annecros

Always. And always made sure there was something for my schoolaged children to chew on when they got home. Mine was usually leftovers, a coke and a candy bar, or cookies. My favorite was leftover greens in a cornbread sammich! My kids usually scarfed the leftovers, or nuked pizza rolls or bagel bites or that sort of stuff.

Beets. They are so pretty. They LOOK so good. I just gag. I keep trying, but I just gag.

Yes, they are quite gaudy, aren't they? In a good way. They have all the taste and aroma that the look advertises. I thought I was going to perish from strawberry hunger on the drive home.

Yes. Publix is a regional company, and usually has an endcap full of them when in season. Look for Plant City on the label, or you might luck up on a tent and a truck from central Florida on the side of the road. Those are usually the freshest and the cheapest.

The mocking birds are nesting in my gardenia, the tomatoes are blooming, high today of 82 - and the most important harbinger of Spring in Florida - Plant City strawberries are at their prime! 3.29 a pound at Sedano's. Late season and dead ripe! I purchased 5 pounds. Milkshakes for lunch! Some sliced, sugared and frozen for ice cream: The rest, washed and in the fridge for eating out of hand: I didn't make it to the festival in Plant City, Florida, but I understand that they keep the best berries for themselves. Today is the last day: Strawberry Festival Website I've never seen strawberries that looked, tasted or smelled like this until I moved to Florida. We grew some nice ones in Georgia, but nothing like these!

No brainer, Marlene. Do Michy's. Reviews and thread here: Michy's thread About 9 miles from the airport. From MIA take the Airport Expressway (112 I think) east past I-95 , go North on Biscayne Blvd. It's at 6927 Biscayne Blvd, which means you will find it in the area of Biscayne Blvd and NE 69th street. If that doesn't float your boat, there are a lot of other places to eat on Biscayne. Edit to add: Oh, and pick up some Plant City strawberries while you are here. They are perfect right now.

I knew we had an awful lot going on in this state, was still surprised to see Florida rank higher than New York for culinary tourists. http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/1540003...ulinary+tourism I've got the usual Floridian love/hate attitude about tourists. Come on down, leave your tax dollars, then leave please!

Spring is in the air, and a foodies mind naturally turns to sex...and food. Chocolate with Johnny Depp is my favorite.

Even the most expensive artificial vanilla I have tasted, has had sort of a metallic aftertaste to it. Not as rich. Maybe its just me though.

Instructions for vanilla salt from Ideas In Food: http://ideasinfood.typepad.com/ideas_in_fo..._with_turn.html ← Vanilla salt...now that's interesting!

They seem to be good conversation starters as well. It's easier to interact with other diners when a puppy is around to break the ice. Yeah, Karen, that's me telling my stepdaughter to get a grip the day before her wedding in Key West! The family thinks its funny. Thanks for your kind words, but my puppy is cuter.

Florida state law now allows dogs in outdoor dining areas. http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/...ida0302-ON.html " Anyone that has dined in Key West has experienced sharing a meal with dogs, cats and chickens. Would this ruin your dining experience if Fluffy was scarfing down kibble (or maybe even his owners table scraps) at the next table? What about older people who think of pets as children?

Wow. I look forward to reading it. I don't know if I can eat it, but do look forward to reading about it. What does horsemeat taste like? Just curious.

Great thoughts, and some that have come to mind for me. But then, one must explain the "breakout" companies like Cheescake Factory (which is actually a throwback to Morrison's Cafeteria type places where you got too much to eat, and had to order on the line so of course you bought more than you could eat because you are hungry and everything looks and smells so good) that created a new niche that competitors had to come back into and attempt to regain market share lost. I think it was a competitive situation, more than a share gaining situation. I just don't see a conspiracy. I see a market responding to the ever loving dollar, though, and to the demands of the customer.

The measure used, the BMI, needs to be looked at closely, as well. http://health.howstuffworks.com/bmi4.htm From the site: "In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold for BMI 27.8 to 25 to match international guidelines. The move added 30 million Americans who were previously in the "healthy weight" category to the "overweight" category. Today, the NIH advises doctors and their patients to include BMI in a complete assessment of a person's body size and overall health." Hardly surprising that there is an epidemic of "obesity" when you keep moving the goal line. I have to wonder when "overweight" becomes "obese" as well. To me, they are two entirely different states of being. Ten pounds overweight and 100 pounds overweight have completely different implications.

