Oh, the chihuahua down the street?
In my experience, if you focus on eliminating refined sugar and flour, that's most of it. The paleo people don't like legumes, but they work for me, so typically my breakfasts and lunches are vegetarian, and dinner has meat most of the time. So you might be able to get most of the benefits without breaking the bank by focusing on the sugar/refined carbs.
(Disclosure: I'm also running 25 miles a week right now, so I may have a higher carb need than some.)
There were three dead deer on the drive between the kids' school and my office yesterday. It must be rutting season.
Eat offal. It's not easy to get used to and you'd probably need to find a grocery store willing to grind it for you (or buy a meat grinder) but it's usually pretty cheap and since it's mostly a waste product these days, you can tell yourself that you're eating something that would have existed with or without you. Or at least so I tell myself. And it's supposedly seriously healthy. I haven't braved kidneys yet, but liver and hearts (turned into pate or mixed with ground beef to make meatloaf or burgers) are honestly not that bad.
On the veldt, deer who could fuck cars were more likely to pass on their genes.
Grass-fed beef is the obvious way to have a smaller environmental impact. Doesn't help on the cost much, and would be really expensive if many more people got into it.
4: we already do a ton of beans and lentils and such, so I'm not sure there's much more I can incorporate and not feel...over-beaned.
6: offal is intimidating. But maybe the answer is to start in slowly, and transition to weird things like that once I've got a routine of eating more meat.
Actually, here's an even more concrete bleg: what to take to work, when I go back to work? My ideal menu for work is:
1) repetitive. I do not like to stop and think about food at work.
2) incredibly quick. There is a fridge, but I don't want to do anything much longer than slap a sandwich together.
3) minimal at home prep - stuff I can buy on Sunday, take all the ingredients into work, and assemble there each lunch.
4) late afternoon snack as well.
My old routine was a sandwich for lunch plus a granola bar later on.
9: Actually, that was something I wasn't clear on - whether grass-fed beef is actually better for the environment. Is it just that you're not contributing to the whole mass farming and corn foodchain cycle of hell? Isn't the methane production part of the problem? Is grass-fed still better in a drought state, or is it a golf course problem?
I used to eat steak and kidney pies. I couldn't tell which bit of flesh was which.
11: I assume it is better. Certainly there is plenty of land that's best left as pasture.
14: I find it's often easier to make an extra portion at dinner and pack it in for lunch. Or make a big pot of something on Sunday and bring in portions over the week (freezing portions helps, too.) Like you I really need lunch not to be a major interruption.
Maybe so. Right now Jammies usually takes the leftovers in to work, since I'm in the habit of eating the same thing every day for lunch. And since our dinners have often been carb-heavy, kid-friendly, not particularly healthy by anyone's measure. (This seems to contradict my claim above that we eat a lot of beans and legumes, but somehow we do both.)
You live near Mexico, the land that invented making beans unhealthy.
God, the kids eat their weight in bean and cheese soft tacos.
We have fish tacos, but my son won't put anything else on but cheese.
17: Gotcha. Then if it were me, I'd start by bringing soup and a big salad with some kind of protein on it. Prepping at work would drive me insane, but I often make a salad with whatever greens and veggies are on hand (chard/red cabbage/radish/chopped up snap peas/tomato, e.g.) , and you can top it with bacon and hard-boiled eggs for protein. Do it the night before, toss it in the fridge, and don't forget to bring it with you to work.
Here's my main conflict: the reason we haven't been eating much meat is because it's expensive and bad for the environment. I don't know how to square the circle
That's the principal reason I became a mostly-vegetarian years ago, but yeah, I'd sort of like to eat more meat as well. But expense. And environment.
One thing I've seen some people do with some success: buy into a whole cow, or half cow. You make some kind of arrangement with a butcher, and you buy in as a group. He/she (butcher) cuts the thing up in various forms of cut, and everybody takes home a boat-load of meat to last, um, many months. Need a big freezer for that, but the notion is that with the cost-sharing and the bulk-buying, you all can afford to buy a cow that's been raised in a more environmentally friendly manner.
I don't know details -- I think there are even buying clubs of some kind for this -- but I'd have to ask the cow-orker (heh) who did this last year to know more. Possibly you can do this with a pig as well. Is pork as much of an environmental issue as beef?
Also, I must say venturing into such an ambitious plan seems kind of meat-obsessed to me. The family I know who did this features a wife who went on the Atkins diet a few years ago and has never looked back (she did lose weight and become more energetic).
Pork is less bad than beef. Chicken is less bad than pork. None are great, though.
Also, I must say venturing into such an ambitious plan seems kind of meat-obsessed to me.
Incorporating more meat sounds meat-obsessed? I guess, tautologically.
My parents went to a dinner party in Ft Worth in 1970 or so, and one of the guests was some sort of genuinely famous environmentalist. She asked him, in fully earnest WASP tones, what exactly are we supposed to do? He looked her right in the eye and said, 'take your husband and children, go out on the prairie, and kill them and then kill yourself.'
