Author: Mark Linton

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

The sun shine warm upon your face.

The rain fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again…

May God hold you in the hallow of His hand.

Breakfast was a cup of coffee, half of a white grapefruit, and a bowl of steel cut oats with brown sugar and milk. I weighed 156 pounds.

We had our “ITS Event” today. Sort of a mini technology trade show for people at PSU (including the non-University Park campuses) to come see the state of technology and what is available. I did wireless and authenticated wired Ethernet connections (we call it mobility). Having been to major trade shows on both sides of the table, I would say it was pretty successful. Though we did not get as many people as we had hoped because of the sudden snow storm that hit us.

The upshot is that I ended up spending the whole day standing in front of our booth, showing people how our wireless networking works. The organizers provided a deli tray for lunch, so I had two ham and cheese sandwiches, some pasta salad, a big cookie, and two cans of sierra mist.

Dinner was potato chowder, light rye rolls, and a glass of Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna.

Breakfast was half of a white grapefruit, a glass of orange juice, a piece of toasted Irish soda bread that Gretchen’s sister made, a piece of toasted rustic country bread that Gretchen made, both with homemade strawberry jam, and a cup of coffee.

For lunch, I walked over to the HUB and got a salad at Picallili’s. After lunch I took a walking survey of 11 buildings on campus that we are adding cable TV service to. All told, I am guessing I walked about five miles.

While I was out walking, I came across an impromptu art display in one of the buildings. I am not sure what it is, but it certainly is thought provoking.

Dinner was a salad, a slice of Gretchen’s Rustic Country Bread — which we are now thinking is actually a pugliese — and a glass of Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna.

I cut up too many potatoes for the gratin last night, so I threw them in a bowl of water so they would not oxidize and this morning Gretchen made them in to hash brown potatoes. I also had half of a white grapefruit, a glass of orange juice, three strips of bacon, and several cups of coffee.

Lunch was a plate full of herb roasted winter vegetables — potatoes, onions, carrots, and butternut squash with rosemary, thyme, and savory and balsamic vinegar.

Gretchen and I like to watch Rachael Ray on 30 Minute Meals, but it’s usually just for entertainment. The other day though we both perked our ears up when she made Smoked Turkey Baked Chimichangas. We both love chimichangas, but don’t like the idea of deep fat frying. Actually I love deep fat frying, it’s a long, time-honored tradition with me, but I try not to do it any more often than absolutely necessary, for health reasons. So this recipe seemed to be the perfect compromise. Now it would seem to me that a baked chimichanga is about as accurate as a baked burrito, but I didn’t name it, so I’ll have to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Now I have never follow a recipe completely, so I’ll just say what we did differently.

First of all, despite mounting evidence that it is imprecise, I am one of those ignorant Americans who measures everything by volume, rather than weight. So we used 2 cups of roast turkey, chopped — that we made ourselves — rather than “1 pound thickly sliced smoked turkey from deli counter, chopped.” Also, we couldn’t find any chipotles in adobo sauce. We are living in the middle of Pennsylvania, after all. However, we did find some chipotle marinade that also had some other spices that were consistent with adobo sauce. We also only had two-thirds of a cup of tomato sauce. Gretchen is not fond of scallions, so we left them out. We shorted the cheese a little — only a cup, rather than 1½ cups. We also left off the toppings. We did, however, turn on the broiler for the last few minutes to get a really brown brown on the chimis, and we started out with a layer of frijoles refritos before the cheese. Mmmmm… Good!

Dinner was two baked chimichangas, two glasses of Stone Cellars by Beringer Sauvignon Blanc, and a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream Sherry to finish.

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day coming up in a few days, I thought I would cover this. Kathy Hamlin over at About Cocktails & Beer has this anecdote about the origin of the drink known as Irish Coffee.

