Recipe: Fruitcake Cookies

It’s the most delicious time of the year. Which also means it’s time for my annual five pound Winter weight gain. Gotta stay warm some way, right?

I’ve been really wanting to do something with baking and dried apricots. Yesterday I made my favorite cookies, Brandied Cranberry Orange, and today I was thinking that I should try something similar but with apricots and lemon. Once I’d made it that far however, I decided, why stop there?

It’s the Holidays and a good fruit cake is one of my favorite things, so I set out to incorporate the best parts of fruitcake into a cookie. Really, the best word I can think of to describe these cookies is loaded. Dried apricots, dried cranberries, dates, walnuts, orange and lemon zest, walnuts, booze… They’re cake-y and moist, bursting with dried fruit chunks that have been soaked in brandy. I know that traditionally fruitcake should have rum, but I only had the spiced variety on hand so I went with brandy instead.

Fruitcake Cookies

1 c butter

3/4 c sugar

1 t vanilla

1 T booze from soaking dried fruit

Zest of one lemon and half the juice

Zest of one orange

2 eggs

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t kosher salt

6 oz package of dried apricots, cut into small pieces

4 oz package of dried cranberries

6 dates, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup walnuts

Put the cranberries and apricots in a small bowl and cover with brandy. Do not add the dates to this mixture, they’ll just get soggy and break down. Let marinade for a few hours. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla, juice, booze and zests.

In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and then add to the wet. Once incorporated, drain the cranberries and apricots and add, along with the dates and walnuts.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet, bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Once done, allow to cool on cookie sheets for about one minute then transfer to rack to cool completely. While the cookies are cooling, have yourself a little drink, I’m always very generous with the brandy I’m soaking the fruit in so I can have a beverage after.

Now that they’re cooled, it’s time for the glaze.

Zest one lemon, one orange, and use the juice from half a lemon. Add about a tablespoon of booze from the cranberry/apricot mixture. Add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Recipe: Peach Pie

Pie. Peaches. Peach Pie. Simple, delicious, fresh, the perfect Summer dessert.

The problem that I have always had with fruit pies is that they’re too sweet. When I follow someone else’s recipe I usually cut the sugar by at least half. Really, it’s a crime to cover all up all that delicious fruity sweet tartness. Let the fruit speak for itself, it’s quite capable.

Ingredients 

• 6-8 peaches, peeled and sliced (you could do a quick boil to remove the skin, but who wants to hang out over boiling water in the Summer, peeling works just as well) 
• 1/3 c of sugar
• Dash of cinnamon
• 2 T quick-cooking tapioca
• 1 shot of whiskey

Mix all the dry ingredients to coat peaches, add half a shot of good whiskey, the other half is for you 😉 

Pour the filling into prepared crust, as always, I use a simple butter crust.

Top with second crust and crimp edges, cut slits in top to allow steam to escape. Those are the trimmings in the background, which will be sprinkled with sugar and allspice and toasted in the toaster oven for a delicious pre-pie treat. Put the pie into oven which has been preheated to 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and continue to bake for about 30 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. Once the pie comes out of the oven allow it to cool completely before cutting into it or you’ll have peach soup, which is also delicious but not as visually pleasing. 

Plated and served with vanilla ice cream, because what’s peach pie without vanilla ice cream? 

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Throughout my life, changes have come as more than mere steps, they’ve always been giant leaps. I’ve landed most of them, but I’ve come out with my fair share of scrapes and bruises. Twisted ankles from difficult landings, broken hearts from always wanting to think the best of people. I’ve always been able to get back up and carry on, and I expect that this time will be no different. In fact, I know that this change will have the best of results because this time the change is for something bigger than myself.

Summertime Cooking: Simple is Best

Do you have a favorite season for eating? Mine is Summer. Not only is the abundance of garden-fresh produce delicious and inspiring, but I can do most of my cooking outside. In the Summer the grill becomes the beacon that brings my family together. We gather round, drinks in hand, shoot the shit, smell the smells, mouths watering in anticipation for the meat that always takes just a little too long to cook . . . Though really, none of us mind. How much of a hurry can one be in while in the company of friends and family on a warm Summer’s eve?

