I put in a 12-hour day on the yearbook computers. I packed lots of food for the day: 1 hamburger patty, 1½ cod fillets, a bag of cherries, a bag of walnuts & pumpkin seeds, green beans, okra, spaghetti squash, a bag of carrot sticks, and a mango fandango spritzer.

I never stopped for a meal, I just grazed off and on all day. When I shut the computers off at 9:30 there were only 4 pages left to finish, and only the okra was left in my food sack.

The hectic nature of deadlines hasn't changed from when I was doing my college yearbook 30 years ago. But the stress is so much easier to handle with BTD food. In college I was drinking Dr. Pepper, coffee, and eating ice cream. I'm surprised I could think at all. Four years ago I wouldn't take time to eat, and when I got desperately hungry I would grab whatever was fast - almost always wheat based. I came home irritable and snappy.

I'm tired tonight, but not exhausted.

My son is taking a summer school class that starts at 7am. I'm going to bake some muffins so he will have a good start for his first day of class. While they bake I'm going to work out on his exercise machine. Then I will be ready for a good night's sleep.

School is out. I have just finished calculating the grades for my Journalism class. At the end of this week I ship the last of the yearbook pages off for printing. I meet with the principal for final approval on Wednesday. On Thursday I meet with my publisher's rep. whose sharp eyes always find things I have overlooked.

Between now and then I have to finish proofing the work the students have done. There are also a few pages left for me to do. Most of those are end of school activities like graduation. Unfortunately, some students blew off their final page assignments, and I'll have to do those pages too. Their parents will wonder why they got a bad grade in elective!

My mind is already turning to next week and the end of deadline stress. I have continued cooking beneficial food for the family, but it has been simple and unimaginative. Tonight, for example, we had cod, green beans, okra, sweet potato fries and rice. I am looking forward to experimenting with some new recipes and perhaps even some new foods.

The neighborhood pool opened this weekend, so I'll be swimming 4-5 nights a week. It's already too hot for running except very early, before breakfast. My son has joined the gym again this summer, and I hope he will have some interesting new upper body exercises to teach me.

End of school activities and deadlines have meant that I've been getting to bed way too late. I am looking forward to 7 hours of sleep a night. I'm even looking forward to attacking the backlog of chores that I've been postponing until summer.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to reading! There is just no time to curl up with a good book during the last weeks of the spring semester. A week from Monday will find me at the library!

In the meantime, deadline week is upon me. I'll be working all day tomorrow, even though it is a holiday.

Last May I wrote a blog about the difference between chemical sunscreens and physical sun blocks. Here is the link if you don't remember that blog.

http://www.dadamo.com/bloggers/h/archives/00000045.htm

I ended by saying, "Here is what I plan to do for the summer. For mid-day water activities, we will go ahead and use high SPF sunscreens. For hiking, biking and non-water activities we will use only sun blocks. No more chemical sunscreen in makeup or moisturizer for me!"

I followed that plan all summer, and for the rest of the year.

This week there was another news story linking sunscreens to cancer, but with a different twist. Several studies have linked Vitamin D to cancer prevention. Over use of sunscreens keeps your body from making Vitamin D. The conclusion of the studies was that since people rarely die of skin cancer, and Vitamin D helps prevent more serious cancers, over use of sunscreen, "may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents."

Here is a link to one of the news articles about the study.

http://www.picayuneitem.com/articles/2005/05/25/news/21sunshine.txt

So here is my revised summer plan. It can't possibly be good to let ourselves get seriously sunburned - plus it hurts! Dark tanning has left many of my high school friends with leathery, unattractive skin. I'm glad I didn't ruin my skin when I was young, and I will discourage my kids from dark tanning.

We will continue to wear sunscreen for mid-day water activities. We won't use sun protection at all before 11 AM or after 4 PM. If I'm going for a quick run or bike ride, I'll forego the sun block. However, if we're going to be in the direct sun for a long mid day activity, we'll use sun block to prevent burning.

