Fellow blogger Paul Buckless often shares recipes, and this week I tried two of them.

When I wrote about cooking kohlrabi, Paul commented, "You can also grate it raw and dress with a little lemon juice & olive oil." I didn't find kohlrabi again until this week. The produce manager told me it wouldn't really be in season until August. The kohlrabi I found was not the freshest, but I bought it anyway, because I really wanted to see if I liked it raw.

It was crunchy and reminded me of cole slaw. There was none of the turnip taste that it had when I cooked it. My daughter turned thumbs down, but my son and I both liked it. Next time I may add more lemon juice or some grated lemon rind. Definitely we like kohlrabi better raw than cooked.

One of my goals for the summer is to get a repertoire of breakfast food that is traditional enough to appeal to my daughter, but good for her blood type. Today I tried Paul's Oat Shortbread Biscuits. An ongoing joke in our family is that if we try something new and it is good we say, "Try it you'll like it." But if it is really outstandingly good, we say, "Don't try it. You won't like it. I'll have to eat it all myself." My daughter was really hungry when she came in from swim practice. When the biscuits came out of the oven, I tasted them first, shook my head and said, "Don't try it…" She grabbed one, and another, and another. When her brother came in a short time later, he said, "What smells good." She said, "Don't try it…." and he grinned.

There was only one problem with the Oat Shortbread Biscuit recipe. It may make enough for Paul and Sue, but it was NOT enough for two teenagers. Next time I make a double batch.

Saturday was so hot and dry that I thought it might not rain again until September. Now it has rained for 30 hours straight, and I wonder if we're going to have a Seattle summer.

The kids and I went to the library - a good rainy day activity. The library air conditioner must have been expecting a hot summer day, because it was refrigerator cold in there. That was when I thought about running. It was nice and cool outside - a rare opportunity for a comfortable summer run. All I needed was a 30 minute window with no rain. One time in the afternoon I got as far as block from the house before the rain started up again.

I kept yesterday's promise for an earlier dinner. When I called for everyone to wash hands at 7:00, no one believed me! Finally about 10:15 there was a break in the rain. The radar showed more showers coming, so I announced I was going for a quick run. My husband said, "Are you sure that's a good idea? Is it safe to run alone at this time of night?" With those two questions he was really saying "I'm concerned about your safety" and "I love you." I was disappointed to miss the run, but I'll be content with sit ups and shoulder shrugs.

Our first swim meet of the season was rained out tonight, but I learned something about my internal clock.

My husband gets home between 6 and 6:30, but he doesn't want to immediately sit down to dinner. He likes to read the mail and watch the news first. So during the school year we have dinner around 7:30. During the summer dinner time is even later. We swim laps from 7:00 to 8:00, so often it's close to 9:00 before we eat.

Tonight's meet was to start at 6:00. That meant warm ups at 5:00. There were lots of swimmers and the meet wouldn't be over until late, so I decided to eat my dinner before the meet. I had left over cod, a sweet potato, and watermelon. It surprised me, but I liked eating dinner at 4:30.

Storm clouds moved in, and the coaches postponed the meet. When my husband and kids ate at 7:30, I was still satisfied from my early dinner. I sat at the table to enjoy the conversation, but just had a glass of water.

Having dinner together is a priority for our family. I certainly don't want to eat early and miss the good companionship around the table. But I could use the oven timer and the crock pot more, so that we're ready to eat when we come in from the pool. I could eat my meat late in the late afternoon and have fruit and or salad at dinner time. I wonder if anyone else in the family would benefit from an earlier dinner time. I'm going to have to work on this.

On a different subject. There is a restaurant where my son and I like to eat liver & onions. Today I tried cooking liver & onions for lunch. I cut the liver into thin strips and cooked it slowly in a skillet. I cooked the onions separately in grape seed oil. We both agreed it was very good, rivaling the liver & onions in the restaurant.

I opened the Sunday comics and in "The Better Half" Harriet is on the phone saying "I need a babysitter for Friday night. Someone to watch my husband while I'm out so he doesn't cheat on his diet." That must go on my refrigerator door!

