There is a group of really dedicated women who have taken it upon themselves to find local charities who need a boost or, if you will, a step up. They focus on small, local non-profits that do not have huge marketing budgets but that are doing good work. It is an informal gathering of women (sorry, guys – you can send a check, though!) and the suggested donation is only $35. It is a really nice way to connect within your community, socialize a little and make a difference. I encourage you to go (it is fun), get involved and do some good. I wrote about my experience here and they liked it so much they asked to put it on their website.
The next fundraiser is…
A Prescription of Wellness from A Step Up and the Boston Medical CenterPlease join A Step Up to hear what’s “cooking” in The Nutrition Resource Center (NRC) at the Boston Medical Center.
TUESDAY, January 10 7:30pm
at the home of Amy Briney, 93 Beethoven Avenue, Newton
*a suggested donation of $35 made payable to the Boston Medical Center
The BMC is changing the lives of their patients by providing exceptional care without exception, serving all patients regardless of their social and/or economic circumstances. A Step Upwill be raising funds for the Nutrition Resource Center, an innovative program, that includes an onsite prescription food pantry and demonstration kitchen, that is meeting patients nutritional needs right alongside their medical needs. Come learn more about a service delivery approach at the NRC that is consistent with the thoughtful wraparound services that are meeting the needs of the diverse patient population the BMC serves.
To RSVP please reply to this email. If you are unable to attend the event but would like to donate, please click on the link below: https://development.bmc.org/astepup
Sincerely,
Amy Briney, Stacey Keenan, Lori Mendik
Carolyn Shaughnessy, Gina Saltonstall
My Mom Friend Alison sent me this info about a great new Soccer Winter Camp run by Boston College’s Lady Eagles Women’s Soccer Coaches and Players:
We are excited to present a great opportunity for your youth soccer players that are looking to take their game to the next level. We have developed a curriculum for a Junior Eagle Academy winter training program for players ranging in age from 9 to 12 years old. It will run for 8 weeks starting on January 8th to March 11. There are two Sundays that are OFF; January 15th and March 4th. There will be two time blocks of 30 kids each; 12:00-1:00 and 1:15-2:15.
We are also offering the opportunity to go to any 4 sessions in which you can check off the dates on the brochure. We will have specific emphasis on individual footwork and 1 v1 skills, comfort on the ball, improving technique of passing and introduction to higher level passing technique, combination play, and finishing technique. We will also have specific goal-keeping training for those that want specialization in this area. Each session will be an hour long and will be skill work for 40 minutes and the last 20 minutes will be small-sided games involving the topic of the session. The players will be trained by the Boston College Coaches and have the BC women soccer players demonstrating and helping them out.
Eventually we are looking to have try-outs to the Academy but for now we are asking your help to recommend players in your organization or team that you feel could benefit from this type of training. Again, this is not a program for the beginner soccer player but one that has a good foundation of soccer fundamentals and the passion to get higher level training. Our training facility is the state of the art as it will be in the Bubble over Alumni stadium. There are few facilities during the winter in New England where players can train in this type of atmosphere. We are delighted to start our new venture of developing our future Eagles!!!
There will be only 30 players per session and will be done the first year on a first come first serve basis.
Wegmans Food Markets Inc. said Monday it plans to bring a smaller urban concept store to Newton, Mass.
The Rochester, N.Y. family-owned supermarket chain, which opened a full-scale store in Northborough in October, plans to build a 70,000-square-foot food store at the Chestnut Hill Square development on Route 9 (Boylston Street), directly across from The Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton. The company does not have a construction schedule or opening date planned, however, according to a press release.
“Though smaller in size, this store will have almost everything customers have come to expect from Wegmans, including a Market Café,” says Bill Congdon, vice president and New England division manager, in a press release. “We are thrilled with the success of our Northborough store, which broke every previous grand opening record set by our company.
“We’re delighted that Wegmans will be part of our Chestnut Hill Square development,” said Douglass Karp, executive vice president of New England Development, in the release. “We’ve always wanted to have a grocery store as part of this development – a sentiment that has been expressed both by Newton residents and by prospective retailers. Wegmans, with its emphasis on customer service, quality, value pricing, and community outreach, is the ideal grocery store for this location.”
Founded in 1916, Wegmans Food Market is a 79-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.
p.s. This exciting news is via my mom friend Nathalie and The Boston Business Journal.
——————
They will be hiring for the new store and CNNMoney voted Wegmans #3 for Best Companies to Work For.
Rank: 3 (Previous rank: 3)
What makes it so great?
This customer-friendly supermarket chain cares about the well-being of its workers, too. This year, 11,000 employees took part in a challenge to eat five cups of fruit and vegetables a day and walk up to 10,000 steps a day for eight weeks.Another 8,000 took advantage of health screenings that included a flu shot and H1N1 vaccine — all covered by Wegmans.
