Biggest losers

We love to watch The Biggest Loser. We've been watching it for like 6 years and I really miss Jillian. Bob's still there though. I've often wondered how he feels about promoting products like ground turkey (Bob Harper is a vegan, as far as I know). I probably would make that compromise too, for a job like he's got. There's no getting around conflicts like this and you have to decide for yourself where to draw the line. For all the healthy habits the show promotes, however, they accept sponsors from the dark side. For example:

-Disposable diaper manufacturers: I think it's the popular brand (name rhymes with Hampers) that shows happy babies and toddlers giggling in broad daylight because they're wearing 'sposies with "TWELVE hour protection." I think we know who's being protected for 12 hours - parents. I'm hoping at least this is for nighttime use, although from the commercials it would appear it's for allowing kids and their caretakers to be in denial of elimination for an entire day. Don't tell me someone isn't tempted to do this on a long car trip, a to skip a few bathroom/diaper changing breaks because the label says the kids should be OK for 12 hours.

-Extra sugar-free gum: It's probably fairly harmless, but healthy? Would Bob chew it?

-Cheap ground turkey: sure, it's lean meat, but as the flesh of miserable, factory-farmed mutant animals I can't call it healthy. Or wholesome. Would Bob eat it? I like this article about turkeys which is written from a diner's perspective - not a vegetarian one - and even a meat eater can be disturbed by the industry and its creepy products as well as the poor Frankenbirds.

But back to Pampers or Huggies or whatever. I hate to use the phrase "slippery slope," because all slopes are somewhat slippery, but how did so many parents come to, um, depend on these? And  pullups designed to help kids as old as 5 avoid using a toilet - these will surely have serious effects on this generation. Will we have them for grownups to wear in meetings so they won't have to hear the obnoxious phrase "bio break" during a 4-hour, 800-slide presentation about Six Sigma and ROI?

Lineup

Sadly, this pic was taken through a dirty window that's never going to be clean. These house finches and house sparrows line up on the fence at sunrise while we eat breakfast and politely take turns at the bird feeder:

Tweet

 

Breakfast was leftover vegan cornbread that I de-veganized by making it into French toast. I soaked slices in a mixture of 2 eggs, 1/4 cup rice milk, cinnamon and a tablespoon of agave syrup and cooked in Earth Balance. Eggs courtesy of Bertha the white chicken.

Breakfast for EG and me

Here's a pretty lame pic from my phone of breakfast I made for EG and me - omelet, cornbread and tomato (the tomato's just for me; he doesn't like them). Why would I bother posting a photo of breakfast? Because the eggs are from the hens I help care for and they just started laying recently. These were from a New Hampshire Red hen named Little Jerry. The omelet is made from 2 eggs, about 2 tbs. almond milk, salt, pepper, and a Golden Jubilee tomato.

The cornbread recipe is adapted from the Bob's Red Mill cornmeal package. Mine has gluten but Bob's recipe doesn't - gluten free recipe can be found here .

Preheat oven to 350 F at sea level, 365 at 5000-6000 ft elevation. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Whisk together these dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup white whole wheat flour or mix of WW flour and oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Mix wet ingredients at medium speed (it's ideal if they're all room temperature):
2 eggs or egg substitute
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1/3 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1/4 cup some kind of sugar (I used brown rice syrup)

Once wet ingredients are completely mixed, gradually add the dry stuff, beating on low speed until incorporated. Don't overmix. It will be the consistency of cake batter. Then stir in extras if you want. I used a can of sweet corn, because it was on the shelf and needed a purpose. You could use chopped up roasted chilis or other peppers, roasted corn scraped from the cob, pineapple tomatilloes (I grew a lot of these little things - they taste just like pineapple) or anything, really.

Bob's instructions say to bake for 25-30 minutes, but mine took 35.

Safety First

You see, when watching Fireman Sam, it's important to stay safe. Pants optional.

No that is not leather furniture.

