Food Log

I think I had two slices of toasted Italian bread with strawberry jam and two cups of coffee for breakfast this morning, though I cannot exactly remember. I weighed 158 pounds.

Woo hoo! I finally got back to walking over lunch. This month has just not been good to me aerobically. Anyway, I walked over to the IST Building and got a Java Company Turkey Club Wrap and a pint of Penn State Creamery milk. I am guessing that the walk was about four miles.

Dinner was pan fried flounder, grilled zucchini, and baked beans with two bottles of Saranac Pale Ale.

Currently Browsing

Drinking Tea Keeps Blood Pressure Down

Drinkers of green and oolong tea are less likely to develop high blood pressure than nondrinkers, a Taiwanese study said on Monday.

The risk of hypertension, a condition that can lead to heart disease and stroke, declined the more green or oolong tea was consumed regularly, the study by researchers from National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, said.

The Whole Soy Story

The ancient Chinese honored the soybean with the name “the yellow jewel” but used it as “green manure” — a cover crop plowed under to enrich the soil. Soy did not become human food until late in the Chou Dynasty (1134-246 B.C.), when the Chinese developed a fermentation process to make soybean paste, best known today by its Japanese name, miso. Soy sauce — the natural type sold under the Japanese name shoyu — began as the liquid poured off during the production of miso. Two other popular fermented soy foods, natto and tempeh, entered the food supply around 1000 A.D. or later in Japan and Indonesia, respectively.

Tofu came after miso. Legend has it that, in 164 B.C., Lord Liu An of Huai-nan, China — a renowned alchemist, meditator, and ruler — discovered that a purée of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with nigari (a form of magnesium chloride found in seawater) into solid cakes, called tofu. In Japan, as in China, tofu was rarely served as a main course anywhere except in monasteries. Its most popular use was-and is-as a few bland little blocks in miso soup or fish stock.

A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices

This book contains definitions and examples of more than sixty traditional rhetorical devices, all of which can still be useful today to improve the effectiveness, clarity, and enjoyment of your writing. Note: This book was written in 1980, with some changes since. The devices presented are not in alphabetical order.

When corn is king

When you see that a plant has taken over — like grasses and lawns, and like corn — it has somehow manipulated us. We’re doing its evolutionary job, spreading it around, because it’s made itself attractive to us. Corn is like this second great American lawn — I mean miles and miles of it, all through the Midwest, and even where I live in Connecticut. This plant is so successful. And the productivity of corn is astonishing. The reason is that it responds very well to fertilizer. We’ve gotten the yield per acre from 20 bushels a hundred years ago to 160 now.

Award-winning traditional mountain cheeses

It all started when David and I met in 1983. David grew up on the sheep farm we run today. My family was in the dairy business in New York City, so we decided to milk our sheep and make cheese. We went to France and learned traditional cheesemaking methods in the mountains of the Pyrenees. Six months later, Vermont Shepherd won a national award for Best Farmhouse Cheese in the U.S. Our farm has grown somewhat since its early years. Now, with the help of some amazing people, Charlie in the cave, Daron on the farm, Margie at the desk and Bianca and Lucy with the boxes and tape, we milk many more sheep, make a lot more CHEESE!

The Glory of Salt

The tongue can taste basically four things: Sweet, sour, bitter, and salt; while finer taste distinctions are made partly by our sense of smell. (Readers have told me we have a fifth flavor receptor in our tongues, but the links they sent would’ve required a couple of biology degrees to understand.)

What salt does, taste-wise, is act as an electrolyte to help you taste food, though you can taste salt by itself. It?s working its best when you don’t know it’s there (unless it’s on a pretzel or nacho chip, in which case being aware of it is part of the fun).

How To Avoid Brain Freeze

This just in: Eating smaller bites of ice cream is the key to avoiding the highly dreaded ice cream headache, a.k.a. brain freeze.

This critical finding, which was published in the December issue of British Medical Journal, was made by 13-year-old Maya Kaczorowski, who carried out her experiment on fellow middle school classmates in Hamilton, Canada.

How To Read Medical News
  • Use common sense. If a story sounds wrong or illogical, it probably is.
  • Study the factors involved in any studies mentioned. Was it randomized and double-blind? How large was it? Were there other factors involved that the story/study left out?
  • Trace the source of information (where, when and by whom). Was it published in a reputable medical journal?
  • Follow the money. Find out who funded the study. If it’s not in the story, seek the original research in the library or online.
  • Check to see if the study reports a first-time finding or one that’s been duplicated, and therefore, more valid.
  • Look for a debate about the product or treatment. Find out who’s pro and con and what their motives are.
  • Be wary of products that haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. These stories are almost always hype.
  • Ask your physician for his or her opinion.
WaSP : Learn : Reference

The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.