The marginal difference your whole life's beef consumption is going to make in the greenhouse gas situation isn't much compared to the difference that might be made with better fuel standards, less coal burning in China, or tons of other things. I'm not saying one shouldn't try for virtue, but it is annoying the extent that people have come to define this global collective action problem in personal what shall I have for dinner tonight terms.
You might try pricing meat by the 1/4 or 1/2 animal. This also gives you pretty good quality control, since you can meet with the rancher, and get an idea of her practices. Obviously, you can take up hunting too.
The marginal difference your whole life's beef consumption is going to make in the greenhouse gas situation isn't much compared to the difference that might be made with better fuel standards, less coal burning in China, or tons of other things. I'm not saying one shouldn't try for virtue, but it is annoying the extent that people have come to define this global collective action problem in personal what shall I have for dinner tonight terms.
I think this is exactly what I was hoping to hear, actually. What am I, some lone planet-saver?
Cost wise good old Costco is the way to go. Get those ginormous pork loins and such and cut them up and freeze them.
Can I buy indulgences or carbon-guilt-offsets somewhere?
The nearest Costco is about 45 minutes away.
I feel like the biggest grumbler, but this is all confirming that I'm going to have to bend somehow. There doesn't seem to be any ideal solution. More advance planning, more freezer space, different recipes, more lunch prep...ugh.
Actually for pork, the Mexican grocery store is probably the way to go. It's close, too, but not going to be organic or anything. Would Costco have organic stuff?
No one tell Megan, but I've been snacking on almonds at work lately. It really seems to keep me not hungry.
Our Costco has organic meats and eggs although I don't think the pork is. But they seem pretty good on exerting pressure on and refusing to buy from sources that get outed as cruel and such.
I'm surprised I'm the first point out that there's a simple solution that would be easy on the wallet, improve your diet, and have a positive impact on your family's carbon footprint for generations to come: eat the children.
Nuts! Nuts are portable, full of protein, and overall the best snack ever. Tied with avocadoes for the most underrated food (avocadoes are also OK things to bring to work).
There is no reason to grind up heart, it's just a muscle like most other things we eat (albeit a smooth muscle (laydeez) which makes it texturally a bit different).
30: It's going to require some prep, but honestly, I usually assemble my next day's lunch while making dinner. It's not a huge timesink, really (although I get the mental exertion of having to plan ahead all the damned time.)
25: Incorporating more meat sounds meat-obsessed?
No, buying into a whole cow sounds meat-obsessed. It means you're investing in a free-standing freezer, and wish to be incorporating meat into your meals virtually every night. I come from a perspective of 'meat sometimes', not 'vegetarian sometimes', so planning for meat almost every time is weirdly meat-obsessed to me.
I'm sure my own position (vegetarian most of the time) seems equally obsessed to some.
No one has mentioned the correct answer: canned sardines. Incredibly healthy. Environmentally friendly. Impossibly easy to prepare. (Shelf stable to store. Just open a can to eat.) Comparatively inexpensive.
I do eat canned sardines fairly often.
Oh yeah, the bulk-buying does sound like a big step.
35: good call. Nuts are a good afternoon snack.
Sorry, 39 before seeing that the thread had moved in more positive directions.
The marginal difference your whole life's beef consumption is going to make in the greenhouse gas situation isn't much compared to the difference that might be made with better fuel standards, less coal burning in China, or tons of other things.
Charley, isn't some of the issue with factory-farmed beef not a question of greenhouse gases, but the use to which the land is put? We put a hell of a lot of farmland toward growing feed for cattle, don't we? Farmland which could be put to better use.
43. We put a hell of a lot of farmland toward growing feed for cattle, don't we?
We also put a lot of land toward ethanol, which is far more environmentally dubious than cows. Pigs and chickens take very little land, for that matter.
Eat all the meat you want and work to remove the subsidies from corn ethanol as your penance.
40: I've tried. In fact, I tried after the last time they came up as a solution here. They were just so gross, I couldn't make it work.
Get the ones in tomato sauce. Even tastier and even healthier. Double bonus.
46 before seeing 45. Is 45 serious? If you don't like to eat them plain, dump them on a salad. No other dressing needed. (I'm thinking of the ones packed in olive oil. Per 45, the ones in tomato sauce are better, but I wouldn't dump those on a salad.) you can also get them packed with mustard or jalapeños, etc. Really a lot of flavored to choose from.
Pigs and chickens take very little land, for that matter.
What? Pig feed is a huge use of land and pig waste is a major environmental problem.
Also, 46 is right. The ones in mustard sauce aren't bad either.
Also, I must say venturing into such an ambitious plan seems kind of meat-obsessed to me.
Buying something in a very large quantity because you can get it cheaper and have more control over the product does not necessarily sound "obsessed" to me. Nor does it require you to eat meat at every meal. Come on.
We got a half cow at a time when I was a kid because when my grandfather sent a couple of cows to the processor, that's when we got our meat. Somehow we managed not to eat it every single night.
Speaking of ordering things in bulk, you can get ten pound bags of raw cashews off the internet for $59, not that I have done so repeatedly or anything.
