Brush Valley Brewer

I am sitting in the Starbucks in State College for the first time ever. Somebody nearby has an open access point, so I am surfing for free, even though this is a T-Mobile hot spot. I just wanted a plain black coffee, but when the nice young lady asked how she could help me, in my best morning slur, like a pro I blurted out, “Tall Italian Roast, and a Vanilla Almond Biscotti.” You see, I like to dunk. Mmmm… Tasty! Of course, the crumbs in the bottom of the coffee afterwards are kind of disgusting.

I have a meeting at the Rider Building in a few minutes, and the Starbucks is between the parking lot and there, so it was a natural for me to stop.

Breakfast was a bowl of toasted oat cereal with milk, and a cup of coffee. I weighed 155 pounds.

I had my daily ration of shortbread girl scout cookies at the office this morning.

Over lunch I walked to the around campus — four miles.

I bought two Nature Valley Granola Bars from the vending machine as a snack.

Dinner was a salad, a slice of brown soda bread, and a couple of hands full of peanuts.

A funny thing’s happening to fast-food burgers: Angus That’s Angus as in better quality meat. That’s Angus as in beef that’s a tad tastier. That’s Angus as in it’s-sure-as-heck-gonna-cost-you-more-for-the-burger — about a nickel, anyways…

Behind all this: continued consumer demand — particularly from aging baby boomers — for better-tasting, higher-quality fast food. While industry burger sales are up about 2% in the past year, sales of the pricier, bigger burgers have grown more than twice as fast — up 5%, says Russ Klein, global marketing chief at Burger King.

Also, a growing number of burger chains have recognized that the term Angus beef — a slightly higher grade of beef from hornless cattle that originated in Scotland – radiates high consumer perception of quality. In other words, it’s part marketing gimmick. [Horovitz]

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Horovitz, Bruce. “Fast-food restaurants herd Angus beef burgers onto menu.” Yahoo!. 24 March 2004. <story.news.yahoo.com/ news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=5&u=/ usatoday/ 20040324/ bs_usatoday/ fastfoodrestaurantsherdangusbeefburgersontomenu> (25 March 2004).

Breakfast was a bowl of toasted oat cereal with milk, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 156 pounds.

I had a cup 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 potato chips.

Dinner was two bowls of chili, four slices of Gretchen’s all whole wheat, whole wheat bread, and a salad.

• 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.