Sunday, January 20, 2008

Food... for thought and for eating.

My second "Cheese Log" blog is up. Comte French Raw Milk Alpine Cheese. Delightful.

I gotta tell you guys about my newest food find. You guys might already know about it, but if I find something good, I feel like I'm obligated to spread the word so my friends can enjoy it, too.

So, here's the story:
Pete has been bemoaning the fact that he can't have pork sausage for Sunday breakfast anymore. So, Friday while I was at the Kroger, I spotted some Jimmy Dean "Light" Pork Sausage. Thought I would give it a try. Surprise, surprise... it was actually quite tasty. And you know what else? It actually had less sodium than the regular hot style which is what I used to buy. That is always one of my complaints about these new "healthier" style products. You can get "low sodium" products, or you can get "low fat" products, but you sure as hell can't find "low sodium and low fat" products. Its frustrating. And everything "healthy" is always more expensive. As if the regular stuff doesn't cost enough already. So, yeah, the stuff cost about a dollar more for a 12 oz. roll than a 16 oz. roll of the regular stuff. But... if one didn't intend to eat it everyday... if one was only going to have it as a "treat" type thing, very occasionally, it would be okay to pay the extra, I think. And my man actually approved of it. Ate most of it, in fact. I had one slice on a whole wheat biscuit with a slice of 2% cheddar cheese. Thomas liked it too, so we were all happy, which is often not the case.

Scientists are sexy. Need proof? Have a look at Michio Kaku. The man is just sexy. Anyway, I think so. But I wouldn't think so, I don't think, if I hadn't seen him on TV, the BBC series on Time was fascinating: or if I hadn't read some of his books, Hyperspace, Parallel Worlds. Okay, I realize that those books are not every one's idea of an entertaining read, but I thought they were fantastic. I confess to a yearning to read his textbook, Strings, Conformal Fields, and M-Theory. But so much more has been discovered, so many more things learned, since the second edition of this book was published in the year 2000. I would hate to spend that much on a book and then have an updated edition published soon after. It shouldn't be long before they update this one, or he pens an entirely new one on the subject. I'll wait a little while longer and see.

Can't wait until tomorrow night. The History Channel has been advertising a new show for the last few weeks. Life After People. I know they are running it because of that Will Smith movie, I Am Legend. But that's okay cause I want to see that movie anyway. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD, or pay per view.

When I'm not watching political news, reading my fantasy/sci-fi books, crafting or cooking, I am watching the History Channel or the Science Channel, sometimes Discovery or National Geographic Channel. I have to say, NTGEO should just start calling themselves the Dog Channel. I swear! That's all they run anymore. Dog Whisperer, Dogs with Jobs, shows about dog evolution, shows about dog breeds, and now... they have a new show about dogs! A reality show about a dog rescue place. Dang! If I wanted to watch crap like that I would watch the Animal Planet. Good Grief! They need to get a grip. Was once one of my favorite channels but I hardly watch it anymore. In fact, I haven't watched it for days. Anyway...

I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was growing up. Or a lawyer and a politician. Secretly, I wanted to be the first female President of the United States. Then I became a teenager and I got side-tracked by friends, boys, having fun... why are some people so stupid when they are teenagers? It just isn't fair! Oh yeah, right... life isn't fair. Sometimes I forget that little nugget of truth.

My sugar was down a little today. Yesterday it was over 300. Today it was 270 before lunch, and 246 two hours after lunch. Today's after meal number was 101 less than than yesterday's after meal number. Maybe I can do this. I walked 3 times today. The first time I walked 15 minutes for .33 miles. The second time I walked 10 minutes for .26 miles. The third time I walked 20 minutes for .57 miles. I was going to try to walk for a fourth time, but just didn't have it in me. My back has been cramping and spasming all day long. I don't know why it's started doing that. I never was one for having back aches before. Oh well... stuff happens, eh?

Warning! Political Content ahead!

I was watching Hillary Clinton's speech in St. Louis, MO that she gave on Saturday, the 19th. You can find the relevant speech on c-span. The specific part I am referring to is about 15minutes 20 seconds into the speech. She was talking about how JFK united the country behind the challenge of going to the moon and back. And she was talking about how America needs to get united behind the challenge of energy independence. It was a super speech, regardless of the fact that she was hoarse and her voice was cracking and breaking.

