Last month, a friend messaged me. She had been going through her recently departed mother’s cookbooks and had set aside some she thought I might find interesting. As I told her, I am honored to take these books into my collection.
They are: ๐ Favorite Recipes of SC 4-H Families (1984, gifted to Ms. Evelyn in 1985 in appreciation for her service as judge in the 4-H Demonstration that year)
๐ The Second Edition of The Ellis Cookbook (“carefully selected and compiled by Mrs. Mary Ellis,” copyright 1897). This one was falling apart, and I was able to fix it up a bit with book tape. It’s a treasure. The advertisements inside are a peek into the past, and the social tips and tips on home rule are fun too.
๐ Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church Centennial Cook Book (Compiled by Women’s Club of Saint Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, 1982)
๐ Carla Emery’s An Encyclopedia of Country Living Old Fashioned Recipe Book (7th printing, 1977), covering buying land, growing vegetables, wood cook stoves, canning & freezing, baking bread, building a root cellar, feeding & breeding livestock, drying & smoking meat, quilting, tanning, soap & candlemaking, and much, much more. This one is full of stuff useful for my new adventures in country living!
๐ The South Carolina Cook Book (revised edition, collected and edited by the SC Extension Homemakers Council and the Clemson Extension Home Economics staff, 7th printing, 1984)
Today, as I peruse the pages of these books again, I am #grateful for these treasures; the tips, tricks, and recipes they hold; and kind & generous friends who look at a book and just know it’s meant for me. ๐
On the fourth day of Christmas, we hit downtown Greenville for a couple more stops along the Greenville Taco Trail. We had the Peruvian Shrimp and Fish Tacos at Cantina 76 – Greenville (top left) and the refried beans & cactus taco at Papi’s Tacos (top right). That Peruvian Shrimp taco was on point–great flavor! And I have never had cactus before today, and it was fun to try something new. Also, the handmade tortillas and ingredients so fresh you can taste the difference at Papi’s are ๏ฏ! We stopped by the visitor’s center for our first prize: a sticker. I love winning things…and what’s better than winning things for eating tacos all over Greenville County?!
Two years ago I wouldn’t have dared dream of eating a taco. A year ago I dreamed but wouldn’t have tried one. And, now 2 years post-treatment, look at me! I’m eating all kinds of tacos! So, in short, today I am #grateful for tacos! More specifically I am grateful to be able to enjoy so many wonderful foods and flavors again.
On the first day of Christmas, we wrapped up our Christmas movie watching* with A Christmas Story (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”). And on the second day of Christmas, I enjoyed Christmas tea from a new mug (do you think #aDogCalledOakley even knows?!) and read a new book: “โฆ remember we have the potential to make life better for others. In our own small way, we can inspire, mentor, and encourage other women to do great things. So, don’t hold back. Don’t be silent. Don’t give in to fear. Be bold. Be adventurous. Be yourself.”
2022 Christmas movie watching list (I love Christmas movies): Bad Santa (2003) Violent Night (2022) A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) Miracle on 34th Street (1947) Scrooged (Bill Murray, 1988) Merry Friggin Christmas (2014) White Christmas (1954) Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) The Santa Clause (1994) The Santa Clause 2 (2002) The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006) The Bishop’s Wife (1947) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) Holiday Affair (1949) It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945) Christmas with the Kranks (2004) Shop Around the Corner (1940) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) Elf (2003) Gremlins (1984) Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) A Very Murray Christmas (2015) A Christmas Story (1983)
Nikki Haley clearly has a political agenda, and you can see it here. She’s building her brand and trying to reach a broader audience. And this is, tbh, a brilliant way to do that.
If you’re a yellow dog democrat (or lean hard left politically), you’re probably not going to like her characterizations of the Obama or Carter administrations (amongst other things, like her use of the co-opted version of “woke”). Her criticisms are mostly related to foreign policy (which makes sense given her role as UN Ambassador). These characterizations are not a main focus of the book, but they are there, and I imagine party loyalists from both sides will take note and have difficulty separating those from the other themes of the book. Also, Haley’s not afraid to toot her own horn. I mean, this is part of the point after all: branding.
With all of that said, you might think this is purely a political book. It’s not. It is what it says it is: the stories of 10 women whose stories “will inspire the next generation of females leaders.” And, indeed, their stories are inspirational. They are interwoven with Haley’s own personal life stories, and in the conclusion, she says, “I have a kinship and sisterhood with women regardless of party” (218). She explains, “we are more than the issues the media divides us on” (218). That’s why she says she didn’t account for political party in choosing the women to profile in this book. She chose them because she was inspired by them in some way.