How to get a workout at the barn

Just like when I was 16, I am always at someplace called The Barn, or talking about what happened at The Barn. I don't shower in the morning and go to an office anymore. There's no point in showering before 6 p.m. and when I do, hay often falls out of my bra.

I told a friend who is a personal trainer I couldn't afford to go to the rec center more than once a week to work out anymore, but still managed to work out at home and at the barn. She was impressed. Thought I was pretty hard core to squeeze in a workout at the barn. I realized then that not everyone does barn chores, not even all horse owners, so they don't know what a great opportunity it is to either get fit or get hurt. Here's how I lost 6 pounds this summer (doesn't sound like a lot, but hey - six pounds is six pounds):

1. Mucking stalls and pens. Mucking itself isn't that hard, but use the big wheelbarrow and fill it all the way. Jog while pushing it to the manure pile, and see how high up on the pile you can get. That's right, I said run up a mountain of sh!t. Then turn the wheelbarrow completely over to empty it. If your form is good and you've filled it up enough, your hamstrings and lower back will feel like you've done serious dead lifts. I need to get photos of this to demonstrate because I can't describe it well.

2. The general rule is No Running in the Barn, but you can run between the barn and turnouts. Our routine involves bringing horses in and turning some out, and the turnouts are spread about the property. So you can save a little time and burn a few calories running between them. I don't recommend running at the horse in the pasture because you'll freak him out and chase him off. And I don't usually jog with the horse in hand either because they'll get nervous, wondering what the hurry is. Although I do sometimes jog a horse in hand or ground drive him (like driving without a cart - you must walk or jog behind) as part of his training. You can score a mile or two per horse this way. However, this often means running in boots. I have no problem with it on soft ground but your mileage may vary.

3. Stacking hay. This shouldn't require explanation. Hay bales are big, awkward and weight about 40 pounds. Good form is essential or you will wind up with a herniated disk.

4. Grooming. Think Karate Kid: wax on, wax off. A mild workout for your triceps and delts.

5. Riding. A half hour lesson is usually enough to make my adductors pretty sore, because I don't ride enough. If you think riding isn't a workout, take a lesson from my instructor.

It's still summer

Never fear, Blueberry Man is here

The sun feels good

 I'm particularly happy with the way this photo turned out, and he actually was wearing pants:

This child appears completely innocent, but is probably not wearing pants

Eats

 Here's a lovely oat flour waffle that Masher makes.

Like a square foot garden, but square inches and not a garden

Children like waffles

The recipe is something like this (vegan alternatives included):
-2 cups any combination of oat and whole wheat flour
-2 cups some kind of milk (coconut, soy, rice, cow)
-2 chicken eggs or Ener-G egg substitute (or replace egg with banana at half a banana per egg); if using duck eggs 1 will do
-3 tbs melted and cooled Earth Balance or butter
-2 tsp baking powder (this is for high altitude)

 Here's my lunch: Sun Gold cherry, Stupice, Cherokee Purple, Golden Jubilee

The big ones are Golden Jubilee, Cherokee Purple and Speckled Roma. The little ones are Stupice and Sun Gold. Golden Jubilee is my favorite to grow and eat, maybe tied with Brandywine. Cherokee Purple is a good producer of large, pretty tomatoes that are sweet and mild but a little more watery and seedy than the Golden ones. Stupice plants produce like crazy and the 2-inch fruits taste decent and are bright red. Speckled Roma will impress your friends with their handsomeness and are tasty raw or cooked. They're my favorite for tomato soup.

Yield

 Here's what I picked this morning:

Lunch

 

 

 I have to pick the tomatoes when they're 80-90% ripe because the second they're perfectly ripe, a lurking grasshopper eats them. It's a very successful method of avoiding loss of what I call my "crops." However, on occasion the bugs score one:

The worm crawls in, the worm crawls out

That little caterpillar didn't do much damage. I've only seen two all summer, and since they weren't in the same room at the same time for all I know they were same one. The Speckled Roma on the left has a little blossom end rot too. I have very little trouble with BER but it seems like all Romas are prone to it and there will be one or two on a vine with BER. I would cut that off and cook the rest of the tomato though. I'm not wasting any part of a stripey Roma. They're good for eating raw or cooked, not like some other Romas I've grown. And even the cut off parts don't get wasted because chickens and goats eat them.

