Thursday, April 30, 2020
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Mary McDougall's Oriental Dressing
In yesterday's post I mentioned the Asian Dressing that Mary McDougall says is a favorite in her house.
First off, let me tell you I went back and fixed the broken link. It seemed they changed the name from "Oriental" dressing to "Asian" and the link I had saved and shared yesterday had "Oriental" in it when they changed the official link to use "Asian" instead. The link above and now there is the right one.
Anyway, the recipe:
In the meantime, I did find an unopened bag of Instant ClearJel that I bought many years ago. I had 2 bags - one opened that I had used a few times and one unopened. Since it says to use within a year on these undated bags, I tossed out the opened one. For the recipe above, I first used the 1/4 teaspoon the recipe said for the guar gum, but after an hour it did nothing, so I added the tablespoon that the bag says makes one serving.
Another half hour and still no visible signs of thickening, so I added a second tablespoon. A half hour later when we used it there was some globs on the side of the bottle (similar to uncooked cornstarch) but the liquid itself was just as liquidy as if I put nothing in it.
As for the taste, it was identical to Less Sodium Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce that I used to buy for my son. Just as watery, too, which meant we each poured out way more than we wanted to and wound up using the entire cup of dressing in this one meal.
First off, let me tell you I went back and fixed the broken link. It seemed they changed the name from "Oriental" dressing to "Asian" and the link I had saved and shared yesterday had "Oriental" in it when they changed the official link to use "Asian" instead. The link above and now there is the right one.
Anyway, the recipe:
Asian Salad DressingAs I also mentioned yesterday, I can't find the guar gum I thought I bought. When I finally gave up looking and went to check my shopping cart on Amazon to see if/when I ordered it, and saw, oops! I never did order any. It's in the cart now. When I get a few more items I need I'll put an order in.
Prep: 3 minutes
Serves:Makes 1 cupIngredients
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (optional)
- 1/4 tsp garlic, crushed
- 1/4 tsp gingerroot, crushed
Directions
- 1/4 tsp guar gum
Combine all ingredients in a small jar with a lid and shake until well mixed.
Hint: Guar gum is a thickening agent that does not require cooking. It gives oil free dressings a nice consistency for clinging to salad leaves.
In the meantime, I did find an unopened bag of Instant ClearJel that I bought many years ago. I had 2 bags - one opened that I had used a few times and one unopened. Since it says to use within a year on these undated bags, I tossed out the opened one. For the recipe above, I first used the 1/4 teaspoon the recipe said for the guar gum, but after an hour it did nothing, so I added the tablespoon that the bag says makes one serving.
Another half hour and still no visible signs of thickening, so I added a second tablespoon. A half hour later when we used it there was some globs on the side of the bottle (similar to uncooked cornstarch) but the liquid itself was just as liquidy as if I put nothing in it.
As for the taste, it was identical to Less Sodium Teriyaki Marinade & Sauce that I used to buy for my son. Just as watery, too, which meant we each poured out way more than we wanted to and wound up using the entire cup of dressing in this one meal.
I'm still going to order the guar gum and try making this the way it's written. Maybe next time I'll pour it into one of the condiment squirt bottles instead of an old salad dressing bottle - that's sure to slow down the flow.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Spuds! Veggies!! Finally!
Saturday my husband and son hit C-Town again, this time bringing the car with them so they can get more than one or 2 bags each. Well, they couldn't get a lot that was on my list and wound up with a grand total of 5 bags of groceries, and the store had absolutely no frozen vegetables this time around, but they DID have Yukon Gold potatoes and bags of carrots.
 |
| Today's lunch |
And the Yukon Golds were small, the largest around 3 - 4 inches in length, but they HAD them!!
This simple lunch tasted oh, so good!!
Wait until later this week when I extol the virtues of the head of cauliflower and bag of broccoli crowns they also managed to get! Then again, I think I'll save them for 2 different dinners for my husband and myself, as much as I'd love to gobble them all up alone.
Simple meals - rice and veggies, that's all we need to keep us happy. Tonight is rice with 2 of the last bags of mixed vegetables I have in the freezer along with some lima beans I cooked up.
I guess I *won't* be posting anything else about those other veggies, unless I make a new-to-us sauce or dressing to pour over them. I'm thinking of finally making Mary McDougall's Oriental Dressing, but I have to tear this one cabinet apart to see if I ever bought the guar gum it requires when I first read about it. I thought I did, but it must be well hid because I've been looking for a few weeks but haven't found it yet. It's hard to do a deep search when someone is sleeping in the room on the other side of the kitchen wall (Did I mention my son is back on the night shift?).
Some day I'll be brave enough to leave the house and head to Shop Rite to see if they ever got frozen vegetables in, but first I have to get used to wearing a face mask. The ones I made from quilting weight cottons I can't breathe through and I get claustrophobic. Just wearing one in the safety of my bedroom for less than 5 minutes and I break out in a sweat and start hyperventilating. There's no way I can walk through a large supermarket with one of these on, so I remain indoors.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
What?? Huh?? What's Going On in New York??
This article
NY issues do-not-resuscitate guideline for cardiac patients amid coronavirus
appears on the same page as this one:
Cuomo tells Trump NYC no longer needs USNS Comfort during WH meeting
and people wonder why I go around like Dilbert in today's strip in the previous post?
