NeroW

LOS-- Unfortunately I just ran through the last of my duck fat, making some decidedly non-Atkins-friendly potatoes (my boyfriend calls them alternately the "Fuck Atkins" potatoes or the "5,000 Calorie" potatoes). I will be making the cauliflower puree as suggested by Nullo, also the Bourbon "Cheesecake." Nullo: no water bath? No springform?

I also don't like the gabbing. At work or at home. I'm not saying I wish to cook in the silence of a monastery but I don't like it when someone asks me something that requires thought while I am trying to concentrate on not burning myself. Luckily, my boyfriend rarely sets foot in the kitchen when I cook. He doesn't like to see how much salt I use, or how much butter, and he doesn't want to be asked for help.

Susan, schnitzel a la holstein is one of my absolute favorites. I'm not even hungry--at least, not really--and my stomach growled just looking at your picture.

I second Dean's recommendation from last year RE Cafe Bolero. Also Twisted Spoke, always reliable. I like the Pontiac in Wicker Park. Burgers are decent, and sitting outside on a Saturday afternoon has got to be some of the best people-watching in the whole city.

You are right. You can make a passably good paneer just by heating milk and adding lemon juice to it until it curdles. Then rinse and drain it.

Trio! Hell!

Once at school I melted a spatula into some caramel I was cooking for pots de creme. I also thought no one would notice. No one was going to eat it, anyway. Wrong! Them Pastry Chefs have sharp eyes.

I would have run from the room in tears. Or thrown the plate. I can't decide which.

This sounds like the "set-point" theory. There was some discussion of this upthread. The body "chooses" a weight it wants to be and defends that weight by regulating its behaviors and hormones. It's like a thermostat. Whenever weight is lost or gained, the body directs itself to return to the "set point." There are several theories about how the body defends its set point, and they all relate to heat (hence the thermostat). The first theory states that proteins control the body's heat production (thermogenesis). One type of fat tissue, called brown fat, has more proteins that specialize in converting energy to heat--these are called energy-wasting proteins. Regular white fat cells don't have these proteins and so they store more fat energy, while brown fat actively metabolizes fat and causes it to escape as heat energy. Therefore: if you have more brown fat, you have more energy-wasting proteins, and you stay leaner. The second theory states that some tissues--like the spleen, some muscle tissues, and bone marrow--actively convert energy into heat when faced with cold temperature, starvation, or other stresses. These tissues will also produce heat to "waste" energy when there is too much energy present (i.e. when you have ingested too many calories), and on the other hand, when there is not enough energy present, these tissues will conserve energy--not burning any off as heat. The only thing that determines how effective your system is is genetics. You can't "trick" your spleen into burning away calories just because you want it to, nor can you trick it into burning away calories just because you aren't eating enough. This theory has been used to explain why dieters' efforts fail when they reduce their food intake, but it seems to "slow their metabolism." The third theory states that when lean people eat a meal, energy use in their body speeds up for a while (the thermic effect of food). When obese people eat, no change occurs. No studies have shown that this small change can account for weight gain or accumulation of body fat. In fact, obese people may expend more energy each day than lean people because their bodies require more energy to move and to maintain at a base metabolic rate.

I am glad to hear it. What was the name of the German beer you drank last night? I probably can't get it here (Chicago), but you never know . . . BTW, Lyon is an incredibly beautiful city. Now I will spend all day longing for France, particularly Rennes, where my sister used to live.

Since beginning the final phase of my schooling--which is the Nutrition part, for some reason, they save that for last--I have been fascinated by the action of carbohydrate in the body. Everyone knows that glucose (carbohydrate) is the brains' preferred fuel. While the body can convert glucose into body fat, it can't convert body fat into glucose to feed the brain. When the body faces a serious lack of carbohydrate, it turns to its proteins to make some glucose--which keeps the protein from critical functions of its own. Protein functions are so irreplacable in the body that they call this the "protein-sparing" action of carbohydrate. Dr. Atkins, obviously knowing this, suggests we get pleeeeeenty of dietary protein to supplement this effect. As far as ketosis, NM's description is very accurate but it doesn't mention some of the negative aspects. Fat fragments have to be combined with carbohydrate before they can be used up for energy. When our body tries to use its fat WITHOUT the help of carbs, we go into ketosis. It's called "ketosis" because abnormal products of the breakdown of fats called "ketone bodies" start to accumulate in our blood. This disturbs the normal acid-base balance in our bodies. Ketosis during pregnancy can cause brain damage to the fetus and result in retardation. Ketosis can also cause heavy mineral losses in the urine. Positively, ketosis is also the "last state" our bodies enter when we are starving. After about 10 days with no food, after our body has cannibalized its lean tissues and is beginning to eat through vital organs, looking for material to feed the nervous system, we enter ketosis. You could look at it as our body's "last ace": it converts body fat into ketone bodies, which are normally rare in our bloodstream, and uses these to feed the nervous system. Thus the nervous system begins to feed on the fat stores in the body, forestalling death for a little while longer. Because of ketosis, a starving person who is of average weight/body fat can live TOTALLY WITHOUT FOOD for 6 - 8 weeks. Bleu, this is a truly great thread. I mean to ask my Nutrition teacher about this diet tonight as she has not lectured on it--she has, however, lectured AT LENGTH about the low-carbohydrate diets. I am glad to see you are making this effort and I have really enjoyed looking at your beautiful pictures!

What is a low-carb cheesecake?

Holy shit!

Ewww! Now I'll always think that if I ever make it again and it's so good for you too! For all we know, boogers might be good for us, too. But I don't eat them.

Jackal10, I love you.

I guess some people like swallowing all that stringy stuff. All I end up doing is choking. paging NeroW and Tommy... Yeeees? I realized last night that I don't really like candy. Maybe once a year.

My thing is . . . I don't think of red onions as particularly sour. Another thing I love is Lenders Onion Bagels toasted, with plenty of butter and . . . green shakey Parmesan cheese. You may expel me now. EDIT: to say I also love bread and gravy. Any kind of gravy.

I know it's June, but . . . This morning I woke up with a major jones for comfort food, which to me, means beef carbonnade with egg noodles (and maybe the second bowl with a little sour cream). It doesn't really matter what time of year it is--when I want it, I got to get it. So I made a huge batch of beef carbonnade. With egg noodles. Used Czechvar Lager this time. Not bad! Drank the 4 I didn't put in the Le Creuset. Does anyone else have the "problem" of their favorite comfort foods not translating very well seasonally? Seems like all my comfort foods are cold-weather foods.

Nullo, this sounds right up my alley. Can you elaborate a bit on your procedure? Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone

Next Sunday I am preparing Father's Day dinner for my dad. He and his girlfriend are on Atkins. Sigh. They have requested steak and shrimp. So there's the protein. But what the hell else is there? I will be at the farmer's market the day before . . . I want to do something beyond protein but everything I think of seems carb-laden. They can have *some* carbs, but potatoes, corn, etc. are out. Any suggestions?

You and your tuna tartare.

I hate quinoa. It looks like boogers.

I love peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.

Lutfisk makes me want to vomit. And coming from someone who actually enjoys Old Granddad bourbon, that's a strong statement. I also love those strawberry-crunch ice cream bars. Just had one at the laundromat.