Bill and I were walking through Georgetown on a recent spring afternoon. We passed a young woman carrying a tiny white poodle in a chest-type baby carrier. The poodle was wearing a little green checked cap, and, as she strolled, the woman tenderly pulled down the bill of the cap, to keep the sun out of baby's eyes. Most of us don't go that far, but we do love our pets. Our tortoiseshell cat Tivoli wouldn't be caught dead in a little green cap, and when she's outside she's a fearsome hunter, but when she's inside we call her our "little girl," and, yes, we do baby her. I would say she's a happy cat. She should be; she has the best of both worlds.

     Pet food containing Chinese flour adulterated with melamine recently killed a number of U.S. pets. This was deeply upsetting news for pet owners, whether or not their pet was affected. I'm therefore starting off this issue with a timely item about home cooking for pets.

     Plus, I've uncovered some treasures in the home cooking for people department. If you're trying to eat a healthy diet, chicken breasts can get mighty stale. They also, when baked, bear a strong resemblance to cardboard in texture and, I think, in flavor. BUT I've uncovered some nests of low-calorie chicken breast recipes that keep the meat moist: look for recipes with a sauce; cut thick pieces into thin ones. These recipes also offer so many different flavors that I can and do serve them two or three times a week. Find the key in item 5, "Playing With Your Food."

     Janette

----Table Of Contents----

1. Fluffy and Fido Get A Home-Cooked Meal
2. Expert Veterinary Advice
3. Purina Gets Light Hearted
4. Free After Rebate
5. Playing With Your Food
6. Kids Who Love Animals
7. Free Screen Savers And The End Of A Love Affair
8. Music Around The World
9. Calendula And Concrete
10. Antique Hunting As A Sport

1. FLUFFY AND FIDO GET A HOME-COOKED MEAL

     The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) thinks they probably shouldn't. And so much for the happy dinner hours when our pets chow down on the glamorous people food they so dearly love. Tivoli was mad at us for months because we wouldn't give her the people food she enjoyed as a kitten, but it turns out we were right and she was wrong. Click below to find out exactly why:

http://www.avma.org/press/releases/070404_homemade_diets.asp

     But, if you're willing to make a serious study of home cooking for your pet, the following site is recommended by the AVMA:

http://www.petdiets.com/

2. EXPERT VETERINARY ADVICE

     The AVMA has good information on many things besides pet food. Their "Care for Pets" section has a special page for kids and much information on how to select a pet and how to keep your pet safe and happy.

http://www.avma.org/care4pets/

3. PURINA GETS LIGHT HEARTED

     These are not happy days for the folks at Purina's Dog Food division. But, back when they were feeling more on top of things, they came up with a website that would tell YOUR DOG'S TRUE AGE, based on his or her health. It begins with a suggestion that you bake a birthday cake for your dog, adding, "To make it safe as well as nutritious, skip the chocolate and sugar." Seems to me they should have mentioned that chocolate can actually kill your dog, but perhaps they felt that would spoil the general tone of the page, which, as I say, was written when people had more faith in Purina and the people at Purina had more faith in themselves.

     To find your dog's real age, based on his or her health, go to

http://dogage.com/

     And to find YOUR CAT'S TRUE AGE, based on his or her health, the folks at Purina naturally have

http://www.catage.com/

4. FREE AFTER REBATE

     It sounds too good to be true, but according to these people it really happens. And, since it costs you nothing to check out these deals, you might want to do so before you buy something electronic or computer related. FREE AFTER REBATE specializes in rebates that reimburse you for 100 percent of the original price, not including tax and shipping! These offers include "computer gear, consumer electronics, office supplies, and more."

     Here's their full explanation: "The process is quite simple. You pay full price for an item up front and, after you receive it, follow the instructions to submit the rebate materials. (This generally involves filling out a rebate form and mailing the required rebate materials to an address on the form or instructions.) Some time later (usually about six to eight weeks) you'll receive a rebate check reimbursing you for all or much of the cost of the item. FreeAfterRebate.info specializes in listing products with rebates that reimburse you for 100% of the purchase price (excluding sales tax and shipping fees), as well as some almost-free deals ($5 or less)."