Brown Lentil Chili Soup
I haven't made any of Jill McKeever's recipes lately, so decided to make her Brown Lentil Chili Soup.
The ingredients are listed on the YouTube page for the recipe, and I pretty much made it as-written. But not totally. Naturally, I reduced the chili powder way down to only a teaspoon (but it was still a bit too spicy for me), used one box of broth and 4 cups of water, because packaged broth is pretty hard to get right now and I don't want to use up all my stash yet. And of course, no cilantro! I used parsley instead.
Instead of serving it over potatoes I made some short grain brown rice. The texture of the rice I figured would make this a more filling meal.
Um, let me put it this way - I cooked it as Jill specified, including the 30 minutes on low simmer, then added another half hour on low because the lentils were still rock hard. At the end of the hour I let it sit another half hour on keep warm, but all that did was make it hot, not cooked more. I dished out my bowl of a cup of rice topped with about a cup and a half of soup, and for hubby, around 2 cups of rice and 3 of soup. This was so hot I burnt my finger when the soup touched it, so we let the bowls sit to cool for almost a half hour before we sat down to eat. I started eating at 5:20pm and was finally finished with my bowl at 6:15pm. My jaw is cramping up from all the chewing. The rice was chewy, the lentils were, as Jill's husband Charlie described them, crunchy. The brothy part of the soup tasted great, but I was not happy at all with the texture of the rest of it. During his first bowl my husband said it was fine, wonderful, fantastic, but after he served himself a second bowl much smaller than the first, he got about half-way through and said "Now I know what you mean about getting tired of chewing."
Next time I may just cook it under pressure for 8 minutes like all the other lentil soups. I'm not a fan of crunchy lentils and much prefer them mushy. Will there actually be a next time? Eh, maybe not. I much prefer Heather McDougall's lentil soup recipe, but my husband liked this one well enough, so it's possible but not probable. Let's see after he eats all the leftovers on Friday for his dinner while I make something else for myself.
The ingredients are listed on the YouTube page for the recipe, and I pretty much made it as-written. But not totally. Naturally, I reduced the chili powder way down to only a teaspoon (but it was still a bit too spicy for me), used one box of broth and 4 cups of water, because packaged broth is pretty hard to get right now and I don't want to use up all my stash yet. And of course, no cilantro! I used parsley instead.
Instead of serving it over potatoes I made some short grain brown rice. The texture of the rice I figured would make this a more filling meal.
Um, let me put it this way - I cooked it as Jill specified, including the 30 minutes on low simmer, then added another half hour on low because the lentils were still rock hard. At the end of the hour I let it sit another half hour on keep warm, but all that did was make it hot, not cooked more. I dished out my bowl of a cup of rice topped with about a cup and a half of soup, and for hubby, around 2 cups of rice and 3 of soup. This was so hot I burnt my finger when the soup touched it, so we let the bowls sit to cool for almost a half hour before we sat down to eat. I started eating at 5:20pm and was finally finished with my bowl at 6:15pm. My jaw is cramping up from all the chewing. The rice was chewy, the lentils were, as Jill's husband Charlie described them, crunchy. The brothy part of the soup tasted great, but I was not happy at all with the texture of the rest of it. During his first bowl my husband said it was fine, wonderful, fantastic, but after he served himself a second bowl much smaller than the first, he got about half-way through and said "Now I know what you mean about getting tired of chewing."
Next time I may just cook it under pressure for 8 minutes like all the other lentil soups. I'm not a fan of crunchy lentils and much prefer them mushy. Will there actually be a next time? Eh, maybe not. I much prefer Heather McDougall's lentil soup recipe, but my husband liked this one well enough, so it's possible but not probable. Let's see after he eats all the leftovers on Friday for his dinner while I make something else for myself.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Free, Free, Free!! Thanks, Dr. McDougall!
I suppose by now all of you have gotten this email from Dr. McDougall?
See the email itself for the links to everything.
I'm now downloading the zip for the one DVD set I don't already own and the few ASW videos that I never purchased, and I already had purchased all those books when he first put them on his store and had them on my Kindle already, but WOW!! For anyone who hasn't, this is a fantastic deal! Thanks, Dr. McDougall!
But I'm a pessimist - I wonder what's going on with him.
Dear McDougall Friends,
During this uncertain time, there is nothing more important than staying safe and healthy. Dr. McDougall’s Health and Medical Center has always been dedicated to educating the public on how to obtain and maintain optimal health through the numerous articles Dr. McDougall has written over the years on various medical conditions and topics. Now is the time for us to help as many people as we can. How? We are offering all digital content on our website free of charge.
See the email itself for the links to everything.
I'm now downloading the zip for the one DVD set I don't already own and the few ASW videos that I never purchased, and I already had purchased all those books when he first put them on his store and had them on my Kindle already, but WOW!! For anyone who hasn't, this is a fantastic deal! Thanks, Dr. McDougall!
But I'm a pessimist - I wonder what's going on with him.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Working on My Harmony House Stash
If my husband and I can't leave this apartment until autumn, that's fine with me. HE is a little antsy staying indoors and likes to walk back and forth to C-Town, but I keep reminding him that every time he (and our son) goes out, we start the quarantine countdown over again. With our son working 5 nights a week, we're never really out of quarantine. That's very scary to me.
