jsolomon

I think they have in the past. That's how we got the current USDA guidelines on Federal School Lunch programs. Why don't we additionally use modern research on weight loss and training principles to help these kids move and develop. Do primary schools still make kids wait 45 minutes after eating to have recess? Mine did, but that was 2 decades ago.

I do not see why you couldn't blanch and refreeze them. But response to your corollary is a solid "maybe". That depends on the size of your fries. If you have dainty fries of 1/4 inch or so on a side, or a very acute angled steak/home fry, no problem. If you have larger fries, then you ought to defrost them. That's my opinion, though. I don't fry much. I'm a horrible member.

Blanch some torn kale for 2 minutes or so, drain, and toss with olive oil, garlic, and a bit of salt and pepper--keep warm. Saute the chicken in some olive oil or butter--just enough to heat through and put a crust on the outside again. put the chicken, and kale on a good piece of bread and top with that last bit of cranberry relish you've been wondering what to do something with. Top with a second piece of good bread. Sandwich--yeah. Tasty--definitely.

My school tried that one time. The survey ended up being revised three times (and sent out 4 times) before they got back the answers they wanted. I.e. the "you're doing fine" answers. We had a big change-over in school-board members right after that.

The resistance to baked cheetohs has to start somewhere. If I've got to hurt a physician's feelings to get him to give better advice, then I will. It's like complaining at a restaurant. If you feel you received substandard service, you state it. If you feel that someone else got substandard service, then, well, you've seen what happens. And, I've also stated that if they gave them lower fat milk and fruit instead of cheetohs, I'd be for that, too. But, mostly, I'm for getting butts out of seats. Honestly, my great hope is that someday, there will be a well-publicized social experiment where all of the classes in a whole school have a requirement to assist in some way with the food each week. Perhaps kindergarteners would be weeding and tending the herbs going into the food, but by the time they are in high school, much of the food prep, and even planning, ought to come from the kids. And, why not? They'll need to feed themselves at some point in their lives. Why don't we teach that in conjunction with health class?

I speak about their effects on campus, not worldwide. My favorite workman's subjugator is coffee, so I tend to not pay attention to issues with soda. mea culpa On my campus, the tempest lasted for about 6 weeks when the contract was signed, and now when we bring on new staff from other University's, they kvetch for a day when they find out, but then they adjust. That is what I was meaning. I wasn't speaking on grander social or humanitarian scales.

Speaking as an intelligent person who is a member of our military, I disagree. Speaking as someone with 10 years of emergency medical experience, I disagree from the same angle. And, speaking as someone who learned to swear from an ordained minister, I find it linguistically satisfying at times. Sometimes you simply have to call a spade a Goddamned shovel. I would submit that letting the parents decide may be a compromise that then the school board could throw in the parents' faces and say, "but you told us to," but it is still a mistake. The parents in this case are, by and large, part of the problem. They follow fad diets. They don't get their kids out to exercise. They don't generally feed their kids a healthy balanced diet. Here is my suggestion: hire a chef or produce manager from a reputable store to purchase fruit, instead of fruit juice, for the school. Make sure that this person has a mandate to get good-tasting, high-quality fruit. Also, this person should hold their suppliers feet to the fire about providing high-quality fruit for snacks at a reasonable price. I'm not even talking about a full-time employment type of thing. Hell, some grocery stores might even donate the person's time for a tax write-off if the prospect was presented intelligently and respectfully. (I am recusing myself from that task because I simply refuse to be politically correct.) And, I still stand behind my utter horror at what SuzySushi's pediatrician and HMO gave her as advice. I wish I could apologize for my words, but I can't. I still stand behind them.

The University I work at, University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a "Pepsi Campus". Several years ago, after a protracted whoredom offering, we got a modest sum of money from Pepsi and kicked Coca Cola out of all University-owned buildings. The stores just off campus stock almost exclusively Coke products, and the non-university owned buildings on campus--chapels, and frats, mostly--all have Coke machines outside their buildings. It creates a lot of bitching right away, and some small bitching when new employees or students find out about it, but they adjust relatively quickly. It tends to be a tempest in a teacup type of issue.

Granted on the lifetime thought, but the people we are speaking of are not adults. Also, what did mother nature develop cheetohs for? Injuries, especially superficial ones are part of the development process. I hate to be the killjoy, but it's true. A little pain never did anyone harm. As for abduction? I'll let others look up the statistics on numbers of children abducted per 100,000. I never claimed that humans are rational creatures. I never will.

I know that the average lifespan today is a heck of a lot longer than 20 years. However, the average development span of a child is not much changed since then. And, when mother nature chose what went into milk, she did it in a very deliberate, informed manner. Milk is good food by design. OTOH, why not give them an apple or an orange instead of cheetohs? Skim milk and fruit is a choice alternate from whole milk that I could totally get behind.