     If you like, you can subscribe to their newsletter to get regular news of these rebates.

http://www.freeafterrebate.info/

5. PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD

     Just for fun, people sometimes type the names of the foods in their refrigerator in a Google search box, to see if Google can come up with a recipe using those foods. It usually does - try it for yourself:

http://www.google.com/

     I gave Google an easy one, putting into the search box: chicken asparagus recipe. In one second, Google gave me the addresses of thousands of chicken and asparagus recipes. I checked out a bunch from COOKS.COM, all of which struck me as being rather high caloric, except the first, a chicken and asparagus stir-fry. And that's what we're having for dinner tonight.

     I've been having fun with the big recipe sites, several of which have more than 100,000 recipes. (FOOD DOWN UNDER has more than 280,000.) I learned that most recipes are posted by ordinary cooks. They're generally dishes you might actually fix for dinner tonight, rather than all-day productions calling for Indonesian satay sauce and won ton wrappers. I've been using these sites to look for recipes low in calories. Started with Food Down Under, which had more than 13,000 in the "low calorie" category, though I discovered that some contributors have strange ideas as to what really is low in calories. Despite this, I got about 25 great low-calorie chicken breast recipes, each with a sauce that would keep the meat moist. (As I mentioned above, I've also learned the hard way that thick chicken breasts need to be sliced thin, so they get right down into that sauce.)

     The Food Down Under low-calorie recipes are in alphabetical order according to title. You'll find chicken recipes scattered throughout, but you will of course find a nest of them under the Cs. To check them out, click below, then put "low calorie" in the Food Down Under search box.

http://fooddownunder.com/

     COOKS.COM has 542 "low calorie" recipes, which to them mostly means LOWER in calories than the usual version, as in "low calorie cheesecake." This is a good place to come if you want a relatively low calorie dessert or salad dressing. (Food Down Under has a bunch of these too.)

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search?q=low+calorie

     RECIPEZAAR.COM, which I so dearly love, bombed. Totally bombed. They have a chummy group of women who try one another's recipes and write glowing reports on them. BUT they post those recipes in any old section that's handy. After a number of "low calorie" recipes featuring cream and cheese, I departed.

     ALLRECIPES.COM has a "Healthy Living" section that actually lives up to its name! To most of its contributors, "low calorie" means low in calories, a concept that escaped so many at the other sites. As long as people are allowed to post recipes in any category they choose, you'll always find a minority who think a cup of heavy cream is healthy and low in calories. But in general the Healthy Living section is a healthy find. If you'd like to give it a try, click below. I like it so well I'm working my way through it, copying into my word processing program all the recipes I'd like to try. That way, I'll wind up with a "mini-cookbook" of the kind of healthy recipes Bill and I both enjoy.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Healthy-Living/Low-Calorie/ViewAll.aspx

6. FOR KIDS WHO LOVE ANIMALS

     BORRICO is a delightful animal site for children in kindergarten and the early grades. Among other things, they've got animal coloring pages, animal games, and - YIKES! they caught me off-guard! - animal sounds:

http://www.borrico.com/

     If your older children are studying about animals, or if they simply love animals, WILDLIFE SEARCH will lead them to information about animals ranging from otters to Przewalski horses:

http://www.wildlifesearch.com/

7. FREE SCREEN SAVERS AND THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR

     The following site has some excellent screen savers and computer wallpapers, with everything from "Lakes" to "Love." And my McAfee Site Advisor tells me it's a safe site to use. Find these beautiful wallpapers and screens at:

http://www.screene.com/

     Incidentally, my love affair with McAfee Site Advisor is now over. I still have and use the program, which warns me about dangerous websites. It works fine for me, because the free download they offer is for Firefox, which I have. Most people use Internet Explorer, however, and they no longer offer the free download for Internet Explorer.

