty and yummy!

I'm all Get your dirty paws off my desserts lady.

No, just kidding.

I didn't really say that. I wanted to, but I didn't

actually say that. I mean, she did order them

and pay for them and all that boring stuff.

But.

It has been so long since I made anything just for us

that I got more apples and I am making a pie today for

the 4 of us to eat.

A person can only take so much deprivation!

This was a fun cake that I did for the Seventh Day

Adventist church's 50th anniversary. Top tier

was white, the bottom chocolate with strawberry

buttercream filling. The customer wanted the

previous pastor's honored, but didn't want a

big list of names on the cake. The whole cake

is edible except for the tiny piece of gold

ribbon tied on the tag on top. How about that

edible gold glitter, huh? Pretty cool stuff!

Check out this picture I took from our deck.

It should get bigger if you click it.

My husband was outside in the front yard

with a fire burning and there were several

fishing boats out on the water with their

lights on. And the light in the middle is

the street light in the beach parking lot

across the street. Kind of a neat effect.

For any of you that pray, please keep my

Mom in your prayers. She was taken to the

hospital by ambulance yesterday with a

bowle obstruction. She has really been

through a lot with surgery, radiation,

chemo and everything that goes along

with all that. Thanks so much!

REQUESTED COOKIE RECIPE

I finally have time to post the cookie recipe some of you

asked about. These are delicious, easy to make and look

really nice. I think next time I make them I will dip them

in the dark chocolate with coffee in it that our local

chocolate company makes--yum!

CAPPUCCINO FLATS

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp warm water
1 egg
2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3 tbsp shortening

1. Cream butter, shortening and sugars
2. Dissolve coffee in warm water and add to creamed mixture
3. Add egg and melted chocolate and mix well
4. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt and gradually add to the creamed mixture. (Dough will be sticky)
5. Shape into two 6" rolls, wrapping each roll in waxed paper
6. Refrigerate for 4 hrs or until firm
7. Unwrap and cut into 1/4" slices and place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets
8. Bake at 350º for 10 to 12 min or until firm
9. Remove cookies from pan and place on a cooling rack

Chocolate dip:
1. Melt chocolate chips and shortening on low heat in a small saucepan.
2. Dip each cookie halfway, shake off excess chocolate.
3. Place on waxed paper to harden.

Yields 3 1/2 doz cookies (or flats as they are called)

STILL NO SNOW!

If this is winter, who needs summer?? We have no

snow and tiny spurts of rain here and there. For

the most part it is blue skies and sunny days that

sometimes reach into 50 degrees. My husband

took this picture yesterday from the boat as he

was leaving the harbor to deliver supplies to

one of the islands:

Me? I stayed home because I have been sicker than I have

been for a long, long time. It all started a couple of weeks

ago when I placed an ad in the paper for cookie bouquets

for Valentine's Day. Little did I know how many people

would actually order them, in addition to my usual orders

for cakes, cookies and pastries.

I just kept saying yes, yes, yes when people would call

and then like a complete airhead I scheduled a dessert

buffet and movie night for our church on Valentine's

night and guess who is supplying ALL of the desserts?

Yep, Grandma Tillie's Bakery.

In a futile attempt to keep up with everything I was

working in the kitchen literally day and night. Which

probably would have been O.K., except I kind of

forgot to eat or drink anything for about 3 days.

Not smart.

Long story short, I ended up in bed on Monday

and I really didn't care if the world ended or if

the house burned down. Today is Friday and I

am just now feeling like I am going to live.

So. Here are just a FEW of the Valentine's items

that flew out of the kitchen this holiday. I lost count

of the actual number of just cookies I made, but I

know I made 12 batches of cookie dough and each

one makes approx. 40 cookies...

I didn't take pictures of half the items and in between

there were coconut pies, cherries, pastries and cakes.

At one point we had both long tables and the

counter filled with cookie bouquets and my

husband and daughter were delivering while

my younger daughter and I were assembling

so they could come back for more.

I am going to have to come up with a better

plan for Mother's Day and Easter.

