RE: Christmas Gift to my family

December 17, 2007

,

What a graceful, respectful letter. And a wonderful gift to your family.

I hope it helps improve your family's health.

Blessings,

beth

beth Buchele HMC*

Professional Homeopath

Offices in St. Louis Park, MN

952-933-6068

and Menomonie, WI

715-231-6068 (http://www.healthnaturally.biz/) w_ww.healthnaturally.biz_

(http://www.healthnaturally.biz/)

" Natural Health for Mind and Body "

*Homeopathic Master Clinician

In a message dated 12/17/2007 7:20:17 P.M. Central Standard Time,

stephabrewer@... writes:

Several years ago I began compiling a family recipe book with photos

and stories to accompany the recipes. This year I have decided to

add some recipes to our family cookbook. I want to encourage my

family to eat better food. I will be including recipes for chicken

stock, soaked oatmeal, sauerkraut, grandma's lard pie crust, and

yogurt. I revised several of the recipes that I got from family

members and added notes about how to increase nutrition, like serving

the vegetable soup with cream and butter to increase the absorbtion

of vitamin A, for example. Here is the letter that I wrote to precede

this years cookbook addition. I am looking for advice and editing

suggestions. Should I add more information about traditional diets

or saturated fat or should I just let the recipes speak for

themselves? I am also considering the addition of a resources

section listing all of our favorite NT-friendly books.

Christmas 2007

Dear Family,

I began this cookbook eight years ago as a tribute to all of you. I

am both lucky and proud to have such a close, supportive family. We

love each other through good times and bad, sickness and health. It

is my greatest wish for all of us to enjoy the best possible health.

Therefore, this year's addition to the cookbook reflects my own

personal journey to regain my health through a gradual change to a

more healthy, natural foods diet.

What is a healthy diet? This is a question that each of us has to

answer for ourselves. Our needs for various macronutrients (fats,

carbohydrates, proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)

will change throughout our lives. My own personal diet reflects my

need to heal several health conditions after many years on a strict

vegetarian diet combined with a high stress lifestyle. Some of my

health problems which have resolved themselves through attention to

diet include hypoglycemia, asthma, allergies, IBS, hormonal

imbalances, and depression. I love my diet! Like I said before,

however, I will not recommend my own specific diet to any of you. (I

hope I learned something from my vehement vegan days.)

What I will offer you is some of the knowledge that has helped me on

my healing journey. I have included pointers throughout the recipes

to help you increase your nutrition and absorption of important

nutrients. I have also attempted to steer clear of foods that

contain harmful additives, trans- fats, empty calories, and

artificial ingredients. You may notice minor changes in the recipes

that you submitted to me. I encourage you to try the methods and

ingredients that I offer. I also encourage you to go back to

previous family recipes and substitute more healthful ingredients.

For example, most cookies can be prepared using unrefined sugar and

real butter or palm oil instead of margarine or shortening.

Please enjoy these recipes and share them with your own friends and

family. Most of all, remember that we are the best nourished when we

take the time to enjoy our food in the company of the people we love.

Links

beth Buchele HMC*

Professional Homeopath

Offices in St. Louis Park, MN

952-933-6068

and Menomonie, WI

715-231-6068 (http://www.healthnaturally.biz/) w_ww.healthnaturally.biz_

(http://www.healthnaturally.biz/)

" Natural Health for Mind and Body "

*Homeopathic Master Clinician

**************************************See AOL's top rated recipes

(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)

December 17, 2007

Dear ,

I think the letter does a good job of encouraging but not preaching.

Something that I know is very important especially with family. I come from

a family of ten and only two of us eat a traditional diet. We have tried to

encourage it in other family members but haven't really succeeded yet. When

changing recipes I have found it better to make it the new way and have them

sample it. Then they can taste how much better or more filling it is. It

also helps to know the adjustments that need to be made.

I think adding a booklist is a good idea.

I am very proud of you for sharing this with your family.

Take care!