This recipe was sort of a last minute idea. Dinner had been cooked, we were just letting the meat rest, the coals were still going and I didn’t want to let them go to waste when inspiration struck. Having been recently tasked with coming up with a recipe that involves Sabra hummus, I have quite a bit of it in stock. I suppose this is rather like cheating as I wouldn’t really call this a recipe, but who needs to know how easy it is. Gentlemen, whip this out for your lady friends and watch them swoon, they don’t need to know it took you less than ten minutes to make. Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for a “real” recipe with Sabra hummus.

You will need:

Poblano peppers, olive oil, salt, pepper, Sabra hummus, flat leaf parsley.

Cut the peppers in half and deseed them, brush olive oil over the insides of the peppers and place them on the grill, skin side up.

Brush the skin side with olive oil (I combined the olive oil with a little bit of salt and pepper prior to brushing).  Once the underside is nicely done, flip the peppers. Allow to cook for a couple minutes before placing about 2 tablespoons of Sabra Supremely Spicy hummus in each pepper. Cover the grill for about two minutes to allow the hummus to warm.

At this point I decided the peppers needed one more thing, they were kind of plain looking, so I looked to the garden. Flat leaf parsley was just the thing.

We had these alongside steak, corn on the cob, and asparagus, and they were SO good, and SO simple, and healthy to boot! The caramelization of the peppers in combination with the spiciness of the hummus was a really delicious combo, and the addition of the parsley gave it that level of freshness that every summer dish needs.

You could switch these up by using any flavor of Sabra hummus. I think the garlic hummus topped with a little parmesan cheese would be especially good.

What’s It Going To Take?

Yesterday in Muskegon two people were shot in the head. There have been a lot of shootings recently, but this one, this one, really punched me in the gut. One of the people who was shot in the head, was a mother who was rushing to get her children out of harm’s way. She was an innocent bystander, who ran to the defense of her children who were playing on their porch when she heard a fight escalating and instinctively knew what would happen next. Along with the two people who were shot, neighboring houses were sprayed with bullets while three men shot heedlessly at each other over drugs. It was 5:30 pm, broad daylight, children playing all around, and these thugs just didn’t care.

Yes, I was upset over the Elijah Henderson case. As a mother I couldn’t begin to imagine. Yes, I’ve been outraged by the shootings since. So much of this violence has involved our youth. But something about this case in particular just fills me with rage. Here was a mother, who was minding her own business one moment, and the next trying to protect the very lives of her young children, and she paid the ultimate price. She’s still alive, but at this point it remains to be seen what her recovery will be like.

I went to bed early last night because I didn’t feel comfortable sitting in front of the windows in my own living room.

I was awoken out of a dead sleep at 12:12 am by the sound of a single gunshot behind my house. We called and reported it and then watched, no officers ever came by. This is typical.

A couple weeks ago a truck backfired while driving past and my son, Atticus, asked me if people were shooting at our house. He’s four. I don’t talk about this stuff with him, but he’s obviously overheard enough that he’s on edge. It makes me sick that my FOUR YEAR OLD would think that people are shooting at us. What sort of scars is this city inflicting on him long-term? What sort of life will those two children have? Even if their mother survives they’ve been forever changed. Their innocence lost. A moment of time that has forever changed the landscape of their lives. I have to wonder about the ripple effect that this shooting will have on our community. Will it even have any effect? The previous stones in the pond didn’t seem to cause enough of a disturbance to institute any sort of real change. Will this shooting be any different?

