Food allergies? Visit a great dairy-free cake baking blog

I'm now writing for a great blog: it's all about dairy-free cake baking. There are recipes, instructions on how to bake dairy-free (and gluten-free), good substitutes for dairy in baking and cooking, and more information. Visit http://dairyfreecakes.net to see all the information and make your mouth water!

Nice Arizona cocktail for the summer

Okay, I admit it, I'm a great fan of Rachel Maddow, whose show is on MSNBC. She's bright, funny, sarcastic, and she does two things on her show I love: Moment of Geek, which is all about great science and nerdy stuff, and her Cocktail Moment on Fridays, which I adore. So...in the spirit of Rachel Maddow's Cocktail Moment, I'm going to post my take on an Arizona summer cocktail that is cool, comforting, and has just the right amount of spice to make your day interesting.

Arizona Prickly Pear Vodka Lemonade

1 oz vodka (something good; you don't need top shelf but always use good vodka)

6 oz lemonade

1 tbsp prickly pear syrup (recipe follows)

2-3 slices of jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and de-veined

Fill a cocktail glass with ice. Pour the vodka into the glass, then throw in the jalapeno slices. Pour the lemonade into the glass, and then spoon in the prickly pear syrup. Stir and serve. And don't drink too many!

Prickly Pear Syrup

You can probably buy this commercially but if you live in the Southwest U.S., you can get a couple of prickly pear cactus fruits and make your own.

2 prickly pear cactus fruit, peeled and chopped into quarters

Juice of 1 lemon

2-3 tbsp sugar

1/4-1/3 cup water

Make sure you peel the prickly pear fruit. If you buy it in your grocery store (it's usually with the exotic fruit, even in Arizona!) it's not too big a deal but if you pick it from your own cactus WEAR GLOVES. These fruits have tiny needles and you don't want them in your fingers. You can scrape the fruit with a vegetable peeler while wearing the gloves to get the needles off as well as peel them.

When they are peeled and cut into quarters, throw all the ingredients into a blender, blend on the "puree" setting for 30-60 seconds. You can use it right away for the drink and you can save it in the refrigerator for a few days. 

Writing with arthritis?

New problem in life: it seems I might have rheumatoid arthritis. My fingers are developing nodules, there is pain in my joints in my hands, my elbows, and my toes. Sometimes I'm really tired and just feeling so achy and sore. But, on the positive side, I have been writing, no matter how much my hands hurt. At least I can type on the computer for short periods of time.

I don't know about inspiration. I just seem to have a lot of that packed away and it seems to be unfolding itself. Don't know what changed but it is nice. Haven't spent any time revising yet but I have started a short novel and finished one poem and started another, longer one.

Summer in Arizona

It is moving toward summer in Arizona. It doesn't matter what the calendar says; when it hits over 100 degrees, it is the beginning of summer. Yes, the beginning. The middle of summer is 110 or more. And that, too, is coming.

Most people in temperate climates feel happy when summer comes. School is out for kids, people are going on vacation. But I get hot. And cranky. And I start hating living here. People are thin and rich in Scottsdale. They don't seem to sweat. I don't belong here. I'm from Brooklyn and I sweat. I don't perspire like a lady. I sweat. A lot. And I am not easy to be around when I'm hot and sweaty.

I want to live somewhere cool, near an ocean. I am so tired of heat and prejudice and misery and rich people who care nothing for others. I realize a temperate or cool climate won't resolve everything. But it would sure make me not sweat and be cranky. And maybe I'd write more

Occupy Wall Street moves across the U.S.

Occupy Wall Street or OWS is no longer confined to NY; we are occupying LA, and Washington and San Francisco and now even Phoenix. Yes, Phoenix, home of the dysfunctional Republican tea partiers and haters of all things liberal. This Saturday, Oct. 15, in Cesar Chavez plaza downtown, Moveon.org is having a "Jobs not cuts" rally in connection with the OWS. And I''m taking my kids and myself down there to show them what direct political action means. It is so important to make sure that our next generation knows that they can still make a difference--before it's too late--to get the money out of politics and make it count for people again.

Time

There is not enough time to do anything. Today I baked bread and cookies and did 3 loads of laundry but I want to just sit down and read and it's not going to happen because I have to fold those 3 loads of laundry. I would so welcome some time during the day when it is quiet, when I can sit out on the back patio and read books and think and write.

My life has become what I didn't want: the corporate job, the 8 to 5 job (okay, I like my work but it's still in the corporate mold, even if we are a casual office and don't have to wear suits or work in cubicles). I have become the writer at night. The writer who writes when all the cooking and cleaning and laundry is done, when the children are taken care of, when I'm so exhausted that I can barely write.

I have let Virginia Woolf's "angel in the house" swallow me. And I want some time back.

That's really enough complaining. I have to just make the time. No excuses.

Another book on food, different take

I have been deep into food and cooking and reading about this topic lately, from new vegetarian cookbooks to new vegetarian gluten free cookbooks to books about healthy food and creating healthier people and communities.

So into all this health, I had to inject some good, fun, venomous gossip with a lot of really bad language. I was reading Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw and it's definitely worth reading. I'm only halfway through but it's tons of fun and lots of cursing with Bourdain's very pointed and informed views about the world he has inhabited for more than 25 years.

More thoughts when I finish the book. In the meantime, go get this one. It's easy to read and really skewers the foodies and food stars that have taken over the airwaves.