jsolomon

Does that mean I need to avoid beer while I'm marathoning? A good espresso stout at mile 18 always boosts the spirits.

I am a regular coffee drinker, and a regular exerciser. From what I gather from this report of the study, is that there is much more to be found out. These 18 healthy, young coffee drinkers were studied in a 36-hour caffeine fast, and then just after a 200 milligram caffeine consumption under exercise stress. I think in order to provide better data to decide whether one ought to exercise post-caffeine consumption, this study should be re-done using people who do exercise regularly. A control group who do not normally consume caffeine, and the study group who does regularly consume caffeine. Also, there should be randomized levels of caffeine given (as well as placebos to the control group) to better understand what is going on. I am not surprised that this lowers the level of blood supply to the heart. Caffeine is a beta-agonist, which means that it raises arterial muscular tension-- it narrows the pipes that supply blood to the heart. Also, it increases the irritability of the muscular system-- so the same neural signal recruits a greater muscular response when caffeine is present. I wish I knew more about the myocardial reserve to give a good explanation of why that number may or may not be important. I also wish they reported the level of the exercise--even just as far as having the volunteers rate their output on a scale of 1-10. I only see this as an interesting result, prompting study. As for andiesenji's question, caffeine is lower in darker roasted beans for 2 reasons, more caffeine goes up the flue of the roaster, as caffeine is prone to sublimation, and at the heats and chemistries of roasting, caffeine gets scavenged and cracked by the environment.

Fresser, I hate to say it, but this thread has caused enough interest that you simply must do this feat again... and record it for posting on eG

Well, for the bucket, it's more an issue of the flavor compounds of the wine leaching into the bucket. With respect to the mylar bags, the interior bag is actually there to protect the aluminum that's sandwiched in between. The wine itself is a rather nasty type of stuff if you're a lump of aluminum, so it needs some protection. The outer bag is there for the structural integrity. Also, I got called back by Scholle on Wednesday, but my voicemail must have been on vacation, because I didn't get the message until this afternoon. But, here is why I am not worrying about the bags yet. Our bottle collection.

The main reason I say this is because I know the DuPont guy who worked on those mylar wine bags. What they have is a small inner liner with some aluminum sandwiched to that and a more rugged outer liner. It was purpose-built for wine-containment. These fermentation buckets are a different type of plastic that I am much less trusting of for storage uses. Hypocritical, yeah. But, it works for me, so I continue doing it. As for trips with glass up and down the stairs, I never do it with a full fermentor, but I have done it plenty of times. If I break things, I break them. And, 10 stitches is just a normal trip to the ER for me, so it's not daunting.

Thanks, now I'm cleaning spewed coffee off of my keyboard!!!!! ROFLMHAO

When I wrote the above post, I intended to add the pictures to that post, but I couldn't get image upload to work, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Here are the major items that I had to purchase special for this project. This is the primary fermentor. It is glass, and as such, does not absorb flavors that will get into the wine and contribute any off flavors. It is also very nice to sterilize, as glass is fairly impervious to the use of household bleach. Unfortunately, the bung that I have to fit in the top, doesn't quite fit, so I will probably get myself a third bung soon. At the time of posting, this is empty. But, hopefully not for long. This is the squirrel-case stirrer that I got at a hardware store. It is helpful for mixing things in the wine quickly. With this and my cordless drill, I can do in 15 seconds what used to take a minute or more by hand. This is the plastic fermentor that I have. My intention is to get a couple more glass ones, so I can keep the fermentations completely in glass. For those of you who have questions, the main aesthetic I have with brewing is the same as coffee-making. Plastic is generally bad (even though I have a very good idea of the types of plastics out there). If I won't drink coffee from it, I generally don't like to brew in it. Unfortunately, it's hard to find glass carboys larger than 5 US gallons, and this is a 6 imperial gallon fermentor. I'm really tempted to talk to an instrument glass-blower that I know and get a quote for a 6 Imperial gallon fermentor, but I'm certain that will be an abusive price. Finally, here is my airlock. You can see, it's a rather simple affair, but it works, and I've yet to have any trouble with it. Naturally, I can't make wine without letting you know the wine that I'm making, so here is a snap of the box. On 19 Jan is when I bottle. I'll try to get some pictures of that.

