Red Sox win the World Series!

Woohoo! Another victory for my favorite baseball team. I wish we could have traveled to Boston for the first or second game of the series at Fenway Park. I miss living on Bay State Road where we could hear the cheers from the fans from our apartment. I'm sure the city's on fire tonight like it was in 2004 when they won the World Series and reversed the curse. I liked going to the games when we were there from the summer of 2001 until the spring of 2004; those were good times. We had to celebrate away from Fenway just as the team did both times, first in San Antonio and now in St. George. Way to play, Red Sox!

History is what you are making

I really dig John Adams. I found that out after listening to the audio version of John Adams by David McCullough. I liked finding out more about this founding father and second president of the United States. I admired Adams for defending the British soldiers who killed five colonists in the Boston "Massacre." I agree with Adams' statement that the soldiers had essentially been antagonized by a mob. It was fun to find out about Adams' personal life through letters. The correspondence between John and Abigail while he traveled as far as England and France is touching. (It's too bad letter writing has become a thing of the past. It seems more personal and sweet than communicating by email or telephone.) It was especially fun to see the relationship between Adams and Thomas Jefferson. McCullough writes eloquently of their individual strengths and weaknesses, along with their important roles in the founding of America. I learned of a long falling out while they vied for powerful positions, but it was nice to see they reconciled when they retired from public life. Then they died on the same day -- Independence Day -- as if God wanted their friendship to resume immediately in heaven. How prophetic that Adams foresaw slavery as a sin that would come back to haunt the unity of the nation. Adams had many sorrows in his life; the death of a baby and later in life two of his sons, Charles and Thomas, failed in their professions and succumbed to alcoholism. However, he did live to see his son John Quincy Adams become president of the United States. He still felt life was good and gave thanks to God; the sweet experiences compensated for the bitter ones. Sometimes history is regarded as boring or dry, and while I usually prefer works of fiction, McCullough writes with such skill and creativity that he makes John Adams a pleasure to read (or listen to, in my case). His book is much better than my review of it, so check it out already!

I wonder what Adams would make of the current state of government. I wonder what he would think of the Republican and Democratic parties, much less the Green party. I imagine him rolling in his grave. I don't think he would like how it's so much about money -- that so many potential candidates can't even be heard unless they have millions in contributions. It's such a different world than the one he lived in, obviously, but it's sad to me that the ideals he had and the passion he felt and professed in public office doesn't seem to happen anymore. The candidates seem more like puppets for their respective parties. I guess the media today is much more intense since television made the scene; Adams only had to deal with the print. Well, politics is complicated, and I'm glad Dan doesn't have those ambitions. I wouldn't desire the scrutiny and intrusion into our personal lives by the press. I'll just cast my votes and hope that our country will have stellar leaders for our challenges in the future.

Stealth recipes

I learned about a fabulous idea for getting picky eaters to eat their veggies on Oprah the other day. Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. She solved the problem of her three children not eating healthy foods by sneaking it into kid-friendly dishes. She makes puree of everything from spinach to carrots to cauliflower and adds them to brownies or chicken nuggets or mac 'n cheese. She's really hit onto something big! She still puts some vegetables on the table, but she simply adds it in the food so her kids will get more nutrients. Brilliant, I thought, but how do you add pureed veggies to creamy peanut butter? (Nathan's main staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner.) I like the zucchini in the cookies idea.

Mrs. Seinfeld said she purees everything on Sunday so it will be ready to go during the weekly meals. She and Jerry chop, steam and puree together. That totally amused me to think of Jerry Seinfeld hanging out with his wife and bagging pureed food in the kitchen on Sunday nights. I like it because it seems so normal, and let's face it, many celebrities out there are not so normal or down-to-earth. Good for them. The show featured Jerry eating brownies with spinach and carrot puree, saying it could be a last meal -- a death row dessert.

Since childhood obesity is on the rise, I think this cookbook is just what the doctor ordered. I'm going to try this sneaky method soon (even on my husband).