Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Here's a very tasty and easy recipe I learned from Nannette Flynn whe I worked with her at the Chicago Park District. She brought it for lunch one day, it smelled wonderful, and she let me taste it. Then she told me how to make it--that how easy it is. She uses Fettucine noodles (I recommend Barilla brand) but I prefer whole wheat noodles, beacuse this is one recipe that actually makes them taste good. This goes great with grilled tofu (recipe posted May 13).
Nannette's Noodles
(A great way to eat whole grain pasta)
- 1 bag Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Egg Noodles
- olive oil or PAM
- 1 bag fresh torn spinach
- 12 oz. sliced mushrooms
- 2 sliced red peppers
- Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce (with the orange label) to taste
- 3-4 cloves fresh chopped garlic
- Italian style bread crumbs (Vigo brand is the best)
- Pine nuts (optional)
(Cook in small batches if your fry pan is small)
1. Cook (undercook slightly) and drain the noodles
2. Sauté the garlic, mushrooms zuccini and peppers in small amount of oil until soft, then add the spinach.
3. Add noodles and more oil if needed
4. As noodles become glossy, start adding teriyaki sauce to your liking. Sautee the noodles for five more minutes or until liquid thickens. Top with bread crumbs and pine nuts and serve.
Makes a lot!
Monday, May 19, 2003
Victoria's Secret?
So when talking about milk, the FDA claims cow hormones BGH and BST have no effect on humans because they do not bind to human receptors. . . How sure are they? Bovine (cow) ovary hormone is being sold as
"natural" breast enhancer. Apparently, if this stuff works, some cow hormones
can bind to human receptors. Each capsule contains 450 milligrams of powdered cow ovary. Yum!
Sunday, May 18, 2003
Ubiquitous Breast Enhancement
I unknowingly used it for years.
Milk. Yes, conventional (non-organic) cow's milk contains a cocktail of growth hormones to make milk production more "efficient." Are these hormones harmful to humans? Well, the
debate rages on this issue right now. Are there any undesireable effects on our bodies? Well, I don't think many would call this undesireable, but have you noticed that these days, each generation seems to be getting taller? Short people are generating tall offspring. Why? How? Maybe within a single generation, our mating and survival patterns have naturally selected for a tall gene. Or maybe the consumption of extra growth hormone through meat, dairy, and eggs, especially during puberty, is helping us grow.
From my own experience, I suspect the particular growth hormones that enlarges cow mammaries
(BGH and BST), allowing them to produce up to
15 galllons of milk a day, can have a similar enlarging effect on human breasts.
I was a full cup size larger in my dairy days. I know one confounding factor may have been puberty, but even through my college years, when I stopped eating meat but continued to consume about a gallon of milk a day (not including other dairy products such as cheese and ice cream, two staples of the undergraduate diet), I maintained my cleavage. It wasn't until well after I discovered soy milk and
tofutti that I found my bras didn't fit anymore, and I had to resort to bra shopping in the pre-teen department (boo-hoo). And the cuprit is not overall weight loss due to less fat in my diet; my belly and butt are just as "padded" as they were back then.
I understand this is only anectdotal evidence, but I don't know of any long-term studies of women who volunteer to stop consuming dairy to see if their breasts shrink.
Anyhow, check out the size of the infected mammaries (mastitis) on this hormone-treated cow:
Quite a side effect, huh?
Friday, May 16, 2003
. . .And the main reason to attend your local county fair:
Click here to see
another pig racing photo
Thursday, May 15, 2003
Check out all these great
links to wildlife veterinary oganizations.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
I promised recipes, didn't I?
Keep in mind that cooking is an art, and that no techniques or amounts are exact (except in baking, which is a science as well as an art).
“Meaty” Grilled Tofu
Ingredients (amounts are approximate!):
-1 lb extra firm tofu (NOT silken tofu)
- olive oil, 1/4 cup
- 2-3 cloves fresh garlic
- 1/2 raw onion
- Italian seasoning, 2 tablespoons
- Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce (the kind with the orange label that looks watery like soy sauce), 1/4 cup
Also needed:
- paper towels and kitchen towels
- a HUGE fry pan
1. Slice the tofu into strips as wide and long as you want, but about 1/2 thick.
2. Drain the tofu of its water (this helps it absorb marinade better): wrap it in two layers of paper towels. Then wrap that in kitchen towels, and press around the tofu to soak water out. Be gentle so you don't break the tofu. Repeat until tofu is very dry. You can keep the tofu wrapped in the same paper towels but replace the cotton towels with dry ones once they get wet. You may want to lay your towel-wrapped tofu on the counter and put something flat and heavy on it, like a fry pan, and let it sit for 10 minutes so more water is drawn out.
3. Mix together everything else to your liking (I never measure, but start with the above amounts and add more stuff as you see fit. The mixture should be oily) and put in blender on lowest setting to emulsify oil and chop onions and garlic.
4. Marinate your dry tofu for at least an hour. Turn your tofu once during marinating to get all sides. Poking holes in tofu (gently) with fork will help marinade absorb.
5. Line broiler pan with foil, put it back in the broiler, and preheat broiler for five minutes. (Or preheat grill)
6. Broil (or grill) your tofu for five minutes on one side, five minutes on the other, and continue until tofu is browned and firm. A little burnt on the edges is okay.
Can be eaten hot or cold! Great on top of Caesar salad.
