The Dabbler

Lowering cholesterol

2010-07-08T12:38:00.002-04:00

These are the 10 essential items for reducing cholesterol according to Janet Bond Brill in her book Cholesterol Down:

Oat bran

Psyllium

Flax seed

Almonds

Soy

Apples

Garlic

Beans

Plant sterols

Exercise

Cholesterol Lowering Crackers [Recipe by Sigrid Smith]. Makes 30

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup psyllium husks

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup soy flour

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup olive, walnut or hazelnut oil

2 cups water

This will be sloppy. Mix it up and let it sit for 20 minutes and it will be a firm dough, the consistency of peanut butter cookie dough.

Make 1 Tablespoon balls (I use a small ice cream scooper, no longer used for ice cream, unfortunately)

Place on large ungreased cookie sheets, smash thin with the bottom of a glass to about 2 1/2 inches around. Use wax paper or parchment paper between the dough and the glass to keep it from sticking. I poke holes in them with a focaccia roller but you could use a fork or skip the holes. I also cut them in half with a pizza cutter. They stay together as a round cracker but they snap apart into half circles....very cracker-like.

Bake at 200 degrees until they can be removed from the sheet easily, about an hour. Place them on cookie racks and put back in the oven until crispy. It usually takes a couple of hours. I usually reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and just leave them to dry. You could try a higher temperature for a shorter period but there is a risk of burning or browning too much. You probably don't have to move them off the cookie sheet to the racks but I think they dry more quickly if they are exposed on all sides.

It uses 5 of the 10 items. I serve them with hummus made using garbanzos, garlic and silken tofu to go with them. That's 2 more plus additional soy.

Serve apple slices with the hummus makes another of the 10.

[Celery lowers blood pressure and is good with hummus, too.]

I take the plant sterols as a supplement (Colest Off) rather than using margarine that contains it as Brill suggests. Those margarines also contain partially hydrogenated fat. I found a place that sells the sterols in powder form so I'm going to order it and add it to the Hummus and the crackers. (It isn't damaged by heat.) That's 9 of the 10. I forget what the 10th is......

I also make granola with oat bran, slivered almonds, psyllium, ground flax seeds, and apples and have that with my homemade yogurt mixed with silken tofu. That's 6 of the 10.

More baby pictures

2008-03-03T09:00:00.006-05:00

Here are Cathy and Elsabet under a blanket that I made for her - reversible double knit.

Baby

2008-03-02T11:26:00.011-05:00

Granddaughter, Elsabet Rebecca [Ellie] was born on Wednesday, Feb 27, 8lbs, 15 oz., 20 3/4 inches. Daughter Cathy is doing fine.

New webpage

2007-10-08T16:17:00.000-04:00

Well, after several missteps, I have put up a webpage with some paintings from September. It can be found at http://sigridsmith.com .

Monster Number Two

2007-08-06T14:04:00.000-04:00

Triptopus, an ancient jellyfish, by Sigrid and Reid.

Bill Moyers Journal

2007-07-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

If you missed Bill Moyers Journal [PBS] this week, here it is: Tough Talk on Impeachment. His guests were Bruce Fein who wrote one of the Clinton impeachment articles and John Nichols of the Nation Magazine. If you watch both parts it takes an hour, so get a cup of coffee first.

Monsters

2007-05-24T22:26:00.005-04:00

[click picture for a larger view]

I asked my grandson, Reid, to draw a picture of a monster and e-mail it to me. I used a projector to help draw it on a sheet of watercolor paper and painted it in three dimensions, and, voilà.

I give credit for the inspiration to Dave Devries who has a website where he describes doing this.

Cabled scarf

2007-05-10T10:06:00.000-04:00

About that cabled scarf. A number of people have emailed me asking about the pattern for the scarf (April 14 post). I didn't use a pattern for it. I don't know if there are instructions online for double sided cables. It must be in books somewhere but this was a case of 'independent invention'. I probably should write down what I did before I forget how I did it.....

Slow motion

2007-05-08T06:19:00.000-04:00

I decided to try the slow motion waterfall technique. The shutter speed is about 5 seconds on the tripod. Wadsworth Falls.

The dam in the Milford town park.

In and Out

2007-05-07T10:14:00.000-04:00

A bird of some sort flew into our screened porch yesterday...
This morning I found the inward hole on the left screen and an outward opening on the right screen, popped out from the corner. And lots of bird poop on the floor. I guess he was scared sh**less.

A spring visitor and a cabled scarf

2007-04-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

Here is our new free range pet, Bob, the greylag goose. Or is it Mary? S/he showed up here about two weeks ago and s/he appears to be planning to stay.

The reversible cable scarf is done. It's 68 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide. It also could be a belt.

Cables

2007-03-28T17:13:00.000-04:00

Here is the start of a double sided cable scarf. This is the project that that I was afraid was distroyed because the airline inspectors insisted on taking my knitting needles in Dominica (allowed by TSA in this country). I was able to rescue it after I got home.

Dominica

2007-03-26T11:55:00.000-04:00

We're back from a ten day trip to Dominica.

Playing with Photoshop

2007-03-08T10:58:00.000-05:00

This photo of the flood last week was taken through a wet window screen. I made this impressionistic image by using Photoshop. It's like a collaboration between Monet, Gauguin, and Seurat.

Here is the original shot:

Hippie

2007-02-08T09:37:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention that some of my friends consider me to be a Hippie. :) This makes me happy because I kind of missed the hippie thing in the '60s. I had little babies and a was a Navy wife then. Mostly, I took care of my family. I did go to the Moratorium on the Viet Nam War in Washington, D.C., and I had a flower on my VW antenna. I never even smoked pot. (I did eat an Alice B. Toklas brownie once, though.)

