LETTER FROM PARADISE, PART 2, and Hawaiian Coconut Dessert

coconut tapioca pudding - hawaii Allerton Gardens

We got a sample of the kind of Eden that once existed on Kauai when we visited the Allerton Gardens, a breathtaking tropical jungle created by Robert Allerton, a wanna-be artist from Chicago and heir to a family fortune, who purchased the land in 1938.

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LETTER FROM PARADISE (with recipes)

Family trip to Kauai, 50th Anniversary, Hawaiian recipes: Chocolate Macadamias and Shave Ice. So much catching up to do! I came back from a family trip to Hawaii with stories to tell and ideas to share. Dean and I celebrated our 50th anniversary in June and our kids treated us to a party while we were all together on Kauai. My husband put together a slide show hitting some of the high points of our life together; some that even our kids didn’t know about…

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HOLLYWOOD TRIP

I just got back from a trip to Los Angeles to make some cooking videos~I’ll let you know when and where they eventually show up. My son recently moved into a new place in Hollywood Hills and we shot the videos in his very small, but cute new kitchen. He posed with me for the picture above in the middle of the street beside his house with the “Hollywood” sign in the background. (c) 2012, Judy Barnes Baker, www.carbwars.blogspot.com

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SWITZERLAND

My husband had a business meeting in Switzerland the week before Thanksgiving and I decided to go along since I had the chance. The picture above shows a unit at the Palafitte Hotel on Lake Neuchatel (literally ON Lake Neuchatel) where we stayed. It was like being on a luxury cruise without the rocking. Switzerland is known for watches, knives, chocolate, banking, and because it is a mountainous country better suited for grazing cows than farming, it is also famous for its marvelous cheese and…

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The 3rd Annual Low-Carb Cruise

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“The Fascination” at the Carnival Cruise Terminal in Jacksonville Florida. Debbie Cusick took this “arty” picture of me reading the graffiti at Fort Charlotte in Nassau. Here is the rest of our tour group with our guide (that’s me in the hat, Mary-Clare Holst in the white shirt, and Kerrie Lettiero with the visor. Debbie took the picture.) Our 3rd (my second) annual low-carb cruise was even more incredible than the last one. I’m a bit tardy getting a blog up about it, so I…

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IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT HUMAN DIET

I recently had the opportunity to see a confidential, 22-minute completion fundraising preview of C. J. Hunt’s documentary, In Search of the Perfect Human Diet, and I can tell you that this is going to make waves. He’s done a fantastic piece of investigative journalism that leaves no doubt about which diet is the best match for the human genome. This is the scientific evidence that the world, especially the media, needs to see in order to find solutions for the epidemic of obesity and…

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THE MOUSE VERSES THE GAUCHO

Cows in Pasture in Brazil, Freepic If I hadn’t been so busy, I would have written a review of Disney World in Florida similar to what Dr. Eades wrote about Disney Land in California: http://proteinpower.com/drmike/weight-loss/disney-small-world-ride-a-casualty-of-the-obesity-epidemic/. I went there in July with the rest of the family in an effort to be a good sport. (I had been there in the summer once before and sworn I’d never do that again.) I found it to be just as he described but with 95-degree weather and 95…

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LOW CARB CRUISE TO MEXICO

Here I am in beautiful Cozumel, Mexico! (I picked the right shirt to wear, didn’t I?) Low-carb cookbook author, Dana Carpender and “that nice boy she married,” enjoying dinner in the Windstar restaurant on board the Carnival Ecstasy. Shopping in Cozumel with Jackie and Conrad Eberstein. Dr. Carlson sings “Fire and Rain.” How can a guy from New York sound exactly like James Taylor? Dr. Westman singing his original composition, ” I wish they all could be carbohydrate free.” Jimmy Moore posted the lyrics at:…

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SUMMER ADVENTURES: Alaska, Canada, and Home Again

(#8 in a series that started on July 22nd at: http://carbwars.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-adventures-southern-california.html ) We took the float plane back to King Salmon and then flew to Yakutat, our last stop in Alaska before crossing into Canada. Dean (top) and Ron pumping self-serve jet fuel in Yakutat. “Food, Shelter, Booze” at the Yakutat Airport We passed up the fine dining offered at the airport in favor of sack lunches from the Lodge—sandwiches, chips, and oranges. Dean and I supplemented the ham and cheese from our sandwiches with…

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SUMMER ADVENTURES: Alaska’s Volcanoes and Another Voracious Predator

Half of the active volcanoes in the world are located in Alaska. We traveled over 26 miles of gravel roads and through three rivers from Brooks Camp to reach this eerie moonscape of devastation. “The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes” is the site of the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. It was first believed that Mount Katmai was the source of the huge blast on June 6 of 1912 that left 40 square miles covered in ash ranging from 200 to 700 feet…

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SUMMER ADVENTURES: Evidence of a Prehistoric Lifestyle

The Brooks River barabara, a reconstruction of a house dated to about 1200 AD . Several prehistoric trade routes intersected in the Brooks Camp area and there was a village on the site for more than six thousand years. A reconstruction of one of the 900 early dwellings that have been excavated nearby gives some insight into the lives of the people who lived here. The semi-subterranean houses, called barabaras, were built of logs with a deeper excavation at the entrance that served as a…

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