Varmint

Since we're talking about vegetable plates, I'll add a comment or two. To me, I love going to my "meat & 3" joint and passing on the meat and just get a "4" -- i.e., a vegetable plate with 4 selections. The assortment of vegetables available always boggles my neurons. Corn. Sliced 'maters. Collards. Black eyed peas. Snap beans. Pole beans. Homemade applesauce. Slaw. Carrots. Boiled (pronounced "balled" for you who don't speak Southern) potatoes. Creamed (rarely mashed) potatoes (with or without gravy, of course). Fried okra. Okra and tomatoes. Butter beans. Crowder peas. Deviled eggs. Purple hulled peas. What, deviled eggs aren't a vegetable??? Well, they're listed as one in most of the joints I visit. Technically, they're a "side", but if you can order them in a vegetable plate, then they're a vegetable, right? I love deviled eggs, by the way. I don't know their origins, but if someone would like to do a research project and report back here, that'd be fine. I really love it when you go to a church barbecue and you see dozens and dozens of deviled eggs. At their essence, they aren't much more than egg and mayonnaise (which is a lot of egg in itself). However, there are as many different variations of deviled eggs as there are mosquitoes in my back yard in August. I had a fine jalapeno deviled egg at the new barbecue joint a couple of weeks ago. Some folks like pickle relish in theirs. I'm fond of a version that has a bit of pimiento cheese in it. How do you like your deviled eggs?

One key to me for any dietary modification I do is to stop eating stuff that doesn't taste good (note that bad for you food that tastes good is still ok). There isn't really an excuse for eating more than 2 bites of a mediocre barbeque sandwich. As my good friend Steve has said to me "It's not like you're going to drop dead of emaciation if you put that in the trash". Further, I try to eat fairly slowly so that my brain registers when I full and I don't just shovel in more food. I'm 31 and am currently about 200 pounds, down from 230 last May. I've got another 20 lbs to go before I'll be as healthy as I want and if I get serious again about not eating food that doesn't taste good, I'll do fine. I think that's very sound advice, David. I will have to settle for mediocrity more often than I'd like, simply because of the constraints of my schedule, but when I have a choice, I'll settle for nothing over mediocre. Breakfast: Two pieces of whole grain toast with a small smear of Maple View Dairy butter (too small ). Actually, it was just fine.

Well you wanted riveting, so here you go: I ate real food today! Yeah, aren't y'all excited you started reading this silly thread in the first place. This puts the Enquirer to shame. My throat is healing slowly, although I still sound like a male version of Brenda Vaccaro. Wait, she sounded like a male version of herself. Anyhow, I had a greek salad with grilled chicken for lunch with a fine vintage of Diet Coke. I didn't touch the pita bread that went with it. I did happily scarf down the olives, of course. For dinner, I cooked for Mrs. Varmint and me. We had semolina crusted catfish with a black bean, lime and tomatillo salsa. I served this with sliced heirloom tomatoes and sauteed spinach and arugula. For dessert, I had a small scoop of my maple buttermilk ice cream served with strawberries and 12 year balsamico. Mrs. Varmint had 3 scoops, and according to tradition, she literally licked the bowl clean. It was nice to eat a good meal again. It certainly could have been a healthier dinner, but I stayed away from the major starches (no bread, rice, or potatoes). I ate smaller than usual portions. I drank water rather than wine or beer (although I'm still on antibiotics, so I'll stay off alcohol for a while longer). Plus, I felt content. It was a good day. I'm a couple of days away from being able to resume my exercise routine, as I'm still hacking up lovely stuff that one would never think of describing. I'm looking forward to getting some aerobic exercise. Until tomorrow . . . .

Fresh Market has a design format that makes it appear to be a quaint little green grocer. The lights are fairly dim, produce is well displayed, meat/cheese/seafood/deli counters appear to be well stocked. However, once you look pretty closely, you recognize that they're just OK. Their meat department is fine, but the seafood I've seen is generally pretty bad. Produce is extremely limited. If you have a Whole Foods in your area, stick with that (although Fresh Market may be a bit more competitive on price). Otherwise, FM may be a decent alternative. Good luck!

All I know is that my mother, who isn't the greatest cook in the world and knows that I'm food obsessed always asks me, "Have you ever seen Emeril? I just love him and his show!" I just grit my teeth in a grin and let her know that I've seen bits and pieces of it. I think my mother is a typical viewer, by the way.

