<a href="http://erik.nerim.net/tomato/faq.htm">The Tomato Page - FAQ</a>: “Cleaning up my kitchen once, a long time ago, I discovered that I had three or four different brands of canned tomato paste. And it actually were nice-looking cans. So instead of putting them back in the cupboard, I decided to put them on a shelf. Shortly afterwards I noticed again different cans in a supermarket. I guess that at that moment I started to collect.”
Low-carb diets are catching on, to dismay of bread- and pasta-makers.
<a href="http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/7430619.htm" title="Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/07/2003 | In Atkins era, sandwich is no hero">In Atkins era, sandwich is no hero</a>: ”Avoiding bread, pasta and potatoes at what food experts say is an astonishing rate, many Americans are evangelically fixated on the low-carbohydrate dining espoused by diets such as Atkins and South Beach. Depending on the estimate, between nine million and 35 million people are following all or some of the tenets of a high-protein, low-carb eating regimen.”
Food Log
No breakfast this morning. I weighed in at 158 pounds. Lunch was Panda Buffet’s orange chicken on chow mien with hot and sour soup and a small sierra mist. I walked downtown to get Gretchen’s watch from the jeweler and stopped by the HUB for lunch, then walked back — maybe three miles round trip. When I got back, I had a candy cane that our administrative assistant was giving out to everybody before the holiday break.
<ins datetime="2003-12-19T18:52:00-05:00">Dinner was a Caesar salad and two Beck’s Dark Beers. We are making cookies for the holidays— and sampling as we go. The first sample was a cherry walnut bar cookie. Yum. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/smile.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-)" /> We also made spritz, oatmeal, refrigerator cookies, and pecan crisps.</ins>
Safari Gets Tooltips
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.”