Then I read "Frank and Ernest." The scene is a ballpark. Frank says "We started out with first inning peanuts…followed by second inning nachos…third inning sodas…then fourth inning pizza…fifth inning chilidogs and sixth inning ice cream. The final panel shows Ernest being carried to an ambulance as Frank says "Now it's time for the seventh inning stretcher."

After church we had barbeque for lunch. The restaurant offered green beans seasoned with grilled onion as a substitute for potato salad. It was very good.

I baked a loaf of spelt bread in my new bread machine. I haven't tried it yet since I try not to mix grain and meat. The family said the flavor was excellent, but that it wasn't as light as my bread usually is. I'll have some for a snack tomorrow, and then see if I can adjust the recipe to fit the new bread maker.

Now that the yearbook is finished, my next professional job is getting graduation pictures delivered. I make the pictures I take at kindergarten and senior graduation available to parents. To make a long story short the photo labs I normally use both had equipment failures. I wound up driving across town today and waiting three hours for a new lab to print a sample of their work.

The day was hot, it was lunch time, and I hadn't packed either food or water in the car. There was a shopping mall nearby. I thought I'd run errands while I waited and get a bite to eat. Strike one - I couldn't find anything I wanted at the mall, and there was nothing to eat that wasn't loaded with avoids. (Pretzels, fried chicken, ham sandwiches, and pizza, were plentiful. But there wasn't even a plain hamburger much less anything fresh.) I had heard of a Farmer's Market in the area. I thought I'd see what fresh vegetables were for sale and buy a cool fruit juice. Strike two- The day was so hot that all the vendors had closed up early.

I was close to a shopping center with a health food market. There I hit a home run. My bread machine had burned out last week. I found a sturdy one on sale for 1/3 off. Now I needed spelt and rice flour. Walnuts were on sale, and I bought two bags. Best of all the deli had roast beef with no avoids. I bought 1/3 pound of roast beef and a bottle of water. That quelled my frantic hunger and thirst.

What I learned today: First, when I leave home, even if I plan to be back soon, I need to take food and water. I leave myself vulnerable to snatching an easy avoid when I am frantically hungry. Second, it was better to deal with hunger pangs than compromise. A pretzel at the mall would have tasted good in my mouth, but gone sour in my stomach. Third, a deli is a good place for a Type O to find relief. I could buy beef by the pound with no tempting bread or chips. Definitely, the roast beef was worth waiting for - and so was the photo lab.

One of my daughter's friends spent the night with us last night. She is a delightful girl and a loyal friend, but her eating habits are as extreme on one end of the scale as mine are on the other. She saw something called the "Slaughterhouse Video." (If you know what it is I would love to hear a synopsis, but I have no desire to see it) The video convinced her to be a vegetarian. However she doesn't like many fruits or vegetables, so she is not a vegetarian in my understanding of the word. She eats typical teenage fare like cheese, pizza, chips, sodas and cookies. She doesn't eat hamburgers or pepperoni on her pizza. That is her definition of a vegetarian, and it seems to make perfect sense to the other teenage girls.

As my daughter and I discussed dinner plans, I found myself identifying with our approaching guest. In the past year I have been in some awkward situations at other people's homes. It's much nicer when friends are accepting about what I choose to eat, rather than making me feel like I've hurt their feelings by not eating everything they prepared. It was important to me that my daughter's friend felt welcome in our home.

We decided to have spaghetti and salad. I had romaine lettuce, spinach, and carrots in large bowls so everyone could make their own salad. I had ground turkey, ground beef, spaghetti noodles, and spaghetti sauce in separate bowls. Everyone also assembled their own plate of spaghetti. I fixed rolls that were ok for the As, but not for me. My daughter's friend and I laughed when we saw each other's plates. I had salad topped with lots of ground beef and a little spaghetti sauce. She had noodles topped with sauce only.

If you are in a mixed O and A family, and you are wondering how I made my spaghetti sauce, I may as well confess. My husband and daughter are not willing to give up tomatoes (yet). They've given up beef and started drinking soy milk. They have made lots of other changes. But they are not ready to let go of the tomatoes. I made homemade Type O spaghetti sauce - no sweeteners like the commercial brands have and lots of spices.

