Just a quick post to apologize for my extended absence. Life happens, you know? But I am in fact still alive. Here’s a little pet project I’ve been working on: a picture of Brandon from Easter.

http://yvod.com/marisa/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/DSCF0267-2.thumbnail.png

Feel free to email me and tell me what you think.

~m

No Trans Fats!
No GMOs!
No Chemical Pesticides!
No Artificial ANYTHING!

Real Food Now!

From the people who brought you the Meatrix. Go see it. And join the revolution!

~m

Barack Obama for President!

Because this man makes me want to believe that “politics as usual” is not how it has to be.

Go, Barack. You’ve certainly got my vote.

~m

MAN it’s cold. I mean seriously cold. Weather like this demands comfort food and a fire. So last night I made up a rip-roaring fire and cooked this hot steamy colorful pile of root vegetables and meat:

Leeks-n-beets …

It’s just fun to say!

2 Leeks, well washed and then washed again after cutting
3 bunches of 3 beets each, also scrubbed clean with ugly bits peeled off, but leave the rest of the skin; reserve roots and greens for other delicious uses
A stick of butter
Some water
A container of chicken broth
French gray sea salt (my current favorite, I use it on everything)
seasonings to taste

Thickly slice leeks and cut beets however you like them - I sliced mine thickly and then cut them into 3
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Here’s wishing all of you a peaceful, joyful and blessed 2007. Thanks for all your support and encouragement over the past year.

~m

Recently, I had a stellar experience with a local florist. As they were helping me pack my things into my car, they asked me to review them online. They told me they had accidentally discovered several online referral sites and were surprised to see glowing reviews of their business on them and that they’ve noticed a substantial increase in leads and sales from those particular sources. I chuckled to myself to hear my own advice given to me by a small business owner, grabbed their card, made a mental note and went on about my way.

I thought it was such a good idea that I mentioned it to Ulan as a free way that small businesses can quickly and easily
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I recently began a conversation with a webmaster who we are working with to provide consulting to a client. I forwarded him an email from Gerry McGovern, who I consider one of the leading content gurus of our time.

Here’s a snippet from Gerry’s newsletter about Intranet Search:

Intranet search performs miserably because most organizations do not properly manage their content.

Most intranet search delivers lamentably poor results. Time and time again, I hear staff plead: “Why can’t we just get Google?” But buying Google-or any other search engine for that matter-will not solve the problem.

Gerry’s argument is that throwing a search engine, no matter how robust, at poorly managed content will not deliver the results you need. You are better
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A really insightful look at the food chain that sustains human life. The author delves first into the story of corn, which underpins much of our highly processed diet in America. Next he examines organic, and in particular “industrial organic” food, and then compares that to small-scale, local, sustainable enterprises. Along the way he touches on the history of farm policy, plant evolution, “the distinctive innate desires of a chicken” and much, much more. Finally, he goes to great lengths to personally experience something as close to hunter-gathering as the current state of our world allows, and even probes the vegetarian question. He offers no easy answers, but instead really interesting questions. I’ll certainly never be able to shop at
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So here’s me getting creative with leftovers again. Anybody who knows me, knows I hate leftovers. Passionately. But “new-overs” I don’t mind a bit! New-overs just means transforming boring old leftovers into something completely new and mostly unrecognizable as its previous incarnation.

Here’s where I started: Last night I baked some chicken thighs and made some quinoa with walnuts to go with it. If you’re not familiar with quinoa, it’s a tiny little grain from South America that has lots of nutritional value and a nice nutty sort of taste. Well, by the time dinner was ready I really wasn’t hungry and neither was my roomie, so I just put the chicken and quinoa away.

Today comes along and I’m just
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Welcome to the world of Challenge Day

Three weeks of hard labor. We redid their site from top to bottom. It’s done.

Will post more once I get some sleep.

Oh by the way watch them on The Oprah Winfrey Show today at 4PM PDT.