Spock is dead . . .

. . . live long and prosper, Spock.

Moderate coffee consumption associated with reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and Parkinson's Disease

Harry Callahan doesn't take sugar in his coffee

Reported here:

In regards to food safety, updated and previously unexamined areas of food safety were studied. No previous DGACs [Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committees] have reported on coffee/caffeine consumption and health. Currently, strong evidence shows that consumption of coffee within the moderate range (3 to 5 cups per day or up to 400 mg/d caffeine) is not associated with increased long-term health risks among healthy individuals. In fact, consistent evidence indicates that coffee consumption is associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in healthy adults. Moreover, moderate evidence shows a protective association between coffee/caffeine intake and risk of Parkinson’s disease. Therefore, moderate coffee consumption can be incorporated into a healthy dietary pattern, along with other healthful behaviors. To meet the growing demand of coffee, there is a need to consider sustainability issues of coffee production in economic and environmental terms. However, it should be noted that coffee as it is normally consumed can contain added calories from cream, milk, and added sugars. Care should be taken to minimize the amount of calories from added sugars and high-fat dairy or dairy substitutes added to coffee.

Happiness is a break from the deep-freeze

Happiness is dark Swiss chocolate with lavender

Happiness is a hot buckwheat waffle on a cold day from the Breville Classic Round Waffle Maker

Model #BWM520XL produces crispy buckwheat waffles from a PFOA-free die-cast aluminum surface.

Available at Williams-Sonoma.

Happiness is finding French Green Lentils at the vegetarian foods emporium

Happiness is finding four Cafe Au Lait Cups by Apilco for my birthday

Lately my Italian sausage comes from G. B. Russo & Son of Grand Rapids, Michigan

They always run out of the "hot", which is the most popular here at home. So I often have to get the sweet, which is just fine, and one they call "wine and cheese", which I've grown to crave. The latter reminds me just a little of a veal bratwurst, but only because the color is similar after cooking. The flavor is delightful with my own naked sweet roma tomato sauce.

I hope to go there again, tomorrow.

Happiness is gas . . . at $1.66/gallon in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Hey! Gas makes babies smile, so why not me?

Garbagello's Pizza and Pasta . . .

. . . where tonight's pizza tastes just like last night's, because it probably is.

Garbagello's, where WE scrape the plate for YOU!

Garbagello's. Looks like garbage, tastes like garbage, this time, every time! Garbagello's!

1-800-555-2345 

Let's hear it for awful beer: Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer has been killing Budweiser!

Whattayamean Pabst doesn't advertise?

From the story in The New York Post, here:

Even as Budweiser sales have fallen from 50 million barrels a year at the peak, in 1988, to 16 million today, PBR has gone the other way. PBR sales have been on a tear for more than five years and are now up to some 6 million barrels a year. ... The main difference between Pabst and Bud, though, is that Pabst doesn’t advertise: That’s been policy since 1985. The success is strictly a word-of-mouth phenomenon. ... And anyway, Pabst tastes better than Bud: According to Beer Advocate, it gets a crowd-sourced score of 69 (“poor”), compared with 57 (“awful”) for Budweiser, on a scale of 1 to 100.

If McDonald's wants its mojo back it should make french fries the old-fashioned way

Seen here.

"In the good old days, McDonald's fries were cooked in beef tallow. But customer demand for less saturated fat prompted a switch to vegetable oil in the early '90s."

Double Corn Bread in a cast iron skillet

Same as Betty Crocker, just use corn flour instead of the all-purpose flour, and double the milk to two cups.

DOUBLE CORN BREAD

1 c yellow cornmeal

1 c corn flour

2 T sugar

4 t baking powder

.5 t salt

2 c milk

.25 c vegetable shortening

1 egg

Grease the skillet.

Combine all ingredients in a blender bowl and blend until thoroughly mixed.

Pour and scrape into the skillet.

Bake at 425 degrees F about 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Serve with breakfast sausage and maple syrup, or with lots of butter and honey on top.