With the right spreads, cheeses, veggies, meats, and breads, sandwiches will take on a new life in your lunchbox. What I have found to generally work better for me with regards to taking my lunch, is to plan meals so as to make handy leftovers. On the other hand, my fiance has only taken leftovers for lunch 2 or 3 times in the year or so we've been living together (with me as chief cook and bottle-washer).

If you're going there, handmc, what about the pure carnality of steak tartare? Naturally, there's also the sinfully sensual act of eating a terrifically juicy, ripe, peach in the nude, allowing the juice to run where it will--kind of like Fresser eating a whole orange in one bite, but less disturbing. But, after 3 weeks away, my fiance could give me EZ-cheez on a piece of Iron Kids, and I'd take a healthy bite, swig some Old English, beat my chest, give a Tarzan yell, and make seismographs go nuts.

It's really stupid-simple. Get something similar to this guy and mount him in your refrigerator, so he can monitor the humidity in there. Take a humidifier like this one and a duct-reducer, some duct tape and some drier vent hose. Now for the fun part. Drill 2 holes in your fridge. 1 for the power cord of the humidity controller, and 1 for the drier vent hose. Plug the humidity controller into an outlet and set it to your desired level. Then, take your humidifier, and using the duct reducer, tape, and drier vent hose, hook up the outlet of the humidifier to the vent-hose-sized hole in the fridge. Finally, plug the humidifier in. Voila, humdity control. Incidentally, if you use a low-temperature incubator, or a more industrial-quality refrigerator, it is likely that you'll get an outlet. Alternately, you can mount everything inside if you get one of those nifty light-outlet-to-normal-outlet thingamajigs (then you don't have to cut ANYTHING)

Chef Achatz, the use of liquid nitrogen in a kitchen, enzymes to make protein noodles, as well as sous vide, are things that I, as a chemist, am really interested in. What is the next technique we're going to hear about?

I would think that banana could be paired with chiles quite easily, just like most sweet tropical fruits. Recipesource has a recipe for banana catsup. I've never tried it, but it looks vaguely reasonable. I think I'd at least triple the cayenne, but I'm a borderline chile-head.

How can you knock baked beans? When homemade, they are spectacular (and damned easy, too) Baked beans from a can, those I can knock.

No R.C. Cola or Moon Pie? How can you be so brazen?

I'm going to say: pieces of cut kiwi (need fruit for that fast sugar pick-me-up), warm brownies, and beer or champagne. Two bites, a swig, and on to foreplay!

There are more threads. Seduction, meals you'd be powerless to resist The Secret Rendezvous thread Recipes for Romance Good luck!

Catfish, trout, and halibut. MMM-mmm good.

I was waiting to see the last two lines there... but alas. They didn't ask the right questions.

Dude, showing those pictures to me is like waving crack in front of an addict.

What about using molten sugar? You could make a paste out of water and confectioner's sugar which you could place on one half-shell, torch, stick, voila! At least, in theory. Or, bees wax. That you could cut into strips, heat with a torch, and stick the second half to.

The best two I have right now have individual flaws that make them imperfect. I have a cobalt blue glass one that I got several years ago. The handle is not quite comfortable, and it doesn't quite hold the amount of coffee I would like. ~11 oz. The other one is a stainless Migo brand carabiner mug that the carabiner broke on several years ago, so I have soldered on my own carabiner. The stainless transmits too much heat to my lip when I have appropriately hot coffee in it, but it does turn heads.

So, where does the tomato juice that my family makes run? We just roughly hack the tom's, toss them through the KitchenAid juicer, and hot pack them in quart jars with a wee pinch of salt. Delish!

My name is Jared, and I'm still searching desperately for the perfect coffee cup.

"Swiller"

Whole Foods means This is your average grocery bill for 3-days' worth of food.