Any great ideas???

Giant chocolate chip cookie heart with chocolate deer

for a hunter.

Red Velvet Cake truffles with white chocolate.

My Polish red glass collection from my mother in law

with roses from my older daughter--gorgeous!

TOP SECRET...

Yay! My mom sent me my grandma's secret

to excellent pie crust edging:

Click picture to make larger...

SWAMPED

I placed an ad in the newspaper for cookie bouquets

for Valentine's Day, and guess what? People are

ordering them! Today is baking day just for the

cookie part, then they get laid out and the fun

begins. I think I already feel a hand cramp

coming on...

Someone calling himself a "coconut pie connoisseur"

called me for a coconut cream pie. He called later and

left me a message on my phone:

Good job--it was perfect--I thought sure you

would make it too sweet.

I think there is a compliment in there somewhere...

My favorite cakes to make, baby showers! Especially when

they let me have fun with the design. This was a carrot

cake with cream cheese icing and fondant flowers.

Another fun one. I actually traded this cake

for fresh shrimp. The birthday couple are

commercial fishermen and I surprised them

with a mini painting of their boat on sugarpaste.

What fun to see their faces when I delivered

the cake--and the shrimp were delicious!

I also delivered a wedding cake before this

one, but I was in such a hurry I didn't get

to take a picture of it. They loved it and

gave me a hefty tip, so I was happy too!

A new cookie recipe I tried out for a customer. These are

called Cappuccino Flats, made with coffee, cinnamon

and chocolate, then dipped in chocolate. Oh boy were

they good! Not real sweet and full of flavor that I

am sure would get better by the next day. I will

definitely be making these again.

The beginning of the Valentine's cookies orders...

now what was I saying about hand cramps? Each one

is individually piped, then bagged and tied. I can't

wait to start delivering these fun gifts to people in

town--their surprised reactions are priceless!

Check this out...the sun was going down and cast an

orange glow over the top of the mountain, then the

clouds moved in over the top of it. Gorgeous!

HEAL YOURSELF

Heal yourself in 15 days with the

Health Ranger's living juice recipe

Friday, February 05, 2010

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Continuing our 15-part article series calledHeal Yourself in 15 Days, today we focus on cleansing your digestive tract and energizing your cellular energy with the help of some living foods. This is in preparation for part six in the series, which we'll get to tomorrow.

Here's the cool part about this: You don't need a juicer to do this step. All you really need is a blender and a nut milk bag (a fine mesh bag used to squeeze out the juice). Of course, a proper juicer really helps, but it's not required. Below, I'm going to give you an absolutely delicious live foods juicing recipe that I think you'll really enjoy. I'm using special ingredients in this juice that help mask the more bland tastes of the green ingredients, so even if you've tried fresh living juices in the past and didn't like them, check out what you'll read below...

Raw living foods offer one of the greatest secrets to disease reversal and lasting health, and nothing beats fresh living foods right out of the garden. So if you can grow any of your own ingredients for this when Spring comes around, definitely make an effort to do so. Otherwise, buy them at a store or farmer's market.

Here's what you'll need (always choose organic):

• 1 container of Blackberries (use all the blackberries)
• 1 bunch of Parsley (use all the parsley)
• 1 bunch of Kale (only use 2-3 large leaves in this recipe)
• 1 bag of Carrots (only use 3 large carrots for this recipe)
• 1 bunch of Celery (use 2-3 stalks for this recipe)
• 2 Pears (use both pears)

If you can't find these ingredients, substitute something close. It's crucial to have some berries in the mix, however. They are part of the recipe for making it all taste good.

After proper preparation (washing, etc.), push all these ingredients through a juicer to generate the fresh juice. If you only have a blender, then blend all these ingredients with water, then pour the juice into a nut milk bag and squeeze out the juice from that. With either method, you'll end up with a container of fresh juice.

This juice will be extremely potent, so mix this with water (add an equal amount of water to the juice). You may also wish to add some stevia if you'd like to sweeten up the taste a bit.