Twinings Jasmine Green Tea, loose leaf: Our tea of choice since May

Bagged tea is just too darned expensive anymore. A typical cost is 13 cents a cup when you buy a 20-bag box for $2.59. Bags are convenient, but loose tea is much cheaper, AND IT'S BETTER. Twinings Jasmine Green Tea, loose leaf, has been our tea of choice since May.

Two people consuming two cups a day will burn through 24 boxes of bagged tea in four months, at a cost of over $62. The cost is even higher for a high quality bagged version of Jasmine green tea. But Twinings delicious, fragrant, loose green tea has cost us barely $35 over the same period for the same level of consumption.

Amazon is a great place to get it.

Best product yet for your dishwasher: OxiClean Extreme Power Crystals

I'm almost finished with my first bottle of OxiClean Dishwasher Detergent 4x Extreme Power Crystals and I can say my dishes haven't been this sparkling clean in a long time. Even the tea stains in my white porcelain mugs are gone, and the stains in the plastic cutting boards have almost completely disappeared.

This stuff is good, and worth every penny compared to everything else I've tried. Forget the rest, and forget about trying to make your own out of TSP and cheap dish detergent powder. OxiClean has figured out how to beat the Nazis who forced manufacturers to castrate every decent dishwashing product on the market by taking the phosphates out. OxiClean has a bunch of sodium compounds in this product, plus enzymes, which do the trick. I'm not sure which is the silver bullet, but whatever it is, it's working.  

Use in combination with the liquid "Booster" product in your rinse agent dispenser.

Scrambled eggs pesto

When I maka da pesto in the blender, I end up with a bunch of pesto stuck to the sides and blade of the blender which won't come off easily but would be a sin to waste.

What to do?

Take a couple of slices of white bread, tear 'em up into a few pieces and give them a whirl in the blender for 20 seconds or so. The bread will soak up everything real nice.

Dump the pulverized bread out onto a clean plate in a nice heap.

Then top the heap with a hot scrambled egg, or a fried sunny side up one if you prefer.

It's FABULOUS! 

One reason I'm happy living in lower Michigan

Lake Michigan protects me from this.

He that hath no beard is less than a man

BEATRICE
Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's
sending that way; for it is said, 'God sends a curst
cow short horns;' but to a cow too curst he sends none.
LEONATO
So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.
BEATRICE
Just, if he send me no husband; for the which
blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and
evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a
beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.
LEONATO
You may light on a husband that hath no beard.
BEATRICE
What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel
and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a
beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no
beard is less than a man: and he that is more than
a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a
man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take
sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his
apes into hell.

-- Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Scene I.

Tommy Ramone was a mensch

From the Tyler Evans interview with Tommy Ramone in 2012, here:

Mickey Leigh announced that Joey Ramone’s second posthumous album …Ya Know? is coming out at the end of May. I couldn’t help but notice that you’re not one of the producers on the record.

It’s just so heart wrenchingly sad that Joey’s not around. I didn’t think I was up to it. It was just too heart-breaking. It would have just been emotionally so hard for me, because working on a record, the way I work; I get very into it, very intense. I just found it overwhelming, ya know?

Did you get a chance to talk to all of the guys before they passed?

Oh yeah. I talked to them all the time, especially Johnny and Joey. Dee Dee I didn’t, Dee Dee was fine, ya know? What happened with Dee Dee was really freaky. Joey was sick and Johnny was sick, and I talked to them … sad times, very sad times. Those guys are with me all the time, which is why it would have been so hard to work on that record.

If you don’t mind me asking, what do you miss the most about them?

It’s like family, ya know? It’s an emotional thing, they’re always with me. They’re just so much a part of my life that it’s like missing a part of you, a big part of you. Just their personalities, it was so intense really, the relationships. In a sense, they’re always there. It just surrounds me all the time.

What a rotten day: Tommy Ramone has died

The last of the original four.

"[The Ramones] gave everything they could in every show. They weren't the type to phone it in, if you see what I mean."

-- Tommy Ramone, 2007