The Jargon File

This is the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.

The Slang Dictionary

SlangSite.com is a dictionary of slang, webspeak, made up words, and colloquialisms.

The Snowflake Process for Writing a Novel

Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. You can do the design work before or after you write your novel. I’ve done it both ways and I strongly believe that doing it first is quicker and leads to a better result.

Free MP3 Celtic Music Downloads

Celtic MP3s Music Magazine is a free weekly Celtic music & mp3 magazine featuring free music downloads of Celtic, Scottish, Irish music from around the world.

Research Sheds Light on Mad Cow

California scientists say they have created the first synthetic version of a rogue protein called a prion and used it to give mice a brain-destroying infection, evidence important to settling any lingering doubt these mysterious substances alone cause mad cow disease and similar illnesses.

Mixed Berries and Banana Smoothie

  • 1 cup Frozen Mixed Berries
  • 1 Frozen Ripe Banana
  • ½ cup Low-fat Vanilla Yogurt
  • ¼ cup Orange Juice
  • 1 teaspoon Honey (optional)

Combine all ingredients together in a blender and puree until smooth.

Mixed Berries and Banana Smoothie

Using data from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, and substituting frozen unsweetened strawberries for the frozen mixed berries (which are not listed), this smoothie contains 418 Calories, 9 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, 98 grams of carbohydrates, and 8 grams of fiber.

Food Log

Breakfast was two buttermilk biscuits with strawberry jam, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee. I weighed 159 pounds. =-O

At the office I had another cup of coffee.

It is raining again today so instead of going for a walk I took the opportunity to go to the mall and get some socks. While I was there I went to Arby’s for lunch. I had a number 2 combination — a Beef and Cheddar Sandwich, curly fries, and a Dr. Pepper.

Dinner was chicken and snow peas and 1½ bottles of Saranac Pale Ale.

Workout Log

I am trying to get back into my rhythm of working out two or three times a week at the MBNA Fitness Center. Here is tonights workout:

  1. Incline Press: 12@30, 10@40, 8@50, 6@60, 12@50, 7@30
  2. Lateral Raise: 12@40, 10@50, 8@60, 6@70, 12@60, 12@40
  3. Compound Row: 12@70, 10@85, 8@105, 6@125, 12@105, 12@70
  4. Triceps Extension: 12@25, 10@30, 8@35, 6@45, 12@35, 12@25
  5. Biceps Curl: 12@20, 10@35, 8@50, 6@65, 12@50, 12@20

I think I have the pace down just about right. This workout should have taken 46 minutes and it actually took me 44 minutes. I think I could increase the weight on the compound row and maybe the triceps extension, as well.

Food Log

Breakfast was two slices of toasted Italian bread, four strawberry jam bar cookies, a glass of orange juice, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

I went to Subway for lunch and had a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich, a bag of Lay’s® KC Masterpiece® Barbecue Flavor Potato Chips, and a Dr. Pepper.

Dinner was a salad of romaine from the garden, cucumbers and tomato from the CSA, and parmesan cheese, with Newman’s Own Creamy Caesar dressing, Eleanora’s Eggplant Parmigiana, two slices of Italian bread, and two glasses of Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna.

Food Log

Breakfast was hash brown potatoes, bacon, a slice of Italian bread, a glass of orange juice, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

Lunch was a bottle of Saranac Pale Ale.

Tonight was the CSA Pot Luck Dinner. A lot of interesting people and a lot of interesting food. I had a little of many things: some garden salad, some pasta salad, some bread (with, variously, hummus, pesto, and some roasted red pepper spread), cucumbers and sour cream, and a chocolate chip cookie.

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Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate

This is one volume in a series of reports that presents dietary reference values for the intake of nutrients by Americans and Canadians. This report provides Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for water, potassium, sodium, chloride, and sulfate.

Guniness Stout Ice Cream
  • 1 cup Water
  • 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
  • ½ cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
  • 1½ cups Evaporated Milk
  • ¼ teaspoon Salt
  • ½ cup Sugar
  • ½ cup Guinness Stout

In a heavy saucepan whisk together the water and the cornstarch and simmer the mixture over moderate heat, whisking, for 2 minutes. Add the milks, the salt, and the sugar, heat the mixture over moderately low heat, whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved, and remove the pan from the heat. Let the mixture cool completely, stir in the Guinness, and freeze the mixture in an ice-cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 1 quart

Webpage Size Checker

Need to put your site on a diet? Just enter the full http url into the form and let it rip with the submit.

