Hopleaf

I liked Felix's but forget where exactly it is. It's more of a roll-up-your sleeves oyster bar, but if you can appreciate that sort of thing, it'll be right up your alley.

yes, dairy free cheese seems like it's an oxymoron. But when you really need to eat it, it's a blessed alternative to not eating it. thanks to everyone who's contributed so far and I look forward to continuing to read about what new things people find work for them. the balance that sblunge brings up is exactly how I'm approaching this. Like I said, I want to occasionally have that Asiago, that's why I eat the Veggie Slices (really, not too bad, try them!). I've been eating tofu since I was twelve or so and my older sister introduced it to us, way back when Barry Manilow was on the radio singing about making it through the rain. Miso sounds like a great suggestion to work into my diet. I've already been on the green tea kick. good stuff. And tryska's suggestion of a paleolithic diet is something I want to look into more. I'm more of a meat eater anyway, and I love veggies and fruits. Carbs always seem to just weigh me down (pun intended!), but having been on my own low-carb diet (the Zone) I agree that they can be frustrating and often very (dangerously) low in calories. You put anyone on and 800 K/day diet and of course they'll lose weight! Activity levels, now there's a great suggestion to all. I'm right there with you and do own a push mower. yard work is a great way to work exercise into a routine...that and taking the bus! Thanks again all, and I look forward to more ideas.

I can't possible be the only person on eGullet who's trying to eat healthy while still eating well. Can I?

we were about 9 degrees warmer, but had frost nonetheless. I love autumn.

essential to any publication that deals with cooking.

yes, doctor recommended lowering intake of cholesterol (thus low-fat diet). keto-diet? I'll do a search, but if you have a moment, could you explain what this is? Is it just a matter of eliminating sugars?

Having just recently started to eliminate unnecessary animal fats and saturated fats from my diet in an effort to finally lower my cholesterol, I'm often struggling with finding a balance between eating what I want and eating what I should. So I thought I'd start a thread about, and not just to vent, but rather to find out from anyone else what works for them. Are there certain things that you just absolutely have to have, MUST HAVE PATÉ? or perhaps it's that Gotta-Have-Gorgonzola. Or do you see it more along the lines that in order to succeed with a healthy approach to eating it has to be all or nothing? Myself, I've eliminated beer for the time being and am experimenting with red wine, something I've never been into, but that was when I smoked...have quit cigarettes too now for 4 months and am wowed by my abilty to taste and smell! wine tastes so different and I'm finding I really, really like it...Zinfandels and Beaujolais in particular. Also, I'm cautiously trying non-dairy cheeses and am slowly finding that they're not so bad either. But this part is really a struggle. I still have to allow myself some freshly grated Asiago on my pasta. figure if I can eat the fake cheese most of the time, it's ok that I eat the good stuff once in awhile. Red meat? Oh man, that's a tough one. I do love a good steak. Not sure what to do there. One thing that I'm gonna try is just eating more seafood, fish in particular. So, any thoughts from fellow eGulleters that might have or are experiencing a similar struggle?

I second that. I'm just getting into wine myself and just got my hands on MacNeil's bible. It is truely amazing. She knows a lot about wine and organizes it very well.