But even though the shelves of my usual grocery store are still bare, and waits to get into the other chain grocery and department stores are an hour or more long, and the only way to get a grocery delivery window - IF the stores have the items you want - is to stay awake all night constantly hitting the refresh button, I am so glad that Harmony House (and Amazon, of course) exists! Spinach, broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms, white potatoes both diced and slices, sweet potatoes, peppers, lentils and pinto beans, blueberries, mixed vegetables by way of a vegetable soup mix, peas, cabbage, jalepeno peppers - and probably a few others I missed - are all lined up on the shelves in the hallway outside our apartment door and squeezed into a few places in the apartment. I had to moves piles of books around to find room for them inside, but I really should read those books then donate them, anyway.
Thanks to Amazon and its vendors I have almost 50 pounds of beans around the place, too. And over 100 pounds of rice, mostly brown but a bunch of white bought locally, too, because it doesn't go rancid like the brown.
We're starting to have trouble finding canned tomatoes lately. C-Town has plenty of diced and stewed, but none are no-salt added, so when something calls for 2 cans of tomatoes, I use one unsalted and one salted to stretch the healthier ones out a bit longer. Forget about suggesting making from fresh - tomatoes have been lousy for a while now and not just pale pink to white inside but pretty much tasteless. It's been that way for years. I already mentioned a few times how scarce frozen veggies have been.
My current menu is made up of mostly soup meals, a few rice, bean, and veggies ones, and when we don't feel like either of those, pasta meals(Over 20 pounds of pasta in here, too). All of those can easily be made from the stash of food I already have in the apartment.
Last night I made up the Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup made from this recipe. I used 1 cup of dehydrated sweet potatoes soaked in 2 cups of water for about a half hour; for the mirepoix veggies I used a half cup each of dehydrated onions, celery, and carrots and added an extra 3 cups of water to the Instant Pot. I tossed about 1/2 cup of dehydrated spinach, too, because we love it and it makes the soup a wee bit healthier. For the liquid smoke I used hickory. And oops, I just realized I forgot to add the tablespoon of no-salt seasoning (usually Mrs. Dash Table Blend). It wasn't missed. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop I tossed it all into the Instant Pot and cooked it for 8 minutes, the time I've made other lentil and pea soup recipes. Even after I let it sit with the heat off until the pressure sensor dropped down and then at least another half hour, it was still red hot when I opened the lid and served it.
The soup was as thick and delicious as it always was when I made it with fresh veggies. My husband said if he didn't help me carry those gallon containers of veggies from the front hall he would never have known I used them. I forgot to take a photo of it in the pot or bowl, but here's some of the leftovers in their container, waiting for me to eat them for lunch:
Tonight I'm making the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup, but unlike when I made it here, I'll be using the dehydrated onions because I only have one bag left in the freezer and one raw and I'm saving them for a special occasion meal. Dehydrated spinach, too. I have none of that left and C-Town hasn't had it in almost a month. It's a good thing I just got a 5 pound box of it (and 20 pounds of carrots) delivered from Harmony House over the weekend! Now I'm debating whether or not to also buy the box of onions.
As I said, I have enough food in the house that we can do without shopping in person for quite a while. I won't be making anything fancy, just good, simple foods. Dr. and Mary McDougall would be proud of me!
But even though the shelves of my usual grocery store are still bare, and waits to get into the other chain grocery and department stores are an hour or more long, and the only way to get a grocery delivery window - IF the stores have the items you want - is to stay awake all night constantly hitting the refresh button, I am so glad that Harmony House (and Amazon, of course) exists! Spinach, broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms, white potatoes both diced and slices, sweet potatoes, peppers, lentils and pinto beans, blueberries, mixed vegetables by way of a vegetable soup mix, peas, cabbage, jalepeno peppers - and probably a few others I missed - are all lined up on the shelves in the hallway outside our apartment door and squeezed into a few places in the apartment. I had to moves piles of books around to find room for them inside, but I really should read those books then donate them, anyway.
Thanks to Amazon and its vendors I have almost 50 pounds of beans around the place, too. And over 100 pounds of rice, mostly brown but a bunch of white bought locally, too, because it doesn't go rancid like the brown.
We're starting to have trouble finding canned tomatoes lately. C-Town has plenty of diced and stewed, but none are no-salt added, so when something calls for 2 cans of tomatoes, I use one unsalted and one salted to stretch the healthier ones out a bit longer. Forget about suggesting making from fresh - tomatoes have been lousy for a while now and not just pale pink to white inside but pretty much tasteless. It's been that way for years. I already mentioned a few times how scarce frozen veggies have been.
My current menu is made up of mostly soup meals, a few rice, bean, and veggies ones, and when we don't feel like either of those, pasta meals(Over 20 pounds of pasta in here, too). All of those can easily be made from the stash of food I already have in the apartment.
Last night I made up the Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup made from this recipe. I used 1 cup of dehydrated sweet potatoes soaked in 2 cups of water for about a half hour; for the mirepoix veggies I used a half cup each of dehydrated onions, celery, and carrots and added an extra 3 cups of water to the Instant Pot. I tossed about 1/2 cup of dehydrated spinach, too, because we love it and it makes the soup a wee bit healthier. For the liquid smoke I used hickory. And oops, I just realized I forgot to add the tablespoon of no-salt seasoning (usually Mrs. Dash Table Blend). It wasn't missed. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop I tossed it all into the Instant Pot and cooked it for 8 minutes, the time I've made other lentil and pea soup recipes. Even after I let it sit with the heat off until the pressure sensor dropped down and then at least another half hour, it was still red hot when I opened the lid and served it.