Kathi Purvis of the Charlotte Observer gave this thread a mention in her column yesterday. Thanks, Kathi! http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/liv...vis/5800898.htm

Is this the same clerk who thought the blackstrap mollasses was thick soy sauce? FYI, Big Ed's is a Raleigh institution -- a great "meat and 3" place. They have 2 choices of dessert each day which comes automatically with your lunch. They bring it out first so they don't forget it. As far as banana puddin' is concerned, it just is. Spread, dessert, facial cream -- use it as you please. It's nanner puddin', and it's always better the second day, once that nice film has formed over the top and the Nilla Wafers have softened up a bit.

Announcement: I just ate a Hershey's Kiss. OK, big deal, you'll say. Well, I always recognized that Hershey's chocolate was not very good, but I still enjoyed eating a Kiss every now and then. Today, however, I ate it and it tasted like chocolate flavored wax. It was absolutely disgusting. Is this the strep throat, the mass quantities of water, or just overall food deprivation? Or did Hershey's change their chocolate? Is my palate actually improving? If so, maybe I should start on a career to replace Robert Parker!? Very, very strange.

Today's NY Times has a story that many of us have heard, but if you haven't, please read about Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/07/dining/07EDNA.html Let's get the Harold and Maude jokes out of the way quickly: Ms. Edna is an 87-year old African-American and Scott is a 40 year old caucasian. Oh, and they share a home. Realize, however, that they share it as a family, not in any manner that the perverts would like to think. This is a story that should be told and re-told. It's beautiful. Read the article, please. And then report back here.

Water, water, water, and all of it to drink. I'm going to keep up the water routine for awhile. It makes my stomach grumble incessantly, though. Almost a gurgling sound, as if it were boiling down there. Strange, very strange. I can't do much more than 7 pints a day, however, which is plenty. I only had three spoonfuls of my funky maple banana buttermilk ice cream last night. Interesting flavor -- tart, somewhat earthy, just a trace of banana and maple. Not very sweet at all. It'd go well with some fresh strawberries, that I'll pick up at the farmers market today. I had a bowl of raisin bran for breakfast with skim milk. Many of you despise skim milk, but I converted many years ago. Of course, I always use heavy, heavy cream in my coffee, so it's a wash! ANNOUNCEMENT First weigh-in will be on Friday. I'll probably post my weight on Fridays. Anyone want to start a pool on the results???? Oops, sorry, this weight-loss program is not a competition. No wagering permitted!

Some southern vegetables, such as collards, don't really begin to shine until they've been cooked thoroughly. I certainly see your point about snap beans, which I love any way you cook them, but butter beans and their kin do real well when cooked for long stretches of time. As for grits, that's a discussion for another day!

You know, every time I tried to do that, it was that darned Mrs. Varmint who got the baby. Just not fair!! Tonight we had 2 L'il Varmints in soccer plus Mrs. Varmint is off to lead her soccer team, too, so there was pizza waiting for me. Egad! What do I do??? I ate two slices of pepperoni, rather than my usual 4 or 5. Of course, I'm now making a maple banana buttermilk ice cream (more of an ice milk). I'll just have a small scoop, of course!

The amazing thing is that the National Pork Board has done an amazing job with this advertising campaign. I'd be interested in running a poll asking people whether certain flesh types constitute "red meat." I'd bet a buttload of money that over 40% would consider pork not to be red meat. Yikes. Yeah, they've bred out all the fat and flavor from the pig, but it's still red meat, folks. It's mammalian, which is my wife's definition (and the definition of anyone who knows anything). As I said from the get go, if the critter didn't have fins or feathers, it's red meat to her.

Um, you've never heard of pork? I guess this is one more reason that we split the Southeast from Texas and places west.

There's no West-Coast in Mrs. Varmint, that's for sure. I'll explain another day why she doesn't eat red meat, but she grew up liking steak and hamburgers. As far as the L'il Varmints, oh, do they ever eat red meat! However, I've yet to take them to a barbecue restaurant, but that will soon change. Details to follow!

Beginning today, I intend to post a few paragraphs from time to time in this forum about the South as I see it. It'll be about food for the most part. It will probably cover no new ground. It may be funny, or not. It will be from me, and hopefully, I'll be able to spark some dialogue out there about the South. Let's start with a piece on my lovely bride. Mrs. Varmint was bred, born and raised right here in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has a respectable drawl, went to college at a reputable liberal arts school in Tennessee (it was the University of the South, for gosh sake!), and loves grits, fried chicken and greens. Despite this upbringing, I’m not sure that my bride of 11 years truly qualifies as a Southerner. Why? It simply is because Mrs. Varmint does not eat red meat. I knew this when I met her and still married her. If the critter came with fins or feathers, that’s OK for the Missus, but if it had fur, it’s not for her. Do you realize how difficult that can be down here? This means I can’t add fatback to my snap beans. Biscuits are made with butter and vegetable shortening, but never lard. Bacon drippings go to waste (graciously, however, she does let me fry up some bacon from time to time). It’s all but impossible to go to a traditional southern diner and order a truly vegetarian meal. We subscribe to the philosophy that anything tastes better with bacon or ham or other cured meat. If the veggies are going to need salt, it makes perfect sense for that salt to come from country ham. Why use a bland canola oil to fry up onions when bacon fat adds a hearty flavor? I’ve given up hope that Mrs. Varmint will turn from the Dark Side and see what she’s been missing in ham hock land. Until then, we have that new barbecue joint that serves smoked turkey breast.