So, forcasts this week are indicating temperatures dropping dangerously close to freezing here in Chicago. I'm leaving my eggplant on for another day or two and then I'm taking them in. I've had a relatively productive first gardening year that I've both learned a lot from and eaten a lot because of. Some of these lessons learned might seem obvious to the avid/experienced gardener, but... Tomatoes. I'll be planting these further apart from one another next year. The first set I planted (purchased with guajolote at the evantston farmers market) were very robust/hearty plants, but eventually grew into one another which made them look very sickly by the end. The tomatoes were great, though. I also planted two from another source (gift from a friend) and placed these a little apart from one another and they did great. I'll also be plucking new growth branches at a certain point so that the plants don't get over run by themselves. Radishes. will plant these next year. bummed that I didn't this year. Lettuce. I loved going out to the garden every morning in the middle of sandwich making to grab a few leaves of lettuce. The butter crunch by far out-performed the ice berg. We even got a second growth off of a couple of the plants, which I allowed to bolt and harvested the seeds for next year. Gonna try starting these in Februrary or March. Once I fended off the rabbit, the lettuce really thrived. Cilantro. Will have to harvest this more regularly as before I knew it, this herb bolted on me and was a complete wash by August. I did harvest the corriander and will try to start these from seed next year. Corn. want to try my hand at corn next year. I have the space and will refer to someone's recent post about planting corn plots. Sage. My sage plant did so well, I felt like I was a successful gardener just looking at it. We're drying a bunch of it right now and the front hall closet smells awesome. Cucumbers. Will plant these next year. Raspberry. First year with these sapling brambles. They look like they'll be thriving before very long. Peppers. Both jalapeno and red hots did great. And I noticed that he jalapenos weren't nearly as hot as some I've purchased. Maybe it's something in the soil. Squirrels. I plan to erect some sort of structure to keep these little buggers out. Something with chicken wire all around, a roof and two by four studs. Basically, a chicken wire green house. Before very long, I'm gonna till in a lot of the organic matter that I have in my compost pile and then cover my beds with hay (available down the street for cheap). And next year, I'll be expanding from two beds to four to accomodate my additional plantings. That's about it. What is anyone else doing right now? what have you learned from this past season?

that would be fine, except they seem to have an insatiable appetite that has them munching a few bites of one tomato, dropping it and grabbing another. I imagine their feedings end up in quite the frenzied pigout. Right now, the additional chicken wire is working well. I plan on making a more permanent structure for my garden next year. something with a door and ceiling, maybe even running water. But damn if these tomatoes arent' the best friggin' tomatoes I've ever eaten. I can see why the squirrels are so interested; they have to be better than what's available at their local grocer.

could you explain what you mean by "pinching blossoms and trimming down hanging branches...", snowangel? and does anyone have an idea how to combat vegetarian squirrels that have set their sites on my tomatoes? First the rabbits, now these varmints! I might just have to invest in a .22.

Finally remembered to answer this. The tequila I have is called Centenarium Gran. It's just about as smooth as it gets and is mighty, mighty tasty. So much so that I've developed a taste for tequila. I found a good moderately priced brand too, it's called Cabrito and runs for about $19 a bottle. It's just about as smooth as the Centenarium. The Cabrito may be the trillium is referring to. There is a horned animal on the bottle. It gets blurrier and blurrier the more tequila you drink and I think the number of horns gets more. Could be less.

Are skunks just inherently clumsy or is it that simply don't give a shit?

how does it work on rabbits? I don't really have any bug problems, but will keep this in mind for the future.

So??? does it strip paint?

is that safe to put on plants one plans to eventually eat? sounds like it might strip paint too.

Not sure what Stone should do about that basil (I'm tempted to say just scrap it and get some new stuff, but there might be a way to save it for all I know). My question to those in the know (you know who you are, that's why you're in the know) is how do you know when to pick stuff? Like the pepper I mentioned before, it's still growing. But I don't want it to get too big and then spoil (and for some reason the rabbit knows not to touch it...I'd like to see him take a bite out of it and then go running for some water to cool his buds). My tomatoes are going gang-mutha-fuggin'-busters. There must be 12 to 15 little quarter-sized tomatoes already. Those, obviously, aren't ready yet. My cilantro isn't doing well. Ever since I trimmed it down (cuz it started to flower) it's either got really whispy new growth or brown/red tinged old growth. Any recommendations on how to it back to its happy place?