The soup was as thick and delicious as it always was when I made it with fresh veggies. My husband said if he didn't help me carry those gallon containers of veggies from the front hall he would never have known I used them. I forgot to take a photo of it in the pot or bowl, but here's some of the leftovers in their container, waiting for me to eat them for lunch:
Tonight I'm making the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup, but unlike when I made it here, I'll be using the dehydrated onions because I only have one bag left in the freezer and one raw and I'm saving them for a special occasion meal. Dehydrated spinach, too. I have none of that left and C-Town hasn't had it in almost a month. It's a good thing I just got a 5 pound box of it (and 20 pounds of carrots) delivered from Harmony House over the weekend! Now I'm debating whether or not to also buy the box of onions.
As I said, I have enough food in the house that we can do without shopping in person for quite a while. I won't be making anything fancy, just good, simple foods. Dr. and Mary McDougall would be proud of me!
From the Fingers of Dr. McDougall
In a recent post on the official McDougall forums, Dr. McDougall wrote:
Me Too!
Post by John McDougall » Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:28 pm
From March of 2017 until now we have had some life-changing events. Mentally and emotionally we are better off from the experiences.
In March 2017 Mary fell in a hotel room in Portand and fractured (seriously) her left acetabulum (head of her arm bone). She had the metal and screws removed in February 2018 and had almost overnight pain relief.
Oct. 2017: The wildfires of CA (Tubbs) took all of our material possessions (cars, home, etc.).
In November of 2017 ) (during post fire confusion) I fell off of a rental home porch and fractured my left femur (leg bone - not hip). I almost bled to death and suffered from acute renal (kidney) failure. I had blood transfusions and a surgical repair with a screw.
Since then we have had several minor fractures, but have otherwise recovered remarkable. We are left elderly and disabled, but still mad as hell and fighting for you, your families, and Planet Earth until the end.
John McDougall, MD
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Local Grocery Store
People online think I'm greatly exaggerating when I say the local chain grocery store I used to shop in pre-Covid-19 (Stop and Shop) has nothing on the shelves a month after all this panic buying started.
These photos appeared on one of the unofficial Facebook communities geared towards residents of our city. They were taken Saturday, April 18th, during the senior shopping hour between 7 am - 8am. The woman who took them said they had a few containers of milk left in the dairy aisle, and a bit of cheese and yogurt, but suspected it would all be gone by the time she left the store. There was also some fresh food in the produce aisle, like apples, onions, a few bags of carrots, and some already brown and yucky bagged salads, but those salads were always that way even pre-Covid. This is how the rest of the store looked:
This is about how it looked the last time my husband and I walked in this store back on March 19th. That was the last time I was in any store, or the car, and the penultimate time out of the house. I had a podiatrist appointment the last week of March that's within walking distance, so no car ride.
People who live in other parts of NJ say their Stop and Shop store also looks like this still. Rumor has it (and managers deny it) that the company is neglecting neighborhood stores in favor of Peapod distribution centers. With what my son said his Target store may start doing by the end of this coming week (curbside pick-up or delivery only - stores closed to customers), I believe it.
I am so grateful for our neighborhood C-Town within walking distance of the house and Harmony House deliveries! Our son has even started buying stuff at Target when the night manager (Yes, our son is back to working night shift again) opens the registers during the dinner break. Every morning he's been bringing me home goodies, mostly in the form of toilet paper, Brita filters, and some canned goods our little store doesn't have. Tonight's Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup is going to have dehydrated carrots, onions, celery, and even sweet potatoes. Let's see how it goes. This is the "new normal" around here.
PS - I see I was wrong when I said C-Town was a "chain of 5 stores" in other posts. I must have mis-heard the manager when he opened a few years back and he, personally, owns 5 stores. The chain itself is 140 stores, independently owned and operated. I guess I should read the store's website more often.
These photos appeared on one of the unofficial Facebook communities geared towards residents of our city. They were taken Saturday, April 18th, during the senior shopping hour between 7 am - 8am. The woman who took them said they had a few containers of milk left in the dairy aisle, and a bit of cheese and yogurt, but suspected it would all be gone by the time she left the store. There was also some fresh food in the produce aisle, like apples, onions, a few bags of carrots, and some already brown and yucky bagged salads, but those salads were always that way even pre-Covid. This is how the rest of the store looked:
This is about how it looked the last time my husband and I walked in this store back on March 19th. That was the last time I was in any store, or the car, and the penultimate time out of the house. I had a podiatrist appointment the last week of March that's within walking distance, so no car ride.
People who live in other parts of NJ say their Stop and Shop store also looks like this still. Rumor has it (and managers deny it) that the company is neglecting neighborhood stores in favor of Peapod distribution centers. With what my son said his Target store may start doing by the end of this coming week (curbside pick-up or delivery only - stores closed to customers), I believe it.
I am so grateful for our neighborhood C-Town within walking distance of the house and Harmony House deliveries! Our son has even started buying stuff at Target when the night manager (Yes, our son is back to working night shift again) opens the registers during the dinner break. Every morning he's been bringing me home goodies, mostly in the form of toilet paper, Brita filters, and some canned goods our little store doesn't have. Tonight's Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup is going to have dehydrated carrots, onions, celery, and even sweet potatoes. Let's see how it goes. This is the "new normal" around here.
