Brownbagging

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.”- Orson Welles

If you bring your own lunch to work like I do, you'll enjoy the article, Sex Up Your Sandwich: Ideas for Budget Conscious Brown Baggers with dozens of ideas for a more exciting sandwich.

1. Use spreads with zest like avocado, guacamole, Dijon mustard, hummus, and hot buffalo wing sauce.


2. Add tasty extras to the sandwich like banana pepper rings, basil leaves, pre-cooked bacon, leftover cranberry sauce and stuffing. Be imaginative.


3. Bored with ham & cheese? How about meatballs, grilled vegetables, or meatloaf?


4. Wonder bread? No way! Buy artisanal breads, bagels, tortilla wrap or rolls. Why pay Panera good money for a fancy sandwich you can easily make?


5. Pack tasty (and healthy sides) like tomato soup, apple wedges, carrot sticks. Or go unhealthy with potato chip, potato salad, coleslaw, pudding, yummmmm.....


6. Don't eat that sandwich cold! Try an open face tuna melt, a hero warmed in the oven, a grilled cheese, etc. You might have to bake or grill at home and reheat in a microwave at work.

Bottom Line

Break out of the rut. Look at a diner menu for sandwich ideas and try to make them yourself. Or surf the web for new sandwich recipes.

Be creative. As a teenage baby sitter, I was feeding one child that wanted a baloney sandwich, the other P&J with grape jelly. For myself I combined the two and discovered I really liked it.

The Amazing Banana

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana”-Groucho Marx

I love bananas. When I worked in NYC I’d buy one from sidewalk vendors each morning. Now that I work in Connecticut I bring a banana in my lunch bag each day. So I’m pleased to read in, “A Banana a Day?”, that this fruit is even more amazing than I knew:

Compared to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium (second only to the avocado).

With three natural sugars (sucrose, fructose and glucose) just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous, 90-minute workout. [On the flip side, don’t gorge on the yellow fruit. A single banana contains 170-190 calories. Twice the calories of a medium sized apple.]

The “A Banana a Day?” article also cites health benefits for the following:

• Reducing Depression & SAS (Seasonal Affective Disorder)
• Ease PMS
• Lower Blood Pressure & the risk of Stroke
• Calm the Nerves & Stress
• Increase Brain Power
• Ease Constipation
• Prevent Hangovers
• Lessen Heartburn & Ulcers (a natural antacid)
• Reduce Morning Sickness
• Remove the itch from Mosquito Bites (rub the bite with the inside part of the peel)

Bottom Line

The banana is unique amongst fruit because it does not come from a tree but rather from a giant tree-like herb related to the lily and orchid family. Bananas are easy to digest with no fat and are often the first solid food given to infants.

The texture, color, and sweetness of bananas will change as they ripen. Green tipped bananas are firmest and ideal for cooking, yellow ones are for eating, and brown-specked ones are great for baking breads, muffins and cookies. You can add yellow bananas to your cereals, salads, yogurt, salsa, smoothie or shakes.

Store bananas at room temperature until they reach the ripeness you want; then move them to the refrigerator. The peel will turn black in the fridge but the banana inside will remain firm. To speed up ripening, store bananas in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight.

Add a Pinch of Salt

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea” - Isak Dinesen

Did you know that “consuming twice as much potassium as sodium might halve your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease”? According to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, excess sodium causes the body to retain fluids, which raises blood pressure. Potassium does the opposite; it blocks sodium and helps lower blood pressure. The study says you’ll get the ideal ratio for fluid balance by eating twice as much potassium as sodium. Americans typically consume more sodium than potassium and as a result “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the US”. Worldwide, coronary heart disease killed more than 7.6 million people in 2005. Thirty to fifteen times higher than the annual deaths by flu, 250,000 and 500,000 worldwide.

Sodium is packed into every processed food we eat as a preservative and taste enhancer. I’d love to use soup mixes or Asian noodle mixes at work for lunch but these usually contain 50% to 100% of the 2,300 milligrams daily limit recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Avoiding excess salt is difficult. Consider the list of saltiest restaurant dishes, 20 Foods Your Cardiologist Won't Eat, by Men’s Health Magazine.

• Chili's Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad packs in 4,440 mg, nearly twice the daily limit and the equivalent of nearly 30 individual sized cans of Pringles Potato Chips.
• P.F. Chang's Hot and Sour Soup Bowl tops the list with 6,878 mg sodium, 534 calories. Imagine three days of salt in one bowl!
• The salt in prepared food is not always obvious; Red Lobster’s North Pacific King Crab Legs contain 3,570 mg sodium. Perhaps they cook the legs in highly salted water?

The prevalence of salt and chemicals in processed foods is one reason Michael Pollan wrote his book, "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" and his pithy summary:

"Eat [real] food. Not too much. Mostly from plants."