For breakfast this morning I made the pineapple muffins from RECIbase. My daughter's friend had never eaten a muffin. She tried it, and liked it.

The yearbook is in the hands of the Federal Express man!!

Tonight I was catching up on personal and BTD mail. I had received a note from an 8th grader who wants to do a Science Fair Project on the Blood Type Diet. She wanted to know what I thought about the diet and how it had worked for me. After I answered her, I realized that I had just typed a pretty good blog. Some of it repeats a little bit of earlier blogs, but some I have never shared here before. Here is what I wrote :

I love science fair projects. Our whole family gets involved. Here's my Blood Type Diet story.

I started having indigestion - pain in the upper part of my stomach combined with a lot of burping. I did all the things the self help books said to do and I got worse! I went to the doctor. Because my mother had also had problems with indigestion that caused her to have surgery, my doctor was concerned. He put me on prescription medicine for two months. The prescription helped a little. Then he sent me in for a lot of tests. The tests showed that I didn't have any of the physical problems that usually cause indigestion. My stomach was inflamed, and he didn't know why. The nurse said, "It's diet and stress."

At first that made me mad. Why couldn't the doctor tell me what was wrong with me? Then I prayed, and as I prayed I thought, maybe the nurse is right. Maybe I missed something. So I went to my favorite Health Food Store and started looking up indigestion in the indexes of their books.

When I got to the Blood Type Diet, it said that Type Os were more likely to have indigestion than any other blood type. I was a Type O. It said that wheat and milk were two of the biggest causes of indigestion for Type Os. I ate wheat and yogurt every single morning for breakfast. No wonder I had indigestion!

I started the Blood Type Diet immediately. I didn't start slowly. I went all out, all at once. My family thought I had gone crazy. No more bread? No more pizza? No more ice cream?

I felt better the very next day. Before the end of the first week I was only taking the prescription every other day. Before the end of the second week I stopped the prescription and have not ever needed it again.

I have been on the Blood Type diet almost a year. No more indigestion. No more joint pain, I have lost 15 pounds without even trying. My muscles are getting stronger because I have energy to exercise more and I am eating more protein.

If I eat wheat or milk products, I can tell that I don't feel as good. Sometimes my stomach rumbles and churns. Sometimes I get real sleepy. Sometimes I get a headache.

I will eat according to the Blood Type Diet forever. The alternative is to feel bad and take medicine every day. That's not the way I want to live!

Let me know how your science project turns out.

Last winter and spring I swam one day a week at an indoor pool owned by our school district. Its primary use is for high school swim teams, but they are open for lap swim at mid-day and late at night. Though it is a heated pool, the water was always cold. I asked why, and was told that competitive swimmers like the water cold because it improves their times. I didn't understand, and I didn't like it that my toes were numb for the first 200 meters I swam.

Our outdoor neighborhood pool opened over the weekend. Last night I succeeded in finishing my yearbook work in time to join my husband for lap swim. Yesterday was the second day of record-breaking heat, and the water in the pool was very warm. I started my laps and I felt like I was trying to swim through pudding. Suddenly I understood why racers like cold water. I would say to myself, the next lap I'm going to sprint, but my arms and legs were barely moving through the water.

Normally I have plenty of time to swim 1200 meters. Last night when they blew the whistle to close the pool, I had 2 laps to go. Note to self: next winter when my toes are numb, appreciate the fact that I'm swimming faster.

Today I'm typing this blog again from my school computer. Lunch is the last of the lamb with turnip greens and black beans. I have carrots and sesame butter for a snack, but I'm hoping to finish the last three pages before my stomach says it's snack time.

This week is the final deadline for the yearbook. I was at school most of the day Saturday and all day on Memorial Day. I've been here since 9:00 this morning, and I hope to finish before 7:00 tonight so I can join my family for a swim. I'm typing a quick blog while I eat my lunch. I packed lamb, parsnips, and butternut squash. The other teachers are across the hall at an in service meeting. If most of them could see what I choose for lunch instead of joining them at a nearby restaurant, they would be astonished. The kindergarten teacher is a Type O and follows the Blood Type Diet. I saw her with the book last fall, and we've had a couple of good conversations. Both librarians are Type As. They naturally tend toward vegetarianism, and when they read the Type A Food and Beverage guides they felt affirmed.

