Simple Summer Bill of Fare

Go Placidly

My food truck business started back up this past weekend, and from here until November, the weeks will be packed. Sandwich-slinging Thursday-Saturday and bartending work Monday-Wednesday. And Sunday, I guess, is the day to sleep in and hide in my house. Hiding out is the one thing I feel like doing a lot of these days. My food truck's ReOpening wasn't the only thing happening in my hometown this weekend past. A 13-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed on Saturday and then yesterday, the police department busted one of the biggest meth labs in a long time. Both are tragic...one is a sad loss, one that will devastate a loving family for the rest of their lives. One is tragic only because of the profound stupidity/ignorance/addiction of a few people who happen to be living in a town mostly filled with good-hearted, hard-working people. And if it's not drama at the local level, then there's the constant bombardment of news that seems to be vividly...

We Overeat...Because We're Getting Fatter?

Well, if that just doesn't flip conventional medical wisdom on its head, I don't know what will. So I'm reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes, right? Chapter 9 is titled "Laws of Adiposity" - much of the first section discusses an experiment conducted by George Wade. After removing the ovaries from three sets of female lab rats, this is what he found: 1. The rats who were allowed to eat whatever, whenever gained weight and became obese. 2. The rats who were put on a strict post-surgery diet still gained weight and became obese. 3. The rats who were injected with estrogen and left to whatever eating pattern they chose did not grow obese. Obviously, this experiment (with further explanation in the book) linked the presence of estrogen to weight loss/gain. Taubes goes on to say "estrogen influences an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL)". These enzymes pull fat into cells that express a need for it (91). When there is no estrog...

Fun With Tomato Juice

This blog entry has quite a backstory, but I'll sum it up quickly. In making the mega-batch of Red Sauce, I drained roughly 32 oz of juice from a large can of diced tomatoes. "Waste not, want not", so I froze the leftover liquid, to be used at a later time. That time was today. My original thought was to concoct a chili or similar, but then...I had ideas! Searching online, I found a recipe for Tomato-Basil soup at www.allrecipes.com. With slight modifications (I had no crushed tomatoes or fresh basil) to the soup, today's lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Raves all around, and I guess now I can say goodbye to Campbell's Tomato Soup. Thank you - allrecipes.com! That left me with another 20 or so ounces of remaining tomato juice, and I was hankering to do something crazy with it. And what would be on the other end of the tomato usage spectrum, if innocent, comforting tomato soup is on the another? The Bloody Mary, of course! Blo...

To Thine Own Self, Be Food

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