Perhaps the answer to eating too much salt is eating a banana? You’ll need to need a whole bunch! At 400 mg of potassium per banana, you’ll need 12 a day to reach the daily-recommended amount of potassium. More if you’re overdosing on salt. Other high potassium foods include

• potato (900 mg each)
• oat bran (500 mg/cup)
• tomatoes (500 mg/cup)
• spinach (950 mg/cup)
• raisins (600 mg/half cup)
• pears (300 mg each)
• cucumber (300 mg each)
• mangoes (300 mg each)
• orange juice (500 mg/ 8-ounce glass)

Put this all together by eating one of each item just listed from the banana to the orange juice and you’ll reach the recommended daily potassium level of 4700 mg.

Bottom Line

It takes careful food planning to avoid exceeding the daily sodium limit and to reach the daily potassium level. No wonder most people consume more sodium than potassium each day! One way to measure heart healthy foods is the “K factor”. K is the chemical symbol for potassium and the K factor is the ratio of potassium to salt within a food.

Common K Factors include:

• Soybeans = 340
• Fresh fish (not canned) = 3 to 5
• Milk = 2.8
• Corned beef hash = 0.37

An article in Whole Foods magazine mentions a book with more details, “The K Factor” by Dr. Richard D. Moore but it is out of print, has one Amazon review, and is selling for 1 penny used (not good indicators). Dr Moore has another book (1993) about the K Factor which is also out of print, “The high blood pressure solution: natural prevention and cure with the K factor”. It seems the idea of K Factor quickly faded and never became a diet fad.

Early Modern English

Hamlet: Madam, how like you this play?
Queen: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
- Hamlet Act 3

The language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible are now called Early Modern English. It begins in 1470 with the Chancery Standard and extends to 1650 when Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy in the English Civil War.

You may recall from yesterday’s post that during the French occupation, English was “unregulated” and dialects flourished. But slowly English became respectable again and by the late 1300s leading writers like Chaucer published in the native tongue (with many French & Latin imported words). During the reign of King Henry V (1413 to 1422) the chancery (government officials) were commanded to use English rather than Anglo-Norman or Latin. An official printer of government documents, William Caxton, selected the London dialect as the standard and he also standardized spellings for the first time. Prior to this (and even as late as the 1600-1700s) most people spelled phonetically; House was “Hus” in Old English and “Hows” in Middle English.

Sadly some official word spellings were based upon presumed etymological origins instead of actual usage. “Doutt” became “doubt” based upon the Latin ‘dubitare’. “dett” became “debt” from the Latin ‘debitum’. The french “voir dit” and “parfait” were changed to ‘verdict’ and ‘perfect’ to look more Latin. Early Modern also included some spelling confusion as the alphabet was still in flux: u and v were considered the same (‘v’ to start words, ‘u’ used inside words), ‘i’ and ‘j’ were interchangeable, silent ‘e’ could be added anywhere (“manne” for “man”), “Th” and “Y” were interchangeable at the start of words (giving us “Ye Olde Shoppe”).

The 1400’s also saw the start of a linguistic mystery – The Great Vowel Shift. If an English speaker tries to spell words for a Spanish speaker (or any other Latin based language) confusion abounds. What we call “A” (as in hay) is spelled “e” in Spanish. What we call “E” (as in bee) is spelled “i” in Spanish. There were changes also in the O and U sounds. Theories abound but no one knows exactly why this happened or why some words were immune. The “ea” family of break, steak, great, and yea did not shift. Nor did the word “father”.

Foreign words aside, the oddity of English spelling is a combination of the Chancery Standard and the Great Vowel Shift. The Chancery Standard locked down official spelling regardless of how the words were actually spoken. As local pronunciation shifted and spelling remained the same, English was forced to assign new pronunciation to old vowels. Hence “be” is now “bee” not “bay”, “feet” was once pronounced as “fate”, and “wipe” was once spoken as “weep”.

The pronouns in Early Modern were much the same as today with three exceptions.

• “Thee” and “thou” was used as the informal, personal “you.” (‘You’ was the formal version.) Over centuries the informal “thee” declined in usage and now survives only in religious discourse. (Ironically “thee” is now considered formal usage!)
• ‘My’ and ‘thy’ became ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ before vowels just as ‘a’ becomes ‘an’; so “mine eyes” and “thine uncle”.
• The “arbitrary” gender of words began to be replaced with a practical gender. In Old English (and modern German) a wife “wif” was the neuter (it) gender, a young maiden was feminine. With Early Modern ‘he’ and ‘her’ more accurately reflected the gender of people and objects became “it”. The term “its” was being used for the first time (it appears once in the KJV Bible). But the old system faded slowly; in “The Merchant of Venice” Shakespeare wrote “How far that little candle throws his light”. Even today we still refer to ships as “she” and sometimes personify objects.

The word order of Early Modern settled into the patterns we use today. In Old English you could put words in any order since noun endings indicated the subject from the object from the dative (possessive). When the case endings started disappearing, Middle English adopted the subject/verb/object order like “I hit the ball” for declarative sentences. But Middle English question sentences were different, “Hit I the ball?” This changed during Early Modern when the Old English verb ‘do’ (I did this) was given extra work:

• Changing the way we phrase questions, “Do I hit the ball?”
• As an answer shortcut for verbs used in a question, “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”, “I do” (or “I will”) instead of “I do take”.