You might assume all ten women come from the political sphere, but you’d be wrong. For example, I was really pleased to see Haley include Nadia Murad’s story in the book. Nadia’s book Last Girl profoundly affected me. I still think about it on a regular basis. In fact, I 100% recommend that book. Haley is right when she points out that Nadia’s story is one of both survival and empowerment and that it should not be forgotten, should be told and retold over and over again. Because it’s that important.
Now, Haley ends Nadia’s chapter the way she ends each, bringing it back to herself, her brand. Listen: you won’t finish the book without knowing who Nikki Haley wants you to think she is: a strong woman, unafraid to stand up for what is right even in the face of strong opposition; a minority woman who understands firsthand the experiences of the working class; a woman who gets things done, who won’t accept “no” for an answer; a problem solver; someone who thrives on challenge. In short, she wants you to know she’s the kind of woman who could lead this country (stay tuned for her presidential announcement!). I’m not offering any value judgement here on Haley or a potential White House run. But this is the image she portrays of herself in the book. She also gives some solid hints to what her key platform issues will be.
There are people who will choose not to read this book because they already have an established opinion of Nikki Haley or because she’s a Republican or because she’s a Republican who served in the Trump administration. And I get that. Certainly, reading the book is unlikely to change anyone’s already established opinion of Nikki Haley. I’m a big proponent of reader-response criticism (hey, English majors!). And while this is non-fiction, I think some of the tenets hold true: we each bring our own unique background, experiences, beliefs, and ways of being to what we read. What we get from what we read is determined by that, and so each of us may take something different away from our reading experience.
Here are some of the key things that stood out to me as I read the book in this time and place in my life:
โก๏ธ “Its easy to talk about principles. It’s hard to stand by them when everyone is lined up against you” (5).
โก๏ธ “But to really work to lift up everyone and make lives better, you have to be willing to shake things up” (6).
โก๏ธ “You have to be willing to put it all on the line. And you have to be willing to go through the pain to do what is right” (8).
โก๏ธ A key to success in leadership is to, like Margaret Thatcher, “develop an immunity to the chattering class” (11).
โก๏ธ “It’s easy to mistake noise for action, but those are not the same thing. Often, it is the quiet, determined people who put in the work while someone else gets the credit” (67).
โก๏ธ “Courage doesn’t come from doing what everybody says. Courage comes from doing what you know is right” (137).
โก๏ธ “If your heart is in the right place, if you know what you believe, if you put other people first, then you’re on the right track” (175).
โก๏ธ “If you don’t fit the mold, break the mold. Our job won’t be done until we know our daughter’s won’t have any molds left to break.” (178).
โก๏ธ She also had some thoughts on modern feminism that really resonated with me (196-98), but I won’t go into that here because I don’t want to start in on a debate about feminism.
So should you read it? Maybe. ๐คทโโ๏ธ For me, it was a quick and easy read with some valuable reminders and a little insight into what Nikki Haley’s political future holds (something that interests me for a number of reasons). There were women included whose stories I did not know, so I learned something new (always a good thing in my book, no pun intended).
๐ SN: Interestingly, Haley also shared the story of Wilma Rudolph. And that’s a story that’s come up in the news lately because a teacher in Florida wants her school district to remove a book about Rudolph from school libraries. You can read more about that here: https://popular.info/p/meet-the-florida-english-teacher. As Haley explains, Wilma Rudolph “continues to serve as an inspiration to millions of girls who refuse to give up on their dreams” (182). Hers is a story that “โฆreads like a fairy tale, except there were no fairy godmothers and no magic spells. Everything she did to overcome the obstacles in her life came from her–her tenacity, her training, her disappointment after defeat, and her refusal to give up” (182). Sounds like the kind of story all young women should readโฆjust like the other stories of women in Haley’s book.
ICYMI: there’s a tampon shortage. If you’re a man and that made you feel uncomfortable, I’m sorry. Trust me: somewhere a woman you know is feeling even more uncomfortable after perusing near-empty shelves, or worse yet, finding she can’t even afford this basic necessity.
Because prices for feminine hygiene products have increased by almost 11% in the last year. That’s more than double the amount that oral hygiene prices have increased in the same time period.
Meanwhile, as the article points out, “P&G posted its biggest sales gain in decades in the most recent quarter, and the amount of money it made from sales in its feminine-care division was up 10%.” Tampons are big money for these companies. And raising prices is a no-brainer from a business standpoint. After all, “โฆpeople who get their periods every month have to keep buying tampons just as regularly.”
According to one female CEO interviewed for this particular article, “โฆthere’s been no push to solve this supply problem, she argues, because many of the people determining prices and availability for feminine-care products do not use them.” I mean, that makes sense. The people who lead the companies who manufacture tampons (P&G, Edgewell, Unilever) are men. So they may not have considered that raw materials shortages and staffing shortages would impact feminine hygiene products. They might not also be considering the impact of this 10.8% increase on basic necessities that only women use. That’s why this article wraps up with this line from Thyme Sullivan: “It’s why we need to bring men into the conversation, because in many places, they’re still the decision-makers, and this wasn’t on their radar.”
