Author: Karen

I am an RN, Author, Coach, and Speaker. I write novels about relationships to help people find insight into their own. I guide people to create comfort, clarity, and connection in their lives. By combining metaphysical tools with over twenty-five years of nursing experience, I infuse the 'art of nursing' into my practice by providing partnership and resources help people compassionately honor their health.

Garden update: November

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, fitness, gardening, raising chickens, tweens
Pumpkins gone wild!

Remember the (multiple) posts I’ve written about how much chickens love pumpkins? Well my husband did a wild and crazy thing: he bartered with the local Walmart and struck a world-class deal to help rid them of all of their end of season pumpkins. (After all, as soon as Halloween is over they have to make room for those Christmas decorations! 🙂 )

He came home with is 4-Runner stuffed to the gills with pumpkins of every size, shape, color, and some even with painted features (one had a frog!). The chickens are now in pumpkin heaven, and as a side benefit, our yard is very extravagantly decorated for fall. 🙂

Since we were having a warm day in November, I decided that would be relatively painless to check out what was left of the garden. I was thinking I’d harvest the dregs of the carrots and beets and check on the lettuce.

Well, the lettuce is not growing very much yet; maybe we got it into the ground a couple of weeks later than we should have (totally my fault). Hopefully there will be some that is harvestable and edible before the snow comes. The carrots were a big surprise though. Since I wasn’t having much luck pulling them up by the green above-ground fronds, I gave up and started to harvest them like potatoes: I dug into the ground under them and pushed them up through the soil. I couldn’t believe how many of them were lurking under there, just minding their own business. Had I not gone in after them, regardless of the presence of waving fronds, I would have missed at least half of them.

Up for next weekend: carrot soup.

P.S. Chickens also love carrot tops and beet greens.

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Buon Natale

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, local fun, tweens
Izzy at Buon Natale

I took my daughter to Buon Natale, the Italian Christmas bazaar at St. Peter’s Church on Federal St. in Portland. This was something my Italian grandmother always took me to when I was growing  up, and it remains a happy childhood memory for me to this day. I wanted to share this with my daughter.

It was at the same site as the Italian Feast was in the summer. It was held inside the church, which usually would be a good thing, since November in Portland is often a cruel month.

Not today though; it was 64 degrees when we arrived about 12 noon. It easily could have been held outdoors. Inside, we were greeted by a nice lady that said, “Did you park in the Rite Aid parking lot? They’ll tow you if you did!” We assured her that we had not, and thanked her for her concern.

There was a “garage sale” room, with tables set up that had been well picked over by the time we arrived. The doors opened at 8am, so it was well more than half over. We browsed a bit in the craft show section, but then we got down to the real business of visiting any Italian venue: the food.

They had a similar menu to what was offered at the feast in the summer. Ziti with meatballs, meatball subs, Sicilian style pizza, eggplant parmigiana sub, and pasta fagioli were the main entrees. After much discussion (and viewing of what other people were ordering) we settled on the pasta fagioli to split.

For three bucks, we got a bowl big enough to fill us both up for lunch. It was the best pasta fagioli ever. 🙂

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For dessert? What else would these two Italian girls get?  Tiramisu, of course! We split that as well, but afterward, we second guessed that choice. “We should have both got one!” my girl pointed out. Note to self for next time: to each her own tiramisu. 🙂

Date night: Maine Diner and a Movie

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, local fun, movies, restaurants

Date night last night was short, but great. We unexpectedly had a babysitter when I unexpectedly got out of work early, so we made the most of it. This date night consisted of dinner and a movie.

Because with me it’s all about the food, even though we had barely an hour before the show started we still had to go somewhere to eat first.

It was my husband’s turn to pick, and he chose The Maine Diner, on route one in Wells. Even on an off-season Wednesday night, it was pretty full and we got the last table on the periphery (I hate sitting in those little two-seater tables in the center aisle of the restaurant).

We split the buffalo tenders and the seafood sampler (made up of fried shrimp, whole clams, and scallops), which was excellent. We had just enough time after it arrived to eat it and get to the theater for the 7:05PM show start time.

We saw this particular movie (thanks, Bill!) because I have had a thing for Robert Downey Jr for years.The movie was great, even though there was some violence (some of which had implicit jokes  that I didn’t get, but my husband did). It wasn’t the horrific, bloody-guts-and-death kind of violence though, so it’s all good. It reminded me of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles from (OMG) 1987.  Not quite as good as that movie, but definitely worth seeing.

Last, we went to the ocean. There was someone beach combing in the dark with a flashlight and a white bucket…what was that about? We never did find out. There actually were a lot of people (at least four others that we could see)  out running around in the surf in the dark…guess I missed the memo on that field trip. Since it was so crowded, we headed down to the other parking lot, which was empty, to…er…to watch the submarine races.

I didn’t notice who won. 🙂

Val Walker at Kennebooks

by Karen, posted in books, education, family, friends, good grief

Val Walker came to Kennebooks to talk about her new book The Art of Comforting. This author’s talk started off feeling like a course in sociology, as

Val Walker

she described different models of counseling (companioning, relational….), but then it quickly became more personal, as she related some examples of comforting from occasions in her own life when she’d needed it.

