Salty things I ate at Christmas

A waffle (409 mg sodium) on Christmas Day. ... And that's after substituting the salt and baking soda of the Betty Crocker recipe with more baking powder instead. Otherwise Betty's version would have packed 522 mg sodium per waffle. Eat just two of those (without butter) and you're more than half way to the daily limit of 2000 mg. Add bacon at 220 mg per slice and . . . ouch, because no one can eat just one waffle or one slice of bacon. 

A slice of spinach pesto Sockeye pie (308 mg sodium) on Christmas Eve. ... The canned salmon is the killer here, as is the pesto. One can't do much to reduce the sodium in canned fish except to use fresh instead, which is kind of a waste. But the salt in the pesto recipe can be cut in half and still taste like pesto, especially if you use salty Romano cheese instead of parmesan. Thus prepared I ended up with nearly 700 mg sodium in 1/2 cup for the recipe.

Two slices of this savory fish pie are normal for a serving, so the ketchup condiment had to go (190 mg sodium in one tablespoon). I used San Marzano tomato sauce instead and that was fine (16 mg sodium in one half cup). A teaspoon of the pesto is also good on the morning egg (about 30 mg sodium), as it is on the Saturday pizza.  

A gingersnap cookie (66 mg sodium), from frozen dough bought for a fundraiser. ... I ate only two, because at fewer than 4 mg sodium per square I'd rather eat Lindt 85% cocoa chocolate instead.

Happiness is a Christmas-box

When time comes round, a Christmas-box they bear,

And one day makes them rich for all the year.

--  John Gay, Trivia: or, the art of walking the streets of London (1716)

Happiness is even lower sodium Racconto Whole Peeled Italian Plum Tomatoes

These have just 16 mg of sodium per half cup. Count 'em!

Happiness is killing Bambi with one of these, but the ole Olds keeps on keepin' on

1997 Oldsmobile

Model LSS

Apparently happiness is NOT Yogi DeTox Tea Healthy Cleansing Formula, according to doctors

A woman drank the tea as directed for a couple of weeks but ended up killing herself instead due to liver failure.

Doctors concluded after her death that three ingredients in the tea might have combined with her wine habit to do her in: gardenia fruit, skullcap root, and rhubarb root.

The only cleansing which occurred here was of a hapless consumer from the face of the earth.

From the story here:

Flummoxed, the doctors next turned their attention to the patient's consumption of Yogi DeTox tea. Apparently, she began drinking the tea fourteen days prior to her symptoms starting and drank three cups of tea each day as a "cleanse." The timing of the intake, as well as observed effects on the liver after halting use of the tea, soon convinced the doctors that the tea was the probable culprit. Unfortunately, almost two weeks into the ordeal, the patient's liver was wrecked. . . . On day 15, she was placed on the transplant list. Two days later, she died.

Happiness is low-sodium barley lentil soup for lunch

Barley growing in Provence to the right, lavender to the left

3 cups turkey stock from Thanksgiving, made from the leftover bones

6 cups water

3/4 cup green lentils, rinsed

3/4 cup hulled barley, rinsed

2 bay leaves

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 small carrots, chopped

1 large garlic clove, chopped

extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon French sea salt

2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

 

1/ bring the stock and water to a boil and add the lentils, barley and bay leaves

2/ simmer at a low boil one hour, covered

3/ chop the onion, carrots and garlic and saute in the olive oil until softened, set aside

4/ to a spice grinder add sea salt, black pepper, rosemary and thyme leaves and pulse until powdery

5/ when the barley and lentils are soft, add the sautéed vegetables and the spices to the soup and stir occasionally while simmering, twenty minutes more

makes about eight cups, approximately 310 mg sodium per cup (lentils 15 mg, barley 15 mg, onion 10 mg, carrots 105 mg, salt 2325 milligrams = 2470 mg/8 = 308.75 mg/cup)

Happiness is Meijer brand San Marzano Whole Plum Tomatoes With Basil, surprisingly low in sodium

Just 35 mg of sodium in a half cup. Compare that to hundreds of milligrams per half cup from ordinary canned tomatoes.

