Mediterranean diet beats low fat for diabetes

In a first long-term study, researchers examined the effects of a Mediterranean diet, compared to a low fat diet for diabetes control. The results showed that eating a Mediterranean diet was superior to eating a typical low fat diet for diabetes management.

The study explored obese individuals newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, examining need for medication and weight loss, and whether eating a Mediterranean diet is effective, safe and sustainable for diabetes treatment.

Over a four-year period, 215 overweight diabetics were assigned to eat either a low carbohydrate Mediterranean type diet, or a typical low fat diet. Both groups received nutritional counseling at the start of the study, and bi-monthly for the next three years.

Diabetics lost weight on the Mediterranean diet, decreased some markers for heart disease, and fewer of the study participants required medications to control blood sugar.

Compared to those eating a low fat diet, only forty four percent of the group given a Mediterranean diet required diabetes medication, compared to seventy percent of diabetics give a low fat diet.

The study authors concluded that a Mediterranean diet seems to be preferable to a low fat diet for controlling blood sugars, and delaying the need for medication to control blood sugar in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics. A caution of the study, is that diabetic food intake was self-reported. The study adds to the list of health benefits associated with consuming a Mediterranean diet.

Diet the key to disease prevention

A healthy Mediterranean diet could greatly reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and diabetes, according to the Director of UniSAs Sansom Institute for Health Research. More info at http://www.unisa.edu.au/news/2009/090609.asp

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-14041-Charlotte-Health-and-Happiness-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Mediterranean-diet-beats-low-fat-for-diabetes

"There's a farmers market where?"

"Yes, you heard correctly," I reply to the disbelieving faces when I mention the farmers market at New York City's Port Authority Bus Terminal. "But it's so dirty!" everyone says. We'll, they're not exactly selling tomatoes where the buses pull up.

And what better place to meet a local farmer? Around 210,000 people pass through the terminal every day, according to the Daily News.

The market is held each Thursday between 8 am and 6 pm. Unfortunately, it's positioned on the ground floor of the North Terminal, which most busy commuters, including myself, just don't go through. But I'm glad I sought them out. The only dirt involved was the soil from the Earth the fruit and vegetables were recently pulled from.

Katchkie Farms sells not only fresh produce...

...but they also sell vegan cranberry orange muffins! Priced at $2 each, they're a great compliment to my morning cup of Earl Grey tea.

Pickles, $1.50 each. You'll find everything from jelly to spearmint basil iced tea, which the vendor says is very lightly sweetened with honey. Why is honey off limits to vegans? Here's why. Check out agave instead.

Ratatouille! Tempting at $4, but I opted for something different: a chilled beet soup, $4. So simple: diced beets, cucumber, cider vinegar, water, dill, sugar and salt. A refreshing end-of-summer soup.


Find a farmers market by you.

Fabulous Baby Rocker

Check out this fabulous baby rocker! One of the top ten computer programs ever developed .... by parents, of course.

Toffee and caramel and butterscotch, oh my!

Does it seem to you this is a summer of butterscotch recipes? Cookies, bars, cakes- you name it. Well lucky me because butterscotch is a favorite - doesn’t have to be in baked goods either: butterscotch hard candy, butterscotch sticky toffee, butterscotch sauce (on vanilla ice cream, what else?) butterscotch fudge and just in case you still don’t get it, I also include anything labeled toffee and caramel (nearly the same thing as butterscotch) in this list. But when you combine it with chocolate (or cinnamon like Grace did in some of her recent recipes) you have a double whammy.

Now about Grace: please tell me you read her food blog- A Southern Grace. I never miss it. I love her way with words, love her recipes and her sense of humor; best of all, Grace has been a faithful reader and commenter on my blog which I bow down and thank her for as we all know how hard it is to get started and get comments. Don’t you love reading comments? Even on someone else’s blog. Some make me laugh, or offer great suggestions, or sympathize with our problems. I think comments keep us both happy and humble. Usually.

Well anyway….I just have to chime in on all these butterscotch recipes with my mother’s Toffee Cookies. They combine chocolate with the toffee and the cookies are crunchy, not soft. As with many of her recipes, I have a feeling this one came from one of her cooking classes as no author is credited on the recipe card. Usually she says: “Sally’s Birthday Cake” or “Aunt Suzie’s Bread Pudding”; but on this card….nothing. Therefore: cooking class.

While these really are cookies (I mean it, they are), they are cooked as though they are a bar and then cut diagonally. I can remember seeing mother laying her enormous yardstick over the baking pan, measuring and cutting so that each “cookie” ended up looking like a perfect diamond. (Of course then you are always left with the corners…. perfect for sneaking bites.) Also, she loved walnuts and used those. I love pecans so I substituted them. And she used Hershey’s chocolate bars- the thin ones. I used a combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate thin Ghirardelli bars. Your choice. I refrigerate mine because I live in a high humidity state; you northerners just need to place them in a sealed container.

Toffee Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 cups flour

6 thin chocolate bars, any kind you want

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted, or walnuts if you prefer

1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream butter, sugar and add egg yolk. Add flour gradually. Add vanilla.

