Supplements R Us

A month or so ago I embarked on a plan of dietary supplementation to improve our resistance to influenza. I began with zinc lozenges. The nice thing about zinc lozenges is that once you are no longer deficient they taste nasty and metallic instead of yummy. We went through an entire small bottle of Solgar Flavo-Zinc and then I couldn’t find it again, so we are currently taking a zinc capsule. Those are nearly gone, and I will replace it with more Flavo-Zinc.

The next supplement I added was Cod Liver Oil. We take the capsules, because I am certain a spoonful of it would never pass my Sweetie’s lips. Cod Liver Oil isn’t just about vitamins. It’s a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids, which pretty much everyone needs.

The last supplement I added may be the most important one. We are taking Vitamin D, in the form of D-3, 2000 IU each per day. This is currently the maximum daily dose according to the US government. However, new research linking vitamin D deficiency to depression and heart disease – and a very high incidence of vitamin D deficiency in the US population – has groups working to get that recommendation increased to 10,000 IU. If it is increased then more foods can have it added as a supplement, like milk. Relatively high doses of vitamin D are needed to remedy a deficiency.

In general we now feel healthier than we have in many years. There are a few small exceptions, which I will explain in my next post.

Cookbooks!

I enjoy cooking, but I’ve been in a rut. I remember when I could think of 20 or more different ways to prepare chicken without really trying. Now I can think of about 4. I need variety. I need recipes. And so I have embarked on a mission to get recipes – but not just any recipes. I want the recipes that inspired me when I was a young housewife.

Many, many moves over close to 40 years have left me sadly bereft of some of my favorite cookbooks. I never have been without my Joy of Cooking , 1975 edition, though. The newer editions just don’t measure up, so although this book is literally falling apart it is precious to me.

The next thing I decided I wanted was a set of recipe cards put out by Betty Crocker in 1971. Ebay was my friend, and I managed to acquire 2 sets rather than the 1 I needed. I am happily anticipating the arrival of this in a week or so. I once had this complete set, and I remember there are several recipes in it that were staples for me. I’m anxious to revisit those old friends, and to try the recipes I couldn’t afford back then! I’m sure the second set will find a good home, too.

Next I wanted the Farm Journal Homemade Cookies book, also from 1971. There is an oatmeal/coconut crisp cookie recipe in it that is superb. Lots of other good cookie recipes, too. It was well worth the $ it cost me for a used copy through Amazon.

That’s all I have managed to acquire so far, and that ought to keep me happily engaged in my kitchen for a few months. Nevertheless, I am on the lookout for more cookbooks that I may eventually purchase. I want the Farm Journal Country Cookbook from 1972. I may want The Good Housekeeping Cookbook from 1963. I am considering whether I want the classic Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1975 (Looseleaf binder edition, of course!) and the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook from 1968.

So I’m hanging out more in food forums, and it’s working. Supper tonight was breaded pork chops, potatoes, and parsnips in a dutch oven, and sauteed swiss chard. It was fabulous, it made me happy to cook it, and my Sweetie loved it. He even ate all his vegetables.

Herbology

Living in a place where the Sixties never died has real advantages. The natural foods movement that began then – the whole Mother Earth, back to the land movement –  is thriving. The food coop does 6 million dollars in sales per year. Small ethnic restaurants, hippie skirts, and cozy little bookshops abound.

One of these cozy little bookshops, CrazyWisdom, is the venue for a course in using herbs. It’s a session once a month, taught by a respected expert, Linda Diane Feldt. I enjoyed the first class, and have put what I am learning to good use already. In fact, I will be buying her book next month at the class.

I have made two infusions, one of kale and one of ginger. The kale infusion should supply us with lots of beneficial minerals, especially calcium. The ginger infusion has multiple uses. I applied a hot ginger compress to help relieve Sweetie’s chest congestion/asthma. I need to drink it to help reduce inflammation (read arthritis) and normalize my endocrine system. (read diabetes and menopause) Now, neither of these are cures. They are natural nutritional supplements that help the body do what it naturally does. But I’ll take whatever help I can get.

