Blog Posts by The Succulent Wife

Tuesday was election day here in the United States (in case you missed that…) and here in California, Prop 19 and its effect on the state's economy has grabbed lots of attention. California voters have already passed a law allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes and Prop 19 was going a step further in legalizing marijuana for recreational use (only in California, right!).

Although it was not passed, it brought a lot of heated debate about the hemp industry also. There is much confusionIndustrial Hemp between hemp and marijuana because both are cannabis plants, but hemp contains 0% Tetrahyrocannibinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana that makes it a drug. The laws in the United States prohibits hemp being grown legally. It is however, legal to manufacture and consume hemp here. Almost all hemp products sold here in the United States are grown in Canada because it is grown legally there (thank you Canada).

So why was it illegal to grow hemp here in the United States? It was only in the 1930′s when hemp (cannabis) became illegal. Before that it was widely used. In fact, fourth USA President Thomas Jefferson was a hemp farmer. Did you also know that it was not just any string that connected Ben Franklin to the kite of his famous experiment? It was, in fact, a hemp string.

In 1937 William Randolph Hearst and the DuPont company were instrumental in passing the Marijuana Tax Act (making the possession or sale of cannabis illegal in the USA). Hearst wanted to see the hemp industry fail because he had a significant financial interest in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint and magazine empire, the Hearst Co. DuPont was in the textile industry, making synthetic material, such as nylon. DuPont knew that the prominent use of hemp would greatly impact the sales of their textiles. Greed was the main reason for the Marijuana

You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll think about it. And you will want to show your daughters.

Powerful stuff this poetry.

Easy and Succulent Thanksgiving - Recipe 4 of 7: The Roasted Turkey29 OCTOBER 2010 2 COMMENTS

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor

We have written, thus far, on our suggestions for perfect and soooooooo easy Thanksgiving Appetizer, Soup and Salad recipes. You might want try these ahead of time to test them. We're pretty sure that once you see how incredibly easy they are, a whole wave of relief will wash over you. Yes, you can have an EASY, fail-proof and incredibly delicious Thanksgiving feast.

Now we have come to the piece de resistance, the bird itself. It is the most intimidating part of the menu but have no fear, the bird is just big,a bit unwieldy but not scary. This recipe allows for the juiciest, most flavorful, fool-proof and most complimented on turkey you will ever serve to family and friends.

The key to having a turkey be so moist is the brining. Brining spices and bags can be bought at William-Sonoma. Or Thanksgiving turkeyyou can make your own spice blend. See this how-to

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor

When I mentioned in an article a few months ago that I was a part of a Cooking Club, I was surprised of the interest and the questions that this generated. What exactly is a Cooking Club? I have to give all the credit to our friends, Charlotte and John, who have a love of great food and a passion for cooking. They got the idea from Bon Appetit magazine .

We choose to keep our club simple because we all have children under the age of ten. We have five couples in our Cooking Club - we call ourselves The Edibles - and we get together once every two months or so (depending on the time of year). We hire one babysitter for all of our children who are babysat at one home, while we prepare and have dinner at another nearby home. We start at about 4:30pm, so that it does not make it a late night for the little ones. The kids love seeing each other and we all share in the babysitting and food cost, which makes it a very cost effective evening.

The couple whose turn it is to host the Cooking Club is the one to plan the theme and menu. This month was, naturally, an Oktoberfest theme. We experimented with homemade sausage and a variety of international beers. All the recipes were scanned from a collection of cookbooks that Charlotte and John keep in their HUGE library of cookbooks.

Cooking Club

Here is this month's menu:

It's getting cold out there. Time to heat things up.

Sexy Slang (I love this brand) has come up with yet another way to get couples to cozy up. While they started with with the Sexy Slang board game mentioned here and then the dart game (here), it's the latest addition to the collection that is getting my attention of late: their book, Sexy Slang Bedroom Challenges, 69 Ways to Spice Up Your Sex Life. It's part game, part sex education and part therapy and all feel good.

