Bread Crumbs...

Instead of upgrading to the new Blogger...

2006-12-28T01:31:00.000-05:00

Bread Crumbs... is in the process of migrating to WordPress...

Yes, there were some other poems posted here until recently,

2006-07-23T23:57:00.000-04:00

...but they've been relegated back to "Draft" mode for further review, to return when they've aged and been revised a bit.

a moebius scarf on steroids

2006-04-14T15:45:00.000-04:00

I really didn't mean to make it this large; it just sort of happened. You can't really tell how long it's going to be while you're knitting because the circular needles are looped in a doubled coil fairly tightly, and the size does not become evident until you begin casting off. Of course, there are other, more savvy, knitters who are able to determine from a swatch, and it's corresponding gauge, how many stitches to cast on for the desired size. But the casting on, in this case, is also peculiar. In any case, I probably cast on too many. Still, it doesn't look too bad if you wrap it more than once and let it drape. And, if it were really cold, you could wrap your head up in it, too. It's my first one. I'm sure I'll figure out the formula eventually.

on knitting and nepotism

2006-04-13T21:46:00.000-04:00

I just added a new link to my blogroll: Pixelated Knitting. It belongs to a knitting blogger (or a blogging knitter?) with whom I share significant DNA, and whom I imprinted with "knitting" when she was but 3 or 4 years old and still had chubby fingers. I think she knitted just a small square then... but a few years ago began accumulating the accoutrements of a serious knitter: stash, patterns, needles, books, more stash, more books, and a set of Denise needles....

My daughter and I went to a book-signing at a nearby yarn store last weekend, and were both inspired by the two women who met online on a knitting blog, developed a relationship in the comment threads, and started their own blog, which yielded them a book deal. And now a book tour where they get to meet their many and ardent fans. They were actually new to me, but I am now a fan, and am trying to imagine a way to combine moebius knitting, a technique I have just learned, with Kay Gardner's log cabin knitting technique. Perhaps a boxy coat or jacket with a moebius/shawl collar? I'm thinking... I'm thinking....

Apparently, my daughter is, too, and has begun scheming how to combine her obsession for sudoku with said log cabin knitting technique. (I was also thinking that sudoku would be a great pattern on a knitted and felted tote bag, just large enough to carry a sudoku book. I think she has something more ambitious in mind.)

Women's History Month at A Chef's Table

2006-03-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

This month, Jim Coleman is featuring women-- chefs, cookbook writers, and photographers-- on his weekly radio program. Yesterday, Coleman interviewed several women, including Laura Schenone , the author of A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food Recipes and Remembrances.

I was particularly struck by one thing she said while talking about the many roles-- personal, charitable, and political-- that cookbooks have played in women's lives. Schenone is working on a theroy that women have often written cookbooks in order to deal with difficult situations in their lives. One example was Erma Rombauer, author of The Joy of Cooking, whose family suggested that she write a cookbook to deal with the death of her husband. And out of her grief was born "Joy."

If you would like to hear the program, you can find it here for now, until it is available in the archives for March 25th.

Other featured books include:

Putting Meat on the American Table: Taste Techonogy and Transformation, byRoger Horowitz

The Cooking of Southwest France: Recipes from France's Magnificent Rustic Cuisine, by Paula Wolfert

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told through Food Recipes and Remembrances, by Paula Wolfert

Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir with Earthly Recipes, by Leslie Li

Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals:Featuring 200 Recipes for Quick and Easy Dinners, by Sara Moulton, Dana Gallagher, Photographer

More Retro Diner: A Second Helping of Roadside Recipes, by Randy Garbin and Terri Dunn

Lidia's Family Table, by Lidia Bastinach

Meat Me in Manhattan: A Carnivore's Guide to New York, by Josh Osersky, photographer Kate Gardner

The 70% solution... ?

2006-02-28T15:59:00.000-05:00

I was planning to post something about chocolate anyway, and then there was a news story today about its health benefits-- especially for the cardiovascular system-- which included a link to a peer-reviewed article with lots of details, many of which were over my head.