Anyway... the point of this is that today, I was watching CNN while I was ironing Pete's work shirts and they played a bit of a speech that Rudy Giuliani gave at the The Villages in Florida this very morning, Sunday, the 20th. The following is the relevant portion of the transcript which can be found toward the bottom of the web page on CNN:

"We can have energy dependence in this country. If we have a president that is bold enough to lean down after it like Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon led the effort to put a man on the moon. We can do it, as Americans. We have to achieve energy independence and we need a president that has had achievements like that."

I'm not saying that it wasn't an original idea from dear old Rudy... I'm just putting it out there for ya'll to see.

Oh My God! I just saw this! I have got to post the link for you guys. This is too, too funny!

Texas candidate alters photo in mailer

and that's really all I'm going to say tonight. I nearly forgot to pack hubby's lunch and breakfast and fix the coffee maker for tomorrow. I was so busy blogging and reading the Nagano-san fan site. That's enough shirking of my duties. See you guys later.

10 comments:

tricia said...

I like your comment about not finding low sodium and low fat things. They don't exist. I had a friend who would almost squish the life out of her sausage and bacon after it was cooked to get the fat out. Thought she was nuts but when I saw how much came out..... Watch out for the low fat stuff - they replace the fat with high frutose sugar and that's not a good thing.

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

I'm pretty well convinced that if you don't make it yourself from scratch, EVERYTHING is bad for you. And even then, it's hard to find good, healthy, quality ingredients.

Since Pete's had his problems and we've been trying to follow the doctors orders, it seems like I am cook all the time. There are no convenience foods we can eat. Even the low sodium canned soups still have way too much sodium. I don't know... I guess it's a good thing I like to cook.

pamwax said...

Wouldn't you think if they left things out like salt and sugar, that the product should be cheaper.

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

You would think so, Pam, but I guess they have to make us pay for asking them to make their stuff just a bit less bad for us.
Seriously, maybe that's where the CEO's mega-million dollar bonuses come from.

tricia said...

I try to buy canned veggies with no salt added and use a seasoning called Cavenders (Greek & made in AR)lots. They make a regular w/salt and one w/out. Kinda hooked on it now. Fresh is the way to go if you can find good stuff and it's not priced out of this world.

If they left the salt & sugar, it would be so bland that it wouldn't sell - people are so used to additives that they don't know what fresh and good is.

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

Hi tricia, I use that Cavenders, too. I like it. What I've started doing recently is this: I get sun-dried tomatoes, the dry ones, not the oil soaked ones, and I put them through the little mini-chopper and powder them. Then I use the tomato powder as a seasoning. Works really good in place of salt, too, to sprinkle on food after cooking it. And I buy lemon powder from the Indian market for the same purpose. It's real, dehydrated lemon, not that sodium filled lemon stuff you get in the grocery store. Good stuff.

tricia said...

Sounds good. We don't have an Indian market but there is a place that sells international foods so maybe I can find the lemon seasoning there - it really sounds delicious.

Jeannie said...

I've been trying to avoid food conversations since being sick. I think I can handle it now.

You and Pete might like these:

http://www.jennieo.com/products/productc3c9.aspx?id=8

Per ounce, these are slightly lower in sodium than Jimmy Dean. Even though these sausages are made of turkey, they really fooled hubby. He thought they were good ol' pork sausage the first time he ate them.

Some Kinda Wonderful said...

Thanks for the tip, Jeannie. I will try to get them past hubby. If he sees it is turkey he won't even try it. But I've been feeding him turkey pepperoni for months now and he hasn't noticed. I actually like it better than the regular ones.

tricia, if you can't find the lemon powder where you live, you can order it from ishopindian.com, which is where I get mine. Not that I'm "referring" you or anything. I'm not an associate of theirs. I just do business with them and I trust them. Otherwise I wouldn't have said their name. It's just hard sometimes to know who to trust when you order on-line so I thought I would let you know I have been doing business with this place for about 3 years now and they haven't ripped me off, yet.

tricia said...

I'd rather do business with a company with a good reputation than one I don't know at all so please tell me anytime. I started cleaning out my herb/seasoning cabinet - it's a mess! Don't use Cajun as much as I thought but it sounded good at the grocery store. One of my friends has asked for all of my discards and I'm glad to give.