A Garden of Textiles

Scarves, color, and spices were these theme.

Today, the roommate and I went to Lauritzen Gardens down in the old part of Omaha.  The indoor display was described as a fairy garden.  It was actually all about India, scarves, shawls, sashes, everywhere, draped to make tent like structures around benches and other displays.

It is probably the first time I’ve taken more photos of fabric that flowers at a garden.  There are some flower photos, but that is another story.  Well, two other stories. I’ll focus on this display for now.

Halloween colors and a slightly harvest feel.

It should come as no surprise that the black and orange display was one of my favorites. I’m sure everyone has seen grass grown long enough to go to seed and the while motif on the orange fabric very much looks like grass seeds or some other grain seeds.

Another favorite of mine.

You can see, there is a reason this looked more like India than a fairy garden. Fall chrysanthemums were everywhere but I didn’t really get and photo of them. I was too busy looking at fabric. There was even a spice market.

The spice market.

Actually, this display made me want to go to a spice shop and since the roommate wanted to go to Rockbrook to get a back up camera battery I did get to go spice shopping. I was out of ground mustard so I got that and two blends, one for meat and a Cajun one I intend to use on pasta.

Yummy!

Hanging over some of the secluded benches were flowers strung up like this….

Hanging from the ceiling were more sashes….

There was even an ornate elephant…

As you can see, not a fairy was in sight. Nothing felt or looked like a fairy garden. But India was well represented. So were salads but that was one of the other stories.

No melons were injured in the writing of this blog . . . but I did eat some pineapple.

I’ve identified a few heart burn triggers and so I was reading an article about foods that cause heart burn and what to avoid.  It was a very bad list.  It was far to general.  Or advising a fairly brutal diet only a serious vegan might like.  Aside from the fish.

1. Don’t eat grains.  Well there goes an entire food group.  Handy for people who need to be gluten-free but it cuts out gluten-free grains.  I suppose it might make Paleo people happy.  But not for long……

2. Avoid acidic foods.  Sounds good.  But all items listed here were listed in other sections as well.  So I won’t bother with the actual list.

3.  Don’t eat sweets or candy or desserts.  Well, most of these contain grains, or acidic ingredients.  So that kinda makes sense.

4. Don’t drink drinks.  Beer, alcohol, wine, coffee, caffeinated drinks, carbonated drinks, fizzy drinks, most juices.  That pretty much leaves water and herbal tea.  This section was much longer but everything falls under that list.  They could have saved space by saying only drink water and herbal tea but stay away from peppermint.

5. Dairy.  Again, it is easier to say that butter seems to be okay and some cheeses.  But they didn’t say which cheese was bad so I can’t guess which cheese is good.  Everything else is bad.  By the way, this is the second food group that is pretty much decimated.

6.  Greasy meals. No oily food, no fatty food.   It went on to explain that fast food and snack foods are greasy and for some reason made a point of condemning spicy Ketchup specifically.  Which should probably go in the next section.

7. No spicy food.  Spices apparently trigger heart burn.  But is it spices or is it really peppers and chilies?

8.  Avoid fruit.  Well, there is another entire food group.  It covered berries, citrus, and a number of other fruit.  Plums were not mentioned, nor some of the exotic fruits, and no melons were mentioned.  So I guess melons and plums are now the entire fruit section.

9. No protein.  Um, huh?  Well, there go the Paleo people.  Okay, if you must have it you can have fowl but no eggs.  Nothing was said about shellfish.  I don’t really include those with fish but maybe they did.  Oh, and the fourth food group is significantly reduced.

10.  And some veggies are bad.  Mostly in the onion/garlic family.  And sauerkraut.  But sauerkraut is a dish, not a veggie.  Either cabbage isn’t so great or it’s the stuff it is cooked in.

 

In the end, my ultimate impression is:

Veggies, mostly good, avoid cabbage and anything in the onion/garlic group.

Fruit Bad, Melons good.  Plums probably okay.  No berries.

Meat Bad, Birds Good.

Dairy Bad, Butter Good, some Cheese is okay but we don’t know which kinds so better stay away.

Grains Bad.

The Heartburn Friendly Food Pyramid:

Butter

F  O  W  L

M  E  L  O  N  S

V  E  G  E  T  A  B  L  E  S

 

Strange Food, and no, I’m not pregnant.

Black Label

Hummus, Tribe, Fourty Spices

Black Label Slim Jim seems to be the hardest flavor to find. It is pepperoni. Why is it so hard to get? I like it because, in taste and texture both, it is the closest to the pepperoni I remember my Dad getting when I was in grade school. It is my favorite.

I couldn’t find the Hummus I wanted. I don’t make my own. I nearly killed a blender the time I tried. I had to try something new. Forty Spices Hummus by Tribe. It is good.

Out of pure randomness, I put my pepperoni into the hummus. It was REALLY good. I was glad I had two sticks of the pepperoni. It sounds strange, but I would really recommend it.