Mike Nolan

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  • in reply to: Reducing Saturated Fat #13420
    Mike Nolan
    Keymaster

      The connection between iodine and goiters has been well known since the early 20th century, iodized salt was first introduced in the 1920's and widely available for most of the 20th century, yet having grown up in NW Illinois I remember several farmers who had goiters during the 60's and 70's.

      Many medical schools didn't start requiring nutrition courses until about 15 years ago. My former GP (he recently moved to another town closer to his grandchildren as sort of a lead-in to retirement, he's in his 50's) once told me that the nutrition information he learned in med school was worthless.

      in reply to: Reducing Saturated Fat #13414
      Mike Nolan
      Keymaster

        Much of what was taught about nutrition in the 50's and 60's (like the food triangle, which recommended far too many servings of carb-laden grains) was wrong.

        Sadly, there are still people who promote those out-of-date ideas.

        in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of September 9, 2018? #13412
        Mike Nolan
        Keymaster

          My wife has had a really queasy stomach lately, so I haven't done a lot of cooking for a few weeks, just boring stuff like chicken noodle soup (from a can) and macaroni and cheese (from a box or from the deli.)

          Tonight she felt up to having cheese souffle.

          in reply to: Reducing Saturated Fat #13408
          Mike Nolan
          Keymaster

            Dairy fat and health story:
            Washington Post story

            Hopefully this story isn't behind WaPo's paywall.

            in reply to: Our community is grieving #13405
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              I remember the story but hadn't made the connection either. Registering one's location isn't required (and not everyone wants that information known, either),

              Having come from a small town myself, I know how an incident like this can devastate everyone, my deepest sympathies to you and your neighbors.

              in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of September 9, 2018? #13399
              Mike Nolan
              Keymaster

                Choice grade meat is not necessarily poor quality meat, it really depends on the specific cut and the cooking method.

                It's hard to find prime grade beef in most local supermarkets here. Recently a lot of meat is being advertised as 'Angus', which tells the consumer essentially nothing about its tenderness.

                in reply to: R. D. Livingston’s The Whole Grain Cookbook #13395
                Mike Nolan
                Keymaster

                  I've got several whole grains baking books, with a few exceptions I've been somewhat disappointed in the results.

                  One of the books I have on grinding your own grain spends about a third of the book preaching about heath benefits that aren't supported by research.

                  in reply to: Eggplant Quandry #13386
                  Mike Nolan
                  Keymaster

                    Mostly what I do with smaller eggplant is pair them with similar sized summer squash and zucchini and make ratatouille.

                    in reply to: What are you cooking the week of September 2, 2018 #13384
                    Mike Nolan
                    Keymaster

                      The u-pick-it orchards here seems to be running a bit behind schedule this year, and the last week's rainy weather won't have sped that up much.

                      I've still got quite a bit of apple pie filling left over from last year in the freezer, but I may make one trip out to get some Winesap apples when they're available in early October.

                      When we've driven to Pittsburgh there are some u-pick-it orchards in western Ohio that appear interesting, but we're never going through there during apple season.

                      in reply to: What are you baking the week of September 2, 2018? #13381
                      Mike Nolan
                      Keymaster

                        Fresh tomatoes are often too juicy for pizza. If you concasse them (remove the skin and seeds, leaving just the pulp) that helps, but sometimes even then I will drain the tomatoes on a paper towel for a few minutes.

                        The easiest way to concasse a tomato is to start by dumping it in boiling water for 10-20 seconds then in ice water so the skin peels off easily, then slice it in two along the equator and dig the seeds out with a finger. You can then quarter them if you want smaller pieces, especially if the tomatoes were big ones.

                        Sometimes I core the tomato before peeling it, I've never decided if that makes things easier or harder.

                        in reply to: Recipes for Corned beef and pastrami #13371
                        Mike Nolan
                        Keymaster

                          The Montreal Smoked Meat dry rub was interesting to make, as several of the spices, including mustard seed and fennel seed, had to be toasted first, and each seed took a different amount of time to toast, and smelled interesting as they toasted.

                          in reply to: What are you cooking the week of September 2, 2018 #13366
                          Mike Nolan
                          Keymaster

                            I tend to skin bone-in breasts before cooking them, and you have to do something to keep them from getting tough on the outside. Coating them with oil isn't quite enough, coating them with a sauce (often tomato-based) or cheese seems to work better. Adding wine seems to help, too, so I've wondered whether the acid in wine or tomato sauce is what's keeping them from drying out.

                            I tried covering them with cabbage leaves once, it worked well, but the cabbage leaves weren't very edible. Spinach might work better.

                            in reply to: Bracing for Gordon… #13350
                            Mike Nolan
                            Keymaster

                              We've had rain here every day since last Friday, upwards of 8 inches so far. It's still misting today, and rain is forecast through the coming weekend as the remnants of Gordon is expected to move into eastern Nebraska.

                              The Akron@Nebraska football game was called off because of thunderstorms last Saturday night, a first for Nebraska football.

                              It takes a really heavy rain to dissuade the hummingbirds, though. We must have at least 30 of them visiting our feeders.

                              in reply to: Recipes for Corned beef and pastrami #13341
                              Mike Nolan
                              Keymaster

                                I've never made pastrami, I've made corned beef a few times, none of the recipes I tried were worth repeating. The best thing I've made with a brisket is the time I tried to do a variant on Montreal Smoked Meat (without the garlic.) It was almost good enough to convince me to buy a real smoker. It bears some resemblance to pastrami.

                                The pastrami at Katz's on Houston in NYC is world-famous, and for good reason. I had a friend who lived in Chelsea for a while and he would take the subway down to Katz's every few days. Later he moved to the DC area for a few months, and was ordering whole pastramis from Katz's every few months.

                                in reply to: What are you baking the week of September 2, 2018? #13334
                                Mike Nolan
                                Keymaster

                                  I grew up in a small town (population 1200 then, more like 800 today) that had as many as 3 grocery stores. Today there are none, just a convenience store/gas station that seems to me to have a somewhat larger than usual section of groceries. I think the nearest real grocery store is 15 miles away.

                                  Two of our neighbors raised vegetables and sold them at roadside stands in the summer and fall, another baked bread and cookies that she sold to a regular clientele. Our neighbor across the street at times ran a roadside hamburger stand, when she wasn't running one of the two restaurants in town.

                                  The farmers markets here are too big and have too many procedures, rules and limitations, but if I lived in a small town I'd think about baking for a local farmer's market at least occasionally.

                                Viewing 15 posts - 6,106 through 6,120 (of 7,709 total)