That should give us enough sun for our skin to make plenty of Vitamin D. My daughter is happy, because that much sun will also give her a very light tan

I made two observations during dinner tonight.

One is that I think I might like spaghetti squash as much if not more than I like spaghetti noodles. Warning: If you have never eaten spaghetti squash, do not rush out and buy some thinking you will agree with me at first bite.

I have been avoiding semolina pasta for almost two years now. Some of the time when I've fixed spaghetti sauce I've poured it over a salad like salad dressing. Other times, like tonight, I've poured it over spaghetti squash. It is remarkable how much spaghetti squash looks like very thin pasta. It does not have as strong a flavor as other members of the squash family; so (like pasta) it does not compete with the flavor of the sauce. The texture is something like slightly overcooked noodles.

If you have been eating pasta your whole life, the first time you try spaghetti squash you will certainly notice the difference. But after a while, like me, you may come to appreciate the fact that it is not starchy like spaghetti. You may like the fact that it is easier to eat and it doesn't continually try to escape from your fork. You may be pleased that you don't feel stuffed and bloated afterward as you would after a big plate of pasta.

For two years I've eaten spaghetti squash because it was a neutral vegetable rather than an avoid grain. Tonight, I realized that I would choose spaghetti squash over spaghetti noodles because I've come to like it better.

My second observation has to do with As, Os, and meat. I cooked one pound of ground beef and one pound of ground turkey for our spaghetti dinner tonight. We served buffet style from the stove. Everyone got as much food as they wanted. All of us were pleasantly full but not stuffed at the end of the meal. My Type O son and I finished off the entire pound of ground beef. My Type A husband and daughter ate less than half of the ground turkey.

It's one thing to read in Eat Right for Your Type that a little meat protein goes a long way for Type As, while meat is beneficial and essential for Type Os. It is another to watch the two types making natural choices that perfectly illustrate the fact.

I fixed Jill's pumpkin waffles for breakfast. It is funny how my husband who doesn't like pumpkin, loves these waffles. Every time I fix them I hold my breath, hoping he won't ask what they are. Today he didn't ask; he just ate happily.

Today was the last day of class for my daughter. She has finals starting tomorrow, which means she gets to come home at noon to eat and study. As she ate her waffles, I said, "Can you believe this is the last lunch of your freshman year? Into her lunchbox went a container of salmon. I packed a box of carrot sticks, celery sticks, and radishes along with peanut butter for dipping. I added a bag of soy crisps and a box of juice.

I fixed a turkey sandwich for my husband on Ezekiel bread with miso and soy cheese. My son slept in, so he had pumpkin waffles and eggs for lunch. His days of sleeping in are coming rapidly to a close. The pool opens this weekend.

This would have been a longer blog, but I've been called to review my daughter for her health final.

Call it vanity if you will, but I don't like the lumpy look on my legs. I'm not overweight; in fact since starting the BTD I weigh less than I have since high school. The muscle tone in my legs is quite good, especially for my age. Still, when I look in the mirror I'm confronted with cellulite.

Various people on this and other websites have recommended body brushing as a way to combat cellulite. I was intrigued by Rachel's comparison of body brushing to giving a horse a good brushing. I don't relate as much to horses, but I have often watched the pleasure a dog or cat gets from being brushed.

So several weeks ago I decided to try it. The first few days it was scratchy and uncomfortable. But as my skin got used to it, I'll admit it really felt good. Then I began to watch to see if I noticed any difference in my legs. It's hard to tell day to day. Some days I would think, "Yes it's making a difference." Other days, "No I can't really see any change at all.

So I have decided to try an experiment. I'm going to be diligent about brushing twice a day - once before I take my morning shower and again before I go to sleep at night.

BUT - I'm only going to brush my right side. After a month or two if I can't see a difference between my two legs, I'll know body brushing was just another diet & exercise hoax. However if it works, I'll know I'm on my way to two smooth legs, and I'll have something worth blogging about.