There is no reason to grind up heart
AISIHMHB, I have a hard time dealing with heart. I'm fine with other organ meats, and tongue even, but when dealing with a heart I have to steel myself, or I will get weirded out about it.
If you don't like sardines, there is another solution: tofu. NOT any sort of Frankenstein soy-"meat" product, real honest-to-god tofu. Fairly cheap, environmentally friendly. Not meat but protein rich and healthy in the same way that meat is healthy.
I would take sardines to work for lunch every day if they weren't so smelly. It seems like it would be rude to my cow-orkers. I like them with sundried tomatoes and feta in olive oil over chopped romaine.
40: Thanks for the suggestion! Just ate half a tin.
We also put a lot of land toward ethanol, which is far more environmentally dubious than cows.
Eat all the meat you want and work to remove the subsidies from corn ethanol as your penance.
DaveLMA is right. Although the ethanol development is relatively new, and the cattle feed problem persists.
Go for pork and chicken. Pork seems relatively okay (and delicious), except for the run-off problem, aka the poop soup problem.
I like them with sundried tomatoes and feta in olive oil over chopped romaine.
That sounds delicious but sort of like a lot of prep work. I wish I could get them packed in a can that way.
Oh, drat. Pwned by 48, though I tried to add value with the link!
In fact, I tried after the last time they came up as a solution here
Wait, came up as a solution to what before? Have you asked the question in the OP here previously?
Mark Sisson (Paleo) answers a reader's question about affording a Paleo diet. (Not advocating Paleo here but it deals with the high cost of good meat.) Offers alternatives, both meat and otherwise.
47, 58: I think it was a conversation about whether there was any ethical way to eat fish.
I'll have to recheck the selection at the local grocery store - maybe it's something that I could order a better version online.
heebie 29: Can I buy indulgences or carbon-guilt-offsets somewhere?
If you have the money to spend, Niman Ranch meats are produced about as close to sustainably as you'll find. Small scale, great quality, high price.
I know a Niman pork producer near Thornton, IA -- his hogs live a pretty wonderful life before their eventual doom (they're just now fattening on seasonal acorns from his oak groves). He's also a committed native-prairie and wetland restorationist who has done great things with his land.
49: Buying something in a very large quantity because you can get it cheaper and have more control over the product does not necessarily sound "obsessed" to me. Nor does it require you to eat meat at every meal. Come on.
You're right. I'm intrigued by this bulk-cashew buying arrangement, for example, and I've noticed that even walnuts are becoming absurdly expensive. So.
I don't understand how someone could eat a 10 lb bag of cashews. I feel like I eat quite a lot of cashews per sitting and yet still by the time I'm getting toward the bottom of the bag (big bags but not 10 lb bags) the nuts are starting to get stale-ish. Any more and there would be stale nuts for sure.
That sounds delicious but sort of like a lot of prep work.
I ran across the combo because I had bought a prepared package of feta and sundried tomatoes in oil at WF. Though if three ingredients plus lettuce sounds like a lot of prep work, salads probably aren't for you in general.
I don't understand how someone could eat a 10 lb bag of cashews. I feel like I eat quite a lot of cashews per sitting and yet still by the time I'm getting toward the bottom of the bag (big bags but not 10 lb bags) the nuts are starting to get stale-ish. Any more and there would be stale nuts for sure.
63: irple, or urple: you should store nuts in the fridge if you've got a lot of them.
Sorry for the dp. Raw cashews are good for what, three weeks? So that's roughly 1/2 lb per day, every day. I guess that's doable.
I always found there were a number of factors confounding each other in me ever knowing what to eat: health, environment, cost, effort, oh and sometimes those conflict with deliciousness each in its annoying way. There's no solving it.
I really want to eat lower glycemic because I have the probably irrational idea I am making myself diabetic-ish. Diabetish. Diabette-ic.
I love tinned sardines. I just get the kind in olive oil and eat them directly from the tin half the time.
I think squirrel meat is pretty lean, and safe for the environment.
Isn't type 2 diabetes much more determined by genes than people have typically thought? Or by factors beyond just "being fat." Anecdata: my sister, who has been seriously overweight her whole life and pregnant twice, has never had elevated blood glucose even while pregnant. Everyone just assumes she'll become diabetic soon, but I think if it hasn't happened by now, she probably has a pretty favorable genetic profile. I am not so lucky, having somewhat elevated blood sugar levels despite being fairly thin.
68: Explaining: it's because nuts have a lot of oil, and the oil can go rancid, which will make the nuts seem stale (or rancid, even), especially if they're raw nuts.
k-sky, I thought of you when I saw this, but it's for all of you.
Is 74 about the nuts? Refrigerate, yeah, if they're raw.
I'm making non-meat food for dinner tonight: Trader Joe's Quinoa Cowboy veggie burgers. Hands down, the best frozen veggie burgers (albeit with an admittedly hokey name).
I don't think raw cashews ever go bad? I could be wrong though. Usually takes me about five weeks to go through ten pounds. They're noticeably staler by the end of the period, but in a day-old bread way, not a week-old bread way.
I really want to eat lower glycemic because I have the probably irrational idea I am making myself diabetic-ish.
