The Fixer
April 18, 2018 by 51 Comments
It doesn’t matter what time of day. My digestif after scrambled eggs at breakfast. A satisfying and necessary fulfiller after lunch. A smooth finisher after dinner. A soothing pre-bed, night time snack. And of course, that something-something between meals.
There it is.
Mint-Chocolate Chip Gelato.
I’m in line at the check-out counter at Palmer’s Market, gripping four (4) cylindrical containers of Talenti Gelato, two pints in each hand. The ice crystals cool the palm of my hand, and I wonder how long it took to ship this gelato from some quaint dairy farm in Southern Italy. A farm that’s been in the same family for hundreds of years. Farm-fresh from cow to these hard plastic cylinders to the freezer at Palmer’s Market, with all of the hand made manufacturing processes in-between. (Gelato, gelato, I find myself repeating gelato and liking it, especially the finish. My lips form an “o” like “o” isn’t this “o” so wonderful).
I move up in line, gently setting the gelatos down on the conveyor. They slide forward.
me me me me me me
October 1, 2015 by 36 Comments
A couple of years ago my sister Judy and I were each given a box of truffles. The tiny print said two pieces contained 310 calories and there were six pieces in each box. We were seating in the bus heading downtown, quietly downing our calculations. Judy was dividing by two and I was multiplying by three. When she realized what I was doing, a look came over her face that was hard to describe. “I lost all hope for you,” she says now. The difference between us could not have been more clearly defined at that moment. There are people who can eat one piece of chocolate, one piece of cake, drink one glass of wine. There are even people who smoke one or two cigarettes a week. And then there are people for whom one of anything is not even an option.
~ Abigail Thomas, Thinking About Memoir
Photo: jaimejustelaphoto
No doubt. I’m an addict.
December 26, 2014 by 35 Comments
Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive by James DiNicolantonio & Sean Lucan:
- Sugar is everywhere. It is celebration, it is festivity, it is love.
- It’s also dangerous. In a recent study, we showed that sugar, perhaps more than salt, contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease. Evidence is growing, too, that eating too much sugar can lead to fatty liver disease, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.
- Yet people can’t resist. And the reason for that is pretty simple. Sugar is addictive. And we don’t mean addictive in that way that people talk about delicious foods. We mean addictive, literally, in the same way as drugs.
- Up until just a few hundred years ago, concentrated sugars were essentially absent from the human diet — besides, perhaps, the fortuitous find of small quantities of wild honey.
- Today added sugar is everywhere, used in approximately 75 percent of packaged foods purchased in the United States. The average American consumes anywhere from a quarter to a half pound of sugar a day. If you consider that the added sugar in a single can of soda might be more than most people would have consumed in an entire year, just a few hundred years ago, you get a sense of how dramatically our environment has changed. The sweet craving that once offered a survival advantage now works against us.
- Whereas natural sugar sources like whole fruits and vegetables are generally not very concentrated because the sweetness is buffered by water, fiber and other constituents, modern industrial sugar sources are unnaturally potent and quickly provide a big hit.
- Substance use disorders…exist when at least two to three symptoms from a list of 11 are present…sugar produces at least three symptoms consistent with substance abuse and dependence: cravings, tolerance and withdrawal. Other druglike properties of sugar include (but are not limited to) cross-sensitization, cross-tolerance, cross-dependence, reward, opioid effects and other neurochemical changes in the brain.
- In animal studies, animals experience sugar like a drug and can become sugar-addicted. One study has shown that if given the choice, rats will choose sugar over cocaine in lab settings because the reward is greater; the “high” is more pleasurable.
Read full op-ed NY Times article here: Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive
Notes: The recipe for the caramel stuffed soft gingerbread cookies in the photograph can be found here: Fabtasticeats.com.
November 3rd. A BIG Day.