She explored the question of what it means when someone says they are “there for you”, and what that shape that might take as a comforting act for another. Sometimes, just sitting with someone and letting them “feel their feelings” is all that is required.

Val thinks that to be an effective comforter, one must “let go of the outcome” (this phrase will be familiar to you yogis out there :)).  One will not always know if her comforting efforts have been helpful, and it is not necessary to know. The fact that effort was made is enough.

After the talk, Val offered to take questions from the audience, however it was a rainy night, and many of those present had traveled a fair distance to see her, and they were anxious to head home, so she graciously changed course and immediately proceeded to signing books.

As a side note, Kennebooks always puts put coffee (the coffee is good!) and cookies (the cookies are good too!) for all of their book signings, as well as water and tea. They are always enjoyable and who knows? You may even learn something new!

Five foods for which I am thankful this year

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food
Cranberry Kitchen Pumpkin Whoopie Pie

In this month’s issue, Cooking Light magazine’s editor asks, “What in the food world are you thankful for?” This got me thinking about how I would answer this question.

I had heard in the past that people’s tastes change as they get older, but I had never believed it. In reflecting on this question, however, I realized that my tastes actually have changed in the past couple of years or so.  Is this true for any of you?

So, here’s my top 5 foods for which I am very thankful this year.

  1. Bread. Specifically, the Micucci’s baker Stephen Lanzalotta’s Lunar bread. I have the recipe now and I make it almost every week. It’s a little more labor intensive than the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, but not much.
  2. Whoopie Pies. Prior to this year, I didn’t even like whoopie pies that much. I could take them or leave them. Now, however, I find myself happily walking a mile round trip to buy a whoopie pie from the masters at Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland. I also have the Making Whoopies cookbook and have baked a couple of the recipes from it. And I just discovered that whoopies freeze like a dream!
  3. Eggs. Farm fresh eggs: blue, brown, speckled, pink…the eggs from my chickens look like the ones Martha Stewart used to keep in a bowl on her TV show kitchen counter (does she still do this??) but they are so much better. Lately I love to make quick omelets from them, but a breakfast sandwich is also great for any meal.
  4. Sausages. I never liked sausages, and now I love them. My new favorite pizza is Italian sausage pizza, but I also love them grilled with peppers and onions, in soup, whatever.
  5. Fish. The only fish that I could bring myself to eat was canned tuna and on occasion, fried clam strips. Then I moved to Maine. A Mainer that doesn’t eat fish? Not wanting to be a human oxymoron, I started off slowly, but now I love many kinds of fish, prepared in ways other than fried. (Okay, fried clams are still my favorite, but I’ll eat the whole clam now, instead of picking off the bellies and making my husband eat those).

Okay, so this is my short list. What’s in your top five “grateful” foods this year?

Secretariat

by Karen, posted in family, local fun, movies, tweens

I took my daughter to see this movie with a bit of trepidation.

Secretariat

First of all, it is 2 hours and 3 minutes long, a very long time for a tween to sit still and remain engaged, especially in the uncomfy old theater seats.

Second, although it is a Disney movie, it isn’t a kids’ movie per se, so this is the first sort of adult drama that I’d taken her to see.

Why was I willing to take the risk? Well, it’s about horses, and my daughter loves horses, so that made it seem like more of a calculated risk.  After purchasing the requisite order of nachos that my daughter needs to maximize her movie-watching experience, we entered the theater and settled in.

Fortunately, the movie was great. It already had the presence of Diane Lane going for it, but all of the other actors were also well cast. Like a good book, it pulled us in right from the first moments of the film and kept our interest until the end.

If only they had given out little plastic horsies as favors; then our day would have been complete. 🙂

Conscious eating, Part 3

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, fitness, restaurants

So, now that more weeks have passed and I have totally not given the Women, Food, and God  (by Geneen Roth) approach a passing thought until today, I decided to recommit to some of the strategies I have learned along the weight loss way.

  1. Drink 16 oz of water before every meal. This can be excessive, and at times make you feel like tossing your cookies before you even get to eat them, so modify accordingly. If you can only choke down a half a cup, go for it! It’s better than nothing. The theory is that it will make you feel fuller sooner, thereby displacing some of the food that you presumably would have consumed if not for the presence of the water in your gut. Seems like it’s worth a shot.
  2. Green tea. I am down to only a cup per day, two at most. Green tea is tricky because it has caffeine, and blood thinning properties (just to mention, there are other side effects as well)… it may interact with aspirin, the NSAIDs, coumadin, and so forth. . . but just in case it does contribute to weight loss, a little may be better than none.
  3. Throw out the first bite of your cookie/cupcake/whoopie pie/muffin/miscellaneous baked good of your choice. This is from One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. I’m definitely still trying to work up the courage to try this one.
  4. Check online before you go out to eat to scope out the menu; get tips from WebMD or Weight Watchers on healthy (or at least less bad) choices.
  5. Oh, yeah: that smaller plate thing. Ever hear the saying that “work expands to fill the allotted time”? Well, I think that this rule applies to food too: the amount of food you (think it’s reasonable to) consume will expand to fill the allotted plate/bowl size.

