Freedom Archives - Respect Food Roles

Some Cooking Myths Exploded

May 12, 2021May 6, 2021 by Debi Simons

As I mentioned in the last post, I’ve started following a foodie YouTuber named Adam Ragusea, and he’s quickly become a favorite of mine because (ahem) he agrees with me on so many issues and so I trust him in other areas. There’s w-a-a-y too much conventional wisdom out there just waiting to be debunked, and he’s the man to do it. Here are three that I’ve especially liked to go along with the iodized-salt-is-bitter myth from last time:

MYTH #1: Let me start out with the misconception that I cited in my previous post: the ridiculous idea that home bakers should be measuring flour BY THE GRAM for yeasted breads. One of my favorite TV-show-based video channels, America’s Test Kitchen, really stresses this idea. They said in an episode about pita bread, for instance, that you should measure x number of grams for the water and flour, giving amounts for King Arthur brand bread flour. But if you were using another type of bread flour, they said, you should decrease the water by one ounce, as KAF has more protein than most other flours.

Sometimes It’s Better to Abandon a Project

June 21, 2019 by Debi Simons

I made valances for our patio door and office window back a year ago, with the window valance still needing to be installed. These added (or will add) a nice finished look to the space. But I had way overbought the material for the valances and had several yards left over. (I don’t think it was very expensive.) So I planned to make throw pillows from the remaining fabric and bought some coordinating stuff to use for trim. I’d come up with a complicated method for making the pillow covers, with mitered, contrasting flanges. One pillow hadn’t come out very well, which was discouraging, but then I decided that

Resist the Call of the “Purchase Justification Machine”

June 14, 2019 by Debi Simons

I’ve mentioned this blog before, having stumbled upon it by accident several years ago. While MMM has gone through some upheaval in his personal life, and while he also isn’t writing very frequent posts these days, I check in periodically to see what he’s up to. His most recent article concerns his back-and-forth inner debate about whether or not to buy a Tesla, about which I could not possibly care less, but he’s actually onto a bigger principle:

So What’s the Whole30, Like, For?

April 25, 2019March 19, 2019 by Debi Simons

Yesterday I ranted and raved about Melissa Hartwig and her crazy diet (that’s made her a very, very rich celebrity), but I went on and on without ever getting to the central question, which is:

Exactly what is this whole hoop-de-doo supposed to do for you?

Let’s get to that now. Remember, the idea for “going clean” for 30 days was an impulsive idea from Hartwig’s then-boyfriend, now-divorced-husband, Dallas:

A Glorious Trip–Glitches and All

October 8, 2018 by Debi Simons

One of the few glimpses of the hot air balloon fiesta that we glimpsed!

My husband and I went on a trip this past weekend to Albuquerque NM to see visit the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Here’s what went wrong in the first 18 hours or so:

1. We realized that we’d hit a stretch along I-25 in northern New Mexico where there weren’t any gas stations, and our little Honda FIT has only a 10-gallon gas tank. We’d been watching for a gas station but hadn’t seen any for some time. Suddenly we realized that the gas gauge was telling us we were in trouble. Where was the nearest gas station? Turned out it was 21 miles back the way we’d come. How had we missed it? Did we really need

Take Your Hands Off the Wheel–At Least Some of the Time.

May 9, 2018 by Debi Simons

Next Wednesday, May 16, Jim and I will be boarding a plane for FRANCE. I said last year that I’d like to visit Paris for our 25^th anniversary, but with everything that was going on in 2017 (our move, a big trip already planned that included a family reunion and taking Gideon to grad school) it just didn’t seem doable. There was some talk of perhaps going in the fall, but that just never got off the ground. (Ha.) So we decided to go this year. The Cherry Creek Chorale’s last concert is this weekend, the annual business meeting is next Tuesday, and then the season is over. (You’d think that the Chorale was my job, or something.)

A Blast of Impassioned Pleading for Our Endangered Democracy.

January 4, 2019May 7, 2018 by Debi Simons

Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy by Jonah Goldberg, available in Kindle, hardback, and audiobook formats through Amazon.com and other outlets. (Link is to Amazon.) The audiobook is highly recommended; if you are not currently a member of Audible.com you can get the book for free if you sign up for an Audible.com membership; access that page here. Visit the author’s website at jonahgoldberg.com.

I have a very simple goal in writing this post, linking to it on Facebook and Twitter, and perhaps sending out a separate e-mail blast: I want to do my small part to make Jonah Goldberg’s new book #1 on the NYT best-seller list. Right now he’s #4 on the combined print/e-book list and #5 on the hardcover-only list. (James Comey’s compendium is #1 on both of those lists; I somehow think I won’t bother with that one.) In order for this much-desired result to occur, people have to buy the book. I re-activated my Audible.com account in order to get the audiobook, all 16 hours and 2 minutes of it. It was well worth my time.

Life Lessons from a DIY Decorator

May 2, 2018 by Debi Simons

I posted an article from one of my favorite blogs, “Addicted2Decorating,” sometime last week on my Facebook page, and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to write something about it myself because it’s such excellent advice for every area of life. I can’t remember how much I’ve said about the author of this blog, so let me briefly recap:

A Challenging and Informative Book of the Week

March 28, 2018 by Debi Simons

Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump by Michael Isikoff and David Corn, March 2018.

As I often say, I try to keep politics off my Intentional Living blog, but I also like to post about the books I’m currently reading, and sometimes those two areas overlap. Whatever your political leanings, though, I consider this a book required reading as we move ahead into the unknown territory our country is now traversing. (That sounds a little pompous, I guess. After all, the future is always “unknown territory,” isn’t it?) You may remember that I wrote a post about the Gary Kasparov book Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped awhile ago, a truly frightening book by someone who has lived through the worst that the Putin regime has yet to offer.

Be Grateful that You Can’t Afford to Buy One of These!

March 15, 2018 by Debi Simons

I’ve been watching a program called “Impossible Builds” on our local PBS station on Wednesday nights (until they started up yet another of their endless fundraising marathons—sigh) and have found myself equally tickled and saddened by it all. (That’s a pretty hard pair of emotions to hold onto at the same time!) The series will include an office tower in New York City, but so far the three projects showcased have all been luxury homes, either downtown condos (in Miami) or vacation homes (in the U.A.E. and, I think, Saudi Arabia).