Spread dough in a lightly greased 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 1 inch pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Lay chocolate bars on top. When they melt, spread them around and sprinkle with pecans.

When cool, cut in diagonals. I do this with a yardstick from opposite corners as a guide.

Gene & Jamie

Two men, very different diets. Gene Baur, a vegan, and one of the leaders in the American movement to improve the lives of farm animals. Jamie Oliver, a British chef and meat eater, working, surprisingly for the same cause: a better life for the animals consumed each year (in the U.S. alone, that's 10 billion).



On Gene

"You know what's missing today on the farm?" a swine unit manger asked Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary, after failing to justify the egregious conditions on modern day pig farms. "Pigmanship," the manager said.



Gene recalled that very conversation in his packed discussion at the New York Public Library. In his best-selling book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, he provides a window to the horrors of life on factory farms. The pork industry would rather keep the shades pulled down.



No pigmanship here

In the book, Gene documents that "Each of the roughly six million breeding sows in the United States is expected to give birth to two litters a year, or a total of about twenty piglets. Over the course of their lives, breeding sows are fed the barest minimum, only about half of what they would normally eat, and are chronically hungry."



He remarks on the "the connection between the farmers and the animals" being lost, and that "each sow is merely a production unit." Farming doesn't even seem to be a fitting word at all for what goes on, for there is no nourishment, no cultivation, no respect for life. Only profit.



He writes of gestation crates, 2 x 7 foot enclosures scarcely larger than the sows' own bodies. These sows serve a jail sentence, but they committed no crime. They are just the victims of our greed for cheap pork.



Thanks to the efforts in part of Farm Sanctuary, gestation crates in Florida and Arizona were banned by voters. When put on the ballot, voters, the majority of whom want to consume meat, reject such egregious cruelty.



I can't help think about how far removed the treatment of farm animals is compared to Georgeanne Brennan's memoir of her years in France. In A Pig in Provence, she writes of the notion of the pig being the farmer's friend, and of their highly-sensitive noses, used for hunting prized truffles. When it came time for the slaughter, she writes, "They spoke quietly, not wanting to upset the pig. They understood an agitated animal would not bleed well, and if it didn't bleed well, the meat would be tainted, the hams wouldn't cure, and it would be a big loss to the family." There must be a lot of tainted meat considering today's practices, as well as a lot of tainted ethics.



On Jamie

On Giada De Laurentiis' web site, you can buy not only her cookbooks, but you can also pick up Giada's Sicilian Sea Salt/Tuscan Herb Mix and Giada's Sicilian Sea Salt/Tuscan Herb Mix Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You won't read about how her Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions is produced. Rachael Ray's web site? I spotted a $1 off coupon for Perdue Chicken, and the most popular recipe was Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Cups. Paula Deen? The animals won't find any southern comfort on her site. She even has her own line of pork made by Smithfield Foods. Not a peep about animal welfare (pun intended).



Why are American chefs so unconcerned about the welfare of the animals they recommend millions of people eat? The Brits, and the animals, thankfully have Jamie Oliver in their camp. To his credit are two shows exposing the horrors of the chicken and pig industries, and his web site devotes a section to pig welfare, where he notes 65% of British pigs spend their whole lives indoors.



"The sow stall is where pigs live for probably 90% of their lives for four or five years," he told the Radio Times. While banned in the UK, they're not banned in Europe, Jamie bemoaned.



A recent Taco Bell ad asks the consumer, "why pay more?" Jamie has been a tireless advocate of paying more for meat so that animals can have a better quality of life.



The labeling game

Gene Baur talked about being a "conscious consumer." For those who don't wish to go veg and are trying to purchase more humanly raised meat, milk and eggs, that can be a challenge, especially when it comes to confusing labeling guidelines, combined with bad behavior sanctioned by organizations and our very own government.



Farm Sanctuary's "The Truth Behind The Labels: Farm Animal Welfare Standards and Labeling Practices" report took a look at this very issue. For instance, under the Certified Humane program, which is administered by Humane Farm Animal Care and endorsed by some animal advocacy organizations, confinement of pregnant sows to gestation crates is prohibited, and bedding is required. However, there is no requirement that pigs be provided access to the outdoors, and tail docking pigs is allowed under some circumstances. Neither of those seem particularly humane to most caring individuals.



Across the pond, no legal definition of 'free-range pork' exists in the UK. The RSPCA believes that the label 'free-range' should only be used where the pig (and the sow that bred the pig) is kept outside for its entire life, in paddocks with ample space to move around and soil to root in, Jamie's web site noted.



Clarity is needed. "How many people outside of the industry know the difference between outdoor-bred and outdoor-reared, for example? Not many," Jamie remarked in a guardian article.



Learn more about the RSPCA campaign, Rooting for Pigs.



24 hours

How would humans fare in crates that sows endure their entire lives in? Jamie puts a few to the test. Unfortunately, the animals don't get to volunteer where they live, nor do they get a reprieve after 24 hours and a treat to follow.





Flashback to Jamie's exposed on factory farmed chickens, Jamie's Fowl Dinners, and my entry on Jamie Saves Our Bacon.



