How To Make...Homemade Sugar Scrub

Hey blog...it's been a while. It started out with me being like...meh, I baked this thing, I'll blog it later. 


Then a few days later...I'd be like, "BLASPHEMY! Some social injustice has occurred, I must blog about it!" and about half way through the post, I'd get sucked into an episode of Charmed, or realize that I should be lesson planning. 


Then a week later, it'd become this awkward mess of...it's just really silly to go back and finish that post now...or I'll do that later, or...well, I really have nothing interesting to say. 


Awkward. Especially since I still have nothing new to say. 


Except to share this awesome homemade sugar scrub. Seriously, you need to make it, it's super easy. Friends who are reading my blog, expect this for winter presents! 


My friend Laurie, from Laurie's Little Kitchen, gave me this amazing Rose Spice sugar scrub a while back, and I was like "holy shennanigans! You made that?" She nodded, humbly. That woman can make almost anything I would buy outside, at home. If you haven't checked out her blog, DO it. 


Anyways, I proceeded to use that sugar scrub up WAY too fast. It was awesome, I would always leave the shower feeling both refreshed and with super soft skin. When my container was empty, I was like GAH, can I ask her to send me more? NAY! I shall make my own. 


Of course I reserved like an hour and a half to do it, thinking it was super complicated. Yeah, no. It's three ingredients. And took me 5 minutes. Make some of your own, it's amazing. 


You'll need: 


1 Plastic Container
2. Olive Oil or Vegetable Glycerin

• Glycerin -- you can find it at your local whole foods. It is basically scentless, so if you hate the smell of olive oil, use this. 

• Olive oil -- I used this. Adds a pretty color, smells good to me.

3. Sugar
4. Optional -- Essential Oil or extract you want to scent your scrub with. I used Lavender essential oil. 


1. Find a plastic container.

Awkward Picture, but it smells amazing

I just re-used the one Laurie gave me. I wouldn't suggest glass, because well, if you're going to keep it in the shower...yeah, self-explanatory. 


2. Fill that container with white sugar. Fill it FULL. 

Scrub a-dub-dub

I used raw sugar because it's usually coarser, but honestly, you can use regular too. Fill it FULL, because the oil or glycerin weighs it down. 

Ignore the wrinkly hand, look at the pretty scrub

3. Pour the glycerin or oil in slowly. 


It'll sit at the top first, but use a spoon to mix it into the sugar. This step takes the most time. 


4. Optional -- mix in a few drops of essential oil or extract (vanilla, almond, whatever floats your boat), it's great.

Note -- This a body, not face, sugar scrub. 

Apple Tarte Tatin, Mezze, And DC

Hello All! It's been a while. The past few weeks have been a flurry of long car rides, students, grading, parents, plane trips, and apples. It's been tiring. 


I got back yesterday from DC very very late, and very very exhausted, but for the first time in a while, I fell asleep without an alarm clock.

Columns at the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial with my finger in the picture

I believe that is called ecstasy. Not waking up to the sound of a horrible little music chime, but instead to the little rays of sunlight shining through your partially shut eyes. Lounging around in bed for an extra half an hour, only partially awake until your puppy licks your arm demanding to be pet. 


Needless to say, it was awesome. 


I was in DC for a medical school interview, and for obvious reasons I can't write about it. It was nice to experience rain again! And even though I was there for less than 24 hours, I was lucky enough to see the Lincoln memorial in the little time I had between the interview and the flight. It was a beautiful city, and I feel lucky to have been able to see it. 


On my way bake...I had the biggest urge to cook. I mean seriously, just for the sake of it, mix together things that would make something tasty. I know it seems like that's always the case, nothing new...but it's not. Sometimes it's a real drag to cook, and I go for weeks on end without an idea, without a thought about what to make. So I read my own baking/cooking blogs, and I use of their ideas, and try it out, but it's never the same as coming up with my own sha-bang, or tweaking one of theirs to make it mine. 


So today, I made a Mezze plate and an apple tarte tatin. A tarte tatin, according to wikipedia, was invented in a French hotel, Hotel Tatin, which was owned by two sisters. One day, one of the sisters was overworked and tired, and started to make an apple pie. She accidentally left the apples in the butter and sugar for two long, and it caramelized. Trying to save the dish, she put a pastry base on it, and baked the whole thing in the oven. When she pulled it out, and flipped it over, she was surprised how good it tasted, and how much the guests loved it. It just went on from there...

