Learning to like red meat

[AdamSmith]

Exactly!!! Cappuccino is for BREAKFAST!!! Along with some biscotti or cornetti, etc. Not an after dinner thing.

And a little espresso right after lunch.

 

Really the only people who know how to live!

[Rudynate]

I LOVE flatiron. Trader Joe's sells it every so often.

 

I get it a meat market in my neighborhood. If I want one, I have to get there early in the day, because they're sold out by dinner time.

[+ FreshFluff]

I will eat some vegetarian dishes but vegan dishes do absolutely nothing for me, I find them boring and flavorless. The very thought of living without cheese is frightening to me.

 

I couldn't do without cheese and milk. For example, my favorite veggie Indian dishes are dairy-based. Vegan food can be dull, but I've always liked tofu when it's cooked right. Hummus and falafel are delicious too.

 

I tried to talk myself into having beef tonight, but I gave in and had the stir fried tofu. I've had some sort of meat on three days out of five, which is an improvement.

[whipped guy]

And a little espresso right after lunch.

 

Really the only people who know how to live!

And an espresso corretto to boot! Then they take the riposino pomeridiano... the afternoon nap... and everything closes down. The first sign I saw when I arrived in Italy said "Chiuso"... closed... yes they really know how to live!

 

[AdamSmith]

And an espresso corretto to boot! Then they take the riposino pomeridiano... the afternoon nap... and everything closes down. The first sign I saw when I arrived in Italy said "Chiuso"... closed... yes they really know how to live!

 

That is even the workday that Fermi followed when constructing the first chain-reacting nuclear pile in the underground squash court beneath Stagg Field at U of Chicago early in the Manhattan Project.

 

From 8am to noon the workers would stack the alternating blocks of uranium and graphite ('moderator' to slow down the spontaneously emitted neutrons to increase their odds of hitting a nucleus and continuing the chain reaction). Then break for lunch and nap from noon to 4pm. Then resume work 4-8pm.

 

End of each day, Fermi would work out with slide rule what the reaction rate measured by the neutron counters would be, given that day's construction progress. Then they would inch out the cadmium control rods, the reaction would begin, the neutron count would rise to exactly where Fermi had predicted, then die off because the pile had not yet reached critical mass.

 

His calculations were so accurate and infallible, his colleagues called him the Pope.

 

Finally, after measuring the neutron count one evening, Fermi announced, "The pile will go critical tomorrow."

 

And of course it did.

 

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/Journey/Images/IMG_0666.jpg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Energy_(sculpture)

[Epigonos]

I just finished reading "The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age" by Gino Segre and Bettina Hoerlin. Great book about a most interesting man.

[rvwnsd]

...I tried to talk myself into having beef tonight, but I gave in and had the stir fried tofu. I've had some sort of meat on three days out of five, which is an improvement.

Gee, @FreshFluff , three out of five days is a lot. I'd say you are doing OK.

[Rudynate]

not a beef cuts expert here at all, but I often see "bone-in" on menus...like it's a good thing.....why would anybody want the bone in?.....I like meat, not bone......

 

Bone-in cuts tend to be more flavorful.

[whipped guy]

That is even the workday that Fermi followed when constructing the first chain-reacting nuclear pile in the underground squash court beneath Stagg Field at U of Chicago early in the Manhattan Project.

 

From 8am to noon the workers would stack the alternating blocks of uranium and graphite ('moderator' to slow down the spontaneously emitted neutrons to increase their odds of hitting a nucleus and continuing the chain reaction). Then break for lunch and nap from noon to 4pm. Then resume work 4-8pm.

 

End of each day, Fermi would work out with slide rule what the reaction rate measured by the neutron counters would be, given that day's construction progress. Then they would inch out the cadmium control rods, the reaction would begin, the neutron count would rise to exactly where Fermi had predicted, then die off because the pile had not yet reached critical mass.

 

His calculations were so accurate and infallible, his colleagues called him the Pope.

 

Finally, after measuring the neutron count one evening, Fermi announced, "The pile will go critical tomorrow."

 

And of course it did.

 

http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/Journey/Images/IMG_0666.jpg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Energy_(sculpture)

 

I just finished reading "The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age" by Gino Segre and Bettina Hoerlin. Great book about a most interesting man.