Check out Jamie's vegetarian recipes.



See more clips of Jamie Saves Our Bacon from Eat Me Daily.



Pigs enjoying life at Farm Sanctuary's Waktins Glen, NY shelter.

Sabril Approved to Treat Infantile Spasms

Boston (DbTechNo) - The FDA (Food and Drug Administration ) have just approved a drug to treat infantile spasms in children.

The drug, Sabril is made by H Lundbeck A/S and is approved for children as young as 2 and is also approved for use by adults.

Sabril is the first drug to be approved in the US for treating infantile spasms.

Infantile spasms generally present during the first 8 months of life and can be very hard to handle due to their frequency.

The drug is already approved in other countries to treat the condition.

It will however come with a blackbox warning because of vision problems that have been documented in clinical studies of it.

Source: http://www.dbtechno.com/health/2009/08/22/sabril-approved-to-treat-infantile-spasms/

TEA Party protests health care reform plan

TEA Party members railed against proposed health care reforms Saturday at a busy intersection in Scottsdale.

They came from all over that morning, thinly crowded on the four corners of Scottsdale and Camelback roads.

• Government can't rein in health care costs
• Obama protests, rallies heat up Phoenix
• Obama looks West, to Web in health care fight

Holding anti-health care reform signs, soliciting car honks; the tenor of the shallow sea of signs the same.

Except for one counterprotester, apparently the only one within shouting distance. The man would only give his first name as he stood alone, wearing a Yankee baseball team shirt, a handgun on his hip, holding a contrary sign.

TAKING A STAND: Protesters surround the intersection of Camelback and Scottsdale roads in Scottsdale on Saturday to show their opinions on health care reform.

Josh, who explained he would only give his first name because of the type of work he does, said he was a Democrat among a sea of non-Democrats, touting health care reform, but not reforms over his right to bear arms.

“Part of my passion as a Democrat is the right to bear arms,” Josh said.

A veteran, and from a long family history of veterans, the man who was very much alone in the small crowd of protesters said he believed in fighting for the less fortunate.

“I am a firm supporter of health care for every American,” he said.

Someone nearby noticed that Josh had what looked like a picture of Hitler on his sign, which boasted a contrary message to the many signs surrounding it — a construction-paper cacophony of anti-health care reform themes.

Josh’s sign simply read: “Teabaggers — Fail.”

There were a lot of stats on his board, pasted or taped methodically; some of the pages had sentences that were highlighted. But nearby protesters took issue with a picture on his large board — what they saw as an unfair comparison of their group to Nazis.

“Why do you have a picture of Hitler on your board?” one woman asked from a distance.

Josh just smiled. The Phoenician stood very much alone in the lively morning crowd, but he had a gun.

Moving in closer than anyone, an older man, Jim Johnson of Chandler, pointed to the sign.

“Why are you comparing the TEA Party to Nazis?” asked Johnson, much the armed man’s senior, regarding the party that stands for Taxed Enough Already.

“I’m not,” Josh replied.

Upon closer examination, the large, illustrated sticker on the board was actually of Obama, rendered graphically in red and blue — wearing a Hitler mustache.

Johnson just scratched his head — confused, smiled.

The younger man didn’t explain, except to say, “It’s irrelevant whether it’s Democrats or Republicans.” He said legislators and leaders need to work together to ensure equal health care reforms in the country.

A woman standing nearby who only gave her first name, Vera, said she had come from Germany, but was an American citizen who had lived abroad.

"What Washington is trying to do is create socialized medicine, and I don’t want the same system as France, Germany or Canada,” she said.

While Vera was for reform, she wasn’t buying the current plan, she said.

“I implore everyone to read what they are proposing; this concerns your freedom,” she said.

Vera’s sign had a quote from Hitler extolling the government’s right to control health care, and said that was where America was heading.

Tim McBride, a member of the Army on leave in his home state, wore a gun on his hip and held a sign that said in fewer words that he did support reform, but not the current plan.

“Not socialism,” said McBride. “But we do need more efficient health care.”

Elsewhere in the state, there were reports of demonstrations in support of the current health care reform proposal.

In parts of Flagstaff and Tucson, members of the Health Care for America Now held door-to-door information drives Saturday to explain the merits of the current health care reform proposal, according to the group.

Source: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/143354

SIGG Bottles Contained Bisphenol-A

Children's bottle maker SIGG has admitted that the epoxy lining used for years in SIGG bottles - which they secretly swapped out for a new liner last summer - contained the hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A.
Parents all over the world, advocates of their supposed high quality bottles, are very annoyed with the news.
Bottles purchased before August 2008 contained the old BPA liner.
For more information click here.

Recycled Diaper Dude Bag!

This diaper bag is super cool. It is made from 100% recycled water bottles.
Very interesting concept, and beautiful! Useful design with several pockets, including insulated compartment for a bottle, and a changing pad. The designer claims it is for dudes, but it looks pretty good for moms too! Click here for more information

Macs get fixes for noisy 7200RPM HDDs and Bluetooth improvements

Apple has released new update for fixing issues in MacBook Pros with 7200RPM HDDs and Bluetooth

issues. The hard drive update takes care of the noise when the hard drive platter's disc spins. This update is majorly for the drives shipped with MacBook Pro in June.
The Hard Drive Firmware update 2.0 (3.71 MB) is available for download form here. Follow the instructions for firmware update mentioned the updater application.

