eG Foodblog: therese - Hey, wanna play a game?

[therese]

Well, Cargill says they're extracting their inulin from chicory root.

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Yep.

Although I wan't around, chicory root and jerusalem artichokes evoke a certain time and place for me. What is it?

[Kouign Aman]

post war South?

[therese]

post war South?

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Post war someplace, anyway. I actually had France in mind. So far as I know jerusalem artichokes weren't a big part of the diet in the rural southeast U.S. even after the Civil War, at least not in the parts I'm familiar with.

[rooftop1000]

They were indeed the one of the few foods not rationed after WW11

http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=1600...&icp=1&.intl=us

tracey

[therese]

This was my second peach. I ate the first one before taking a photograph, so I had to have a second one so that I could show you all how nice it was. I did make a bit of a mess with the juice, but it was worth it.

[MarketStEl]

Feeling much, much better. These taste nicer than they look.

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These remind me of a Hostess snack cake from the 1960s called Sno-Balls. They were chocolate cake wrapped in a vanilla-and-coconut frosting.

But I'm sure that these are not those.

So what are they?

BTW: Chain trivia questions! Cool.

[Pan]

Black bean bao (buns).

[therese]

Feeling much, much better. These taste nicer than they look.

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These remind me of a Hostess snack cake from the 1960s called Sno-Balls. They were chocolate cake wrapped in a vanilla-and-coconut frosting.

But I'm sure that these are not those.

So what are they?

BTW: Chain trivia questions! Cool.

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Black sesame buns, part of the stash of steamed buns I laid in for the kids' lunches this week.

My daughter had her first swim meet of the year (the practice meet, actually, so I didn't go) and she and my husband were gone by the time I got home from work, and both ended up eating at the pool. So my son and I just ate whatever we felt like, and I went to bed early.

I'm hoping we can manage to have a reasonable dinner as a family this evening. Usually Wednesday night is a bit frantic, as my son's chess instructor comes to the house to give him a lesson, but since school is out he plans to come over at 4:00 and so will be finished in time for us either cook and eat together, or go out.

[therese]

My breakfast (with skim milk):

When topped with milk this cereal is not photogenic. It is, however, pretty tasty, and does contain 14 gm of dietary fiber per 1/2 cup serving. I get very hungry very quickly, and this is one of the few cereals that keep me from getting grumpy and headache-y too soon after I've eaten.

My lunch:

Bottom left is Korean fish cake, bottom right is Korean cold veggies (sprouts, spinach, and what I think are fern brackens), top middle is fat free yogurt flavored with vanilla, top right is a peach, and top left is rhubarb compote (that I made ove the weekend, goes on top of the yogurt).

I pack my lunch whenever possible. I've got access to free lunch every day, either in a special dining room at work (where the food is not hideous, but can get very monotonous), or at whatever noon meeting I'm expected to attend that day (where food can occasionally be pretty good but is usually caloric hell). People spend a lot of time asking me just exactly what the hell it is that I'm eating, and it's not just Asian and other ethnic foods that attract the questions: if it isn't a sandwich or a salad made mostly of lettuce it's considered pretty odd.

[therese]

Black bean bao (buns).

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Black, but sesame this time.

There's a thread on black sesame desserts that mentions this item.

[therese]

Okay, here's a non-trivia question:

What should we do for dinner this evening?

Bear in mind that my husband has not moved the grill back onto the deck, and said deck still smells like stain (and will likely smell even more like stain after a day in the Georgia sun, unless it rains today).

Also bear in mind that I've got another ickily busy day in front of me. Oh, and my daughter has swim practice at 6:00 this evening...

Please, somebody help. Or better yet, maybe somebody could come over here and just cook something.

[tryska]

how about a big interesting dinner salad with the protein of your choice?

if not that, how about Malaysian takeout?

are thosde peaches good for sangria right now? roomie has to make sangria for a friends birthday this weekend, and she was wondering if they were in shape to do the job.

[snowangel]

What should we do for dinner this evening?

Eggs? Scrambled or a frittata?

[TheFoodTutor]

Okay, here's a non-trivia question:

What should we do for dinner this evening?

While I would absolutely love to come over and cook something for you, I can't, because I'm working a double. You could come and eat where I work, though I know you're not terribly fond of that place. It is "Very Wild Mushroom Soup" day, which I think isn't actually "Very Wild," though it does have wild and brown rice in it. Wednesday's soup is probably the one best suited to your tastes, since it's light and brothy and less caloric.

OK, I'm just trying to think of an excuse for you to come see me.

How about Sabri Kebab House for takeout? Or has that gotten so inconsistent that it's not worth bothering with?

[Kouign Aman]

Omelets?