I never get enough sleep during deadlines, and I always feel guilty about the things that go undone at home. But I have felt really energetic during all three deadlines this year, and I know it is because of the BTD. I pack lots of beneficial food, and stop for frequent snacks. On Saturday I found a major mistake on one of the pages. I felt panic set in, and I wanted something to eat - NOW! I grabbed a bag of walnuts and raisins, and started munching as I pulled out the picture files and started to rework the page. One nice thing about walnuts is that they don't smudge pictures! By the time the walnuts were gone, the crisis was resolved.

We had a superb dinner tonight. Other bloggers write about having lamb on a regular basis. But lamb is really expensive at my grocery store, so I haven't bought it often. That is about to change. Sam's Club sells boneless leg of lamb for less than $4 a pound. This afternoon I roasted lamb for my son and me. (The Type As had left over chicken)

We have new neighbors across the street, and they have put in a garden. They brought over two of the largest onions I have ever seen. They are called Sweet 10-15s. Our neighbors said to cook them in foil in the oven with butter and salt. They were delicious with the lamb.

Fresh cherries for dessert were the perfect ending to the meal.

If anyone sells t-shirts like the ones Melissa proposed I will buy one and wear it proudly!

At the store today I saw a lady about my age in a t-shirt that said, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself." It was supposed to be funny, but really, it was kind of sad. There are many people my age paying the price for 50 years of eating the wrong foods, and they don't know what to do except deal with the discomfort, take prescription medication, or make jokes.

Comments this week were mostly about sunscreen and kohlrabi. Carla comes from a gardening family. She got this kohlrabi information from her mom. "They get bitter for two reasons: from being exposed to the air, (which is why storing them in water helps) and if they are old. You can tell if they are old because the cut end will have little woody fibers sticking out the bottom. Mom's best advice: get them as fresh as you can (straight from the garden if possible) store them uncut and unpeeled, and use them quickly. If you must store a cut kohlrabi, take a slice off the cut end and discard it before eating the rest."

Stephanie writes that there are companies that make mineral make up that acts as natural sunscreen. (Perhaps zinc and titanium are two of the minerals) Here are brands suggested by Stephanie: Jane Iredale, Bare Essentials, and Youngblood. She has also heard of oils having sunblocking properties. She thinks they may be Rice Bran oil and coconut oil. If any of you have information on that please pass it along.

I can't recommend a physical sunblock. I've ordered two brands to try. Here are some of the companies I found that make physical sunblocks, and you can read about them on the internet: Birch Trees, Physician's Complex, Kiss My Face, SkinCeuticals, Dermatone.

I keep thinking about that lady and her t-shirt. It could apply to spiritual health as well as physical health. We are going to live forever, just not in this world. I shudder to think of souls in the afterlife wearing t-shirts saying, "If I had known I was going to live forever, I would have had a personal relationship with God."

I have been trying to eat healthy for long enough that I know I have to read labels, but sometimes I still get caught off guard.

For years I've taken Kyolic garlic. When I started the Blood Type Diet and saw that garlic was neutral, I continued to take it. Then I noticed that the number two ingredient, is whey! I was horrified. I checked the other garlic labels in my health food store. Every single one contained either whey or soy oil. I wound up buying garlic tablets that don't seem to have any avoids at Walmart of all places. But I rarely take it any more unless a virus is going around.

My son used to get migraine headaches. We traced them to MSG, chocolate, and sodium nitrite. After years of reading carefully reading labels, I thought I knew which of the standard products were safe for him. Most lunch meat has sodium nitrite, but Oscar Mayer's oven roasted turkey breast did not. Since other brands without sodium nitrite had corn syrup or other offensive additives, I've been a loyal Oscar Mayer customer for years. For some reason, the week before my son came home from college, I glanced at the turkey breast label and saw "sodium nitrite". I wrote the company to complain. They answered, defending their decision and implying that they now add sodium nitrite to all their meat products.

