zenpawn

Why Pyrex Isn’t Pyrex Anymore

Erin — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:03:27 +0000

Who’da thunk it? According to the Ericson Family’s blog, for ten years now, Pyrex has been quietly using a different formulation for their glass cookware. No longer does it contain the borosilicate that gave it that famed indestructibility. Now, it’s just, well… glass. Kinda sad.

There’s hope yet though as their labware still has it. So, why not bake that next casserole in a drying dish? Or a beaker for a measuring cup.

A quick heads up to my fellow chessplayers and their friends and family. . . I got an email today that Chess House is offering free shipping on ALL orders in the US through Mother’s Day, this Sunday, May 11th. You’ll need to use coupon code c3043. And even if you’re not in to chess, the sets make for beautiful decor. Just remember, it’s “light on the right.”

Albert Hofmann, Rest In Peace

Erin — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:32:09 +0000

As one of the main goals of Calorie Restriction is longevity, it feels right to honor here the memory of a historically significant man, who made it to 102. I don’t know what his dietary habits were, but to say he lived a rich and full life, with vigor to the end, would be an understatement.

Albert Hofmann in 1993, photo by Philip H. Bailey

To learn more:

Speaking of centenarians, in case you were wondering, the current record for the longest-lived CRS member belongs to Ralph Cornell, who died last year at 104 years of age.

Jicama, aka Yambean

Erin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:35:19 +0000

If you can believe it, just the other day I brought home my very first jicama root from the supermarket. Seems I must’ve had it in a Mexican restaurant before, but maybe not. Anyway, it felt like a new experience, and it was so good.

Of course, I enjoyed it raw initially to get a sense of its flavors. It struck me as a combination of a potato and a cucumber—really juicy. Then I doctored it up by dry frying in a skillet with onions before splashing in balsamic vinegar at the end. This gave it a nice caramelization and is the same way I tend to make eggplant too.

It took me a while to find the nutrition information for it in my software, since it’s listed in the USDA database under Yambeans. Lower-cal than potatoes, I’ll be having this one again soon.

PETA’s Test Tube Meat Challenge

Erin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:13:19 +0000

Not known for shying away from controversy, PETA’s latest proposal doesn’t even have full support within their organization. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering $1 million for the

“first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”

Do you support the in-vitro production of meat?

Speaking of challenges, there’s another pretty cool one going on right now that fits right in with the spirit of Earth Day. The X Prize Foundation has added another technological contest to their line-up. This one’s for the first to design an affordable car that gets 100 MPG.

Get your body care from one of the good guys. Tested negative for
1,4-Dioxane in the Organic Consumers’ recent Coming Clean study.

Al Gore Redux

Erin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:04:43 +0000

With Earth Day right around the corner, I want to share Al Gore’s latest presentation on the environment. Using similarly impressive graphics as in his award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, he suggests the situation may be worse than we’d originally thought.

By the way, his latest book, The Assault On Reason, looks really good. It’s now available in hardcover, and, oddly enough, it actually costs less than the soon-to-be-released paperback. Weird. Anyway, I’ll probably add it to my growing stack of future reading.

So many books, so little time!

Raw Food Bites Back: When Carrots Attack

Erin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:55:45 +0000

You’re going to laugh, but please not too loud.

It seems, while biting down on a HUGE carrot, it somehow slid down and cut the gum in front of my lower teeth. Now that’s a raw food hazard you don’t hear every day.

Of course, dental care is often discussed among raw foodists, and products like tooth powder proliferate to solve the problem. That’s not the case here, however. In fact, my dentist was just complimenting me on my healthy, pink gums!

In other words, this was just a freak accident, but an expensive one for sure, requiring as it did a soft tissue graft at the periodontist. Ouch.

I’m making lemonade out of this lemon though and am currently on day four of an 8-day self-styled liquid raw cleanse/healing. Not juices, but smoothies and soups, etc..

Stay tuned for the compilation. I hope to publish it sometime in the next couple months under the Raw Done Light series. I have to crunch the numbers and format everything first.

I’m convalescing quite nicely without pain meds. No vicodin for me! Heck, I even refused the double-strength ibuprofen they proffered at the office while I was still numbed up.

You may notice a new icon at the bottom of the sidebar. It means the author link on your comments will now be followed. That is, they’ll receive “link love” from this blog. I’ve set it up to wait a day before the nofollow tag is automatically removed. That’ll give me time to remove any obvious spam.

Earth Hour 2008

Erin — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:23:17 +0000

Ever feel you’re too small to make a difference when it comes to the environment? You’re not!

Not when you participate,

not when you spread the word,

not when you lobby your legislature,

not when you vote,

not when you eat vegan!

You can, no, you DO make a difference.

Speaking of global warming, with the new snow of the last two days in New Hampshire, we’ve reached the second spot in all-time snow totals for our state. The top honors go to the winter of 1873/4. That’s 134 years ago!