What exactly is it going to take? The body count continues to rise and what’s being done about it? Muskegon has problems aplenty, we all know that. Some people are even making videos about our problems – talking about them in broad generalization –  but what are any of us doing to curb the gun violence? Really, I’m asking myself, what can I do? I refuse to sacrifice the safety of my children or myself, for some greater good that it seems many residents around here don’t even want. Muskegon is made up of a lot of people who really are trying, but more often than not, those people who are trying, who are out on the streets working at ground level, are swept aside by those who come in and tell us what we should be doing instead. They say we should “love” Muskegon, as if the simple act of living here and paying taxes isn’t enough. They paint a glossy picture, one that shows shiny, happy people playing on the beach, with nary a black, or latino, or poor person in sight. While this campaign happens the real Muskegon continues to fester. Eventually this violence will boil over and find its way into neighborhoods that actually affect those people. And maybe then they’ll actually do something about it. Right now, all of this violence in happening on the “wrong side of the tracks” and is easily ignored by the larger populace. What can be done? What will it take to unite Muskegon? Not just the downtown area, but North Muskegon, Norton Shores, Muskegon Heights… our city can be likened to a person suffering gangrene, Muskegon and the Heights are the legs that the rest of the body wants to chop off before it infects the whole system. Like it or not, this violence effects us all. The disease has already spread and the whole body must be treated before any sort of recovery can begin.

Last year when the gun violence levels rose along with the heat levels, people marched in the streets, and what did that accomplish? I’m not begrudging the fact that people were trying to do something, but really what did that do? Here we are yet again, facing the same problem. How many more Summers of Violence must we face? It’s time to get serious about this.

I sit here now, with a huge knot of apprehension growing in my stomach, shooing my children away from the windows. And all I can think about is what I need to do to get out of this neighborhood.

The Approximate Cook…cooking by approximation

As you may have already discovered if I’ve never given you a recipe, I use the word ‘approximately’ a lot. When it comes to cooking, I never measure anything and as a result no two dishes that I make are ever the same. They often taste approximately the same, but the spices, ingredients, and amounts are ever changing. Depending on the day, my mood, and what’s in my cupboard, my meatloaf will never be made the same way twice. And I’m ok with that. Life is a beautiful adventure, why shouldn’t cooking and eating be as well?

With that in mind, here is my vegetarian Meatloaf recipe:

This recipe originally started out as a stuffing for Winter Squash, but I liked it so much I thought it could stand on its own.

The ingredients have, of course, all been approximated.

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 large carrots, shredded
• 1 chef’s package of fresh mushrooms, this usually includes: shitake, oyster, and bella or crimini, finely chopped
• big bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups of finely chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup of Grape-Nuts or crumbled crackers of choice. I really like to use peppered water crackers
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 or more cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 bell pepper (any color will do), finely chopped
• celery (optional) I’m not a fan
• a few glugs of olive oil and a couple dashes of sesame oil
• 2 to 3 eggs, or to make vegan just add a little more oil
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of fresh parm, or some other hard cheese (again, omit for vegan)
• kosher salt, pepper, paprika, if you’re feeling saucy.

Mix ingredients together, you want a pretty moist mixture, so play around with oil and egg amounts, it should be moist enough so that it won’t crumble but dry enough to get nice and crisp on the outside. Once satisfied with your moisture levels, smooth into an oiled casserole dish. I like a few squirts of ketchup on the top as it bakes into a delicious glaze. Bake at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes, longer for crispier crust.

mixed loaf

plated with mashed redskins, garden fresh Swiss Chard, and mustard

Recipe: Summery Lima Bean Enchiladas

My cooking style (not surprisingly), is much like my Mother’s in that I never measure anything. Growing up, I can remember people raving about my Mom’s cooking (her salsa in particular) and asking her for a recipe, and my Mom, ever modest, would shrug and say, “Oh, a little of this and a dash of that.”

Tonight’s dinner was just that.

I spent most of my morning out in the garden, culling an excess of tomato plants that had volunteered themselves from last year’s crop and doing general garden maintenance. In the process, I pulled four Egyptian Walking onions that were ready for harvest and spent some time mulling over what to do with them. I didn’t want to make a trip to the store so I rifled through the cupboards in search of inspiration. I found it in the freezer. A while ago I had purchased a bag of frozen Lima beans thinking that it would be good finger food for baby Quintus. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

Lima beans were somewhat of a mystery to me. I remember eating them once in a soup growing up, but I don’t remember much else about them. My Dad isn’t a big fan of beans outside of Chili so I don’t remember eating them ever again. My husband has apparently fairly typical memories of a bean with bitter flavors and the texture of “dry pencil eraser”, boiled and served with salt and pepper.    I remember thinking that they were sort of sweet, so I set out to bring out the sweetness and emphasize the freshness of the ingredients I was using.

