Breakfast was a glass of orange juice with a piece of Gretchen’s Italian bread, toasted, and served with homemade strawberry jam.
<ins datetime="2004-01-03T09:09:00-05:00">Dinner was half of a broiled farm-raised catfish filet, rosemary roasted potato wedges, and a small green salad, all drizzled with <a href="http://www.newmansown.com/4a15_lightbalsamic.html" title="Newman's Own - Lighten Up - Light Balsamic Dressing">Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette</a>, with a <a href="http://www.saranac.com/paleale.html" title="SARANAC">Saranac Pale Ale</a> to drink and a <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolate for dessert.</ins>
New Year’s Day Food Log
Breakfast this morning was a glass of juice. I weighed in at 160 pounds.
Gretchen made grilled cheese for lunch today.
We had dinner at her sister’s with her husband and her mother and father. She made roast pork with sauerkraut, baked beans, mashed potatoes, and rolls, and served it with Sutter Home White Zinfandel and had cookies for dessert. Now that we are home, I am having a Saranac Pale Ale.
Gretchen and I have decided that we have successfully made it through the eating season and it is time to get serious about getting down to our goal weights. As soon as we finish what is left in the house — not much — we are going to drop some serious calories.
New Use for Honey?
<a href="http://www.honey.com/pressrm/research/honmed.html" title="Honey as Medicine;�Australia Produces a World's First">Honey as Medicine</a>: The use of honey as a wound dressing goes back to ancient times and has continued into present-day folk medicine. It is a common observation in medical journal reports that numerous benefits result from using honey to dress wounds:
- The viscosity of honey provides a protective barrier to prevent wounds from becoming infected.
- Honey stimulates the re-growth of tissue involved in the healing process. It stimulates the formation of new blood capillaries and the growth of fibroblasts that replace the connective tissue of the deeper layer of the skin and produce the collagen fibers that give strength to the repair.
- Honey does not stick to the underlying wound tissues, so there is no tearing away of newly formed tissue, and no pain, when dressings are changed.
- Honey has an anti-inflammatory action, which reduces the swelling around a wound. This improves circulation and thus hastens the healing process. It also reduces pain. The amount of fluid exuding from wounds is also decreased by the anti-inflammatory action.
- The high sugar content of honey draws lymph out of a wound, which lifts dirt out of the wound bed.
- Honey rapidly clears infection from wounds. It is fully effective even with antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Unlike antiseptics and antibiotics there is no impairment of the healing process through adverse effects on wound tissues.
Good Advice Regardless of the News
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/dining/31WELL.html?ei=5007&en=c8b2521ac6757d44&ex=1388206800&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=">Eating Well: Warily Searching for Safer Beef</a>: The safest beef is from cattle that have been raised organically, because by law they cannot be fed animal byproducts, which, while banned from cattle feed since 1997, are believed to be the major source of mad cow disease. Organic beef is available by mail order, online and in some stores.
Beef that is labeled grass-fed, but not certified organic, would be a second choice. There are no regulations governing what can be called grass-fed, so it can be difficult to ascertain what the animal has eaten. Experts advise asking the butcher or supplier a few questions to assure the meat’s safety.
- Has the animal’s feed ever been supplemented with grain or with protein, which might include animal byproducts?
- Were the animals “finished” with any grain? In other words, were they fed grain to improve the flavor of the meat before slaughter?
- Were the calves weaned with a milk replacer? Milk replacer can contain cows’ blood, which might spread the disease.
- Was the animal slaughtered and processed at the same place as conventional cattle? If so, what assurances are there that they are not contaminated?
One other note about grass-fed beef: because it does not have as much fatty marbling as grain-fed beef, it should be cooked for less time and at a lower temperature…
Making your own ground beef at home is safer than using packaged hamburger that may have been purchased in bulk. It is not difficult if you have a food processor or an attachment to a mixer… With a food processor, use the steel blade, but watch carefully so that you do not turn the beef into hamburger purée.
A hand grinder like your mother or grandmother used to use costs less than $30. (You can also spend more.) It clamps on to a table and has a crank shaft…
Another suggestion is to buy boneless beef in a supermarket with staff butchers, and have them grind it.
New Year’s Eve Food Log
Breakfast was a piece of Gretchen’s Italian bread, toasted, with homemade strawberry jam, and a glass of juice.