The ICA 75th Anniversary fun continues with a free party on December 10, the ICA’s fifth anniversary in our iconic waterfront building. Bring the family to this historic celebration with musical performances by the AS220 Criss Cross Orchestra, some of the rocking-est kids from Music Clubhouse at Sociedad Latina, animated films, a tap dance performance, art-making activities, tours, and more!
PROGRAM SCHEDULE Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater
Additional gallery activities and performances will also take place throughout the day.
My real estate agent pointed out this house to us a decade ago when we were looking at houses. I’ve always loved this house with its vibrant colors and I’m happy that it’s stayed colorful. This is what the house says to me:
1. I am not afraid of color.
2. Happy people live here.
3. We have a really good house painter.
4. Our city has no ordinances about house color.
5. I am not trying to blend in.
6. I may be on the Historical Society list of houses, but I am not Traditional.
7. I invite feedback.
8. I am in my happy place.
9. I bring the sun.
10. I influence neighbors because…
Meet my next door neighbor! …
and this house says…
1. I really like my neighbor.
2. We use the same house painter.
3. I own a paint company/I am a house painter.
4. We are thinking of adding pink flamingos to the yard.
5. We make a statement.
6. I thought of this first. (No, I did.) (You painted first, but I thought of it first — remember, we talked about it?). (Oh yeah!) (But I thought of the pink flamingos.)
Please join us for the Opening Reception of a photograph exhibit on the old but beloved Newton North High School. Photography is by local acclaimed photographer Sharon Schindler.
Opening Reception: Wednesday, December 7th from 6:00-8:30 pm
Location: New Art Center, Main Gallery, 61 Washington Park
Exhibit Timeframe: December 7 -14, 2011. Holzwasser Gallery Hours: M-F 9-5, Sat 1-5
If you don’t know what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers, here’s a great Thanksgiving Pot Pie courtesy of Common Ground Bar and Grill in Allston, Massachusetts.
Common Ground Thanksgiving Pot Pie
serves 8
Here is a great way to use those leftovers from your feast from the day before. Start with the topping so it has time to cool while making your pie.
Filling:
1 cup carrots 1 cup peas2 cups turkey 2 cups red bliss potatoes
1 cup corn 2 tablespoons of garlic (chopped)
1 tablespoon thyme 2 qts. caramelized onion gravy
1 cup mashed potatoes 2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon Ground fennel
1 tablespoon black pepper
Sautee garlic, add carrots, corn, boiled potatoes, peas, gravy, and chopped thyme. Bring to a boil then add the cream, mashed potatoes and seasoning. Stir til brought back to boil.
Crust:
1 tablespoon baking powder 1 tablespoon salt2 cup apple corn stuffing 1 egg
2 tablespoon sugar 2 cup flour
½ lb butter
Add all ingredients to mixing bowl then puree. Place on flat surface and flatten to size of individual serving bowl and cut (should be a ¼ inch thick). Par cook for 10 min. at 325 degrees.. Cut top of pie to size of serving dish. Topping : Cranberry jam
1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon Orange Zest1 cup Water 2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon 2 cups of cranberries
Boil sugar and water, then add rest of ingredients. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat, puree and pour into serving dish. Let cool.
Complete:
Pour filling into crust then cover with top crust. Pinch edges together. Cook in oven at 325 degrees for about 15 mins. Or golden brown.
Take out of oven, add cranberry jam to top of Pot Pie And serve to delighted guest.
I went to a blogging event at Shaws last month and discovered fifteen minutes prior to event that Capability:Mom was going too, which was a nice surprise. It was nice to meet Boston bloggers Maven of Savin’, Masshole Mommy, Mommy Niri, The Coupon Goddess, Toy Queen, Charlene Chronicles and learn about the Nutrition IQ program at Shaws as well as sample healthy snacks and side dishes created by their nutritionist.
We met with Shaw’s nutritionist, Jennifer Shea, who helped develop the Nutrition IQ program which highlights healthy items throughout the supermarket. It’s great for people like me who search for healthy snacks for the kids! Look for these tags which also have nutritional information.
Jennifer also shared some great and delicious healthy recipes. My favorite was the smoothie!
Cinnamon Pumpkin Smoothies
6 ounces Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons honey
4 ice cubes.
Place ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Makes 2 servings and takes 5 minutes to make. Delicious too!
Apple Dip
6 ounces light vanilla yogurt
1 tablespoon raisins
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter (substitute soy butter if you want to pack it for the kids snack at school)
2 apples, sliced and cored
Mix everything together and serve with apple slices. Serves 4 and takes 5 minutes to whip up.
Saucy Spaghetti Squash
1 Spaghetti Squash
1/2 cup marinara sauce
1/4 cup shared or grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Halve squash and remove seeds. Spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or wipe a quick layer of olive oil on pan. Drizzle olive oil over cut sides of squash. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast squash cut-side down until tender, about 45-50 minutes. Use oven mitt to remove from oven, and carefully use fork to scrape out strands of squash into dish. Careful, squash is HOT! Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with marinara sauce and Parmesan cheese. If you want to get fancy, you can broil the squash until the cheese is browned.