Lima Bean Enchiladas

First up, the sauce. The sauce is where it’s at, and it’s so easy to make that using canned enchilada sauce is really inexcusable.

– In a small sauce pan, heat up a generous amount of olive oil  (3-4 Tablespoons)

– Saute one small onion (or shallot or Egyptian walking onion) and several cloves of garlic, lightly brown then add:

• 3 sprigs fresh oregano
• about a tablespoon of chili powder (more or less depending on how spicy you want it)
• about a teaspoon of dried basil
• about a tablespoon of dried parsley (I’d prefer both basil and parsley fresh, but thanks to a June 5th frost [!] unfortunately the plants aren’t ready)
• dash of red pepper flakes
• about a tablespoon of cumin
• fresh ground pepper, kosher salt

– Allow to continue browning over heat, then add one can tomato sauce (14.5 oz) stir and bring to simmer

– Add about 2 cups chicken broth and 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar (I added about 3, as I wanted to showcase the sweetness of the Lima beans.  Vegetable or beef broth is also perfectly acceptable, as is water – though not nearly as savory.

– Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

For the filling, mix up the following in a large bowl:

• one 16 oz package frozen Lima beans, mostly thawed
• 4 Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs, chopped (shallots work, too)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 sprigs fresh oregano, chopped
• handful fresh chives, chopped
• healthy dash of curry
• zest of one lime
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• fresh ground pepper, kosher salt
• dash of cayenne pepper
• about a 1/4 c freshly ground parmesan cheese

Last: Tortillas.  Maza (corn) tortillas are a MUST.

– Heat the tortillas according to directions on package, so as to be able to roll into enchiladas without breaking them

– In a large casserole dish spread enough sauce to be able to cover bottom of dish

– Spoon filling into tortillas and roll, fill casserole dish, and cover enchiladas with all remaining sauce, cover dish with freshly grated parmesan cheese

– Bake in 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until dish is bubbly and cheese has melted

The greatest thing about this recipe, aside from using garden-fresh ingredients:  it’s easily modified for Vegetarians and Vegans (I was raised a strict Vegan).  Substitute chicken broth for vegetable broth and use your choice of cheese or cheese substitute.

I measure the success of my cooking based on how long it takes four-year-old Atticus to eat a helping, and tonight’s dinner went down in record time.  So, try it and judge for yourself!

Thoughts on Aging

Yes, Yes, I know you’re sitting there, shaking your head, she’s 30(!!) you mumble, and try to forget your own age.

I am 30, and suddenly that feels very old. In centuries past, half my life would be over. At 30 I would be considered beyond middle-aged, my best days behind me, my own children half my age.

I suppose this all has something do with not being where I would currently like in life. Neither in physical location or station. Life seems to be both speeding by and dragging on.

Something about having children has put life and time in perspective. I’m quite sure that the birthing process opens up a wormhole and one day you’ll find yourself shaking your head; wondering at once where the time has gone while praying for the day to end.

My life has taken on a sudden urgency since realizing I’m not raising my children in the place I would like to. I want my children to grow up in the countryside, much like I did, surrounding by mountains and fresh air, with the only constant sounds being that of the birds and droll of the grasshoppers. I want my children to know what it’s like to spend the entire day outside and come in after dusk, tired, sunburned, smelling of fresh air and dirt, deliriously happy, and drunk on the beauty of life. To know what it’s like to walk across a field illuminated only by stars, the tall grass whistling on your knees, the lights of the house shimmering ahead on the horizon, a beacon in a sea of wild beauty, ‘HOME’ it speaks to you.