I must say, it's a beautiful dish...but, unlike any other tart or pie I've ever had, I felt like I didn't actually NEED the crust, the apples by themselves in the caramel sauce were AMAZING. 


Besides that, I also made some home-roasted red peppers...it seems odd to say "homemade" roasted red peppers since I did buy them from Whole Foods...but anyways, it was SUPER easy. So viola! Two/three recipes for the price of one in this post...enjoy!


Mezze Plate


It had peppered goat cheese, home roasted red peppers in a garlic marinade, homemade hummus, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and assorted olives. I served it with warm bread and olive oil. 

Peppered Goat Cheese


Take goat cheese that has been sitting at room temperature so it's soft and easy to work with. Use about 7-8 tablespoons of it, and mix it until it's soft, add in a splash of cream (about a 1/2 a tbsp.) and some salt and pepper to taste, and viola, done! 


How to Roast a Red Pepper


This is surprisingly easy, all you need is a gas stove. Buy some red peppers (large) from the store, preferably ones with stems, since it'll be easier. Wash them, make sure that they don't have any stickers on them. 

Then get a large bowl ready to put them in after they're roasted, with a cover (either plastic wrap or a plate that will fit on top). The point is  that after we roast them, we stick them in the bowl so that their steam will finish softening them. 


Anyways, turn the stove on high, and place the red pepper directly on top of the flame. You might hear some crackles and pops, but that's okay, that's just the water sublimating. Keep it on the stove until the skin of the red pepper is nice and charred all over. Don't get worried if it's taking a while, that's normal. 


As soon as the entire thing is charred, place it in the bowl, and cover it. IMPORTANT: don't open the cover except to put in another pepper. The steam needs to stay trapped.


As soon as you're done charring all the peppers, set up another bowl with a fine-mesh sieve placed on top. Then take one of the peppers, and slice it from the step to the tip. Then gently cut the stem and the seeds out, and place them in the sieve. If there is any liquid in the pepper, go ahead and run into the bowl under the sieve. Flip the pepper over, and using your fingers or the back of a knife, remove the charred part, slice up the pepper, and put it in the bowl. Do this with all of them.

When you're done, go ahead and mix in some chopped garlic, a splash of olive oil, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. You can keep them in the fridge in a container for about a week, or serve them fresh! 

Apple Tarte Tatin
Modified from joythebaker.com


7 apples, peeled and cored, and quarted (gala or fuji)
1 stick butter (4 oz)
0.75 cups sugar
4 tbsp. lemon or orange marmalade. [subsitute: 2 tbsp. lemon or orange and 1 tbsp. zest]
1 puff pastry tart
1 cast iron pot or dutch oven


Preheat the oven to 375F


In the cast iron pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Then take it off the heat, and mix in the sugar. Make sure the sugar is spread over the entire bottom, and then arrange the apples prettily on the bottom, in concentric circles, starting from the outside, in. 

Then heat the whole sha-bang on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. The sugar will caramelize and the apples will cook. After about 10 minutes, the apples will have gotten smaller, so any left over apples can be smooshed in there. Cook for another 5 min. 


While this is going, cut the puff pastry in a circle (I used a large plate as an outline) to fit over the apples. After you cut it, put it in the fridge to keep it cool, along with the scraps, which you can use along the sides of the tart.


After the apples are done, let them cool for about 5 minutes, then place the puff pastry cover over the top. Make sure to push the edges down along the sides, and if there is any space that's not covered, use the scraps to cover it. 

Then toss the whole thing in the oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. The apples will absorb the carmel mixture during this time while the crust cooks.


After it's done, pull it out of the oven, and let it cool for 30 minutes, it'll be SUPER HOT, and super messy if you try to pull the tart out before it cools. 


When you want to take it out, run a knife along the edges, and place a large plate on the bottom, grab each side with pot holders and then just flip it over.. I suggest flipping it over the sink as some caramel sauce might still be loose and spill like it did with me. 

But then you're done! Serve warm with some ice cream! It should keep for another day or two :-)  

Shortchanging our Students. Shortchanging our Future.

Article that prompted this: Shortchanging Students

Classes with 40+ students in them, with teachers that can only make 1,000 copies per month (that's about 12 copies per kid, per month, front and back), broken furniture for the students to sit on...these are all the cherry on top of a struggling school.

