C is for Cucumber

Another one of those – is it a vegetable or a fruit? Because of the reproductive seeds, it is botanically a fruit, just like the tomato, but don’t ever expect to discover them in the fruit section of your local supermarket. Oddly enough, cucumber slices are employed as a beauty treatment in spas by being placed on the eyes surrounded by facial mud packs. Whether this affords any beneficial effects, other than providing moments of visual relief from stress, I do not know. If you opt to try the eye patch custom, I advise disposing of the leftovers rather than reusing them in cooking! But don’t consider cucumber as only a salad item, also consider: pickles, sushi, grilled, in sandwiches, tzatziki, and relishes are a few other ways to make use of this ‘vegetable’. That being said I’m awfully partial to Greek salad, with the delightful combination of red onion and cucumber, as a tasty break from lettuce based dishes.

• Tomatoes                        3 medium
• Cucumber                       ½ English hot house
• Sweet green pepper      ½
• Red onion                        ½
• Feta cheese                     ½ cup crumbled
• Kalamata olives              16 pitted

Dressing.     Combine 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 clove minced garlic, pinch of sea salt, ½ teaspoon dried oregano and ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Whisk together until well mixed.

Slice tomatoes into ½” wedges. No need to peel or seed the English cukes, slice in ½ lengthwise and cut into ¼” half moons. Coarsely chop green pepper into bite sized ½” chunks. Thinly slice red onion and separate into rings. Toss together with olives and dressing. Sprinkle feta cheese on top.

Suzuki Be Gone!

I’m a long way from being a profit mongering, raping the land industrialist, but I have to agree with the National Post editorial in considering David Suzuki last century’s news. On any number of occasions over past decades – yes decades, he may be from Middle Earth – he has ranted about the need to convert from fossil fuel to environment friendly biofuels. Lately, there have been a lot of scientific articles indicating that biofuels may not be quite as environmental friendly as had been hoped, one of them the topic of a New York Times article. A lead author of one of the papers, Joseph Fargione, also happens to be a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, which could hardly be described as being or acting anti-environment. Transportation costs, processing and razing more land for crops may actually cause greater problems, including increasing global warming. In addition, it has driven up the cost of wheat, corn and other food crops as they are diverted to fuel usage. This is not to say that biofuels will not be part of our future energy needs, but it will undoubtedly require more time and experimentation to lessen the negative impact now existent with their production. Meanwhile, David Suzuki ignores any science he does not agree with and is now pushing to plant the world with ‘switchgrass’ to become the next great fuel source. Professor Suzuki must have tons of fuel on hand, especially aviation gas, so he can continue to run after the disappearing limelight to which he has become addicted.

Fitness Gene

Another day, another ‘study’, another dump of data threatening to sent my cranial mass into overload. Keeping fit has been transformed into an agonizing, decision making process amalgamating this wealth of information into a coherent exercise regime. No longer can one pump a bit of iron, run a couple of times a week and pass on the seconds at meals; it requires an advanced degree in well… I don’t know.

1. “Lifting weights 'good as running'” – we already know extra muscle mass burns off more calories, but what about the cardiovascular system?
2. Muscle types – aren’t we already genetically predisposed to having more of one than the other? That’s why some can become body builders and some marathon runners.
3. “particularly useful for older people” – if you are having trouble with endurance exercise, are you not likely to encounter difficulty handling weights or resistance?

I’m guessing what you need is a mouse gene transplant with a little toggle switch to cycle between pumping iron and running triathlons. As a bonus feature, you will constantly crave cheese in all forms whether it leads you into a trap or not.

B is for Broccoli

Broccoli - either you like it or you don’t like it or you end up getting used to it. Every food expert has jumped on the band wagon extolling its virtues and those of its cruciferous cousins: packed full of nutrients, cancer fighter and now a sun screen! Wonder whether you tan or just turn green? Other than making sure the florets are deeply colored, not yellowed or pale, and the stalk is not suffering from limpness, there seems to be no way to ascertain whether any particular bunch may be bitter which has undoubtedly caused many to avoid this particular vegetable including a former President. I suspect quantum fluctuations alter the taste according to the interference of the diner. Another problem is overcooking which not only erodes the nutrient value, but results in a mushy unpalatable mess. Best cooking method is to stick to purchasing heads without the stalk and steaming the split up florets for 4/5 minutes. If in doubt, whip up a creamy cheese sauce to smother any potential taste dilemma.

