SOUPS: Nothing satifies in winter like a good hearty soup. Unfortunately, most recipes don't have a lot of taste or don't fill you up. The three recipes here fill my requirements for a good soup: Vegetable-Beef, Chicken, and Vegetable Stock (which can be used for a number of things, including more soup).

GADGETS AND GIZMOS AND A REVIEW: I freely admit to being intrigued by gadgets and gizmos. But I'm also old enough to be able to pick out the flaws in most of them and realize how useless the majority of them are. However, I was intrigued recently by the H20 mop by Thane. In essence it cleans with nothing more than steam. Which means it also disinfects. So I bit. I tested it out on my ceramic tile kitchen floor and was delighted with the way it cleaned the grout. My machine never did the job properly. It works on most any kind of flooring, including sealed hard wood. You can also do carpets with this. It's light weight and so easy to clean even I was surprised. So for whatever it's worth, I give this product a thumb's up on all scores.

THE GREEN CHANNEL. If you haven't tuned into this one yet, you're missing a whole lot. Our eco-friend Ed Begley, Jr. has his show here as well as our old friend Steve Thomas from "This Old House"; he's back with a new show called "Renovation Nation".

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY. I've been doing some Googling this past month on this subject and found some fascinating applications. My favorite is the roof top vertical axis wind turbine. One example is Pacwind.

MY FAVORITE RECIPE for Face and Hand Cream.

BACK ON THE SUBJECT OF BREAD the directions always tell you to put the dough in a 'warm' place to rise. What exactly is warm? What exactly is warm in numbers I can understand? Okay - here it is - the ideal rising temperature for bread is between 75º and 85º. And now you know. I find my oven works fine when I need to raise dough. Draft-free, there's little temperature variation there. To actually make the dough though, I use my bread machine on the 'dough' cycle. Here's a tip: Using the basic 2-lb recipe for white bread on the dough cycle, add dried fruit (like raisins, cranberries, apricots, etc) and a pinch or so of cinnamon. When you remove the dough from the machine, cut into 4 equal parts. Place each part in a tiny/small loaf pan (about 6"x6"x2"), let rise, then bake at 375º for 35 minutes (or till done which could be up to 40 minutes depending on your oven). Make a small amount of confectioner's icing and drizzle over 1 loaf. The other 3 loaves can be frozen for future use and iced just before serving.

BACK IN THE OLD, OLD DAYS not only before television, but before Moses, how did they make bread? Obvious answer is sourdough starter. But how did they make the starter if there was no yeast? Because if you read any recipe for making a starter these days, they include yeast. Seems as though making your own starter would be a handy piece of information in case of, oh, I don't know, the world coming to an end as we know it sort of scenario. Or maybe just getting snowed in for a month. Read how it's done.

"THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!" or "THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!" or "I'm a doctor and I want you to know!" The implication in those statements is that the people bringing you this message are stand-up guys, soldiers on the front lines, resistance fighers. Of course, what they are really saying is "Boy, have I got something to sell you!" If the government or the ubiquitous 'they' REALLY didn't want you to know, these sites would be taken down faster than a mouse click. Alternative medicine sites are full of this type of claim. It's the modern day version of the patent medicine man, the snake oil salesman, your 'hey-I'm-looking-out-for-you' buddy. Claims that some mysterous herb/substance/nutrient will get you to lose weight, cure your diabetes, cure your cancer and all you have to do is send a significant amount of money to obtain a report on just what the name of this mysterious substance is, and then (of course), you can buy it through them (or some other source whom they 'endorse'). When you see that type of rhetoric, move on to another site. This doesn't mean some of their claims aren't legitimate, just not to the miracle status they give them, but all hyperbole is built on a kernal of truth. And if these folks are such crusaders on your behalf, why isn't the information out there for FREE (excuse me, that's probably an insane concept to some people). If something cures serious disease, let's see the studies - legitimate studies - which PROVE these claims (Europe does a lot of research in this area). Beware of hucksters selling products of which only THEY have the purest source. I'm a certified herbalist, so you have to assume I have some idea of what herbs can and cannot do. What they can't do is perform miracles. Good health starts with a good diet. A balance of healthful foods, low fat meats in reasonable quantities, and at least a 20 minute daily walk are a lifestyle that supports good health. (An unpolluted environment would also be nice, but we need to work on that one by adopting new energy policies in this country and getting a handle on the chemicals used on everything around us and in our food, covering our foods, covering things that go in our mouth, being sucked up through our skin when we clean house, the car, bathe, etc...you get the point. ) Herbs and specific nutrients can help bring a person back to good health, either used alone or as an adjunct to conventional medicine, but they cannot be relied upon in emergencies or stand by themselves in serious organic illness. I know I tend to harp on this subject, but I am genuinely distressed by money-making schemes targeted at desperate pople. One site with down-to-earth approach is Dr Weil. He's a real MD with a practical approach to a natural lifestyle and alternative medicine. Check it out and look for others like it.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD . Up to 80% (or more) of what's out there on the grocery shelves today contains foods that have been genetically modified. Concerned? I am. I want any food product or produce containing these GM foods to be labeled. I'm an American. I get to choose. Right? Currently, the answer is no. The US Congress thinks it's more intelligent than I am and is going to strip me of that right even though these new technolgies have yet to be proven to MY satisfaction. Besides, GM crops are known to cross with normal crops and that could destroy our whole gene pool of existing plants. And the court is still out on whether or not these GM crops are responsible for a lot of the problem with honeybees. And if animals snub their noses at GM crops (tests like this have been done), why should I eat them? Next is cloned meat. And there will be no labels on those products either! That's already a done deal! Permission has already been given for those products to hit the market. If you care, Google for organizations that are fighting this. My favorite is Center for Food Safety.

ENVIROMENTAL ISSUES: Sometimes it seems progress on this front is moving at a snail's pace. Then some bit of news reaches me that makes me think FINALLY, something is being done. Check out Verdant Power for a future that is already here. May not be the whole answer, but is certainly part of it. Then there's E The Environmental Magazine that provides a comprehensive understanding on all aspects of the issues facing us today.

HERB QUALITY: How do you know the product you are getting is any good? I have put together a page with photos that I hope will assist you in learning about WHAT TO LOOK FOR.

NEW DATABASES. Two of them that work off of each other to make your search that much more thorough. And, since this is an information site, and because it's grown so large over the years, I have created several linked maps to help you find exactly what you're looking for on the herbs pages (look under 'What to Know & How To Do It' for links to the new database maps).

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT A TEENAGER'S ROOM that wrinkles the nose upon entering. Like a scaled down version of a locker room. It's hormones of course. The poor dears can't help it. Boys are slightly worse than girls. Sort of on the order of Billy Goat Gruff. You who have teenage boys know what I'm saying. When washing their clothes, bedding, and even their curtains use 1/2 to 1 cup of baking soda in the wash cycle. It's even more helpful to use 1 cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle as well rather than fabric softener. It really helps neutralize odor.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! mix prescription medications and herbs. They can work to cross purposes. It's not often you find an M.D. you can work with in combining alternative approaches to your problem, but you can usually locate a Doctor of Naturopathy who can help you sort it all out and provide a number of ways to compliment what your primary physician is doing and (hopefully) work with him/her. Even better, if you're really lucky, you can locate an M.D. who's also an N.D. For more info along these lines, check out Dr. Weil.

LISTS of POISONOUS and DANGEROUS PLANTS and those to AVOID IF PREGNANT.

HERBAL GLOSSARY with definitions and lists of associated natural agents.