Sunny side up eggs and bacon sketch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc-by #creativecommons #illustration
Breakfast sandwiches and potato hash!
“Overview
Breakfast sandwiches are typically made using breakfast meats (generally cured meats such as sausages, patty sausages, bacon, country ham, Spam and pork roll), breads, eggs and cheese. These sandwiches were typically regional specialties until fast food restaurants began serving breakfast. Because the common types of bread, such as biscuits, bagels, and English muffin, were similar in size to fast food hamburger buns, they made an obvious choice for fast food restaurants. Unlike other breakfast items, they were perfect for the innovation of the drive-through. These sandwiches have also become a staple of many convenience stores, that serve them as take-away items.
History
Although the ingredients for the breakfast sandwich have been common elements of breakfast meals in the English-speaking world for centuries, it was not until the 19th century in the United States that people began regularly eating eggs, cheese, and meat in a sandwich.[1] What would later be known as “breakfast sandwiches” became increasingly popular after the Civil War, and were a favorite food of pioneers during American westward expansion. The first known published recipe for a “breakfast sandwich” was in an 1897 American cookbook.[1]” curated by lemasney from Breakfast sandwich – Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_sandwich
“Hash browns or hashed browns are a simple preparation in which potatoes are pan-fried after being shredded, diced,[1] julienned or riced, in the style of a Swiss Rösti. In some cultures, hash browns or hashed browns can refer to any of these preparations, while in others it may refer to one specific preparation. Hash browns are a staple breakfast food at diners in North America, where they are often fried on a large common cooktop or grill.[2] In some parts of the United States, hash browns strictly refer to shredded or riced pan-fried potatoes and are considered a breakfast food, while potatoes diced or cubed and pan-fried are also a side dish called country fried potatoes or home fries (though many variations of home fries are par-cooked before frying). Some recipes add diced or chopped onions.[2] Hash browns are a mass-produced product that are purveyed in refrigerated and frozen varieties.[3][4] The product is also manufactured in dehydrated form.” curated by lemasney from Hash browns – Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_browns
I’m always looking for ways to connect with people about tech, design, teaching, and lots of other topics. If you think we should talk, connect with me at https://about.me/lemasney
What I love about Destination Dogs and New Brunswick cc-by lemasney
Hey, friends! It’s John and this time I’m talking about my visit to Destination Dogs, a travel themed restaurant that does some pretty amazing things with sausages. It’s in New Brunswick, NJ, and I talk a little bit about why I love that too!
About Destination Dogs in New Brunswick, NJ
This delicious restaurant in New Brunswick, NJ (http://www.destinationdogs.com/) serves up international flavors using the universal language of sausage. It’s in a great (if windy) small city along Route 1 in New Jersey on the Northern side. In the video, their house chips, house baked pretzel, and two hot dogs are featured. Then we move to a corner and ponder the beauty of clouds. You’ll enjoy it if you try! The music in this week’s video is Gold cc-by Artificial and 40A via Soundcloud’s commons group. I felt like it added just the right kind of vibe to this hip and tasty topic. This video is creative commons licensed as well, cc-by lemasney, and you can use it as you wish, even commercially, if you attribute me.
I would love the opportunity to help you, wherever you are, whenever you are ready. I always enjoy talking with groups and individuals on topics like technology, training, open source, and design. If there is some way that I can help you with these and related topics, please contact lemasney at lemasney@gmail.com, 609 553 9498 or Let’s do something great together! This content is released under a creative commons attribution license, some rights reserved. cc-by lemasney
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Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting by lemasney
So, those of you paying close attention may have noticed that I write about food. A lot. And so you might ask:
What does food and nutrition have to do with technology, design, and training, John?
And my answer is straightforward: Everything.
Cooking, food, nutrition, and technology.
Food and nutrition in my life are highly influenced by technology. Every time I eat anything, the next thing I do is use my phone, computer, or other Internet connected device to add to my food log. I count every calorie I eat. I am able to review, analyze, or otherwise know the details of every calorie I eat, going back years. Around my neck, always, is my fitbit, which counts steps, stairs, sleep, and other data about what I’m putting out as far as energy. The difference between when I was very heavy and now is that now I know to the calorie what I am taking in and what I am burning. As a result, technology is directly responsible, in part, for my level of fitness.