Back in the USA

We’ve been back in the USA for over three weeks now. The plan to try living without a car? It lasted two days after arrival. We got caught in a nasty cold pouring rain the second day, with a bit of a walk from the bus stop to our destination, and then back, using a bus stop with no shelter. Jim was afraid I would get sick out in that cold rain, and he says he didn’t want his stubbornness about not having a car to be the cause of me getting ill. We got a car on day 3.

So we have a shiny new red 2009 Chevy Aveo, and we love it. Jim says it is nicer than our Honda Jazz/Fit we had in Thailand. It’s not a hatchback, but has a spacious 2-body trunk. We have a free year of OnStar, too, and 0% financing. Woot! Being out of the country for three years left Jim with a wholly clean license, so the car insurance was less expensive than I feared. And we got a discount by getting renter’s insurance from the same company. Jim is keeping that license clean by not speeding.

Our apartment is almost fully furnished, thanks to Ikea. All our furniture is from there, except Jim’s desk. If you are curious, just ask and can link you to what we bought.

Our bedroom is white and blue, a calm retreat. It has warm fluffy down alternative pillows and comforter. The living room is white and birch, with a red sofa. It really needs that splash of color. We are using the far end of the living room as a dining nook, and using the dining nook as my office. It’s really working well for me, to be open to the kitchen. My desk and bookcase are white, as is my chair. The dining room table and chairs are birch. No real decorating has been done yet. Plenty of time for that.

We are both happy to be back. Jim is following the Detroit Lions, seeing how long they can extend their record-setting losing streak. I am shopping at the local food coop and farmer’s market for fresh food. I still shop at Meijer’s, but I’m spending far less there than I would otherwise. I can’t wait for the kitchen appliances I ordered to arrive! Having only a toaster and coffeemaker is a bit limiting.

MacGourmet

MacGourmet is the recipe software I use on my Mac. I chose it over the other apps available, after trying all of them. What sold me was the simple recipe import from web pages using the Safari Services menu, and the active developer with a clear vision of what features to add and a defined path to add them. It will import quite a few file formats from other recipe apps, most significantly Mastercook.

It has a section for notes on wine, which I don’t use. I know people who do, though, and it would really be nice to have a place for them to record the information about that lovely, inexpensive varietal that complemented the duck perfectly. Because you will want that information 4 months later for a dinner party, but you’ll have forgotten the vintage.

When I began using Macgourmet that was all it could do. Oh, it had smartlists, pictures, a shopping list and a sweet large view for referring to a recipe from across the room. It was still only recipes and wine notes, though. True to the developer’s announced upgrade path, both menu planning and nutritional value calculations have been added. They are add-ons you purchase separately, or buy the retail package MacGourmet Deluxe and get them both with the app.

Even this added functionality is not the best part. The best part is the MacGourmet iPhone/iPod Touch app. Now I have all my recipes on my iPhone. I simply use that in the kitchen for the things I use a recipe to make. Combine that with the timer on my iPhone and you have a perfect cook’s toolset.

Baby Mango

In this, the fourth year of our mango tree, we hoped for a profusion of fruit. For the first time it burst into luxuriant bloom instead of featuring scattered blooms here and there. A visual inspection a week or two later revealed numerous tiny fruit beginning to grow. But mango trees are sensitive to overwatering, and wind, and will just plain drop their fruit for no apparent reason. We are down to three mangoes, about the same production as in previous years.

So much for me canning mango.

No mango cobbler. No mango preserves. No mango pie. I’ll be forced to buy my mango with sweet sticky rice.

Raisin Bran

I have noticed that you can buy a good selection of American cold cereals in Bangkok. They generally cost about $10 a box, and I don’t mean the large boxes, either. Cheerios and other such things have not been a part of our life for almost three years now. Who wants to pay that much for cereal?