Sexy Slang Bedroom ChallengesSexy Slang's Bedroom Challenges brings some excitement back into the bedroom. Their motto: "We're saving marriages one challenge at a time". Indeed, did you know that 90% of first-time divorces have infidelity as the reason for the breakup? It seems that a lack of sexual novelty is a major cause of marital discord.

Bedroom Challenges to the rescue. The book features 69 Sexy Slang terms (Happy Trail? The Corkscrew?) which are presented in a two-paged format. The first page features a pictogram of a Sexy

I am still in my honeymoon phase with fall. The weather is getting colder but it's not unbearable by any means - yet. It merely nudges me towards cozier, cushier fashion accessories. Like these wraps and shawls that caught my attention recently…

wrap Jenne Giles Rose Scarf

I'm not sure if I would prefer to wear this sculptural Rose Scarf with a coat or with an evening gown. It would probably work well with both… Jenne Giles uses the most ancient of fabric techniques to craft her sumptuous Rose Scarves from Merino wool, Tussah silk, and silk chiffon. Here are more pieces from the artist . Vavavoom for winter.

wraps Agel Rox

I've already established, way more times than you care to know, how much I enjoy convertible (any)things, clothing included. By now, all us have pretty much run across all sorts of variations of this - convertible - wrap. But ANGgelRoX's version is perhaps the most versatile and most convertible I have seen. It's a skirt, a dress, a shrug, a cape, a jacket… Made of super soft bamboo jersey and available in perfect passe-partout (go anywhere in français) colors. See all the videos on how to wear the ANGgelRoX's wrap here .

As first published and written for the Alice.com Community Blog . Purely editorial, non-solicited and non-paid. Because I love Alice .

It's been almost two months now since our son has left the nest for his freshman year in college. We are slowly getting over the shock. He is happy and having the time of his life, taking it all in. I'm not sure how much he thinks of us, but I think of him multiple times a day: How was his chemistry test, might he need more laundry detergent and darn it, why isn't he here to take out the trash!

I didn't understand the sentimental value of "care packages" until just now (I stayed in my hometown for my university experience and so never needed that type of "care"). But now that my "baby" is away, it makes perfect sense to be sending him little treats and spoils to let him know that I am thinking of him. He's the type that will appreciate the thought behind each item in the package.

I like to place these orders (just as I did with his essential dorm room supplies) with Alice.com . Because I LOVE Alice. I like to flatter myself by saying that I was an early adopter when their service was just released. Now, I'm avowed devotee of the brand since their service has only gotten better and the choice of product multiplied exponentially.

Plus Alice carries some interesting "indie" brands that will appeal to my college-aged son, it's the perfect place for me to place my care package order for him. I was looking for little "luxuries" as well as essentials that he might need along with some edible treats. Here are some of the items that he will find in the care package he will receive this week:

twizzlers	A pack of Twizzlers and a pack of Tootsie Rolls . Because Halloween is around the corner and because these are so reminiscent of childhood comforts.
The cocoa shop lip balm	The Cocoa Shoppe Lip Balm : Made with "real" chocolate and will keep winter lips moist. The trio pack of Dark Chocolate Espresso Bean, Milk Chocolate Mint Leaf and Cocoa Noir sounds delicious!
juice organics eye treatment	Juice Organics Revitalizing Eye Treatment - to use after those inevitable long nights of cramming, especially as finals will creep up on our students before they know it. A tired feeling eye makes one feel more… tired. So this could help.

We are already on the third article in the seven part series on easy and succulent Thanksgiving recipes (see the appetizer recipe here and the soup recipe here). Are there really just four weeks left until Thanksgiving?

This Crab and Grapefruit Salad looks so elegant and is, yet again, sooooo easy to prepare. Grapefruit is a great palate cleanser and is just what you need to get mouths watering before the main attraction. When crabmeat is added to the grapefruit, you have the perfect second course to your Thanksgiving spread.