Instead, my children are mostly hidden away inside, the wail of sirens and chattering of neighbors being our only constant. To me it’s a prison, because I know better, my children do not, and this saddens me deeply.

(c) Patrick Patterson

…as American as apple pie

This has been a pretty frickin’ fabulous weekend. The Summer Solstice, a garden party, alcoholic beverages and backyard serenades. A good friend has made the trek from Portland, Oregon, and being a fellow foodie, our conversations have more often than not revolved around food. This morning over breakfast pancakes (which were proclaimed the best pancakes ever eaten), she mentioned that she’d like to learn to make pie crust. One thing led to another and before you know it, apple pie had been even more Americanized by the simple insertion of bacon.

If you don’t like bacon, leave now.

In the discussion of sweet versus savory, savory won, and the Waldorf Pie was born.

I present to you the Bacon Bourbon Apple Pie. The idea was hers.  The execution and recipe, yours truly. 

You will need:

3-4 Granny Smith apples

2 Galas

Peel, core, and slice, a variety of various chunk sizes is a good thing

In a large mixing bowl, add the juice of half a lemon and about a shot of good bourbon, splash of vanilla, stir to coat apples

In a smaller bowl mix together 2 tablespoons of flour, 1/3 brown sugar, pinch of salt, and pepper.

Fry about 5 pieces of bacon, don’t overcook, tender will do, it will continue to bake in the pie.

Mix the dry mixture in with the apples, stir to coat evenly, add crumbled bacon and about 1/2 cup of walnuts.

Pour mixture into prepared pie crust, I used a simple butter crust

Bake at 375 for approximately 30 minutes, increase oven temperature to 400 and cook for approximately another 15-20 minutes.

When cooled serve with crumbled blue cheese.

Plated and paired with Vouvray. Heaven on your tongue. Serving this over a bed of wilted spinach wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Google-Stupid

Nicholas Carr puts forth an interesting thesis in his article entitled ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’ which appeared in the July/August 2008 issue of The Atlantic. Carr makes the claim that thanks to the internet and having Google at our fingertips that our attention span has been damaged and our memory recall has been shortened. From my own experiences, I agree with Carr and I don’t think that I’m alone here;  in my day-to-day if I can’t recall something or want to know the answer to something I just google it, and voila! It doesn’t matter whether or not I can remember something when I can just type it into a window and get the answer. It would seem that having access to the answer to any question would have the opposite effect on humanity (you would think we’d be smarter as a result), but the fact of the matter is because we don’t have to remember information, we know that we can just look it up, our long term memory has suffered. We no longer store trivial facts and knowledge in our long-term memory, and we jump from site to site or article to article like a monkey who’s just discovered caffeine, swinging through the jungle of our web browser, moving on to the next tab while the one we’ve just abandoned is still swinging behind us. You could say it goes in one ear and out the other because of this constant bombardment and the subsequent skimming. We are starving our brain of what it needs to comprehend and retain information.

While it would seem that this easy access to technology and inundation of knowledge would be a good thing, there are those who would argue that because of the Internet our attention span has drastically declined. Think about this: when you’re surfing the Internet how many tabs on average do you have open? Speaking for myself, there’s always at least three.  So I have at minimum three different things going on in my brain at once, and again, it seems like this might be good for the brain – an exercise in multi-tasking if you will.  But constantly being bombarded with information is leading our brain to automatically filter itself, and one of the ways of coping with an overload of information is that when we’re reading, we’re skimming.  Quite often, even right after reading an article a person would not be able to recall certain facts contained therein.  This is due to skimming, a product of a shortened attention span and the information not being stored in our long-term memory. This worry is not a new one.  Even Socrates expressed his concern over the effect of writing on the memory.

Carr writes, “In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates bemoaned the development of writing. He feared that as one came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge formerly carried inside one’s head, one would, in the words of one of the dialogue’s characters, “cease to exercise his memory and become forgetful.” And because he would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction,” one would “be thought very knowledgeable when he is for the most part quite ignorant.” One would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” Socrates wasn’t wrong—the new technology did often have the effects he feared—but he was shortsighted.  He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information, spur fresh ideas, and expand human knowledge (if not wisdom).”

