150702 Sweet Tea Controversy

My dad's birthday party is Sunday, but his actual 90th birthday is on Monday. He's in very good health, walks two miles every day, and takes only one medication. He delivers Meals on Wheels to "old people" who happen to be younger than he is. He didn't want a party, but my older sister insisted. Sigh. I'm not big on parties, either. Here's an incomplete list of tension inducing conditions:

1. People to invite: Dad refused to reveal the identities of his friends. My little sister deviously went to the Senior Center and asked people there, but is that everyone?
2. Where to house out-of-towners: It's the Fourth of July Weekend! There are no hotel rooms. Ten or so relatives thought they could stay in the guest bedroom at Dad's house. Cozy.
3. Menu: Big sis wants a blowout. We have to make everything ourselves, and it has to be perfect.

This is my worst nightmare, and the menu is where the major arguments have started. We don't normally argue. My immediate family has been a shining example of how the diverse personalities of siblings should get along. My brother died when my little sister and I were still in high school, so we simply quit bickering and became best friends.

Who knew that iced tea could be such a divider? My little sister volunteered to make iced tea. I asked if she would be making sweet tea. She said that she was making tea and would bring sugar. I told her that the rules of the South applied here. There needed to be sweet tea. She repeated that people could add sugar if they wanted their tea sweet.

That won't fly.

Both of my sisters left Texas in the 1970s, and have spent all of their adult lives north. I've lived in the South for more than forty years! A decade of that included rural Virginia and Tennessee. While I don't always agree, I do know a thing or two about Southern taste buds. We need sweet tea.

Sigh. I went to H.E.B. and bought some sweet tea. There's not room enough to discuss the okra controversy. Church's Chicken makes fried okra, which I will dump into a serving dish before we get to the party location. I hate big parties.

150116 I Don't Write Here Enough

Since I started the Atkins, I have been posting to their site. Today, I discussed food. Hmm. Everyday, I discuss food. I sense a pattern with that site...

123014 New Year

There really is nothing magic about changing the calendar. Tradition makes a fuss over it with celebrations that emphasize their pagan origins, such as trees and presents to Woden, elves in chimneys, socks on mantles, holly boughs, special lights, special colors, etc. Yeah, I’m no fun at this time of year, because I know too much about how all our happy little traditions have their origins in paganism. (Christ was born on Tishri 1, or Rosh Hashana, and not on the Winter Solstice like so many pagan gods were.)

The drunken revelry known as New Year’s Eve is simply part of that pagan festival over the return of the Sun God. These stories can be traced all the way back to the times before Babylon when Noah’s great-grandson rejected the True God. Enough of that. This bit of archaeological knowledge simply fuels the depression I feel year after year for the battle-cry of the “reason for the season”, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Son of God and everything to do with frenzy.

So, despite my feelings for the change in calendar, I plan to re-start some resolutions on January 4th. I pick this day, because it allows me to consume the rest of the non-compliant foods in my refrigerator, such as those sweet potatoes a friend gave me or the sugar-free cranberry sauce I made. This is not a “New Year’s” resolution. This is this week’s resolution. I also have to make daily resolutions. I live too much in the present to control my eating habits for a whole year. It has to be a day by day decision. Days become weeks and so on.

I also plan to exercise. Ugh.

141216 Holiday Food Crosspost

141216 Tamales, Turkey, and Pie

TexMex tradition = tamales at Christmas. I have already ordered mine, but won't get to eat any. Masa (corn flour used in tamales) has too many carbs. The rest of the family will enjoy them while I munch on tortilla-less barbacoa. Why is food so infused into all our traditions?

This year, I bought a turkey, too. Turkey is carb-free. I won't make any dressing for it, and the soup I make from the leftovers has no flour, no potatoes, and no corn. I usually add broccoli and spices to the broth and enjoy.

I discovered that pumpkin thickens like flour, so maybe I'll add that to the broth.

Pumpkin brings me to pie. My favorite is not pumpkin. Mincemeat is, (sigh). Pumpkin is sweet on its own. Because of gluten problems, I gave up pie crust a long time ago. Two decades ago, I started making custards instead of pie. My children LOVED pumpkin custard. Use the pie recipe and put in custard dishes instead of a pie pan. Cut the bake time in half, or monitor until done. The can of pumpkin has the recipe on the inside of the label, and one just needs to make the appropriate substitutions.

I quit making the custard, and just eat the pumpkin. Every year, a local church sells pumpkins for less than what the grocery store charges. The smallest ones make good pies, and the big ones are good with butter. Not everyone is good with cooking and storing fresh pumpkin, so look for the cans with no added sugar nor spice. My grocery store sells cans of pumpkin in the baking isle. 

When I keep my carbs evenly spread among the meals, I can have 1/2 cup of pumpkin mush a couple of times a week. I usually put it into my chicken soup, which will be turkey soup in January... 

