Month: March 2004

• 11.770 Gallons
• $1.699/Gallon
• $20.00
• 272.6 Miles
• 23.2 Miles/Gallon
• 7¢/Mile
• 13 Days

Breakfast was a cup of coffee and two toasted slices of Gretchen’s homemade Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam.

I had to do some errands over lunch so I stopped at CC Pepper’s and had a Coast to Coast Cheesesteak.

For dinner, Gretchen and I tried creating a recipe for baked chicken parmesan for two over linguine. The problem was that it ended up tasting a lot like baked chicken, which is to say, like not much, so I will not be sharing the recipe. We also had a glass of Bolla Bardolino and two slices of a all whole wheat, whole wheat bread that Gretchen made.

This morning we ate the last of our white grapefruit. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that they lasted until the start of spring. This one was as sweet and juicy as the first one we had on February 12. I also had a cup of coffee and a toasted slice of Gretchen’s Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam.

I had two cups 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 Cracker Jack® and a bottle of Sobe Energy.

Dinner was some baked flounder, baked beans, brown bread, and a glass of Bolla Bardolino.

“People think that high-protein, low-carb diets have magical effects,” [Judy Phillips, nutritionist for the South End Community Health Center’s childhood obesity program and a consultant to Au Bon Pain,] says, when the reality is that water loss in the first few weeks of these programs is what leads to good news on the scale. Phillips, [Ellen Haas, founder of Foodfit.com and former undersecretary of agriculture], and [Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for CSPI,] are all concerned that the reduced-carb products will encourage consumers to add more goodies to their diets — with little regard for calories. Many are “refusing to accept the simple mathematics of calories,” says Phillips.

And so the old dieting logic comes into play: A calorie is a calorie. It doesn’t matter where it comes from. Balance and moderation are still key, says Haas. [Arnett]

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Arnett, Alison. “Is a calorie just a calorie?” The Boston Globe. 17 March 2004. <www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2004/03/17/is_a_calorie_just_a_calorie/> (22 March 2004).

Breakfast was a plate of hash brown potatoes with sautéed mushrooms, a glass of orange juice, and several cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

Lunch was left over roast vegetables and a lentil pattie.

Dinner was some of my mother’s recipe for corn chowder, two slices of Gretchen’s Italian bread, and two glasses of Bolla Bardolino.

Breakfast was a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice half of a white grapefruit, and a bowl of King Arthur mulit-grain porridge with maple syrup and brown sugar. I weighed 156 pounds.

Lunch was a quesadilla made with our own frijoles refritos and some grated cheddar cheese, and a little screaming hornets hot sauce, along with a cup of orange spice tea.

Dinner was “experilentil.” We tried to make lentil burgers — or rather we did make them. They flavor was acceptable, though the texture was a little on the mush side. We need to play with the recipe and the technique a little before these are ready for prime time, but they showed promise. We also had herb roasted winter vegetables — potatoes, onions, carrots, and butternut squash with rosemary, thyme, and savory and balsamic vinegar — with two and a half glasses of Avia Riesling from the Primorski Region of Slovenia.

Asimov, Eric. “A Tasting: Actually Artisanal Wins.” The New York Times. 10 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/dining/18ANCH.html> (20 March 2004).

BBC. “Atkins ‘can put you in bad mood’.” BBC News. 1 March 2004. <news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3522903.stm> (20 March 2004).

Carreno, Carolynn. “The whole Caesar story.” The Los Angeles Times. 3 March 2004. <www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-letter3mar03,0,1897187.story> (20 March 2004).

Cortissoz, Ann. “In snowy Vermont, there’s brew at the inn.” The Boston Globe. 28 January 2004. <www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2004/01/28/in_snowy_vermont_theres_brew_at_the_inn/> (20 March 2004).

Dowling, Tim. “Kill a rat and 100 other things to do this year.” Guardian Unlimited. 1 January 2004. <www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1114402,00.html> (20 March 2004).

Feldman, Gayle. “Got a Book in You? More Companies Than Ever Are Willing to Get It Out.” The New York Times. 1 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/technology/01pod.html> (20 March 2004).

Hesser, Amanda. “A Little Fish, Much Maligned.” The New York Times. 18 February 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/02/18/dining/18ANCH.html> (20 March 2004).

Kolata, Gina. “Scientists Begin to Question Benefit of ‘Good’ Cholesterol.” The New York Times. 15 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/15/health/15HEAR.html> (20 March 2004).

Kolata, Gina. “Cholesterol Targets Should Be Set Far Lower, Study Finds.” The New York Times. 8 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/health/08CND-STAT.html> (20 March 2004).

Landis, Denise. “For Thin Veggies, at a Slender Price.” The New York Times. 17 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/17/dining/17KITC.html> (20 March 2004).

Lee, Jennifer. “U.S. Issues Guidelines on Eating of Some Tuna.” The New York Times. 19 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/health/19TUNA.html> (20 March 2004).

