Month: January 2004

&ldquo;Across America, it's the proverbial morning after for the people born in the two decades after World War II. For the last 30 years, they&rsquo;ve let their tongues lead them around the globe in a hedonistic quest for the most exotic dishes, the best boutique wine and the babiest of baby lettuce. Saddled now with thickening waists, acid-reflux and high blood pressure, Boomers are waking up and realizing it&rsquo;s time to pay the tab.&rdquo; <cite><a href="http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/14/FDGEV4735K14.DTL" title="DIET &amp; DEMOGRAPHICS / EATING AT 50 / At midlife, it's not looks or loot that counts, It's diet.">[SF Gate]</a></cite>

These could be interesting for storing home grown and dried herbs.

Our tins are practical for sealing in the natural flavors and aromas of spices, herbs, and teas. They’re ideal for storing everything from bath salts and vitamins to paper clips and rubber bands. They also make unique packaging for small gifts. Choose from seven sizes… To prevent rusting, we recommend our Seamless Tins for storage of dry products only. [The Container Store]

For some reason Gretchen decided that we should have a big breakfast this morning. We had scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, maple sausage, a slice of toast, and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 158 pounds.



<ins datetime="2004-01-21T07:20:00-05:00">Lunch was an orange and a four mile walk after a warm up of 10 toe-touchers, 10 squats, 10 pathetic push-ups, and 10 really pathetic sit-ups. Dinner was a salad and a slice of whole wheat raisin bread.</ins>

I had hesitated to download the photos from our camera while I was rebuilding my machine. Now that it is back to health, I downloaded these photos last night, they go back a little ways. The first two are pictures of our cats. Apparently they do not think we keep the house warm enough and always want to sit in my lap to warm up in the morning.



<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/minby-lap.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Photograph of our cat Minby, sitting in my lap on a cold morning." />



<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/sierra-lap.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Photograph of our cat Sierra, sleeping in my lap on a cold morning." />



These two pictures are of the deer that survived the hunting season. There were nine all told. Four of them were bucks. It seemed to me that they were displaying surprisingly un-buck-like behavior.



<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/three-bucks.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Photograph of three bucks standing in our yard one cold morning." />



<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/two-bucks.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Photograph of two bucks, one grooming the other, in our yard one cold morning." />

Meatless Sloppy Joe’s

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• Nonstick cooking spray, as needed
• 2 cup thinly sliced onions
• 2 cup chopped green peppers
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. mustard
• 1 can kidney beans – (15 oz), mashed
• 1 can tomato sauce – (8 oz)
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• Cider vinegar, as needed
• 2 sandwich rolls, halved

Directions:

Spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot. Add onions, peppers and garlic. Cook and stir 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in ketchup and mustard.

Add beans, sauce and chili powder. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently and adding up to ⅓ cup vinegar if dry. Top sandwich roll halves evenly with bean mixture.

Nutrition info per serving:

Calories 217, Carbohydrates 42 gm, Protein 10 gm, Fat 2 gm, Saturated Fat 0 gm, Unsaturated Fat 0 gm, Sodium 953 mg, Fiber 8 gm, Calcium 84 mg, Iron 3 mg [Meatless Monday]

Breakfast this morning was two toasted pieces of Gretchen’s stone baked Italian bread with strawberry preserves and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 158 pounds.



<ins datetime="2004-01-19T13:45:00-05:00">I had an orange and a <a href="http://www.naturevalley.com/Products2.htm" title="Welcome to Nature Valley: Products">Nature Valley Oats &rsquo;N Honey Crunchy Granola Bar</a> for lunch after a three mile walk.</ins>



<ins datetime="2004-01-19T18:33:00-05:00">Dinner was a steak salad and a slice of Gretchen&rsquo;s whole wheat raisin bread.</ins>

Celery is native to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as a flavoring. The Ancient Chinese used it as a medicinal.

The celery that we all buy in the local supermarket is Pascal variety, first cultivated in 1874 in Michigan.

Using a celery stick to garnish a Bloody Mary originated in the 1960s at Chicago’s Ambassador East Hotel. An unnamed celebrity got a Bloody Mary, but no swizzle stick. He grabbed a stalk of celery from the relish tray to stir his Bloody Mary and history was made.

Two billion pounds of celery are grown each year in the U.S…

California produces more than 2/3rds of the celery grown in the U.S. and Florida produces about 20%. [Food Reference]

Celery has about 6 calories per 8-inch stalk, making it a dieter’s staple. Although it’s loaded with latent energy, the amount we are capable of extracting from it is negligible thanks to the plant’s cellulose composition. Its ingestion can result in negative calories, but it is a fallacy to believe that effect has to do with energy expended in chewing. Though chewing might feel like a somewhat strenuous activity, it burns about the same amount of energy as watching paint dry. It is the bodily energy devoted to the digestion of the green stalks that exhausts calories…

Yet as enticing as all this sounds, the dietary bankroll built by this approach would be very small, probably amounting to no more than a few dozen calories a day. In a world where it takes 3,500 calories to work off a single pound of fat, feasting on celery would make only the merest difference…

But in defense of celery, we note that even if it doesn’t contribute mightily to a caloric imbalance which serves to work waistline magic, those who are eating it aren’t eating something else. Sometimes the key to a successful reducing plan is not so much the ingestion of “good” foods as it is the avoidance of “bad” ones. And it’s hard to sneak a chocolate bar into a mouth that’s busy chewing celery. [Snopes]

A new survey commissioned by The Association for Dressings and Sauces reveals some interesting facts about consumers and condiment sauces, including salsa, salad dressing and mayonnaise. In the recent survey of 1,000 Americans completed by Synovate, salsa and ketchup tied for the “favorite” condiment with mayonnaise, salad dressing and barbecue sauce close behind. Mustard was the most popular “second favorite” choice.

Salsa’s strength is in the West, where consumers are more likely to love salsa, be frequent users and to have some on hand at home. One in four of the people surveyed named salsa as their favorite condiment. Compared to consumers in general, those who prefer salsa to any other condiment sauce are more likely to be extroverts. It is not surprising, then, that they are more likely to turn toward social activities in their spare time. Salsa-lovers are the most motivated of any other group. If it’s true that you are what you eat, then salsa lovers have that hot and spicy “kick” that motivates them like no other! [Food Ingredients Online]

&ldquo;Ever wonder what the Founding Fathers drank? Using recipes favored by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Yards, a Philadelphia-based brewer, is recreating their beers of choice and offering them for sale in six-packs.&rdquo; <cite><a href="http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1591417.html" title="NPR : Brewery Recreates Revolutionary Beer">[NPR]</a></cite>