Brush Valley Brewer

Gretchen and I both independently saw The Minimalist’s recipe for West Lake Fish Soup in the New York Times the other day and thought it looked a lot like Shrimp and Corn Soup which we both love. So today Gretchen got some flounder at the market and we are going to try it out. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Breakfast this morning was half of a white grapefruit, a piece of toasted Italian bread with strawberry jam, and two cups of coffee. I weighed 154 pounds.

At work this morning I had two cups of green tea with a cinnamon stick.

I went to the Big Onion again for lunch. Today I tried the meatball sub. Mmmmm! I also had a bag of Lays KC Masterpiece Barbecue Flavor Potato Chips (Now even crisper!) and a SoBe Tsunami.

After lunch I took an abbreviated stroll around campus — probably only about two miles. It was a beautiful 45°F and sunny out today.

Dinner was two bowls of lo mien and two cups of green tea with mint.

Breakfast this morning was half of a white grapefruit, a glass of orange juice, and several cups of coffee. I weighed 155 pounds.

I needed to buy some stamps so I walked over to the post office over lunch. On the way back, I stopped at the Big Onion and grabbed a turkey bacon ranch wrap. Too much mayo. I think I will avoid the wraps from now on. Later in the afternoon, I had to walk over to the Thomas building and check on some equipment. All told, I walked about four miles.

Dinner was spaghetti with my roasted tomato sauce, garlic toast made from Gretchen’s Italian bread, and a small green salad with Newman’s Own Light Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Cognitive dissonance is when things that a person knows are in conflict with each other and can result in psychological tension. Let us look at an example.

I like popovers. I like them because I like the way they taste. They have a distinctive appearance and I have come to know that food with that appearance has the taste that I like.

Gretchen found a recipe for herb popovers. She did not tell me they were herb popovers. She just said they were popovers. I saw them and they had that distinctive appearance that I had come to associate with the taste I like. But these did not taste that way. They looked like popovers, but they did not taste like popovers. I said, “What is wrong with these popovers?”

I was experiencing cognitive dissonance because things that looked like the things I like the taste of did not taste like what they looked like. Got that? As far as I know, they could have been very tasty, but my first reaction was that something was wrong with them. My mind would not let me judge them on their own merits because every time I bit into one I expected to taste what I knew a popover tasted like. I might as well have been eating a bar of soap.

Not to worry though. We do not have herb popovers anymore.

Another example… I love pecan pie. Somebody brought a sweet-potato pecan pie to work the other day. I did not know it was a sweet-potato pecan pie. Before it was cut, it looked just like a pecan pie. As soon as it was cut, I could see that it was not a pecan pie. I had to leave. I could not do that to myself again.

There has been a lot of food in the news lately. So grab a napkin… this could get messy.

• Pepperidge Farms has apparently announced that they are going to change the recipe for Goldfish to remove the trans-fat.
• Both the New York Times and the Washington Post are covering a new report out from the National Academy of Sciences on water and salt intake. There has been some folklore going around for a while that you should drink eight glasses of water a day. I always interpreted that to be eight cups, since there is no standard for the size of a “glass.” Both articles imply that you do not need that much, then go on to say that the report recommends instead that “most adult men need about 16 cups a day of fluid and women require roughly 11 cups.” Now if that sounds to you like more — not less — you are not alone. The trick being that water can come in the form of any (non-alcoholic) beverage or even in food. As they say, it all ends up in the same place anyway. Oh, and apparently you are still eating too much salt. Shoot for around 2/3 of a teaspoon per day.
• Apparently, chocolate may be good for you or possibly not. They are not sure.
• In case you did not know, auditors at the Pentagon believe that they found evidence that Halliburton was billing them for 42,042 meals a day in Iraq but only serving the troops 14,053 meals a day. While they admitted no wrongdoing, they did agree to repay $27.4 million in apparent overcharges. Well, apparently that did not clear things up and now, Halliburton has decided to stop billing altogether because the Pentagon apparently has an issue with another $175 million.
• It may be that Halliburton had a change of heart because of a story that Wired News is covering. It seems that the Pentagon is looking for ways to get soldiers to go for three to five days “without the need for calories.” Oh, and apparently, when they do get calories, they will get them directly through their skin like those smoking cessation patches.

Food Network has a nice page describing how to
form baguettes including a video demonstration.

Breakfast this morning was half of a white grapefruit, a piece of toasted Italian bread with homemade strawberry jam, a glass of orange juice, and several cups of coffee. Gretchen made the Italian bread last evening. I weighed 155 pounds.

I went for a four mile walk around campus over lunch today. On my way, I stopped in at Dee’s and had a Texas Hot Dog — that is with chili, mustard, and onions. I guess you could say that I satisfied a craving. I could not help myself. It was calling to me. I can still taste the onions.

Gretchen made a sautéed onion pizza tonight. We were a little dissapointed with the mozzarella we used last time so this time Gretchen tried a four cheese mix from Sargento — Monterey Jack, Mild Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and Asadero cheeses. Pretty tasty. We split the pizza and had a Waldorf salad on the side.

Dave Scarpetti, over at Weber Cam, seems to have nailed “the most common bread offered with meals in France.” Well said… the French having nothing that they call “French Bread.”

The breakthrough came as I caught the end of America’s Test Kitchen on our local PBS station a couple weeks ago. They were making Rustic Country Bread. This site is free but requires an annoying registration.

Dave’s photos of his results look great! I think Gretchen and I are going to have to try this out.

Breakfast this morning was half of a white grapefruit and some coffee. I weighed 155 pounds.

I walked over to the HUB — about two miles, round trip — and got a salad for lunch.

Dinner was a turkey salad and two glasses of Bolla Cabernet Sauvignon.

I just wanted to save a link to Shenanchie’s Pistachio Cookies. I love pistachios.