15 recipes! And yet another post in my nearly world famous Electronic Sticky Note series.
Butternut is my favorite fall/winter squash if you haven’t figured that out yet.
https://thefirstmess.com/2023/09/22/vegan-butternut-squash-recipes/
Asian Guy Makes Asian Noodles
Another electronic sticky note but a video version.
Snake Bite Nachos!
Snake Bite Nachos, Pioneer Wagon: Crispy nacho chips smothered in cheese, topped with real rattlesnake sausage and famous Venom Sauce.
From pickle pies to meat candy, this is all the new food you can try at the Oklahoma State Fair — https://www.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/food/2023/08/17/oklahoma-state-fair-2023-menu-new-food-items-to-try/70612194007/
Lifestyle Habits and One Not So Scary Chart
Suicide by lifestyle takes ages.
Bill Bryson
Yesterday was haircut day and Kevin the Barber being typically Kevin asked again how old I was. When you run a busy shop with lots of customers I’m sure the personal details of all of us just sort of run together. When I confessed my age Kevin complimented me by saying I was the youngest looking almost 69 year old he’s ever seen. Of course a comment like that sends me straight into overthinking mode.
Having spent nearly a half century researching and understanding what kills people I’ve come to the conclusion (like Bill Bryson) that the majority of us tend not to do the simple small things that make a big difference. Since this blog started as a food blog here’s a simple observation about my dietary habits. I had pizza last night for dinner. This morning I was two pounds heavier than I was yesterday morning. This variation in weight for me is eerily predictable. Can you imagine how much I’d weigh if I ate pizza 2-3 times a week? I can, so I don’t.
One of the upsides of my blog writing is connecting with my readers. Ol Red Hair sent me a link to an interesting article on lifestyle habits. I already had a version of the article saved for future reference and unlike my usual spur of the moment let’s blog this link I started to overthink (again). But Kevin’s compliment made me think more about overall lifestyle and despite the observational construct of the study I’ll claim causality exists. I’m 8/8, batting 1000% on this list.
A new study involving over 700,000 U.S. veterans reports that people who adopt eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age can expect to live substantially longer than those with few or none of these habits. The eight habits are: being physically active, being free from opioid addiction, not smoking, managing stress, having a good diet, not regularly binge drinking, having good sleep hygiene, and having positive social relationships.
For the study, scientists used data from medical records and questionnaires collected between 2011-2019 from 719,147 people enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program, a large, nationally representative study of U.S. veterans. The analysis included data from adults age 40-99 and included 33,375 deaths during follow-up.
These eight habits could lengthen your life by decades – https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/995553
The estimated impact of adopting different numbers of healthy lifestyle factors on additional years of life expectancy among men as compared to men with none of these habits. While adopting more healthy lifestyle factors at a younger age is associated with the greatest gains in life expectancy, adopting even a few of these factors or adopting them at an older age can still bring significant gains. Image Credit VA Million Veteran Program
“Habits can be changed, if we understand how they work.”
“This process within our brains is a three-step loop. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.”
“To change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.”
Charles Duhigg from The Power of Habit
All of this overthinking has reminded me I need to write the Changing Habits chapter in my future Best Seller. But first I need to work on my procrastination habit.
Tomorrow.
The One Simple Reason Why I’ve Not Posted
New Security System!
The other day a salesperson was doing door to door in the neighborhood selling wifi enabled security systems. He was unsuccessful with me but per his list of neighbors who recently signed up I could tell he was a very good salesperson.
This young man managed to scare the crap out of me with his stories of break-ins, theft, and medical emergencies. I started thinking, do I need a new security system? After some serious thought weighing the pros and cons I decided it would be good to have a better security system.
Meet my new security system.
They will rip your face off if you try to steal my guitars.
Modern Art
Saturday 07.22.22 – The Day I Remembered This is a Food Blog
“So what are you going to do when I’m in Colorado?”
“Work.”
“So what are you going to do on the weekend?”
(silence…)
There are people who have to have to make plans and have plans for every day. There are people who don’t plan and see what the day brings. I am one of the second type of people. It’s Saturday and despite having a list of chores and errands I didn’t “plan” on doing much of anything at all. But I did manage to complete a few things off my list which made the entire day a guilt-free experience.
serendipity (noun) from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
- The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
- An instance of making such a discovery.
One errand I absolutely needed done was getting gas for my Non-Green Non-EV. On the way home I stopped in a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store in Edmond Oklahoma. I’ve lived in this town for nearly 20 years and only learned today that Edmond has a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store. Of course I had to explore and see what I could find. I was motivated to see if I could locate some replacement spices and herbs because one of the other things on my list was to clean out the spice rack. There were just a few that expired.
- Cayenne – August 2017
- Dill – July 2010
- Coriander – December 2016
- Curry powder – February 2019
- Ground mustard – no date
- Ground ginger – no date
- Sesame seeds – January 2018
No I’m not embarrassed. I’m mortified. The rack looks better now that I’ve tossed 7 or 8 containers.
At the Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store I chose not to replace any of discards from the list. I simply don’t use these spices enough to justify buying replacements just to have sitting around for another 10 years or more before getting tossed out from lack of use. But here’s my haul from the Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store:
Tomato paste from Turkey. Five bucks for 25 ounces.
Mild red chili powder. This is not the chili powder blend in the store but just ground chili from India. I almost bought the hot version but chickened out at the last moment.
Roti from Canada. Yes, Canada.
I bought a single samosa for a snack. But I neglected to snap a picture before I ate it so here’s a stock photo. I did get some of the red sauce and it’s spicy hot.
Morning stretches followed by a morning walk. Drank coffee. Read a book. Cooked a pot of chickpeas. Wrote a journal entry. Cleaned the shower and scrubbed a toilet (totally guilt-free after knocking these two things off my list). Got gas in my Non-Green Non-EV. Cleaned out my spice rack. Found a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store in of all places Edmond Oklahoma and bought some awesome tomato paste, ground chili and roti.
5:00 PM. Drinking a beer. It’s been a good day. Hopefully there’s a World Cup soccer game on the tube tonight.
Drink More Water (another reminder)
Extreme heat is the number-one weather-related cause of death in the U.S., and it kills more people most years than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined. Yet research shows that compared with their thinking about dramatic events such as storm surges and wildfires, people tend to feel more uncertain about what to do under the threat of extreme heat and don’t perceive as much personal risk. This mismatch between the reality of the danger and the actions people take to protect themselves extends beyond individual perception to the policy level. Heat risks to human health are not often prioritized in climate mitigation and adaptation plans—if they are factored in at all.
Extreme Heat Is Deadlier Than Hurricanes, Floods and Tornadoes Combined — https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-heat-is-deadlier-than-hurricanes-floods-and-tornadoes-combined/
Remember The Death of Common Sense?
A 71-year-old Los Angeles man died in California’s Death Valley National Park on Tuesday, likely due to heat, as the afternoon high recorded in the park was 121 degrees, officials said.
Man featured in LA Times story dies in Death Valley amid 121-degree heat — https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/man-collapses-dies-in-death-valley-18211076.php
“It’s a dry heat.”
Steven Curry (the dead guy)
The Death of Common Sense
What could possibly go wrong?
garyskitchen.net 