That's the image that needs to be shown, and I'm wondering why it's not?

This year, massive cuts were made in many states, Texas as well, to the education system. A number of lay offs have already taken place, and many vital programs, that have shown to be effective, were cut or severely underfunded, like many pre-K programs in Texas. Why?

Because we just can't afford them with the growing state budget crisis. For example, this year, the state legislature allowed Texas schools to open up to our students 4 billion dollars underfunded. Now some districts are thinking about measures to place fees on riding the bus or attending pre-K to make up some ground. But thank god we have our 10 billion dollar rainy day fund in tact, great job Gov. Perry, on your "highest priority". 

Every day in my class, I teach my jaded 9th grade students, already facing the constant stream of gang-violence, teen pregnancy, drug use, and shockingly poor literacy that have become the hallmark of urban schools, that anything is possible if you have an education. If they put their heads down, work hard, and feed their minds, they will get where they want to go. After all, I was raised to believe that people can take anything and everything from you, except your education, and that will build you back up.

But the state legislature is making that a lie for my students, and others like them.

Wake up. Elementary, middle, and high school are not like college. 30+ students do not just come in to class ready to take notes and learn. They talk, they play, they get up and walk around, etc. because, news flash, they're kids. And as a teacher, it is my job to maintain an academic, well managed classroom while still teaching a fun and interesting lesson about the scientific method. With the massive cuts we are facing--teachers are getting laid off, class sizes are getting bigger, and necessary teaching resources are getting smaller--it's getting more and more difficult to properly educate the future generation.

Much of this could have been side stepped had the policy-makers not been too afraid of dipping into rainy day funds and raising state taxes. Amazingly, the opposite happened...taxes were cut in many state, and pledges were made to "balance the budget" with tax cuts alone, and no increase in spending. I'm sorry, that logic just does not add up.

What does add up is that extremists, like the Tea Partiers, have now got state law makers running scared, and spewing lies to the publics about how no increases in spending will actually help in a time like this, and pull us out of the dark abyss of debt. So instead, law makers are short changing our students, our future.

Without properly educating a large part of this generation, the poorest of our students, how to we ever hope to close the gap of education inequity? By slashing funding for important education initiatives and programs, how do we ever hope to instill the value of education in students, so they can actually be whatever they want to be? By firing teachers and increasing class sizes, how do we ever hope to create safe, comfortable, and academic classroom environments?

I guess we don't. After all, that burden will fall to our children.

[This was a very link heavy piece, because I am a quite passionate about it. To get the most accurate picture of what's happening in many states, particularly in Texas, please read those articles. They are very informative]

The Generosity of Others

The generosity of others always makes me smile. Today, I was on my knees, scrubbing the bathroom floor with Tilex when I heard the doorbell. And poof, five minutes later, I was sitting down with some coffee, taking a much needed break, and munching on a cupcake topped with the most beautiful sprinkles I had ever seen.

 It's amazing how a small thing can take you from complaining about how much hair you shed, much like a sheepdog in fact, to smiling happily as you lick off buttercream. I have always thought food can make someone's day significantly better, but I'm not sure why. If someone I love is upset, my first thought is to make a cake, or cookies, or sweet-bars, something, anything, that could make them smile.

It's a big part of why I give away most of the things I bake. That look of relief that people get when you bring brownies to school and they have something special to look forward too at lunch. The surprise on someone's face when they open the door and you've got a big plate of homemade pretzel bites, still warm from the oven. Or the slow smile that forms when your neighbor asks you, "what did you bring this time?" Adding that small amount of joy to someone's day is priceless.

I am trying to lead a more minimalist, giving life. Not buying things I don't really need, giving away things I don't use any more, and giving a portion of what I make to charities. The first two, because my mother instilled those values in me--think three times if you're going to buy something, it could just crowd your house, and look at something and really think if you use it, or...well, it will just crowd up your house.

The last part comes from a lot of self-reflection...but it's a simple conclusion: I can afford it. I can save 100 a month and give it to charity. Money can make a huge difference to charities like the Human Rights Campaign, Nothing but Nets, or Plan India, so why not? Makes me feel good, and they need it.

Anyways, this was not meant to be preachy, just when my neighbor came over with those cupcakes, well, I had some time to self-reflect while I was munching on one.

So, even a small amount of giving--cookies to your neighbor, cupcakes to your co-workers, or hey, a dollar to the homeless guy on the corner because heck, it's 109 degrees outside, it'll make you smile, so try!