Cooking, food, nutrition, and design.
Food is design in that when you cook, count calories, or otherwise plan your nutrition, that is design. It’s not visual design, or architecture, granted, but it is very clearly design. In fact, I would posit that the difference between the obese and the normal weighted is very often the result of a lack of design. I’ve redesigned my nutritional plan, and lost over 100 pounds. Design is the act of codifying, simplifying, and making clear a plan of communication, layout, or direction. Taking hold of one’s nutrition is a pure form of design.
Cooking, food, nutrition, and training.
I have learned a lot in my journey towards health. I know when and exactly how I am mis-eating, which I did not know before. I knew when I was eating badly, I knew when I was eating cleanly, but I did not know, numerically, to what degree either had as an effect on my fitness. I know now. I firmly believe that I could help (e.g. train) anyone with a weight problem to resolve it, if they want to. There is no cost but your will in my method, and no disbenefit except awareness of how badly you might be eating. But as soon as you lose your extra weight, you’ll forget all about that.
In case you’re wondering, Muesli is a rather de-sugared, de-oiled, de-processed form of what we know as granola. Instead of using sugar and oil to combine ingredients into a clump, we use muesli as a kind of flexible additive condiment, snack, or texturizer. As a result, it is a versatile and nutritious way to snack or add a layer of extra nutrition to meals. My muesli recipe is below.
“Packaged muesli is a loose mixture of mainly rolled oats or cornflakes together with various dried fruit pieces, nuts, and seeds. It commonly contains other rolled cereal grains such as wheat or rye flakes. There are many varieties, which may also contain honey, spices, or chocolate. This dry packaged muesli can store for many months and served quickly after mixing with milk, fil, yogurt, coffee, hot chocolate, fruit juice, or water. If desired, pieces of fresh fruit may be added. Alternatively, the mix may be soaked overnight in milk and then served with fresh fruit or compote to taste.”
“Muesli and granola are similar and are often confused on store shelves. With common ingredients of grains, fruits, nuts, and seeds, these breakfast choices are actually quite different in origin, nutrition, and health benefits. Muesli is often endearingly called the healthy sibling of granola. In our products, we don’t use any oil sweeteners other than the dried fruits. Granola tends to contain lots of sugar and other sweeteners.”
– Difference Between Muesli and Granola –
On the history of Granola:
“Despite the differences between muesli and granola, they were created around the same time by doctors with similar intentions. Granola was developed in the late 19th century by US citizen, Dr. James Caleb Jackson in Dansville, New York. Jackson served his “granula” at his health spa in Dansville into the early 20th century. Around the same time, John Harvey Kellog developed a “granula,” later changing the name to granola to avoid trademark infringement. Granola remained unpopular for many decades until its growth with the hippie movement in the 1960s. At this time, granola became popular with the hippie movement while health conscious hippies stuck with muesli.”
– Difference Between Muesli and Granola –
What’s so great about your muesli recipe, John?
Well, doubter, my muesli is a low-cost daily snack that is delicious, balanced in nutritious components, varied in texture, sweet, crunchy, and filling. What’s most interesting is that it changes every week according to whatever I decide to get at the farmer’s market. I can mix in an omega 3 mix, a new whole grain cereal, or some dried fruit to change the flavor. I add about a 2 or 3 cup package of something new every week and mix thoroughly. I keep the regularly updated mix in a 2 gallon cereal container, and usually eat it a quarter cup at a time, for about 100 calories. Start by combining packages of oats, cereal, and trail mix, and grow it from there.
Muesli recipe: Rolled oats, cereal, and carbohydrates (3:5)
As a base for granola, you can not beat rolled oats. There’s little difference between the nutrition of rolled oats and steel-cut oats, and either are fine, though the resulting texture is slightly different. I try to get as close to the original grain as possible, with little salt or other additives. The oats melt in your mouth, and add a great papery texture underneath everything else. In order to lower the overall calories for the mix, I’ll usually buy a box of basic cereal, like whole grain cereal flakes, Cheerios, or puffed wheat or rice, staying away from the more colorful or sugary types.