No, Ah dew believe that would be somewhat analogous to throwing out the baby with the bathwater, et non? Just asking since I saw that in a receipt not long ago......... ← Sounds like somebody is trying to save some fat consumption, but when you look at the fat content vs. the quantity of leafy green vegetables and the fibre, it really isn't that alarming. My husband and the dog split the hock in my house. I would have some grumpy living companions if I threw out the hock!

Rather than split and scrape, I just break the beans up. I may be completely wrong, but I assume the pod imparts vanilla oils as well, and the open ends of the beans should allow the liquor in to get to the seed and pith on the inside. Is there any reason not to use the pods? I wouldn't know what to do with that much vanilla extract! With the quality of liquor you are using, if you find you don't like the taste of a particular jar, I guess you can always dilute with additional booze, and make a "flavored" liquor for drinking like the lovely extractions on the booze thread here. My sister, who uses Crown (which is similar enough to CC for this application, I think) uses it for baking with chocolate almost exclusively. Although I seem to remember a very nice pecan pie she made with it. Seems to me, that it would be nice to moisten a fruit cake with, as well, but may add too much vanilla. I will be watching these experiments with great interest.

Any man who loves okra that much has something fundamentally right about him! I look forward to his contributions in the future.

Sorry dear, that won't do. An IV is just used to replace fluids when the body requires hydration. A feeding tube ported directly into your stomach is the answer. Then you can inject the thrice daily slurry of nutrition that is absolutely designed to sustain life. That age threashold, and the baby boom generation coming of age, is a good point that I had not considered. Things change, and so do demographics.

Why? Are you thinking of being a hostess at one of the chains? Honey, you'd never get any work done if I came in to eat, 'cause we'd just have to sit and have a lovely tussle of a chat. ← Well, no. But I might want to ask for one. And wondering what would happen if a representative of CSPI asked for one and didn't get it. Do you think he would make the 17 year old cry? Maybe.

So if corporate chain restaurants decided to have a line on the bottom of their menus that said "Nutritional information available upon request" and there was a sheet with this information available behind the host station that the servers had access to, so that they could bring this informational sheet to the diners that requested it, how would that sit with you, John? ← Jumping in here. Would enough customer's ask for it so that a new hostess would know where it is located?

The Pew study linked earlier addresses some of these issues, in that people simply don't care what is on the label most of the time. It is not only because they want to be obese, or unhealthy, or have been hypnotized by that lovely Big Mac on the tube or the billboard. FSU has been looking into it, and there is an awful lot going on in food choices: http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...3050325/-1/news From the site: ""It didn't surprise me that people look at calories, because people are concerned about weight," said Ron Ward, a UF professor in food and resource economics. "I was a little surprised by how dominant that factor was." For the study, Ward, who headed the research, and graduate student Carlos Jaureguicelied on more than a decade of food diaries from 40,000 households acquired from a private company. From these food diaries, the researchers came up with a list of drivers that influence consumers' food-purchasing decisions. Those categories included health concerns, eating activity, demographics and perceptions about brands. The factor that least affects looking at food labels is the demographics of the household involved. For instance, the study looked into the likelihood of young people, those under 25, reading labels versus the likelihood of people who are older. It found that, although people are more likely to read labels as they get older, it's not a major factor in determining whether or not they read them. Research also showed that people who value certain brands don't pay as much attention to labels. For instance, for people who always buy Kellogg's Raisin Bran, they're likely to continue buying it out of habit rather than any nutritional value it may have. "They trust the brand so they aren't reading the content as much," Ward said. While it is useful to pay attention to calories on food labels, there are also nutrients that consumers should be looking for on labels, said Elaine Turner, associate professor in food science and human nutrition at UF. "One of the things calories don't tell you is the balance of nutrients that may be in the food," said Turner. "I think it is good that people look at calories, but they also should look at the serving size they represent and how the nutrients compare to another product." For example, one brand of chicken noodle soup may have fewer calories, while another brand has more calories but lower sodium. "A few more calories might have a better balance of nutrients," Turner said." I am having trouble understanding how more of the same information that has not worked in the past, will work better in the future. Maybe it is time for a deep breathe, and a new approach. Just saying.

