After getting home from work yesterday, I began my annual Xmas cookie baking marathon. I tried a new recipe that yielded a batch of incredibly delicious raisin oatmeal spice cookies. The recipe calls for different spices–ginger, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and I forget what else. Turmeric is not listed, but of course I added at least a teaspoon and a half of organic turmeric to the cookie dough. And, now that I have tested these cookies on Stefano and some of my dearest friends who gobbled them down as though they were set on winning a substantial monetary prize at a “stuff-your-face-with-sweets” tournament!, I can safely say that turmeric doesn’t hurt the taste of spice-based cookies at all; on the contrary, it gives them a lovely “goldish” glow. Crunchy on the outside, moist on the inside and a bit spicy (in a GOOD way, mind you)…this turned out to be one of my best Xmas cookie recipes ever…
Well, while I was in the middle of baking batches of cookies, doing laundry, preparing pizza dough and cleaning the kitchen, I got a call from my sister telling me that Dad had developed a horrendous rash on the back of his knee. “Whaaat???!!!,” I screeched. She said that he had been seen by his family doctor who wasn’t sure if the rash had been triggered by a tick bite or a brown recluse spider bite or…something else. As you can imagine, I was very alarmed. Still am…
Dad was tested for a bunch of things, but we won’t have the results for a few (?) days at least. Until then, he is on antibiotics. I must say, it’s in moments like these that I really hate being so far away from my parents…from my family in general (my sister and niece live in Arizona). I wish I could just drop in on them now and again (beam me up, Scotty!)…I wish we could all spend the holidays together…I wish…
At any rate, later on I spoke with my parents, who reassured me that the rash is indeed scary-looking but already seems to be fading. So I am not making any plane reservations…yet. But I confess that I did look at flights to Boston…
I spent the evening at a friend’s house, a get-together that had been planned last week. There were eight of us, all enthusiastic card players. We paired off and played cards and laughed and horsed around and ate cookies until after midnight. Ah, who won, you ask? Well, my partner and I, of course! (No, not Stefano…he doesn’t like to play cards, especially with a bunch of rowdy women…can’t really blame him, eh?)
This morning I went to the Misericordia of Badia a Ripoli (where I can make an appointment to have my blood drawn at a specific time, which is fabbbulous: I was in and out in 10 minutes!). I will have my blood test results by mid January…these will be my saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) results.
Now I have to figure out what my next experiment will be. Reishi? Guggulsterone? Boswellia? Something else? Who would have thought, just a couple of years ago, that I would have so many choices?
Who would have thought?
Margaret, in your blog is something interesting to read about inositol and inositol-IP6.
I use this for a while now, but because I swallow several substances, I do not know what the contribution of inositol is. What do you think?
So how about the recipe for the turmeric-laced cookies? (And the happiest of holidays to you. Thanks again for all your work on our behalf.
Lucie
Quite right, Lucie. I use my own version of “Diane’s six-spice oatmeal raisin cookies” (see link below). I have started to play around with the spices a bit, for example I add more ginger and so on, plus of course I add some organic turmeric, at least 1.5 teaspoons, AND obviously I use LESS sugar (especially the white sugar). I like this recipe because it’s so versatile. The cookies keep for quite a long time, too. Happy Holidays to you, too!
Here is the recipe link: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Dianes-Six-Spice-Oatmeal-Raisin-Cookies-100764
I had seen your blog some time ago but didn’t know if it was actually still active. Now I see that it is. Great idea for cookies.
If you are interested–or maybe you’ve covered this–I came across a fine “recipe” for making our own liposomal encapsulated vitamin c. This is the version of vitamin c that is more bio-available than even the intravenous delivery used in surgery. Here’s a link to the protocol/recipe: http://pdazzler.com/2009/08/11/make-your-own-liposomal-encapsulated-vitamin-c/.
The liposomal vitamin c is great. But–I wanted to see if we might encapsulate curcumin with a similar protocol and using the same ultrasound technology (as in home jewelry cleaners). You have talked about your experiments with heat and various oils or fats, etc., and my attempts simply take that same approach but try to add liposomal encapsulation to it.
My results seem to be successful. This is true visually and more certainly for pain and inflammation relief. So I feel confident that the curcumin is in fact a genuinely optimized version. (“Optimized Curcumin” is the term used in the UCLA studies and by Verdure Sciences to market that product.) I’m sure someone could do an analysis of the results and determine more clearly just how optimized it is. Again, as we know from heating curcumin in, say, coconut milk or oil, it can be completely dissovled. But the encapsulation effect, as in the tested version of vitamin c, holds the promise of being the powerful extra element needed to bring us much closer to that 100% you have mentioned, i.e., a truly useful and highly optimized product.
I should add, too, that the “recipe” results in a butter-like food product rather than a pill or capsule. I find this much more appealing and useful. I’m sure many will know what I mean by this.
Sorry if this post is out of date or out of touch with your current concerns. I saw the reference to tumeric and thought I’d at least send my post along in case it might be interesting or helpful. If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to send the recipe for the encapsulated curcumin. (Jim: girma1jo@gmail.com)