I think it would buck up the nation to see the president go about his vacations the way average Joes and Janes do. Look forward with quiet desperation to his two measly weeks off and then pile the family into the minivan. Head for a state park in West Virginia or a campground in Wyoming or a cozy rental down the Jersey shore. Screw Snookie and the rest of 'em. The Obamas would fit right in with the Bay Head crowd. Bayhead being Martha's Vineyard without L.L. Bean canvas totebags everywhere you look.
Or maybe, with people in Pakistan being (literally) bailed out by the Taliban instead of us, and our economy taking its sweet time recovering, and the war in Afghanistan coming unglued, just maybe Obama should had told his disappointed family that he was terribly sorry, but he just couldn't get away from the office this year. And Michelle could have explained to the kids that she was sorry, too, but America keeps getting fatter and needs her to stay on top of the gross national potato chip consumption (the GNPCC).
Speaking of not getting fatter, here's my recipe for healthy rice pudding. I took one of my mother's most comforting dishes and eliminated the white rice and sugar. It's a different animal, but most people find it goes down OK. I never eat it as a dessert but rather for breakfast--or even for dinner if my husband's not home to demand a proper meal.
Janet's Girl's Healthy Rice Pudding
1 cup brown rice (long- or short-grain)
2 cups skim milk
2 1/2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
In a baking dish (1 3/4 quart), combine the rice with the maple syrup and spices. It will be a gummy mess. Pour in the milks and try like hell to combine them, but the spices will insist on floating on top.
Bake, uncovered, for 2 hours. Stir several times during the first hour, doing your best not to send waves of milk slopping over the side of the dish. Take out of oven and skim the disgusting skin off the top. If you're my sister, eat the skin. The rest of the world should throw it out while trying not to drop it on the floor. The pudding should be quite watery at this point. As it cools down, it'll get thick and creamy.
As it cools, I often add diced apples, peaches or raspberries, depending upon what fruit is rotting in the refrigerator. My sister adds flax seeds, chopped walnuts and raisins. These certainly up the nutritional content of the dish. Just don't add the flax seeds before the pudding is cool or they'll lose their nutrients. I refuse to add raisins as I can't stand them cooked into anything.
**Note: Rice and almond milks also work fine with this recipe. Whatever floats your boat. You might have to adjust the cooking time, however, since rice milk is thinner than the other types.
