Gleanings of the Week Ending December 7, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Snowman - Our family’s favorite holiday video - now available on YouTube.

Goldenrod Seeds - Chris Helzer’s photos posted to his ‘The Prairie Ecologist’ site

Khan Academy - I’m taking two Coursera courses about education (E-learning and Digital Cultures from The University of Edinburgh and Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom from University of California, Irvine). The number of resources I’m discovering on the web through these courses is staggering. This is one of them.

Psychedelic Images of Terrifying Viruses - The colorization of microscopic images of viruses is done to make it easier to study the structure. You can look at them from that perspective or enjoy them as art! Be sure to look at the comments section for Luke Jerram’s glass sculptures of microbes (other images of the glass here).

Cherry Basil Crumble Bars - I am intrigued by the idea of using beans in the crust/topping and pairing cherries with basil

Are MOOCs the Future of Online Education - Infographic about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that includes currents statistics and some pros and cons about taking a MOOC.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #55 - I couldn’t resist including this one. My favorite, of course, is the peacock.

Ye Old Parasites - A study of decomposed feces from one of a castle’s latrines has shown high concentration of roundworm and whipworm parasites that plagued crusaders around 1200. Aside from being an interesting footnote to history on its own, it helps explain why so many crusaders died of malnutrition. The detailed genetic information of the parasites from 1200 compared to their modern forms can also guide treatment development to parts of the genome that are less likely to evolve (and become resistant).

What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world - Jared Diamond at TED.

Photos of Tiny Animals on Fingers - Enjoy!

Mini-Deep Dish Pizzas

The University of Arizona published a collection of recipes at the start of the school year - which my daughter sent to us with the specific suggestion to check out the recipe for Mini-Deep Dish Pizzas. The pizzas have become a new favorite at our house - although we have made a few modifications; we use: 

• A muffin top pan (or cups) rather than a regular muffin tin.
• Mission Carb Balance Flour Tortillas rather than generic whole wheat tortillas (which often taste like cardboard).
• Scissors to cut the excess tortilla from around the edges (they get baked with the pizzas and then used as chips with salsa).
• Homemade spaghetti sauce or spaghetti sauce from a jar instead of tomato sauce
• Smoked turkey or chicken (as an additional topping).

Yummy!

Baked Yogurt Custard

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

Icy cold smoothies made with plain non-fat yogurt have been a great way to get calcium through my diet this summer - but smoothies will not be appealing as the weather gets cooler. In the past week, I started looking for other ways to eat yogurt that are warming. My favorite so far is Baked Yogurt Custard.

The basic idea is to use non-fat plain yogurt, fruit and eggs as the basis for custard rather than the more typical milk (usually with some fat), sugar, and eggs. The recipe below was my first experiment:

• 1 banana
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup grated sweet potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup yogurt 

Slice banana into baking disk. Mash. Add other ingredients. Whisk thoroughly. Let mixture come to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake custard until ‘set’ (it took about 30 minutes in my oven).

Let cool to comfortable eating temperature.

The resulting ‘custard’ is thick and has a pleasant tang from the yogurt and orange peel. Some discoveries with this initial recipe: 

• The grated sweet potatoes were a little crunchy (I was trying to clean out ingredients from the refrigerator and should have saved the sweet potatoes for something else!) and
• It probably was too much to eat at one sitting (but it was so good!) 

I’ll make some adjustments next time and try some other fruits similar to what I have been using in smoothies during the summer. Pumpkin custard using yogurt rather than evaporated milk sounds good too; it would require sugar of some kind (honey rather than white sugar?). It occurred to me that Baked Yogurt Custard could also be made with vegetables (different seasonings and no sugar) to be more quiche-like. It is a lower fat technique than using cheese or cream. And I will try cooking it in my crockpot rather than heating up the whole oven!

The bottom line of all this is that I’ll continue buying as much non-fat plain yogurt through the winter as I have all summer!

High Nutritional Value Salad Dressings

One of the challenges of a weight loss strategy that includes a low calorie/high nutrition component is salad dressing. The commercial salad dressings tend to have relatively little nutritional value for the amount of calories they add to the salad. I’ve discovered two alternatives that are so good I’ll probably stop buying commercial salad dressings and look for more alternatives that are similar to the two I am enjoying now. Here are the two:

Hummus. I bought a tub of commercially prepared roasted garlic hummus and tried it first as a dip for veggies. Then I used it to make egg salad (very simple…just combined eggs, celery and the seasoned hummus - no other seasoning required). Now I’ve started using a heaping tablespoon into just about any salad in lieu of dressing.

Guacamole. You can make your own or look for Wholly Guacamole in your grocery store. They make ‘mini’ packages that are a perfect size to use for a salad.

