Well - #&$#^@%^!!

This one is for my sister because she can't eat any sugar right now.

Skillet Cornbread
Dry Ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup rice or sorghum flour (I used long-grain brown rice that I milled)
1/2 cup tapioca or potato starch
(Sarah - I'm guessing that 2 1/4 cups wheat flour could be subbed for the rice/starch mixture)
1 teaspoon xanthan um
1 taspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon chili powder or cinnamon
1 teaspoon stevia powder

Wet Ingredients:

2 large organic free range eggs
1/2 cup plus two tablespoons light olive oil or veetable oil
1 cup plain rice milk or cows milk

Preheat yoru oven to 350 degrees F
Lightly oil a 9-10 inch iron skillet.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a large mixing bol, combine the eggs with the oil and milk and beat for one minute.
Add in the dry ingredients and beat by hand just until a smooth batter is formed, about one minute. If your batter seems a little dry, add a tablespoon more liquid at a time until you achieve a smooth consistency.)
Heat the prepared skillet over meduium-high heat.
Pour the batter into the heated skillet and sprinkle cinnamon over the top of the batter if you like. Bake the cornbread in the center of a pre-heated oven tfor 20-25 minutes until firm to the touch and slightly golden around the edges. Place on a wire rack to cool a bit and allow the cornbread to rest 15 minutes before cutting. This helps keep the slices from crumblin apart. Serve warm.
Yields 8-10 slices.

I made a sloppy-joes inspired meat sauce and served it with the cornbread. I must have told Tuan no less than 10 times during dinner how fantastic and yummy this cornbread is. Seriously - it is wonderful. Yummy, moist but with great texture. So why this particular title? After dinner I stood up to put away the dishes and discovered with much chagrin a painful rash on my leg. More ichyness and further redness appeared throughout the evening. My friends - classic food allergy symptoms. So I will be avoiding corn as much as possible (I can't even begin to list all the things cornstarch is added to) for a week, probably two and then give it another try and see what happens.

So please do enjoy and give a thought to me as you do. :o)

Merry Christmas!

Well - it's been a few crazy days since Christmas. So this post will be a deluge of pics! We used our camcorder for most of the present opening so these pics are from later in the day or the day after.

Every year we each get to open one gift at midnight on Christmas eve. Last year Emma made it all the way to midnight. This year it was obvious Daniel wasn't going to make it so we did it early. However it was still late and this is the best picture I got of our presents - new jammie pants. Look closely - I promise there are four sets of pants in there. lol



After all the papers were folded and in bags I filled the stockings. It was fun. Unfortunately I then had to trudge through the snow delivering papes. Sigh - only two more weeks!



This is a pic and video of Emma's very first playing on her "just my hize" violin. Too, too cute. She loves her violin and everyday since she got it she plays it with "Celtic Women".





Their uncle (Thanks Dale!) sent them these hats from bolivia. It was a trick to get both of them in one frame at the same time as they were so excited to be off and playing! :o)



It's still a bit big for D, but just right for Emma. (her Grandma made the dress she is wearing)



I found this train table at the height of summer and had it stashed in the garage just waiting for Christmas. Man that was hard! lol It is really awesome (I may enjoy it as much or more than Em and D!). What you see is about 1/4th of the tracks that came with it. And everything stores in bins underneath it. It really is cool. But it is also quite a challenge when both Em and D want to play with it at the same time. Which is everytime one or the other climbs on!



As you can see - Emma's style of play is more constructive.



While Daniel's is more destructive.



Emma really made my Christmas this year. I made her this dress and she loved it so much that she insisted on sleeping in it! She wore it over the jammie pants I made for her for two days straight! The only thing she has ever worn that much is, well, her birthday suit. So it really meant a lot to me. Ever the stylish girl, she accesorized it with this scarf herself. Here she is running out to meet her Daddy. Yes it is snowing. No she is not wearing a coat. Or shoes. That's Emma for you!



Speaking of snow - here is my all-time favorite video clip of this winter.



One more fun one:

Wow! On the same day that I was coming here to brag about my new bumper stickers, I hear about a new development from the Center for Disease Control.

But first the good news.






Aren't they beautiful!

ok - not sure why they're so small, but as soon as Tuan gets home with the car I'll take more pics and post them.
The left one says "Circumcision? NO! Moroni 8:8"
The right one says "If God wanted me to have a foreskin, I would have been born with one."

Now, the bad news.

The Centers for Disease Control need to hear from you. Today! I would also strongly urge you to cc your Senate and Congressional Representative.

For those interested in where this is all coming from, there was a conference in the last few weeks that resulted in two very important presentations. The first was a study by Millett et al. that confirmed the Sydney study that male circumcision has no value for gay men, who are the major risk group. Then there was this presentation that seems to recommend mass infant male circumcision anyway on a cost-effectiveness basis. No human rights issues were discussed or apparently even contemplated in recommending genital surgeries on children.

If you have never written to your Congress(wo)men, now is a great time to start!

Here is the letter I sent:

December 10, 2007

Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Office of the Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Rd Atlanta, GA 30333

RE: Recommendations viz neonatal male circumcision and HIV

Dear Dr. Gerberding:

I have learned with grave concern that you and the Centers for Disease Control are considering recommending neonatal circumcision as public health policy in the effort to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States. I oppose this recommendation in the strongest possible way.

Neonatal circumcision has run into national grassroots opposition from a sizable and highly active group of people for at least the last 25 years. This opposition on human rights grounds has resulted in the major medical organizations gradually moving away from support of a marginal procedure that damages sexual response and violates the individual human rights of the infants on the receiving end.

Whatever marginal gain individuals may receive from male circumcision must be in the context of informed consent and voluntariness. Infants can provide neither. The variables involved in the effectiveness of such a procedure over the longer term are many, including the changing dynamics of the disease, changes in provision of healthcare impacting cost-effectiveness, the possibility of new treatments, prevention technologies, and eventually a vaccine. Male circumcision has not served the United States well heretofore in comparison with non-circumcising countries and regions where the HIV/AIDS rate is much lower, e.g. Japan, most of Europe, and Latin America.

I urge you to reject neonatal male circumcision as public health policy in order to safe guard your credibility with the American people and throughout the world. The United States can ill-afford another dubious policy with scant input from American stakeholders.

Very truly yours,

Maria Le
www.tuansprincess@yahoo.com

The best dad ever!!

Tuan and his co-workers won a contest at work. The prize was a gift in a certain price range. They got to make a wish list of 3 items. Tuan got #1 on his list:




I think the reward should have be titled "Best Dad in the World" award because he certainly is!