Early Modern also saw the transition of modal verbs, “shall”, “may”, “will”, etc. In Middle English (and modern German) the modals are transitive: “I can music” meant I have skill/learning/knowledge in music, “I will it” meant I want it or I shall use my force of will to make it so. Today the modals are intransitive (I can play music) and provide yet more ways to form question sentences, “Will you sit?”, “Shall I pay?.” The modals were co-opted to represent the subjunctive (counterfactural) case from Latin: “I only she would love me.”
Another verb change is a new way to indicate perfect tenses, “I have been waiting”, “I had been waiting” and “I am going to be waiting”. The “-ing” of verbs was firmly established in Early Modern. It started in the south in Middle English and spread north to replace “ende” and “ande” endings: lovande vs loving.

The most recognized verb difference in Early Modern is the usage of –(e)st for second person informal singular verbs and –(e)th for third person singular. So “I take” but “thou takest” and “he taketh”. You may also see some strong verbs that have not yet completed the Great Vowel Shift as in “Jesus spake unto the people.”

In the last posting I touched upon the growth of the English vocabulary via French and Latin. In Early Modern the language was on steroids. Some writers invented new words from Greek and Latin roots for poetic or scholarly effect. These are called “inkhorn terms” having sprung from the ink well of the writer. Examples include allurement, anachronism, dexterous, and mediate. Another source of new words was thru global trade, war, and New World exploration as England became a world class sea power. New words include:

• French: (New World) tomato, (war) alloy, duel, equip, volunteer, bombast, explore
• Spain: (New World) anchovy, banana, cannibal, cocoa, maize, potato, tobacco, (war) embargo, armada
• Italy: (Trade & Travel) balcony, granite, stanza, violin, volcano
• Dutch: (Sea Trade) smuggler, jib, schooner, reef, walrus, blunderbuss, tattoo, knapsack
• Arabic: sash, hashish, sherbet, sofa
• Turkish: coffee, kiosk, caftan
• Chinese: ketchup
• African: zebra
• North American Indians: raccoon, moose, skunk, hickory, totem, canoe

Early Modern was a Scientific Golden Age and new words were needed for discoveries in Natural Science, Match, and Philosophy: vertebra, torpor, specimen, lens, cylinder, prism, calculus, dogma, critic, propaganda. It was also a Golden Age of English poetry and plays – the meaning of many words were tweaked. “Ardent” and “flagrant” meant “on fire” (literally) but poets could imagine the heart on fire with ardent passion. Shakespeare described harts (i.e. deer) spanieling the hunter (i.e. following like a Spaniel dog).

Bottom Line

It is to English’s credit that we allow the flexibility of turning verbs into nouns, nouns into adjectives, etc; that we are rich in tenses and verb cases; that we can invent words on the fly.

Safe Food

“The first time I tried organic wheat bread, I thought I was chewing on roofing material” - Robin Williams

At http://www.thedailygreen.com/ there is a list of "clean" produce that you do not have to buy organic.
1. Asparagus
2. Avocado
3. Bananas
4. Broccoli
5. Clean Cabbage
6. Kiwi
7. Mango
8. Onions
9. Papaya
10. Pineapple

Bottom Line
These fruits and vegetables are naturally safe because they either have thick skins (that you don't eat) or because they are naturally disease and pest resistant so these is little to no use of pesticides.

Campfire cooking

"How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?" ~Author Unknown

The oldest form of cooking known to humanity is by means of a campfire. Yet despite being so old, campfire cooking can be amazingly complex and sophisticated.

1. The first step is gathering wood, building a fire pit, and laying the wood properly.
2. Next you must light it. This is easy if you have matches. If not, here are two with sites with ways to create fire using ancient and modern methods.
3. Now on to the cooking. There's a lot more then hot dogs and s'mores. Campfires can be used to cook food by a number of techniques.

• Roasting - Meat and large vegetables can be cooked on a rotating spit either over the fire or next to it. Roasting also includes hot dogs and marshmallows on a stick.
• Grilling - Food is placed on a wire frame directly over the fire. This method picks up a smoky flavor and allows grease to drip away. Watch out for grease flare ups and burnt food!
• Frying - Food is placed on a flat, hot surface. Typically a an open frying pan, but variations include wood plank cooking and cooking directly upon heated stones.
• Boiling - Food is cooked in boiling water over a fire.
• Dutch ovens and other pots. Pot variants include scouting favorites like cooking inside a scooped out orange, a banana skin, egg shell or paper cup.
• Wrapped food - Food can be wrapped in foil, clay, or leaves and cooked on the coals. A variant of this is putting hot coals or hot stones inside the wrapper with the food. Mongolians would wrap hot stones and food inside an animal hide for cooking away from the fire.
• Directly on coals - potatoes and ash cakes can be cooked directly on the hot embers.

Bottom Line

All cooking is an art and improves with practice. Campfire cooking is no exception. While the recipes may be simple the trick with campfires is finding the right heat and neither undercooking nor burning your food (or even both at the same time with burnt flesh and a raw center!)

To get you started here are some campfire recipes from KOA.