The first snow of the season is falling today so it’s time to break out my favorite soup recipe.  I found this basic recipe a while back in Good Housekeeping as part of a seven day all-you-can-eat soup diet. Since then I’ve jazzed it up with the addition of herbs and garlic, experimented with substituting different veggies and incorporated carbs and proteins in various versions. One of the soup’s pluses is no matter what you throw in, It’s impossible to botch the results (at least I haven’t yet — thank you Soup Gods).

If you like your vegetable soup on the light side and are super serious about losing some weight, you can stick with the original recipe. At 45 calories per cup, it’s meant to be a dinner meal (with added protein) that compliments the dietary-planned breakfast and lunches. These portion controlled meals contain tasty sounding items like ham and cheese sandwiches, tangerine and avocado salad, California turkey pita with bacon, red beans and rice stew and strawberry, orange smoothies. In between meals, you can chow down on as much of the low calorie soup as your culinary heart desires.

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Autumn colors weren’t supposed to be so hot in the Northeast this year.  Too much rain, people said. Ha! So much for predicting the ways of Mother Nature who came through with a blaze of autumn colors that kept cameras clicking like mad all over Central Park for weeks. (Is there anybody in NYC that DOESN’T have a camera? I think not.)

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For newcomers, New York City’s energy, speedy pace and wow cast of characters can be an assault on the senses, so here are a few safety tips to ease you into the NYC saddle.

• Number one: be constantly aware of everything and everyone around you. When my teen-age niece first visited me, I stressed this constant awareness to her. And apparently she listened, because when we got off the downtown subway and were walking towards the exit, she suddenly whirled around and stared hard at a man behind us — who it turned out had been following us all along and who slunk away under her direct stare. Embarrassing — this street-wise New Yorker hadn’t even noticed the prospective troublemaker.
• Number two: No eye contact on subways. Loonies are a dime a dozen here and some consider direct looks as aggressive as pulling a weapon. You can look all you want at the fascinating stuff happening all around you — just don’t let any weirdoes catch you doing it. Subways are the speediest way to navigate the city and perfectly safe if a few guidelines are kept in mind. On subways and buses, It’s best not to flash any pricey jewelry or hi-tech gadgets  (I’m talking iPods and iPhones here), items dearly coveted by certain young have-nots determined to be HAVES.
• Also, no eye contact for panhandlers either. And if you’re approached by a stranger with a scam such as a sob story about desperately needing $20.00 for a ticket home, say sorry and move on. This  scam has been pulled on me by the same guy at least twice near Gramercy Park.
• I have been out walking late at night alone with nary a problem. Usually I stick to busier main streets and always walk briskly to discourage unwanted contact. Some sections of New York, however, can be unsafe for lone young woman during late night hours. Central Park, an enchanted spot during the day is not a place for young females to wander around after dark.
• Carrying your purse with a shoulder strap across your chest not only discourages theft, but also has the added benefit of freeing up your hands and arms.
• For Men, stowing their wallets in their back pockets is a no-no. On the bus I once saw a man shout out to the driver not to discharge any passengers till the culprit who had just stolen his wallet from HIS back pocket was identified.  The bus driver instead elected to open the doors and a young man who had been waiting to get off, galloped down the stairs, flew up the street and disappeared in the crowd, clearly richer thanks to the victim’s cash.
• Chatting on hand-held phones is verboten if you’re driving in the city. And when making a turn, drivers must yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Although it’s been my experience that many cab drivers will zoom toward crossing pedestrians trying to intimidate THEM into stopping so their cab can fly unimpeded around the corner.  Pedestrians should be aware that having the right of way in the Big Apple, unlike other places, demands a definite degree of alertness when crossing streets.

These safety concerns make up only a tiny percentage of New York City’s exciting, vibrant life. Whether you’re coming to visit or settle down with us, be prepared for a grand time.

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My luck in finding great hair cutters who work for a song may have run out.