Strep, root canal, remove wisdom teeth. I think we're onto something here, folks. It's a new way to lose weight! I'm adding "fracture jaw -- get it wired shut" onto the list! I appreciate all the support. Remember, first and foremost that this is supposed to be fun, not a Tony Robbins' rah-rah session. I will make bad choices along the way. I went home for lunch today and had some leftover soup from last night's dinner, half a slice of crusty bread and an orange. I then took an hour long nap. I underestimate this nasty infection now and then, but I'm mostly awake now. Of course, on the way out of the house, I had to grab some left over jelly beans from Easter. Amazingly, I limited myself to two.

Day 2 -- The Strep Throat Diet Continues The throat is only one-third as sore as it was yesterday (how one quantifies pain beats the hell out of me, but that's my estimate). It still sucks, so I did a repeat of yesterday's banana-vanilla yogurt smoothie. Mrs. Varmint wanted one, too. By the way, Mrs. Varmint has no clue about this entire weight loss plan. I wonder how long it'll take before she realizes what's going on. But then, she thinks eGullet is just a little diversion for me to spend time with my foodie friends. Back on track. Let me talk this morning about water. One of the things that I heard more often than any other strategy was to drink a lot of water. Someone told me that you should take your body weight, divide it by 2, resulting in the number of fluid ounces of water you should drink a day. That's slightly less than a gallon a day for me. One problem with that -- remember the days when drinking and driving was acceptable? OK, strike that. Remember when you'd go on "road trips" with your buddies and you were in the back seat sucking down Miller High Lifes (or some other comparable cheap beer)? Well, my friends usually wanted me to be the designated driver, not because I was an angry drunk, or a violent drunk. It was because I was the impatient drunk with the peanut-sized bladder. If I drank a beer, I'd have to piss it off within 3 minutes. One in, one out. If the driver didn't pull over, I'd threaten to weedle in his back seat. Amazingly, I never got left. Today, in my advanced, mature state, I'm drinking what seems to be a bathtub full of water a day. I counted yesterday how many times I had to go to the bathroom. 27!!!!! That's not normal. In addition to maintaining that "full" feeling most of the day, I've managed to get a lot more exercise by walking to the head so many times a day. It hurts my productivity a bit. Finally, some folks have asked me when I plan to do weigh-ins. I'm weighing myself daily, first thing every morning (after I pee, of course). Since we have a Borg analog scale that was made some time during the early days of the Cold War, it's probably not accurate enough to post daily results. Thus, you'll have to be patient with me. Thanks for all your support, and tommy, I'm not sure how to respond to your last post.

I think there's a law prohibiting that in North Carolina.

OK, to make it perfectly clear, the guy with the beard, bushy hair, and Mariners cap is vengroff. I'm the guy getting ready to take another bite out of the Boog Powell barbecue sandwich (and a mediocre one at that). Yes, it is indeed strep! I'm taking good ol' fashioned penicillin. Because of the sore throat and today's cool weather, I made soup. Homemade chicken stock, onions, carrots, peas, black-eyed peas, garlic, rosemary, EVOO, a handful of pasta, S&P. I had one glorious bowl with half a slice of crusty bread. I just ate a banana, and I'm happy. Bed will come early tonight, so today was a good day (except for the damned throat). I think drinking all that water really works.

Try lifting up my bruiser of a 4 year old as much as I do -- there's your weight training!! Thanks for the good info.

You gotta love that support I get from friends on the other side of the pond. However, after the shameless way I begged for those walnuts the first time around, I probably deserve it. Throat is still very sore. Looks like more soup for dinner. I think I have plenty of stock in the freezer.

Thanks, Kristin, but remember, this is the South. However, I'll start working on a chicken-fried tofu with a soy milk gravy dish. Yeah, that might work well. Or not.

Actually, despite my efforts to demonstrate a Joe Six Pack redneck mentality, I usually drink wine, unless I'm drinking beer, of course. As far as Dr. Mrs. Varmint is concerned, I just don't ask her anymore. She's brutal with the doctoring of her husband, as she gives me no sympathy, even with a throat that's en fuego.

Thanks for posting all those great links, RA!