The Bluetooth update 2.0.1 (1.78MB) promises better Bluetooth performance with Apple Mighty Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard in the Macs with Broadcom chipset based Bluetooth. All unibody MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models as well as all other Macs included in 2009 have Broadcom chipset based Bluetooth module.

This Bluetooth Update 2.0.1 can be downloaded from here.

For more information visit http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Apple_pushes_HDD_Firmware_Bluetooth_Updates/551-105690-580.html

Exit 98: Sunshine, Sand and Vegan Pizza

A sunny day at Point Pleasant, NJ. My accessories: plenty of sunscreen, a hat, a frisbee, and my latest book and/or magazines from the library.


I asked on a whim if they had any cheeseless slices at Joey Tomato's, and the answer was yes. Yeah! A tomato sauce and garlic slice, $3.50, with a small Cherry Coke, $1.50.

My usual haunt is this local spot on the boardwalk for a veggie burger with lettuce and tomato, $4.75, and a side of sweet potato fries. I haven't had the veggie burger since last year (pre-vegan), so I'm not sure if it's completely free of eggs/dairy. I doubt the 15-year-olds behind the counter can give you an informed answer. It's still refreshing to see veggie burgers on a boardwalk full of seafood, burgers and chicken wings.

Yes, you can win an Obama doll on the boardwalk.

Italian ices and lemonade will both cool you down on a hot day.

Veganize fudge. Or buy it online.

Swimming in the ocean, I rescued a Skittles packet and plastic beach bracelet from heading out any further. My cleanups with the Hackensack Riverkeeper have made me hyper-aware of waste, even on days of leisure.

Did you know there's a bed and breakfast in New Jersey serving vegan and vegetarian options? Serendipity Bed & Breakfast in Ocean City looks positively delightful.

On the drive on the traffic-ridden Garden State Parkway, you are guaranteed to find a song on the radio from the Boss.

Bruce Springsteen "Human Touch"

More Puff Pastry

Sorry about bringing up the puff pastry subject again, but we tried a new appetizer the other night and it was fabulous. And easy to make. Using puff pastry in all sorts of recipes seems to be the latest craze, which is just dandy with me. Sweet or savory- just pass the plate my way!

Of course in this instance, I have to give Giada De Laurentis the credit. It’s her recipe. This is the woman Mario Batali referred to (in a recent N Y Times magazine article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html - which, by the way, while long, should be mandatory reading for all of us) as the “ the beautiful girl with the nice rack who does simple Italian food.” No matter that I agree with him just a little (and do get tired of wondering how many more times she is going to lean over in her trademark low cut tops and if anything will ever spill out, though it would be edited out anyway) and nothing wrong with having a nice chest…but is it supposed to bring in a male audience? If not, what's up with this? Still, Mario didn’t need to say it in print. Naughty Mario.

No matter, I like lots of her cookie recipes and some of her appetizers. We’re not much of a pasta family so most of her main course recipes get a pass from me- still, she does make pasta from scratch now and then (Yes, Mario, she does- I’ve seen her do it.) even though she takes shortcuts on lots of things. Which makes life easier for the home cook. Isn’t that the point?

Anyway, back to the appetizer. How can this miss? Puff pastry; olive tapenade; fontina cheese; grape tomatoes; basil. How great is that combination of ingredients? Giada suggested sprinkling a little fleur de sel on top but the tapenade is salty enough so I didn’t do it. And it was perfect the way it was; they were gone in an instant- inhaled by my guests. The only sound I heard was Mmmmmm. Unfortunately I only had some old, sad basil in my salad bin, so it would have been even better with a nice fresh basil chiffonade sprinkled on top.

Tomato Basil Tartlets
(Adapted from Giada De Laurentis)

Ingredients:
1 (10 by 9 inch) sheet frozen puff pastry (thawed in your refrigerator overnight)
1/2 cup olive tapenade
1 cup shredded fontina cheese
8 cherry tomatoes
6 basil leaves, chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 400°. Put rack in the center of the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Put the puff pastry on a floured board. Prick all over with a fork. Using a 2 ¼ inch cookie cutter, cut out 16 (we only got 12 or 13) rounds of pastry. Place them on the baking sheet. Place another piece of parchment paper on top of the pastry rounds and top with another baking sheet so it will press down slightly on the rounds and keep them flat. (We didn't use a very heavy pan so I wonder if a heavier one would make them thinner? Or do we even want them thinner?) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.
Remove the baking pan and top sheet of parchment paper.

Spread 1 teaspoon of the tapenade on each round. (We purchased some tapenade in a jar at the market and it was excellent.) Place a tablespoon of cheese on top and then top with a cherry tomato, halved. If the tomatoes were small I used 2, but I think 1 half is plenty and easier to eat.
Bake for an additional 5-7 minutes (I think we should have baked ours a little longer- keep checking). Remove from the oven and sprinkle the basil on top.