I was at the supermarket at The Mall, Freshmart, cruising the farang food aisle, when I saw some new cereal boxes on display. There were two brands of organic cereal, Barbara’s and Cascadian Farms, with a variety of types in each brand. I have never heard of Barbara’s, but I have had Cascadian Farms before. Checking the prices, I saw a box of Cascadian Farms Raisin Bran was a mere 220 baht, or about $6. Still a steep price, but recalling that organic cereal is more expensive than regular, and that the price of food has been climbing, I decided it was close to the same price as in the US.

I just ate my first bowl of cereal in three years. The raisins were plump and plentiful, the bran flakes were crisp, and the milk was from a local dairy. It may not become my standard breakfast, but it’s going into the routine rotation with the peanut butter on toast, the yogurt with muesli, and the occasional scrambled egg. Color me content.

Of course, this does not mean I will ever again see Cascadian Farms cereal once this supply is gone. Sometimes I think they buy their farang food from overstock discounters. The result is that if you see something you like, you’d better buy it, because you may never see it again. Right now they have a lot of organic farang food. I may try the Amy’s brand salsa.

Fat Tuesday

There are certain days when I miss being in the US. Fat Tuesday is one of them. I miss being in the US because I can’t get paczki (pronounced POONCH key) here. Ground zero for paczki lovers is the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck with its old Polish bakeries. Those bakeries still produce prodigious quantities of paczki every Fat Tuesday, and the lines are still around the block at 6AM to buy them.

The lines are the same, but the people in the lines have changed. Hamtramck is no longer a Polish suburb, but is a Muslim area, like Dearborn. The Hamtramck Muslims have adopted Fat Tuesday for the sake of the paczki, and that’s who you find standing in line to buy paczki now. Paczki transcend religion because they are that good. They are like a filled doughnut, but with a richer dough that seems to melt in your mouth.

I am making do today with Dunkin’ Donuts filled doughnuts. Not the same, but the best I can do here.

How Do You Know Easter is Coming?

You see this in the local doughnut shops:

Aren’t they just too cute for words? I don’t think I could bring myself to actually consume one.  I just couldn’t destroy such cuteness. 

But what do you expect in a country where women pushing 40 still wear Hello Kitty barrettes?

Yet Another Lifestyle Upgrade

When we decided to live in this housing development, there was a nice little restaurant in the clubhouse. It served a Western style breakfast, and a Thai lunch and dinner. The food was delicious, the surroundings were clean and pleasant, and the prices were low. Since town and restaurants are 10 miles away, it was nice to be able to get something within walking distance.

Two years later, when we moved into the house permanently, there was no Western breakfast anymore. There was no longer a menu, and dining room service didn’t exist. You had to go to the kitchen door to order food, and see the filthy kitchen, complete with rats and roaches. The prices had increased, and the food was barely palatable. Worse, the food was frequently spoiled. We quit patronizing the place after I got a bowl of chicken curry containing chicken so spoiled I literally hurled after placing one spoonful in my mouth. I never even swallowed it.

Business flagged so badly that the owners of the restaurant-minimart-clubhouse franchise from the developer finally decided to lease out the restaurant to new management. It was taken over by the wife of a Western man who lives in the housing development. She is a fabulous cook; she made a larger profit the first week she served food than the previous management had been making in a month. She was only serving a rice congee breakfast and a fried rice or noodles lunch at the time.

Now she is serving full meals, some of them Western and some of them Thai. Her fish and chips is delicious; she makes her own french fries. Her cottage pie -shepherd pie to Americans – is my new favorite. Her fried rice is a lunch standard at our house. I can’t wait to try her curries.

We now have the convenient place to get a meal that we expected when we chose this place to live. The place is spotlessly clean. There is a Thai menu, and we are working on an English translation. The dining room is again a pleasant place, but they also will deliver to your home. The prices are reasonable; not too high, but not the lowest we have seen, and  the food is much higher quality. Yet another lifestyle upgrade.