Steve

Hangtown Fry

May 282012

Oysters are thought to be an aphrodisiac.

Hangtown Fry

Mark Twain wrote of lodging at San Francisco’s Occidental Hotel where he would, “move upon the supper works and destroy oysters done up in all kinds of seductive styles.”

As a lover of oysters, Twain was likely to have been served Hangtown Fry many times. The dish is said to have originated about 1850 when a recently-enriched gold miner stumbled into the Cary House Hotel in Hangtown, California (today’s Placerville) and ordered “the most expensive dish” the kitchen could provide.

Fresh oysters and fresh eggs fit the request.

You’ll need:

2 eggs

3 fresh oysters (If you must, canned oysters packed in brine may be used.)

4 strips turkey bacon cut into 1-inch long pieces

2 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

Do this:

In a nonstick pan cook the cut up bacon until crisp.

While the bacon is cooking, mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl and toss the oysters in the mixture until lightly coated.

Remove the crisped bacon and add the oil to the pan.

Fry the oysters until crispy on the edges. Don’t walk away, it doesn’t take long.

Remove the cooked oysters and place on a paper towel to drain.

Scramble the eggs in the same pan.

Place the eggs on a plate and top with the bacon and oysters.

Servings: 1 Calories: 347 Satisfaction: 89

Photo credit: yatomo / 123RF Stock Photo

Stir-fry Vegetables with Brown Rice & Feta Cheese

Entree, Recipes 1 Response »

May 222012

Select brown rice over white rice.

This is quick and healthy. If you don’t happen to have fresh spinach on hand, add any other fresh or frozen vegetable you like.

Ingredients

½ cup of frozen or fresh peas

1 medium size carrot sliced into ¼-inch thick circles

1 handful of fresh spinach

¾ cup cooked brown rice (cooked brown rice is available frozen)

Chopped red onion to taste

Fresh-cracked black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons of crumbled herbed feta cheese

Directions

Spray a nonstick frying pan with PAM and sauté the onion and carrot with the cracked pepper until the onion is translucent.

Add the remaining vegetables and the rice and stir-fry over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until warmed.

Spoon into a bowl or on a plate.

Sprinkle the feta cheese on top.

Single serving

yatomo / 123RF Stock Photo

New Diet Pill to Replace Diet Plans?

Dieting Sucks 1 Response »

Feb 232012

: Will pills replace dieting plans? Photo compliments Vichie81

In an attempt to make the Sexy Beast Diet plan superfluous…

The pharmaceutical industry (read “evil pharmaceutical industry”) has yet again pitched a diet pill to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but this time, unlike the 2010 attempt with the same pill, the FDA’s advisory committee voted 20-2 to endorse the drug.

This isn’t the last step in the approval process, but the FDA usually takes the advice of the experts on its advisory committees. Final approval of what will be the first diet pill to clear the hurdles in more than a decade should come later in 2012.

The drug, Qnexa, manufactured by Vivus–my spellchecker wants to make that “Virus”–is a combination of amphetamine phentermine and topiramate. You may recall that amphetamine phentermine had an infamous previous life as the active ingredient in the now-outlawed weight loss drug fen-phen.

Topiramate is an anti-convulsion medication used to treat people with epilepsy and to control migraine headaches. Topiramate may cause osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children. The new combo pill has the risk of causing heart problems and birth defects.

I don’t suppose authors of diet books have much to worry about, but to hedge my bets, I’m going to load up on Vivus stock.

Beer Built the Pyramids

Dieting Sucks, Ramblings 2 Responses »

Feb 012012

It's likely that ancient man invented agriculture so he could have an ample beer supply. Photo courtesy Idea Go.

We all know what the oldest profession is, but which do you think came first, baker or brewer?

According to University of Pennsylvania Professor Patrick McGovern, who is known as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages,” Neolithic farmers had developed the necessary skills to grow grains so they could brew beer thousands of years before anyone was baking bread.