If you don't actually have elevated (prediabetic) blood sugar eating lower glycemic won't actually make a difference. Or rather that diet will, but not because of the glycemic index of your food; it's more that you can't load up on the calories via simple carbs on a low-GI diet.
I've been doing a better job of eating low-carb lately and boy is it noticeable a) how much less hungry I am in the afternoons and b) how much more energy I have after dinner. OTOH I think I'm about 25% chicken salad by volume at this point.
Nuts on Clark!
(Just wanted to throw that out there)
Eating fewer carbs really seems like it would be a good idea for me, but is a life without bread, potatoes, rice, buckwheat, pasta, yucca, and all the rest really conceivable?
Parsi, there are people doing their best to raise livestock in an environmentally sound way, and Ii think it's a good idea to support them. Buying meat outside of the industrial protein production complex obviously can't solve any global problems, but rewarding the individual effort that a producer is making seems a net positive to me. It doesn't take that many customers to make the next bison/grassfed beef/ethical pork producer economically viable, and if they're in one's community, all the better.
One can get a freezer on Craigslist for not much. And, obviously, having 100 lbs of whatever in the freezer doesn't mean you're going to eat it every night, or every other night.
It's not like if you stopped raising beef or bison in Montana all that land would be put to raising chickens, or lentils or something you'd rather eat. For vast spaces, it's grass for cattle or nothing. This is true for a lot of Texas too. Now it may be that the bison ranch in Baltimore County could be converted to lentils -- I'm not sure what they need.
I just polished off a whole bunch of leftover Halloween candy while cooking dinner, so I think I'm off to a good start.
We've considered getting a freezer so we can get a lot of beef or bison (mmmm), but that's probably a few years out for us yet.
One of the things that I enjoy about having moved to the UK is the availability of smoked mackerel, trout, haddock, etc. I know the nitrates from the smoking process aren't great for my bowels, but oh man do I love smoked fish of all sorts, and smoked mackerel in particular is pretty inexpensive.
Our lunches are generally left overs; partly because I like just packaging up stuff for lunch because I am lazy and partly because I find it near impossible to cook for fewer than four, thus producing lunch nearly every night.
Also, we got an upright freezer for not much new - they're a great investment. (Though ours is mostly to store our raw cat food, because we're ridiculous like that.)
Tell me more of this cat food ridiculousness.
Breakfast like a bear - nuts and fruit. Lunch on legumes and vegetables, usually the veg leftover from dinner or something I've cooked over the weekend (roasted radicchio, squash, cauliflower, etc.). Summer is of course a dream because tomatoes make this very easy. The way I keep it all enjoyable is to have capers, salted lemons, smoked paprika, curry leaf podi, lime pickle, and other nice stuff on hand that can be tossed in on a varied basis. Add some lemon/lime juice or vinegar, olive or other oil, done! Piece of fruit for afternoon snack. Dinner is meatless probably 2 days a week and dairy/eggless another, and always lots and lots of veggies with a moderate amount of meat. We have easy although expensive access to non-industrially raised meat, dairy and eggs. If we didn't we'd likely go the route of buying shares of cow, pig, goat and lamb and having a freezer stocked. When my brother was deer hunting we sometimes got amazing meat.
I generally avoid refined carbohydrates but not fanatically. The better half regards, nay reveres, the potato as a vegetable, but honestly I would be fine eating it two or three times per year max. Preferably roasted in goose fat!
Don't much mind passing on bread most of the time, but sometimes it's a wonderful texture hard to replace. Rice, pasta - I've just scaled back my portion over the years or skip it. Am never going to give up a wonderful tart or cake, just try to exercise moderation and if it isn't really delicious I skip (within the bounds of politeness).
Any "diet" that eliminates dark chocolate and wine is pointless in my book.
So much of this has just evolved as my system has changed over time. Regular, enjoyable exercise makes a big difference in keeping trim, and hg you already have that down. But I do think scaling back the simple carbohydrates has a bigger impact the older you get. Kids, teenagers, young adults can usually blithely eat everything with abandon, and I do enjoy being able to make a cake or tart and know we adults can have just one piece but it won't go to waste.
And dosa, I will never give up dosa.
I've eaten pizza for three out of my five meals.
Almost a year after -- contributing? Subscribing? Can't remember -- two boxes of Soylent have shown up at my door. I've been eating it for two days, and it's doing what I'd hoped it would do: buying me a few more hours in the day while making sure I don't suffer the usual effects of not eating. I think it's heavily legume based, although there's sardine and anchovy oil in there. I'd love to know how much better or worse it is than meat, ecologically, (or would be, if lots of people started eating it). It's certainly over-packaged. No problems with the taste.
Tastes like a vanilla milkshake. A little chalky. Chalkiness disappears when mixed with a frozen banana.
Thanks. Just wondering how high the bar to be cleared is.
The taste isn't the problem.
90 sounds great, actually. I wonder if I could implement something like that.
I am all about pleasure, heebie!
Absent further comment, I'm going to assume Parenthetical has a freezer full of mice and songbirds.
Not that I haven't considered the same.