I'm just one person. If you would like to join the experiment, start today brushing only one side. A month from now - let's say July 1 - drop me a note and tell me whether there is a visible difference between your two legs.

Yesterday morning I joined a discussion on the Forum about whether to be scared of produce companies who rinse packaged salad fixings with very diluted chlorine and water. Later in the day I swam a mile at the pool. Last night I washed all of the fruit and vegetables I had bought in two trips to the store. It seems like a good time to write about how and why I wash produce.

Way back in my early health food days, I read several nutritionists who recommended rinsing fruits and vegetables in water and Clorox. At first the idea horrified me. I thought of Clorox as bleach for the laundry. Then I read their logic and was horrified that I hadn't always rinsed my produce this way.

Picking produce is dirty work - literally. If workers are picking organic produce, they may have organic fertilizers (quite often manure) on their hands. If the produce is not organic, there are bugs and chemicals in the soil and on the plants. Add to that the fact that clean restrooms with running water are not available to field workers, and you have produce that is potentially covered with bacteria - some of it very harmful. Water will rinse away most of the dirt, but will not kill the germs.

The original "recipe" that I found for rinsing vegetables was this:

½ tsp Clorox per gallon of water.

Rinse thin skinned or leafy vegetables for 10 minutes.

Rinse heavy skinned or root vegetables for 15 - 20 minutes.

Then immerse in a water bath for 10 - 15 minutes.

I have changed the procedure only slightly in all these years.

If you follow this recipe, you will just barely get a whiff of chlorine. By comparison when I went to the indoor pool last night, the smell of chlorine was quite noticeable. I jumped right in the water and swam happily for 45 minutes. If I am going to be paranoid about chlorine, I would have to give up swimming before I gave up rinsing my produce.

When I washed vegetables last night, I first scoured my kitchen sink. My sink holds 2 gallons of water, so I began running cool water into the sink and added the Clorox. I started with thick-skinned produce. Wearing dish gloves I submerged the fruit and vegetables and rubbed them lightly.

After a few minutes I drained the water and refilled the sink, this time adding several drops of concentrated, pure, unscented liquid detergent. (Right now I'm using Amway LOC, but I have used other products) The detergent breaks the surface tension and makes it easier to scrub off any remaining dirt or sand. I scrubbed the sweet potatoes and parsnips with a vegetable brush during this phase.

I drained the water again and ran a sink full of plain water. I did other kitchen chores while the produce spent 10 - 15 minutes rinsing in the plain water. I lifted each item out, rinsed it under running water, and put it in my dish drainer. Rather than waste a sink full of clean water, I added Clorox to the clean water in the sink and started the process over for the thin-skinned produce.

If you are still hesitant, one of the posters on the Forum said she found a reference in the ERFYT Cookbook to rinsing produce with Clorox and detergent.

One last thought for the day. Eating beneficial foods and avoiding avoid foods are essential for building good health. Exercise is equally important. But those two things alone cannot make you healthy. My Bible study today took me to Proverbs 16 24, which says "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones." Proverbs 17:22 says, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones."

If you really want to be healthy - be kind to someone today in Jesus' name, and laugh with someone you love.

A headline about exercise and depression caught my eye.

The article said that the Cooper Institute did a 12-week study of 80 people with mild to moderate depression. They found out that working up a sweat by doing aerobic exercise reduced their symptoms by about the same amount as taking antidepressants (47%).

However, only people who worked out for 30 minutes at least three days per week got the beneficial effect. People who exercised 80 minutes a week showed no improvement.

A further study group did stretching and flexibility exercises for 15 - 20 minutes 3 days per week. Their depression symptoms were reduced by 29%.

I exercise 30 - 45 minutes six days a week, so I get more than double the exercise touted by the study. No wonder I feel so good!