PS - I see I was wrong when I said C-Town was a "chain of 5 stores" in other posts. I must have mis-heard the manager when he opened a few years back and he, personally, owns 5 stores. The chain itself is 140 stores, independently owned and operated. I guess I should read the store's website more often.
Now THIS Is the Kind of Week I Had
With all my bitching and moaning about my sewing machines the past 2 weeks, I laughed uproariously at this video. When my husband saw it, he said that she was having a better day than I did this past Thursday!
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Dr. McDougall's Dietary Therapy and The Starch Solution Programs Now FREE
OMG!!
What else can I say about this gift from Dr. McDougall!?
The Starch Solution Certification Course (minus the CEUs and Certification testing, of course) is now available for free on his website. It costs you an email, that's it. You get both audio only mp3 files or full length mp4 videos. The first 17 are his lectures about the topics covered in The Starch Solution book, but the last 2 are the McDougall Made Easy and McDougall Made Irresistible full length cooking videos that he and Mary did. I've done many blog posts about recipes I've made from these 2 videos and to this day I still recommend them to anyone wanting to know more about the McDougall Program. I love these because he talks a few minutes about an important topic - blood pressure, or cholesterol, etc. - and then Mary does the recipe segment. The entire McDougall Program in short, concise sound bites! What's not to love?
The Doctor McDougall's Dietary Therapy Course I haven't looked that closely at yet, but it appears to be mostly lectures he had done over the years either at his 10 Day programs or Advanced Study Weekends, or lectures performed at other conferences. The talk he did on The Color Picture Book is in there, too. Each of these 9 videos have a few minutes of new (at the time) video of Dr. McDougall introducing the subject, and the last video is close to 15 minutes of new material about adjusting patients' medications. Old timers to the McDougall program who have purchased the recordings of the Advanced Study Weekends (I have a few but not all) will recognize these talks. I think the only one on Dr. McDougall YouTube page (and in the Quick Start guide on his website) is The Color Picture Book one, as far as I can tell at my quick glance. No audio-only files for this one, though. If you have a teen, heck, anyone under 40, in the house, he or she may know how to rip audio from a video. My son he'll do it for me on his next day off.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!!
What else can I say about this gift from Dr. McDougall!?
The Starch Solution Certification Course (minus the CEUs and Certification testing, of course) is now available for free on his website. It costs you an email, that's it. You get both audio only mp3 files or full length mp4 videos. The first 17 are his lectures about the topics covered in The Starch Solution book, but the last 2 are the McDougall Made Easy and McDougall Made Irresistible full length cooking videos that he and Mary did. I've done many blog posts about recipes I've made from these 2 videos and to this day I still recommend them to anyone wanting to know more about the McDougall Program. I love these because he talks a few minutes about an important topic - blood pressure, or cholesterol, etc. - and then Mary does the recipe segment. The entire McDougall Program in short, concise sound bites! What's not to love?
The Doctor McDougall's Dietary Therapy Course I haven't looked that closely at yet, but it appears to be mostly lectures he had done over the years either at his 10 Day programs or Advanced Study Weekends, or lectures performed at other conferences. The talk he did on The Color Picture Book is in there, too. Each of these 9 videos have a few minutes of new (at the time) video of Dr. McDougall introducing the subject, and the last video is close to 15 minutes of new material about adjusting patients' medications. Old timers to the McDougall program who have purchased the recordings of the Advanced Study Weekends (I have a few but not all) will recognize these talks. I think the only one on Dr. McDougall YouTube page (and in the Quick Start guide on his website) is The Color Picture Book one, as far as I can tell at my quick glance. No audio-only files for this one, though. If you have a teen, heck, anyone under 40, in the house, he or she may know how to rip audio from a video. My son he'll do it for me on his next day off.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!!!!
Friday, April 17, 2020
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Black Bean Chipotle Slow Cooked Soup
Now that the CrockPot is in a place of honor on an appliance table and not buried in storage, I've been using it more and more.
Yesterday I made up Mary McDougall's Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooker Soup from The Starch Solution book. I figured with Dr. McDougall about to release the Starch Solution certification program into the wild for free and Gustavo Tolosa is going to do an 8-week webinar covering a chapter a week, I may as well focus a little bit more on that book.
This recipe is also known as Slow Chipotle Black Bean Soup on the McDougall website.
Here's a photo of it after just 4 hours on high in my Crockpot. The water level dropped over an inch already.
Notice how most of the water is already mostly boiled out. I left it on high for another 2 hours and at the 6 hour mark turned it down to low. More water had evaporated by then so I added a bit of boiling water and stirred. At 7 hours I turned it down to keep warm and tasted it - a bit flavorless to me, but I chose not to add anything at this point.
Dinner time and I served it over Mary's Corn Bread. I've been making this for so long I don't even look at the recipe any more and sometimes forget to add the cup of frozen corn. It's just as good without it.
I chopped up a little cilantro to add to the Crockpot.
Uh, oh. I think I ruined it by doing that.
