therese

Another vote for working out in the water (since your groove thang's laid up with osteo and the gouch). Takes the weight off your joints while providing fantastic resistance for your muscles to work against. Sweating and overheating not an issue, of course. Yes, you have to wear a bathing suit, but it's not like you're lolling on a chaise longue with a mai tai (get that food/drink connection in there). And I wouldn't write off yoga---I did a modified version of yoga when I was pregant, and we made all sorts of special conditions for our body shapes and potential problems with joint instability. I'm doing it again now for the first time since pregnancy, and have been surprised at how much I enjoy it. The slow movements and breathing are very pleasant. I don't even think about food when I'm doing it. The benefits of physical activity aren't limited to "burn calories": you also strengthen the heart muscle, promote vascular drainage from your extremities (so less post-soup puffiness), and improve flexibility and lessen pain in OA-affected joints. The endorphin surge can be a huge benefit, at least as good as many prescription meds in treating depression in some women. Boy, do I hear this one. A green salad is just about the least interesting thing I can imagine eating. Earlier this year I was getting huge bags of salad greens as part of my CSA, and I might as well have put them directly down the garbage disposal for all the good they did me. Veggie and grain-based salads are main summer mainstays. I pack my lunch pretty much every day, so that I get not only healthier food but much tastier food than I'd otherwise be able to find. Salads I've made recently: Roasted beets with sheep's milk feta (billed as low sodium, but apparently low sodium in this instance was a relative thing---I bought it because it was sheep's milk, and so has even more of that umami quality that your looking for). I skip dressing on this one. Zipper peas (fresh, blanched---these are like crowder or black eye peas, so there's a mild smoky/peanutty quality to them) with sauteed Vidalia onions and minced country ham (yep, salty as all get out, but very tasty and so a small amount goes a very long way), dressed with apple cider vinegar. Triple dose of umami, lots of texture. Roasted carrots with minced raw onion and fresh dill, dressed with vinaigrette. Roasting the carrots brings out the sweetness and improves the texture, nice contrast with the raw onion. None of these are "diet food". Not only will my husband and children eat them, I serve them to dinner guests (who ask for seconds).

So far we've discussed a lot of the strategies that work for weight loss (or maintenance, a reasonable goal for many): eat more "good foods (nobody ever got fat eating blueberries), exercise portion control rather than "food control" (pamjsa's ice cream example is spot on), and get as much exercise as you can. Based on your web site/blog, mizducky, I'm guessing you'd like dancing: get up and get that groove thang on: no need to go out clubbing, just turn on the radio and wiggle around in your bedroom (particularly great after a glass of wine). Yoga is a lot more effective than you might think; try and find a class that's not full of laughably scrawny folk who can effortlessly bend over and put their heads between their knees---I'm sure they're fine people, but I still hate them. Low fat/no sugar cheesecake is the work of the devil, IMO. I would sooner eat core board. But for some people the low fat/no sugar approach can be helpful, in that it gives them a sense of control. To the rest of us it just feels wrong, and it's really not possible to feel nourished eating "wrong" food. But food that feels "right" may not necessarily be altogether right if it means that you end up feeling like hell if that's all you eat. I see it this way: the longer I live and the better I feel, the more opportunity to eat great food. In reasonable portions, of course.

Okra, sweet corn, onions, eggplant, carrots, garlic, lemon cucumbers, regular cucumber, patty pan squash, potatoes, tomatoes, basil, blueberries. This week was the end of blueberries from the farm---only CSA customers got them. Figs start in two weeks. Next week he'll likely sub blueberry juice or jam for my fruit share. Tonight's dinner features grilled sweet corn and a salad of roasted carrots and onions with dill (the dill not from the CSA):

Derby Pie

Welcome to Hotlanta, adoxograph. Sounds like your trip was, um, eventful, but at least you're finally here safe and sound. Drive carefully so as to keep it that way. It's not just the hills that will help you get lost, but the fact that metro Atlanta comprises so many different towns and counties, and not much rhyme or reason to road layout or public transit. As for why a grocery store in Georgia sells peaches from California, well, Kroger isn't exactly a local operation. It's also the worst grocery chain in the area---Publix is generally much better, particularly if you can find one in an affluent area (and it looks like you work in one, so that shouldn't be difficult). I don't know if this is the best good shopping near you, but it is considered very good, and it's closer than a lot of places: Harry's. Harry's used to be independently owned (it was started by the brother of the guy who runs the market I use, Dekalb Farmers Market) but it was bought out by Whole Foods. Strong work on Chik-Fil-A: a local product, and a pretty good one at that. You did appreciate the importance of the pickles, right?