<ins datetime="2004-01-01T09:09:00-05:00">Dinner was another bowl of the ham and bean soup with a slice of the Italian bread and a small Caesar salad with a <a href="http://www.saranac.com/paleale.html" title="SARANAC">Saranac Pale Ale</a>. For New Years Eve, we split a bottle of <a href="http://www.grahams-port.com/" title="Welcome to Graham's Port">Graham’s</a> Tawny Porto (30 Years Old) <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/gasp.png" height="18" width="18" alt="=-O" /> and an assortment of Christmas cookies we got as a gift.</ins>
Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller?
Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller?: The bagel is to a Sunday in Manhattan as the mint julep is to Louisville, Ky., on the first Saturday in May — an indispensable accompaniment to ritual, whether that be a brunch on the Upper West Side or the Kentucky Derby itself. Whether eaten plain or with a “schmear” of cream cheese, with whitefish salad or a slice of Nova, with sesame seeds or salt, toasted or untoasted, by Jew, gentile, Muslim, Buddhist or agnostic, the bagel has, for more than a century, helped define breakfast in New York.
But what is a bagel, really? What makes it more than simply, as an article in The New York Times declared in 1960, “an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis”?
…
A definition of terms, then. A bagel is a round bread made of simple, elegant ingredients: high-gluten flour, salt, water, yeast and malt. Its dough is boiled, then baked, and the result should be a rich caramel color; it should not be pale and blond. A bagel should weigh four ounces or less and should make a slight cracking sound when you bite into it instead of a whoosh. A bagel should be eaten warm and, ideally, should be no more than four or five hours old when consumed.
All else is not a bagel.
A few more stipulations. Bagels do not need six ounces of cream cheese on them. They only need a schmear.
Food Log
Breakfast was scrambled eggs, ham, hash brown potatoes, toast, and orange juice. I weighed in at 161 pounds.
<ins datetime="2003-12-30T18:59:00-05:00">I split a ham and bean quesadilla with Gretchen for lunch with a <a href="http://www.saranac.com/paleale.html" title="SARANAC">Saranac Pale Ale</a>. I had another <a href="http://www.saranac.com/paleale.html" title="SARANAC">Saranac Pale Ale</a> later in the day. I got Gretchen a <a href="http://ww2.kingarthurflour.com/cgibin/htmlos.cgi/55179.2.584367003794259342" title="For the absolutely crispiest-crusted hearth bread">baking stone</a> for Christmas. We used it for the first time today and made the most amazing Italian bread I have ever had. We also made this amazing multi-bean soup with ham. We had seconds of both for dinner along with another <a href="http://www.saranac.com/paleale.html" title="SARANAC">Saranac Pale Ale</a> and finishing with two <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolates.</ins>
What is Oldways?
<a href="http://www.oldwayspt.org/about/about.html" title="What is Oldways">What is Oldways?</a>: “Oldways is the widely-respected nonprofit ‘food issues think tank’ praised for translating the complex details of nutrition science into ‘the familiar language of food.’ This synthesis converts high-level science into a consumer-friendly health-promotion tool for consumers, health professionals, chefs, farmers, journalists, and the food industry.”
Farmers Markets Facts
<a href="http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/facts.htm" title="AMS at USDA - AMS Farmers Markets - Facts">Farmers Markets Facts</a>: “Direct marketing of farm products through farmers markets continues to be an important sales outlet for agricultural producers nationwide. Farmers markets, now an integral part in the urban/farm linkage, have continued to rise in popularity, mostly due to the growing consumer interest in obtaining fresh products directly from the farm. The number of farmers markets in the United States has grown dramatically, increasing 79 percent from 1994 to 2002. According to the 2002 National Farmers Market Directory, there are over 3,100 farmers markets operating in the United States. This growth clearly indicates that farmers markets are meeting the needs of a growing number of farmers with small- to medium-size operations.”
Eat Wild
<a href="http://www.eatwild.com/" title="Eat Wild">Eat Wild</a>: “Eat Wild features comprehensive, up-to-date information about the benefits of choosing meat, eggs, and dairy products from pastured animals. As you will see by exploring this site, raising animals on pasture is a win-win-win-win situation.”