This means Sexy Beasts were guzzling beer at least 9,000 years ago. I don’t find that surprising. I imagine hunting and gathering from dawn till dusk was thirsty work.

Not only did man’s quest for beer help establish agriculture; it was beer that built the pyramids. The laborers who worked on the pyramids in ancient Egypt were paid in beer; 231,414,717 gallons of it for the pyramid at Giza alone. Anheuser-Busch eat your heart out.

This post is unedited material I’ve written for The Sexy Beast Diet. Constructive criticism is appreciated, after all everyone needs an editor. Just click the “Add Comments” link at the top right. Thanks!

Baked Potato with Sour Cream, Bacon Bits, and Chives

Recipes, Sides 2 Responses »

Dec 222011

The extra calories in most baked potatoes we eat comes from the sour cream and butter we slather on. Try this recipe instead. Photo courtesy Simon Howden, Free Digital Photos.

This recipe adds a hot, satisfying 6 to 7 ounces to your meal at only about 200 calories. Try it with two eggs for a 380-calorie breakfast.

Baked potatoes don’t always have to be the Idaho variety, try the red and golden ones too.

Ingredients

1 Medium (6 oz) baked potato (about 2¼” to 3¼” in diameter) 161 calories

2 Tbls Nonfat sour cream 20 calories

2 Tbls chopped chives or chopped onion 2 calories

1 Tbls Bacon bits 25 calories

Directions

Poke holes in the potato so you don’t coat the inside of your microwave with potato.

Microwave the potato on high for 6 minutes.

Slice open the top and push in on the ends to make a white fluffy pillow.

Spoon the nonfat sour cream on top.

Add as much chopped chives or onion as you want. You don’t have to stay with 2 tablespoons, chives and onions are on the Sexy Beast Diet eat-all-you-want list.

Sprinkle with the bacon bits and chow down.

Approximately 200 calories

Garlic & Cucumber Yogurt Dip

Dips & Dressings, Recipes 1 Response »

Dec 152011

Store-bought cucumbers often are waxed. Scrub off this wax before grating. Photo by Anankkml.

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This cool, tasty concoction works great when served with raw veggies as a hors d’ oeuvre or try it as a salad dressing. Don’t even think of using it with potato chips.

1 8-inch cucumber 45

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt 110

½ teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 5

Grate the unpeeled cucumber and drain until nearly dry. Combine the ingredients, folding the cucumber into the yogurt.

As a dip, a half-cup serving is 75 calories Used as salad dressing, a quarter-cup is 38 calories

The Sexy Beast Diet Recipe: Maize and Soy Chorizo

Entree, Recipes No Responses »

Dec 032011

This image is from a 16th century Florentine codex. Common lore says it portrays an Aztec woman blowing on maize as she pours it into a cooking pot so the maize won’t fear the heat. This is very pleasant and I do so love myths, but she is obviously spitting on the maize because her Sexy Beast is late coming back from the daily hunt.

Maize and Soy Chorizo

Maize, a large, colorful corn is finding quite a following on trendy dinner tables. Developed by prehistoric people from a wild grain native to Southern Mexico, Maize was known by the ancients as a “gift from the gods.” While it may be faddish today, the Aztecs and Mayans friended maize thousands of years before anyone thought to dedicate a Facebook page to it: on.fb.me/oECavw.

I particularly like Teasdale’s (bit.ly/oBP2vO) Maiz Morado brand, which you can buy in big 29-ounce cans. If you can’t find Maize on your grocer’s shelf, hominy is an acceptable substitute.

Soy chorizo, with 60 percent less fat and less than half the calories, is an outstanding substitute for regular chorizo.

Ingredients:

Maize or hominy (canned): 9 ounces (1 cup) —180 calories

Soy chorizo: 2 ounces —90 calories

Part skim milk mozzarella cheese: 1 ounce —72 calories

Total: 12 ounces —342 calories

Instructions:

Crumble soy chorizo into a non-stick frying pan. Add the drained Maize or hominy. Cook over high heat until the chorizo is brown and slightly crisp. Dump the chorizo and maize on a plate and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.