I've gone from three meals a day to five small ones. As a younger person, I was bulletproof, with a cast iron stomach and a constitution to match. Caffeine for breakfast, skipped lunch as often as not, chips out of the vending machine, ginormous rich dinner. I went to the doctor about once every two or three years, yaddah - yaddah. Then, I had my 38th birthday. One of those "If I had known I was going to live this long..." moments. Now, it is four or five small meals a day, because my GI was pretty much trashed by chronic illness from the top down over the first three years. My dietary adjustments were probably the hardest ones I had to make. I would take four or five bites of a meal that I loved, and just couldn't put another bite in my mouth. Frustrating. Then there were a couple of stints on steroids, lots of anti-inflammatories, a cute little clinical study on an experimental med that probably saved my life (or at least has improved the quality of my life dramatically) - that'll mess up your metabolism. The medical profession doesn't have a good grip on what is going on with my condition and related conditions that affects millions of others (scleroderma, lupus, crohn's, colitis, rheumatoid arthritis) so they just treat the symptoms and do the best they can to be supportive. Phew! Do I sound like a crybaby, or what? I should qualify things here by saying that my condition (scleroderma) pretty much ran its course over about five years (which is typical) and I am stable now, and even have seen improvement over the last couple of years. Or at least, my disease process is not going gangbusters and my coping mechanisms have caught up with it. I've been very lucky in that things could have been so much worse. I now think of food much differently. I've always loved good food, but I had to get into a "food as fuel" mindset, which sounds bad but is fundamentally true. Because of limited portions, I had to begin to be careful about getting the most bang for the buck every time I put food in my mouth. Although I resorted to it as a fall back from time to time, I was resolved not to go the Ensure route for two meals a day. I had to boost fibre, boost nutrional content, and yes - I even had to boost calories and fat. I always thought when I was younger and didn't have to watch my weight, that when I reached middle age it would catch up with me and I would have to teach myself to diet. Well, it did - but not in the way I envisioned it! Fortunately, I work from home, so my eating habits are easy to handle. I still cook a large meal at the end of the day for my hubby who has a nine to five schedule, but more often than not I just eat a very small portion then have the biggest meal as leftovers for breakfast the next day. I have slipped small amounts of caffeine, spicy foods and alcohol back into my diet - but very small. The constant moderation has been the key. I used to be able to sit down with a bowl of onion soup, a tossed salad, a king cut prime rib, a loaded baker, and end it with cheesecake. Now that same meal has turned into six, with the prime rib making up two meals. I hate moderation! Now, I will quit my bitchin' and go make a grilled cheese and be glad I can eat it.

Then there is the matter of liability (a concern of any coporation that is perceived as having deep pockets, and McDonald's has won all the lawsuits contending that McDonald's "made" them fat to date) and enforcement of any law or regulation put in place. The information is useless if it is arbitrarily slapped on a menu board, and the regulations are useless if there is not a measure put in place to enforce the actions required. I think it has been discussed before the limitations of food labelling on packaged consumer goods that are much more quantifiable - i.e. "per serving" and such. For the record, I have never argued that people have less information. Only that the information that they do get be good, meaningful, usable information. I don't think it will get past a court challenge, and I am certain it will be challenged in court. ETA: Here's a good overview of product labeling accuracy from a FAQ from a group that deals with a lot of people on special diets. They are selling a product line, but the company was founded by an individual with a chemical engineering degree from MIT: http://www.expertfoods.com/FAQ/labelaccuracy.php From the site on prepackaged foods: "Are the Nutrition Facts reported correctly? According to a 1996 FDA spot check, nutrition labels had an overall rate of 92% correct. However, please don't take that to mean that each item sampled had exactly the amounts of nutrients specified on the label. The labels were correct according to the regulations, which is not the same thing. What is correct "according to the regulations?" As we explain in the sections on how the values are determined, there is a considerable amount of variability in food products. In a compromise between the difficulty of producing precisely-controlled foods and protecting consumers, nutrients are divided into two groups. "Good" nutrients consisted of: "vitamin, mineral, protein, total carbohydrate, dietary fiber, other carbohydrate, polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat, or potassium" and must be present in at least 80% of the label value in every unit tested. However, the amounts may exceed the label value by a "reasonable" amount. Conversely, "bad" nutrients: calories, sugars, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, or sodium must be present in no more than 120% of the label value but may be less than the label value by a "reasonable" amount. From the site on fresh foods: "What about unprocessed foods? Many companies use standard values that come from the USDA, their suppliers, etc. These standard values are often based on averages. This can lead to even more discrepancies than for processed foods. For example, there are numerous varieties of apples and their nutrient content will vary among types, by season, possibly by storage method, and so forth. So the probablility that a particular apple has the nutrients listed in the standard is not as good as the probability that a serving of applesauce, made from many different apples, meets its standard. "

There are practical reasons why women "quit" cooking after losing a loved one, that go beyond the please others/please myself schema. It is easier to cook for four, than to cook for two. It is easier to cook for two, than to cook for one. Women generally live longer, and tend to find themselves in that position more often. I've known older men who go through the same process.