Irish Coffee is indeed Irish. The Port of Foynes, which is located in County Limerick, was a major hub for for air traffic between the United States and Europe during the 30’s and 40’s. Travel was by Flying Boats. One flight that took off in 1943, encountered some really bad weather and turned back. The weather was equally as nasty upon their return and the passengers headed towards the terminal restaurant. Realizing how miserable these passengers were, Chef Joe Sheridan grabbed a bottle of Irish and prepared the comforting drinks. Legend has it that one of the passengers asked, “is this Brazilian coffee?”, to which Sheridan answered, “No, that’s Irish Coffee.” [Hamlin]

I said before that my Beef Burgundy recipe is based on Delia Smith’s Boeuf Bourguignon recipe, with some modifications. Well, rather than try to recreate my version every time, I decided to document it, so here it is.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Makes four servings.

• 4 strips Bacon
• 1 pound lean Beef, cut into cubes
• 1 medium Onion, diced
• 1 cup Burgundy
• 2 tablespoons All Purpose Flour
• 2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 1 clove Garlic, pressed
• ¼ teaspoon dried Thyme
• 1 Bay Leaf
• Salt
• freshly milled Black Pepper
• 2 carrots, cut into chunks
• 3 medium onions, cut into wedges
• ¼ pound Mushrooms, sliced

In a French oven, over medium heat, fry four strips of bacon until crisp. You can cut then up first, or leave them whole and crumble them later. At this point, you are just trying to render the fat. When the bacon is done, remove it to a piece of paper towel, reserving the fat.

Sear the beef on all sides in the bacon fat in batches, reserving the seared beef to a plate.

Once all of the beef is seared, sauté the diced onions in the remaining fat. Then add the Burgundy.

Whenever I add flour to anything I always end up with little disgusting clumps of dough, in order to avoid that I make a Beurre Manie. Take two tablespoons of butter and mash it into two tablespoons of flour with the back of a spoon. Continue mashing until all of the butter is incorporated. Add this to the Burgundy and onion mixture a little at a time. The idea here is that the flour is suspended uniformly in the butter and as the butter melts it acts as a time release mechanism preventing the flour from clumping.

Add the meat back into the mixture, along with the bay leaf, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Reduce the temperature to low and let it simmer for two hours.

Fry the onion wedges and carrot chunks in a little olive oil to brown and soften them, then add them to the mixture along with the sliced mushrooms. Crumble the bacon into the mixture.

Allow the mixture to simmer for another hour. Serve.

Breakfast was several cups of coffee, half of a white grapefruit, and two slices of toasted Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam. I weighed 155 pounds.

Lunch was some split pea with ham soup with croutons, half of a sliced apple, and a glass of Stone Cellars by Beringer Sauvignon Blanc.

Dinner was boeuf bourguignon, potatoes au gratin, and two glasses of Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna, with a hand full of pistacios and a couple of dates.

We like the recipe for Au Gratin Potatoes in Betty Crocker’s Cookbook very much — despite my hand written note below the Hashed Browns recipe on the next page that “Betty doesn’t know s*** about potatoes!” However, when we have it, even when serving six — as the recipe says it makes six servings — we always seem to end up with copious leftovers. Since there are only two of us, making that much is a deterrent to our making it at all… and I love Au Gratin Potatoes! The original recipe calls for a 1½-quart casserole — your typical 9-inch by 13-inch job. Well, it happens that we also have a 1-quart casserole (nine inches square), so I have simply made an adaptation of Betty’s recipe, scaled from six to four servings, an bent to our liking.

Au Gratin Potatoes

• 3 to 4 medium Potatoes (about 1 pounds)
• 1 medium Onion, chopped (about ½ cup)
• 2 teaspoons Flour
• 1⅓ cup Milk
• 1½ cup Cheddar Cheese
• ¼ cup Bread Crumbs
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Wash the potatoes, leaving the skin on, but removing the eyes. Then cut the potato into thin slices using a mandolin.
2. Sauté the onion in olive oil over a medium high heat in a 2-quart saucepan until tender. Stir in the flour. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is bubbly. Then remove the mixture from the heat and stir in two thirds of the cheese. Heat the mixture to boiling, stirring constantly and then continue boiling and stirring for one minute.
3. Layer the potato slices in an ungreased 1-quart casserole. Pour the cheese sauce over the potatoes. Cook uncovered in a 325°F oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
4. Sprinkle the remaining cheese and the bread crumbs over the potatoes. Cook uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes until top is brown and bubbly.

