Dandelion Dining

This afternoon I tried two recipes with dandelion flowers. Dandelions are very nutritious. It's amazing what you can find in your own lawn... We should really be eating more of them. The greens are full of vitamin A, B's and C as well as iron potassium and zinc and are helpful in liver and kidney health. The flowers are an excellent source of lecithin which is great for brain health.



Dandelion Flower Cookies

1/2 cup oil (I used grapeseed)
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs (or egg replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour (I used whole wheat)
1 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 cup dandelion florets

Go out and pick a boatload of dandelion heads. Well, almost a boatload. It took me a good hour to get enough. You only want the yellow and white part so you have to pick off the green bottom of the flower. Hold the florets with one hand and pinch the green flower base very hard with the other, give a little twist and it comes right off. You don't have to be super perfectionistic with it but the less green the better as it has a bitter taste.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Blend oil and honey and beat in the two eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion florets. Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool and eat.

They were very delicious. I think I would probably half the oil next time. It really doesn't need so much in my opinion. Maybe try half the oil and honey, and add 1/2 cup apple sauce instead. hmm.... It makes 24 cookies at 92 calories each if you follow the above recipe.

I also made:

Dandelion Jelly

2 cups dandelion petals
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
2-4 tsp pectin

1. Bring 2 cups water to boil and add dandelions. Boil 10 minutes over medium heat.
2. Strain dandelions and return liquid to pot.
3. Add sugar, lemon, and pectin, then bring to boil again before reducing heat to a simmer. Stir with wooden spoon until syrupy. This may take little time or lots of time, depending.
4. Pour into sterilized jars, seal, and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes. Or you can just refrigerate and eat within a couple weeks. It makes about one pint.

I'm not sure if I added enough pectin or not... I'm still waiting for mine to set, but it still tastes pretty good. It's supposed to be kind of like jellied honey.

I quit facebook

So, I really don't want to spend too much time on this topic because it has taken too much of my time already, however, I would like to make a list of points about it. Facebook and I kind of had a love/hate relationship. I couldn't help checking it all the time but, I HATE FACEBOOK!

• It had me roped into checking it probably 20 times a day. I couldn't even eat breakfast in the morning without checking it. It's like mind control.
• I don't need to know every detail about peoples lives. Yes, many of them are very interesting but most is very trivial and I could be filling my mind with things of greater depth.
• I didn't feel quite comfortable anymore about browsing through countless pictures/profiles of people whether i know them or not. This is because I subconsciously formed ideas about them which isn't really fair.
  
• I found it a bit interesting how when I stated that I was leaving, that many people said they would miss my posts. Granted, that's cool to know that people liked them... but most of those people rarely commented on them. I didn't know they liked them until I said I was leaving. (I know I did the same thing: quietly browsing around liking and disliking without anyone knowing. Feels a bit like a secret agent... hehe. Or rather like someone looking through a telescope from a window to peer into the lives of people that have no idea. Why are people (also myself) so ready to open their lives open to the world?

• Facebook for me had become kind of like a machine I would go to to receive self affirmation. I would tell myself that it didn't matter if I didn't get comments on my posts but deep down I was a little disappointed and so, I would try harder the next time to be more clever, or enlightened with my posts. But why do I need to have someone commenting and liking everything I say? I don't. I don't need to be self affirmed... I'm loved more than I can know by my God in heaven. It really doesn't matter what the facebook world thinks about what I say.
  
• Before i left several people said, 'just limit your self to checking it once or twice a week.' Well, if I could have done that I would have, but I couldn't which is the number one reason why I left.
• Facebook somehow knew random information about me like what I liked, worried about and where I've been and would advertise things based on my internet history and more. When you sign up for facebook you grant it the permission to search out information about you from other sources so they can build a monopoly based on your life.

The people of this generation (myself included) are pretty much addicted to gadgets, screens technology. But why? I wish it wasn't this way. Does anyone else out there long for a more wholesome, real life? What happened to the beauty of simplicity?

Haggai 1:5-9 seems to be fitting to the way that many people use the internet/media/technology.

Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways!
⁶ “ You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

⁷ Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! ⁸ Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the LORD. ⁹ “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.

We are to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit but how can the Holy Spirit live in us if we can't even tear ourselves away from the drama/lives/affirmation of others? We could be using the time we put into our computers into other things such as meeting people in real life, going for walks, getting into nature, making art, experimenting with food, inviting people over just to talk, telling God about what's on your mind, focusing on what really matters.

We need to be focusing on how to make our lives somewhere that the Holy Spirit can live continually instead of only once a week. Instead of running to the things that interest us in the moment why not run to the one that has our interest continually on His mind?

So much of what we do on facebook is simply pointless. I realize that it's not all trivial. A lot of good can come from it. But for me, the good is does not weigh enough compared to the bad. I've had enough, of the mind numbing droll of facebook, and I feel.... liberated. :)

So, I know that a lot of what I've just said might be blown way out of proportion as moderation is key to a lot of things, but for me, moderation wasn't enough. I need to sever the ties for good. Goodbye facebook, Hello real world.