New Studies about Babies' Intelligence

Children under the age of 5 have a different learning process, and we tend to mislead their experiences by using our perspective as adults.
"Babies are captivated by the most unexpected events. Adults, on the other hand, focus on the outcomes that are the most relevant to their goals."
From the New York Times, this article emphasizes how babies can learn by exploring and observing the people around them.
Click here to read the full article

A Light Summer Dinner at Le Grainne Cafe

I was back in the Chelsea section of New York City for meetings at my old office, so I treated myself to dinner at Le Grainne Cafe, where I lunched on occasion with a good book for company and Edith Piaf, Vanessa Paradis, and Carla Bruni, among others, providing the French soundtrack on my iPod.

A bottle of New York City's finest tap water, free, and bread (no butter, s'il vous plaît). I was very tempted to have an apertif: Rose Regal, a sparkling wine with notes of roses and raspberries, which I once sampled at Chelsea Wine Vault. But with tax and tip, this would have added about $13 to my bill. Better to pick up an entire bottle for my next picnic or summer meal.

A small organic mesclun salad, $4.50. I love these simple green salads with julienned cucumber and carrots.

Ratatouille is one of my favorite food films, and it's also one of my favorite dishes, especially in the summer. Their version, $6 for a side, went so well on the bread. Learn more about "confit biyaldi," an interpretation of ratatouille by chef Thomas Keller made popular in the film, as well as the traditional version.



Apple tarte tatin with crème fraiche, chocolate mousse, crème brulee: so tempting. But not vegan, sigh. So I went with a trio of sorbets: raspberry, mango and coconut, $6. A delicious way to end any summer meal.

Visit Le Grainne Cafe, 183 Ninth Ave. (between 21st & 22nd St.), NYC.

On the walk back to Port Authority, I passed this billboard.
I cannot wait to see this film. I've actually seen warnings on some eco-sites to stay away from this movie, with an old quote from People magazine referring to Julia Child's dislike of vegetarians.

I, for one, do not want to be exposed to views of the world that are exactly aligned with my own. Child influenced millions of cooks. Is it not worthy to see how she did it, and how we can harness some of that influence for our own path?

Babette's Feast is another one of my favorite food films, and they have the most un-vegan feast you'll ever see at the end. If you can get beyond the food, it had powerful take-away messages, such as enjoying food can be one of life's great pleasures and need not be associated with such guilt, and most importantly, food not only satisfies the physical appetite, it feeds the spiritual appetite as well.

Event Alert: Gene Baur to speak at the New York Public Library on Tuesday, August 18th

Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur will be speaking at the New York Public Library this Tuesday, August 18th at 6:30 p.m. He will be reading excerpts from his best-selling book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. This event is free and open to the public. Learn more.

You can order his book online, or check it out at your local library. Flashback to his visit to Borders Columbus Circle.

In other news, Farm Sanctuary's annual Walk for Farm Animals to raise money as well as awareness about factory farming is right around the corner. In my area, the walks will take place in Princeton, NJ, on Sunday, September 20th and New York City on Sunday, October 4th. See all the dates. Their new blog Walk Talk follows all the exciting details.

Netscape Founder Backs Next-Gen Browser - Rockmelt

The browser wars have gotten livelier with new entries and updates, with Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple's Safari all scrambling for attention. But a warrior from the first browser war is apparently gearing up for battle once more. Netscape founder-turned-investor Marc Andreessen is backing a new company, Rockmelt, that is developing a next-generation Web browser, according to the New York Times.

Like Google's approach with its Chrome browser, Rockmelt is optimizing the Web browser for the current demands of the Internet, such as running Web-based applications or Web apps.

"There are all kinds of things that you would do differently [today] if you're building a browser from scratch," Andreessen told the New York Times earlier this year. Rockmelt was founded by Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, both of whom were executives at Opsware, a company co-founded by Andreessen and sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2007.

Few details are available about how Rockmelt's browser is different. The Times reports one interesting tidbit: Rockmelt's Website reportedly posted a privacy policy, since removed, that mentioned some sort of Facebook integration. The policy said you could "use a Facebook ID to log into RockMelt." It's not clear what this means, but I wonder if Rockmelt plans to store your Facebook credentials as an automatic login feature for Facebook Connect-enabled Web sites. Andreessen, it should be noted, serves on Facebook's board, but the Times says Rockmelt and Facebook are not working together on the Web browser.

Netscape is widely credited as the browser that helped popularize the Web during the early to mid-90s. In response to Netscape's popularity, Microsoft developed Internet Explorer and has bundled IE with copies of Microsoft Windows ever since (a practice that is now under scrutiny in Europe).

Netscape and Microsoft quickly developed a rivalry known as the first browser war. Microsoft ultimately won that battle, which effectively ended with Netscape being sold off to AOL and Internet Explorer becoming the dominant Web browser worldwide. Netscape then languished under AOL, before it was eventually spun off into an open-source project that led to the development of the popular and innovative Web browser Mozilla Firefox.