Maybe try with these pretzel bites...which are AMAZING. They taste like the kind you get in the mall. Except healthier, since they're half whole wheat flour!

Pretzel Bites
Adapted from What's Gaby Cookie

2.5 tsp active dry-yeast
1.5 cups warm water
2.5 tbsp. brown sugar
2.5 cups all-purpose-flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
Vegetable Oil for the bowl
0.67 cup baking soda
5 tbsp. melted butter
2.5 tsp salt
kosher salt for garnishing
1 egg yolk for a wash

In a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook mix the warm water, the brown sugar, and yeast. Let it sit for five minutes until its bubbly. Then add the salt and melted butter and mix. Turn on the machine, and while the dough hook is rotating, add the all purpose flour, and then add the wheat flour until it forms a huge mass. Then take it out and transfer it to a bowl coated with the vegetable oil, and cover that up with a cloth...let it rise for an hour.

Then preheat the oven to 425, and split the dough into 8 different parts. Roll each part into 14 inch ropes, and cut it into 1 inch pieces.

Then boil 10 cups of water in a large pot. Then add in the baking soda...it will bubble up as baking soda tends to do, so be ready for a little spillage. Toss in about 15-20 pieces at a time with a slotted spoon, and then after about 20 second, or when they float to the top, pull them out and put them on napkins to drain.

Then put them on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Brush with a the egg yolk, mixed with a little water, and the sprinkle with salt. Pop them in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Pop them out of the oven and eat them when they're warm with some mustard! :-) 

Creme Brulee and a New School Year

So there's been a lot going on in the news lately what with the straw poll in Iowa, and Governor Perry entering the race for the Republican Nomination while Pawlenty drops out. The Texas Legislature approving massive slashes to the family planning budget (2/3s of the budget), and President Obama going on a three day bus tour in the midwest. I could talk about all that, but I'm just going to say two things:


1. Perry rhymes with Scary (thanks Sam) 
2. Let's think of happier things, no? Like Creme Brulee and a new year!

Yep, I made creme brulee. First off, terrible idea. When you make something, you learn what goes into it. But it's so....goooooood. Seriously. Each bite is just so luxurious you just want more. So while I lament actually knowing what's in each bite I'm taking, I revel in the pleasure of the creaminess while Jacques the dog looks on with pleading puppy eyes. 


Don't worry, I let him lick the bowl. 


Don't worry, I clean the bowl well. 


Anyways, it's not hard, trust me. You just have to be careful how you bake it. As with all custards, the concern with baking is that it will cook too fast on the top and you'll come out with a scrambled egg mess. Refer to my lemon bar flop for an example. 

The way to do it with custards, cheesecakes, etc. Is to cook it at a lower temp, for a long time, in a water bath. Water retains heat very well thanks to its high  specific heat, and as a liquid it moves to fit its container (throw back to CHEM 105, ahhh the college education at work). 


Why is this good for custard? Well, cooking something in a water bath ensures that you get an even temperature on all parts of your dessert. And things come out beautifully. 

Also, really do spring for the vanilla bean for this recipe. My reasoning for this is three-fold:


1. It gives the custard a totally different flavor than regular vanilla extract would. 


2. Seeing those black vanilla bean seeds will make you feel fancy. Totes worth it when you're eating it in your work out clothes on your couch. 


3. You can re-use the vanilla bean pod to make awesome vanilla sugar. Great in my fake-espresso, as it will be in yours too. 


Make it for yourself and eat it over the course of a week and a half (that's how long it'll stay really good...you can keep it for longer, but it won't taste as good) or make it for a dinner party to make your guests think you're a master chef.

PS -- about school -- I'm starting a new year on Monday. Yep, second year! People say it's better than the first. This is me taking a break from mad lesson planning--writing this post. I'm excited, and scared, and little more excited, then scared again. I'm scarited. It'll totes be fine :-) 


Creme Brulee
modified from Alton Brown


6 egg yolks, room temperature
1.5 cups granulated sugar
2.5 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean
2 quarts hot water


Preheat the oven to 300F.


In a medium saucepan, heat all your cream. Take your vanilla bean, slice it down the middle, and scrape the seeds out of it with your knife. Place the seeds and the vanilla bean shell in with your cream. Allow it to come to a boil, then turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes. 


