Sophie's Story

                   Over the years, I've found that I enjoy trying things. Sometimes things turn out well, like the pot of white bean rosemary soup made from dried great northern beans.  Sometimes they don't, like the basket made from rag yarn. I don't mind the fails. The fun is in the attempt.                Several months ago I rediscovered my love of tofu. This led me to several vegan cooking channels. I found a lot of cool ways to season and use tofu in dishes and have really enjoyed experimenting with it. One of these cooking channels showed something that looked very interesting to me.   The content creator made what she called Homemade Vegan Deli Slices. It called for tofu, vital wheat gluten, olive oil, cornstarch, nutritional yeast and various species.          It looked interesting to me. On days when I know it's going to be busy at work, I...

           Lately I've been watching a vegan cooking channel on YouTube. I started watching it because the content creator had a lot of good tofu recipes. There recipes mostly have ingredients that I already have or could easily obtain if I wanted to.           I look at a lot of things that she cooks. On her channel, eating a plant based diet seems to be pretty simple and affordable. Everything looks so good, especially the kale salad that you can customize with all kinds of things. (The secret is massaging the kale.) I could see myself adopting this type of eating. Except for one thing.          Cheese. Well actually the whole  dairy category. I like milk and yogurt, but I love cheese. I love almost all cheese made from cow's milk. Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, asiago cheese are all good things in my opinion.           Maybe it's because I have some W...

           Yesterday, I went to spend some time with my friend, Dana, at her home.            I have no idea how long we have known each other. We met when both of us were members of Small Town Toastmasters. I remember one time mentioning that I wanted to learn how to knit. An elderly customer used to bring nice knit dishcloths to me at the pharmacy, but was unable to knit. I wanted to learn so I could make more for myself.           After meetings we used to go to a local bagel shop and socialize. One morning,Dana brought knitting needles and yarn. She showed me how to do the purl and knit stitches. That has led to several baby blankets, scarves, shawls, non baby blankets and a lot of yarn for future use. It was also the start of great friendship.           We don't get together nearly as much as either of us would like. Both of us work and that is part of the ch...

           In Red Wing there is a store in the depot down by the river. Area artists of all types can sell what they create there.  There is jewelry, pottery, pictures, carved wood and hand dyed silk scarves to name a few of the items sold there. It's a bad place for me to go into because I almost always see something I like and I usually purchase it. I'm wearing one of the things I bought there right now, a round gold pendant with a rose on one side and rays radiating from the center on the other side.          One time last year when I went in there I saw a silk scarf. It was cream coloured with splashes of red, fuschia, purple, pale blue, pale green and pale yellow. It was beautiful and I wanted to buy it. It was a bit expensive and honestly, when would I wear it.? I have many scarves that are in my closet that I don't wear. Since I'm trying to become better at not purchasing things I won't use, I left the scarf in the store...

           The primaries are over and we are now in the season I dislike the most, election season. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the right to vote, but I truly despise what happens between now and the first Tuesday in November. Hateful speaking will be pouring out from everywhere and since there are women running for office in Minnesota it will be even worse thanks to rampant misogyny in our culture.          I believe there is a better way. It will be less expensive so candidates for office can't be bought  by businesses and other groups. It will give voters information on candidates so they can vote for the person they believe is best. It would also give third party candidates a chance to get their information out there equally with those of established parties.          I think that candidates for public office should be treated like people interviewing for a job. All public offices filled by...

           Today is International Cat Day, created in 2002 by the  International Fund for Animal Welfare. Most cat "owners" know that every day is cat day when you live with one. Although the day is meant to bring awareness to the welfare and protection of cats, I'm using it as an opportunity to write about Barnaby.           For those of you new to this column, Barnaby is a three year old cat that lives with us. He is big and fluffy with a white and orange coat. He looks a lot like a Norwegian Forest cat, but is not a purebred cat. He came to us via a coworker of mine who was running a small scale rescue of cats living on an abandoned farm near her home. Many of the rescued cats became working cats on farms after neutering/spaying and vaccination. She was looking for a home for Barnaby as she felt he would do better as a housecat. She described him to me as "starving for affection".          When ...