While Socrates probably could never have imagined the exchange of information at the level we have today, his concern is still valid.  If we fail to exercise our brain, or store data in our long term memory, we will eventually lose the ability to do so. Use it or lose it, as the saying goes.

Carr has this to say in regards to how the Internet has shaped the way that his brain processes information, “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”   I can really relate to this! As a student, reading is a big part of my day to day, whether it’s from a textbook or a website my teacher has pointed me to and losing my recall ability and my ability to concentrate has been extremely detrimental to my collegiate career. I’m getting by, of course, but reading and retaining information takes much more effort than it used to. This could be in part to the fact that as Carr points out, the human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental mesh-work, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case. James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind “is very plastic.” Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. “The brain,” according to Olds, “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”

Our brain is constantly forming and reforming the way that it thinks, works, and retains information. If we’re taking in information on a constant basis that we’re not storing, it would follow that eventually we will lose the ability to retain information. Our brain will have reformed itself to not store information to deal with the constant bombardment of new information, because we’ve trained it to do exactly this.

In my daily life since the advent of the Internet I have noticed that I no longer have moments of stillness or of doing nothing. As a kid growing up in a rural area with no access to the outside world, this would seem like a miracle and the opposite of my oft expressed sentiment, “I’m bored!”  But now, with constant access to the outside world, smart phones, laptop, television, I will admit I am guilty of having all three things going at once; it seems to me that my brain never has a chance to recuperate, and my brain is left with little chance to digest information that has been taken in. Information that is not properly digested cannot be properly absorbed, just like nutrition for our body.  And just like the fuel that keeps our bodies going, fuel for our brain is equally important. If there is something blocking digestion, which Google is arguably doing to our minds, we’re starving ourselves, both literally and figuratively. This brain starvation has led to big changes in how we use our memory.  Put another way, we’re rewiring our circuitry.  Adam Clark Estes writes, “According to Science, we’re not necessarily losing our ability to remember things. Rather, the internet is changing how we remember. Ars Technica sums up the results nicely, ‘People are recalling information less, and instead can remember where to find the information they have forgotten.’” As the article points out, often when asked a question instead of thinking of the answer a person will instead ponder where they can find the answer. We may not remember the information but we do remember how to find it.

Another problem that comes with Google, is easy access to misinformation. While Carr himself did not talk about this in his article I feel it is worth mentioning. When one performs an Internet search it is not unusual for Wikipedia to be among the top links that show up. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and it can be useful as it’s very easy to navigate and is free but it also comes with a plethora of problems, namely that anyone can add to or edit it. Thus, it is hard to be sure that information obtained from this site is factually correct.

As Elizabeth Weise noted, “Then there’s Wikipedia. The online free encyclopedia is written collectively by internet users and can be modified by those who feel they have better information. It’s so frequently used that Wikipedia articles tend to show up at the top of many Google searches. But, as recently made obvious, the veracity of the information depends on who has done the posting. In a widely publicized case, false and malicious information found its way into the online biography of former USA TODAY editorial page editor John Seigenthaler.” One is not hard pressed to find people on the internet with too much time on their hands and a penchant for the misanthropic, and Wikipedia and other such sites provide the perfect public outlet for their shenanigans. It is easy to spread libel when one can hide behind the mask of anonymity.

Of course not everyone agrees with Mr. Carr that the internet is damaging our brains. Jamais Cascio wrote a retort to Carr’s article which also appeared in The Atlantic. Cascio feels that our brains will evolve to be able to process all of this information, that we will develop, “fluid intelligence – the ability to find meaning in confusion and solve new problems, independent of acquired knowledge.” The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of whether or not people agree with Carr that Google is making us stupid and the results were overwhelmingly no. While I do think that using the word stupid might be going a bit far, after all, how could something that grants us access to more information possibly makes us stupid? I am in total agreement with Carr that Google has affected our attention span and our ability to retain information, we have to be careful lest Google really does make us stupid. Google and all that comes with it could be too much of a good thing. There has to be a happy medium, what I feel that we need to focus on is training ourselves to retain all this newly accessible information, lengthening our attention span, and learning to manage what we’re doing or overdoing while connected to the internet.