Meanwhile, in an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, put in the six egg yolks with 0.5 cups of sugar. Whisk on medium-high till it turns light-yellow, like the color of unsalted butter.


When the cream is done steeping, remove the vanilla bean shell and reserve it for later. 


Turn your mixer back on to medium, and slowly pour the cream into the yolk mixture. Do it slowly, because the cream is still hot, and you do not want to cook the eggs. I actually transferred my cream into a pyrex liquid measuring cup, and pour from there. 


Then pour your mixture into little ramekins until they're about half or 3/4 full (depending on how you want it). Put them in a baking dish, and put them in the oven. 


Once its in the oven, carefully pour the hot water around your ramekins into the baking dish, making sure not to spill any into the creme brulee mixture. Close the oven, and bake for 40 min. You'll know they're done when they're firm, but a bit jiggly in the middle still. Allow them to cool for 2 hours before eating.


While it's baking, in a small container, put the rest of the 1 cup of sugar, and the reserved vanilla bean shell. Mix it a little and cover it. 


Now comes the fun part....when you want to burn the sugar on top, take a tsp. of the vanilla sugar you made, put it on the custard, spread it around, and either stick it in your broiler on high for a minute or so, or if you have a handle held flamer, just flame it! 


Serve immediately with fresh berries on top, you know, for the healthy aspect. 

Rosemary Lemon Shortbread

So Thop and I had some friends over for dinner on Thursdays, H- and J-. Tyler met them last year when we started going to the rock climbing wall. I had met H- before, a great chica with amazing rock climbing abilities and a fun personality, but I hadn't met her boyfriend J- yet, also a baller rock climber and a generally cool person. Anyways, dinner was a success. The menu? 


Spinach Salad
Beet and Mascarpone Salad (AMAzing) 
Fresh Pasta with Homemade Pasta Sauce
Lavender and Walnut Scones with Lemon Curd and Fresh Berries 


Overall, the night was filled with yummy tastes, good conversation, and a plan to go rock climbing! 


For those of you who haven't rock climbed before: 


1. Do it, it's super fun.
2. The people that are making it look easy are LYING. They just practice a lot.
3. It's scary when you get up high and look down. No matter how ballin' you are, it's scary. 
4. Seriously do it. It'll be an experience that's simultaneously heart-pounding and addictive.


So we went out yesterday night to the site, our backpacks packed with various and sundry items, including multiple nalgenes, over 4.5 gallons of water, climbing ropes, shoes, and a tooth brush. We were well packed. Setting up the tent was loads of fun, I realized both A) how useless I was in that matter B) how much I am definitely from the city. But we managed, I learned, and Tyler and I fell asleep under the starry Texas night with Jacques standing guard. Honestly, he woke me up every hour on the hour by growling at a shadow in the distance. Our protector--a 12 lb. neurotic poodle. 

Anyways, we woke up at the ungodly hour of 5AM, with the sun still down, but the coffee definitely on, and were packed up and headed out to "demon mountain" by 7:00. It's not really called demon mountain, but I shook my fist at it vigorously several times, so I decided to name it that. 


Man alive was that hike hard! Seriously, I was like, "oh cool, a fun little hike, how nice" LIES. H-, J-, and Thoppy were running up that beast of a mountain, while I was huffing and puffing like a 40 year old smoker with emphysema behind them, flashing the thumbs up sign when they looked back so as to not look like a lost and confused puppy. Meanwhile, the real puppy, Jacques, who was on a leash in my hand, was bounding around, jumping gleefully from rock to rock. It was as though the "wilderness" had turned him from normal poodle-dog, into poodle-wolf, capable of a great many feats of jumping that his person was clearly incapable of doing. 12 lb dog > me on a hike. 


We finally made it up to the top of the mountain, where I spent my time vacillating between admiring the gorgeous view of the desert-area, greenery, and sunrise, and looking over the precipice trying to internalize my impending doom. Clearly unable to comprehend my deep-seated fear, H-, J-, and Thoppy happily went along setting up the rock climbing gear, and made their way individually up the climbing routes. I must say, I gained a new respect for Thoppy--he showed that mountain whose boss...until he twisted his ankle, and a bit after too. I, in turn, simply stared at the whole situation of them climbing the demon-mountain, paralyzed with fear. I politely declined climbing, saying "who would look after the dog? He's clearly afraid" [Reality: poodle-dog to poodle-wolf transformation was complete. He was not afraid.]