Yes, I am. I think that they are giving adult-palatable advice to child-sized problems. I am not denying that to maintain weight, calories in must equal calories out. But, kids are not meant to maintain. Kids are meant to develop skeletally, neurologically, and muscularly. That means 2 things: stimulation, and calories. We're doing a fine job supplying the calories. But, we're falling very short on stimulation. I say that in the most concerned, diligent, honest manner. I'm not even attacking your physician (HMO's can be obliterated for all the good they do, though). I am attacking his advice. I am attacking it strongly because I believe he's not properly addressing the problem.

Honestly? Using Wikipedia's life expectancy from Neolithic humans (late stone age) and with La Leche.org's opinion and mine that there is no set age to wean, I'll pick 20 years as a human life span, and 2 years as a typical breastfeeding span. So, 10%. That's significant. I know of children who were weaned just before attending Kindergarten--in America, and from educated, caring, informed parents. But, we're losing sight of the real issue. Some damned fool wants to glue kids' asses to seats so he can answer to GW's "No Child Left Behind" tom-foolery. And, contributing to the fact that Mr. High-and-Mighty-with-his-PhD-from-Jack-ass-U doesn't want to say "Enough!", when the kids get fat, he says, "Our school will mandate they have 130 fewer calories a day and 110 more milligrams of sodium and calcium-disodium EDTA". Feh! Honestly, why not give them 20 more minutes of recess or structured PE a day? Why is no one asking that question? I'm not saying that milk or exercise are a cure-all. But, if you're worried about a group of kids' weight, you're a lot further on the beneficial side of the power curve if you let them have their milk and exercise than if you put them on diets and strap their butts to the desk so they can have the test taught to them. Besides, when was the last time the average eG-er needed to know all 50 states AND their capitals AT THE SAME TIME? Let 'em play, fer chrissake. edit: grammar police

[rant] What kind of dumb jack-ass prefers giving an 8-year-old a diet instead of telling them to go outside and play? Your physician and your HMO should be damned ashamed of themselves. Why are we the only animal that we seem to see with fat kids? Because we don't have them do anything. That is patently retardate. It's also unfair to the spirit of eGullet to tell kids that they can't eat X, Y, or Z because it's "unhealthy". When you do that, you're stunting their experience of the world, and more times than not, they are being fed either complete misinformation, or only vaguely correct information, on how to have a balanced diet. On the other hand, if you kick the kids outside and say "play"... you have few worries. You can just about shoot food down them with a firehose--any food--and they'll thrive. But, the suit-and-tie person who just wants to make their mortgage and live a life of quiet desperation hears that kids are going to die early because they're fat, decides that Something Must Be Done. So, this misguided adult takes a page out of the Misguided Adult Weight Control Handbook which has in appendix A "...sweating is uncouth and should be avoided at all costs..." and applies it--incorrectly--to the Children Development Handbook. If humans weren't intended to drink whole milk for a significant portion of their lives, breasts wouldn't produce it! [/rant]

But, any milk is better than soda. Exercise is better than being sedentary. But, are the easy solutions always the right ones?

So, what happened to people following this article's suggestions of more milk? And, shit, if the kids are fat, do more PE/recess and give them less homework, especially in grade school.

No, but you can keep their lobster tank cool and aerated with nuclear power.

Fleur de dihydrogen monoxide. Deadly stuff. Pretty, though. As for outdoor refrigeration, I use it all the time. It works great to chill beer when you're in the hot tub, likewise other ingredients. I will also be using it extensively this winter as I prepare stock with which I will cater my own wedding reception in May. What I really ought to do is talk one of my friends into helping me build a cooling rack for the outdoor fridge, similar to a heat sink on a processor...

goulash, definitely goulash. enchiladas are also a favorite in the Solomon household--but I usually look at those as a warmer weather food. Goulash warms the heart and soul.

Beast Ice, baby. Beast ice.

My office is having their Winter Potluck next week, and I'm thinking of nodding my head toward the two vegetarians we have in the group. I'm thinking of making Mizducky's Beet and Beet-green Borscht. But, I'm thinking of roasting all of the mirepoix at the same time as the beets. My question is, if I roast the mirepoix and put some color on it, will that overpower the beets or taint the flavor? Do others think it will fly with run-of-the-mill, unadventurous palates?

You're forgetting everyone's favorite, benz(a)pyrene!

I've lived in the realm of the Omaha Weird Herald for nearly 3 decades. Their food section has always been that bad. I apologize for my people. Oh, and on the topic of Malara's, occasionally their service is surly at lunch. Good food, surly service.

Kent, I found this story about the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Meat Sales. I'm sure Texas A&M's is remarkably similar. University of Nebraska Meat Store I can vouch for the high quality of their meat.

Food trends are very similar to fashion trends. The great thing about sous vide is that now there are examples of meats that can be prepared very tenderly by a myriad and one ways.

To follow up on what Nathanm put upthread, if you are doing fractional distillation without a fractional distillation column, one thing you will want is a decent thermometer to pay attention to the temperature, so you can control your distillation.