Goji Berries and Tea

I collect cookbooks. My children tell me it is fruitless since everyone can go on-line and find any recipe they want. Maybe so, but there are still a few of us who enjoy the feel of a book in our hands and knowing where we can find the recipe again once we have used it. I have graduated from the redundant group cookbooks which seem to recycle all the popular recipes. Now I go for ethnic and specialty books - "Island Cooking, Recipes from the Hawaiian Islands," a small paperback just on different kinds of beans, anything way off the wall.

One of my favourite things to do when I travel, whether it is another state or another country, is visit the grocery stores. While visiting in Colorado Springs, I discovered a bag of goji berries. Of course, I had to try goji berries since I had never heard of them.

The berries looked rather like a red raisin, but had a different flavor. They were chewy, had several tiny seeds inside, and tasted mildly 'blah.' I have yet to add them to something I bake, like cookies or banana bread, but I think that would be an agreeable addition. One reference suggested that this popular Himalayan fruit is often steeped in tea. I added a few to my afternoon cuppa' and found the flavor much more agreeable. The small berries plumped up and added a little different flavor to the tea. Although I don't know if the many health benefits attributed to the goji berry are substantiated, it doesn't appear to hurt anything . So I might just add a few to my tea for the antioxidants, possible cancer prevention, reduction in blood glucose, and lower cholesterol. So much easier than maintaining a healthy lifestyle, don't you think. I think banana bread might be the next trial.