My big accomplishment there: I actually stood up on the slanty mountain by myself, and looked over the edge. I think that me and that mountain are going to become friends some day. Don't the best friendships start with rooted fear? 


Anyways, long story short, we hiked down again, and I climbed a smaller mountain [Reality: not a mountain, a large rock]. Yes, that's right, victory was mine. I took on my fear by climbing, and claiming, my very own rock. I grabbed on to "holds," I maneuvered, and I learned how to do it properly and better, so that next time maybe I will go on demon-mountain. 

After that crazy day, what do I need to do to unwind? Make rosemary, lemon shortbread cookies! I got the inspiration from this lovely lady, but I didn't have any thyme, so I figured I'd try rosemary and see how it worked out. 

GREAT. That's how. These cookies have a light flavor of rosemary (if you want it heavier, use more than I used) with the lemon kicking in later. Great for afternoon tea, a thank you gift for someone, or just a snack. 


Enjoy! 


Rosemary Lemon Shortbread
Modified from 17andbaking.com


1 cups of granulated sugar
3 cups flour
3 sticks butter
1 tsp. vanilla
0.5 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1.5 tsp. lemon zest (one medium lemon) 
1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped up


Preheat the oven to 325. Attach the paddle attachment to your mixer, and blend together the bugger and sugar until it's light and fluffy, about 2 min. Then add in the vanilla, the salt, the lemon juice, the zest, and the rosemary. Mix on medium-high until incorporated. 


Then, turn your mixer down to slow, and add in the flour. When it's all added, turn your mixer up to high for 30 seconds, to make sure all the flour is mixed in properly. 


Divide the dough into two equal balls. Get some plastic wrap, and wrap the balls up and refrigerate for at least 30 min. 


When you want to bake it, role it out to about 1 in. think, and either cut it into square, or cut out shapes (I used hearts). Be careful, if the dough gets too warm, it'll be hard to work with. It's better to do it when its cold. 


Place them on a parchment paper or silpat lined baking sheet, and cook them for about 10 min, or until they are golden brown on the edges. Pull them out, let them cool for about 5 min. and then try one!

Crisis Pregnancy Centers, San Francisco, and My Thoughts

Summary: The article explains that, like other areas of our country, San Francisco is trying to pass a law that makes it illegal for "crisis pregnancy centers" make false claims about the services they provide and to mislead women about their choices. 


My Thoughts: 


Crisis pregnancy centers and other free clinics are frequently used by low income girls and women when they think they might be or are pregnant. These are places they feel they can go to learn about and weigh their options about this life-changing event. 


Low-income communities usually have little access to health clinics or health care professionals, so crisis pregnancy centers in these communities can be seen as a boon for many women. Pregnant, scared, and able to turn to a health care professional that can assess my situation and tell me what I can do? Great!


You walk into a crisis pregnancy facility where you are greeted by people in scrubs and other medical-wear, looking very professional. You sign in on a clip board and you go sit down in what looks like a doctor's waiting room. You pull out a magazine, and wait for your name to be called. When it is, they take you back, weigh you, take your height and blood pressure, and write it all down and say "someone will be with you shortly." Sounds like you're in a doctors office, no? 


No. These centers frequently lack even a single licensed medical professional on staff. Not a doctor, not a nurse, not a medical assistant, not anyone. The entire above scenario is a facade, meant to fool women into thinking they are about to receive information from a professional that is going to give them all their options. 


In fact, most are run by religious groups whose primary goal is to lead women away from abortion. That's not a bad thing necessarily, except when they purport to be neutrally providing all the options. Many have been caught providing false and incomplete information their "patients". That's where it become totally unacceptable.


Not providing a complete picture or selectively providing information strips an individual of control over their own choices and life. The low income women these centers service have lost control over their own lives in many ways already: poor public education leading to limited social mobility, limited access to health care leading to uncontrolled chronic diseases, and more.  As a community we have the responsibility to protect these individuals from the false claims of predatory facilities. 


So I whole-heartedly agree with many of the states and cities that have chosen to take actions to regulate these clinics. Why not make it so that any clinics that claims to provides information and services to pregnant women, have to place a sign in their waiting rooms that says whether or not they have trained medical professionals in the clinic, and what services they provide. This would include Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics, and is a completely reasonable demand to protect women at a time when we may be at our most vulnerable.