I'm drinking lager and going to order wings per ttaM's advice.
DQ has made me hungry, and also made me think anew about how tragic it is that I have no curry leaves at all in the house.
There are curry leaves at the Berkeley Bowl!
I didn't know there was such a thing. I thought curry was a bunch of spices combined.
Curry leaves are HEAVENLY and i always walk out of the shop on Polk with the bag in my face inhaling maniacally. I'll try and post the podi recipe later.
How convenient, nosflow! I'll be RIGHT THERE.
I'll try and post the podi recipe later.
Please do.
The Cage is trying to get fancy on me. They have a written menu of drink specials drawing upon the recent holiday as a theme.
I never knew they had simple syrup here, let alone things infused with rosemary.
I'd never considered rosemary as especially spooky
I think I'm the worst eater here as well as worst everything else. This has really been a rough week and I have hidden an avocado I can privately snack on later, but I'm still way behind everyone else in keeping up or caring. (On the plus side, took the kids to the Big Boy where Mara's mom works because she was able and felt ready to see her mom on her birthday for the first time since age 1 and she's now 7, so that was worth eating a burger and sweet potato fries. But now they're all asleep, so nothing but wine for the rest of the night, I hope.)
113: It is for remembrance, no? Maybe Moby wants a what-stays-in-Vegas type bar.
Halloween's over, so presumably the drinks are themed for Remembrance Day.
114: I'm having beer and wings after pizza for dinner and you're worried about the avocado?
If I cared about the avocado's well-being, I'd be worried about it too. Sounds like Thorn has plans that aren't going to turn out well for the avocado.
Deep fried smoked trout might be good.
The marginal difference your whole life's beef consumption is going to make in the greenhouse gas situation isn't much compared to the difference that might be made with better fuel standards
Yeah, but not eating meat is not going to directly do anything to fuel standards. It's fairer to compare the good my not eating meat does to the harm my not eating meat causes.
I'll eat the avocado for breakfast while making bacon 'n' eggs for the rest of the family, which seems about as good as it gets for about-to-be-eaten avocados. I'm just really emotional and grumpy both because of what's going on and because Lee's about to quit smoking again, which means I need to take on all this extra emotional work I really don't want to do right now, but it's worth it because having her wake the baby in the night with her coughing is no good either. I'm just so over it all.
I don't know what kind of bar Lee hangs around in, but in my bar young women who are disadvantaged by capitalism but who did rather well by the combination of youth and biology come around and try to give you electronic cigarettes*. Maybe those would help.
*plus coupons for regular cigarettes.
She's starting the patch this week. She tried the e-cigarettes but couldn't get them to work properly. (I suspect this has to do with that weird expectation that people read directions, but I fear i've pushed gender stereotypes excessively already and shouldn't add that.) She's having a really hard time quitting this last time around and it would probably be easier if I were more supportive, but I'm kind of at the "if I had wheels I'd be a wagon" end of things as far as that goes. Because yeah, great job stopping smoking in October oh and did Nov 1 count for that? Okay, then, perfect, Mara's birthday as a stop date, etc. I am not even the one of us who's SUPPOSED to be good at marketing. Also I'm a bad person and don't feel like being helpful. (Also what does anyone ever do for me? Or would anyone, if I quit any of the bad things I do??)
But more pertinently, the goal her cessation counselor has gotten her to agree to is that she won't go to bars at all this month, which she actually already broke this afternoon. But she's asked me that no matter how obnoxious she gets (that part wasn't stated) I not tell her it's okay with me if she goes out. But she's also mad at me for having her actually parent during a party to distract her from opportunities to smoke, so I suspect this will be painful for me even though I want her to stop smoking and should supposedly be doing more to make that happen. Probably that's related how how a lot of this would be painful for me anyway. But etc. I realize I'm boring and redundant here, too.
I used a patch and half to quit. That's not medical advice, but I did get the idea from a doctor who told me to he wore two patches at once to quit.
I'm not sure he was real doctor. His degree was from the U.K. and I don't know if he was legally able to see patients in the U.S. or not.
Anyway, if she's grumpy and can't got to bars, you can still go. Just don't hit on the girl passing out the e-cigarettes. It's kind of her job to be there, so she can't easily tell somebody to go away.
I don't think she's tried the patch. I know she sort of overdosed on nicotine gum when a friend gave her some. But obviously doing it on personal will isn't working. It would really be nice if she could get rid of the hideous cough that wakes the baby in the night, so if I were a better person I'd be excited about taking on whatever self-sacrifice it requires to get to that.
You've taken on plenty of self-sacrifice. You've earned the right to be grumpy about this.
Personal will sort of sucks ass as a stop smoking method.
Okay, blog, teo says I can be as grouchy as I wanna be, so it's ON.
If you're just worried about coughing, you could try to get her hooked on snuff. It's cheaper than smoking also.
So I put a picture of myself looking semi-awful in the pool, octopus thanks to Warren G. Harding's kindness a few year back. That's a start to Grouchvember, at least.
Whoa. All I have to do when I want to be grouchy is ask teo for permission?