This has been an incredibly busy week. My journalism class is putting out the last issue of the newspaper as well as preparing pages for the final yearbook deadline. There are also daily end of school activities that must be photographed.

Today was a really long day, and I knew I needed a good lunch. There was some leftover spinach & raisins (I had cooked it with ghee, and it was delicious). I had roasted a leg of lamb for my son and me, so I cut two slices. Last night before I went to bed, I put a sweet potato in the oven and set the timer so that it would turn off after an hour. When I got up it was ready to put in my lunch sack. I was on my feet most of the day, but had energy to spare.

My husband is calling me to go for a walk, so I will close this blog. We always enjoy a good conversation when we walk. Now we know we're getting a "mood-boosting benefit" as well.

I know I am a week late on my Mother's Day blog. A major thunderstorm was rolling through our city just as we got out of church on Mother's Day. The rain was unexpected and severe enough to concern us about flash flooding. I suggested that we go home to eat lunch. It would be safer. Plus, our son was coming home from college, and by postponing my Mother's Day lunch one week he could be with us.

The restaurant where I wanted to eat is called Gini's. It used to be purely a health food restaurant, but the owner began advertising on the radio, and soon it had a city wide following. One day when we went there to eat the doors were locked and the lights out. I thought they were out of business. I recently found out they had rebuilt at a new location. I had not eaten there since I started the BTD.

My son, remembering old favorite meals at Gini's, asked if I was going to order chicken livers, and I said I was. Accompanying the livers were split pea soup, spinach, and sweet potatoes. It was not until my food arrived that I realized how my eating had changed on the BTD.

The livers were coated in whole wheat flour. That used to be a big plus, but now it is an avoid. The spinach was creamed spinach - delicious, but again laced with avoids. The sweet potatoes were mashed in a casserole. I would guess that milk and sugar were added in addition to the spices. The split pea soup was thickened with Irish potatoes. My meal was served with a corn muffin, which I did not eat.

Everything tasted delicious. From the standpoint of a health food restaurant, all of the ingredients were pure. However from the BTD standpoint, what should have been a very beneficial meal was mingled with avoids. It met Dr. D'Adamo's criteria of compliance (70 - 80 % beneficial or neutral), but it was way more avoids than I normally eat. Next time I will ask them to leave the wheat coating off the liver, and order a salad instead of soup.

My husband and children were so sweet and paid me many compliments. I am glad I made being a full time mom a high priority when my children were little.

One of the places I go to climb stairs is at a medical center parking garage. I like it because there are 5½ uninterrupted flights of stairs. Today there were an unusual number of cigarette butts littering the stairs.

My first thoughts were judgmental. I imagined some lifetime smoker going in for lung x-rays, stopping on the stairs for a cigarette before his appointment. As my heart rate went up, my attitude softened. Perhaps it was a spouse or adult child, sneaking out of the non-smoking doctor office for stress relief as they anxiously awaited news of a loved one.

I count the stairs in 3 groups of 5½ flights. By the end of the first group I was sweating, and becoming more philosophical. I thought back to my childhood. Smoking was accepted as normal. It was in all the movies. The only people who spoke out against smoking were the Baptists. I remember a little jingle that kids used to taunt the Baptists:

Don't smoke

Don't chew

Don't go with boys that do.

Then came the surgeon general's report that proved the Baptists were right. Today you would be hard pressed to find anyone, even at a tobacco company who believes that smoking is good for you.

Now well into the second group of 5½ flights, I was breathing hard, and thinking about aerobic exercise. Again I thought of my childhood. The President's Council on Physical Fitness had us doing sit-ups and long jumps, but nobody talked about cardio vascular exercise. I didn't know anyone who ran for exercise until I was in college. Then the research of Dr. Ken Cooper and others became widely accepted. Today PE teachers have 1st graders running around the playground, trying to instill in them a lifetime habit of cardio.

