Make a date with a friend to meet at a Monday Dinner, or come by yourself and make new friends! Either way, you'll get a great meal and a lot more--everyone wins!

Help publicize the Monday Dinners! An easy way to spread the word about our weekly community gathering is to click on the Tell-A-Friend link in the upper left of this page. Just fill out the form with the email addresses of up to two friends, along with any personal comments you'd like to add, and click Submit--this emails your comments along with pre-written details of the Dinners and a link to this website!

Another way to help is to post a copy of our Dinner Menus in public locations. For a pdf file suitable for printing, click here.

Best Wishes for a Safe and Happy Holiday Season, and a Happy New Year! Dinner will not be served on Dec 27 and Jan 3.

Thank you to those who have contributed to our Fundraising Drive. If you have not yet contributed, your help is needed--donations to the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community (PMC) are accepted in any amount. $10/year is suggested to support the newsletter; larger amounts are applied to both the newsletter and other expenses, primarily insurance, and will also give us additional operating flexibility to handle rising costs. To contribute by mail, write checks to "Peninsula Macrobiotic Community" and mail to Donations, including $10 amounts to support the newsletter, are tax-deductible, as the PMC is a nonprofit organization. (Have a fundraising idea? Share it with any Board member.)

Monday Dinner veteran Harold "Steve" Stephenson passed away peacefully on October 12. He was an enthusiastic participant in our karaoke singing and comedy events. In 1999, Steve started the popular monthly potlucks which continue on. A Celebration of Life Memorial Service will be held on Monday, December 13, 7 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, Main Hall, 505 East Charleston Road, Palo Alto, CA 94306. For information, call 650 799-7186.

Monthly Vegan Potlucks! The Peninsula Veggie Potluck People, a spinoff of the Monday Dinners, sponsor monthly vegan potlucks; for details, visit http://pvpp.org. For information or to host a potluck, call John Cabrera at 650 799-7186.

Chef Gary Alinder has started a blog at http://macrochef.wordpress.com. Tune into Gary's views on a variety of subjects including food and health, and leave your comments! He has also posted a recipe archive which includes soups; main dishes; sauces, gravies, and dressings; and desserts and snacks.

The North Bay Macrobiotic Potluck Group usually meets the first Sunday of each month in Santa Rosa, contact Stephen Starkweather ( ), 707 542-9739, http://www.northbaymacro.org. 

James Holloway, frequent Guest Chef at the Monday Dinners, does personal home cooking in Palo Alto, in macrobiotic and classical styles, call 650 852-9182.

By popular demand, Marin-based cookbook author, lecturer, and macrobiotic food coach Meredith McCarty teaches the last of her current series of Saturday cooking classes in Palo Alto on December 11 (Staying Healthy through the Holidays), 2-4:30 PM, $55/class. For a Healing Cuisine flier (pdf) describing Meredith's monthly cooking classes on the peninsula, September-December 2010, click here. New registration procedure: please send a check made out to Healing Cuisine to Judy Serebrin, 420 Arch St., Redwood City, CA 94062. For more information, call Judy at 415 215-2066 (cell) or 650 364-1659 or For other activities by Meredith including events in Marin, visit http://healingcuisine.com or call 415 272-5525.

For information on macrobiotic activities in the East Bay, contact Macrobiotic Health Counselor Michelle Nemer in El Cerrito, or 510 527-4367.

Macrobiotic Counselor Julie Ong teaches macrobiotic cooking classes and does macrobiotic consultations in San Francisco; visit http://www.everythingmacrobiotics.com or call 415 312-0241.

Speakers receive a gratuity from the audience; please show your support and appreciation with a donation ($5-10 suggested).

On December 20, longtime macrobiotic practitioner Maral Haddeland will demonstrate The Ginger Compress and Other Macrobiotic Home Remedies. The ginger compress consists of placing hot towels, or compresses, on an area of the body in need of treatment. The towels have been soaked in hot water containing grated ginger. Ginger has both strong yang energy because it is a root, and strong yin, dispersive energy which is released by grating it. The heat of the water and the energy of the ginger penetrate deeply, breaking up stagnant accumulations and improving circulation.