The trouble started last year when my long-time hairstylist abruptly disappeared. After a few cryptic phone conversations, the awful truth came out. She had left the country and returned to her native Afghanistan to work for the US government. She was skimpy on details, but in speaking to others I surmised the work she was doing was both dangerous and lucrative. A heck of a lot more lucrative than the pittance she had been charging me for a great short haircut: a big $50.00.

For my next cut she recommended the owner of the hair salon where she had been working. Which turned out to be DISASTERVILLE! The woman whipped out a razor and proceeded to scrape and thin out my hair while bad-mouthing my previous short hairstyle and pushing her expensive salon products on speechless me. Numb and stunned, I finally made my escape and shambled up Third Avenue, spooking passer-byes left and right with my new witch wig.

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In contrast to all the familiar Christmas songs and salutations surrounding us this season, here again from early blog days are some quotes with a bit more zip and zing:

“Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: there’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.”~ Marcelene Cox

“I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white man would be coming into my neighborhood after dark.” ~ Dick Gregory

“There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime. Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.”~ P.J. O’Rourke

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Here are some good fortune quotes for our coming New Year:

“Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Labor is the fabled magician’s wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.” ~ James Weldon Johnson

“The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.” ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Nobody does fantasy Christmas windows like Bergdorfs. The oohing and aahing among street admirers hit overdrive this year with two particular knockout displays. From the North, the snow queen, splendid in white fur, surrounded by white animal courtiers including a bejeweled polar bear. And from the depths of Neptune, a diaphanous creature floating through an undersea world of glittering fish and ocean fauna in sparkling shades of aquamarine.

To complement their feathery finery in a window facing Central Park and the Plaza, gowned partiers sport alabaster bird heads, the more feathers the merrier.

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These red cochineal beetles really get around. First they show up as neon red coloring in foods I recently wrote about in “Hair, Beetles and Beaver Anal Glands in Our Food.” And now the little red buggers have turned up in, of all things, the pink moisture cream I have been daily smoothing into my face for years. A check of the ingredients in my cream, Olay’s Active Hydrating Beauty Fluid, finds Red 4 listed as the last ingredient. Thanks to my recent research, we now know Red #4, Carmine and Crimson Lake are all made of crushed cochineal beetles.

So big deal you say. Aren’t natural dyes made from beetles preferable to petroleum-based chemical dyes? Well, first of all, the processing of cochineal beetles into dye isn’t such a pure deal. The pulverized insects are boiled in ammonia or sodium carbonate. Then alum is added to bring out the red color. Other chemicals may be added along the way, such as stannous chloride, citric acid, borax, gelatin, cream of tartar, potassium hydrogen oxalate, egg white or fish glue. And lime is thrown in to make shades of red-purple.

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Once upon a time I used made-in-America soap exclusively. For the simple reason it was the only soap sold in the stores I shopped in.

Then one-day America’s big soap makers had a big pow-wow and said, “Hey, people need soap every day. We can charge a whole lot more for the stuff. Let’s double the price. Triple it even. Or how’s about QUADRUPLING it! Who’s to complain? What are consumers gonna do? Go all grimy and stop buying it?”

Well, let me tell you what this consumer did. She waltzed into a discount store and among the cheaper American brands, she spotted an unfamiliar brand from Turkey that costs a big 99 cents for THREE bars of soap –less than the price she’d been paying for one bar. Along with being inexpensively priced, the soap was appealingly packaged.

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For the past few years my renters insurance premiums have seen pretty steep increases, but this year’s 2012 bill catapulted my blood pressure to the top of the charts. The insurance company I’ve been with for years upped my annual bill by 20%! The reason? Not a single one on my end. Last year not one circumstance in my apartment, building or neighborhood changed an iota to warrant this hefty increase.

There was no way I was going to pay for the over-the-top new premium. Nor had I any intention of speaking with the company in an attempt to lower their bill. Their price hikes had been getting out of hand for awhile, but this newest increase was out of the stratosphere as far as I was concerned.

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