By the third group of flights my muscles were burning. I began to think about food. There are a lot of false ideas that are generally accepted today. Kids need milk. Red meat is bad for you. Eat whole wheat bread. Diet soda aids weight loss.

At what point will the wrong ideas be abandoned and the principals of the Blood Type Diet become as accepted as the dangers of smoking or the need for cardio vascular exercise. What amount of publicity, or what series of health crises will it take for there to be a general awareness that we are not all alike. That Type As are suited to be vegetarians, Type Bs are the only ones who really need milk, and Type Os thrive on red meat.

I could not read the answer in the cigarette butts in the stairwell. But when that day comes, it will radically change the type of problems bringing people to that medical center.

We have some dear friends who have been missionaries in Europe for more than 20 years. She is the 2nd person I ever knew who had celiac disease. At the time she was diagnosed I was really into whole grains and was quite mystified by her diet. They are back in the states for a visit, and e-mailed suggesting we go out to dinner with some mutual friends.

Two places were suggested. A popular new Asian restaurant called "Payway" was selected. I'll admit I was skeptical - with a name like that I felt like I would be eating in a convenience store. It was my task to get directions for everyone, since none of us had eaten at this restaurant. After a long Internet search I finally realized that while I had the pronunciation correct, the name was spelled Pei Wei.

During the course of the Internet search I came across a website about celiac dining in Austin. Pei Wei was given a good review for having a gluten free menu. This was great because it meant that our missionary friend could order with confidence.

I was interested in the site because, while I don't have celiac disease, as a Type O I do try to avoid wheat. I'm going to include the link to the site because while you probably don't live in Austin, some of the restaurants listed are national chains. I also found it helpful to read what menu items at the local restaurants were found to be wheat and gluten free.

http://www.popartsplace.com/Celiac/

I ordered ginger broccoli with beef. It came with brown rice prepared just right. Everything was delicious. My husband ordered a rice bowl. He loved it and had some left over for today's lunch. In fact everyone at the table raved about their meal. Of course the spirited conversation among old friends was the best part. We would have had a good time even if we really had eaten in a convenience store.

When my children were very small, I made a deal with them about shots. If they would be brave and not cry, then after the shot I would take them to the toy store and they could pick out something they wanted. My favorite memory is of my daughter the summer before she started kindergarten sitting in the waiting room tightly holding my hand, her lip slightly quivering. All around us were loud, screaming children; but she remained calm. She still has the fluffy, white cat we bought on the way home.

As they got older, we switched the reward to food. If they would go for their shots without complaining, on the way home we would stop anywhere they wanted for a treat. For children raised by a health nut mother, this was a very big deal.

Yesterday my daughter was due for her tetanus shot. On Saturday I was listening to a Q&A radio program hosted by a doctor. A woman called in concerned about whether she should have her children inoculated. He gave her all the risks and all the statistics. Then closed by saying; "Parents in America have never seen someone with tetanus or diphtheria or whooping cough. Most have not seen the results of polio. They do not realize how horrible these diseases are. If they ever saw a child with diphtheria, they would realize how fortunate we are that for the most part these diseases have been wiped out in America."

Anyway, back to the subject. Yesterday my daughter was due for her tetanus shot. She said, "Do we still have a deal? Can I get a snack afterwards?" I said yes - she could have anything she wanted if she didn't complain about the shot. After much thought, she chose a pie shop.

On the way there she said, "You're going to have a piece of pie with me, aren't you, Mom?" Ah, she had read my mind. I was debating that very question in my mind. If I was going to get my favorite kind of pie it would be coconut cream. But I realize that there are no beneficials, and probably no neutrals in a piece of coconut cream pie.

She interrupted my debate, "You're not going to make me eat alone, are you?" Hmm, I thought. Eating a piece of pie would be a sacrificial act for my child. Now there is an interesting thought. They do have fresh fruit pies - perhaps if I got a beneficial fruit.