Pesto
  • 3 cups Basil Leaves, cleaned very well, spun dry
  • 3 cloves Garlic, peeled, crushed
  • 3 tablespoons Pine Nuts
  • ½ cup grated Parmagiano Reggiano Cheese
  • ¼ cup grated Romano Cheese
  • ½ cup Olive Oil
  • Kosher Salt

Start by combining the garlic and salt. Mash with mortar and work the salt in to the garlic. Add the pinenuts. Mash and press in a circular motion with the pestle until the garlic, salt, and nuts are all well incorporated.

Add the basil leaves a bunch at a time. You can shred the leaves ahead of time to be more thorough, but I took them whole. Continue working the basil into the mix until you have a mostly uniform paste with no big leaves left. At this point, add the cheeses and mix throughly. I had to transfer the mix to a bowl to do this becasue my mortar had no room. Use a fork to mix the cheeses into the paste. Finally, add the olive oil and mash into the paste with the fork.

Taste for salt. It probably won’t need any since the cheeses are pretty salty.

Serve on pasta or spread on crostini and broil. Heck, eat it by the spoonful if you want. It’s much better than those store bought pestos and you made it yourself.

Local Sheep’s Milk Cheese

Sheep milking is an ancient practice and more sheep are milked than cows worldwide. Sheep’s milk is packed with more nutrients than both cow and goat milk due to it’s density and is also higher in protein, minerals and vitamins… Anyone interested in learning more about sheep milk products in Ontario can look here.

Food is my drug

What’s the difference, he asks, between someone who has lost control over alcohol or other drugs and over good food? “When you look at their brains and brain responses, the differences are not very significant,” he said.

“Really great food acts in the brain like a drug,” he said.

Skip the Oven, Just Bring On the Toast

“Problem?” Mr. Fix-It asked, pencil poised to jot notes on the tag he’d tied to the cord.

“It’s like a Stephen King version of a toaster oven,” I said. “It’s possessed. It won’t turn off and is trying to burn down the house.”

He wrote, “No Off/knob broken?” and said that sometimes buying a new one was cheaper than fixing an old one. He said he would phone as soon as he had a diagnosis.

Mr. Fix-It has not called.

When I drove over the other day to check on the situation, I learned that the toaster oven repair specialist has been on vacation. I suspect I might be eating cold cereal for the rest of the summer.

I like toast. So I decided to go online to find a toaster. I wasn’t in the market for yet another complicated but poorly designed appliance that promised to behave like a convection oven or a microwave or a coffee maker. I didn’t need electronic controls or special features to turn it into a broiler or a vacuum or a carport. I just wanted to brown bread.

Grilled peppers in olive oil
  • 6 Big Bell Peppers (red or yellow or a mix of both)
  • 1 tablespoon of Fresh Rosemary Leaves
  • 10 Chives, chopped
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  1. Oil the barbecue’s grill, then pre-heat it at a mid-low setting for 10 minutes;
  2. Cut the bell peppers in halves, take off the seeds and dispose them, skin side down, on the grill;
  3. Close the lid and let grill for 30 minutes, turning a few times to make sure the skin is cooked evenly;
  4. To ease the peeling of the skin, put the peppers to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes;
  5. Peel the peppers (the skin should now come off very easily, espescially the blackened parts!) and then slice them;
  6. In a large glass jar, pour some olive oil, dispose a few pepper slices, chives, rosemary leaves, some more pepper slices and so on, until you have a jar full of delicious grilled peppers in olive oil.

Grilled peppers will enhance many recipes (pasta or pizza, for example), but they’re so good by themselves that please, eat some “as is,” without any other distracting taste…

Bye bye baking parchment

It’s hard to deny baking parchment is a great help for the baker. For the last few years my baking parchment consumption has been quite above average. Whenever lining a cake pan or a cookie sheet, I’d turn to my parchment roll (and a drop of oil). It certainly was an improvement from the constant buttering and flouring I used to do before. Up to a few weeks ago, at least. up to the day I bought a Silpat silicon baking mat from Demarle… This is by far the most useful kitchen gadget I’ve bought recently. I’ve baked rolls, cookies and even a few meringues (which for some reason sometimes stick even to parchment) on it and it works like a charm. Absolutely stick proof, no fat needed and very easy to clean, just a wipe with a moist cloth and it’s ready for a new use.

