Barbequing Flesh; Cheating on Meat

"Barbeque" means to cook outdoors on a grill. But I bake meat with three flavorings: sweet and sour and spices - in the indoors oven at a very low temperature for at least 8 hours and the ribs taste wonderful.
The low temperature in cooking with sweeteners avoids the Maillard reaction, which gives toxic carcinogens and has other bad effects upon nutrients.
For "sweet" I use sugar, honey, fruit or omit entirely. For "sour" I use wine, vinegar, lemon or any citrus juice or omit it entirely. For "spices" I use thyme, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, or the nightshade chilis or anything else or omit them entirely.
As soon as I got out of bed early this morning, I put some ribs into a covered baking dish. I covered them with hot spices very freely. I put on the spices with the intent to make them too hot to eat. The spices were whole dried cayenne and various chili peppers I finely cut up with scissors. I thickly spread on the hot chilis. I baked them in the oven 30 minutes at 400 degrees, and now will keep cooking them for twelve hours at 175 degrees.
I meant to put them into the oven last night right before I went to bed and let them cook overnight and all day at 175 degrees. This seems to be the best way to get that good barbeque taste, spice it as strongly as you can and cook it as long as you can.
An angry word to the butcher: Lately when one buys ribs, there is a groove cut between the bones where someone has cut out the meat and robbed it! This is abhorrent! I will not buy ribs that have been mutilated in this manner to cheat me of my meat!
A cautious word for health: All chilis, peppers, paprika (not black pepper) are nightshades in the Solanaceae plant family. My research shows that a protein in nightshades bioaccumulates in the human body around the joints as it ages and over time can cause arthritis. A youthful, healthy body will flush out these toxins but the more you eat and the older you are, the higher your chance for arthritis. Solanaceae includes deadly nightshade, belladonna, jimson weed, nicotine tobacco, paprika, bell peppers, cayenne peppers, all chilis, tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes. It may be that potatoes are less harmful since one eats the root instead of the fruit. But potato leaves can be deadly. So I try to avoid all the nightshades and I will eat sparingly or none of today's barbeque.
My non-nightshade barbeque sauce uses salt, honey, turmeric, ground mustard seed, black pepper, finely minced ginger, and vinegar. But yesterday Charlie expressed a taste for nightshade barbequed ribs.

The Grace; and the Snake

Thursday, already June 4, 2009, this month is going as rapidly as May did. This evening we plan to go the the Grace Museum, wwwthegracemuseum.org. It has five gallery spaces and three different permanent museums (History, Art, Children's) and is right in the middle of downtown. One can usually park free within one block and we can drive there in five minutes. What a difference from the big city with $10 parking and 30 minute drives to go anyplace! Here one arrives relaxed and ready to enjoy. I notice a big difference. I am reading a book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" recommended by Eden's father, Dr. Alan, and the book documents the various stress hormones that remain in the body for hours after a stressful event, I can feel the difference.
This city is sophisticated and cultural and strongly supports its vigorous artistic community. The performing arts here are of the best quality. We have had a ball!
A great song I love is "The Snake". Go to www.songza.com and put it in the search box. Another music site is www.tropicalglen.com. I do love music and hope in the future to start playing again.

Carrying a Burden

Today I hope to finish some paperwork I need to mail to a witness for a hearing. Jami's comment: "Sounds like an important hearing". No, not at all really. I got an unwarranted parking ticket and posted bail for $47 and asked for an administrative hearing because there was no sign prohibiting parking. What is important is my witness who will go to the trouble of appearing at the hearing and presenting testimony and evidence. And Alan who will babysit adorable Eden while Jami plays lawyer. The importance is that the witness and babysitter will do this for me. I am grateful to have this support which is way more valuable than the hearing or the $47.
The hearing is my part of making things right for all of us. We should not get tickets without due process and without warning. It is unjust punishment. All the trouble and expense I have gone to is my gift to social justice.
Now that I have done all I can to right this wrong, I let go of the burden of injustice. I have done my part.

