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In honor of April Fool’s Day, Wired News has an interesting article about net hoaxes. One of them is a link to Proline Computers and West Peak Gear that purports to be the purveyor of Dehydrated Water — Revolutionary! Just add water and drink!.
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I have no idea whether this is a hoax, but Richard L. Eldredge in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, reports:
On Page 154 of [Southern Living magazine’s April issue], the first line of the recipe reads: “Bring one cup of water and ½ cup shortening to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat; boil 5 minutes.”
It’s a safe bet that even Jessica Simpson could figure out that combining water, fat and high heat is not conducive to the continued well-being of your kitchen.
When the magazine began receiving complaints, it retested the recipe and rushed out a media advisory this week: “Combining the water and shortening as described in the recipe may cause the mixture to ignite, is extremely dangerous, and could result in fire and safety hazards.”
Cleanly Core a Cabbage
Quartering a cabbage offers an easy solution to removing the core. To do this, cut the cabbage vertically in half through the core with a large knife. Then cut each piece again through the core. Cut out the portion of the core from all four pieces by slicing around it.
Donna Pierce. “From the Test Kitchen.” Chicago Tribune. 31 March 2004. <www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/chi-0403310118mar31,1,7528414.story> (31 March 2004).
Format Change
I have decided to try to reduce the noise level in this blog a little bit. I still want to log what I eat, but I realize it is not the most exciting stuff in the world. So, I have decide to change the format of the food logs to cover a week at a time, rather than a day at a time. In my blogging tool, I will maintain this as a running draft and post it once the week is complete. As a result, you will not have to see this week’s food log until next Sunday Saturday.
Garden Log
Gretchen ordered some plants and seeds for our garden a few days ago.
Food Log
Breakfast was two toasted slices of Gretchen’s Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam and a cup of coffee.
After breakfast, Gretchen and I went out to survey Winter’s damage. Along the way, I noticed that our crocus had finally opened.
Gretchen had gone postal on some volunteer Poplar trees that got away from a screen growing in our front pasture yesterday. We cut down the last few this morning.
After that, we thought we had earned a cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, which we drank sitting on the porch and enjoying the view.
It was lunch time by then, so we went ahead and made three bean and cheese quesadilla’s and split them along with another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
After lunch, I went back out and edged the West side of the driveway (photo left). It does not sound like much, but it was more than 200 yards — far enough to wear through the skin on my hands. I will do the other side after my hands heal.
I just thought I would get another shot of the crocus. 
We just had chips and salsa and another couple of Sierra Nevada Pale Ales for dinner.
Food Log
I only had a cup of coffee this morning.
Of course, I had that coffee and biscotti at Starbucks this morning, also.
Lunch was the Panda Express kung pao chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, a small sierra mist and a fortune cookie.
Grant yourself a wish this year;
only you can do it.
Lucky Numbers 10, 16, 24, 27, 30, 32
It was a beautiful evening… well, it was gray and threatening to rain, but it was 70°F out, and I had just bought a case of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, so this was the first time that Gretchen and I got a chance to sit on the porch after work and drink a beer and watch the world go by in a long time… and we liked it.
For dinner, Gretchen and I made Rachael Ray’s Smoked Turkey Baked Chimichangas again. Gretchen got a pound of smoked turkey from Honeybaked Ham Company and we used half of it. We washed it down with another Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
Starbucks in State College
I am sitting in the Starbucks in State College for the first time ever. Somebody nearby has an open access point, so I am surfing for free, even though this is a T-Mobile hot spot. I just wanted a plain black coffee, but when the nice young lady asked how she could help me, in my best morning slur, like a pro I blurted out, “Tall Italian Roast, and a Vanilla Almond Biscotti.” You see, I like to dunk. Mmmm… Tasty! Of course, the crumbs in the bottom of the coffee afterwards are kind of disgusting. 
I have a meeting at the Rider Building in a few minutes, and the Starbucks is between the parking lot and there, so it was a natural for me to stop.
Food Log
Breakfast was a bowl of toasted oat cereal with milk, and a cup of coffee. I weighed 155 pounds.
I had my daily ration of shortbread girl scout cookies at the office this morning.
Over lunch I walked to the around campus — four miles.
I bought two Nature Valley Granola Bars from the vending machine as a snack.
Dinner was a salad, a slice of brown soda bread, and a couple of hands full of peanuts.
Fast-food Angus Burgers
A funny thing’s happening to fast-food burgers: Angus That’s Angus as in better quality meat. That’s Angus as in beef that’s a tad tastier. That’s Angus as in it’s-sure-as-heck-gonna-cost-you-more-for-the-burger — about a nickel, anyways…
Behind all this: continued consumer demand — particularly from aging baby boomers — for better-tasting, higher-quality fast food. While industry burger sales are up about 2% in the past year, sales of the pricier, bigger burgers have grown more than twice as fast — up 5%, says Russ Klein, global marketing chief at Burger King.
Also, a growing number of burger chains have recognized that the term Angus beef — a slightly higher grade of beef from hornless cattle that originated in Scotland – radiates high consumer perception of quality. In other words, it’s part marketing gimmick. [Horovitz]
Horovitz, Bruce. “Fast-food restaurants herd Angus beef burgers onto menu.” Yahoo!. 24 March 2004. <story.news.yahoo.com/ news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=5&u=/ usatoday/ 20040324/ bs_usatoday/ fastfoodrestaurantsherdangusbeefburgersontomenu> (25 March 2004).
Food Log
Breakfast was a bowl of toasted oat cereal with milk, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.
I had a cup of coffee at the office this morning along with my daily ration of shortbread girl scout cookies.
Over lunch I walked to the HUB and got a bag of potato chips.
Dinner was two bowls of chili, four slices of Gretchen’s all whole wheat, whole wheat bread, and a salad.