Considering that most browsers today can claim only marginal popularity, breaking into the Web browser market may be difficult for Rockmelt. In fact, Mozilla Firefox is really the only threat to Internet Explorer's still impressive dominance. The latest numbers from metrics firm Net Applications gives IE 68% of the worldwide browser market, with Firefox coming in a distant second at just under 23%. Other well-known browsers, including Chrome, Safari, and Opera, combine to make up less than 9% of the remaining browser market.

Rockmelt likely has a difficult fight ahead, but it's always interesting to try new browsers and Andreessen's endorsement will no doubt draw some interest to Rockmelt's entry. The new Web browser is in only early stages of development, but to keep tabs on Rockmelt you can sign up for e-mail updates at the company's Website.

For more information visit http://www.pcworld.com/article/170218/netscape_founder_backs_nextgen_browser.html

"September's coming soon"

With just over a month left of summer, I'm trying to savor as many sweet moments as I can. Sipping lemonade on a steamy Sunday night while listening to the music of the 1920s and 30s on the Big Broadcast. Enjoying feasts of corn, baked beans and veggie dogs. And one of my favorite summertime activities, swimming.



R.E.M. recorded this sonic poem honoring the simple but so pleasurable act of swimming at nighttime on their Automatic for the People album. I can't think of a lovelier tribute to swimming and summertime.

R.E.M.-Nightswimming

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night

The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,

Turned around backwards so the windshield shows

Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse

Still, it's so much clearer

I forgot my shirt at the water's edge

The moon is low tonight



Nightswimming deserves a quiet night

I'm not sure all these people understand

It's not like years ago,

The fear of getting caught,

Of recklessness and water

They cannot see me naked

These things, they go away,

Replaced by everyday



Nightswimming, remembering that night

September's coming soon

I'm pining for the moon

And what if there were two

Side by side in orbit

Around the fairest sun?

That bright, tight forever drum

Could not describe nightswimming



You, I thought I knew you

You, I cannot judge

You, I thought you knew me,

This one laughing quietly underneath my breath

Nightswimming



The photograph reflects,

Every streetlight a reminder

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night

Focus on Bad Behavior...Big Mistake

Being a parent involves tasks we are not always prepared for. Discipline is a hot issue! Doing it right can make a big difference in both kids and parents' lives.

I've always being against yelling and spanking. Conversation and positive reinforcement are big components of my personal discipline book. It takes longer but is well worth it! However, I do respect the fact that parents have their own beliefs and choices.

There is a good article published by the New York Times in 2008 about effective discipline. "Many parents’ discipline methods don’t work because children quickly learn that it’s much easier to capture a parent’s attention with bad behavior than with good. Parents unwittingly reinforce this by getting on the phone, sending e-mail messages or reading the paper as soon as a child starts playing quietly, and by stopping the activity and scolding a child when he starts to misbehave." Click here to read the full article.

Decisions, decisions.....

My daughter is staying with me for a few weeks so life has changed around here. Well to be honest, life changed quite a bit when I had my hip replaced 5 weeks ago too! (I’m doing very well, thank you.) At any rate I am now into planning meals, something I don’t do very often since I live alone. Nor does my daughter for that matter, as she lives in New York City and ends up eating out a lot.

It’s amazing how spoiled we get when a decision about dinner involves only one person- do I get take out? Try a new dish? A Lean Cuisine? Just eggs? A PB& J? Now that there are two of us, Tracy and I actually sit down at some point every day and have one of those "I don't care, what do you want" conversations about dinner. Sometimes we end up trying some of the recipes in my “save to try” file which is fun and ambitious of us. And I have introduced her to some of my recent recipe discoveries and inventions that I think she might like.... I love getting her opinion. We seem to be spending a great deal of time (and money) poking around various grocery stores and our heads are swimming with ideas gleaned from friends, cookbooks or my old files.

I have discovered that trying out new recipes for my blog is way different than being pinned down to plan a complete meal every single night- something I haven’t had to do since the kids grew up and moved out. The exception being holidays, when everyone’s here and demanding an organized meal of some kind three times a day.

Now back to all those decisions.... luckily we don’t plan breakfasts as we don’t eat at the same time; I am an earlier riser than Tracy and anyway, we don’t like the same things. I am happy with an Ultra Meal vanilla shake with strawberries (greatly encouraged by my nutritionist) or grapefruit and an egg white omelet. Tracy likes granola, fruit and yogurt. Plain and simple. And the occasional croissant- a result of living in Paris for 6 years in the 90’s.

Shortly after her arrival Tracy asked if I had a good granola recipe. Well I do, even though I don’t like granola and never eat it. No accounting for tastes, I know. I have made it often for company or morning coffee/meetings and everyone raves about it. I’ve never even tasted my own granola, do you believe? The recipe really is a combination of several recipes that sounded good to me so I guess I can call it my own, sort of. I remember beginning with a recipe from Sarah Chase’s Open House Cookbook and adding things from other recipes over the years.

Somebody, somewhere along the line, suggested keeping the fruit and granola separate as storing them together makes the granola soggy. Up until now, I have always made the granola, combined everything and served it right away. But Tracy is eating a little every morning so we are keeping the fruit and nuts in one container and the oatmeal/granola part in another. It has stayed nice and crunchy. So unless you are serving a crowd, I suggest you store it this way. Well, have fun with the recipe; make it your own by adding or subtracting things according to your taste.