     For a free download of a tool that tells you whether a website is safe, try NETCRAFT. It is highly regarded by the Internet safety experts. Find it at

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/

8. MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD

     The National Geographic site's "World Music" section, with CDs that cross cultural boundaries, is a good place to look for such things as genuine Latin American or Indian music. Or music such as a CD called "Serenity," which lets you "relax to soothing sounds that cross cultural boundaries."

http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/home

     The National Geographic site has much more than music, of course. While I was playing with it, I put "Hutterites" into the search box, as I was interested in their recent magazine article about the Hutterites in Montana. This religious colony is in many ways similar to the Amish. If you too are interested, you can view a video on them by clicking below:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0606/sights_n_sounds/index.html

9. CALENDULA AND CONCRETE

     If you enjoy gardening, these are delightful blogs. The first, CALENDULA & CONCRETE, is by a city gardener in Washington, D.C. In 1976, the first spring I was in Washington, D.C., I lived on Capitol Hill. The house had a tiny front yard, about 10 feet by 10 feet, bordered by a wrought-iron fence. The yard was full of weeds. With great enthusiasm, I pulled the weeds and sowed zinnia seeds all over the yard. Gave the soil a light sprinkling with the hose, and assured the landlady that, if she sprinkled it every day, it would be perfectly beautiful once the zinnias bloomed. Then I left for Montana for the summer.

     The landlady later informed me that nothing had come up except more weeds, and some friends of hers who "actually knew something about gardening" had helped her plant "real plants from the store," which plants survived.

     The author of Calendula & Concrete knows considerably more than I did back then. Find the blog here:

http://www.cc-calendula.blogspot.com/

     And then there's THE COMPOST BIN blog, with an article, "Squirrels Are Mean." I should send him Tivoli, the only cat I know who can catch a squirrel. The squirrels around here are fleet of foot, or they're no longer around here.

http://compostbin.blogspot.com/

10. ANTIQUE HUNTING AS A SPORT

     For many people, shopping is a sport and an essential part of vacation fun. I have never understood this, and neither has Bill. We descend on the local department stores once or twice a year with grim expressions, shopping lists, and "I'll meet you here again in an hour." Of course a lot of the things I buy look like I spent ten minutes selecting them, but you can't have it all ways, now, can you?

     If you enjoy antiquing as a sport, here are some sites that will make you knowledgeable about what's a good buy and what's not. So, when you're out on the actual playing field this summer, you'll be fit as a fiddle and ready to rack up a big score. If, that is, you haven't already found what you want online.

     ANTIQUE WEEK is the most comprehensive site I've found. You can find here forums, classified ads, antique show dates and more. And this is the place to subscribe to Antique Week magazine and to view the online version.

http://www.antiqueweek.com/

     OLD AND SOLD takes what seems to me a more scholarly view of the antiques business. This is the place to come if you are interested in really old antiques, as opposed to collectibles. You can learn a lot by reading the articles posted on the site.

http://www.oldandsold.com/

MISSED SOME ISSUES?

     Have I got a solution for you! Now that we are using a frame for each issue, you can just look over to your left and find all the back issues nicely set out. Simply click on the ones you missed. That means too that if your e-mail service provider gets sticky and decides that Tour the Sites is spam (it is NOT spam), you can foil it and find the newsletter at this address.

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WARNING!

     If your e-mail box sometimes gets full, you are in danger of falling off the subscription list of Tour the Sites. Not because I want to lose you, but because, if your box is full when I send out a newsletter, you are automatically kicked off the list. I don't like that policy, but I don't have any say. If you change your e-mail address or get a new kind of spam filter, you may also fall off. So do keep an eye on your newsletters, which should arrive around the first and fifteenth of each month. If you haven't gotten one for a month, let me know and I'll be happy to put you back on the mailing list. Because I'd really hate to lose you.

Janette
Newsletter@tourthesites.com

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© Copyright 2007 Janette G. Blackwell. All rights reserved. You may copy and use portions of this newsletter for noncommercial, personal use only. You may forward a copy to someone else as long as the copyright notice is included. Any other use of the materials in this newsletter without prior written permission is prohibited.