Noodles and Atoms

 Posted by on 23 October 2008 at 12:38 pm  Education, Food, Science
Oct 232008
 

For a blog called “NoodleFood”, we don’t often use actual noodles to illustrate interesting ideas. I’m going to correct this deficiency right now. Here’s a classic video using noodles to illustrate powers of 2, as well as to discuss about the size of atoms:

(Via Marginal Revolution.)

Beef, Zucchini, and Onion Sautée

 Posted by on 4 October 2008 at 12:18 am  Food
Oct 042008
 

Note: I’m rather worn out from all the bailout blogging this week, so I’m going to postpone my post on Gary Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories until next week.

I made myself the following sautée on Wednesday for lunch. Since it was quick and delicious, I thought I’d write up the recipe.

(Yes, I could have made the picture prettier, but I was too damn hungry for that!)

Beef, Zucchini, and Onion Sautée

Time: 15 minutes
Feeds: One Hungry Gal

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion
1 zucchini
1 beef tenderloin
1 tbsp fresh thyme
salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat the coconut oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, slice the onion to get long strips. When the oil is hot, add the onion to the pan. Cook the onion that for about five minutes, stirring nearly-constantly. (You can cook it for a shorter time if you prefer it less caramelized.)

While the onion is cooking and while still stirring it periodically, cut up the zucchini and slice the beef into consistent-sized strips or chunks. When the onion cooks to near your liking, add the zucchini. Continue to stir nearly constantly. Chop up the thyme and add that. (You could use dried instead.) Also, add a bit of sea salt and fresh ground pepper too.

Once the zucchini was almost cooked about 3 minutes later, add the tenderloin. Cook that for just a minute or so, so that it’s cooked to around medium, not well-done.

Then throw it on your plate and eat it!

If I were to make this precise dish again, I’d probably use more zucchini and less onion. However, I’ll probably never make this precise dish again, as it’s just a “what I happened to have in the fridge” kind of meal.

Two Quick Tips

  • The tenderloin was still semi-frozen in the fridge, as I’d only gotten it out of the freezer the day before. To thaw it in just a few minutes, I cut it up, put it in a ziplock sandwich bag, then then put that in a bowl of warm water. It was perfect when I added it to be pan.

    I do not recommend ever using the microwave to thaw meat: you’ll inevitably cook it, with gross results. Ordinarily, when I have an hour or more to thaw something, I’ll put the meat (in its ziplock bag) in a large bowl of cold water, flipping it over once or twice. That thaws it quickly and perfectly.

  • For any kind of sautée or stir-fry, I always use two implements — often a spatula and a wooden spoon. That way, I can really turn over the food, rather than just moving it around in the pan.

A Personal Note

I didn’t plan this meal in any way, shape, or form. I wandered into the kitchen, checked to see what I had in the fridge. I decided to sautée some vegetables. Then after I’d gotten that started, I recalled the tenderloin in the fridge, so I decided to add that. I even took the pan off the heat for a minute or two, so that I could run out to the garden to get the fresh thyme. Nonetheless, I made the whole meal in twelve minutes. Cleaning up took me just a few minutes.

It was real, hearty food — and it was delicious! Also, it was the only thing I ate that day, along with two small glasses of milk and a peach. I had a large dinner the night before, so I wasn’t hungry until noon. And then, after eating the whole meal, I wasn’t terribly hungry that night.

A Recommendation

Although my diet has changed pretty radically in the past few months, I do still most strongly recommend Cook’s Illustrated as the best source for fantastic recipes. This summer, I’ve found two sources invaluable:

This fall and winter, as my cooking moves indoors, I expect to consult a wider variety of Cook’s Illustrated cookbooks. (Yes, I have a full shelf of them.) I’ll be sure to make some particular recommendations. And I’ll try to take better pictures!

The New Diet

 Posted by on 19 September 2008 at 11:37 pm  Food, Health
Sep 192008
 

In late June, I blogged about the cow share I bought from Isle Farms, in order to obtain a supply of raw milk, i.e. milk straight from the cow, without any pasteurization or homogenization. In that post, I said:

As for why I’m going to so much trouble to obtain raw milk, I have two reasons. First, it tastes much better. It’s deeply satisfying in a way that its equivalent of pasteurized, homogenized whole milk equivalent is not. Second, it’s part of an overall change in diet. I’m consuming more protein and certain kinds of fats, and I’m trying to avoid stuffing myself full of goodness-only-knows-what from processed foods, particularly carbohydrates. I’m also interested in trying natural grass-fed beef, likely from this local supplier, as I have worries about the inappropriate feed given to cows intended for consumption. (I’m also interested in more natural forms of other meats like pork, lamb, and chicken.)

Since that time, my diet has evolved even further in a “paleo” direction — with fascinating results. My cholesterol numbers are much improved. I’ve lost weight, even while gaining muscle. I no longer suffer from strange energy lows. I’ve made significant gains in strength and balance. My tastes in food have changed — radically. I can easily ignore feelings of hunger for hours on end, even through vigorous exercise. I’ve lost all my cravings for sweets. Best of all, I enjoy what I eat immensely — and I don’t miss the rest.

Overall, I feel so much better than I have in years — if not ever.

I’m utterly fascinated by all that I’ve been reading — and experiencing — with these changes in diet. So now I’m going to inflict bestow them on you: I aim to blog on issues pertaining to diet and health on Saturdays.

Let me start with a brief description of my own diet at present. I’ll delve into some of the details and reasons in future posts.