Heirlooms arrive

You’ll probably recognize heirloom tomatoes first by their imperfections. They are plainly and outspokenly old-fashioned. They tend to have unusual shapes and odd colors. They wear their wrinkles and blemishes as signs of character. Amid the perfect uniformity of the modern produce section, they stick out like the Queen Mum at a fashion shoot.

How to make the perfect Omelette

Sometimes I really worry about being obsessed about food. And then there are times when I dive into my craziness with the the force of an Acapulco Cliff Diver.

I offer into evidence: It was a hot humid day in Seattle, 85 degrees and high humidity. So did I head to the air-conditioned theater? Did I walk down to “Bite of Seattle” which was in town? Or did I spend 4 hours over a stove trying to figure out the most efficient way of makign a high quality omelette?

I’ll give you a hint — I made ten variants of a basic 3-egg cheese omelete.

Banana-Almond Smoothie

I’ve been making lots of smoothies for breakfast to try to get in some calcium, protein, etc for breakfast, and this one was one of my favorites. Whenever our bananas are starting to get overripe, I peel them, break them in half and put them in the freezer so they’re ready for smoothie-making.

For this one, I blend half a frozen banana to break it up, then I add about ⅓ cup plain yogurt, some milk, a couple tablespoons of almond butter and a couple squirts of honey.

Playing Both Ends Against Our Middles

“I’ve always said Americans are the only people I know who drive to the health club eating a doughnut,” said Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president at Technomic Inc., a food industry consulting firm based in Chicago.

The growing interest of consumers in more nutritious fare has been developing in tandem with the growing popularity of exceptionally indulgent treats. Consider that even as the low-carb craze dominates the grocery business, super-premium ice cream chains such as Cold Stone Creamery and MaggieMoo’s are opening new stores, and creating long sweet-tooth lines…

But if some people are eating both ways, the food industry has also discovered that while some customers want to eat light, others don’t, so catering to both can increase sales.

US army food… just add urine

The US military has devised a way to ensure its troops in battle need never go hungry — with dried food that can be rehydrated using dirty water or urine.

The meal comes in a pouch that filters out 99.9% of bacteria and most toxic chemicals, says New Scientist magazine.

The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry.

World’s tiniest fish identified

The smallest, lightest animal with a backbone has been described for the first time, by scientists in the US.

The miniscule fish, called a stout infantfish, is only about 7mm (just under a quarter of an inch) long.

Move This Way

“In some places, people gather around the water cooler and talk about the play they saw the night before, or a new TV show,” notes Ned Colange, the state’s chief medical officer. “In Colorado, the talk is more likely to be somebody’s new personal best for the 5K [run], or the snow conditions at the ski areas.”

This statewide zeal for active outdoor living has its rewards — particularly around the waistline. For years now, federal studies have consistently ranked Colorado as America’s thinnest state. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that about 16.5 percent of Coloradans meet the clinical standard for obesity — the lowest percentage of any state.

For most states, the obesity rate is over 20 percent. For 2002, the latest available period, the District had an obesity rate of 21 percent; Virginia rated a portly 24 percent; and Maryland ranked among the more svelte states, with 19 percent of its residents obese. The stoutest state in the union, according to the study, was West Virginia, with an obesity rate of 28 percent.

Eating Vegetable Protein May Spare Gallbladder

Women who get a lot of their dietary protein from vegetables are at reduced risk for having their gallbladder removed, which is usually performed for gallstones and related problems, new research suggests.

“In animals, vegetable protein can inhibit gallstone formation,” Dr. Chung-Jyi Tsai, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues note.

Beef Groups to Press USDA for Private BSE Tests

A group of U.S. cattle industry producers and companies plans to petition the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the right to test all their cattle for mad cow disease to comply with demands by Asian customers who currently are refusing to buy U.S. beef.

“A lawsuit is definitely an option,” said Bill Bullard, chief executive officer of R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America, one member of the budding coalition challenging the USDA.

Japan, previously the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. beef with $1.4 billion purchased in 2003, halted imports last December when the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called mad cow disease, showed up in Washington state.

Eating Fish Protects Against Stroke

More evidence that fish consumption reduces the chances of having a stroke comes from an analysis of results from several large studies.

In fact, the findings suggest that “the incidence of ischemic stroke might be significantly reduced by consuming fish as seldom as 1 to 3 times per month,” Dr. Ka He, at Northwestern University in Chicago, and associates comment in their report in the medical journal Stroke.

