Monticello Report: Christmas at Monticello

Monticello Report: Christmas at Monticello
Click through to see how Thomas Jefferson celebrated Christmas.

He like most in the South had mincemeat pies. Interestingly, mincemeat pies then actually contained meat. WHich I confess sounds awful!

I have only tried Mincemeat pie once (and it was canned so no meat), and did not like it.

here is a recipe for mincemeat:

The history of Condensed Milk

Given that we will sell more condensed milk in December than in the other 11 months combined, it is a perfect time to learn something about the product!

Gail Borden was quite a guy!

From FoodReference.com

Gail Borden was a surveyor, inventor and businessman. As an early pioneer settler in Texas he made the first topographical map of Texas, and in 1838 he surveyed and laid out the site of Galveston. He developed a meat biscuit in 1851.

It was on a voyage to and from London to market his dehydrated meat biscuit that Borden got the inspiration to condense milk.

From BordenChemicals.com:

"Returning from London by ship, Borden was moved by the sight of young infants dying from impure cow's milk. Over the next two years, Borden applied the knowledge gained from his efforts at condensing foods to a new effort to purify and condense milk. In 1853, Borden filed a patent for his new milk condensing process, and in 1857, founded the New York Condensed Milk Company, later to become the Borden Company."

During the US Civil War, Borden signed a contract to supply Union troops with sweetened condensed milk. Interestingly, his son John fought for Union, his son Lee fought for the Confederacy. The People's Chronology, James Trager, p. 487
(This last part is from a sign in Allegany)

A customer asked about blogging

In our stores this week we hung signs telling people to check out the blog. Well it urns out many people do not know what a blog is. DO not feel bad! MANY MANY people do not.


Here is how I described it to my class:

What is a blog? A blog is nothing more than an easy to update website. This has taken the idea of a journal. (for example, :“A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.”www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html

What makes blogs so cool?Blogs are
1. easy to use.
2. often informal
3. can be read either online with a typical web browser or with special readers.
4. links can be saved (so rather than saving the whole newsletter, you can link just to the stories you want!)
5. are immune to spamblockers

For example, to read the FinanceProfessor.com blog with your browser, merely click through to it like you would any web site.http://financeprofessorblog.blogspot.com/But it can also be read with a special reader. Why is this so valuable? Because the reader will go and “get articles” whenever the site is updated. This allows me to update the blog on an almost daily basis and you can select which stories you want. This is called syndication. Moreover, since your reader is getting the article, you have made it around the spam blocking software. I have provided links to sign up via ATOM, RSS, or through your “my Yahoo” page.

There are several free RSS readers and while I do not pretend to know which is best, I use RSSReader from RssReader.com and SharpReader (both are very easy to use!). http://www.rssreader.com/ http://www.sharpreader.net/

Here is the list from Google:http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=free+rss+readers

Pumpkin Pancakes

RecipeSource: Pumpkin Pancakes

I hung a sign this week (In Allegany) about pumpkin pancakes. They are really good! I had never had them but tried them a few weeks ago at Spragues.

When I later made them, all I did was to add pumpkin (and a bit of brown sugar) to my normal buckwheat/oatmeal/flaxseed pancakes. But as I doubt many people would like my pancakes, I figured I better give you another recipe.

So here you go, from RecipeSource.com. While I have not tried it yet, the ingredients sound good and the nutritional information is good!

http://www.recipesource.com/special-diets/diabetic/pumpkin-pancakes1.html

Tomato Prices up? Why? Hurricanes!

If you have seen tomato prices lately you have seen that they are WAY WAY up. In fact they are so high that I have been told that many local fast food places have stopped serving them unless asked.

In fact we have largely quit selling vine-ripe tomatoes because hydroponic tomatoes (grown more locally---often in Ontario in greenhouses) have suddenly become cheaper. (For the record they also taste much better!)

So why are the prices so high? There is a severe shortage largely due to the bad hurricane seson in Florida.

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

"With Wendy's buying power, we pay a little less than market price. Our cost went from 75 cents a pound to over $3 a pound. That's horrendous," Smith said.

Tomatoes in area grocery stores are marked $3.99 a pound.

Storms on Oct. 19 and 20 and Oct. 26 and 27 reduced tomato shipments from California by 60 percent to 3.3 million pounds a day. Shipments of plum-type tomatoes were reduced 65 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The storms followed on the heels of hurricanes that prevented or damaged the fall planting of tomatoes and bell peppers in Florida. Delayed shipments from Florida were expected to begin late this month, and market volume was projected to return to normal in December, the USDA said."