Given the time and locale restraints, but no financial restraints, I'd go to Nikolai's Roof for dinner. They've got a new chef (the previous guy had been there forever and forever) and I'm guessing it could be pretty cool in a very upmarket expense account kind of way. If you go let us know how it was. I think City Grill still does lunch. If so that would be a great option for you and your boss. Very pretty dining room, lunch crowd almost all business folk in suits.

Fortunately I got a lot of them (already shelled, too) and had leftovers from a dinner party last night: The peas are a bit like black eye peas or crowder peas (less "peanutty" tasting than black eye peas), varying from very pale tan to very pale green in color. I blanched them a few minutes to take away the slightly raw/bitter flavor, but not enough to really loosen the skins or make them mushy. The onions are Vidalias, sauteed with minced country ham. I let them sit in the fridge overnight, and dressed them right before serving with apple cider vinegar (the country ham provided enough fat and salt by itself).

Fun blog, Pan. And nice to know that there's somebody out there that actually dines out more than me The dining out vs dining in approaches are complementary: sometimes we want the surprise and no work aspect of dining out, sometimes we want the control and creative pleasure and certainty that we're getting exactly we want of dining in. After this week I feel like I need to eat a lot of salad.

Dinner again last night at One Midtown Kitchen. First time I'd actually seen Blais in that setting, as I've managed to go on his nights off our last couple of visits. The restaurant was absolutely slammed, as there's some sort of big trade show in town, but things seemed to be going pretty smoothly in the kitchen (it's an open kitchen, and we were seated at one of the bars that looks into it, right over a POS which is a little weird at first, but also sort of cool). We hadn't booked, so got to see Blais work for a while before he noticed us. In addition to working the main kitchen he was also working at an adjacent cold area, putting together some small dishes for a group of three people seated at the other end of the bar. Turns out he was doing a tasting menu. I don't know how many courses he did total, or how much he's charging, but you can get it on Mondays and Tuesdays. Last night was Saturday, and a very busy Saturday at that, so there must have been some serious convincing going on to get it to happen that night. Okay with me, though, as Blais made a couple of the dishes for us as well. An amuse he called peach sashimi: a perfect little slab of peach with at least four contrasting flavors and textures arranged on top. I can't recall them, of course, but it was great. The second dish started out with a large deep plate containing ground coffee that arrived about halfway through one of the courses we'd actually ordered. "Something to think about" was how he described it. Turns out he was setting the scene for duck confit hash that was served in a smaller bowl, set inside the larger one, hot water poured over the ground coffee to release more of the smell. The duck confit was topped with a poached quail egg and contained a bit of nicely aromatic orange zest, completing the olfactory breakfast experience. So, the Blais approach to multicourse dining is once again available. Just make sure you ask for it (I'd call ahead) on a Monday or a Tuesday.

I've actually seen it written on a menu, so don't beat yourself up too much. Very cool watching the show---much thanks for participating.

Today I've got: Okra Sweet Corn Tomatoes Onions Zipper Peas Pole Beans Blueberries Pattypan Squash Edit to add (items apparent once I'd gotton to the bottom of the box): Garlic Lemon Cucumbers Red Potatoes

Fridge on the back porch is actually a great idea that might work in Seattle's climate. You could add a wringer washing machine and tell everybody you're from Alabama (I'm from the south so it's okay for me to say stuff like that). kelautz is right, wall mount faucets rock. Maybe you could get an armoire style fridge that takes cabinetry front and side panels (I don't know if these exist) and put it in your dining room.

Very cute house, by the way, and the kitchen's not nearly so bad as the one I started with in my present home. You could change the door to one with a bigger window, so that you wouldn't miss the window as much. Looks like it's original, though, so I'd keep it to re-install later, when you've re-done the kitchen entirely and can use the original window again.