 

My physics professor in college looked like Enrico Fermi. He was a total SOB. He once told me that I would never amount to anything. Then added, "I've got you by the balls!" He then made a motion as if he were crushing them... Yeah! Really nice guy! He definitely gave physics and physicists a bad name!

 

So I cringe every time I hear the name Enrico Fermi... However, it seems that Enrico was probably not that type of physicist and quite a decent guy after all!

 

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/fermi/Group19/enricofermi/images/homepage/fermi.jpg

 

Fermi smiling...something my physics prof never did.

[Rudynate]

My physics professor in college looked like Enrico Fermi. He was a total SOB. He once told me that I would never amount to anything. Then added, "I've got you by the balls!" He then made a motion as if he were crushing them... Yeah! Really nice guy! He definitely gave physics and physicists a bad name!

 

So I cringe every time I hear the name Enrico Fermi... However, it seems that Enrico was probably not that type of physicist and quite a decent guy after all!

 

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/fermi/Group19/enricofermi/images/homepage/fermi.jpg

 

Fermi smiling...something my physics prof never did.

 

Sexy Italian daddy.

[Rudynate]

My physics professor in college looked like Enrico Fermi. He was a total SOB. He once told me that I would never amount to anything. Then added, "I've got you by the balls!" He then made a motion as if he were crushing them... Yeah! Really nice guy! He definitely gave physics and physicists a bad name!

 

So I cringe every time I hear the name Enrico Fermi... However, it seems that Enrico was probably not that type of physicist and quite a decent guy after all!

 

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/fermi/Group19/enricofermi/images/homepage/fermi.jpg

 

Fermi smiling...something my physics prof never did.

 

 

Physics was something else again, even with an instructor who wan't an SOB. The professor assigned problems from each chapter of the text. Each week, we had to hand in one problem for grading. The first time I sat down to work one, I looked at it for awhile and thought, "I'm fucked, I may as well drop right now." I didn't drop the class. I sat there and looked at the problem and looked at it, re-reading it over and over, for probably two hours, and finally saw a way to approach it. That first one probably took me nearly a day to complete, but I never feared physics problems again.

[Epigonos]

According to "The Pope of Physics" Fermi was not terribly interested in theoretical physics he much preferred experimental physics. According to his former students he was an inspired teacher and could make the most difficult problems understandable to them. He normally had lunch with his students and frequently went hiking and swimming with them. Sounds like the type of teacher we all strove to be.

[+ poolboy48220]

The very thought of living without cheese is frightening to me.

Reminds me of a line from "The Ringworld Engineers", the main character Louis Wu was on the run and changed his habits to make himself more difficult to track. "He avoided cheese as if it were spoiled milk".

[+ not2rowdy]

How about some slow roasted beef brisket? Done properly is can be very tender and flavorful.

The really good stuff is still hot from the oven (or BBQ pit).

 

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beef_brisket_pot_roast/

 

Your local grocery deli may have it. It will, of course, be cold (less desirable). But get a few thin slices and try it on a sandwich with veggies of your choice.

[+ FreshFluff]

How about some slow roasted beef brisket? Done properly is can be very tender and flavorful.

The really good stuff is still hot from the oven (or BBQ pit).

 

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beef_brisket_pot_roast/

 

Your local grocery deli may have it. It will, of course, be cold (less desirable). But get a few thin slices and try it on a sandwich with veggies of your choice.

 

Thanks, not2rowdy, I'll try that. The tricky part is to find brisket that's lean. I wonder if a local butcher would have it.

[Rudynate]

Thanks, not2rowdy, I'll try that. The tricky part is to find brisket that's lean. I wonder if a local butcher would have it.

 

It's just not a lean cut of meat.

[jjkrkwood]

With todays Events, I needed some comfort food. So I made some ribs, and added some Apple juice to the Bar-B-Q sauce. It was orgasmicly delish. but they were pork ribs, so wasnt RED meat.. but fell off the bone.

[+ FreshFluff]

This outfit is selling an 8 oz Australian Kobe filet with a marble score of 12. You'll need to wait a few months for them to raise the cow though.

[+ Eric Hassan]

@FreshFluff you are totally correct that eating more whole foods can be difficult. Whenever it comes to making healthy changes, I think it's helpful to think in steps. If you're someone who eats a processed food meal 3 times a day, 7 days a week and you replace one meal every other day with whole food, that's a step! But, I digress ... wanted to also add that duck has a lot of iron and might be something you could throw in to mix things up. Clams, mussels, and oysters are also good sources of iron. Beans are a great non-meat way to get some iron - maybe some chili with both meat and beans?!

