Last night I was at a small gathering of friends. One of the couples present has just reached the third month stage of a pregnancy so they are happily informing friends and family that didn't already know. The conversation veered towards baby names for a bit and then back to pregnancies in general. Of large interest was what was deemed acceptable for the mother to eat or not to eat.
Apparently there is a lot more gray area to this then I had previously thought. Apparently, some people say you shouldn't drink caffeinated coffee and others say that decaffeinated is an instant miscarriage. Green tea is out. Various herbals teas are out. This one surprised me. I still don't understand why mint tea is bad for a baby. But no matter.
I was curious where they had decided to go with alcohol. I knew that some people thought it was ok to have a very small occasional glass of wine, for instance. Others swear off alcohol all together. So I asked.
The mother-to-be replied, "Well, it's not clear. So we discussed it and we decided that we wouldn't drink alcohol."
I was super impressed. "Wow. That's great. You're both not drinking alcohol."
I couldn't believe that the father-to-be would go the nine months without drinking as well. It showed a support of and a solidarity with his wife that was unexpected. Furthermore, he had even been experiencing morning sickness too. It was totally a husband was willing to share the pain and discomfort of a pregnancy as well as the joy.
They both looked at me. "Huh?"
I looked at them. "Well, you said you've both decided that you're not drinking alcohol."
His wife clarified, "No. We discussed it. I'm not drinking alcohol."
Of course.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Solid Salad Sauce
I reached into the fridge and grabbed the Greek Dressing. I had a salad already made in the fridge and I was ravishingly hungry. I wanted to dump on dressing and start eating. It isn't exactly Greek Salad Dressing - it's a sort-of all purpose dressing. You can use it for various meats to which you wish to impart a Greek air or on various vegetables to pretend you went to the trouble of making a Greek Salad.
However, it still settles like a Greek Salad Dressing. So I pulled it out of the fridge and gave it a mighty shake. Now before you envision the cap flying off and an oily concoction going all over my kitchen (which is newly cleaned), imagine instead that nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. I give the bottle a shake and the contents do not move. at all. nothing. For all intensive purposes, the dressing has congealed into a solid mass. I stood there perplexed. What on earth? I shook it again. It looked like it was semi-frozen-like. That was odd.
Then it struck me. I had recently played with the setting on my fridge. I found that the milk was turning quicker than it should. I spent several weeks blaming it on the milk manufacturers. Then I decided to make my fridge colder. It appears that the difference between mid-way through mild and medium and just plain medium is a lot. I checked some of my other sauces. They kinda moved but they were very sluggish. I needed to warm the thing up to see if I could get back to a liquid state.
I looked around my kitchen waiting for a brain wave or even a mild idea. I was in the middle of filling the sink to wash the dishes. Warm water - ah ha - I shoved the bottle under the running water. As I stood there holding the bottle, I decided that this was not an efficient use of my time. I briefly considered sticking the bottle in the microwave. However my microwave has a habit of destroying things. I had melted a container in it quite recently and it had several other ruined things on its score card. So instead, I stood the bottle in the washing up water.
I continued to scrounge up the rest of dinner. Every now and then, I would come back to give the dressing a good shake. I could see the olive oil slowing melting and the solid lump in the middle to which the heat had not yet penetrated. The bits at the bottom were slowing managing to mix themselves into the rest of the dressing. The bottle looked ludicrous bobbing up and down next to my dirty dishes.
Slowly it "thawed". Liquidifying the dressing took longer than getting the rest of my meal. By that time I no longer wanted dressing on my salad. I only wanted to see if I could get it to melt. Having accomplished that, I poured a bit on my salad and popped the bottle back in the fridge. Where I am sure it is now slowly solidifying.
However, it still settles like a Greek Salad Dressing. So I pulled it out of the fridge and gave it a mighty shake. Now before you envision the cap flying off and an oily concoction going all over my kitchen (which is newly cleaned), imagine instead that nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. I give the bottle a shake and the contents do not move. at all. nothing. For all intensive purposes, the dressing has congealed into a solid mass. I stood there perplexed. What on earth? I shook it again. It looked like it was semi-frozen-like. That was odd.
Then it struck me. I had recently played with the setting on my fridge. I found that the milk was turning quicker than it should. I spent several weeks blaming it on the milk manufacturers. Then I decided to make my fridge colder. It appears that the difference between mid-way through mild and medium and just plain medium is a lot. I checked some of my other sauces. They kinda moved but they were very sluggish. I needed to warm the thing up to see if I could get back to a liquid state.
I looked around my kitchen waiting for a brain wave or even a mild idea. I was in the middle of filling the sink to wash the dishes. Warm water - ah ha - I shoved the bottle under the running water. As I stood there holding the bottle, I decided that this was not an efficient use of my time. I briefly considered sticking the bottle in the microwave. However my microwave has a habit of destroying things. I had melted a container in it quite recently and it had several other ruined things on its score card. So instead, I stood the bottle in the washing up water.
I continued to scrounge up the rest of dinner. Every now and then, I would come back to give the dressing a good shake. I could see the olive oil slowing melting and the solid lump in the middle to which the heat had not yet penetrated. The bits at the bottom were slowing managing to mix themselves into the rest of the dressing. The bottle looked ludicrous bobbing up and down next to my dirty dishes.
Slowly it "thawed". Liquidifying the dressing took longer than getting the rest of my meal. By that time I no longer wanted dressing on my salad. I only wanted to see if I could get it to melt. Having accomplished that, I poured a bit on my salad and popped the bottle back in the fridge. Where I am sure it is now slowly solidifying.