Muesli recipe: Nuts, seeds, protein and fat (1:5)
This is where it starts to get fun. You get extra points (and kudos) if you crack your own, but I usually just get a prepackaged no-salt mixed nuts canister or get a bunch of a particular seed at a bulk-buy stand in the whole foods bin, especially when they are on sale. I typically look for superfoods, like walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, flax-seed, and other interesting textures and flavors. I try different nut mixes too, like trail mix or omega 3 mixes, which also bring some interesting fruits. The protein and fat benefits of seeds and nuts are well-documented, and this makes for an easy way to simultaneously add them to your diet while keeping the resulting calories relatively low.
Muesli recipe: Fruit, sweetness and natural fructose (1:5)
I rely on trail mixes for most of my dried fruit, but from time to time, I’ll add a large container of raisins, crasins, banana chips, or tropical dried fruit. I will also add dried figs or cherries which add a nice chewy texture. The sweetness mixes with the earthy flavors of the other ingredients very nicely. As you’ll see from the uses and combinations below, there are lots of ways to push the flavors to a more sweet or a more savory outcome.
Uses and combinations
Milk or coffee
You can eat muesli as cereal, with milk, or you can add some coffee to it in a bowl to make a delicious and hearty one bowl breakfast.
Grain medley
I have been in the habit of making whole grain medleys with vegetables as a filling lunch, but that’s another post. After the medley is cooked, I’ll often throw a serving of my muesli into the pot to bring back the crunch.
Fresh fruit
I can think of at least 50 delicious moments in my kitchen doing a fine dice or slice on a firm sour apple or a banana, and then mixing in a quarter cup of my muesli. The sweetness is amazing, and the flavors compliment each other so nicely.
As a condiment
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a joy unto itself, but with a quarter cup of muesli, it’s divine.
I love my muesli. It’s delicious and saves me a lot of money over the prepackaged stuff, because it stretches everything out dramatically while adding to the flavors and combination possibilities. I hope this post inspires you to try it for yourself!
While I was in Chicago, I had the opportunity to try a Hunan fusion place for lunch one day. I love spicy, and enjoy vegetarian dishes, but often only find the combination in Indian cuisine. I deeply heart Indian food for this and many other reasons. See also Roti. In the menu was the golden duo of the symbol for spicy, a little pepper icon, and the symbol for veggie, a little broccoli icon. The name of the dish was Vegetable Manchurian.
Anyway, I ordered Vegetable Manchurian, and expected something like a spicy Pad Thai without noodles. When the meatballs in gravy showed up, i was sure there had been a mistake. It was my very delicious mistake. I figured that it was an invention of this place, but in a quick search for the calories in Manchurian veg, I was amazed to find it was a common and stylized dish!
“There are two different variants of it, dry and with gravy. Both variants are prepared by using common ingredients like cauliflower, corn flour, maida flour, spring onion, capsicum, soy sauce, chili sauce, minced garlic, ground pepper, etc. and has typical garnish of spring onion. Few recipes even call for use of Ajinomoto (MSG) to increase the taste profile however many prefer to avoid it due to health reasons. Its taste can vary from mild spicy to hot and fiery based on the recipe and personal preference.” – Gobi manchurian – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – http://goo.gl/gK1PiV
I have never had nor seen these batter based veggie bites in spicy gravy before, but I will most certainly be seeking them out here in Pan Asian food heaven, aka greater Princeton. Mine were served with rice, and were filled with cilantro, sprouts, and legumes. Amazing texture and flavor. I’m hooked.
Venn diagram of nutritional management by lemasney
My Weekly ‘Therapy’ Session
Venn diagram of nutritional management (three gauges) by lemasney
I was having a conversation with a very good friend the other day. We were talking about the circle of topics that we always talk about, e.g. life, work, relationships, status, and emotion. I deeply enjoy the conversations and they happen almost weekly. It is my own surrogate for therapy, and we pay each other by giving that listening and suggestion to each other in response.