I had to fast for twelve hours before having a cholesterol test done this morning, so I did not have any breakfast. I weighed 154 pounds. After the blood was drawn for the test I had two cups of coffee.

Lunch was the Panda Express orange chicken with mixed vegetables on chow mein noodles with hot and sour soup, a small sierra mist and a fortune cookie.

Nothing in the world is

accomplished without passion.

Lucky Numbers 12, 18, 19, 33, 36, 38

Hot and Sour Soup Can Be Art

Dinner was a lovely, lightly breaded baked haddock, roasted potatoes and onions with balsamic vinegar, fried cabbage with bacon, and a glass of Stone Cellars by Beringer Sauvignon Blanc. Dessert was a handful of pistachios and a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream.

I have been tempted several times recently to post another “Food News Roundup,” but somehow I felt suspicious, as if the outpouring of high profile studies and news reports was somehow being manipulated. Perhaps the manipulation was the real food news. I still am uncertain, but I do believe that this all ties together.

What better to get people worked up about in an election year than food? After all… Everybody Eats!

America is Expanding

The SizeUSA survey, conducted by clothing and textile companies, the Army, Navy and several universities to determine what sizes of clothes should be made and in what quantities — last performed in 1941 in anticipation of having to design military uniforms for World War II — has been recently updated and the findings are that Americans are all a lot fatter than they used to be.

The survey finds that “Nineteen percent of men are ‘portly,’ and another 19 percent have ‘lower front waists,’ meaning, the researchers said, they had to look under a belly to find the waist.” If you are having trouble picturing that, try this: Nearly half of all men cannot look down and see their feet while standing. The average American man stands five foot, nine inches tall and weighs 180 pounds.

The women did not fare much better. Half of all American women should be shopping for “plus size” clothing. The average American woman stands five foot, four inches tall and weighs 148 pounds.

Asked for their perception of how much they weighed, 51 percent of men and 38 percent of women said they were “about the right weight.” Ten percent of men said they were “quite a bit overweight”; among women, 21 percent said the same. [NYTimes]

Being Fat Is Killing Us

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that being fat is the number two cause of death in America.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that tobacco use was still the leading cause of death in 2000, killing 435,000 people, or 18.1 percent of everyone who died. But poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths, or 16.6 percent of the total, the report said. [NYTimes]

No More Super Size

McDonald’s is eliminating super size portions from its menu by the end of the year. According to McDonald’s spokesman Walt Riker, “The driving force here was menu simplification… The fact of the matter is not very many Supersize fries are sold.”

While that may be the company line, there may be other reasons as well.

Two lawsuits claiming McDonald’s hid the health risks of eating Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets were thrown out in federal court in New York last year. An award-winning documentary called “Super Size Me” then reaped more unwanted publicity for McDonald’s. [Baltimore Sun]

The Chicago Tribune had this to say about “Super Size Me”:

In the new documentary “Super Size Me,” filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eats only McDonald’s food for 30 days and documents his rapidly deteriorating health.

Interspersed with segments about obesity and processed food in the United States, viewers watch Spurlock pack on 25 pounds, ride out wild mood swings and get warnings from doctors about his rising cholesterol levels and liver toxicity…

The 90-minute movie could cause more people to bring obesity lawsuits against McDonald’s Corp., predicts John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington Law School. A consultant in lawsuits against McDonald’s, Banzhaf appears in the documentary and was instrumental in building a case against the tobacco industry…

“I would bet a lot of people are working overtime to figure out how to deal with this film,” said Larry Kramer, a crisis management expert with Manning Selvage & Lee, who advised Nike boss Phil Knight in 1998 after a documentary showed children making its shoes in Indonesia. [Chicago Tribune]

What do you suppose the team at McDonald’s working overtime to figure out how to deal with potential product liability lawsuits would come up with?

“The two things are not connected,” said Whitman in response to a question about the film’s potential impact. “However, we recognize that consumers’ tastes and preferences and choices continue to change and evolve. This seems to be a natural step when you recognize the growing trends and recognize the effect it would have on our operations.” [Chicago Tribune]

Manufacturing Food

A little while ago the New York Times covered an interesting tidbit from the Economic Report of the President:

Box 2-2: What Is Manufacturing?

