Mama's Home Remedies: Discover Time-Tested Secrets of Good Health and the Pleasures of Natural Livin, Svetlana Konnikova [classic fiction .TXT] 📗

and four ounces cooked popcorn shrimp. This makes a healthy dinner for four to six people. r 19. Kasha Soufflé. Wash two cups buckwheat grains and place into a pot with four cups boiling water. Cook until softened, approximately 15-20 minutes. Then rub kasha through a sieve. Add one teaspoon honey or sugar, a pinch of salt, and ½ cup milk. Cook an additional two to three minutes, mixing constantly. Remove from stove and add ½ teaspoon butter, mixing wel . It is excel ent as a breakfast, lunch, or light dinner.

When Your Head Is Swimming @ 181

Buckwheat has been so well respected in Europe for centuries that Hans Christian Andersen also became interested in this plant. Writing a story about buckwheat, he confessed, “This is the story told me by the sparrows one evening when I begged them to relate some tale to me.”

V

“

ery often after a violent thunderstorm, a field

of buckwheat appears blackened and singed,

as if a flame of fire passed over it. The country people say that this appearance is caused by lightning; but I will tell you what the sparrow says, and the sparrow heard it from an old willow-tree which grew near a field of buckwheat, and is there still. It is a large venerable tree, though a little crippled by age. The trunk has been split, and out of the crevice grass and brambles grow. The tree bends forward slightly, and the branches hang quite down to the ground just like green hair. Corn grows in the surrounding fields, not only rye and barley, but oats—pretty oats that, when ripe, look like a number of little golden canary birds, sitting on a bough. The corn has a smiling look and the heaviest and richest ears bend their heads low as if in pious humility. Once there was also a field of buckwheat, and this field was exactly opposite the old willow-tree. The buckwheat did not bend like the other grain, but erected its head proudly and stiffly on the stem.

“‘I am as valuable as any other corn,’ said he, ‘and I am much handsomer; my flowers are as beautiful as the bloom of the apple blossom, and it is a pleasure to look at us. Do you know of anything prettier than we are, you old willow-tree?’

And the willow-tree nodded his head, as if he would say, ‘Indeed I do.’

But the buckwheat spread itself out with pride, and said, ‘Stupid tree; he is so old that grass grows out of his body.”

There arose a very terrible storm. All the field flowers folded their leaves together, or bowed their little heads, while the storm passed over them, but the buckwheat stood erect in its pride. ‘Bend your head as we do,’ said the flowers.

182 ^ Mama’s Home Remedies

“‘I have no occasion to do so,’ replied the buckwheat.

“‘Bend your head as we do,’ cried the ears of corn. ‘The angel of the storm is coming; his wings spread from the sky above the earth beneath. He will stroke you down before you can cry for mercy.’

“‘But I will not bend my head,’ said the buckwheat.

“‘Close your flowers and bend your leaves,’ said the old willow-tree.

‘Do not look at the lightning when the cloud bursts; even men cannot do that. In a flash of lightning heaven opens, and we can look in; but the sight will strike even human beings blind. What then must happen to us, who only grow out of the earth, and are so inferior to them, if we venture to do so?’

“‘Inferior, indeed!’ said the buckwheat. ‘Now I intend to have a peep into heaven.’ Proudly and boldly he looked up, while the lightning flashed across the sky as if the whole world were in flames.

“When the dreadful storm passed, the flowers and the corn

raised their drooping heads in the pure still air, refreshed by the rain, but the buckwheat lay like a weed in the field, burnt to blackness by the lightning. The branches of the old willow-tree rustled in the wind, and large water-drops fell from his green leaves as if the old willow were weeping. Then the sparrows asked why he was weeping, when all around him seemed so cheerful. ‘See,’ they said, ‘how the sun shines, and the clouds float in the blue sky. Do you not smell the sweet perfume from flower or bush? Wherefore do you weep, old willow-tree?’

“Then the willow tree told them of the haughty pride

of the buckwheat, and of the punishment which followed in consequence.”

So you see, the buckwheat can be unreasonable sometimes, but it always brings people its best nutritious values. And you can count on him without reservation, he will not disappoint you.

When Your Head Is Swimming @ 183

Before you trust a man, eat a peck of salt with him.

—Russian proverb

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One should eat to live—not live to eat.

—Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American statesman, printer, and inventor ƒ

Unquiet meals make ill digestion.

—Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

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The belly will not listen to advice.

—Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium

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Nothing in excess. Nihil nimis.

—Latin saying

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Chapter 10

Don’t Be Afraid of Good Stress

It is not enough only to wish; you must also act.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet and novelist FACTS:

Stress is both additive and cumulative in its negative effects on individuals, organizations, and societies. Workplace