With the Mac OS X 10.3.2 update, Safari now has tooltips. So, I am tentatively retiring “Nice Titles.”
Cooks warned of turkey fat crisis
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3321177.stm" title="BBC NEWS | UK | Politics | Cooks warned of turkey fat crisis">Cooks warned of turkey fat crisis</a>: “Instead of pouring cooking fat down the sink, householders are being advised to put it into an old tin or other sturdy container.
“Once cool and solidified, the fat should be wrapped in newspaper and binned.
“However, fat with high nutritional content, such as lamb and beef suet, can be mixed with seeds, food scraps and dried fruit and hung outside for garden birds.
“Tony Dearsley, Thames Water’s environment manager, said: ‘Cooking fat poured down the drain can be a recipe for disaster at any time of year — but the risk is much greater at Christmas, the peak time for meat sales.
“‘A blocked drain is bottom of everybody's Christmas list, as they can cause householders’ own properties to flood, a costly and very unpleasant experience.’”
What’s In a Name
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,tastings,00.html" title="WSJ.com - Tastings">A Great Choice at the Last Minute</a>: “There is ‘Port’ and there is Port. ‘Port’ is the name winemakers all over the world, from California to Australia, have given to sweet, alcoholic, fortified wines. Some of these, which are made from just about any kind of grape, are simply nasty, while others are pretty darn tasty and good after dinner. But real Port is something altogether special. It’s made in the Douro Valley [of Portugal] from several kinds of grapes, generally unfamiliar ones such as Touriga Nacional. It’s made like regular wine, but then some brandy is added, which stops the fermentation and leaves the wine with residual sugar (maybe 10% or so) and plenty of alcohol (maybe 20% or so). Here’s the key: All fine wine should have a sense of place, and real Port does. Underneath the tastes of plums, chocolate and spices is a hint of rich earth that makes Port particularly soul-satisfying.”
What is Horseradish?
<a href="http://www.horseradish.org/facts.html">Facts about America’s Favorite Root</a>: “In the United States, an estimated 24 million pounds of horseradish roots are ground and processed annually to produce approximately 6 million gallons of prepared horseradish.”
Real Meal Steals
Americans just love other people’s cooking. A recent survey by the foodies at Zagat’s revealed that diners eat out an average of 3.4 times a week, spending $25 each time…
According to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the average household�spends about $2,000 dining out, and about $3,000 on home cooking each year. Retail sales at eating establishments account for around 10% of total retail trade in the U.S…
In 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on burgers and fries. By 2000, we were forking over $110 billion for fast food — fattening the fast-food industry’s bottom line, and our own. Today nearly two-thirds of the population is overweight and one in three of us is clinically obese…
There’s a reason that veggie-based appetizers�dominate the menu. Salads and side dishes are cash cows: Restaurant owners mark those up five to 10 times what they paid. Most meals are marked up 300%, or four times the cost of ingredients, meaning you’ll pay $20 for pasta con frou frou or quiche l’orange that cost the restaurant around $5 to make. A cut of meat, on the other hand, is not a huge profit maker — a $7 sirloin will go for just $10 or $15.
<a href="http://www.fool.com/About/staff/DayanaYochim/author.htm" title="Fool.com: Dayana Yochim's Archive">Yochim, Dayana</a>. “<a href="http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary031217dy.htm" title="Fool.com: Real Meal Steals [Commentary] December 17, 2003">Real Meal Steals</a>” <i><a href="http://www.fool.com/index.htm" title="Fool.com: To Educate, Amuse and Enrich -- Main Page">The Motley Fool</a></i>. 17 December 2003. <a href="http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2003/commentary031217dy.htm" title="Fool.com: Real Meal Steals [Commentary] December 17, 2003"><http:// www.fool.com/ news/ commentary/ 2003/ commentary031217dy.htm></a> (18 December 2003).
It Isn’t Rice and It Isn’t Always Wild
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A61792-2003Nov4&notFound=true">It Isn’t Rice and It Isn’t Always Wild (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Wild rice is a kitchen-cabinet staple for many families in my native Minnesota, and a food of spiritual importance for some who have been there the longest. For hundreds of years, the Ojibwe and other Midwestern Indian tribes celebrated the harvest of ‘manoomin’ in late August and September, then used the highly nutritious grain to supplement their diet throughout the brutal winter months that followed.
“North America’s only native cereal grain, wild rice — which is really a type of aquatic grass — is remarkably versatile. When I was growing up in Minneapolis, chicken and wild rice casserole and creamy wild rice soup were favorites in my family. As an adult, I use it in a variety of my own dishes.”
Turkey, Christmas Pudding, and Mince Pies (Oh My!)
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/18/opinion/18STRO.html?ei=5007&en=180c679dd615bb2e&ex=1387083600&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=">Op-Ed Contributor: The Worst Meal of the Year</a>: “Like Thanksgiving in the United States, Christmas in Britain has grown into an inescapable culinary dinosaur from which you chicken out at your peril — even in an era when a new, lighter British cuisine is being promoted by young chefs like Jamie Oliver. Families, the majority of which are better kept apart, are suddenly thrown together for a ritual feast lasting several days, plowing their way through a few million roast turkeys, mince pies and Christmas puddings and cakes, not to mention swimming the alcohol lake.”
Food Log
Breakfast was a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 159 pounds.
<ins datetime="2003-12-18T18:41:00-05:00">I walked the two miles round trip to the HUB today and had a salad. Continuing in the roasting vein, Gretchen roasted a chicken for dinner, she made cloved onions and we got the last of her home made baked beans. We also finished off the <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=5" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Merlot</a>.</ins>
Food Log
Breakfast was a glass of juice. I weighed in at 159 pounds.
The Cisco representative took our group to lunch today. We went to the <a href="http://www.americanalehouse.com/" title="American Ale House - Fine Dining AND Tommy Wareham">American Ale House</a> in Toftrees. I had a Carolina Pulled Pork sandwich, a pickle, and a dollop of potato salad.
<ins datetime="2003-12-17T18:53:00-05:00">Gretchen roasted a turkey breast for dinner, she made pan gravy and mashed potatoes, she also made home made applesauce and got some of her home made baked beans out of the freezer. I had it all with a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale.</ins>
Wine Talk: Americans’ Thirst for Wine Is Rising
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/17/dining/17WINE.html?ex=1386997200&en=0800a1e7b350a222&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">Wine Talk: Americans’ Thirst for Wine Is Rising</a>: “The current wine boom is hardly an overnight phenomenon. Wine Institute figures show that after some particularly rocky years in the 1980’s, wine consumption in the United States has more than doubled in 12 years, up an estimated 88 million cases this year from the 1991 figure.
“As [Jon Fredrikson, a partner in Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, a San Francisco-based consulting firm that has been tracking the wine industry for 55 years,] noted, 1992, when the boom began, was the year following the revelation of the so-called French Paradox, a study that claimed that the foie-gras-eating French had fewer problems with obesity and cardiovascular illness than Americans.
“The reason, the researchers said, was wine, particularly red wine, which the French drank much more of than Americans did. Sales of red wine in this country took off in 1992 and have increased every year since. According to data gathered by the A. C. Nielsen company, red wines accounted for 17 percent of the United States market in 1991, 25 percent in 1995 and 39 percent in 2002. That is confirmation of sorts of the old Burgundian adage that wine has but one responsibility, and that is to be red.”