Poached eggs with baked beans, on toast? (ack! my roots are showing)

[tryska]

*lol* beans on toast is my dinner for this week.

[therese]

how about a big interesting dinner salad with the protein of your choice?

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A hassle to get my kids to eat it.

if not that, how about Malaysian takeout?

Too high calorie, and somebody will have to schlep there and get it.

are thosde peaches good for sangria right now? roomie has to make sangria for a friends birthday this weekend, and she was wondering if they were in shape to do the job.

The peaches would be fine for sangria, but you need to get them now and let them ripen at home so that they'll be nice by the weekend.

[therese]

Poached eggs with baked beans, on toast? (ack! my roots are showing)

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Okay, not to put too fine a point on this, but poached eggs with baked beans on toast is a pretty good description of the meal I might prepare just immediately prior to commiting suicide. I despise baked beans, and particularly despise the idea of them with something else soft (like eggs, and toast after it's been around eggs and/or beans).

So, no, not tonight.

What I'd really like to do is eat out, so I need to somehow figure out how to manage it. Maybe somebody will have perfected cloning by later this afternoon.

Edited May 31, 2006 by therese (log)

[Chufi]

Joghurt with rhubarb compote that's one of my favorite food things in the whole wide world. When the young pink rhubarb was in season, I had that for breakfast every day for 3 weeks!

Love the blog, therese. And educational, with all the trivia

[therese]

Okay, more about our bodies and food.

Remember this?

I'm having some for lunch today, in the small cup on the upper left, along with the vanilla yogurt. The contrast in flavors and textures is very nice:

Upthread I asked what medical condition would make a person avoid the consumption of rhubarb, and saskanuck provided the answer:

Ah, I figured it out - if you have kidney stones, you shouldn't eat rhubarb, spinach and the like because of the oxalic acid.

I provided the additional info that oxalate is one of the few nutrients that's primarily absorbed in the large intestine. Decreasing dietary oxalate is a pretty effective means of reducing the amount of oxalate in your urine ("oxaluria") and thereby making one less likely to form stones in the urine collecting sytem (kidney, ureters, bladder), but there are other things that affect the amount of oxalate you absorb relative to the amount you ingest. One of them is closely related to the queries I've posted about inulin and fiber and probiotics and gut bacteria so far in this thread.

So, what's the connection between gut bacteria and oxalate?

[azureus]

Okay, more about our bodies and food.

Remember this?

So, what's the connection between gut bacteria and oxalate?

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By the power of Google: Oxylobacter bacteria degrade oxylate in the gut, thus reducing the amount absorbed.

That is the most beautiful rhubarb that I have ever seen. Mine never gets that red.

I'm really enjoying your foodblog, Therese.

April

[rooftop1000]

Lets see Oxalobactor Formigenes degrades oxylate in the intestine ....

and Inulin is probiotic friendly, and fiber gives ya that little push and yogurt contains probiotics....

dont foget this is all related to Gout also

tracey

Edited May 31, 2006 by rooftop1000 (log)

[therese]

That is the most beautiful rhubarb that I have ever seen.  Mine never gets that red.

I'm really enjoying your foodblog, Therese.

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This came from California, so I can't take any personal credit, unless you count careful shopping.

So, yes, Oxalobacter formigenes turns out to be a nice addition to ones gut flora (or is that fauna? whatever), as it turns oxalic acid into formic acid. Apparently we're almost all colonized by this critter early in life, but some of us lose it, and it turns out that there's some evidence that antibiotic use is associated with this loss: the more antibiotics a person has had, the more likely that this bug has been eradicated. It's difficult to introduce (presumably re-introduce) it to somebody who doesn't have it---even if it proliferates for a while it eventually dies off. There is evidence to suggest that people who lack it have more oxaluria and more risk of kidney stones.

[Kouign Aman]

Poached eggs with baked beans, on toast? (ack! my roots are showing)

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Okay, not to put too fine a point on this, but poached eggs with baked beans on toast is a pretty good description of the meal I might prepare just immediately prior to commiting suicide. I despise baked beans, and particularly despise the idea of them with something else soft (like eggs, and toast after it's been around eggs and/or beans).

So, no, not tonight.

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Cant have that; you have a blog to finish! So no beans on toast for you tonight, young lady! And there's no use begging.

[therese]

Lets see Oxalobactor Formigenes degrades oxylate in the intestine ....

and Inulin is probiotic friendly, and fiber gives ya that little push and yogurt contains probiotics....

dont foget this is all related to Gout also

tracey

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Excellent point re gout (or as we call it here in the south, "the gouch"). I've got to go to a meeting (where I'll have the pleasure of freaking out my colleagues with Korean fish cake), so how about you construct a trivia question that addresses the connection with gout?