So how do we retrain our brain? Step One would be to step away from the internet. A simple step, but one that is much, much harder than it might seem. In many ways we’ve become addicted to this steady stream of information and connectedness. Speaking for myself, reading the news online, checking email, Facebook, etc, is right up there with coffee in my morning ritual. I’ve usually checked these things on my iPhone before I even get out of bed, and I’m not the only one guilty of this behavior.  “Anecdotally, our Internet use seems to have spawned real addictions. And according to recently released surveys, we’ve got it bad. More than half of Americans would rather give up chocolate, alcohol and caffeine for a week before parting temporarily with their phones.” This, according to a recent survey by technology firm TeleNav.   It might seem funny, but an addiction to technology can be just as hard to break as an addiction to nicotine or caffeine. While this addiction is something that will probably never be truly broken, it’s just a part of the times that we live in, remembering to take small breaks and disconnect from the virtual world can go a long way in our personal life, and can help us make connections in the real world. Most of us can’t even begin to fathom a world without the internet and technology, but, without getting too “doomsday conspiracy theorist” here, we have to remember that it is a very real possibility.

Reading (in real time) is something that we must pass on to future generations, and we could start improving not only our attention span but that of our children by reading to them. We have to be responsible for helping our children develop healthy intellectual habits. I can vividly recall my Mother reading to me as a child and they are some of my favorite memories. If my Mother had not read to me as a child I know that I would be much worse off today, both as a student and a person. We can see signs of our times and the downfall of the printed word all around us, from our local libraries cutting back and in some cases shutting down, to printed newspapers going under all across the country. We do have access to the same information online of course, but it lacks that certain sense of nostalgia and satisfaction that comes from doing things for ourselves. Things like getting out of our homes, going to the library, finding the book, having our tactile senses fulfilled by actually touching pages, or our olfactory senses awakened by the smell of an old book. These are the things that the internet can’t currently offer us. Without putting in the effort to look things up the old-fashioned way or take the time to sit down and read things without skimming or being involved in other things online while we’re reading, we’re much more likely to forget things. And yes, I do see the irony in the fact that every single one of my sources for this paper has been pulled from the internet. I, too, have fallen victim to the easy access and time saving maneuvers that the internet provides. This other way to get back in touch with the real world is something that we must all make an effort to do. We have to make the effort to start looking at things in hard copy again, read books, pick up a newspaper, make the effort to go the library and do real research. I was horrified when upon entering a library recently to do some research that I discovered that I didn’t even know where to start. Gone were the rows and cabinets of the Dewey Decimal era of card filing, replaced instead with computers that looked like something out of the Silicon Valley’s earliest days. My mind kept asking, “Where’s the Google?” Thanks to a friendly librarian I made it through, but it seemed to be a painfully slow process, one that lacked all the fun of looking up and sorting that I remember from my childhood days. Doing research, reading, and retaining information all take time, and time is something that most Americans and Internet users are not willing to invest these days. We’ve become a people of instant gratification.

American culture  is often accusing of being  too fast paced, from our work habits to our family lifestyle.  Our day to day does tend to be chock full of activity. We do not slow down to enjoy the little things, and in some cases it seems like we might not even know how. Perhaps slowing down and learning to take the time and truly digest the things that are happening around us might translate to greater things for our society as a whole.  For decades health experts have complained about America’s need for more physical exercise.  Perhaps now we’re beginning to see more of a need for mental exercise, too.  We need to stop stop starving our brain by giving it half-processed information and start taking to time to enjoy and comprehend the things that we read.  We need to enjoy the stillness that a world with the office door closed or a blank computer monitor offers us.

Writing about this in a blog is just the first step. Initiative is nothing without action. To take action is going to take a great deal of determination and self-control. So why not start right now with this blog. Leave a comment and let me know how you feel.