She ordered raspberry pie; I ordered blueberry. It was delicious. We sat in our booth and had a good conversation. We celebrated her courage in the face of the needle and that she won't have another shot until 2015.

I aim for 10 fruits or vegetables every day. Yesterday I had prunes, bananas, plums and grapes. I also had lettuce, tomato, onion, butternut squash and broccoli.

I have never had a garden, but someday I hope to plant one. A gardening friend sent this cute e-mail.

Plant two rows of peas:

1. Peace of mind

2. Peace of heart

Plant three rows of lettuce:

1. Lettuce be faithful

2. Lettuce be kind

3. Lettuce be patient

Plant four rows of squash:

1. Squash gossip

2. Squash indifference

3. Squash grumbling

4. Squash selfishness

Among your herbs plant some thyme:

1. Thyme for family

2. Thyme for friends

3. Thyme for God

Cultivate with love so there will be much fruit in your garden. Remember, you reap what you sow.

The family's eating schedule was off today. Our daughter went on a shopping expedition with friends. They didn't stop for lunch until 4pm. My husband usually takes our daughter out to lunch on Saturday. It is their time alone together. Since she was off with friends, he had a 12 inch turkey sandwich from Subway all by himself. I was up very late last night, so I slept until 10:00 - a rare occurrence. Breakfast was late, so lunch was late as well. None of us were very hungry at dinner time.

Rather than fix the meal I had planned, I pretended I was a short order chef and let everyone choose their own meal. My husband wanted soup and salad. He had mushroom barley soup from the health food store and a salad made with romaine lettuce, fresh spinach, cauliflower, and radishes.

Our daughter wanted a tuna melt. It is tuna with canola mayonnaise and Spike seasoning on an English muffin (Ezekiel makes a surprisingly good English muffin), broiled under the broiler. The original recipe called for a slice of melted cheese on the top - hence the name tuna melt - but she leaves off the melted cheese. She also had a salad like her dad's.

For myself I fixed a large bowl of salad greens and grated carrots. I added ¾ can of tuna and some olive oil. It needed flavor. I sprinkled ½ teaspoon of curry powder on the top and tossed it thoroughly to disperse the curry. It was a good combination of flavors, and turned an ordinary tuna salad into something quite exotic.

If you really love shopping at Whole Foods, skip today's blog. But if you feel guilty that you can't afford to shop at Whole Foods, or if you grieve that you don't have a Whole Foods near you, perhaps this blog will ease your mind.

In my county I am blessed to have a variety of choices when it comes to buying food. There are several small health food stores. My favorite is near my house, and I've known the owner for 25 years. It was in her store that I read for the first time about the Blood Type Diet. She is a Type O who had been a vegetarian for years, and she attributes the BTD with saving her life.

There are also two major grocery store chains, plus a few independent grocers. There is a large independently managed health food market. And there is Whole Foods. Part of the reason I don't shop at Whole Foods is that it is a considerable drive from my house. Today, however an errand brought me right by the store, and I stopped to pick up a few items I can't get at the stores closer to home.

Ever since the recipe for escarole and adzuki beans was posted on the Forum, I've been looking for escarole. Whole Foods usually carries a lot of fresh greens, unfortunately they were out of escarole, so that recipe will have to wait a while longer. They had red Swiss chard, so I bought some of that instead. For the most part everything in the produce department was one and a half times as much as in the other health food market.

I walked by the meat counter, thinking of dinner tonight. Even though I know Whole Foods is expensive, it was still shocking. Everything was 3 to 4 times as much as the hormone free meat I buy elsewhere.

In the bulk area I found amaranth for a very reasonable price. I can't get amaranth anywhere else, and my husband and daughter enjoyed it tonight. My husband said it's not quite as good as grits, but since I don't make grits anymore, he was glad to get it. I also found brown rice flour in bulk for a better price than I usually pay for a package.