Soโฆmenโฆwelcome to the conversation (assuming you’re still reading this post about tampons). There’s a tampon shortage. And also we need reasonably priced feminine hygiene products. They’re a necessity.
Fellow women (or men): consider whether or not you can donate and share with those less fortunate (Check out the The Homeless Period Project for example). Or I know I, as well as many of my colleagues, keep a stash on hand for students in need (whether they have one of those potentially humiliating surprises or just come up short with their own supply). I’ve been giving out tampons to girls at work since I started in 2004. My own local stores were pretty bare today.
Thanks for coming to my JennTalk โข๏ธ.
*This article is on pg. 19 of the June 20/June 27, 2022 edition of Time Magazine.
Today’s from-the-garden baking experiment: low carb (thanks, almond flour) zucchini (my plants have been producing like crazy!) bread breakfast cookies. They’re also a good source of prebiotics, courtesy of oats and chia seeds. Prebiotics feed the native good bacteria in the gut, keeping it strong to fight off infection. And they support the immune system. ๐ช One cookie was actually a pretty filling breakfast. Thanks, fiber. Did you know most Americans fall far short of the daily recommended intake of fiber? In fact, a recent study* reported that only 5% of men and 9% of women get the fiber they need. That matters because inadequate fiber intake is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, two of the most common diseases in the U.S. Women should aim for 25 grams of fiber a day. Plus, it can cause a host of digestive issues and other chronic health issues.
“Usual Dietary Fiber Intake in US Adults with Diabetes: NHANES 2013-2018.” Derek Miketinas, PhD, RD (Texas Womanโs University) et al.
Harvested the first zucchini from our garden yesterday. And this morning, I made zucchini bread! I got the recipe from a book called Best of the Best from South Carolina Cookbook, which I picked up at a free little library near work while on a lunch break walk to destress. Win!
Grateful for food and the ability to eat it (gonna hold onto this one for a while!). Last night, we made individual pizzas with the gluten free crust from My GF Chef at Crack A Daddle Do Farm . Mine had a lemon-garlic-tahini sauce with tomatoes; mushrooms from DarkSpore Mushroom Company ; swiss chard and red onion from JBo Ranch ; kalamata olives; banana peppers; and feta cheese. For breakfast today, I had a mushroom and sundried tomato quiche (also from Crack a Daddle*) with some citrus fruit (so I can put the peels out later to dissuade the neighborhood free-roaming cats from using our mulch like a litter box). I also made some homemade strawberry (from the farmer’s market, of course) sourdough muffins with a crumbly topping, which came out fantastic. And as an additional note, I’m now the kind of person who drives her own herbs.
Trent said, “Is that a quiche from Crack a Daddle? They’re doing a lot more prepared foods now.” And he’s right. They are because people want convenienceโฆbut also healthy and good-for-you foods. We had their stuffed shells and Bolognese the other night, and I’ve got their Tuscan Chicken Pasta bake in the freezer for the next time I don’t feel like cooking from scratch for dinner. Next best thing to homemade because I know it’s made with good ingredients and not laden with preservatives that are bad for my microbiome and overall health. Win!
eatfresh #buylocal (for me, that’s at the Simpsonville Farmer’s Market !) #Maintain2022
Sometimes I impress myself. Pork tenderloin (with an amazing new homemade marinade) and veggies (squash, zucchini, cherry tomatoes) + peaches (because obvi): it’s what was for dinner, and it was good. #domesticgoddess #Maintain2022 #eatfresh #buylocal
Pork tenderloin from Bethel Trails Farm Veggies from Lein Farm Peaches from Hyder Farms
All available at Simpsonville Farmer’s Market every Saturday 8-12 at City Hall.
Marinade:
๐ juice of ยฝ lemon ๐ง 2 teaspoons minced garlic ๐ฟ ยผ teaspoon each dried basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley ๐ถ ยผ cup oil ๐ค ยฝ teaspoon salt ๐ค pinch of black pepper ๐ฅ 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard ๐ฏ 2 teaspoons honey
Things I shouldn’t think about while getting ready for work but did today (and have most days since last week): “Wait. Can I run in these shoes?”
I changed them each time. And sometimes my whole outfit.
Lockdowns for us last week. And for a couple K-12 schools nearby the next day. Discussions about all glass front rooms in one of our busiest buildings. And then yesterday in Texas.
I might need all new work shoes.
But seriously: it’s a scary time. And it’s ok to acknowledge that. Educators are told (explicitly or implicitly) to be strong for the students. But it’s ok to not be ok. And it’s ok to talk about that. And it’s ok to change your shoes. ๐