Individual Apple Pie
1 medium apple
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 tablespoon raisins
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Core and dice apple and place into individual baking dish. Mix the rest of ingredients and place on top of apples. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until apples are tender.
p.s. For those who need more ideas for healthy grocery food shopping, I found these great lists at the Shaws site:
A Shopping List for Losing Weight
A Shopping List for Eating Healthy (or for someone with Diabetes)
Kurt Kusiak is my Dad Friend and neighbor and, because I have zero interest in politics of any ilk, I turn to him like my personal Godfather to vote his slate. Perhaps I am just lazy and bad with names such that I can’t keep track of so many people and their agendas. On the other hand, I find that my beliefs align with Kurt’s.
My pediatric dentist’s wife, Vicki Danberg, is running for Alderman At-Large in Ward 6. I am also voting for her (assuming that I vote in Ward 6).
——————–
Friends,
Next Tuesday, November 8, is an important election day for choosing the next School Committee. I hope you will take the time to vote since there are very substantial differences between some of the candidates this time around. Voting for School Committee candidates is city wide, so you can vote in every race, regardless of whether it is your ward.
For those of you who may be interested, my recommendations for the three races are:
Jonathan Yeo: Jonathan’s contributions to the School Committee are not replaceable. He has led the negotiations with the teachers union, which has just resulted in the first sustainable teachers contract for a long, long time – saving many millions of dollars and, simultaneously, many teachers’ jobs. He is an exceedingly skilled and experienced member of the committee that we cannot afford to lose.
Sue Rosenbaum: Sue is a scientist that has done diabetes and obesity research at Tufts Medical School and currently works as a clinical trials manager for a start-up pharmaceutical company. She has also been a long-time activist and volunteer improving Newton’s schools, serving on the League of Women Voters, the Zervas and Newton South school councils, as a soccer coach, and as a creative arts and sciences volunteer. During her first term on the Newton School Committee, she has served as the liaison to our legislative delegation at the State House and as a member of the budget guidelines committee, and on the facilities committee bringing needed modulars to the elementary schools. She has also served on the Countryside Elementary School Task Force, which is working to alleviate school overcrowding. She gets things done and achieves positive results without much fanfare, which I like a lot.
Diana Fisher-Gomberg: Diana has been very active in the Newton schools for the past eight years. She has been a very hard worker for several PTOs and School Councils, and she is well-respected and well-liked by many city officials – which is fairly key to getting things done. Her commitment to the school system is clear, she has a good knowledge base already due to her years of interacting with the School Committee and administration, and I think she would make a very good School Committee member.
Join Best Women’s Travel Writing 2011 editor Lavinia Spalding and contributors Marcia DeSanctis, Abbie Kozolchyk and Newton’s own Carol Reichert for an evening of sharing true travel stories from around the world at Newtonville Books this Monday, November 11th, at 7 pm.
Any woman whose passport has been stamped a few times knows the surest method of keeping her travel fire alive: by reading and telling tales from the road, passing them along like a torch in a relay race.
From Travelers’ Tales comes The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2011: True Stories from Around the World –the seventh collection in the annual best-selling, award-winning series that invites readers to ride shotgun alongside intrepid female nomads as they travel the world to discover new places, people, and facets of themselves. The stories in this year’s edition are as diverse as the geographic locations, the common thread being fresh, compelling storytelling from a woman’s perspective aimed at making readers laugh, weep, wish they were there, or be glad they weren’t.
In The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2011, readers will:
* Have lunch with a mobster in Japan and drinks with an IRA member in Ireland
* Learn the secrets of flamenco in Spain and the magic of samba in Brazil
* Deliver a trophy for best testicles in a small town in rural Serbia
* Fall in love while riding a camel through the Syrian Desert
* Ski a first descent of over 5,000 feet in Northern India
* Discover the joy of getting naked in South Korea
* Leave it all behind to slop pigs on a farm in Ecuador…and more.
Editor Lavinia Spalding, author of Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler (named one of the best travel books of 2009 by the L.A. Times) and With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant, has put together a collection of tales in The Best Women’s Travel Writing that speaks to the reasons why we embark on a journey, and the many reasons why we keep doing it.
Here’s an excerpt of Carol Reichert’s piece and I highly recommend that you hear her reading. It’s a treat for your senses!
There is a group of really dedicated women who have taken it upon themselves to find local charities who need a boost or, if you will, a step up. They focus on small, local non-profits that do not have huge marketing budgets but that are doing good work. It is an informal gathering of women (sorry, guys – you can send a check, though!) and the suggested donation is only $35. It is a really nice way to connect within your community, socialize a little and make a difference. I encourage you to go (it is fun), get involved and do some good. I wrote about my experience here and they liked it so much they asked to put it on their website.