Kate

On Dec 17, 2007 7:19 PM, stephabrewer <stephabrewer@...> wrote:

> Several years ago I began compiling a family recipe book with photos

> and stories to accompany the recipes. This year I have decided to

> add some recipes to our family cookbook. I want to encourage my

> family to eat better food. I will be including recipes for chicken

> stock, soaked oatmeal, sauerkraut, grandma's lard pie crust, and

> yogurt. I revised several of the recipes that I got from family

> members and added notes about how to increase nutrition, like serving

> the vegetable soup with cream and butter to increase the absorbtion

> of vitamin A, for example. Here is the letter that I wrote to precede

> this years cookbook addition. I am looking for advice and editing

> suggestions. Should I add more information about traditional diets

> or saturated fat or should I just let the recipes speak for

> themselves? I am also considering the addition of a resources

> section listing all of our favorite NT-friendly books.

>

> Christmas 2007

> Dear Family,

> I began this cookbook eight years ago as a tribute to all of you. I

> am both lucky and proud to have such a close, supportive family. We

> love each other through good times and bad, sickness and health. It

> is my greatest wish for all of us to enjoy the best possible health.

> Therefore, this year's addition to the cookbook reflects my own

> personal journey to regain my health through a gradual change to a

> more healthy, natural foods diet.

>

> What is a healthy diet? This is a question that each of us has to

> answer for ourselves. Our needs for various macronutrients (fats,

> carbohydrates, proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals)

> will change throughout our lives. My own personal diet reflects my

> need to heal several health conditions after many years on a strict

> vegetarian diet combined with a high stress lifestyle. Some of my

> health problems which have resolved themselves through attention to

> diet include hypoglycemia, asthma, allergies, IBS, hormonal

> imbalances, and depression. I love my diet! Like I said before,

> however, I will not recommend my own specific diet to any of you. (I

> hope I learned something from my vehement vegan days.)

>

> What I will offer you is some of the knowledge that has helped me on

> my healing journey. I have included pointers throughout the recipes

> to help you increase your nutrition and absorption of important

> nutrients. I have also attempted to steer clear of foods that

> contain harmful additives, trans- fats, empty calories, and

> artificial ingredients. You may notice minor changes in the recipes

> that you submitted to me. I encourage you to try the methods and

> ingredients that I offer. I also encourage you to go back to

> previous family recipes and substitute more healthful ingredients.

> For example, most cookies can be prepared using unrefined sugar and

> real butter or palm oil instead of margarine or shortening.

>

> Please enjoy these recipes and share them with your own friends and

> family. Most of all, remember that we are the best nourished when we

> take the time to enjoy our food in the company of the people we love.

>

December 17, 2007

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE with beth!

Being a real enthusiast of 'traditional' and 'handed down' recipes; any chance

you could make your recipe book available to me or all of us? happy to defray

copying costs, & ct. Heck, if you give it to me I'll copy it into PDF and post

it myself... It is GREAT that you are recording these recipes as the oral

tradition of passing knowledge is now and has been greatly diminished in recent

years...

For years and years recipes and, 'the way we do/did it,' were passed by oral

tradition or by active example--the only way to learn to make gramma's gravy was

to watch...'. The Foxfire Books were a great example and attempt to capture

that tradition in print; but that effort really focused on the Appalachian

lifeway and tradition...many other ethnic traditions are being lost despite the

efforts of folks to preserve and publish their family's traditional recipes and

the like. As the world becomes more divorced from the origin of their food,

their clothes, and their past, it is up to those who care to ensure that those

traditions and practices are preserved.

The recipes are important, no doubt, but the fact that you are preserving and

keeping the precious stories that go with them make your work a valuable

'ethnography' that really puts the recipes into a context. Hurray to you for

doing that! Your greatgrandchildren will be deeply indebted to have those

stories! That is what exemplifies family tradition.

And i'd love to have a copy! To that end i have instructed my own mother to

write down all her memories associated with the box of recipes she, 'inherited,'

from her mother that she still holds close to her breast...my mother is only 68,

so that should keep her busy for a time...<smile>

Again, kudos to you for preserving that very important part of your and our

collective culture! And I would love a copy! ;-)

Cheers,

Alan

Re: Christmas Gift to my family