I believe I have been misquoted. Also, that picture doesn't look awful at all.
I'm not JUST. It would just be nice to not be up for 45 minutes at 3 am and have all that amount to nothing because Lee starts coughing. But maybe Selah should just sleep better or something. I think we should move her down the hall to where the other girls sleep, but Lee is still periodically waking her when she (S) gets to sleep before Lee gets home, so we're way pre-comity on that front.
Too bad, teo, you lose. And you've been in Alaska too long, or something. All pictures of me look bad, just some more than others. That's because I'm female.
If you're claiming all pictures of women look bad by definition, I think I'll have to disagree.
At a minimum, Chelsea Handler looks much better topless on a horse than Vladimir Putin does.
Yeah, I just realized I had to caveat that to not be horrifically sexist. Um, sorry? The plus side is that at least you don't look as bad as men? I'll go now.
All I meant was that I'm self-critical. Everyone else here is lovely and smart and happy and whatnot. I'm just having a small emotional breakdown, but I'm sure having I think 14 children ages 2-8 here tomorrow for a birthday party will totally make that better, right? Especially if Lee's still not speaking to me?
No, stay! Your grumpiness is very entertaining.
But I need to sleep because even with an extra hour tomorrow, it will all be full of many children. And I have pictures with my full face in them but having multiple pictures seemed worse, and also Moby has seen my face and can guess how little has changed.
Emotional breakdowns are less entertaining, admittedly. We're all here for you, though.
You look great. Also, Bave looks less flight attendant-y than I was expecting and Heebie looks way more Blind Mellon-girl than I had thought possible. Because huge glasses, I think.
Extra hour! Excellent. Though I seem to wake up early every day lately no matter what time I go to bed.
148 not to Teo. I have no idea what he looks like these days.
I know. I'm sorry I'm emotionally awful. This has been a rough, rough week, and I'm sure I'll be fine. I put up another picture and will read a book in bed now and try not to be online until tomorrow. Maybe.
Goodnight internet, cleavaged or not.
I'm not really gone and asleep. I said I'd read a book but OMG the smoker-snoring!
I guess I spoke too soon. Hi, Thorn!
Appearances can be deceiving but I'm semi-gone. Yay for essear's recent mention of the Calamity Physics book!
And should I be explicit that I put photos up because I'm curious who (besides apo) would slut-shame me?
Well, here's some anecdata from a vegetarian: I quit eating sugar in July because I thought it might help with my sinus problems. Without any calorie counting or really any effort at all, I lost 20 pounds in five months. I'm 6'1" and was somewhere around 180 pounds. After a month off sugar my pants started falling off so I thought to weigh myself. Now I'm 158 pounds and still losing weight. I didn't think I was fat and I wasn't trying to lose weight, it just happened. And I eat tons of carbs. Like, two slices of toast at breakfast, banh mi at lunch, and bread with dinner, that kind of thing. I think the big change is that I'm just never that hungry anymore. I never snack and sometimes I skip lunch or dinner because I'm still full from the previous meal.
I had have a killer headache for the first three weeks, but it really has been amazing for my sinuses, so I probably am just going to stay off sugar forever now.
161: Cleavage-baring Halloween costumes are amateur-level sluttiness at best. Topless horse-riding is the true test of a slut.
I don't even ride... horses. I'm the worst representative of our state ever. But I guess it's time to do a helpy-chalk-approved google of what these Handler faux-Putin photos actually are, since you're dropping hints and I'm obviously not asleep yet.
I'm not a fan of hers in general, but it's cool she's being so open about normal=lopsided breasts. Though he gave us the whole 12 labors of Hercules and she responds with one topless horseback shot? I dunno.
Maybe she could invade a different part of Ukraine to make it even.
Thorn, you look great in that photo, like in all photos. Sorry you are having such rough time.
Teo thank for 165
Tell me more of this cat food ridiculousness.
Caveat: I would be reluctant to do this in the US because I don't trust the meat processing system as much. But we do the raw food diet (essentially, human grade meat trimmings, etc that is ground up with some bone & other additives like kelp and brewers yeast) for our cats, as I detest the smell of regular wet food but I know it's good for them to have more moisture in their diet than they would get from dry food alone. It's not terribly expensive compared to buying fancy pants dry food and is relatively easy, so long as you remember to always be defrosting! It does take up a lot of space in a freezer though. Our cats love it, and we haven't had any contamination issues in the year plus we've been using it.
Right, now I will read the rest of the thread and see how silly this looks nearly 100 comments later.
Absent further comment, I'm going to assume Parenthetical has a freezer full of mice and songbirds.
I went to bed! During game season, you can actually get game bird raw cat food. (Is there anything more UMC than feeding your cat pheasant? I told you it was ridiculous.)
My favorite smoked fish is trout.
I am not sure how I missed that, as I agree.
Heebie looks way more Blind Mellon-girl than I had thought possible
So so so true.
I said I'd read a book but OMG the smoker-snoring!
Anything that bothers one during sleep is annoying, but I do think being a light sleeper and having to sleep near a snorer is quite possibly a form of hell on earth.