My Granola

Ingredients:

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut

2 cups sliced almonds

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 cups diced dried apricots

1 cup diced dried figs

1 cup dried cherries

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup roasted, unsalted cashews ( we used whole cashews but you might like them halved instead)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Toss the oats, coconut, and almonds together in large bowl. Whisk together the oil and honey in a small bowl. Pour the liquids over the oat mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all the oats and nuts are coated.

Pour onto a 13x18-inch baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally with a spatula, until the mixture turns a nice, even golden brown, around 45 minutes. Remove the granola from the oven and cool, stirring occasionally to break up the bigger pieces.

In the meantime, dice your dried fruit and mix with the cashews.

If you are not going to use the entire recipe at one time, store the apricots, figs, cherries, cranberries and cashews in airtight container separately from the granola. Makes about 12 cups.

Corn and Me: So Happy Together

Back from a few days in the Des Moines-area of Iowa, enjoying sunshine, friendly people, and a more relaxed pace of life.

A summer and Iowan must-have: corn. I love corn's versatility: cornbread, corn chowder, corn flakes, corn tortillas, or just good, old-fashioned corn on the cob.

Even this Iowan cat indulged in some leftover corn.

What to do with homegrown strawberries? Strawberry margarita! Or how about a strawberry smoothie?

My hosts bake their own bread to save money. What a good idea. Check out Chez Bettay's recipe for basic bead and pizza dough.

Picnic time. An assortment of salads, including one with corn, black beans, tomatoes and avocados.

On a hot day, a swim at the lake was so refreshing.

On the way to the Des Moines airport, I lunched at Gateway Market, a gourmet market with a cafe attached. In a state where you can turn on the radio and hear the weekly hog kill read as matter-of-factly as the weather report, it was a breath of fresh air to see vegetarian and even vegan options. They even have a tofu scramble! (Just hold the cheese).

A cup of the soup of the day, vegan tofu and mushroom, $2.95. Not bad, but I prefer creamy soups (thickened with soy creamer) to broth-based soups.

The roasted red pepper hummus platter (leave off the feta cheese to vegazine), $4.95. My only complaint: the pita chips were deep fried. Eesh.

Alternative Baking Company's vegan cookies at the airport, $2.99 each. I indulged in a pumpkin spice one. Very exciting, considering this shop sported t-shirts that said "Al's Roadkill Cafe: It's An Iowa Thing (You Kill It, We Grill It)" and more than one reference to cow-tipping.

Unfortunately, I was not near Madison County, where the famed bridges are that can be found in the movie and novel.

"The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but I’m glad I had them." -Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County.

Here's hoping our dreams of a better world for animals do work out.

Virtual textbooks turning the page on education for students

The sound of students flipping through textbook pages may soon be a thing of the past.

Instead, university and college students may be using their index fingers to silently scroll through virtual textbooks they've downloaded to their iPod Touch or iPhone .

They will highlight with a swish and make notes with a few taps, thanks to a new application available through the iTunes store.

More than 7,000 post-secondary textbooks from 12 large publishers - including John Wiley & Sons Inc., McGraw Hill Higher Education and Nelson Education - can now be downloaded though CourseSmart LLC for about half the cost of the printed versions.

The textbooks cover courses offered in Canada and the United States.

"Textbooks right now are very much a print business, but more and more students are aware that they have a choice," said Frank Lyman, executive vice-president of CourseSmart.

"I don't think it's the end of the print textbook business. But for a lot of students out there, this is a better way to learn and study, and it's a better fit for their lifestyle.

"It really is taking off very broadly."

CourseSmart, created in 2007 by a handful of publishers, already has hundreds of thousands of users throughout North America.

Students subscribe to the service, paying a fee to access digital textbooks through their laptops and cellphones.

With the addition of the free iTunes app, which went live late Sunday night, CourseSmart subscribers can now also use their portable Apple touch-screen devices.

"We think it's safe to say most of the core textbooks are available," said Lyman.

While Lyman wouldn't disclose exact figures, he said the California-based company's sales are up 600 per cent over the same period in 2008.

The digital textbooks look exactly the same as their print counterparts, with charts, graphs and page numbers intact, so students don't get lost when directed to specific sections.

Nicholas Osborne, a fourth-year computer science student at Ottawa's Carleton University, said he'd consider switching to digital textbooks, especially since he's now paying between $50 and $200 a textbook.

The iPhone owner said he already uses the device for "pretty much everything. In some ways it has replaced a lot of my computer use. I use it for music, e-mail, browsing, Twitter, Facebook, organizing my life with calendars," he said.

"I like the format of a physical book - being able to write notes on the pages, having diagrams, charts - I'm not sure how these would translate into an iPhone version, but given that in many of my courses textbooks are something I only reference a couple of times per term, it certainly would be a worthwhile sacrifice."

McGill University Prof. Morton Mendelson said he wouldn't be surprised if his students took to virtual textbooks.

