Generalismo

I sent a letter out today. It felt good to communicate with someone in non-internet form It’s sure a lot slower, but I tend to read more of the letter than when I get an email. Don’t get me wrong, I read my emails, but I READ my letters. If you want to experience letter writing but don’t necessarily want to get a new penpal, try writing to a relative - my grandparents always seem to like to get letters from their grandchildren.

What makes a tired, shaky, sore, slightly fuzzy brained Bonnie? The residue of a three day old workout combined with taxes, resulting in forgetting to eat. My muscles are still sore from Tuesday (incredibly so!) and the taxes are thankfully almost done. When I started I pulled out my bank book and I was pleasantly surprised to see the balance was more than I thought. Then I finished my taxes and totaled the amount I owe the government and then I realized that I am not going to end up with so much in my bank account as I thought. Without getting into specifics, let me just say that doing taxes doesn’t do much to boost my morale :p

I sent this recipe to a friend today. It’s a massive batch of brownies that is super rich and VERY yummy. Leigh Lambert published the recipe in an article in the Washington Post. While looking for pictures of these delicious brownies I came across this cooking blog, and here is the author’s post about her batch of Man-Catcher Brownies. Check out her list of favorite blogs! Lovely names like The Italian Dish.

Posted by Bonnie under food

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Sooo..we went to butcher a cow yesterday. I’ve never assisted butchering anything larger than a racoon, and believe me, it’s a lot more backbreaking to do a cow than a racoon! The hide alone weighs over 50 lbs, and the guts weighed so much it was incredible.

We cut open several stomachs. One to get out the tripe, the other to see the amazing folds that the farmer told us we’d find. One had little fingers like grass in it, it was quite neat. The tripe one was FULL of grass. Well maybe not full, but there must have been 5 gallons of grass in there, looking almost like it had just been mowed and mixed with a little water. Quite incredible for a city girl like me! Actually I’m not quite a city girl, and I guess butchering a cow moves me closer to the country girl status ;)

Above is a picture of the omasum.  See all those folds! It’s incredible. I also found here that they sell salted omasum, so it must be edible. Visit this site for more anatomy pictures of cow stomachs and other animal organs.

A cow has four stomachs; the rumen, reticulum, omasum and the abomasum. I knew cows had four stomachs but I didn’t really pay attention till I had seen the stomachs come out of a cow. Here’s a site about the digestive process of a cow.

The hide is really neat. I think someone’s going to get a rug We also got the eyes for dissection purposes, and intestines for sausage. Anyone got a recipe? I know they need to be scraped down and the meat needs to be seasoned, but I’m not sure with what, exactly.

Definitely visit this blog for more info about our butchering exerience.

Posted by Bonnie under agriculture, food, learning, outdoors

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Principles often apply to not just one, but many areas. Once in a while I’ll find an article online and think YEAH - that’s it exactly! This guy, who happens to be a great musician, has written a lot of articles at his site. While some of the things he writes about I don’t agree with, there’s a lot both spiritually and musicially that you can consider. Some of the things he says about music just strike a chord in me. They inspire me. Here is Ron Block,  a man of many talents.  

I put a sign above my desk where I practice and spend a lot of time. It reads “DON’T WORRY ABOUT RESULTS, JUST DO THE RIGHT THING.” It’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now pleasures of life. We eat until we’re fat because more than enjoying the pleasures of being thin enough to do normal things in life, we enjoy today’s chocolate (I just ate some!). Rather than saying no to sin, we’d rather enjoy it right here and now. When I get caught up in seeing RESULTS, I don’t do what I’m supposed to, because results don’t show immediately. But if you focus on doing what you know is right EVERY time, results will follow and you can enjoy them without worrying about them.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, food, goals, health

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Who hasn’t popped a mint or a piece of gum containing peppermint in it and felt that
rush of coolness? I had done this thing mindlessly in the past, but while eating a piece
of minty chocolate I wondered, what exactly is the peppermint doing in my mouth? We
all know that water evaporating off skin can cool the body, but when you
put something with peppermint oil in it, there’s not necessarily any water
in it to evaporate, and it happens in your mouth also, so what’s going on?

What I found about this one was quite interesting. It turns out that even
though peppermint is not physically cool, it turns on “coolness” receptors,
called Cold Menthol Receptor Type 1 (CMR1).  These CMR1 receptors turn
on between 8 and 28 degrees celsius, or 46.4-82.4 fahrenheit.

This article says scientist have been working on a substance that turns on
these CMR1’s and is 250 time more cooling than peppermint when applied
to the skin. How would that feel applied on a 110 degree day? Ahhh!

It’s interesting to note that there are two other temperature receptors
that have been discovered, these being on the other end of the scale - they tell
you your chilli pepper is hot. These two receptors are VR1 for hot, and VRL1
for super hot.

Next time you help yourself to a peppermint patty you can tell yourself you’re just testing
out your CMR1’s and making sure they still work.

Posted by Bonnie under food, health

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Did you know it takes 6-10 days to make a jellybean? First the centers are made - of mostly sugar and corn syrup - and then they are left out 24-48 hours to dry. The second process involves being put in an “engrossing pan.” It resembles a clothes dryer! During that process the outside coating is built up on the jelly center. Confectioners glaze is applied to make the candies shiny.

A lot of chocolate confections use confectioners glaze also. Confectioners glaze is basically food grade shellac. According to wikipedia, this shellac contains as much acetone as the same about of nailpolish! The FDA has listed this on their inactive ingredients and is accepted as safe. This post has been edited to add that wikipedia is not always accurate:
I looked further and found this page from Iowa State University. Though the facts concerning acetone content at
wikipedia may not be true, nearly every other source of info I found on the topic said that shellac is a product from insects. Iowa State University had a link to a very interesting page on how “Lac” is made.

Cocoa beans used to be used as money in the Aztec Empire -four beans for a rabbit. Althought chocolate is widely available today and relatively inexpensive, you could spend $250 for one chocolate! At a price like that ($2,600 a pound), I think I could curb my choclate cravings.

While I was researching, I (re)found this website where a guy talks about his M&M duels. He saves the strongest M&M and sends them to Mars for breeding. He even says they sent him a free coupon in return for the victorious M&M! Click on the website above to see how you can have your own personal M&M duel. If you like to eat M&Ms, it might be a good idea!

Posted by Bonnie under food

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