Will World Autism Awareness Day Raise Autism Awareness or Create Autism Confusion?

April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Hopefully the UN declaration will have the effect of creating real awareness of Autism Disorder and the related Pervasive Developmental Disorders. The prospects of that happening are slim though. It is much more likely that more confusion about autism will be created by the large media organizations such as CNN that dominate world protrayal of autism.The biggest obstacle to generating real autism awareness will be big business, the big business of maintaining ratings for a large news organization like CNN. To generate media attention CNN will provide feel good stories. CNN will, yet again, interview Amanda B

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Απλήρωτοι γιατροί, κλειστά νοσοκομεία.

Η εξάπλωση των επισχέσεων σ΄ όλα τα Νοσοκομεία της χώρας έφερε το Υπουργείο Υγείας σε κατάσταση παραζάλης. Οι ένοικοι της Αριστοτέλους πίστευαν ότι οι γιατροί, στεγνώνοντας οικονομικά, θα εκλιπαρούσαν να υπογραφεί γρήγορα-γρήγορα μιά κλαδική σύμβαση στα μέτρα Τσούκαλου για να εισπράξουν τις εφημερίες τους. Αντί για αυτό προέκυψε μιά άνευ προηγουμένου εξέγερση με αποτέλεσμα να κλείσουν τα περισσότερα Νοσοκομεία της χώρας.Στις 22 Μαρτίου ο Γενικός Γραμματέας του Υπουργείου Υγείας κ. Καλογερόπουλος έστειλε εσπευσμένα στους Διοικητές την πυροσβεστική εγκύκλιο που σας επισυνάπτω και τους καλεί να πληρώσουν από τα διαθέσιμα τις εφημερίες Δεκεμβρίου. Για να

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Like Water For Chocolate

Today was my monthly book/movie get together with girlfriends. We read a chosen book in advance and come together to watch the movie version over food inspired by the story. This month we read & watched, Like Water For Chocolate. It's a wonderfully written book about unrequited love and how emotions are expressed through food. My girlfriends and I decided the book was much better than the movie... but is still worth watching just to view the differences. For this girls day in, we all brought in Mexican inspired fare in honor of the setting in which the story takes place. Here are pics from the event:Joelen's Chicken& Cilantro Quesadillasw/mild

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The Daring Bakers Challenge ...and what my BAD dog did!

Dorie's Perfect Party Cake!This month's Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Morven. The recipe she choose was PERFECT PARTY CAKECourtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).I loved this challenge. For me I generally don't need an excuse to bake a cake but I have been a little busy the last couple of months and haven't baked nearly as much as I would like to. This gave me the perfect reason to make the time.The cake turned out delicious and I was really surprised. It felt heavy when I was working with it but the tast of was so light and airy. T. compared it to a slightly more dense Angel Food Cake!Freshly cut strawberrie

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Royal Foodie Joust - in just under the wire!!!

Fresh Coconut Fried Shrimp with a Garlic-Citrus Dipping SauceI seem to be making a huge habit of this under the wire thing! I guess better luck next month huh? I even got my coconut ages ago (stole it from my neighbors yard!!!) and still there it sat, well, not really. We had to move it all the time. That damn coconut was always in the way. Finally to the satisfaction of my whole family it is gone.***UPDATE***I was educated on the innards of a coconut today. Officially what my daughter is drinking in the picture below is not coconut milk (who knew?) . It is coconut water. Coconut milk is derived from the meat of the coconut being grated and s

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Not Goin' Back CD Launch By Cathy Hutch

Last night I attended the Not Goin' Back CD Launch by Cathy Hutch at the Musiplex in Fredericton. Cathy has a tremendous voice and she gave it her all on every song, leading off with Not Goin' Back a song that she hopes will inspire people, even one person would be worth it, to make healthier life choices.Above Cathy poses with BJ McKelvie before they both poured their hearts into I'm In Here the song for autism that is a hit on YouTube with 9,914 views as I type these words. And it is receiving play on radio stations around the world. In the bottom picture Autism Society New Brunswick vice president Lana Thompson helps out at the door.Cathy also

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Olive Oil Galore...

All olives are not the same... and neither are their oils! I hosted 2 olive oil tasting sessions (afternoon & evening) where we focused on olive oils from various parts of the world. Attendees tasted 6 different olive oils from France, Spain, Greece, Italy, South Africa and Australia. I had attendees taste the olive oils alone and with bread so that they could learn to taste them taking note of the oil's appearance, aroma, flavor, finish, texture, etc.For the tasting, I used this site for some great resources for handouts, score cards, etc. While I supplied the olive oils for the tasting, I left the attendees to bring accompaniments and/or dishes

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