Flour                              2 tablespoons.
Butter                            2 tablespoons.
Mustard                        1 teaspoon dry hot.
Milk                                1 1/2 cups.
Salt                                  to taste.
Pepper                            1/4 teaspoon ground white
Cheese                            1 cup shredded old cheddar

Over low heat in a small pot (.75 liter non stick is perfect), stir the flour and seasonings into the melted butter with a wooden spoon until combined to form a smooth roux. Either have the milk warmed in a second pot or remove the roux from the heat allowing it to cool – this will prevent the milk separating from heating too quickly. Add in the milk slowly, stirring constantly as the heat is raised to medium. Once bubbles form over the entire surface, cook and stir for another minute to fully cook flour. Toss in the cheese and stir in well to combine.
For an upscale version, leave out the dry mustard and use ½ cup of crumbled Gorgonzola Piccante instead of the cheddar.

Too Healthy to Live

Shades of Logan’s Run returning to haunt us. Now we know there is an optimum economic moment when for the benefit of our country, we should expire willingly or the system may decide to step in, at a future juncture, to aid our demise with a reminder and a helping push. Who would have contemplated that a struggle for health and fitness would eventually become a drain on the earth’s resources? Then again, we could simply accept it as a further step in the development of the green movement. Meanwhile, instead of tax breaks or seniors discounts etc. the government could legislate a ‘too old user’s fee’ for taking up hospital space, doctors time or other valuable commodities. I can hardly wait for that special envelope to show up in the mail; informing me I’ve tipped over into the overuse of communal assets zone and should consider earlier ‘retirement’.

Watch Your Balance

Until this article popped up in the New York Times, I never gave much consideration to the balance aspect of falling down. Usual scenario is to trip over some object or have something or someone accidentally knock you over. And then, age and bone mass kick in determining whether or not bones break or less critical forms of injury result. I’m a great believer in plenty of activity including weight bearing exercise either with real iron or as a consequence of hauling a backpack full of supplies hiking or scrambling in the mountains. Therefore, I figure I’m preventing the loss of bone density or at least slowing it down, so I’m less likely to suffer fractures or serious injury from minor falls. While aware of the factors contributing to a good sense of balance, I never contemplated the gradual deterioration of each function and the possibility of basically losing my balance for no apparent reason – not the best situation when it’s steep enough to require the use of hands to summit a peak. Also, I’m pretty positive all the walking, running, hiking and climbing must have upset those little proprioceptors on the bottom of my feet causing them to react a mite slower or simply get fed up with all the work.
As soon as I finished reading, the obvious next step was to try the one legged balance assessment and slot myself into a category. Phew! Can’t you just anticipate the onset of stress and the threat of failure having to submit to a test? Didn’t ace it, but passed with seconds to spare. The suggested exercises are easy enough to fit into a yoga routine or one legged stands could be performed in a check-out line. Doing the training is fairly quick and simple, besides which you never know when you may have to walk a straight line.

Poor Jimmy!

The latest downturn in the market must have caught the almost destitute Mr. Pattison deeply in his pocket book. How else to explain his attempt to retrieve his losses from the pockets of his most poorly paid employees? According to this story, he is requesting food store employees – Overwaitea, Save-On and Price Smart - to accept minimum 2 hour shifts in place of 4 hour; thus helping him in his desperate quest to lower expenses and improve his bottom line. One also has to remember it was his good pal Gordon Campbell – our beloved premier – who forced through the legislation lowering minimum shift hours which now allows Mr. Pattison to bring down the hammer. Assuming most employees require some form of transportation to get to work, we’ll compare the hourly wage to cost of transit fares. Okay 2 hours at $8.00 per hour yields the grand total of $16.00 less single zone fares of $2.50 each way leaving $11.00 to cover CPP, UIC, taxes and some to pay for the ‘benefits’ which are being offloaded from the company. For the unlucky workers who may need a 2 zone fare of $3.75 each way, they will have only $8.50 to cover expenses. There is little sense in discussing how anyone lives on the amount left as this item does not show up in the ‘human resources’ manuals – Jimmy’s people are merely interchangeable worker units.
Methinks Jimmy doth still don the food stained shirts and ties from the used car lot days!