However, I did catch the one about consuming 100g per day for two weeks in order to lower one's blood pressure. (Mine's gone up a bit since I've been eating butterscotch like it's going out of style.) And, I thought it might be worth a small trial of my own. Especially, since my favorite bar comes in exactly that "dose." And apparently there is a dose-response. At least in elderly Dutch men. This will mean a trip to CVS, where I can both take my blood pressure, and purchase a larger supply of Lindt bars than I usually have on hand. Further updates will follow...

And, in the meantime, another story on some surprising relationships between food and health arrived in my emailbox via The Progressive, and this one went much further than merely advocating for chocolate...

UPDATE ~ Same Day:
Today's BP: 138 over 74 w/ a heart rate of 76.
[I always use to be well under the "normal" 120 over 80.]

UPDATE ~ March 5th: [I decided to measure it twice.]
1st BP: 137 over 76 w/ a heart rate of 71;
2nd BP: 132 over 74 w/ a heart rate of 66.

Breakfast began with saffron-flavored rice

2006-02-04T12:31:00.000-05:00

I wanted something simple for breakfast, but with enough complexity to be satisfying. So, I started off by cooking a package of saffron-flavored rice, to which I added some peas at the very end. Meanwhile, I cooked three slices of bacon (which was a 2-for-1 special sale), poured off the excess fat, and lightly browned a small amount of finely chopped onion, which also deglazed the pan and incorporated all of the leftover bacon flavor into the onions. They needed a little bit more fat, though, so I added some olive oil. Once the onions were done, I set them aside on a plate, and added more olive oil to the skillet (non-nonstick, stainless steel). While it was heating, I beat a couple of eggs, and when the oil was very hot (almost smoking), I added the eggs in a stream, while stirring, and quickly stirred them in the pan, since it was pretty hot, and I didn't want them overcooked.

On a bed of the saffron rice & peas, I added a layer of the onions, then the scrambled eggs, and topped the whole thing with crumbled bacon.

More Braising...

2006-02-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I braised the beef short ribs last night, but I still haven't eaten them yet. I would have had them for breakfast this morning, but I wasn't hungry enough to eat them and still go out to lunch with a couple of co-workers, one of whom is leaving for new pastures. The good news is that I had some leftovers from lunch, including a nice serving of brown rice, that will be really good tomorrow morning when I add it to the short ribs. For breakfast.

In the meantime, I did some more braising tonight: two lamb shoulder chops, and a beef shin bone, but in separate casserole dishes. The vegetables I used were similar, onions, celery, shredded carrots, garlic, in and canned tomates, plus a bit of tomato paste, and some olive oil, but the beef was cooked with more of the tomatoes-- I used just a bit for the lamb-- and the lamb dish also included some parsnips, and some worcestershire. A small amount of white wine went into both. The short ribs were treated similarly last night.

Such abundance. Three kinds of braised meat, packed in individual servings in the freezer. I'll report back on the results.

Borrowed Quotes...

2006-01-31T11:56:00.000-05:00

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

~ Joseph Addison ~

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
~ Mortimer J. Adler ~

Beware of the man of one book.
~ Thomas Aquinas ~

The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision
and strengthens our most fatal tendency--
the belief that the here and now is all there is.
~ Allan Bloom ~

A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen,
is that you can take it to bed with you.
~ Daniel J. Boorstin ~

Readers may be divided into four classes:
1.) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in
nearly the same state, only a little dirtied.
2.) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get
through a book for the sake of getting through the time.
3.) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read.
4.) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by
what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~

The greatest gift is the passion for reading.
It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites,
it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.
It is a moral illumination.
~ Elizabeth Hardwick ~

In a very real sense, people who have read good literature
have lived more than people who cannot or will not read.
It is not true that we have only one life to lead; if we can read,
we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.
~ S. I. Hayakawa ~

[borrowed from Mental multivitamin]

I'm still posting...

2006-01-26T22:44:00.000-05:00

here, too.

Gore Vidal on the J-word

2006-01-26T14:22:00.000-05:00

On the subject of George W. Bush : Gore Vidal simply sublimates the I-word and goes directly for the J-word...

Book of Jonah ~ 32:001:012

And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the
sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my
sake this great tempest is upon you.

You simply must read Gore Vidal's meditation on George W. Bush as a modern-day Jonah... if only because such literate writing on public affairs is so rare these days.