Wine:

Syrah or another big red wine.

Favorite Dieting Quote?

Dieting Sucks, Ramblings, Staying the course No Responses »

Dec 022011

You are the hero of your life.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

—Teddy Roosevelt

Setting Diet Goals

Dieting Sucks No Responses »

Nov 282011

Chapter Two: First Things

Let’s get started.

Habit number two of Stephen Covey’s famed The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is “Begin with the end in mind.” Good advice, let’s take it.

Set goals you can meet

I admit, as Sexy Beasts, we shudder at the thought of handcuffing ourselves to any one course. We are free-souls meant to satisfy our every whim and wanderlust.

Of course, there are times when handcuffs may come in handy. If the bedposts are…but wait, I digress.

On the other handcuff…uh, hand, knowing where you are headed has its advantages. For instance, how would you know when you arrived if you didn’t know where you were going?

With this in mind, let’s set some dieting goals. Our goals need to be both firm and reasonable.

The firm part is easy because, as Sexy Beasts, we are decisive beasts, confident in our ability to self discipline.

The reasonable part is a bit harder for us. Let’s face it, there have been times when we’ve bitten off more than we could chew. This isn’t, in itself, a bad thing. Always good to shoot for the moon and all that old chap, but with our dieting we have to be reasonable or we stand the chance of becoming dispirited and a dispirited Sexy Beast is ah…dispiriting.

Let’s set two goals: how much and how soon.

What’s Sexy and What’s Not

Ramblings No Responses »

Nov 222011

This post is unedited material I’ve written for The Sexy Beast Diet. Constructive criticism is appreciated, after all everyone needs an editor. Just click the “Add Comments” link at the top right. Thanks!

—

Everyone wants to be sexy.

Men want to be virile and sexy.

Women want to be beautiful and sexy.

Ok, maybe not everyone.

I had a high school civics teacher who used to always say, “never say ‘never’” so, in the spirit of Mr. Hull, perhaps I misspoke.

It is possible some people don’t want to be sexy. The Pope comes to mind.

And, apparently President Jimmy Carter didn’t care about turning a fair maiden’s head, at not least while he was in the White House, but, for every Jimmy Carter, there’s 1,001 Bill Clintons.

I’m willing to bet you aren’t a Jimmy Carter or the Pope.

Know what women find sexy?

• The ability to listen. Women love to talk, and their favorite subject is themselves. Simply listen, nod, and ask a simple question now and then and you’ll be spending more time between the sheets than on the sports page.

• Confidence. It isn’t that confidence is such a turn on as it is that indecisiveness is such a turn off. Make up your mind. Stick to your decisions. Sexy Beasts are confident beasts.

• Wisdom. Keep up on the universe and all its goings-on. This may mean you’ll have to do some reading. Suck it up.

• Industriousness. Doubt a good work ethic is sexy? Try this for a pick up line sometime: “I haven’t been able to find a job for a couple of years now, so I live with my mom.”

• Scintillating conversation. When she isn’t talking, she wants you to talk. If you can’t think of anything to say, ask something about her. See “The ability to listen” above.

• Fitness. Most women say they don’t put an emphasis on looks to the degree men do, but check around and see how many women you know who find beer bellies attractive.

Know what women don’t find sexy?

• Fat. She’ll be impressed if you can heft a 90-pound sack of cement, but not if you have one hanging over your belt or stored in the seat of your pants. Wiggle a double chin at her and see if her eyes gleam with lust.

• Lack of cleanliness. Poor grooming or bad hygiene is a big turn off. It also results in insipid sex. If she smelled bad, would you…?

• Meanness. You may have heard that women go for bad boys, but that doesn’t translate into treating her badly. Sexy Beasts are gentlemen.

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