Health benefits of the fresh living juice

• The blackberries will mask the bitter tastes of the other ingredients with their acidity. This acidity greatly improves the overall taste of the recipe. It also improves digestion of the minerals in the vegetables (you need an acidic digestive environment to absorb minerals).

• Blackberries also have a powerful anti-cancer effect through your entire digestive tract, from your mouth and gums down through your colon.

• Parsley is a super digestive cleanser. It will help eliminate toxins while providing your body with a burst of chlorophyll that will help cleanse your blood and liver.

• Kale is a potent anti-cancer vegetable. It also contains healthy plant-based proteins and healing phytonutrients.

• The carrots are used primarily as a sweetener here (they really do sweeten up the juice), and they also contain a wide assortment of beneficial nutrients, most notably beta carotene (from which carrots get their name).

• The pears are the sweeteners here. I find that pear juice tastes much better than apple juice in these raw living juices, but of course it's your choice of what's best for you. If you're diabetic or want to reduce the sugars in this recipe, reduce the numbers of pears to just one or eliminate them altogether (when I juice here in Ecuador, I don't use pears at all. I just use carrots.) Some people prefer to use oranges instead of pears. The tart taste of the oranges in some ways provides a better overall taste. Try the recipe both ways and see what you like best.

In addition to all the benefits listed above, these foods are alive with nutrients and energies. They are live foods, not dead processed foods, and they provide both the nutrients and the energies of life! It's a simple concept, really: If you want to stay alive, eat more living foods. If you want to be dead, eat more dead foods.

Your body will thank you

The point of today's living foods juice is to both introduce you to the joy of juicing (if you don't already know about it), and to prepare your digestive tract for tomorrow's action item.

How much juice should you drink? Just drink whatever amount you feel comfortable with. I recommend an 8 oz. glass of this juice at minimum, but if you only feel like drinking half that much, that's fine, too. Some people will drink as much as 64 ounces of fresh juice in a day! (Juice Feasting)

For the purposes of this 15-day experience you can still eat all your other normal food during the day. This isn't about eliminating everything else, it's about adding some fresh, living juice to your day. Ideally, you'll make this a regular part of your diet because whatever your diet consists of -- whether it's pure vegan or based on McDonald's cheeseburgers -- it will be helped by adding several ounces of fresh juice.

Pointers and shortcuts

Don't have time to make your own fresh juice? There are shortcuts, but none of them are as good as actual living fresh juice.

You can, if you wish, consume juice from a superfood powder such as EnerFood, VitaMineral Green, Boku Superfood, Delicious Greens or others. These are all reasonable alternatives to fresh juice, but by their very nature they are not as fresh as living foods would be.

Do NOT reach for a Naked Juice, or Odwalla juice and make the mistake of thinking they are fresh living juices. All of those juices are DEAD, pasteurized juices made by the big soft drink companies (Coke and Pepsi). None of them are fresh, raw and alive. They still have nutritional benefits, so I'm not saying they're worthless, but they pale in comparison to fresh, raw juices that you make at home.

You can drink this juice between meals, or during a meal, or any time you want. Just drink it quickly after making it, because fresh juice oxidizes in mere minutes. The nutritional quality of the fresh juice you make literally starts to degrade with each passing second. Ideally, start to consume it within two minutes of juicing it, and finish it in no more than five.

You may feel some "detox" side effects from this juice, especially if you currently pursue a relatively unhealthful diet. But they should be mild. After all, this is just simple juice from simple foods. These aren't drugs or extracts. They are the foods your body was meant to consume.

By the way, I'm not here to push a vegan diet or a vegetarian diet on you. Decide to eat whatever you wish to eat, for your own reasons. Just add this fresh juice to your day and see what happens for yourself. Even if you gobble down pepperoni pizza and diet soda, these fresh juices will improve your health results in a noticeable way.

In case you're curious, I drink about 16 ounces of this fresh juice each day, right from my own garden. Except I don't use the pears, and I add in fresh aloe vera gel from fresh leaves that I grow myself here in Ecuador. I grow all my own fresh berries, kale, carrots, parsley, broccoli, cucumbers and more, and these go right into my juice.