At any rate, it was his turn on the couch, so to speak, and he was telling me that he had no outlooks, no drive, very little to show for his effort, and little to look forward to. He said that he was waiting for things to happen, and did not care much when they did. This is atypical for my friend, usually a bastion of insight and support for when I feel this way.
In discussing possible solutions, we talked about the Invisible Hand theory, often applied in financial theory, in which some people believe that we are acted upon by an unseen influence, like fate, or God. At the opposite extreme, there is a free-will mentality, in which we put ourselves on paths that lead to a greater or lesser likelihood of intended outcomes. I am in the self-driven free-will camp.
For instance, let’s say that we are talking about an accident. It happens. Was it fate that caused the accident, in which we had no choice in the matter, and it was going to happen no matter what? Or was it you taking the risk of that accident by getting into the car or driving recklessly? All other possibilities and contingencies aside, you likely feel stronger about one, or the other.
Some might say that we are born into the understanding capability that we have. That we are more likely or less likely to have the ability to be smart about some particular topic, because of fate or destiny. This is often attributed to me in regards to technology. Some say I ‘just get it’ because it was meant to be that way. My point of view is that I understand technology because I have a passion for it, and want to learn about it, I want to have it in my hand, and I want very much to understand it. To this end, I surround myself with people, media, practices, and work that moves me towards that end. It is not an effort, per se, because I have a passion for it, but it is not by fate, in my opinion. I choose that particular path.
Nutrition, Emotion, and Schedule
51 of 365 on meeting management by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
We also talked about it in regards to nutrition. I lost over 100 pounds in about a year after being obese most of my life. This happened because I read books, got tools, and practiced, to that end. I did not know what I was eating, what I was burning, or how any of it worked. I spent time with people who thought nothing of eating footlong sandwiches and chips or fries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I did not put the right foods in my refrigerator, did not visit the right restaurants, and did not understand the hidden natures of food, such as how food’s size or type or connotation (e.g. ‘healthy’) is completely unrelated to satiation, calories. or flavor.
In regards to emotion, the same is true. Without meditation to understand the nature of your mood, or by spending time with negative or poisonous influences, you might be asking for a bad mood. You might not see patterns and relationships between food, visits, actions, tone, and mood, but they exist. Unless it’s just fate, but I do not believe that it is.
Finally, there is schedule. I, myself, live by my calendar. I use tools like IFTTT to place an event on my calendar automatically when I get or make a phone call, and record all of the details that I can in the fields of meetings, such as an address in the location field, so that later, I can review and understand the nature of the way that I spent my time, which may very well affect how I spend my time better.
Insights on Tools and Quantification
Towards the end of the conversation, I had a very good insight. For me personally, it is the tools that allow me to review and annotate the quantification of events related to food, schedule, safety, and communication. Like almost anything else I believe and understand the truth of something when I can sense (sight, hearing, taste…) it. I realized that it is because of my awareness of incoming calories in MyFitnessPal combined with output of calories in FitBit that I am able to easily maintain, increase, or decrease my weight. I realized that it is because of the manual and automated manipulation of my schedule that I can see very clearly what took place yesterday, tomorrow, last week, next week, last year or next year.
It is because of the automated download of on-demand media such as technology podcasts about topics I find important in my work that I am able to stay abreast of what is going on in those arenas. By making good choices in the grocery store, I am forced to some degree to make good choices about eating.
I figure that if I can find the right tool for the other concerns in my life, such as money or customer relations, I might be able to apply the same kinds of logic to those in order to make those ecosystems better as well. My emotion, for example, is now being recorded every three hours by MoodiModo, an emotion tracking app that asks me about 16 likert style questions (are you more or less…) about my moods like how angry, scared, or anxious I am. I can look at the charted responses in conjunction with my food diary, exercise charts, or calendar in order to see trends between, let’s say, food or meetings and my level of anger or joy and maybe begin to sense causal relationships.
His response? “But that takes willpower and commitment in order to do that, you have that.”
My response? “if you leave the right tools and choices in your path, working passively and automatically, you need neither. “