One of the other bloggers had written about dried blueberries at Whole Foods. I searched for them - $16.99 a pound! I'm sorry; I just can't pay that price. They went back on the shelf. The stores where I usually shop have stopped carrying the chocolate covered coffee beans that my daughter likes. Whole Foods had them for $12 a pound. Sorry, she will have to do without.

The most shocking price was seeing the exact same brand of soy milk that I buy at the regular grocery store for 95 cents. The Whole Foods price was $2.69.

If you like Whole Foods and can afford it, I have no quarrel with you. It's just too expensive for me. If there is not a Whole Foods in your community, don't waste any time bemoaning that fact. You can stay within your budget and eat right for your type quite successfully at a regular grocery store or at a more reasonably priced health food store or market.

Heard on the radio:

"God made your body;

Jesus paid for your body;

take care of that body!

Increasing obesity statistics are making their mark in the comics. This from "The Other Coast" last Sunday.

The scene is a county fair circus midway. Plump adults and children are walking around with double dip ice cream cones, popcorn, pizza, and corny dogs. Standing by a sign that says "Freak Show" is a barker in a stripped hat with a megaphone. He is saying, "Step right this way ladies and gentlemen! See the amazing slim lady."

My son called from college yesterday afternoon. He and his roommate had bought ground beef in bulk to save money. This is the last week of school, and they need to clean out the freezer, but they are tired of spaghetti and tacos. He wanted to know some fast, easy recipes that he could fix while they are studying for finals. I gave him three quick ideas, one of which would be good for them both. The other two had Type O avoids, but would be good for his Type B roommate.

On my agenda this morning is to get the grass mowed, then enjoy a slice of the eye of round roast that I cooked late yesterday. I have some leftover Swiss chard to eat with it. I usually buy red Swiss chard because it tastes like beet greens to me. Beet greens are my second favorite greens, spinach being the first. Green Swiss chard was all that was available last week, so I tried it. I was surprised; it tastes just like the red. Swiss chard may move into second place on my favorite list simply because I don't have to figure out what to do with the beets that unfortunately come attached to the beet greens.

One last word of wisdom from my morning Bible Study. Proverbs 15:15 - 17

He who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure with trouble.

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred.

My husband's mom is suffering debilitating pain from arthritis, and we have wanted to go see her. This weekend some close family friends were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, so it was a good time to make the trip.

Her pain has been so severe that she has stopped cooking. She had planned on sending out for food while we were there, but I volunteered to cook. She is Type A, like my husband and daughter, so I tried to fix foods that were easy, tasty, and good for her. For one meal I fixed steelhead trout, black-eyed peas, and broccoli. For another we had grilled chicken breasts, green beans, and cranberries.

The 50th Anniversary party was wonderful, and we saw many friends. There was a long and luscious buffet. As I walked past, I realized that everything except the fruit tray was made with wheat, cheese, or both! I was so glad I had eaten a salad before the party. If I had arrived hungry, I would have been in big trouble. As it was, I limited myself to plate of pineapple and strawberries.

Desserts have been important in his family, so before we left I made up my mind to enjoy one, but only one avoid laden dessert. I wanted to be sure it was a good choice. Because his mom is in so much pain and is not cooking, the dessert choices were not as abundant as they used to be. There were several kinds of ice cream, but ice cream is available at home. The cake at the anniversary party was absolutely beautiful, but cake icing isn't as tempting as it used to be. It tastes way too rich to me now.

What was tempting was something called a fresh fruit torte that a cousin had brought by the house. It was some kind of firm custard in a light crust topped with mounds of fresh fruit. At first all I could see were blueberries, strawberries, and grapes piled high. This, I finally decided would be my avoid of the weekend. It was absolutely delicious. The combination of custard and fresh fruit was wonderful. I enjoyed every bite. But I stayed true to my word, and that one piece was my only weekend avoid.

On the way home I began to wonder if I could make a custard with eggs and soy milk. If so I could make a fresh fruit torte that was all beneficial and neutral. This is definitely something worth looking into.