Cauliflower Soup

What better time than when Cauliflower is on sale to try Cauliflower soup? I have to admit, I did not think I would like it, but it is actually very good.

Here is a recipe we use. It is largely from Betty Crocker's New Choices Cookbook with some alterations:

1 head of cauliflower (cut into relatively small pieces)
2 cans chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 table spoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons Smart Beat Margarine (NO TRANS FAT!!)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup oat bran
1 1/2 cups fat free milk
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Pepper to taste

• Heat the broth in large pan. Mix in cauliflower, onion, and lemon. Let boil until tender (about 15 minutes)
• Once tender, pulverize in foot processor
• Melt margarine, mix in flour,oat bran, milk, and spices.
• Put pulverized cauliflower mixture and margarine and flour mixture in crock pot for about one hour on high.

Enjoy!
I like to add no-salt ketchup to it as well, but most people probably would not ;) Also I like to serve it on toast.

For other Cauliflower soup recipes try:

• Freerecipe.org
• About.com --warning there will be pop-ups!
• or from Google:

Glycemic Index in the news

Did you see the news this week? There were several reports on the Glycemic Index diet. For example, from Newsday.com: <>

“By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

November 23, 2004, 4:00 PM EST

CHICAGO -- A diet favoring "good" over "bad" carbohydrates is better for the heart and less likely to slow down metabolism than a conventional low-fat diet, a small, preliminary study suggests.

The "glycemic index" diet recommends carbohydrates that do not cause a sharp rise in blood sugar levels after meals, such as old-fashioned oatmeal rather than highly processed sugared breakfast cereal. It is not as anti-carb as Atkins-style regimens, nor as fat-restrictive as standard low-fat diets. “

The study should be considered preliminary and even the spokesperson for the American Heart Association calls the results of the study “underwhelming.” However, merely the fact that the index is being looked at is good news in my book!

<>
I have long been a big backer of nutrition and believe that nutrition and running/fitness go hand in hand. Here is what I wrote (with only minor modifications) earlier this year on my FinanceProfessor.com fitness and nutrition page.

“So much of nutrition is common sense that you probably know what you should be doing (eat your vegetables--they are cheaper than almost all other snacks!), but sometimes reading about it helps to keep you motivated, so here goes. Some of my favorite links:

Links on the Glycemic index

• Dave Holt's advice on sports and nutrition
• The University of Sydney has a good site on the Glycemic Index including a searchable index.
• Rick Mendosa's glycemic index site has more information and is really good. If you can not tell, I am a big believer in the index.

<>While I like much of the Zone Diet, personally it is too low on carbs for me, but I do think there is some sound science behind it and I do think when combined with low glycemic fruits and vegetables, we are on to something really good--it is effectively how I try to eat.. Here are some links on it:

Pro:

• <>Dr. Sears.com Not bad for a commercial site, a good Q&A and a pretty good "news" section
• <>EnterTheZoneDiet—A newer site, but it looks good!
• <>FormulaZone-- cool site that not only examines the Zone Diet, it also has discussions on the diet, and 1000s of Zone based recipes. It is a pay site, but there is some free stuff

<>If you have not seen the work by Harvard nutrition professor Walter Willet, you owe yourself a look at his pyramid. His basic idea is that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and nuts are good for you and that there are good fats and bad fats. Good stuff!

Con: What's wrong with the Zone Diet

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What do I do?
Going back to high school I have eaten low fat diets (Eat to Win for much of the time) and flirted with vegetarianism (largely for health reasons, but also for efficiency and animal rights reasons). In recent years I have essentially become a vegetarian (I had chicken at a friend's wedding), but still do eat fish.

I typically have tofu a few times a week (with spaghetti sauce and broccoli is my favorite!) and try (not always with great success to only have carbs that are relatively nutritious. My staples are oatmeal with nuts and fruit, Orange Juice, and PB and Jelly sandwiches (Smuckers' Reduced Fat Natural PB) all of which I have virtually every day.

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Of course this is not a recommendation and your mileage may vary (pun intended), but I strongly urge you all to remember that diet and nutrition can and do play a major role in how we feel. Do not give in to the low nutritional foods that are so prevalent today.
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