I went to the
Veterinary College Open House last month and had a blast. It is open to the general public, and there were some great activities for kids there: a petting zoo, reptile exhibits, and a police dog demonstration (that showed why you don't want to mess with those police dogs). I also met some zoo veterinarians and talked to them at length about that particular branch of the profession. Turns out that U of I partners with the Lincoln Park Zoo,
Brookfield Zoo and the Shedd Aquarium on research projects and internships. The vets from both zoos said there were summer job opportunities for veterinary and other biology graduate students. So I'll check it out.
Although I don't plan on being the "lovey-squeezie, oh-aren't-all-animals-so-cute" kind of vet, I must admit that I couldn't help giggling (yes, giggling) when I reached out to pet a piglet at the farm exhibit and it sucked on my finger, mistaking it for a teat (yes, a teat). Even though the analytical side of me
knows that this is any piglet's instinctive reaction to any fleshy protrusion (don't giggle!) I coudn't help feeling that the piglet thought I was its mommy. I felt all warm and wiggly inside.
Friday, May 09, 2003
Why the hiatus?
My friend John noticed that this blog hasn’t been updated in a while. . well, John, here’s the explanation:
This will all change once I’m back in school, but part of the reason is I don’t have an internet connection at home, so I can only post entries at the library, at work, or at a friend’s house, and when I’m at these places, I’m not usually there to blog. Another part of the reason is my lack of material since I’m not currently in school or conducting any research, so the veterinary aspect of my life is pretty uneventful aside from the books or articles I read (by the way, the NIU library has a lousy selection of veterinary journals). But admittedly, a major part of the reason is I’ve been a little nervous about revealing too much information to a certain stalker. When I started this blog, I vowed not to bore readers with the mundane details of my personal life, or whining, etc., but this little snippet of my personal affairs is relevant to this weblog and to webloggers around the world.
e-stalkers
Here’s the condensed version: about five years ago I lived in apartment in the north side of Chicago, and the landlords’ son lived in and “managed” the four-flat building. He was about twice my age, and seemed like a nice guy until I realized he knew things about me that he could not have known unless he had been listening to the goings-on in my apartment. He watched me through his window whenever I left or entered the building (he worked out of his apartment so he was always around). My friends told me that he would come to the window whenever they rang
my doorbell and he’d tell them if I was home or not, and how long I’d been out. During my fourth conversation with him (I had only lived there about four or five months) he admitted that he was deeply in love with me and that even though he knew I had a boyfriend, he hoped that someday we could have a “relationship.” He told me all about the discussions he had with his friends about his love for me, et cetera.
So I started to avoid him, even more than I did before. And he started to put notes in my mailbox (which I
thought was a federal offense) and calling saying that if I’d only open up my heart and let him in, he could tame me, and we could be good friends, blah blah bah. So filed a report with the Chicago Tenant Union and with the real estate agency that located this particular apartment for me, and decided to move out as soon as my contract ended. When he heard I was leaving, he saw the change as advantageous to our “relationship.” Since we would no longer be manager-tenant, we now had the opportunity to be “more.” He said he had a very long letter he wanted to give me, and again stated that even though I had a boyfriend, he hoped someday we would be more than friends. I haven’t seen him since.
That was four years ago. I haven’t heard from him since, and then I recently noticed that he was posting comments to this blog and sending me e-mails in response to this site and one other site that had my picture and my name. This creep must be doing a google search for my name every week. Once I realized this, I removed my name from this and the other site.
What really bothers me about the situation is that I feel I should not have to alter my blog because of one annoying creepy man, especially if I want the freedom to use my own name. I want other people, who aren’t stalkers, to be able to find this site if they do a web search for my name. Why shouldn’t I? I plan on maintaining this site with integrity, and I do not plan on putting anything on this site that I wouldn’t want anyone to see. . .well, maybe now with the exception of my address.
A friend of mine, let’s call him "Gregg", a seasoned blogger, admonished me for putting my
real name and location on this site. He pointed out that now people can find out what I’m up to, what school I’m attending and hence where I’m living. Well, why shouldn’t I feel comfortable sharing this information? I don’t have any other e-mail stalkers or anything like that, I don’t post photos of myself anymore, I don ‘t feel I should have to anything to hide form anyone, and I would like to share my professional experiences with others through this wonderful medium.
. . and the other hazards of weblogging
But then it occurred to me that Gregg is a high school teacher who writes often about his professional experiences, but his writings aren’t meant to be shared with just anyone. He would probably have a aneurysm if any of his students got a hold of his blog, so he has changed his name for his site.
After dinner last night I discussed this with our friend John, who noticed the lapse on this site. We discussed the responsibility of the blogger. If a blogger is a “publisher,” is there a such thing as blog libel if you mention someone by name, in a not-so-flattering light? Gregg’s site,
The Flannel Diaries, contains writing that is insightful and enlightening for other high school teachers, but it also contains material (humorous, or slightly exaggerated, or “venting”) that he may not want associated with his professional name. But someone’s bound to put the details together and figure out who’s who on his site, just like stalker boy figured out that I was mentioned on it.
So I don’t know how to conclude this. I guess I understand why people like Gregg have to alter their names and situations on their blogs
(see for yourself), but I indignantly feel I shouldn’t have to do that, considering the unspicy nature of my writing topics and style. Should I let myself be so annoyed by this creepy ex-landlord guy?