Murphy, Kate. “Thinking Outside the Can: A Fresh Look at Food in a Box.” The New York Times. 14 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/business/yourmoney/14asep.html> (20 March 2004).

O’Neil, John. “Senses: Add a Dollop of Hunger for Taste.” The New York Times. 2 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/02/health/02SENS.html> (20 March 2004).

Patterson, Brian. “Lettuce: The New Bread.” Washington Post. 25 February 2004. <www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1699-2004Feb24> (20 March 2004).

Raichlen, Steven. “The Clash of the Barbecue Titans.” The New York Times. 10 March 2004. <www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/dining/10GRIL.html> (20 March 2004).

Republican Valley Media Group. “HHS Unveils FDA Strategy to help reduce Obesity.” Southwest Nebraska News. 15 March 2004. <www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?155508> (20 March 2004).

Ruth, Daniel. “Yeah You, Drop That Doughnut Right Now!!!!.” The Tampa Tribune. 17 March 2004. <www.tampatrib.com/News/MGAYCEQYWRD.html> (20 March 2004).

Saekel, Karola. “When is an artichoke not an artichoke? / Chef has penchant for weird-looking veg.” San Francisco Chronicle. 10 March 2004. <www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/10/FDGTF5EE611.DTL> (20 March 2004).

Shaw, David. “For the ultimate control freak: cook-it-yourself.” The Los Angeles Times. 17 March 2004. <www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-matters17mar17,0,5343046.column> (20 March 2004).

Schrambling, Regina. “The dish on chefs’ websites.” The Los Angeles Times. 17 March 2004. <www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-chefweb17mar17,0,7458558.story> (20 March 2004).

Shwartz, Mark. “Riddle of beer bubbles solved in time for St. Patrick’s Day.” Stanford Report. 17 March 2004. <news-service.stanford.edu/news/2004/march17/bubbles-317.html> (20 March 2004).

There are several serious claims to authorship for the hamburger.

• The hamburger chain White Castle traces the ancestry back to a Hamburg, Germany, cook named Otto Kuase, who in 1891 was celebrated for a sandwich made with a beef patty cooked in butter, topped with a fried egg. The German sailors brought the recipe to the United States, where the egg was dropped.

• Residents of Seymour, Wis., home of the Hamburger Hall of Fame, argue that one of their hometown heroes, “Hamburger Charlie” Nagreen, created the hamburger at age 15 when he served the first hamburger from a stand at the Outgamie County Fair in 1885.

• Others give the honor to Frank Menches of Ohio, who resorted to replacing beef for the pork in his famous sausages during a heat wave, and took the result to the World’s Fair. Connecticut relatives of New Haven restaurateur Louis Lassen say they have notarized statements backing up his claim to be the originator.

John Harmon, a Central Connecticut State University geographer who attempted to document the various claims, said he was unable to conclude who was really “the first.” Harmon said there is evidence the hamburger was around in America in the late 19th century, but “the date of the 1904 St. Louis [World’s Fair] is clear, and this is when the ‘world’ became aware of the hamburger.

Within two decades, its popularity mushroomed thanks to another American invention: marketing. The most common meals of the time were sausages and hotdogs, reflecting the influx of Jewish and German immigrants. Americans were wary of what might be in ground-up meat thanks to Upton Sinclair’s landmark expose of Chicago meat packers, ‘The Jungle.’”

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Lance Gay. “Hamburger’s origins unclear, but became popular 100 years ago” San Angelo Standard Times. 18 March 2004. <www.texaswest.com/sast/news_national/article/0,1897,SAST_4957_2739911,00.html> (20 March 2004).

Breakfast was a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice, and half of a white grapefruit. I weighed 155 pounds.

Due to the snow storm that hit us last night, Penn State decided to have a two hour delay so I got to relax at home for a little while this morning. Gretchen and I talked about what we are going to plant this year and how we are going to lay out the garden. I believe she is going to order some seed soon.

At the office this morning I had my daily ration of shortbread girl scout cookies with some coffee.

Lunch was Panda Express black pepper chicken — which I expected to be hot, but wasn’t — in fact, even though I could see the pepper, it wasn’t even noticeably peppery — with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, a small sierra mist and a fortune cookie.

You never hesitate to tackle

the most difficult problems.

Lucky Numbers 14, 18, 22, 31, 35, 37

Dinner was stir fried broccoli with mushrooms and water chestnuts over chow mien noodles with a glass of Avia Riesling from the Primorski Region of Slovenia, a hand full of cashews for dessert, and a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry to finish.

Breakfast was a cup of coffee and half of a white grapefruit. I weighed 155 pounds.

At the office this morning I had my daily ration of shortbread girl scout cookies with some coffee.

For lunch, I walked over to the HUB and got a salad at Piccalilli’s.

Dinner was some of our sausage rice casserole, a small green salad, and several hands full of cashew halves and peanuts.