We have considered switching the fridge and the range - but worry about the sound emanating from the back of the fridge. And I am not sure we want to sacrifice the view from the kitchen into the living room and vice versa. It is a small house ( less than 800 square feet indoors) and the open kitchen/living room is one of the nice things about it. Of course, it is also part of the problem. ← Short of ripping out cabinets, which you clearly don't want to do yet, you're screwed: too small a kitchen, too many openings. Under the counter fridge is probably not going to be sufficient, and you're going to get very tired of bending down to get into it. One of the openings has to be covered to accomodate the fridge. How about getting rid of the dog? Oh, hold it, you probably like the dog. Never mind.

Or you could switch the fridge and range and somehow hang something behind the fridge so that you needn't actually look at the unattractive back of it, basically turning that half wall back into a full wall.

Do you need that back door? That's where I'd put the fridge for now.

I think he just stays in bed a lot. That way he doesn't have eat too many meals. But maybe he's out eating something really cool at this very moment. I hope he remembered his camera.

It all looks great. I have to admit that I did a double take at the figs and prosciutto plate, checking back quickly to see exactly what the opaque red, fairly thick dressing was. Because it does look just a little bit like, um, ketchup (in this photo, at least). Tomatoes and pomegranates do both derive their color from lycopene, so that makes sense. Pasta particularly lovely.

Cherry preserves are wonderful, and given the abundance you describe would be worth the effort. You'd have them to enjoy all winter, and could give jars as gifts. Cherries make nice cold summer dessert soups. Ice cream (particularly nice with dark chocolate chips mixed in) and sorbet also lovely.

Well, it would probably force you to clean it out before photographing it---even a fridge that's not heavily used benefits from the occasional purge. But you've got better things to do, haven't you? Like wake up and go get something to eat.

We've actually got pretty good Peruvian in Atlanta, both mom'n'pop sorts of places where nobody speaks English and upmarket, one in particular (Sweet Devil Moon) that calls itself a tapas bar but really just serves small portions of Peruvian food. Again, a sufficiently large ethnic population to both produce and consume the food, followed by successful (albeit misnamed) crossover to a mainstream market. Korean here has so far failed to make the mainstream crossover. Approximately one bajillion Korean restaurants (and Korean grocers and bakers and hair stylists and clothing shops and...well, you see what I mean), but none of them make any attempt to attract non-Korean customers (other than generally producing very fine food, of course). Vietnamese has made the crossover here, with both Nam and RiceSticks offering an alternative to the gazillions of pho houses in the city.

I live in Atlanta, where we've got large and influential ethnic communities that generally produce great restaurants that serve both their own communities and the rest of us. That said, there are very few North African restaurants, and those are aimed squarely at the sort of American who is not a particularly adventurous diner but it is occasionally interested in "dining strange". It's not about the food (the food's generally pretty forgettable) but about the show: sitting on cushions, elaborate handwashing and tea-pouring, belly dancers (and boy howdy do I despise eating with a belly dancer in my face). The average diner at Imperial Fez is more likely to eat his other meals at Applebee's than at a pho house or dim sum parlor or chaat stand. Though he might consider this option. Anyway, I think it's a combination of too small a North African immigrant population as well a certain stigma attached to the restaurants already present in this market. Too bad, really, as I like this style of cooking.

No local producers of distilled spirits? Well, then, make your own. Potatoes = vodka, corn = moonshine/bourbon, etc. The premise behind living this way is that you eat what you have, and you have what you eat. My grandparents didn't eat olives because they didn't grow olives (or eggplant or zucchini or lots of other things), but what they did eat was amazingly good, so good that they didn't feel any sense of privation.

Ahem. If I may be brazenly presumptuous, owing to our fearless bloggers apparent routine it is conceivable that this request may yield disturbing results. ← It may well. I'm prepared.

Loving your blog, Pan. The food all looks great, and you're very lucky to have such variety close by. There are downsides to eating in (or from) restaurants all the time, of course, as you illustrate with your pic of Metamucil wafers: not enough, um, roughage. I use those wafers when I travel---they're compact, tasty enough to sub for a breakfast if I wake up jetlagged at 2:00 AM, and good for my tummy and my temperment. Another great option along these lines is Fiber One cereal: 14 grams dietary fiber per half cup serving (60 kcals) vs Metamucil wafers' 6 grams dietary fiber per 2 wafer serving (120 kcals). The disadvantage from the non-cooking perspective would be the requirement for a bowl, a spoon, and milk. You do have a fridge, right? Hmm, maybe we need to see the inside of your fridge...