Two nights ago dinner was almost ready, when I realized I needed another vegetable that I could eat. I keep some canned vegetables in the pantry for such occasions, and I grabbed a can of neutral English peas. The label said they had sugar in them. They had also changed the name from English peas to "sweet peas". When did this happen? At the store yesterday I read pea labels. Every brand had sugar, or worse, corn syrup! I'm going to check the health food store to see if they carry peas without sweetener. Otherwise, I guess it will be frozen or fresh peas from now on.

Will I trust products, even at health food stores, without reading labels anymore? No whey.

I have chosen to follow the Blood Type Diet rather than take medication for GERD the rest of my life. My husband has chosen to take blood pressure and cholesterol medication rather than diligently follow the BTD. That's his choice, but it does mean that he has to severely limit his favorite juice (and Type A beneficial) grapefruit juice.

Last night my son was in charge of preparing drinks for dinner. He asked his dad what he wanted. Dad answered, "What kind of juice do we have?" The first choice was grape juice (Type A neutral). It was rejected. The second choice was pineapple juice (Type A beneficial). "That's worse," said Dad, "I'll take grape juice."

I let the subject drop last night, but picked up the thread of conversation at breakfast this morning. "What you have to understand," he said, "is that there are reasons people like potatoes and orange juice and don't like, what was that green stuff we had the other night, oh yeah, kale. Potatoes and orange juice taste good and kale does not. It's not a conspiracy. General Foods has PhDs in marketing who study these things. There is a reason they don't sell kale. People don't like it."

He paused for a breath, but before I could jump in with a rebuttal, he went on. "I know; that's why people are over weight and have heart attacks and high blood pressure. It's because they eat things that are not good for them. I eat a lot of the stuff you give me because I know it's good for me. But don't kid yourself. It doesn't taste as good as pizza and French fries."

I handed him his lunch box as he walked out the door. "I hope you enjoy your lunch," I said. "It's a soy cheese and turkey sandwich." "Soy cheese," he said, breaking into the first smile of the morning. "That's a food that tastes good!" I silently resolved to continue my quest for good tasting healthy recipes.

I just got home from the store, and the produce department is bursting with summer fruit, all much less expensive than last week. Peaches are in; watermelon is in; cherries, strawberries, and grapes are cheap. As soon as I finish this blog, I'm going to wash fruit and make a fruit salad. Half will be for us, and half to take with a casserole to friends who are sick this week.

While I was picking out my fruit, I saw a mom with two small children. One of them was whining - loudly. I smiled at the mom and said, "Has anyone told you today that you're doing a great job as a parent?" Her eyes lit up and she just beamed. I went on, "My youngest is starting high school next year. These years go by so fast." "I know," she said, and we both went on with our shopping.

By the way, I didn't mention that her little whiny one was saying over and over, "I want an apple. I want an apple." The mother of a child who is begging for fresh fruit is certainly doing something right!

My son's summer job is life guarding. This is his fifth year working at the pool. Yesterday he made his first rescue of the season. A 5th grade girl went down the slide into deep water and couldn't swim.

When he came home from work I saw two red spots on his chest where he had missed rubbing sun screen. That introduces today's blog.

Last summer as I was first reading about the Blood Type Diet, I saw that while Os are less prone to most cancers than other blood types, we are more prone to melanoma. I don't need to nag my life guarding son about using plenty of sun screen - they talk about that subject at every training session. I did decide to increase my daily use of sunscreen. I bought a tinted moisturizer with sunscreen for my face, and a moisturizer with sunscreen for my neck and arms.

Toward the end of the summer there was a line in one of Heidi's columns about sunscreen causing cancer. WHAT!?! I went to the internet and read enough to stop using the sunscreen moisturizers. I put the subject on the back burner for the winter, but the approach of summer has forced me to reexamine the topic. I'm going to urge you to do your own internet research. It's very controversial, and I'm just going to scratch the surface in this blog.

It turns out that there are physical sun blocks and chemical sun screens. The sun blocks are zinc oxide (which all of the web sites consider safe) and Titanium oxide (only 1 website I read cast aspersions on titanium oxide).