It’s not only tulips that grow tall in Holland

The Dutch, already the tallest people on the planet, are still growing in height while also packing on the pounds.

The market research organization GfK said on Thursday that data collected over the last seven years showed increasing demand for larger clothing sizes in the Netherlands, where the average man is about 6 feet, 1 inch, tall.

“The Dutch are growing,” said GfK spokesman Koen Snoeren.

The Dutch are nearly four inches taller on average than the British and Americans, and almost six inches taller than they were four decades ago.

Ratatouille

This famous Provençal vegetable stew is best made in the autumn when the vegetables needed for it are cheap and plentiful. This can be a most attractive dish but not if it ends up mushy. So to avoid this, make sure you don’t cut up the vegetables too small (they must retain their individuality), and also make sure you get rid of the excess moisture in the courgettes and aubergines by salting and draining them at the start.

Mozzarella: only buffalo will fit the bill

Italy may not immediately spring to mind when you think of buffalo — more likely you’ll imagine an American prairie, with herds of hump-backed beasties, but those herds aren’t really buffalo, they’re bison. The real buffalo roam the countryside of Campania, producing the pure white milk that makes the best Mozzarella…

Vegetarian main courses: Who needs meat?

Being vegetarian has never been so good! The days of choosing between cheese salad and an omelette are long gone with the huge variety of exciting veggie options now on offer. If you’re looking for inspiration, we have selected some of Delia’s best meat-free main courses here. If you want more, simply use the recipe search facility and click in the box marked vegetarian.

Parmesan: The air of an Italian aristocrat

During the early Eighties, I remember passing on a little advice on television: “If you want to improve your cooking, and eating, overnight, never use preserved grated Parmesan cheese — a travesty of the real thing. Buy it in blocks instead and grate it freshly yourself.” Fifteen years later I would have to be even more specific. If you want to eat the very best — and gain the highest acclaim for your cooking — never simply settle for Parmesan cheese, only that which is branded with the magic words Parmigiano Reggiano.

This is the aristocrat of Italian cheeses, or crowned king, they will tell you locally. And with every justification. For the lover of fine cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano should not just be a permanent fixture among their store of ingredients, it deserves to be enjoyed just as it is, as a nibble with apéritifs before a meal or as a cheese course to make a grand finale to the perfect meal.

Food Log

Breakfast was a bowl of cold cereal with banana slices, a glass of orange juice, and a cup of coffee.

Lunch was a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich and a bottle of Saranac Pale Ale.

Gretchen and I pulled the snow pea plants out of the garden and picked the remaining peas. We also got four more crook-neck squash, and a good bunch of green beans.

Photograph of compost pile.

We compost our kitchen, yard, and garden waste. The garden waste has a tendency to produce volunteers. This year the major volunteer is a large hybrid squash. It looks like a cross between a butternut and a delicata.

Photograph of a bug on our compost pile.

This little fellow was camouflaged on one of the leaves.

After the yard and garden work, Gretchen and I took a break for another bottle of Saranac Pale Ale.

For dinner, I made a zucchini, summer squash, and tomato gratin. This was based on Delia Smith’s Courgettes and Tomatoes au Gratin, though I used half summer squash, a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes (ours are not ripe yet), and Cheddar cheese. Gretchen says she liked it better than Ratatouille. We had it with a slice of Italian bread, and two glasses of Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna.

…and that is why I think Alton is a Great Guy!

Here’s what it comes down to kids. Ronald McDonald doesn’t give a damn about you. Neither does that little minx Wendy or any of the other icons of drivethroughdom. And you know what, they’re not supposed to. They’re businesses doing what businesses do. They don’t love you. They are not going to laugh with you on your birthdays, or hold you when you’re sick and sad. They won’t be with you when you graduate, when your children are born or when you die. You will be with you and your family and friends will be with you. And, if you’re any kind of human being, you will be there for them. And you know what, you and your family and friends are supposed to provide you with nourishment too. That’s right folks, feeding someone is an act of caring. We will always be fed best by those that care, be it ourselves or the aforementioned friends and family.

We are fat and sick and dying because we have handed a basic, fundamental and intimate function of life over to corporations. We choose to value our nourishment so little that we entrust it to strangers. We hand our lives over to big companies and then drag them to court when the deal goes bad. This is insanity.

Feed yourselves.

Feed your loved ones.

And for God’s sake feed your children.

Don’t trust anyone else to do it… not anyone. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go out to dinner every now and then… that is after all one of the great joys of life… but it isn’t life itself and that’s what I’m talking about.

Alton Brown.com • Rants & Raves!