Although I receive Truthdig.com in my email regularly, I actually found Vidal's piece via The Huffington Post, which pointed to the original on Truthdig.com... which Robert Scheer founded soon after he was precipitously and inexplicably fired-- after thirty years!-- from the LA Times. Okay, okay, well, maybe not so inexplicably. Apparently, Scheer's publisher hated almost every word that he wrote, i.e., the ones about Bush's lies.

But, don't just read Vidal's piece; check out the rest of the links on Truthdig.com, which has been thoughtfully designed for both substance and style.

And-- the LA Times's loss (or really major goof) is our gain.

"Jonah Cast Forth By the Whale" by Gustave Dore (d. 1883) Courtesy of Wikipedia

cross-posted at http://blogs.salon.com/0004000/2006/01/25.html#a415

For now, I'm not giving up the butterscotch, after all...

2006-01-22T13:36:00.000-05:00

...but I'll still try to forego the rootbeer, since it probably does more to put on both weight and inches.

It occurred to me awhile ago that there might be something in either the butterscotch or the rootbeer that I actually needed. (After all, I really craved them.)

However, when you read their lists of ingredients, you have to ask what could that be? I even thought, though I had not mentioned it to anyone, that maybe there was something about their taste or flavor that actually enhanced (my) digestion... something related to satisfaction. A rationalization?

Perhaps, but then I read something last night in the Fall 2005 issue of Gastronomica about the inter-related histories of both MSG and Umami, and was inspired to do a little searching on my own, which I did today...

While looking through other magazines last night at Border's, I came across some recipes for braised short ribs. They will be on next week's shopping list.

"The Fifth Taste Emerges...

2006-01-20T14:08:00.000-05:00

...from the Brine" (read this story from the NYTimes)

Umami -- without wheat or dairy-- is an experience that has become a bit more elusive for me than in years past. Parmesan cheese, for example, has umami, but I can't eat that. Sometime late last spring, I started eating butterscotch candy like there was no tomorrow. The combination of salty and sweet and the roundness and mellowness of the flavor. [sigh] It provided a taste sensation that I wasn't getting from rootbeer, which I had started drinking in earnest earlier that year. (Main Street brand, carried by Giant Food Stores, is my favorite, because it has the creamiest foam, and is available in a pony size.)

Well, I haven't had any rootbeer this week, and only two pieces of butterscotch; the only reason I even ate those is that one of my co-workers had filled up her candy dish with my favorite version (non-dairy) in those square cellophane packets that pop open without having to be untwisted.

I've decided I really have to cut down, or better yet, eliminate them from my diet. Both the butterscotch and the rootbeer. Not only did my blood pressure go up quite a bit (not really a problem, since it was awfully low before), but I gained a signficant number of pounds around my middle, meaning a size or two. I really can't justify buying all new clothes (beyond the two new pairs of pants I bought last month in desperation), when I have perfectly good clothes that I can almost wear, and sometimes still do, with a sweater hiding the length of zipper that remains unzipped. [sigh... sigh...]

So, now a new search for sources of umami and taste satisfaction must begin...

Something new in my kitchen

2006-01-17T15:31:00.000-05:00

I just bought a new crock pot. For its maiden voyage... a small beef roast (browned slightly in some olive oil) on a bed of celery, carrots, parsnips & turnips, a can of whole tomatoes with the liquid, a few cloves of garlic and some sprigs of parsley. And the ubiquitous Herbamare.

Then... about 10 hours cooking time, on low, while we were away from home...

That evening, after a small taste test and a cooling-off period, the roast and vegetables were divided more or less equally among 4 plastic containers and nestled in the freezer, most likely to be consumed for breakfast, given my preference for hearty food in the mornings. Especially on cold mornings. Like this morning.

I'm wondering if I can do something resembling risotto in it. Or rice pudding. Or polenta. You get the idea...

How Civilization is really killing us...

2006-01-14T23:35:00.000-05:00

...a few clues (or a trail of wheat-free bread crumbs for you to follow), if you're interested. With enough of these clues, one must begin to wonder if Obesity and Diabetes (among other scourges of modern life) aren't really just Mother Nature's Revenge.