My general goal is to approximate — to some reasonable degree — the hunter-gatherer diet that humans were adapted to eat by a few hundred thousands of years of evolution. That diet changed radically with the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. It has changed even more in the last 100 years or so. Today, the major effect of that change is the consumption of far more refined carbohydrates — particularly in the form of sugar and flour — than most humans bodies can handle well. For many, the result is the infliction of the “diseases of civilization,” particularly diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Today’s dominant view that such chronic health problems are caused overconsumption of fat (and of calories in general) is not — and was never — supported by science. As Gary Taubes painstakingly documents in his stellar book Good Calories, Bad Calories, that view was pushed on us by a few determined dogmatists, with a good dose of help from the federal government, without regard for the facts.

So what do I eat? My diet consists of plenty of meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, vegetables, and limited fruit. I do not eat pasta, rice, bread, or sugar. (I’m not eating potatoes at present, as they’re very starchy. However, I’ll likely return to eating them in moderation and on occasion this winter.)

I usually eat a good hunk of meat at least once if not twice per day. I eat beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and buffalo on a regular basis. I also eat seafood once or twice per week. I go out of my way to buy high-quality meats from animals not treated with hormones or antibiotics. Such meats are more expensive, but they taste much, much better than the barely-edible crap sold in regular grocery stores. I also rely on eggs, greek yogurt, and cheese as sources of protein. I’m not a fan of soy.

I consume lots of fat. I enjoy deliciously fatty cuts of meat like ribeye steaks. I braise vegetables in raw cream. I drink unskimmed raw milk, and make my own greek yogurt from it. I usually eat cheese and raw nuts at least once per day. In cooking, I use olive oil, bacon fat, butter, and coconut fat liberally. However, I studiously avoid all modern vegetable oils (e.g. canola oil, corn oil) and transfats.

I eat lots of vegetables and some fruits. I try to eat a wide range of vegetables, within the limits of what’s in season — or better yet, what’s ripening in my garden. I limit my fruits because they often contain quite a bit of sugar — although berries are better on that score.

I avoid anything made with sugar or high-frucose corn syrup. On rare occasion, I will sweeten something with raw honey or maple syrup. I don’t drink juice or soda. I avoid all artificial sweeteners too, as I think they tend to create an expectation of and desire for sweetness.

I also avoid grains, particularly wheat. I avoid white flour like the plague — and contrary to contrary to popular belief, whole grains are just as bad. On rare occasion — meaning less often than once per week — I’ll eat a slice of sprouted bread or a small bowl of overnight-soaked oatmeal. (The sprouting and the soaking are supposed to make the grain more digestible. However, I find that if I eat more than a wee bit, I can feel the ill effects.)

So that’s what I eat, with only very rare exceptions. Notably, I do no counting or balancing or weighing. I’m not particularly concerned with the macronutriet composition of my meals. Instead, I have two basic goals: (1) to eat real, whole, unprocessed foods, and (2) to avoid foods that spike my blood sugar. These two categories strongly overlap, but they aren’t quite the same.

Six months ago, I would have regarded such a diet as a major deprivation. However, that’s not how it feels now. It’s very easy — and very rewarding — to eat well. As for the science supporting my new diet, that will have to wait for another Saturday.

Raw Milk

 Posted by on 17 June 2008 at 12:29 pm  Food, Health, Politics
Jun 172008
 

I recently bought a share of a cow from Isle Farms, so that I can enjoy the delights of raw milk. One share yields about a gallon per week.

Raw milk is straight from the cow, without any pasteurization (i.e. heating to kill any bacteria) or homogenization (i.e. forced straining of fats for consistency). It’s what I grew up drinking as a kid, courtesy of our local dairy farmer in New Jersey. (When I was 11, my family moved to Maryland. That was the end of our raw milk, unfortunately.) From what I’ve read, raw milk does entail a somewhat higher risk of food borne illness than pasteurized milk, but it’s still less than other ordinary foods like deli meats and hot dogs.

The regulation of raw milk is completely insane. In California, raw milk and its products like butter and cheese can be bought directly from stores. That’s ideal. However, in many states, the sale of raw milk is banned completely, as if it were cocaine. (Not that I’m in favor of the drug war, but raw milk is not on par with addictive drugs, no matter how tasty!) In other states, distribution of raw milk is permitted but heavily regulated — at the point of the gun, as these government raids illustrate.

Colorado is one of those regulated states. Basically, it’s permissible to drink raw milk from your own cow. That allows a few small farmers across the state to sell shares of cows to people like me, who then pay a monthly boarding fee, all in order to obtain a few gallons of raw milk per month. Farmers are not permitted to sell raw milk directly to willing buyers, nor even give it away. Even under the cowshare program, farms cannot distribute butter and cheese. (I have made my own butter using these simple instructions.) Still, I’m happy that raw milk is available in Colorado at all, as it’s only legal in a bare majority of states. (Here’s a handy summary of the state of the law in Colorado and all other states regarding raw milk.)

The New York Times ran a story last year on the demand for raw milk in face of government regulation: Should This Milk Be Legal? It’s worth a quick read, if you’re interested. Also, if you’d like to learn more about pervasive government control of agriculture, Monica has a good post on that, including links to information on how to fight the attempt to impose more regulations on farmers. (Those regulations would be particularly burdensome for small farms like Isle Farms.)

As for why I’m going to so much trouble to obtain raw milk, I have two reasons. First, it tastes much better. It’s deeply satisfying in a way that its equivalent of pasteurized, homogenized whole milk equivalent is not. Second, it’s part of an overall change in diet. I’m consuming more protein and certain kinds of fats, and I’m trying to avoid stuffing myself full of goodness-only-knows-what from processed foods, particularly carbohydrates. I’m also interested in trying natural grass-fed beef, likely from this local supplier, as I have worries about the inappropriate feed given to cows intended for consumption. (I’m also interested in more natural forms of other meats like pork, lamb, and chicken.)

I’m quite pleased with the change in my diet already. The food tastes better to me, and I’ve lost my gnawing cravings for sugar. That’s definitely good news.

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