What other alternatives am I going to check out? The only requirements are that it 1) stick to the salad ingredients and 2) add a good flavor. Here is my ‘things to try’ list: 

• Tahini or peanut butter mixed with salsa and extra basil and/or orange zest
• Chia seeds and salsa
• Tahini or peanut butter pureed with some orange sections, fresh mint, orange zest
• Differently seasoned hummus (commercially prepared)
• Homemade hummus with seasonings different that available in the commercially prepared 

As you can tell - I am not a fan of vinegar…or I would certainly be including it in some of the items on my list!

Any other ideas?

Cookbooks

I am prompted by Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking to think about cookbooks. Does everyone that cooks have some reference they use at least occasionally? I have three that I use periodically - and almost always for some kind of bread or dessert.

The one I use most frequently is a Good Housekeeping Cookbook my grandmother gave me for Christmas just as I was beginning to help out in the kitchen - about 50 years ago. It was not something I used at first but I liked having such a ‘grown up’ present. I appreciated it more as soon as I was on my own in the kitchen - it was the book I had for guidance. The index is the most referenced part of the whole book but that doesn’t show. The splashes on recipe pages are obvious markers in the book and reveal the favorites. In this book it is corn bread, gingerbread, baked custard, popovers, applesauce cake, coffee cake, and apple brown betty (which I made with peaches at least as often as with apples). Now that I am looking at this book more closely….there is a yummy looking recipe for baked barbeque chicken (homemade sauce); it may be time to look at the other sections of this book!

There are only two pages that are food splattered in the Williamsburg cookbook purchased when I first visited Colonial Williamsburg: Christiana Campbell’s Tavern Sweet Potato Muffins and Sally Lunn. I’ve made the muffins with all kinds of variations: pumpkin instead of sweat potato, left over baked sweet potatoes, canned sweet potatoes, mini-muffins, muffin tops, raisins and nuts depending on what is on hand.

The last cookbook was one I inherited from my mother-in-law. I’m not sure whether it was something she had for years or that she bought not that long before she died at a used book sale. Either way - it has a wonderful spice cake recipe (that includes cayenne pepper).

After thumbing through these old books - I’m ready to try a new recipe!

Mint and Orange Zest

Yesterday was full of wonderful smells: mint and orange peel.

I harvested two baskets of mint from pots and a reused turtle sandbox on my deck. The cuttings were clipped into segments that fit into my food processor. The processed mint is now on two trays on the kitchen counters. I’ll stir them several times a day until the mint is thoroughly dry ---- ready to use with black tea. There will be another harvest before the end of the season - enough mint to use now and last through the winter.

While I had the food processor out, I decided to make orange zest with the six oranges in the refrigerator and freeze the orange sections. During really hot weather, frozen orange sections are wonderful in smoothies so this was a good plan for the fruit and the zest. Only the white part of the orange peel ended up in the compost. I used a sharp knife to cut the outermost peel from the oranges- making long curls into the bowl of the food processor.

This is the first time there has been a bit of mint with the orange zest. I’ll enjoy that!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 11, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Printable Functional 'Bionic' Ear Melds Electronics and Biology  - What if this development really does live up to its potential?

Addiction Fact and Fiction - Infographic

Robot discovers secret chambers in Mexico - Underneath the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan

APPLE-ALMOND BUTTER PANCAKES - Sounds yummy!

How Petals Get Their Shape: Hidden Map Located Within Plant's Growing Buds - Research about how different parts of plants take on different shapes

Geography in the news: hot chocolate - A healthy indulgence

Saturn Hurricane (at its north pole) - Video and pictures on NASA site

The Fine Art of Photographing Living Portuguese Man O' War

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors - Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street….a concentrated hub of Internet connectivity

Nature’s Most Transparent Animals - from National Geographic

Diet Linked to Daytime Sleepiness and Alertness in Healthy Adults - High fat consumption associated with daytime sleepiness

Art Installations Inspired by Solar Panels - My favorite is the second one (Solar Intersections by Robert Behrens)

March 2013 Snow

We got the best snow of the season yesterday in our area of Maryland. It clung to the trees until the little breezes and temperature caused it to plop to the ground or trickle away. One of the early pictures of the day was of the dense oak twigs piled high with snow (to the left). It looks like a black and white abstract drawing to me.

We went out for a drive to enjoy the beauty of the snow. I liked the way the snow clung to the dry grasses from last summer with the flocked spruce in the background. It was a shot from an open window - the car simply stopped in the middle of a country road.

When we got back from the outing, we made snow ice cream: fill a large bowl with snow, add milk (I used half-and-half that I had frozen from an early time when snow was forecast but didn’t materialize), 1 cup of sugar, and flavoring (I used 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon coconut). I add red food coloring so that I can tell when everything is thoroughly mixed. With an electric mixer it only takes a few minutes to create the treat.