Question to ponder: Does doing the Happy Dance (a la Snoopy) burn off the equivalent of whoopie pie that I just ate?

Book Club at Mekong Thai

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, friends, quest for the best, restaurants

This month’s meeting was at Mekong Thai in Wells. The six of us met there at 6pm and were given a nice table by the windows, which they opened to give us some fresh air (a 65 degree evening in Maine in late October? Booyah!).

Susan is a quick study!

The wait staff was lovely, solicitous, and helpful. Lemon for your water? Sure! Another piece of lemon? No problem! A straw? Okay, at this point even I was getting annoyed with me, but not the waitress…she cheerfully went back to get me another straw.
And not only did she produce the straw, but when some of us expressed interest in the decorative way the straw was presented, she came back to the table with a fresh straw, paper intact, and taught us how to make one ourselves! My friend Susan was actually able to reproduce the effect, so our waitress was a good teacher, having transferred the skill to another in less than 5 minutes.

The great service was evident in other small ways as well, like when I was given a small container of peanut sauce (instead of scraping what remained of my used condiment in the bowl on my plate) to go with my leftovers that I had doggie bagged.

The food was great too. I had checked online for healthy Thai food choices (when eating out) beforehand, and easily found plenty of choices within this framework. I chose the Tom Yum soup with chicken, which was excellent, as was the chicken satay with peanut sauce. The free salad was a nice bonus; it had a mildly spicy peach colored dressing that was great.

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Why am I talking so much about the food, and so little about the book? Well, you may have guessed this: the book was…distressing. None of us liked it much. What was interesting though is that (as Shannon pointed out), we seem to have a much better, involved discussion about books that we don’t like than about books that we do like.

When we met to talk about The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, we didn’t have much to say, other than that it was a good book.  When we met to discuss Lowboy by John Wray, we were all talking over each other, interrupting each other, and in general making a big commotion in the small, otherwise pretty quiet, restaurant.

Hmmm, maybe this should be a go-to destination for book clubs?

Ocean: the cure for what ails you

by Karen, posted in health
  1. Respiratory complaints. Got a cold? Sinus infection? Get thee to the beach. Breathe in that salt air! In my
    The ocean at Two Lights

    opinion, breathing in ocean air is the one true “pulmonary toilet“.

  2. Acne. When I was growing up, I had an older cousin who would bring large, empty gallon milk containers to fill up with the Atlantic to bring home. Why? She used it to “treat” her acne. She swore that using the salt water from the ocean as a final rinse kept her skin clear and her breakouts to a minimum.
  3. Rashes. Same principle as #2.
  4. Wounds. Bruising? Cuts? Submerge the affected part in the ocean. My theory is that it stimulates circulation to speed wound healing.
  5. Joint problems. Same principle as #4.
  6. Depressed mood. I repeat: get thee to the beach! See, hear, smell, feel (okay, but probably you wouldn’t want to taste it…unless you do that vicariously through, say, fried clams or lobster…) the ocean! Bring your binoculars; maybe you’ll see a seal or a cormorant (okay, so last time I went I saw a rat, but then I refocused my attention and saw the cormorant!). How can your spirits not lift? I ask you.

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
~author, Isak Denison

Anybody have any other ills that they feel the ocean has cured??

Midlife crisis, part one: losing my mind

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, Midlife Crisis, tweens

I was standing in the kitchen talking to my husband last week, and he told me he was irritated because of something I’d told him earlier in the week that turned out not to be true. 

What was it? I sure don’t know. I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now. He remembered the (alleged) conversation in great detail. As I stood there listening to him recount what I said, I thought, “One of us must be crazy (and it’s not me)”!

I am quite sure that this conversation never happened. He is quite sure that it did. So, we sensibly backed off and let it go, nervous about where this particular road might take us, should we choose to pursue it.

Then today, I got to the parking garage at work and started to gather up my multitude of bags: bag with paperwork and reading material, check. Oversized insulated bag with my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, check. Pocketbook….pocketbook…with calendar, money, scissors, teabags, special cloth to clean eyeglasses, other miscellaneous detritus…NOT HERE!

I think back, retrace my morning steps. I am sure I carried my pocketbook and old navy plastic bag (with extra miscellaneous stuff) to the car this morning, as I stepped over my tween daughter who was sitting on the floor (in full tween drama mode) blocking my exit to flee the house.

Breathe. Breathe.

I call my husband, to share the insanity. I tell him that I can’t find my pocketbook. He says, “It’s right here, hanging on the back of the kitchen chair…next to an Old Navy bag”.

HOW could this be true? Yet I was faced with the undisputable evidence that what I thought I did this morning in no way resembled what I actually did do.

Plus, now I’m worried that my husband was indeed right in the first example above, and I was wrong. Oh-oh.

At this point, instead of “I told you so!”  he then said, kindly: “Why don’t you sit in your car and meditate for  a few minutes?” I did have time to do this now, since I’d come to Portland early to shop at the farmers market, but my farmers market money was home in my pocketbook.

Breathe. So Hum. Contemplate being unconscious in my own life.