Brush Valley Brewer

Breakfast this morning was a slice of left over pumpkin pie and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 160 pounds.



<ins datetime="2003-12-27T19:35:00-05:00">Lunch was more ham and cheese finger sandwiches and a glass of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>. Dinner was ham and cloved onions and au gratin potatoes, pumpkin pie, and two glasses of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>.</ins>

Our cat Minbi likes to chase reflections — “light things” — around on the floor.

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&amp;node=&amp;contentId=A13511-2003Sep2&amp;notFound=true" title="Dirt Matters (washingtonpost.com)">Dirt Matters</a>: &ldquo;Near the end of the 19th century, German scientists found the amount of iron in spinach to be comparable to that in meat: some 3 milligrams per 100 grams. But in reporting their findings they put the decimal point (actually in Europe, a comma) in the wrong place, making the amount of iron appear to be 10 times greater than what they had intended. (No, Arthur Andersen was not their accountant.) The error was corrected some 40 years later, but not before Popeye decided to adopt spinach as his power food. After all, iron is strong, right? 



The irony (honest, that was an accident) is that whatever iron spinach does contain is not very absorbable by the body because spinach also contains oxalic acid, which ties up the iron into an insoluble form, ferrous oxalate. So only a fraction of spinach's modest amount of iron is available for our metabolism.&rdquo;

Breakfast this morning was a leftover piece of the Christmas day coffee cake and a glass of orange juice.



<ins datetime="2003-12-26T12:43:00-05:00">We are working through the leftovers and so today&rsquo;s lunch is a little more elaborate then normal. We started with finger sandwiches made from the bread rolls and ham from last night. We had a <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolate afterwards, then we remembered that there was still torte left and that it probably would not keep too long, so we had a piece of that, too. I washed it all down with a Beck&rsquo;s Dark Beer.</ins>



<ins datetime="2003-12-26T18:50:00-05:00">Durring the afternoon, I had a Harpoon India Pale Ale. Dinner was macadamia nuts, dates, more <a href="https://hbf.honeybaked.com/ohio_secure/" title="the Honeybaked Ham Company">Honeybaked Ham</a>, au gratin potatoes, and green bean caserole, with a glass of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=6" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Sangiovese Di Romagna</a>.</ins>

Here is an interesting — and not as cynical as it sounds — look at why people engage in gift giving…

So, Scrooge was right after all: It’s a little-known fact that the first economic rationalist was Ebenezer Scrooge. That’s because economists simply can’t understand why people would do something as stupid as giving presents at Christmas.

Breakfast was a maple sweet roll. I weighed in at 159 pounds.



Well, we made it through Christmas dinner. We started out with shrimp cocktail, cheese and crackers. We had a <a href="https://hbf.honeybaked.com/ohio_secure/" title="the Honeybaked Ham Company">Honeybaked Ham</a>, cloved onions, baked beans, sweet potatoes, bread rolls, and a <a href="http://www.sutterhome.com/html/wine/wz.html" title="White Zinfandel">Sutter Home White Zinfandel</a>. Dessert was a choice of pumpkin pie or mince pie followed by <a href="http://www.godiva.com/welcome.asp" title="Chocolate Gifts from Godiva">Godiva</a> chocolates.

Breakfast this morning was four potato coquettes and a glass of orange juice. I weighed in at 158 pounds. We had a quesadilla while we cooked.



<ins datetime="2003-12-24T22:14:00-05:00">Tonight we feasted. Gretchen, the woman who despises all type of entertaining, decided that we would not only do Christmas dinner, but Christmas eve dinner as well. We spent the day cooking, and this is what we had. Dinner was marinated sirloin steaks, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and a three layer, meringue and jam torte. Gretchen&rsquo;s sister made a salad, and her mother had cranberry sauce. We also had a bottle of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=4" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Pinot Grigio</a>. Alcohol makes a surprisingly effective social lubricant, and the evening was very pleasant, apparently for all involved.</ins>



<img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/torte.jpg" height="256" width="341" alt="Gretchen's Torte" />

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/24/opinion/24WED4.html?ex=1387602000&amp;en=c5d18cce283beb0d&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND">The Elephant and the Chili Pepper</a>: &ldquo;Farmers in the Zambezi Valley of Zimbabwe have hit on a novel way to keep elephants from trampling their fields. They surround their crops with rows of chili peppers, whose smell is noxious to elephants. The peppers prevent battles that have harmed both man and animal, save crops and give farmers a lucrative new product to export.&rdquo;

Despite the apparent authority and level of agreement between the two people I quoted, there really is no agreement at all. I simply chose two authoritative sounding answers that seemed to agree. There are many other opinions:

• Some believe the only difference is whether you add salt.
• Some believe the one is simply a reduction of the other.
• Some believe that they are the same, but one word is used by professionals and the other is used by amateur cooks at home.
• Some believe that one is a finished product and one is an ingredient for another recipe.

Call it what you want. What I make does not follow any of the recipes I have seen for stock or broth.

The basic differences between a broth and a stock lies in its “properties.” For example, a chicken broth will react differently when deglazing a sauté pan than a chicken stock. The reason for this is that the chicken stock will contain more gelée than chicken broth and will bind up the pan drippings into a pan sauce as the stock is reduced, replacing the alternative of cream or butter to aid in this process. The type of chicken parts used in the pot and the amount of extraction of gelée depends on the length of reduction. These are the key factors to consider in determining whether you are making chicken stock or chicken broth. Let us take a moment and review these key factors in chicken broth and chicken stock.

Chicken broth is usually made with chicken meat and chicken parts, with a high flesh to bone ratio. Whole chicken or assorted parts can be used. Fryers and roasters, both readily available at your local supermarket, do not produce satisfactory results. Stewing hens produce the best broth and are often available in the poultry section in your market. If you cannot find them do not hesitate to ring for assistance — the poultry manager will usually order them for you. For the more adventuresome, you may be able to locate someone who has a small flock of laying hens that are past their prime for egg production. Purchase one or two of them to slaughter and dress yourself. The reduction time for chicken broth at sea level is about 3 hours.

Chicken stock is made mostly of chicken parts that have a very low flesh to bone ratio. Backs, necks and breast bones produce the best stock. These boney parts are also readily available at your local supermarket, either in the case or by special order. It is also advantageous to buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself for other recipes. You can then freeze backbones, wing tips, and other parts not used in your original recipe until you are ready to make your stock. To achieve the maximum extraction of gelée from the chicken bones the reduction time at sea level is 6 hours. Water, vegetables, herbs, and salt are ingredients that are common to both stock and broth. [Dove]

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Dove, CeCe. &ldquo;<a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm" title="Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth">Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth</a>&rdquo; <em><a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/home.htm" title="La Lama Mountain Ovens Home: Italian recipes and bakery goods">La Lama Mountain Ovens</a></em>. 1 May 2002. <a href="http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm" title="Family Secrets #25: Chicken Stock and Chicken Broth">&lt;http://www.parshift.com/ovens/Secrets/secrets025.htm&gt;</a> (23 December 2003).