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Like many people in San Francisco, I tend to avoid fast food and chain resturants. The tends to happen because of the density of decent resturants, health consciousness, and ego. I am however interested in restaurant-related health issues and ran into some interesting research on McDonalds' ingredients:

At a New York City McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo was found to contain 10.2 grams of trans fat, compared with 0.33 grams in Denmark and about 3 grams in Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic.

(From the Seattle Times)

Yet another reason to avoid fast food restaurants. (Also, avoid the ice. :)

The other concern of mine is high fructose corn syrup, which is suspected as a contributor to the obesity problem in the US. It only seems to be used in the US, because corn subsidies push the price down. And, apparently, the corn thing is tied to the feeding of antibiotics to cattle. (They're fed corn, they can't digest corn properly, they get sick, and the are fed antibiotics.)

House Update

Last weekend I moved from the apartment to the house. It's nice to finally be living there - although it is a bit crowded. It's nice having them around, though. We go through food faster, so I end up having a bit more variety.  The new kitchen is nice, although I have to finish putting handles on the cabinets, install the microwave and some shelves, and rearrange all the stuff the way I want it. (While still making room for Carmen's necessities.)  I also have some more lighting to install, and I need to order a washer/dryer sometime.  I keep forgetting that part.  Carmen offered to dress up the floor in that room a little (so she could use it as a workspace), I may wait til after that to install the washer/dryer.

The bottom unit is progressing, although a little slowly. The first layer of finish on the wood floors is not drying very well. It's been about a week, the upstairs took a couple of days because of the humidity, I don't know if they put it on too thick, if it's the wood, or what.

Our furnace guys, Peninsula Heating, are a bunch of hacks. They're the only contractors that we feel nervous about leaving on their own. And now Dan had to open up the wall because the furnace pipes were leaking hot air (the neighbor was complaining). We made them fix that joint, but Dan has noticed others. Probably the whole system is bad. I know you get what you pay for (they're cheap), but sometimes it's worth paying more.

The bathroom tile is installed downstairs - it looks really nice. I think the cabinets are ordered now, Dan and I will do the installation, which should be interesting. (They should be better built than my ikea frames, but the european system of hanging cabinets is kinda nice.)

Today's word is Sauce

I've been playing with some of amazon's new features this morning. I like the new concordance feature. (Note how my book on sauces frequently uses the word "butter". )

The other nifty feature I've been playing with is statistically improbable phrases and capitalized phrases. Go to a book, like Rick Bayless's cookbook. Scroll down to the "inside this book section", there are phrases that Amazon has guessed are significant. If you click on one, say "pork country ribs", it'll give you a list of all the books they sell that contain the phrase "pork country ribs" with a bit of context.

I noticed that you can tweak the url's a bit to search for any phrase in any book:

(Or get my firefox search plugin.)

And now I'm running off to work on the house again.

Christmas

I went back to Michigan for Christmas vacation again this year. It was a very relaxing and much needed vacation.

This year I bought a knife bag to carry my knives and spices home. I ended up only cooking a few times. I made Pumpkin Penne for my parents. And Emily and I made Rogan Josh, a Chana dish, and an attempt at rice pudding (it didn't set up) as a birthday dinner for Carmen (with Dan and my parents).

I left early to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. Followed by Sarah's Christmas party, for the first time. She always has a fun charitable outing in her parties. Last year they went to toys 'r us and bought gifts for needy children. This year we went to Barnes and Noble to buy books for kids. Everybody threw money into the pot and we shopped. It was a lot of fun.

Next I went to Sheri's Christmas party. Last year I went home early to make Sheri's party, and it worked out very well for me. (I met Emily.) Emily and I stayed a couple of extra days, dining on leftover pork, salmon, and shrimp and watching Dr Who.

Then Emily and I went back to Lansing and hung out for a few days. We watched "The Family Stone", made Indian Food, met up with Brad and Maggie for dinner, and made some pumpkin muffins.

I took Emily to my mom's family Christmas on the 24th, and got to do our family Christmas thing on the 25th. (Gifts, lunch, and stockings.) My Dad's mom and Carmen's parents joined us for lunch and stockings. It's been a lot of fun since Carmen's parents started joining us - bringing some Cantonese food to go with our more traditional fare.

Thanksgiving

Last weekend Emily flew down for Thanksgiving. It was the first time she has been able to make it to San Francisco since this summer, and it was really nice having her around again. I also got to cook for her again. Cooking is a fun hobby, but it's always extra special when you can share the results with someone.

Carmen did her big Thanksgiving dinner, having each of her guests bring a dish. Emily and I were asked to bring a potato and a vegetable dish, so we made garlic mashed potatoes and a zucchini/squash dish. It was a lot of fun, although the turkey ended up being done a bit late. (It was on the large side, so it took longer than expected.)

I cooked for Emily three more times over the extended weekend and ended up using fresh basil in each dish. :) I've got a little basil plant growing at home, and I like to make use of it where appropriate.

On Friday, I made chicken in panang curry for dinner. It was decent, but I think it could use some tweaking.

On Saturday we cooked some salmon fillets and served it with farfalle in a mornay sauce.

Sunday, we made pizza margherita for lunch - I was feeling lazy, so we tried to buy a crust, but they were out. I ended up throwing one together from scratch, and it turned out to be one of the better crusts I've made.

More updates on house progress later.

Christmas List

Dear Santa,
I'm doing well this year, skip me and give my stuff to someone who needs it. All I want for christmas is a ticket back home to see friends and family, and I got impatient and bought it for myself. :)

Steve

Ok, I have an amazon wishlist, but I figured I'd augment and comment on it here for friends and family. I will probably update this entry a couple of times. I'll start with the usual, "don't spend much, if you must get me something." I've been blessed with pretty much all I need.

A general gift giving guide (I do get to pontificate, this is a blog), I tend to go for:

• Something people would enjoy, but wouldn't buy themselves. (Sadly, for me, that is something like socks.)
  
• Something from their list that is both fun or interesting.
  
• non-durable goods - Things that get used up make nice gifts too. (Socks again, chocolate, balsamic vinegar, cheap plastic cutting boards.)
  

I've put some cooking supplies on the list. One missing item is a Flavour Shaker. I'd like one of these, but they're not available in this country. (They won't even ship them here.) Maybe next year.

Update: Apparently, proleno.com ships the Flavour Shaker to the US - but it looks like it might be pricey.

Quick Update

Our contractor says he's worked out a satisfactory solution with the inspector which shouldn't be as bad as I thought, we'll see how things progress. (And no curry paste tonight - I forgot to get cilantro, it was a new recipe and I was shopping from memory.) I did have leftover larb gai for dinner, though.