You look cute, Thorn, and may sleep come to you and tomorrow's party be at least a little fun.
Oh, hey, *rple, there was a fire eater at the party last night, so I thought of you. Are there regional rivalries between circus schools or anything? At any rate, she brought her show inside but then set off the smoke detector, which was sort of funny.
I got my 5-6 hours of sleep and today should be a good party. I'm certainly less grumpy, which is good because there's going to be a lot of cleaning and so forth to do. Right now I'm finalizing my insurance choices for next year. Fun!
"Anything that bothers one during sleep is annoying, but I do think being a light sleeper and having to sleep near a snorer is quite possibly a form of hell on earth."
Word.
God yes. I used to be a champion sleeper, but now I'm a super-light sleeper.
I get annoyed when I get woken up, but I think I'd find having to defrost food for a cat more annoying.
I'm curious who (besides apo) would slut-shame me
I don't slut shame. I slut encourage.
They're lopsided? I truly didn't notice.
Heebie couldn't take her eyes off Putin.
Everybody should get tested. I might have gotten some slut on you in any one of these threads.
I'd find having to defrost food for a cat more annoying.
It is, but in the hierarchy of annoyingness, the smell of canned cat food is worse than either.
"It eats the dry in the tin or else it gets the hose again."
I quit eating sugar in July because I thought it might help with my sinus problems. Without any calorie counting or really any effort at all, I lost 20 pounds in five months. I'm 6'1" and was somewhere around 180 pounds. After a month off sugar my pants started falling off so I thought to weigh myself. Now I'm 158 pounds and still losing weight. I didn't think I was fat and I wasn't trying to lose weight, it just happened. And I eat tons of carbs.
I did go a year without eating any desserts, back in 2005 or so. I didn't think of it as quitting sugar exactly, more about trying to reset my sweet tooth, but nothing happened. I didn't lose weight, didn't alter my sweet tooth, etc. I wasn't exactly trying to lose weight, then, but it didn't happen on its own accord.
Also, my god, this cold front is marvelous. For the first time this season, we're out of the 80s and having highs in the 70s.
When did calaveras and Mexican skull-masks become so trendy? I feel like half my FB feed has pictures of themselves with skull-facepaint for Halloween.
When we have a cold front, we have actual cold.
The NC mountains have gotten a bunch of snow.
On topic: I said that I didn't want toast for breakfast because I was watching carbs. My son said, "But carbs are the base of the food pyramid." In other words, they get this stuff in school.
We just survived Red Ribbon Week. Each day is a different indoctrination and you dress up according to the theme, all very dated and D.A.R.E-esque. They did have to sign a promise thing, I think. It didn't seem to make much of an impression on Hawaii.
Who went right back to huffing doofballs and snorting paint.
The one I hated from my kids back in the day was "pink in the middle cooked to little."
Great, now I feel bad for defaming Chelsea Handler or something, though if I were planning on doing that it would not be about her breasts. It could be the angle or how she's moving her arms, but it just looks like her breasts are slightly different shapes and sizes, which I am led to believe is common. That's all!
It's just women aging naturally, Thorn. To me, her breasts look just like Renee Zellweger's faces.
195: That's not what huffing doofballs is.
I think its just the angle. The camera is looking at the breast on her right side more from the side, so you can't see how spread out it is.
Here is the curry leaf podi recipe:
http://www.themahanandi.org/category/greens-and-herbs/curry-leaf-karivepaaku/
Obviously, sun drying is not an option in SF. Heebie, I bet you could grow curry leaf in your yard. I spin the washed leaves in the salad dryer, roll them in a towel and let them sit for a bit, and then spread them out on cooking trays and dry them in a very, very low oven with the fan on. Once they are super dry, I put them in a mortar and powder them, then put the powder through sieve to remove the stems. Watch the garlic - you need to get it dried out all the way through without burning it.
This podi turns avocado into a sublime foodstuff, is spectacular on scrambled eggs or hard boiled eggs (excellent on sailing trips!), roasted vegetables, etc., we just call it magic powder in our house.
Enjoy!
To me, her breasts look just like Renee Zellweger's faces.
That would have made one hell of a photoshopped image for Halloween. Or costume idea.
I thought drying curry leaves was conventionally understood to render them bland and blah?
Is this a conventional web magazine?
This is, per the current alt text, a mansplanazine.
Neb, the mansplainer, the mansplainomatic, nebsplaining the curry leaf conventions. The nebinator.
If it hadn't taken me so long to remember "ekranoplan" … !
"pankraton? no, that's not it ... enkrateia is something else ....". I tried searching for "immanentizing the *", but apparently the phrase used "immanentize".
Yes, that's absolutely true if you try to sub say 4-6 dried leaves for fresh. But the volume of fresh leaves in this recipe is somewhat epic for the amount of resulting powder. It ends up working!
I just remember Ponarke Nanama add "canal" and do the palindrome in my head.
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I'm scrambling to finish my dissertation and -- à propos of a traditional hated piece of encouragement -- keep picturing a New Yorker cartoon with two supervillains drawing up their nefarious plans, with the caption "The world-historically evil is the enemy of the reprehensible!"