By the afternoon the wind and melting had revealed red maple blooms and the hyacinth bed.

This was a year that the groundhog got it wrong….we are not having an early spring. With the snow scenes so beautiful and the streets cleared easily, I could simply celebrate the beauty of the day, take photos and remember that spring will be here soon.  

Low Sodium Diet Journey - Part 5

How hard is it to consume 2 grams or less of sodium per day? I started out thinking it would be difficult when a low sodium diet was recommended for one of my family members but it has been easier than I anticipated. This is the fifth post in a series that documents our family’s ‘learning experience.’ 

~~~~~

Mixes and packaged foods are generally high in sodium so ‘homemade’ becomes the best choice for some things. This post walks through how to calculate the sodium in something as ordinary as homemade cornbread muffins with the idea in mind that a few modifications might make a lot of difference. Start with ingredients listed for the recipe and look up how much sodium is in each using your favorite nutritional information site (mine favorite is http://nutritiondata.self.com/) or checking the package of the ingredient.

Ingredient	mg of sodium
1 1/4 cups flour	3
3/4 yellow corn meal	11
3 tablespoons sugar	0
4 1/2 teaspoon baking powder	1980
1 teaspoon salt	2325
1 egg	400
2/3 cup milk	97
1/3 cup olive oil	1
	4817

This recipe makes 9 servings so the total per serving would be 536 mg of sodium which is a bit high.

Substituting a no-salt seasoning blend for the salt would subtract 2325 mg from the total and result in a 277 mg serving.

It might be worthwhile to look at a no sodium baking powder as well (one available via Amazon has gotten good reviews). With the sodium from the baking powder and salt gone - the serving would be down to 57 mg which would easily fit into a low sodium meal.

So - it is possible to do some quick calculations to determine how much sodium will result in a homemade muffin. Another possibility it to find a cookbook or web site that already has low sodium recipes. http://www.lowsodiumcooking.com/free/Cornbread.htm is one I found.

Previous Low Sodium Diet Journey posts are here.

Low Sodium Diet Journey - Part 4

Canned soups are notoriously high in sodium. With a little planning, soups can remain a quick and low sodium meal. Here are a few tips: 

• Start with a low sodium broth. I’ve found some cartooned broths (vegetable, chicken, beef) that are low sodium - but there are alternatives to consider like
  • ‘No Salt Added’ diced tomatoes
  • A watery smoothy of veggies previously frozen just before they went bad (i.e. never throw away wilted lettuce or carrots that have gotten too dry - freeze them until you make soup!)
  • A strong tea
  • Keep in mind that spices other than salt are welcome. There are a variety of ‘no salt’ blends too try. Some not traditional seasonings - like orange zest (make it yourself if you eat oranges!). Always keep garlic cloves on hand for soups.
  • Total up the sodium of your ingredients to make sure the finished soup will still be low sodium. Meat, dairy, and some vegetables (like mushrooms and celery) will all add sodium.
  • Sauté vegetables like onions, carrots, and celery prior to adding the broth and softer ingredients.
  • Putting whole grains in soups avoids the sodium of eating them as breads. My favorites are buckwheat groats and quinoa.
  • Always have homecooked beans (i.e. cooked without salt) beans in the freezer. They are a quick addition to just about any soup.
  • Sometimes leftovers can be turned into soup. For example - if you make low sodium spaghetti sauce, then make a tomato soup (add water and seasoning to taste, heat, sprinkle with parsley and stir in a dollop of sour cream). Or for leftover stir fry chicken with onion and peppers, add a veggie broth with seasons and buckwheat groats or quinoa. 

Previous Low Sodium Diet Journey posts are here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 12, 2013

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Mexican Hot Chocolate - yum. My variation of this uses hot tea to replace half the milk and stevia instead of the agave. I make it by the (large) cup…and haven’t quite got up the courage to add the cayenne.

Beautiful and Dramatic Thunderhead Clouds - my favorite is the Jason Clark one with the orange of sunset…lightning…and barbed wire in the foreground

12 tips to clean up, de-clutter and revamp your home - from Marlo Thomas. I’m going to try the grapefruit and salt idea for cleaning my bathtub and shower

Interlocking Origami Stars and Prisms by Byriah Loper

Moving through waters of human attention - Apollo Robbins…pickpocket and illusionist

Modern Parenting May Hinder Brain Development - new is not always better

Top Four Reasons Why Diets Fail - Inadequate sleep is one of the 4!

A Very, Very, Very Delicate Balance - rocks balanced by Michael Grab (watch the video)

Slices of Life, circa 1872 - some of the work referred to in the article that was published by Christian Wilhelm Braune in the 1870s is available on the Internet Archive here

Medallion Snowflakes - you don’t have to be a child to enjoy this little project