Compresses can be applied to any part of the body that needs them. The macrobiotic teacher Kaare Bursell is a strong proponent of applying ginger compresses to break up chronic intestinal stagnation in the large intestine, the result of eating a modern diet over a lifetime. Maral applies the compresses to the kidneys, to increase energy, decrease feelings of fear (associated with kidneys), and cope better with cold weather. With warming, relaxing, and energizing effects that are immediately apparent, doing a ginger compress on a friend is a precious and bonding gift.

In addition to demonstrating the ginger compress, we encourage participants to share any remedies that they have found beneficial.

In the 1970s, after watching a friend use macrobiotics to overcome a chronically tired condition, Maral immersed herself in studies with teachers Michio Kushi, Herman and Cornellia Aihara, and Patrick and Meredith McCarty. She has been doing compresses on herself and friends for over 30 years.

On January 17, start the year 2011 with Nutrition Educator and Cookbook Author Meredith McCarty, who will speak on Freedom from Food Cravings: Moving Towards Balanced Health. It is understood in Buddhism that craving produces misery, and that this form of attachment is a kind of slavery. Understanding how we set ourselves up for cravings from one meal to the next brings welcome relief from the cycle. For weight management, as well as prevention and recovery from the diseases of aging, cravings awareness is key. Whether we talk about yin and yang, expansion and contraction, acid and alkaline, or meat and sugar, an understanding of the energetics of food helps restore a peaceful sense of balance so we can live life fully and bloom into the beautiful people we are meant to be. Bibliography included.

Meredith McCarty, Nutrition Educator, is the author of three cookbooks including the award-winning Sweet and Natural. She is a former associate editor of East West/Natural Health magazine and co-director of the East West Center for Natural Health Education for almost 20 years. Meredith studied macrobiotics with Michio and Aveline Kushi and with Herman and Cornellia Aihara in the 1970s. She has a Senior Certificate in the Art of Cooking from the Kushi Foundation. She is an associate of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and has worked in educational programs with Drs. Benjamin Spock, Dean Ornish, John McDougall and Neal Barnard. Visit her website http://healingcuisine.com.  

The Community Connection feature appears when an author is inspired enough to produce an interview or profile for publication.

Enjoy these past features on community members by Denise Huajardo Springer, Sky Ann McGrath, and Gerard Lum:

• Simply Paul Schmitt
• Life Really Does Begin at 40! An Interview with Diane Wohler
• Eating Mother's Chicken: Making Choices in Life, An Interview with Gary Alinder
• Plain Miklane? An Interview with Miklane Janner
• Ken Becker on Macrobiotics, Part One
• Ken Becker on Macrobiotics, Part Two
• Passionate About Growing Healthy Food, An Interview with Patricia Becker
• By Having Hope, What Are You Going to Lose? An Interview with Geneva Page and Baron
• You Can Really Fly with It, An Interview with Gerard Lum
• An Evolving Vision of Community, An Interview with Miklane Janner
• Making a Difference Through Cooking, An Interview with Susanne Jensen 

Email Notification of Newsletter: To receive an email notification each time the Newsletter and Dinner Menus are published on this site (every two months), .

 

Mailing List Policy: To get a printed copy of the Newsletter and Dinner Menus delivered by postal mail, or call the phone number below. To offset the expense of producing the Newsletter and Menus, we suggest a contribution of $10/year or more. The date and amount of your last newsletter contribution appears on your mailing label. Write checks to "Peninsula Macrobiotic Community", and mail to Gerard Lum, 101 E. Middlefield Road #9, Mountain View, CA 94043, 650 903-0447.

We periodically review our mailing list. Those who have not made a recent contribution are subject to removal.

Tax-Deductible Contributions: We welcome and can use additional contributions to the Peninsula Macrobiotic Community, as income from the Dinners does not pay all of our expenses. We are a nonprofit organization, so additional contributions are fully tax-deductible. Send contributions to the address in Mailing List Policy above.

Back Issues of the Newsletter and Menus: Click here.