I'm one of those "cilantro is soap" people and used maybe a tablespoon of cilantro leaves, cut up real fine. The smell alone turned me off. I tried remove them as soon as I put them in the pot, but many had already sunk into what little liquid there was left. I served our bowls then spent 15 minutes pushing beans around and removing every trace of green I could find in my bowl. It still tasted like soap. My husband just shook his head, told me he'll take the leaves I took out of mine and pop them in his bowl, and then merrily munched away, helping himself to another piece of cornbread and bowl of this beany stuff.
I can't call it a soup - it was way too thick and lacking in liquid for that. He said he'll call it "Soapy Chili" in the future. I growled at him and told him cilantro will never pass through my doorway ever again. He reminded me I said that multiple times in the past. I guess I never learn.
Without cilantro, this would be a great use for some of those black beans I loaded up on at the beginning of the covid panic, when stores like Amazon still had food in them. Now, just about any bean I click on says it's currently unavailable, whether from Amazon, Vitacost, or Rancho Gordo. I do plan on making this again, but maybe with spinach instead of cilantro next time.
Yesterday I made up Mary McDougall's Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooker Soup from The Starch Solution book. I figured with Dr. McDougall about to release the Starch Solution certification program into the wild for free and Gustavo Tolosa is going to do an 8-week webinar covering a chapter a week, I may as well focus a little bit more on that book.
Black Bean-Chipotle Slow-Cooked Soup
prep: 10 minutes
cooking time: 8 hours
serves: 8 to 10
2 cups dried black beans
2, 16-ounce cans fire-roasted chopped tomatoes
4 ounce can chopped green chilies
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/8 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Put the beans, tomatoes, chilies, chili powder, cumin, red pepper, and chipotle powder in a slow cooker. Stir in 6 cups of water.
Cover and cook on High for 8 hours.
Serve the soup hot, stirring in the cilantro as you serve it.
Mary McDougall
The Starch Solution
This recipe is also known as Slow Chipotle Black Bean Soup on the McDougall website.
Here's a photo of it after just 4 hours on high in my Crockpot. The water level dropped over an inch already.
Notice how most of the water is already mostly boiled out. I left it on high for another 2 hours and at the 6 hour mark turned it down to low. More water had evaporated by then so I added a bit of boiling water and stirred. At 7 hours I turned it down to keep warm and tasted it - a bit flavorless to me, but I chose not to add anything at this point.
Dinner time and I served it over Mary's Corn Bread. I've been making this for so long I don't even look at the recipe any more and sometimes forget to add the cup of frozen corn. It's just as good without it.
I chopped up a little cilantro to add to the Crockpot.
Uh, oh. I think I ruined it by doing that.
I'm one of those "cilantro is soap" people and used maybe a tablespoon of cilantro leaves, cut up real fine. The smell alone turned me off. I tried remove them as soon as I put them in the pot, but many had already sunk into what little liquid there was left. I served our bowls then spent 15 minutes pushing beans around and removing every trace of green I could find in my bowl. It still tasted like soap. My husband just shook his head, told me he'll take the leaves I took out of mine and pop them in his bowl, and then merrily munched away, helping himself to another piece of cornbread and bowl of this beany stuff.
I can't call it a soup - it was way too thick and lacking in liquid for that. He said he'll call it "Soapy Chili" in the future. I growled at him and told him cilantro will never pass through my doorway ever again. He reminded me I said that multiple times in the past. I guess I never learn.
Without cilantro, this would be a great use for some of those black beans I loaded up on at the beginning of the covid panic, when stores like Amazon still had food in them. Now, just about any bean I click on says it's currently unavailable, whether from Amazon, Vitacost, or Rancho Gordo. I do plan on making this again, but maybe with spinach instead of cilantro next time.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Cause of Death Graph
I strongly suspect that those heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, etc. deaths are still heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, etc. - it's just that they're now being counted as Covid-19 deaths as primary cause. It's not like their other diseases went away when they caught the virus. This is like my dad's death from various cancers (7 different ones over the 17 years from first diagnosis to death) being attributed to heart failure because, well, his heart DID stop on that day.
(It's a gif file, so give it a few seconds to load and start moving)
(It's a gif file, so give it a few seconds to load and start moving)
Monday, April 13, 2020
Mad World
With the chain supermarkets still jammed and mostly empty (There's no social distancing when you're elbow to elbow fighting over that last box of pasta or 6 pack of soda!), and lines waiting for hours to get inside to the few chains (like Target and Costco) that are stocked and restricting, we've (Well, my son and husband - I haven't been out since my last doctor's appointment) been doing all our grocery shopping at a little grocery store (belonging to a chain of 5 stores in the NYC area) within walking distance. They have some fresh produce, but not much - nothing green and leafy in veggies, nothing juicy in fruit; usually stocked with their usual supply of what few frozen veggies they did carry - if you want peas & carrots, peas or carrots, they got you covered; but like all other stores around here, nothing in the line of paper products, sanitizer/wipes, or even soap.
Now they don't even have frozen veggies. They carried 3 brands - Krasdale, Bird's Eye, and Goya - but just a handful of each. Each time my guys shop they buy out half their stock. The other day when my son and husband went, they had none, not one bag of frozen anything vegetable. I assume they sold out of it all for people needing to put something on the table for Easter dinner and their distributor didn't send them any new stock last week.