And now? I go to antiwar marches and carry signs. I don't like torture or war or lies or wiretapping. I think all veterans should get full support from us, even if it means higher taxes. I am a card carrying member of the ACLU and I write letters and I vote. But I wear polyester pants and watch HGTV. And knit. Hippies did macrame and bead stringing. They did not knit. Thus, I am, unfortunately, not a hippie. Sorry, guys! ;)

Separated at Birth

2007-02-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

Warner and Levin / Statler and Waldorf

Surge

2007-01-30T08:54:00.001-05:00

My somewhat off-color protest sign was a hit and was photographed often. Here is a link to one that someone posted.

Here is a link to the photos that I added to the UFPJ photo page [from the January 27, 2007 protest rally in Washington ].

Rove Sighting

2007-01-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

I went to Washington for the January 27th march on the capitol. We were having a perfectly nice breakfast, when who should walk in but Rove. Nice juxtaposition with the sculpture, don't you think?

Swatch Cape

2007-01-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

As requested, here is the current status of my reversible double-knit Swatch Cape:

Daffodils

2007-01-19T14:57:00.000-05:00

We had a few flakes of snow this morning. It melted when the sun was up for a few minutes. That first sign of winter is combined with the first sign of spring: the daffodils are up this morning.

Global warming?

2007-01-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

Old Blue visiting our stream the other day.

Honeysuckle blooming in January.

knitting

2007-01-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

Double knit mouse finger puppets. They're not sure what that black and silver thing is.

I took this picture of 'Kelvin-Helmholz instability' clouds the other day. Maybe I'll knit something with a cable like this.

I'm making booties, mitts and hats for the preemie ward at YNH hospital. These are about 1-1/2 inches long.

I actually finished Ron's winter vest in time for the holiday. The photo is a little dark but it is grey on one side and dark green on the other, completely reversible double knit with lined glasses pockets inside and out. It has purled lice over the whole thing.

The east and the west

2006-09-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

Ocracoke North Carolina beach - Cathy and her dog Maggie.

Big Sur view.
Abstract sculpturing of sandstone on Pacific Mendocino Coast.

In August, we went to Santa Fe where Ron had a meeting.

Here is a Santa Fe roof-line.

Rainbow over Sandia Mountains in New Mexico. I never saw colors reversing on the bottom of the bow before.

Cape progress

2006-05-12T09:20:00.000-04:00

The cape is coming along. I put the peace symbol on it because I, unfortunately, suspect it will be appropriate for quite a while. [I used Knitpro for charting the design.]

2006-05-11T13:23:00.000-04:00

Separated at birth? Tweetybird and Gen. Hayden

Showers and flowers

2006-05-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

Our dogwoods are in full bloom right now. The rain gives an opportunity for more raindrop photos.

Pansy

2006-04-17T15:20:00.000-04:00

The center of a pansy is about a quarter inch across. This digital photo is hand held. The depth of field using this technique is very shallow.

Crazy Knitting

2006-04-17T14:18:00.000-04:00

This piece [these pieces?] will eventually be a cape. It started when I realized that I needed to do something with all of the swatches I had made trying to teach myself how to do double sided knitting. It has since taken on a life of its own.

Coathangers

2006-04-17T14:04:00.000-04:00

Stained Glass for Falwell's Church

Rights

2006-04-17T11:14:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the ACLU Freedom Files? They are being shown on Court TV but the ACLU also has the complete episodes online here. They are great programs on voting rights, gender rights, racial profiling, religious rights, etc. [You can knit while you watch to help sooth your anger.]

Interior design

2006-04-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

New floor upstairs

No War

2006-04-16T16:23:00.000-04:00

I have taken this sign to New York and Washington for anti-war marches. I'll be going back to New York for the big rally on April 29th. I wish I could just frame it and hang it on the wall instead of continuing to march. It, of course, is called No War.

Spring Flowers

2006-04-16T14:17:00.000-04:00

Spring has arrived in Connecticut: Daffodils with pansies.

Waiting for the bees: looking inside a daffodil.

Quilt

2006-04-16T13:50:00.000-04:00

This is a quilt that I made for Ron for cold winter nights of insomniac surfing. It covers him from nose to toes and is backed with Polar Fleece.

Reverse Applique

2006-04-15T14:39:00.000-04:00

Inspired by Hmong, Gujarat, Hawaiian and Central American reverse applique, this piece is made of three layers of fabric with the design cut into the top and middle layers, revealing the dark spots from the back layer.

Watercolor Paintings

2006-04-15T12:22:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a series of watercolor paintings over the past couple of years based on a 'doodle' style. Sometimes they seem to have been influenced by the tatoos of the South Seas, like the Maori. I painted Revolutionary Spirit last year. [Sorry about the reflections. I didn't unframe it to photograph it.]

Chanticleer

Sometimes events in the news interfere with making 'pretty' pictures. Below is Three Iraqi Women.

Here is a watercolor collage called Flame Aloe.

Macro photography

2006-04-14T22:19:00.000-04:00

Macro photography using a Canon Powershot G6 set up with a reversed 50mm lens attached with an adapter. For this technique, see M. Plonsky's site at http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/

After the rain, a drop of water hangs on the honeysuckle vine:

The barbs of a bluejay feather:

Knitting

2006-04-14T09:42:00.000-04:00

I made this reversible blanket and cap for my grandson last fall. The scarf below is reversible as well.

I mostly knitted the scarf while on a trip to Chile last year. I found design ideas in the pottery and weavings at the National Museum in Santiago and other places along the way.