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Loving-Kindness Tea Cup (Poem)
Steam rises from the tea.
Consider these things.
Every being that had contact with this tea,
Be it an insect, animal or person,
Was just like me:
Each wished to experience happiness
And to avoid the pain of suffering.
So as I drink this tea,
A great happiness in itself,
Let me pause and wish for all of those:
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you be free from fear, judgment or ill will.
May you grow in compassion, wisdom, and love.
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No Money-Making Going On Here!
Just in case you ever wondered, I make no money in ANY way from this site. It’s not incentivized at all-no Amazon affiliates or any other such nonsense. I weirdly have NO financial side-hustle going at all in my life, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, if I mention some brand of tea or food in passing that I happen to use, it’s because I LIKE IT, not because I’m trying to sell you something. We clear?
Also along these lines, I’m an ordinary person. What I mean by this: I’m NOT a professional writer to try to get you to buy my latest book of poetry or cookbook. If I write about food and go on occasional rants, I’m doing so as a USER, someone who knows their way around a kitchen for sure and has a local rep maybe, but I don’t do this for money and haven’t been classically trained. I cook out of necessity and love. My kitchen looks like someone actually uses it. I also don’t look like I just stepped off the cover of (insert the latest fashion mag) in said kitchen.
This is written in reaction to yet another bad food blog experience AND to wordpress’s persistence in suggesting that I too can use my site to make big bucks, if only I’d get with the program. (By which I’m assuming that means somehow WORDPRESS gets part of this, else why would it care?) But here’s the thing-I’m supremely uninterested in doing so. Shocker, I know. But though I have times when I struggle a bit, I’m okay with how my life is arranged. I can afford food, tea, and cover what I need to for myself and whippet. I do not want to bow down to Amazon or Google or the like. They can call it partnering all they want. I don’t want them on MY site. I know, I know. Twig against the tide. But that’s me.
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Another Food-related Rant
This one has to do with Simple Truth products, marketed by Krogers. I suppose the Simple Truth PRODUCE is edible (and maybe some of the canned beans, Idk), since I would (usually) recommend organic. However, I say ALWAYS buy LOCALLY grown fruits and vegetables from your farmer’s market, if these are available. I’m going to take a leap of faith here and assume that YOUR farmers will have the same high standards that OUR local farmers do and grow organic, most of ’em. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
Simple Truth. Is it? Really? I want food, not religion. And I want GOOD food. For everyone. So I’m here to warn you. DO NOT BUY SIMPLE TRUTH CONDIMENTS. Especially products like: soy sauce/tamari sauce; tahini; and the like. They suck out loud. The tamari is so truly awful that I’ve thrown the bottle out, rather than use it. I have no idea why they would even LABEL it tamari, as it bears no resemblance to tamari, other than being roughly the same color. It has little taste and will bring nothing to your dish. Ahem. After that little tirade, perhaps I shouldn’t get started on my opinion of their version of tahini. You can no doubt guess that it’s NOT GOOD. Lol. IF you wish to buy condiments and stuff, for the love of whatever deity or thing you hold dear, take my best advice and buy brands that are known to specialize in these products. If you like experimenting, try different brands. But stay away from this generic “we’ve got to be good because we say we’re organic” and we’ll try making EVERYTHING brand.
Look. In this day and age, most grocery stores, including Krogers, offer you a fairly wide variety to choose from when selecting your flours, condiments, baking products, snacks, and produce. What I’m saying is that you can usually do better than Simple Truth. And that’s the truth.