Thank goodness for all the dehydrated stuff I have from Harmony House. I check what they have in stock every day (FRUIT! They have fruit ready for delivery!!) and have been getting deliveries at least weekly since all this began. Those sliced potatoes arrived over the weekend, after taking almost 2 weeks to get here thanks to post office delays, and they should have my blueberries in the mail any day now.
In other news, thanks to all those beans I purchased, we've been having beans made this way frequently, either over rice, cornbread, and even over (GASP!) potatoes (Yep, hubby managed to nab 4 last week). That's my new favorite way to eat beans.
And my sewing adventures - very frustrating. My reliable old Kenmore machine is dead, probably from neglect all these years. I tried taking it apart, cleaning and oiling, but the mechanicals are still partially frozen. With no sewing machine sales or repair place within 50 miles, even if they were open, it's as good as gone to me. My mini machine, the one I taught my son to sew on when he was 6 years old 30 years ago, needed a bit of TLC to get it going again, and it's so weak it can't sew through more than a few layers of thin cotton fabric, but if I use the right mask pattern it can muddle its way through, especially if I use my serger for the bulk of the sewing. I now have 3 masks made. Hopefully this week I can get through a few more, now that masks are mandatory just about everywhere outside our apartment. My son will need one a day to get to then work through his shifts, even though they moved him and his team to the night shift and there will be less than 20 people in the entire Target store, nobody within 20 feet or more of each other. With his asthma, he finds breathing through a mask to be very hard and makes is job that much harder. I'm afraid he's going to start running into more trouble breathing with a mask than he'll ever encounter without one if he got sick. In just the few seconds I wear one to make sure the ties are the right length and it covers everything it's supposed to cover, I'm panting. And that's without the added filter layer! My masks have pockets for them and I have a few different things that can be used as filter material. I can't imagine going 1o hours in one of them, at least 8 doing heavy labor and a half hour or more walking to and from the train stations, even without the filter.
Mad world!
Now they don't even have frozen veggies. They carried 3 brands - Krasdale, Bird's Eye, and Goya - but just a handful of each. Each time my guys shop they buy out half their stock. The other day when my son and husband went, they had none, not one bag of frozen anything vegetable. I assume they sold out of it all for people needing to put something on the table for Easter dinner and their distributor didn't send them any new stock last week.
Thank goodness for all the dehydrated stuff I have from Harmony House. I check what they have in stock every day (FRUIT! They have fruit ready for delivery!!) and have been getting deliveries at least weekly since all this began. Those sliced potatoes arrived over the weekend, after taking almost 2 weeks to get here thanks to post office delays, and they should have my blueberries in the mail any day now.
In other news, thanks to all those beans I purchased, we've been having beans made this way frequently, either over rice, cornbread, and even over (GASP!) potatoes (Yep, hubby managed to nab 4 last week). That's my new favorite way to eat beans.
And my sewing adventures - very frustrating. My reliable old Kenmore machine is dead, probably from neglect all these years. I tried taking it apart, cleaning and oiling, but the mechanicals are still partially frozen. With no sewing machine sales or repair place within 50 miles, even if they were open, it's as good as gone to me. My mini machine, the one I taught my son to sew on when he was 6 years old 30 years ago, needed a bit of TLC to get it going again, and it's so weak it can't sew through more than a few layers of thin cotton fabric, but if I use the right mask pattern it can muddle its way through, especially if I use my serger for the bulk of the sewing. I now have 3 masks made. Hopefully this week I can get through a few more, now that masks are mandatory just about everywhere outside our apartment. My son will need one a day to get to then work through his shifts, even though they moved him and his team to the night shift and there will be less than 20 people in the entire Target store, nobody within 20 feet or more of each other. With his asthma, he finds breathing through a mask to be very hard and makes is job that much harder. I'm afraid he's going to start running into more trouble breathing with a mask than he'll ever encounter without one if he got sick. In just the few seconds I wear one to make sure the ties are the right length and it covers everything it's supposed to cover, I'm panting. And that's without the added filter layer! My masks have pockets for them and I have a few different things that can be used as filter material. I can't imagine going 1o hours in one of them, at least 8 doing heavy labor and a half hour or more walking to and from the train stations, even without the filter.
Mad world!
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Hope My Hands Hold Out
A few years ago I had to stop making stuff using my sewing machines because hunching over hurt my already arthritic neck. The few things I had to sew I tried make do with a needle and thread and did it by hand. Then I got those stiff, slightly deformed and swollen fingers from rheumatoid arthritis and barely did any sewing at all. Fabric glue and double sided tape became my friends for mending jobs.
But now, I feel a real need to get sewing again. The first things I'm going to make are a few masks using this video for inspiration:
I've seen dozens of mask-making videos the past few days but this one is not only the easiest one but safest because of that pocket for inserting a filter. As many have suggested in the replies, I'll be sewing in a strip of wire at the top before folding up and sewing the pockets so the mask can be shaped to block out more air. I know I have various wires in this house - my son's an engineer and used a lot of it during some of his college courses, especially while getting his MS in electrical engineering. Some also suggested using those twist ties from bread or produce bags but I think they would be a bit too flimsy and break easily, especially if these masks get washed as often as they should be.
But first, I have to find my machines.