Thanks Sparrowgrass. It's relatively safe to assume that I know next to nothing when it comes to gardening, so this was definitely a great recommendation. It's too late in the season for me to do any corn now, so I'll keep this in mind for next year. I did find some great info on UofIllinois Extension web site on growning corn that I'll be referencing for my corn project next year.

btw, the rabbit is losing. It's three heads of expendable head lettuce to one fantastic dream about rabbit stew. I evened up the score with a bunch of small chicken wire. that let the butter crunch grow. I still have to get some fencing around the head lettuce (love that watery crunch). Oddly enough, the widdle wabbit isn't in the least interested in any of the leaves on the eggplant. Discerning little shit, I guess. Maggie, I have been watering religiously, especially during that recent dry spell we had (how about all the rain after that though, that was awesome, quite the natural fireworks display!). So, maybe that has something to do with my tomato success. I know it's why my lawn looks so good.

WOW!! That's one helluva first post, theabroma! Welcome and keep posting. And do tell us more about Mexico.

And we have peppers, ladies and gentlemen!!! Actually, we technically only have pepper, as in one pepper, but it's something! We've already harvested some butter crunch lettuce and cilantro and a bunch of chive and some sage. Very good stuff. The pepper, it's so cool. Just hangin' out under a leaf sayin' "don't touch me cuz I plan to get bigger." Two of the four tomato plants (the first ones, the ones I bought at the Evanston Farmers market with guajolote) are HUGE! I mean they're nearly trees. The other two we planted late and should be catching up pretty soon. Next year I want to put corn in (cuz I think it's too late this year). Has anyone planted corn in their gardens? I have enough space, I figure I can get at least ten plants in. Maybe stagger the plantings so I have fresh corn all season long!! I've been buying it at the farmers markets and some stores regularly and grilling them up. Voof!!! That's some good eats.

we had our first major harvest of the season the other day. One full head of butter crunch lettuce (recently protected from the rabid rabbits with chicken wire), a bunch of cilantro, a bumch of sage, and a bunch of chive. Put it all together for a great, home grown herb salad mix. Great on sandwiches. Plus, we've got the little flowers growing on our tomatoes and peppers, you know, the precursors to actual tomatoes and peppers! And we found a bunch of blackberry brambles that are fully matured and are sporting tons of berries. Didn't know they were there before cuz there was a huge, sick pine tree hiding them.

I agree with Jaymes. Hell, I'll even pitch in for your moving costs Snowangel. At the very least, you must stay in touch with them. On the otherhand, what're you worried about, isn't this your second set of wonderful Mexican neighbors? Three's a charm, right?

Thanks megc. that's quite a post. I'm not sure if it's the Guy Watson story, but I'm checking my sources. will get back to you. Sounds like it might be. and I'll check Charles' book out of the library, as well as one that someone here at my work suggested: John Robbins' (one-time heir to the Baskin-Robbins company fortune who turned it all down after seeing firsthand the sad state of the dairy industry) Diet for a New America. megc, you mention BHG. Is that something that's labeled on milk cartons? I had heard of it and don't recall seeing it on labels, but maybe they're getting away with writing it backwards and upside down so you have to hold it up to a mirror and stand on your head to see it.

This is a really interesting topic. I wish it didn't fizzle so quickly. Can anyone else in the know weigh in here. I'm particularly interested in the corn issue as well as the milk issue. I had heard recently (perhaps it should go into the category of urban myth) that Monsanto recently won a court case in which they sued a neighboring organic farmer becase the pollen (not sure if that's the right word...not much of a farmer) from the GM corn found its way to the organic corn. Monsanto sued for infringement of copyright and won. Now the organic farmer went out of business and GUESS WHO bought up his property...Monsanto. I'll see if I can dig up a link to that story. The other thing that I'm concerned with is the whole issue of hormones in milk. I'm not sure I understand why hormones are added to milk (again, city boy). Maybe they just find themselves in milk after having been fed to dairy cows in order to increase milk production. This is what I want to know: how can one tell if there is milk made from cows that have been fed hormones in the gallon they're about to buy? And is Organic a 100% guarantee? There has to be some mass-marketed, available-to-everyone milk that doesn't have hormones. right? what're both of these issues gonna mean to my little girl in the long run? especially the hormones in the milk. She doesn't exactly pound the milk like she used to, but she does have two to three 8- to 10-ounce servings a day.