Lightning storm...

This evening we drove 15 miles to a 50 acre ranch for a cook-out at the girl-friend of one of Charlie's co-workers, Terry. She was cute and nice, a divorcee raising a 3rd grader and a 6th grader and today was their last day of school. The food was standard but good, hamburgers with accompaniments and chips and dips. It was spitting a few raindrops so Terry cooked outside and we ate inside.
She has lived here 17 years and is from Nova Scotia. Apparently her husband abruptly left her with the two kids and went off with another woman. She is a registered nurse.
After eating, we all went outside and sat and stood around and watched the lightning. Here the lightning puts on quite a show, it streaks all across the sky over and over again with only sometimes a bit of thunder. There might be one giant streak of lightning running from the top of the sky to the horizon, or it may light up in a giant web across the sky. We saw the lightning when we were driving there and it was still going on as we drove home.
Yes, the lightning could have been dangerous. I think, though, that it was pretty safe since it looked far away out toward the horizon, this may have been an illusion. There were metal chairs to sit on inside a metal shed. We didn't stay long outside and were the first to leave. Two of the guys kept spitting and I thought they were feeling brave to be in danger.

Looking forward, we may leave Abilene

Charlie got an email saying he would be going ("you will be going") on the repair travel module, meaning we will be moving soon, probable not earlier than a month, though, since it takes time to arrange things. So we are keeping in mind the transience of life and geography.
The only thiing that doesn't change is change.
Today I ran the roomba, did some cleaning, and filing and paperwork. Still waiting for paperwork from Chase in the mail, waiting for Fidelity to link accounts, need to keep checking online to see that things get done.
To me, for sure, doing things by snailmail with paper hardcopy was much faster, more efficient and better than doing things electronically. The old way was for certain much faster. In the information age, we are losing information.

Last day of May, where did May go so fast?

Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Where has May gone? It flew by. Charlie and I are doing very well and I am so pleased to be with him. For weekend breakfasts I made pancakes. I made the barbequed meat again, and yesterday also a meat loaf that was good: mostly meat and eggs with a little minced onion, celery and carrot (mire pois). We have been watching movies and eating Haagen Daz ice cream at home, saw "Private Benjamin", "Outsourced" and "Taking Chance" - all were good.
I just read a book on eating and it seems that short fat glasses cause people to drink more - this would be good for water glasses. It says that larger plates cause people to eat more food than they do when food is served on smaller plates. People who chew longer eat less. I knew this because the gut hormones, ghrelin and leptin have more time to act.

"The World's Fastest Indian" movie on Burt Munro

2005 movie: We watched Anthony Hopkins re-enact the true story of part of Burt Munro's life focussing on his speed record still standing today. At age 68 in August 26, 1967, Munro set the world's record for SPEED in the category of under 1,000 cc engines. Munro still holds the world record, no one has yet gone faster. Can you believe he went almost 200 miles per hour (190.07) at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, and he was 68 years old !!! Born at home (Herbert James Munro) on March 25, 1899, with a stillborn twin sister, he died in his sleep from heart failure on January 6, 1978. He married in 1927, and fathered a son and three daughters.
Even more astonishing is that Burt set his current world speed record on an old 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle manufactured to reach speeds up to 54 miles per hour. Munro worked on it for years and tinkered it up to higher and higher speeds with parts he personally made in his garage. Truly amazing !
If you decide to see this movie, be sure to first watch the Special Features interview with the real Burt Munro, it will make you appreciate the movie even more.
AND the movie is an excellent psychology study of the human spirit, and is inspiring in every category. Anthony Hopkins said it was his best role ever.
I think that Jami just had a tooth filled. I do hope that they correctly sized and placed the filling correctly so that there is no toothache pain from the filling pressing on the nerve root. May we have a calm and pain-free Jami.