The chemical sunscreens are: benzophenone-3 (Bp-3), homosalate (HMS), 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate (OMC), octyl-dimethyl-PABA (OD-PABA), and butyl-methoxydibenzoylmethane (B-MDM)

There has been research in Europe that has linked 5 of the chemical sunscreens with cancer. The researchers observed that they "behaved like oestrogen in lab tests, making cancer cells grow more rapidly." I asked Dr. D'Adamo and he confirmed that some substances in sunscreens have "shown to act as xenobiotic estrogens."

It is the chemical sunscreens that have made the 30, 40 and 50 SPF sunscreens possible. It is the chemical sunscreens that are used in water proof and sports sunscreens. All of the grocery store brands are chemical sunscreens. I found one physical sun block at my health food store. There are several brands available on the internet.

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!

One thing I'm learning is that if I let myself get frantically hungry, I am tempted to grab whatever is close. Knowing how bad an avoid will make me feel, I drink water, eat sugar free peppermints, and make myself wait. But once that point of frantically hungry is reached, a reasonable amount of beneficial food does not satisfy, and I eat too much. Feeling stuffed with beneficial food is not nearly as uncomfortable as feeling stuffed with junk, but it still feels stuffed.

When we get out of church I am really hungry, and I want lunch NOW. But lunch is at least 20 minutes away. I have started putting a bag of walnuts and a bag of figs in the car on Sunday morning. As soon as we get to the car I get a snack. By the time we get to a restaurant and order our food, I am ready to eat, but not desperate. When I first started doing this my family teased me, now they say, "Mom can I have a handful of your walnuts?"

Yesterday we ate at a Chinese restaurant with friends. I ordered beef and broccoli with steamed rice and without the sauce. It was delicious, however, it came with an eggroll and I just love eggrolls. Since I've been recently reminded that cabbage is neutral I decided to eat the eggroll, though it was likely that the crust contained wheat and that it had been fried in an avoid oil. With the first bite I knew it was worse than that. There was pork in this eggroll. I should have put it down, but I did not. I tasted eggroll all afternoon.

Food is deeply linked to fellowship at church functions. During my health nut years, I could hardly ever find much to eat that wasn't highly processed. Now, on the Blood Type diet it's even worse - I can't even eat the little cheese cubes on the fruit and vegetable trays. But, there always seems to be an abundance of donuts, chips, cookies, and soda.

Yesterday morning someone brought chocolate peanut bars to our Bible study. It was easy enough to politely decline. Peanuts are avoids for Type Os and I've been very allergic to chocolate since I was 8 years old. It made me smile, however that as the plate went around the room almost everyone made a joke about how fattening the bars were or how their doctors would not approve. The most poignant comment of all came from our teacher as the empty plate was returned to the couple who had brought the snacks. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled." Matthew 5:6

I am so encouraged by your comments. Here are just three from this week.

Carla says that she doesn't cook kohlrabi. She peals it, cuts it in sticks, and eats it raw with dip. My favorite vegetable dips are almond butter and tahini (sesame seed butter). Carla recommends a silken tofu dip, which I will try. (The memory of my first tofu test is fading). Carla's other hint is to lessen the strong flavor by covering the kohlrabi sticks in water in the refrigerator overnight. Would that leach out the water soluble vitamins along with the flavor?

Tonight we had breakfast for dinner: eggs, soy sausage (for the As) and jicama pancakes from a recipe by another Suzanne. The whole family liked the pancakes - yes even my husband. Next time I will have to make a bigger batch, because I only got two.

3 cups shredded jicama

½ cup rice flour

garlic powder

salt (or seasoned salt)

1 egg

Squeeze shredded jicama between paper towels to remove excess water. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Heat about ½ inch of olive oil in a large skillet. The oil is hot enough when a pinch of batter sizzles. Form loose patties with the batter and fry until golden on both sides. Do not cover the pan as this will create too much moisture and the pancakes will not crisp. Because there is no potato starch, there will be less sticking, but you will need to add more olive oil to the pan as you cook because the jicama absorbs the oil. Be sure the oil is hot before adding more batter. This is the key to getting light crisp pancakes.

I cooked mine on a griddle, with the heat set to high. I poured a pool of olive oil on the griddle, waited until the oil was hot, then put a patty of batter in the oil. When it was time to turn the pancake, I poured another pool of olive oil.