Just so you know how powerful this is, I just finished a 90-hour fast. Aside from a raw coconut food bar a friend gave me, I didn't eat any solid food for 90 hours. I did, however, drink one glass of fresh, living vegetable juice each day.

If I had been consuming a junk food diet, my energy would have collapsed within the first 24 hours. I would have been dead tired, detoxing in bed and probably suffering through it all. But because my daily diet is so clean, I was able to eat virtually nothing for nearly four days and still have the energy to write these articles, to go hiking up the mountains behind my house and generally get along with a normal day. (Yes, it got difficult on the fourth day, which is why I ended the fast at 90 hours.)

Fresh living juice is such a powerhouse of nutrition and energy that even when you eat virtually nothing for several days in a row, the juice you had before the fast keeps you alive, healthy and energetic. That's been my experience, at least.

Tomorrow I'll talk more about fasting...

For today, enjoy your juice!

GOOD STUFF

My good friend in Colorado has started a new website

to sell her handmade goat's milk soap. She sent me a

few bars and wow is it good stuff! She uses all natural

ingredients (yes, she milks the goats and everything!)

in a variety of scents, so you can pick and

choose what type of soap you need.

All 4 of us have been using one of the bars for quite

awhile now and it still looks like this:

I think this is the chocolate bar that has white chocolate

chunks with added coffee to scrub the gunk off your

hands. I like how easy it is to wash off--have you ever

used soap to wash your hands and then couldn't get the

sticky feeling off--yuk!

After using this soap I don't think I will ever go back

to the store bought chemical laden bars of soap. Plus,

it's a Made in the U.S.A. product!!

Check out her website

It was a busy week for cakes:

My customer just asked for a colorful, Mexican themed

cake, so this is what I came up with. White cake with

raspberry buttercream filling and vanilla buttercream.

I love the edible glitter for sparkle!

This was a fun cake for my sister in law's client

& hairdresser. When I delivered it she was shocked!

She was working on a customer's hair and asked

me if I needed help. When I confirmed that she was

the birthday girl and handed her the box she ran

around the counter at the salon and grabbed me

for a hug. It is so much fun for me to see people's

joy when they realize someone remembered them

on their special day.

I also delivered a birthday cake on Friday (I didn't

get a picture of it) to someone at work and his

face when I walked in with it was perfect!

He was so surprised and as I drove away

he still had the biggest grin--I love it!

This was a goodbye cake for a long time church member

that is moving to London. She is one of those people

that volunteers half her life in the community and gives,

gives, gives of herself and her time.

She was another one that ran up to me with tears in

her eyes and gave me a bear hug. Later she asked me

how had I decided what shape & color to do the cake.

Turns out she collects hearts and her favorite color

is lavender. She was even wearing purple at the party.

The cake was 1/2 white, 1/2 chocolate with a

filling of raspberry, blackberry and chocolate.

The bow, rose and butterfly were all sugar and

I had a hard time keeping the kids away from

eating them!

Another busy week coming up with lots of cookie

orders, dessert trays and cakes already on the

calendar. At least it is getting light now when

we get up and it is light until almost 5:30pm.

We are beginning to feel like maybe the end

of our hibernation is in the near future...

My husband is busy getting some detail

work finished up on the boat. The latest is

a cover being sewn by a local canvas worker

so we can have some protection from bad

wind and rain when we are out there. We

are looking forward to getting back out on

the water and doing some exploring and

replenishing our fish supply.

He also has agreed to bartering some work

on a friend's cabin for some time staying in the

cabin out on one of the bigger islands.

It is a really nice cabin with huge picture

windows, bedrooms and a real kitchen and

woodstove. It looks out over one of the best

whale areas, so that will be a lot of fun.

Plus the island it is on is big enough to

get out and explore on foot. We'll bring the

kayaks and make a day out of going all the

way along the shoreline when the water is

calm enough.

Still no snow or freeze!