I run a couple of cans worth through iL Passatutto Velox and presto! I have velvety rich pasta sauce.

Happiness is lower sodium homemade Boston baked beans

We like Boston baked beans on Sundays with hamburgers on the grill, but the go-to brand in the can, Bush's original, has 550 mg sodium per half cup, which eats up a lot of the daily quota of 2000 mg.

The homemade version below adapted from Serious Eats has about 246 mg per half cup, almost 45% less sodium than Bush's. It takes a long time to make, but it's more authentic on top of being lower in sodium. It's also less sweet, so add your maple syrup to taste at the end. One half cup worked well for us, but you may like more than that.

Make it when you want the baked beans with tomorrow night's meal. For me that means starting on Saturday morning to be ready by Sunday night. For traditionalists eating Beans and Wieners on Saturday nights, that means getting started on Friday morning.

1 lb dried navy beans

6 oz. salt pork

0.5 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)

0.5 cup pure maple syrup

about 3 quarts water

1/ soak the navy beans all day in fresh water (I don't use salt)

2/ at the end of the day pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees F

3/ drain and sort the navy beans

4/ cut the pork into lardons so that each piece has some meat on it

5/ add a quart of water and the molasses to a three quart dutch oven and stir until thoroughly mixed

6/ add the navy beans and pork and cover the beans with the rest of the water, and stir

7/ bake in the oven overnight* with the lid on tight/check the water level in the morning and add to just cover the beans, if necessary/after twelve hours overnight there should still be plenty of water in the pot without having to add any

8/ continue to bake covered another seven hours, checking about midway through to see that there remains enough water/you'll know to add if the beans are sticking to the bottom/after almost nineteen hours I didn't have to add any water at all, but I began with slightly more than three quarts water

9/ when done the beans supply their own paste and the mixture should stir freely but not be runny

10/ at this point add the maple syrup and serve

11/ if you like it runnier, cut the serving with some water and heat through

*Serious Eats doesn't recommend unattended overnight baking for safety reasons, and neither do I.      

Happiness is low-sodium split pea soup with smoked pork hock

1.5 lb smoked pork hock, soaked in water (about 115 mg sodium/oz = 2760 mg sodium)

1 lb split peas, rinsed (250 mg natural sodium)

3 carrots, peeled and diced (about 126 mg natural sodium)

1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 10 mg natural sodium)

12 cups water

1/ bring 12 cups fresh water to a boil, add split peas and simmer partly covered about one hour

2/ meanwhile soak the smoked pork hock in fresh cold water while the peas simmer

3/ dice the carrots and sauté in extra virgin olive oil

4/ chop the onion and add to the carrots and sauté until soft-ish

5/ remove the pork hock from the soak and add it to the soup

6/ add the vegetables to the soup

7/ cover and simmer another hour or two

8/ remove the hock and when cool enough remove the fleshy meat, chop it finely and return it to the soup, heat through and serve

Makes about 12 cups (you can make this soup thicker by subtracting a cup or two of water at the start, but you will increase the sodium concentration accordingly)

Sodium per cup 262 mg (3146 mg/12)

Happiness is sodium-adjustable barley, beef and mushroom soup for lunch

6 cups water

.75 cups hulled barley, rinsed

1.25 cups leftover, strained and defatted beef stock made from a chuck roast

8 oz. leftover shredded beef chuck (braised in onions, rosemary, peppercorns and 1 T balsamic vinegar all day)

.5 cup sauteed baby bella mushrooms, sauteed in extra virgin olive oil and chopped

1/ boil the water, add the barley, and simmer covered until puffed up, about 1 hour

2/ add stock, beef and mushrooms and heat through on simmer, about 15 minutes

makes about 8.5 cups

contains about 32 mg natural sodium per cup

add 1/8 teaspoon salt per cup served or to taste (an additional 291 mg)

Welcome to December . . .

. . . the month when the icicle now taketh the place of the bicycle, or so said the Toronto Graphic in about December 1879, according to the pages of Puck.