141127 More Thanksgiving Posts

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it's more than just food; I am truly thankful for many, many things! I have your average dysfunctional family where hurt feelings arise and people say stupid things. That's why we confine our festivities to my dad and my sisters. Extended family has their own thing where they devour each other. They might even unite on occasion and say nasty things about us, but we don't care anymore. I get that from my dad. He never said this, but his body language indicates, "You harpies are not going to give me indigestion. Goodbye."

Several years ago, I reconnected with my cousins. We were all hugs and laughs until someone mentioned the dreaded twins: politics and religion. I refuse to lie about my beliefs, so by answering a direct question, I discovered why my father stays as far away from my mother's family as is humanly possible. To my dismay, they found me on Facebook and continued the argument. Oh, how I enjoy those new privacy settings!

Yesterday, I forgot to take a reading after Chinese food (no rice). Then, I blew off readings for the rest of the day. I think my bg was up, because I fell asleep early, and first thing this morning, it was 105. While the menu I made for myself counts carbs and calories, eating out is iffy. I had beef and broccoli, but what other ingredients did they use? What's in the hot and sour soup? I gave the rice and the egg roll to my daughter. 

I count calories, because I have been on the Atkins before, and got hungry. My diet at that time had too few calories, so it became necessary to find carb-free calories and to introduce fats into my diet. My brother-in-law has been an insulin dependent diabetic since childhood, and we go round and round on this. He has a medical degree, and follows the ADA diet religiously. He doesn't like the Atkins and regales me with the benefits of high-carb vegetables and low-fat dairy.

He'll be at dinner today. At least we can agree on the turkey. 

140719 Weight Loss

Yesterday, I told someone that I had not lost any weight. Today, I decided to weight myself, and !? I had lost ten pounds!?

I have been drinking half my body weight in water each day, which is close to a gallon, or 3 1/2 liters. Also, I am avoiding grains and eating fresh meat with lots of vegetables. The food restrictions have been roughly those in the Body Type Diet, which I mentioned earlier. On the down side, I cheat and consume more meat than the diet says. I eat between meals, but usually keep the cheating to low- or no- carbs.

Additionally, I rub the fat on my tummy with citrus essential oils once per day. I am always thirsty, so wanting all that water has been no problem.

The American people have been fed a perfect storm of misinformation about what constitutes a good diet. I could write and cite books on it. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) published a report about heart disease and salt consumption. It finally validated what certain health enthusiasts have been trying to tell the American Medical Association (AMA): salt is not evil; it is vital.

The AMA forced the CDC to remove the report because it contradicted their mantra, and now you can't find it on the web. I have a printed copy. I keep it with my copy of the water cure (www.watercure2.org) and the writings of Dr. Atkins.

So, I lost weight and I feel great. Let's see if this trend continues.

140306 Food and Where to Find It

No, I am not an expert at this. If I couldn't go to the grocery store, I would seriously test whether ragweed was indeed edible and probably raise or try to trap small animals. Thus, I have been following some pages: "Foraging Texas", "Living the Rustic Life", and "The Fish Tank".

One of the authors, Kasper, has done a lot of footwork on Aquaponics. After a year, he declared it to be too much work for too little produce and is returning to a traditional garden. I suspect that I would have the same opinion, but my sister wants mr to give it a go anyway. She's pretty gung ho about this survivalist stuff. She has an impressive garden, solar panels, and a greenhouse. My 'man friend', on the other hand, is into freeze-dried foods and bought me a dehydrator. I just want a steady supply of tomatoes and okra that does not depend on my 'brown' thumb.

Maybe, I should befriend a farmer. Coaxing my garden-raising sister down here has not been successful.

Essential Oils: Coming Out Of The Haze Of Autism

Essential Oils: Coming Out Of The Haze Of Autism

This is a rather involved treatment, but so are the chemical medications that doctors often prescribe. Oils, however, have few if any side effects.

Also, for autism, ADHD, and other such conditions, strict adherence to this diet has proven results: The Feingold Diet. At the top of the page is a bar of choices. Click Success Stores, and check out the little blond when the line of pictures appears!

121113-2 Gray Day

For South Texas, 40F(4C) is kind of cool. This should go up to 60F(15C) this afternoon. Add to that thick clouds and humidity, and I had to start the heater. The snake, who had been roaming freely, is back in his cage. We haven't seen any mice for months, so he did his job. I figured that the population was depleted and bought him two pet store mice. As soon as he saw them, they were gone. That confirmed his hunger. I'll get more next week, if I don't find the trap I want. The trap needs to preserve them alive. Like the Cat in Red Dwarf, he likes his food to MOOVE!

I've been feeling lazy and stiff. Holiday foods don't help, so this morning I had bacon and eggs, with cheese. All that protein will energize me. Not everyone should eat as much protein as I need, but my intestines simply cannot process grains and legumes. For lunch, I'll have tuna salad, or perhaps shrimp gumbo, since it's 'cold'.

My toes hurt when it's cold, and it's time to cook.