"People my age, of course, like to read a book, like to hold a book," said Mendelson, the Montreal university's deputy provost for student life and learning.

"Students will be using the technology available to them, and that will change as time passes."

Mendelson also noted the digitized books are a greener way of viewing course material. "University students are so intent on raising environmental issues," he said.

The key question, he said, is "does it benefit learning?

"Students have a wide variety of learning styles, so students have to find out what works better for their learning styles."

Lyman said post-secondary institutions have been positive about the transfer of texts to the digital format.

"Most institutions are accepting that (students) want a variety of ways to access their materials," he said. "It's at an early stage and it will be interesting to see how many institutions take a proactive approach."

For more information visit http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=1878866

A Corn PDA.... Cool Momma Phone!

Sprint and Samsumg have just launched a green phone, a simplified version of a green Blackberry. Very nice initiative, considering how often people replace their phones. Unfortunately just a small percentage of old phones are recycled, and most of them end up in the landfill for decades.

It is a nice looking phone with several cool applications such as heavy e-mail and texting, and access to Facebook and Twitter. Sprint said $2 of every phone sale goes to the Nature Conservancy.

Check out this link for more information

Is My Baby Weird?

This morning msn.com published a great article about child development. So many parents, including me, are always analyzing their kids’ behavior, and are often concerned about what is normal and what is not.

Chances are, he or she is just unique….

I was pleasantly surprised that my kid’s obsession with electrical cords and electronic equipments is quite a standard. The link is posted below. Check it out!

Is my Baby Weird

Eco Party....Little Things We Can Do

There are many little things we can do to teach kids the art of “eco-friendliness”. We can also inspire other parents by encouraging them to be conscious about not wasting unnecessary resources.

Have you thought about making your next dinner or birthday party a bit more eco-friendly? There are several choices you can make, without being overboard! From reusable plates and cups to recycled-paper decoration and napkins. There are very classy options available in the market.

You don’t need to make the Ecology your party theme, but some hints here and there will set the tone and do great for mother Earth. It is nice to be conscious and responsible while we are having fun!

Registering for your bridal or baby shower at eco-friendly boutiques, sending recycled-paper invitations and thank you notes are also great touches! It is all about creativity, respect and fun!

Grandma Doherty's Potato Pancakes

My mother’s mother was of German ancestry and, as I have mentioned before, a brilliant cook -you know- homemade noodles ( I would come home from school and see hand cut noodles drying on tea towels draped over open kitchen cabinet doors), potato pancakes, dumplings, kuchen… all those divine things. She was my much loved Grandma Sarah Rhyff Doherty and owned a bakery in Detroit many years ago with her sister Carrie; so need I say her pastries, breads, cakes and pies were also heavenly? And did she ever know how to make perfect long johns! Does anyone else remember what those are? Lord, no wonder I am always on a diet!

When I was a child, potato pancakes were a family favorite and not for breakfast either. We always had them for dinner. We usually had bacon or even side pork (a heavenly fattening pork item that I can find once in a while in Florida, but more readily available in the north country). And I made potato pancakes for my kids too- always for dinner. They loved them.

Oddly enough, Grandma never used onion in her recipe which is quite uncommon and she also always served warmed maple syrup, not applesauce, another break from German tradition. But it was a tradition we grew up with- therefore the way I still make them.

So, the next time you look in your larder and find it empty except for couple of potatoes, dinner is right in front of you. Could any meal be cheaper? Or easier? Or more delicious? Or quicker? I mean there are lots of things you can do with potatoes, but just wait until you try this potato pancake recipe; it hits the spot. Better than waffles. Better than regular pancakes except, perhaps, for my Grandfather’s buckwheat pancakes, which I promise to discuss in another post. And we didn’t have potato pancakes on a regular basis- it was always a special treat.

I suppose grating the potatoes would be a snap now with food processors, but there is something special about hand grated potatoes- so that is still how I make them. You have to be careful with your knuckles, but the finished product is just plain better. You need a little egg, a little flour, and vegetable oil to fry them, but that’s about it. Syrup, of course, although you might prefer applesauce or some other fruit puree. I am a Michigan syrup person- we made our own from time to time, but if not, homemade syrup was for sale roadside just about everywhere in the fall. Lucky us. Anyway, most of these ingredients are already in your pantry. Bacon or side pork is not necessary, just icing on the cake. I am in heaven with just the pancakes.

This is going to be a difficult recipe to post because I always make it by look, not by measurement. So last night, my daughter and I had them for dinner and I sort of eye-balled what I put in just for you.

Grandma's Potato Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 large Idaho potato

1 small egg

1/4 to 1/3 cup all purpose flour

pinch salt

Vegetable oil for frying

Method:
Peel and hand grate the potato. Beat the egg and add to the grated potato. Add a pinch of salt and start with 1/4 cup flour- adding up to 1/3. You want the consistency to still be slightly runny, not too thick.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, add a heaping spoonful of pancake batter and spread it out a little. I can fit three at a time in my skillet. Cook until golden and then flip and cook until brown on the other side. Keep warm in a slow oven while you finish the rest and then serve with heated maple syrup.

This recipe served two of us.