November 3, 2014 by 12 Comments
Don’t eye the basket of bread; just take it off the table
September 16, 2014 by 40 Comments
Pamela Druckerman interviews Walter Mischel, a professor of psychology at Columbia, in Learning How to Exert Self-Control:
…Self-control can be taught. Grown-ups can use it to tackle the burning issues of modern middle-class life: how to go to bed earlier, not check email obsessively, stop yelling at our children and spouses, and eat less bread. Poor kids need self-control skills if they’re going to catch up at school.
…Adults can use similar methods of distraction and distancing, he says. Don’t eye the basket of bread; just take it off the table. In moments of emotional distress, imagine that you’re viewing yourself from outside, or consider what someone else would do in your place. When a waiter offers chocolate mousse, imagine that a cockroach has just crawled across it. “If you change how you think about it, its impact on what you feel and do changes,” Mr. Mischel writes.
…He explains that there are two warring parts of the brain: a hot part demanding immediate gratification (the limbic system), and a cool, goal-oriented part (the prefrontal cortex). The secret of self-control, he says, is to train the prefrontal cortex to kick in first.
…Self-control alone doesn’t guarantee success. People also need a “burning goal” that gives them a reason to activate these skills
Read the rest of Druckerman’s column here: Learning How to Exert Self-Control
Find Mischel’s new book at Amazon here: The Marshmellow Test: Mastering Self-Control.
Image Source: Foodspotting
Sweet Jesus
July 20, 2014 by 25 Comments
From Humingbird High in Portland Oregon:
Sweet Cream Biscuits with Plum Jam and Earl Grey Whipped Cream
Find recipe and additional pictures here.
Source: Steps on My Sunlight Floor
No.
June 17, 2014 by 37 Comments
Lori shared this link with me yesterday from Kitchentreaty.com.
Next to more pasta, that’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last 24 hours.
It’s Sea Salt & Honey Ice Cream.
Wait. There’s more.
THERE’S NO ICE CREAM MACHINE NEEDED.
A hearty thank you to my blogger friends for baiting the circus monkey.
For recipe and more amazing pictures, hit this link at Kitchentreaty.com.
Key Lime Pie (without the crust)
June 7, 2014 by 34 Comments
Imagine a Key Lime Pie light as a cloud, tart one moment, sweet the next. Imagine it has done away with the distraction of a crust. What you have is this Key lime mousse. Now, I love a pie, crust and all, but when a mousse is this good, it refuses to serve as mere filling. “Filling” implies that it is not complete in itself, and this dessert certainly is. Unmoored from the classic Graham cracker crust, it is something altogether more delicate—a soft, chilled summer sweet that is richer than sorbet, breezier than ice cream.
~ Aleksandra Crapanzano, Key Lime Pie Without the Crust (Recipe below)
If not me, who? And if not now, when?
June 3, 2014 by 27 Comments
Credits: Image – Jaimejustelaphoto. Blog Title: Mikhail Gorbachev (Russian President of the Soviet Union (1985-91)
Yup, nailed it
May 13, 2014 by 18 Comments
“Read in the context of (John) Updike’s…life…is a highly personal and revealing self-assessment. It underscores a sad paradox: although he could anatomize his own failings with perfect clarity, he seemed incapable of changing how he behaved.”
~ Adam Begley, Updike
Image Source: The Novice Chef Blog
Related Posts:
Poach This
May 5, 2014 by 18 Comments
Poached Pears in Vanilla Sage Wine Sauce. Recipe and more amazing photos @ Today’s Nest.
Source: HungarianSoul
Banana Sushi
March 29, 2014 by 31 Comments
Maranatha Dark Chocolate Almond Butter
Homemade Maple Sea Salt Pistachio Butter
Pistachio Nuts
Dried coconut
Check out the recipe and more photographs here.
Source: Fit Foodie Finds
Just One. Or Five.
March 27, 2014 by 38 Comments
It’s all about balance
January 16, 2014 by 45 Comments
Live & Learn 