Lila wrote that a Bible verse led her to the Blood Type Diet. She is struggling with some health issues, and remembered the verse "for lack of knowledge, the people perish." That started her reading and studying. When she read ER4YT it rang true.

I'm trying to keep an open mind about kohlrabi and turnips because they are both beneficial. I tried turnips several weeks ago and they did not make a good first impression. They had a strong taste, and I ate them reluctantly.

Joan wrote saying she had tried kohlrabi for the first time and had liked it cooked with lamb. I couldn't find kohlrabi in my stores until this week. I bought some and cooked it together with chicken, carrots, and onion.

When I first tasted it I thought, "Kohlrabi either tastes just like a turnip or my produce manager doesn't know the difference and sold me turnips of a different color." After one bite, my husband picked out the onions and carrots and left the kohlrabi for me and my son.

I took a bowl of the left over kohlrabi to school one afternoon when I knew I would be working past dinner time. Surprisingly it tasted less like a turnip. Not bad. This morning I mixed the last of the kohlrabi with some mozzarella cheese. It didn't taste like a turnip at all. In fact I rather enjoyed it.

Now the question is - does fresh kohlrabi taste like turnips, but leftover kohlrabi taste good?

OR

Do both kohlrabi and turnips lose their strong taste over time? (If so I can cook them one day and serve them the next.)

OR

Am I getting just getting used to a new taste?

I guess the only way to find out is to buy more turnips and kohlrabi.

I've been irritable for the last 24 hours, and I'm not really sure why. The weather was so warm and muggy that I really didn't enjoy my run yesterday. Students whose grades need a boost at the end of the semester refused to turn in an easy assignment. I wrote out a grocery list, and then left it in the car my son took when he went out with friends. When I finally did get to the grocery store, I had to take in a cart that someone else left in a parking place - again. A friend took a different position on a political issue that is important to me.

My stomach is irritable too. It probably didn't help that I ate a breaded veal cutlet with my son.

I know I've not had enough sleep. We were jolted awake at 1am Monday because our son was having car trouble. I didn't get home from school until 9 pm Tuesday night, and I must work that late again tonight. Last night I played a computer game to relax - bad decision. Computer games are like black holes in my clock. When I stopped playing it was late, and there were still chores to do.

So, now what do I do? First of all, just listing the insignificant things that I have let irritate me has made me laugh at myself. Second, I have juiced a ginger root, and I'm fairly certain ginger & water will settle my stomach. If I manage my time this morning, I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight.

There's a spiritual component to my irritability as well. I've been thinking about the verse "Do not be weary in well doing." I try to be polite to others. I try to eat right for myself and cook right for my family. I try to help my students and my community. Yesterday I felt like I was the only one trying, and I wanted to stop trying, too. Of course I am not the only one. But even if I was, I am not responsible for all the others. I am only responsible for living my life the way God has called me to live.

The produce department at the grocery store has new signs. They are based on the Color Diet, so naturally, they are very colorful and attention grabbing. At the top they say "Eat 5-a-Day for Better Health"

It makes me smile. How would a Type O manage on ONLY 5 fruits and vegetables a day? I eat a minimum of 9-a-day; often 12 or 13. I have a fruit (grapefruit, pineapple, or dried figs) while I'm fixing breakfast and packing lunches for the rest of the family. After they are out the door, I eat my seed and fruit mixture (another 2-3 fruits). I've had 4 fruits before 8:00 AM!!! I have 2-3 cold leftover vegetables with beef for lunch, a snack that almost always includes a fruit or vegetable when I get home from school, and another 2-3 vegetables with dinner.

Even my Type As who are allowed more grain and beans get 6-8 servings of fruit and vegetables. I might need to be careful of my serving definitions. If I grill an onion and cook greens or squash with it, I don't measure; I just count it as two vegetables. If I fix a big salad with Romaine and fresh spinach, I count that as two. If I season with garlic or horseradish, I don't count either of them.

I worked for one part of my journalism career in advertising. So I began to think about what kind of posters the D'Adamo clinic could print and donate to produce departments. The four lists of beneficials would certainly be confusing. And listing avoids would be sure to cause conflict. My college son is not happy to find that I don't intend to put oranges or orange juice on my summer shopping list.