Dave Pollard's posts earlier this week on Civilization, Domestication, and Noble Savages, reminded me of a Harper's article and some books that have gradually led me to my own contrarian view of the paradox of civilization being that which has cost us the more civilized behaviors to which we aspired.

*~*~*

About two years ago, I read an article by Richard Manning, in Harper's, entitled, "The Oil We Eat." It's a bit long, but very thought-provoking, especially on whether being a vegetarian really is the most ecologically responsible choice to make... when you consider that not only do we obliterate natural habitats, indigenous plant life and grazing lands, but we expend more calories of energy in producing food crops than the crops actually provide. And then we feed most of this grain to animals, at additional expense of energy comsumption, when it might have been simpler, and better all-round (as well as more humane), if we had continued to allow the native bison, or even just domesticated livestock, to graze.

Several years before, I had read a book about eating according to your blood-type, by Peter D'Adamo: Eat Right For Your Type. Dr. D'Adamo has his detractors, as well as his followers, but from personal experience, although I could never follow his diet plan or suggestions to the letter, I must acknowledge that his basic outline for those with the "Hunter/Gatherer's" Bood Type-O works better for me. Being a lacto-ovo vegetarian definitely did not. Doesn't mean I don't still want my comfort food, though.

Somewhere in between, I read (most of) a book by Robert Lacey, The Year 1000. Lacey's book was structured on the Julius Work Calendar, and describes the regular seasonal activities and diet of the people. That Calendar was an early attempt to regulate a society's activities, rather like the wheel of the plough that it describes, something worth considering even now, when so many of us feel oppressed by our schedules. However, most relevant to this discussion is the authors' description of the skeletal remains of Englishmen of 1000 AD. Tall. Strong. Good Bones and Teeth.

*~*~*

Apparently, different blood-types evolved over time, and under different conditions. For example, Type-O blood is the oldest, followed by A (farmers), then B (nomads), then AB (modern?). As one with Type-O blood, my body is more suited to a diet of animal protein and root vegetables, nuts, berries, and nothing refined, especially not any wheat or dairy products.

And, while I was struggling to give up wheat (and dairy), I was beginning to understand that before the Romans imposed a wheat-based agriculture on what would become the British Isles, my ancient ancestors had been much taller, with good, strong bones, and yes! --good teeth.

A milennium later, it is now commonplace to hear jokes about the poor teeth of those of us with English ancestry, as well as about both the inferior diet and cuisine of present-day England. Easy for "Colonials" to make such jokes when, after just a few generations, Americans were often a head taller or more than their European counterparts, given the virgin topsoil that provided them with superior nutrition, even though it has now been depleted.

Agribusiness, pesticides, genetically-modified foods, food-borne illnesses, polluted streams, rivers and water tables... one could go on and on. And Manning does name many of the bad actors.

*~*~*

A few nights ago, I was watching an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" on Oats and Oatmeal, which included the interesting tidbit that while the Brits were feeding oats to their horses, in order to improve their stock and their performance, the Scots were eating the oats themselves. However, an even more interesting tidbit was that the Romans never really did conquer the Scots when they occupied Britain. Perhaps I should have figured that out on my own, since I'm usually correct when I guess that an exceptionally tall person probably has some Scottish ancestry.

*~*~*

Only in Europe...

2006-01-04T14:53:00.000-05:00

This story could never happen in the US, but I admit to being a little bit surprised that it happened in a Catholic country...

The Times January 03, 2006

Prove Christ exists, judge orders priest

From Richard Owen in Rome

AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.

The case against Father Enrico Righi has been brought in the town of Viterbo, north of Rome, by Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist who once studied for the priesthood but later became a militant atheist.

Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest denounced Signor Cascioli in the parish newsletter for questioning Christ’s historical existence.

If you want to read the rest, you'll find it here... in The Times Online.

All I really wanted...

2005-05-16T11:02:00.000-04:00

...was to be able to comment on another blog, but in order to do that, I first had to create an account here, which really meant creating a blog here. I already have a blog, with the same name, on the Salon site. I had been thinking, though, of starting some other ones to use as off-site "categories." Guess that's what I'll use this one for.

Don't hold your breath... but stay tuned for further developments.

In the meantime, you'll find me here.