Verbena

While staying at the Mauna Kea for our anniversary I snagged every last tiny bottle of L'Occitane en Provence goodies, all of which were verbena scented. It's a light, sweet, citrus smell. Yum. I'm obsessed.

Verbena is an herb with about 250 species in its family. It flowers in many different colors and you can enjoy it as a scent in a perfume, soap, or lotion or sip it in a tea. It's known as a stress reliever and a depression soother. Here are some great verbena finds on Etsy, where you can find my Treasury.

Lemon Verbena Milk Soap

Tub Tea Soaks

Verbena Lane Fairy Crown

Artisan Perfume Oil

Lemon Ginger Tea

BlueMuseArt

Follow-up to Lesson Plan- L O V E

On Valentine's Day I decided to a little lesson with the 8th graders on Love. At first, my intention was to do this lesson with my advisory class only, but since it was getting real interesting hearing Tween thoughts on love, my English class was also subjected to "Love's Not" and required to write two paragraphs; the first on what love's not and the second on what love is. The following are some of the results, spelling edited to spare you.

"Love is not going to make everyone hurting. And it is not a bag of rocks."

"Love is something the peoples like. And it is a special stuff that couples have. And it makes them happy."

"It is something you do to love someone you love."

"Be better, be myself, be brave, be quiet, be happy."

"Love is friend-wise, fiancee-wise, and family. Love is sharing. Hebrew meaning for love is "I give."

"Love is a journey you take with someone you love through good and worst. When I think of the word love, I think of a million words to say."

"I think love is a cruel joke that your mind plays on you. Love was meant to break hearts."

Ideal Job: Cafe owner

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Someday me and MHD will have our own cafe. We both love coffee, good food, cooking good food, and delicious baked goods. I'll leave it up to her to come up with a witty/quirky/cool name for the place (because she embodies all those qualities) as we envision a European-esque coffee shop cafe with no-nonsense offerings, a cozy and quaint atmosphere, and the kind of service you can usually only get at grandma's house. She will run the front of the house (she is an excellent boss and has the best customer service skills of anyone this side of the Pacific) and I'll run the back (running a kitchen is one area where perfectionism pays off). And you all will come and be our loyal customers.

Here's a sample menu (very incomplete, only dreaming here, and in no particular order).

La Menu

La Frittata

Served with country-style potatoes, homemade toast, and a side of fruit

Choose from:

- Goat cheese, asparagus, and tomato

- Pesto and kalamata olive

- Bacon, chedder, and green onion

- Salmon, cream cheese, and sun-dried tomato

La Pancake

Served with a side of fruit

Choose from:

-Old fashioned

-Cornmeal

- Whole wheat

La Egg in a Hole

Served with homemade toast, country-style potatoes, and a side of fruit

Two fried eggs cooked inside their own toast home

La Bakery 

Scones: various for ex: cherry chocolate walnut, lavender, honey cinnamon

Croissants: almond, lavender, ginger, butter:)

Muffins: lemongrass poppy seed, etc

La Baked Apple

Served with butter and warm cream

La Weekly Special (rotating)

-Greek Breakfast: homemade toast served with olive oil, plain yogurt with honey, and Greek coffee

-Spanish Breakfast: tortilla espanola, pan y chocolate (bread and hot chocolate)

-Island Breakfast: open-faced Spam musubi topped with a fried egg, half papaya, and Kona coffee

-Italian Breakfast: prosciutto, parmesan and egg sandwich on baguette bread, cappuccino or espresso

-Japanese Breakfast: miso soup, rice ball, hard-boiled egg, and green tea

-English Breakfast: scone, soft-boiled egg, choice of hot tea

-French Breakfast: croissant and espresso or pressed coffee

Lesson Plan - L O V E

Valentine's Day is important to 8th graders. Remember hoping you'd get a Candy-Gram or secret admirer? And then not getting a Candy-Gram or secret admirer? It's tough being a tween. That's why I decided that this Valentine's Day, we're gonna talk about it.

This lesson plan is intended for my (20 minute) advisory class.

First, play this song: Love's Not by Mars Ill
Ok, some slightly inappropriate content, but I can get away with it (hopefully) since it's not mean-spirited.

Then ask them: So what is love?
I'm imagining a Lauryn Hill circa 1998 album intro where the kid's in a classroom discussed love. (Sorry, the link is not exactly what I meant, but if you are a fan, you KNOW). At 14 years old, I distinctly remember thinking that love meant you would kill yourself for that person, hmmm...can't wait to hear what my student's have to say.

To be continued...

The Fifth Taste: Umami

All foods (or things that can be tasted) can be grouped into five taste categories; salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. The curiosity of umami only recently came to my attention and I've sense been entranced by the "delicious taste." (Umami means delicious taste in Japanese).

Our first encounter with umami is breast milk, so you can imagine that most of us like the flavor. Umami can be found in foods like: mushrooms, soy beans, cured seafood products like sardines, shrimp, potatoes, soy sauce, eggs, pork, and much more. The foods I've enjoyed recently that have umami are miso soup and paste, roasted seaweed, Kabocha squash, walnuts, and shoyu poke. Miso paste can be used to marinate fish and shrimp or you can make salad dressing from it, too.

Fun umami finds:

ArtisanalSpice