The value of the output of the U.S. manufacturing sector as defined in official U.S. statistics is larger than the economies of all but a handful of other countries. The definition of a manufactured product, however, is not straightforward. When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a “service” or is it combining inputs to “manufacture” a product?

The official definition of manufacturing comes from the Census Bureau’s North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS. NAICS classifies all business establishments in the United States into categories based on how their output is produced. One such category is “manufacturing.” NAICS classifies an establishment as in the manufacturing sector if it is “engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products.”

This definition is somewhat unspecific, as the Census Bureau has recognized: “The boundaries of manufacturing and other sectors… can be somewhat blurry.” Some (perhaps surprising) examples of manufacturers listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are: bakeries, candy stores, custom tailors, milk bottling and pasteurizing, fresh fish packaging (oyster shucking, fish filleting), and tire retreading. Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service.

The distinction between non-manufacturing and manufacturing industries may seem somewhat arbitrary but it can play an important role in developing policy and assessing its effects. Suppose it was decided to offer tax relief to manufacturing firms. Because the manufacturing category is not well defined, firms would have an incentive to characterize themselves as in manufacturing. Administering the tax relief could be difficult, and the tax relief may not extend to the firms for which it was enacted.

For policy makers, the blurriness of the definition of manufacturing means that policy aimed at manufacturing may inadvertently distort production and have unintended and harmful results. Whenever possible, policy making should not be based upon this type of arbitrary statistical delineation.

While the report carefully refers only to the “value of the output of the U.S. manufacturing sector,” some members of Congress saw this as being not about accurate economic accounting, but rather as a trial balloon for a plan to mask the countries unemployment woes.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., offered the choicest retort in a letter to the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“I am sure the 163,000 factory workers who have lost their jobs in Michigan will find it heartening to know that a world of opportunity awaits them in high growth manufacturing careers like spatula operator, napkin restocking, and lunch tray removal,” Dingell said.

Dingell also wondered just how this new policy would play out: “Will federal student loans and Trade Adjustment Assistance grants be applied to tuition costs at Burger College? Will the administration commit to allowing he Manufacturing Extension Partnership [MEP] to fund cutting edge burger research such as new nugget ingredients or keeping the hot and cold sides of burgers separate until consumption? Will special sauce now be counted as a durable good?”

Dingell said the plan also inspired him to come up with a candidate for the recently created position of Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing the Hon. Mayor McCheese.

The proposal could also make it easier for the food police to file “product liability” lawsuits against fast-food chains and leave them vulnerable to complaints being filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. [Connecticut Post]

While I sensed that the entire response from the Honorable Gentlemen from Michigan was intended to be sarcastic — the Mayor McCheese comment was a dead giveaway — I was somewhat surprised to turn on C-SPAN the other day to see a heated debate on the house floor about a bill to
ban obesity-related lawsuits against the fast food industry.

House Republicans seeking to curb another potential source of money for trial lawyers decided that eaters hankering for “biggie” portions shouldn’t be allowed to blame their weight on fast-food chains and restaurants.

The House voted 276-139 on Wednesday to ban class action lawsuits that contend food companies and their offerings are responsible for Americans’ putting on the pounds and lurching toward obesity.

Those who overeat should blame themselves, not the fast food industry that employs almost 12 million people and is the nation’s second largest employer behind the government, Republicans said. [NYTimes]

So that is what the team at McDonald’s working overtime to figure out how to deal with potential product liability lawsuits would come up with. Clever.

“The food industry is under attack and in the cross hairs of the same trial lawyers who went after big tobacco,” said Representative Ric Keller, a Florida Republican who is the chief sponsor of the measure. [NYTimes]

…and that is a bad thing… why?

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Hawaiian Pizza

In unrelated news, apparently Luigi Amaduzzi, Italy’s ambassador to the UK, considers pineapple pizza a “perversion.”

A pizza base covered with pineapple or with curry is no more Italian than a steak and kidney pie covered with chocolate is English.

Mmmm… Pizza.