 Here's a dog's eye view of some of the square foot gardens:

peppers, greens and tomatoes

spinach, chard, carrots, onions, marigolds and....tomatoes

Chives, pepper and you know the rest

I highly recommend building trellises as described in Mel Bartholomew's book. The heaviest of tomatoes and cucumbers stay high and dry, and the trellises support them easily.

Stupice and cucumber about 4 feet off the ground

Everyone's dreams: grunge, zebras, extra kids

Everyone had interesting dreams last night. EG woke up cheerful and said there were little zebras that came into his room. They were toys and he played with them. He said they had instruments, like they were in a band. He was a little disappointed they were gone when he got up.

Masher dreamed he came home and there were three kids in the house: EG, another toddler, and a three month old infant. I told him that someone couldn't look after the baby anymore, and I couldn't turn him away. In the dream he was furious because I'd adopted these kids without telling him, which was funny because he said he wouldn't actually react that way if I did that. I promised I would give him at least a week's notice if I were coming home with any extra kids.

My dream was fun. We were in Seattle, stopped overnight on our way to San Francisco. I joked that I was hoping we'd run into someone from Soundgarden while we were there, so we must have gone back in time. We drove a rental car over a high bridge and I was terrified of falling off it. That part was scary. Then we went to a small venue, like a warehouse the community used for flea markets and other little events. Masher pointed to a guy and said, "There you go, Chris Cornell is over there." He was set up with only a synthesizer, amplifiers and microphone and was doing an impromptu solo gig. People started gathering. He was dressed like a grunge-era teen and his hair was shaggy like Dave Grohl's. Instead of being brooding like I expected he was cheerful, reaching out and shaking hands with people in the front of the crowd. He did some Soundgarden songs and cover songs from pop bands until something went wrong with his equipment and he called an intermission. There was free pizza during intermission so I got some from Masher and EG. I think this was brought on by surfing XM radio from the Lithium channel to the 90s channel to the classic rock channel, which was represented by our destination being San Francisco. I miss the grunge era like old people miss the 70s. I had long, frizzy hair and my laundry was either a load of blacks or a load of plaids. I deluded myself that I was sexy. Soundgarden still rocks. Alice in Chains has been successfully resurrected. I still have some plaid stuff. Maybe we should have a grunge-themed party, minus the heroin of course. That's the annoying part of the 90s - 4 out of 5 of my favorite songs are about being a miserable junkie. I can't relate. I just like plaid and don't like washing my hair every day.

Monster toddlers

I had a dream last night I came across 2 little vampire toddlers and took charge of them. I was looking for a wizard who could help cure them because they were innocent children and I didn't want an angry mob after them. Meanwhile I put little plastic things on their tiny fangs so they wouldn't bite anyone. If you gave them toys to play with they didn't bother anybody. Finally I found that Blade guy from the movie who would help transform them back to regular toddlers, which are only slightly less dangerous. I guess I got to keep them, but I don't know because it was after 5 a.m. and I had to wake up. I did not feel refreshed when I got out of bed. This probably happened because we were talking about Halloween and costumes, not because of EG's behavior.

Victor got up shortly after, ate porridge, and played with toys; he brought me a lego pizza, saying proudly that it has no cheese on half (we order ours that way so I can eat the non-dairy half). He also threw his flash cards down the stairs, but that was good because while we were picking them up I discovered he could read the numbers on them - they went up to twelve. Also he brought a load of straw into the kitchen. All this and more before 7 a.m. I really needed that window between 5 and 7:30 to work and was counting on him sleeping as late as he usually does. Well, it's good to know he doesn't have fangs and is really not evil at all.

EG's recipe suggestion this week is tomato smoothies.