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Because this thing is going to be bad, people.
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If it makes you feel any better, hardly anyone will read it.
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Any Californians or health policy people want to weigh in on Prop. 45?
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Also, best of luck, Lurid.
When did calaveras and Mexican skull-masks become so trendy? I feel like half my FB feed has pictures of themselves with skull-facepaint for Halloween.
I was wondering this same thing. It's like an explosion of Día de Muertos in my feed.
There is a kiddie movie about dead Mexicans that just came out.
216: I think minivet has written about it, on his blog. I think eightfold path to naniwa?
We made a pumpkin pie and there was extra gloop so I made low carb pumpkin pie by baking the leftovers in a ramekin.
I'd strongly encourage SF voters to check out alternative, more detailed analyses of SF ballot measures. I don't by any means always agree with their positions, but the actual background and pro/con information from SPUR is very informative: http://www.spur.org/publications/voter-guide/2014-10-01/november-2014-voter-guide
Thanks, heebie. And happy to discuss more, Fosco.
If it hadn't taken me so long to remember "ekranoplan" ... !
I am not offended by this admission, neb, but I am deeply saddened for you. A life outside the glory of ground effect vehicles is a life only half lived.
LA meetup today consisted of myself and Halford, who is well and cheerful. I did not ask him to come back because I didn't want the conversation to turn into the opening of one of those mediocre thrillers I have watched too many of.
"The blog needs you back, Halford."
"God dammit, ajay, I told you I don't do that any more. I'm on hiatus."
"Fine, you can command the ekranoplan."
I may never own my own ekranoplan, but I have just discovered you can buy kit models online for only $118! I am seriously tempted.
I have a sardine recipe for people who don't love sardines.
One can of sardines
1-2 cans of tuna
chopped up carrots
chopped up onions
chopped up celeries
chopped up dill pickles
powdered ginger
powdered turmeric
Pepper and salt to taste
It's great on a sandwich, but you can also put a scoop next to a salad--even a simple one like spinach with dressing.
The sardine/tuna salad will keep for a day or two in the fridge.
I bought more sardines at the grocery store yesterday. One pack of boneless, headless, packed in oil. I haven't gotten used to the bones and heads thing totally, and I'm sure I didn't get the packed in oil kind last time. The other pack is packed in mustard, which sounded good. There weren't any in tomato sauce.
229: Trader Joe's sells them in just water which is what I like.
The recipe in 228 should have mayonnaise listed too.
Also, the don't usually have heads. The bones and tails are a bit creepy, but I'd bet the bones help the flavor. Sort of a built-in fish stock.
Our grocery store is truly gigantic, though.
The bones are where the calcium is. Not that I would ever eat something so obviously foul.
So you all just crunch up on the bones? I was picturing some sort of cartoon alley cat maneuver, where you stick the whole thing in your mouth and pull out an intact skeleton.
Except for the spine, the bones aren't really noticeable. And yes, you just eat them.
You don't really need to crunch them. They're very little and kind of soft.
Not that I would ever eat something so obviously foul.
Solidarity, brother.
You're the guy who ate the Double Down.
So you all just crunch up on the bones?
I always mash up the sardines before eating them anyway, which makes the barely noticeable bones even less noticeable.
The Double Down was obviously fowl.
I always mash up the sardines before eating them anyway
Because you're making some sort of spread? Or just because you do? It strikes me as an unnecessary and potentially messy step, so I'm trying to understand.
I grew up eating relatively small sardines, with bones almost unnoticeable. As an adult I've discovered Reese "Golden smoked" sardines, which are much larger (like 4 to a tin), but the bones are still not that big a deal. Partly, it occurs to me, because I'm almost always eating them on crackers, thus camouflaging any boney crunch.
Just because I do. I probably started in my early days of eating sardines to mask the bones and innards. Those things don't bother me as much now, but I've come to like the sardines mashed up.
I had an jolt for a moment last night, thinking about my mother - she's always been very thin, so after esophageal cancer and having her esophagus removed, eating was a real problem and she was having trouble getting enough calories every day.
The nutritionist she met with basically put her on Gary Taubes' diet - my mom started eating sliced ham and wasabi peas nearly exclusively. This is not exactly what the nutritionist said, I imagine, but it was my mom's way to eat as much protein as possible.
She basically has a stable weight, but is now extraordinarily thin. The whole thing is backwards, but my parents are die-hard anti-fat crusaders, so who knows.
227. There's a plastic Ekranoplan A-90 model for a mere $21.
Admittedly, it wouldn't be enough to get Halford back, but for those on a budget...
Verdict: the skinless, boneless sardines in oil taste just fine. I dumped them over some leftover veggies from last night. I'll try the mustard ones tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I've never even tried sardines in sauce - just oil. I guess I always figured the tomato sauce would be gross (watery and tinny and dubiously seasoned), while the mustard... OK, I don't know why I'd suspect the mustard, since I'm a huge fan. I guess I should get some and try.
Packed in mustard sounds to me like a much too high mustard/fish ratio.
There's really not much space in a sardine can that isn't occupied by sardines.