 

And - on the physics part of this convo. I first took physics in high school and fell in love and it was totally because my teacher was an experimental physicist. He was so good at using experiments to teach. We made rockets and cotton candy and it was educational! It probably helps that many in my family are engineers or medical folks, so physics is something many of us are very familiar with, but I can say the experimental part really helped me grasp physics and enjoy it!

[mike carey]

For me it was the chemistry side of science that captivated me more in high school than physics, but I don't know why. With chemistry you could calculate the inputs and outputs, and the reactions were always interesting.

[+ not2rowdy]

Minor digression here but maybe applicable to both the foodies and science fanatics following this thread.

 

Free course offered by the Harvard Online Learning Portal:

Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science

 

http://online-learning.harvard.edu/courses?cost[]=free&sort_by=popularity

 

P.S. About a hundred other free online courses are offered.

[Rudynate]

For me it was the chemistry side of science that captivated me more in high school than physics, but I don't know why. With chemistry you could calculate the inputs and outputs, and the reactions were always interesting.

 

 

I never took chemistry until college. Normally people took high school chemistry in 11th grade, but we also had the option taking earth science instead of chemistry. I took earth science and found it totally boring. I wanted to drop it and change to chemistry, but my parents said "You chose it, make it work," and wouldn't sign the permission slip for me to make the change. I sat in class spacing out and not listening for the entire year. The last couple weeks of the year, I realized I hadn't learned a thing and would probably fail the final exam, so I crammed non-stop to prepare and ended up with an 'A' on the final exam.

[+ FreshFluff]

A poster (Charlie?) once wrote that he had no health issues that couldn't be solved by an occasional Tylenol. That has always impressed me.

 

@FreshFluff you are totally correct that eating more whole foods can be difficult. Whenever it comes to making healthy changes, I think it's helpful to think in steps. If you're someone who eats a processed food meal 3 times a day, 7 days a week and you replace one meal every other day with whole food, that's a step! But, I digress ... wanted to also add that duck has a lot of iron and might be something you could throw in to mix things up. Clams, mussels, and oysters are also good sources of iron. Beans are a great non-meat way to get some iron - maybe some chili with both meat and beans?!

 

Chili is a great idea; I definitely that. But wouldn't the beef and beans come from processed sources unless I made the whole thing myself.

[mike carey]

But wouldn't the beef and beans come from processed sources unless I made the whole thing myself.

The issue wouldn't be that the beef or beans were 'processed', rather that a commercially produced chili would contain chemical additives and more salt and sugar (and corn syrup or fructose that are more problematic than sucrose) than you would have in a home made chili. It's that sort of processing of food, often where it's elaborately transformed, that is a concern, not the basic processing to can (or dry) beans. If you're making it from scratch it would pay to rinse [canned] beans as the liquid probably contains salt.

 

Chili isn't a big thing here, but fresh soups and pasta sauces are sold in the chilled sections of supermarkets here, so I'd assume chili is in the US. I suspect that would be less 'processed' than a canned chili.

[+ Eric Hassan]

Chili is a great idea; I definitely that. But wouldn't the beef and beans come from processed sources unless I made the whole thing myself.

 

@mike carey is correct in that "processing" to put something like beans in a can is generally not an issue - it's the "processing" that involves adding substances that you would not find on a shelf in a grocery store - such as high fructose corn syrup or sodium benzoate. These additives are used to provide color, extend the shelf life of food, provide texture/mouth feel, emulsify, etc.

 

If you are not able or willing to make chili (it's actually super easy - you can whip it together in about 15 minutes), you could get chili from a local restaurant as it's probably made on premises (you can always ask). If you wanted to make it, there are plenty of recipes and while some people might argue this point, there's no right or wrong way to make chili. If you were to chop up a small onion, add some already minced garlic and half a pound of lean ground beef with a bit of olive oil to a pan and cook that until the beef is brown and the onions are soft, then add a can of tomato puree, a can of tomato paste, a can of black beans and some chili powder (start with just a little - you can always add, and with time, chili powder gets stronger), then let it simmer for 30 minutes (or longer), you'd have chili.

 

I gotta say, I love that you've started a conversation on here that has started a conversation about health and food. It's nice to have a variety of topics to discuss and it feels good to have a community where we can share ourselves!