Allyson Wendt
Yes, it’s a big deal
I am tired of disabled and marginalized people being thrown under the bus in the name of environmentalism.
I'm tired of people assuming everyone can drink from a glass without a plastic straw. (I can't always, by the way.)...
A matter of choice
The Trump administration has proposed changes to the SNAP program that would make it more difficult for parents to feed their children
My daughter, 3 years old at the time, ran over to the display. “Strawberries! I want strawberries!” she said as she grabbed a container of bright red berries, then turned to put them in our cart. I looked at the price: $4.99 for a quart. “Not today, sweetie,” I...
Chronically ill and completely abandoned by the Senate
I went to bed on Dec. 1 dreading that I would wake up to world in which the Republican party had completely abandoned the people of this country. I woke up on Dec. 2 to discover that, sure enough, the Senate had passed a tax “reform” bill that would...
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Politics, stress, illness, and privilege
The day the Senate voted on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I walked through my day with every muscle in my body taut with anxiety. I checked Twitter regularly, hoping for some clue about how the vote would go. I went to therapy and fretted about the vote and what it might mean for me and my friends. And I had a few small seizures. When the bill failed, I nearly shook with relief. The stakes for...
Blaming the victims
If you live in what Susan Sontag famously called the Kingdom of the Sick, you will find yourself waking up one day asking how you arrived in this somewhat dreary place. Many of the roads from away lead to the Forest of Nowhere in Particular, winding aimlessly through the dense growth of a life filled with the usual combination of good and bad habits. Very few of us know what made us sick - we just end up with cancer...
Beyond marshmallows
Many folks automatically connect sweet potatoes with maple syrup, brown sugar, or marshmallows, because that is the way they are most often served. But the sweet starchiness of this vegetable takes both curry and Mexican-spice blends quite well. The round earthiness of cumin and the sharp spiciness of chilis are both tempered by the sweet base. Add some butter, cream, or coconut milk, and you have a wonderfully different side dish for your holiday meal. Here are sweet potatoes two...
A new fall taste
I only recently discovered casperita, a ghostly white pumpkin with a starchy texture and a not-quite-sweet taste. It's delicious, more like a plantain than a squash, and takes butter, garlic, and sage really well. Casperita is also very difficult to peel, because it has a thick, crunchy skin. You can make peeling easier by poking a few holes in the pumpkin with a sharp knife and putting it in the oven for 10 minutes or so at 400 degrees. Let...
Healthy and convenient hand pies
The typical school lunch can be everything from uninspiring to unhealthy, but it doesn't have to be. If you take some time once a month or so, you can throw some hearty, healthy hand pies into the mix. The best part is that all you have to do is remove them from the freezer and send them to school. You can make them small for younger children, or large (calzone size) for older kids or adults. For these pies, I...