Oh, geographically, I know exactly where they are in the living room. But you know how people joke around about their treadmills are used more as clothing racks than for exercise? Well, my sewing machine table has been the dropping point for "stuff" ever since I covered up the machines a few years ago to keep them (Yes, more than one) dust-free. Computer components, extra keyboards, magazines waiting to be gone through and recycled, and I may have even seen a bag or 2 of beans on it, for some reason. Underneath the table it's even worse, with Nintendo Wii boxes, unused fans awaiting warm weather again, is that a grocery bag filled with my son's pasta sauce I see? I know he grabbed a few extra jars when we first started stocking up and I told him to find a place to store them out of the way, but why under my sewing table?? The chair I used to use has been shoved into a corner and is now holding boxes of books, a bag full of cables, wires, and extension cords.
So it'll take me a few days to clear that corner of the living room out and find homes for all the stuff on and under it. Where will I put it all? I have no idea - that's why it all ended up there in the first place. If I chip away at it a few minutes here, a few minutes there, in the times my husband is taking a break from his work on his computer on the other side of the room, I might be able to get to see the machines by the end of next week. Over the weekend I'll have my guys help find homes for all the crap under the table. The chair may be a lost cause (Every horizontal surface in this apartment that doesn't move has a pile of books on it) so I can just wheel in my computer chair when I'm ready to sew.
Luckily, I have a lot of usable fabric from my quilt making days within reach and not all of it stuffed into storage. It'll be easy to find a few novelty prints in a woven cotton calico to make these masks. I have a whole plastic shoebox filled with various elastics, including elastic cording, so that's covered. I have to find where I put my sewing machine thread stash. I didn't see it in the space I used to keep it so it must have gotten moved, but where??
And after all of that is done, keep your collective fingers crossed that I can actually do it - the cutting out and the sewing of these masks. My fingers hurt just using scissors to open bags of frozen veggies, and on a bad pain day, especially when my knuckles are swollen, I can't even do that. My fabric scissors - expensive when I bought them over 30 years ago - are really heavy. That makes it easier to cut through tough fabrics like jeans-weight denim and such, but using them is tiring and usually painful, even before my RA diagnosis. Decades ago I bought a pair of electric scissors but they couldn't really cut all that well, and holding down the button while cutting was more tiring and painful than just using regular cutting shears, so I got rid of them, donating them to a senior center.
Oh, gosh, I'm rambling again. And now my hands hurt from typing so much.
Stay safe, everyone.
But now, I feel a real need to get sewing again. The first things I'm going to make are a few masks using this video for inspiration:
I've seen dozens of mask-making videos the past few days but this one is not only the easiest one but safest because of that pocket for inserting a filter. As many have suggested in the replies, I'll be sewing in a strip of wire at the top before folding up and sewing the pockets so the mask can be shaped to block out more air. I know I have various wires in this house - my son's an engineer and used a lot of it during some of his college courses, especially while getting his MS in electrical engineering. Some also suggested using those twist ties from bread or produce bags but I think they would be a bit too flimsy and break easily, especially if these masks get washed as often as they should be.
But first, I have to find my machines.
Oh, geographically, I know exactly where they are in the living room. But you know how people joke around about their treadmills are used more as clothing racks than for exercise? Well, my sewing machine table has been the dropping point for "stuff" ever since I covered up the machines a few years ago to keep them (Yes, more than one) dust-free. Computer components, extra keyboards, magazines waiting to be gone through and recycled, and I may have even seen a bag or 2 of beans on it, for some reason. Underneath the table it's even worse, with Nintendo Wii boxes, unused fans awaiting warm weather again, is that a grocery bag filled with my son's pasta sauce I see? I know he grabbed a few extra jars when we first started stocking up and I told him to find a place to store them out of the way, but why under my sewing table?? The chair I used to use has been shoved into a corner and is now holding boxes of books, a bag full of cables, wires, and extension cords.
So it'll take me a few days to clear that corner of the living room out and find homes for all the stuff on and under it. Where will I put it all? I have no idea - that's why it all ended up there in the first place. If I chip away at it a few minutes here, a few minutes there, in the times my husband is taking a break from his work on his computer on the other side of the room, I might be able to get to see the machines by the end of next week. Over the weekend I'll have my guys help find homes for all the crap under the table. The chair may be a lost cause (Every horizontal surface in this apartment that doesn't move has a pile of books on it) so I can just wheel in my computer chair when I'm ready to sew.
Luckily, I have a lot of usable fabric from my quilt making days within reach and not all of it stuffed into storage. It'll be easy to find a few novelty prints in a woven cotton calico to make these masks. I have a whole plastic shoebox filled with various elastics, including elastic cording, so that's covered. I have to find where I put my sewing machine thread stash. I didn't see it in the space I used to keep it so it must have gotten moved, but where??
And after all of that is done, keep your collective fingers crossed that I can actually do it - the cutting out and the sewing of these masks. My fingers hurt just using scissors to open bags of frozen veggies, and on a bad pain day, especially when my knuckles are swollen, I can't even do that. My fabric scissors - expensive when I bought them over 30 years ago - are really heavy. That makes it easier to cut through tough fabrics like jeans-weight denim and such, but using them is tiring and usually painful, even before my RA diagnosis. Decades ago I bought a pair of electric scissors but they couldn't really cut all that well, and holding down the button while cutting was more tiring and painful than just using regular cutting shears, so I got rid of them, donating them to a senior center.
Oh, gosh, I'm rambling again. And now my hands hurt from typing so much.
Stay safe, everyone.