Althouse: The Succulent Café.

April 20, 2009

The Succulent Café.

Say something juicy. Something tender.

41 comments:

Jeremy said...: Since we ALL know that 95% of the wingnuts here are overweight...

Blueberries May Banish Belly Fat
Diet Rich in Blueberries May Boost Heart Health

April 19, 2009 -- Busting belly fat may be yet another of blueberries’ health benefits.

A new study shows rats who ate a diet rich in blueberries lost abdominal fat -- the kind of fat linked to heart disease and diabetes -- as well as experienced other health benefits like lowered cholesterol and improved glucose control even if their diet wasn’t otherwise heart-healthy.

"Some measurements were changed by blueberry even if the rats were on a high-fat diet," researcher E. Mitchell Seymour, MS, of the University of Michigan’s Cardioprotection Research Laboratory, says in a news release.

Researchers say the results suggest that antioxidant-rich blueberries may change how the body stores and processes glucose or sugar for energy, thereby reducing the risk of both heart disease and diabetes.

"The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables have been well researched, but our findings in regard to blueberries show the naturally occurring chemicals they contain, such as anthocyanins, show promise in mitigating these health conditions," researcher Steven Bolling, MD, of the University of Michigan, says in the release.
Blueberries Boost Heart Health

In the study, presented at Experimental Biology 2009, researchers fed rats bred to become obese either a high-fat or low-fat diet enriched with whole blueberry powder or carbohydrates as 2% of their total diet.

After 90 days, the rats fed blueberries had less abdominal fat, lower cholesterol, and improved glucose control and insulin sensitivity. The latter two factors are markers of how well the body processes sugar for energy and are related to diabetes risk.

These health benefits of blueberries were evident in rats fed both high- and low-fat diets enriched with the blueberry powder. But the benefits were greatest among those who ate a low-fat diet.

In addition to the other heart health benefits of blueberries, those fed the low-fat blueberry diet also lost body weight and fat mass compared to those on the high-fat diet.

Although more research is needed to confirm these results in humans, a related study presented at the same conference showed that men with risk factors for heart disease who drank wild blueberry juice for three weeks seemed to experience slight improvements in glucose and insulin control.; 4/20/09, 10:14 PM
Peter Hoh said...: A very nice planting.; 4/20/09, 10:36 PM
JSF said...: Here's a cool post:

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/special-lifehackers-guide-to-weblog-comments-126654.php

Leaving a comment on someone's weblog is like walking into their living room and joining in on a conversation. As in real life, online there are some people who are a pleasure to converse with, and some who are not. Good blog commenters add to the discussion and are known as knowledgeable, informative, friendly and engaged. Build your own online social capital and become a great blog commenter by keeping these simple guidelines in mind before you post.

Stay on topic.

Bloggers enable comments on specific blog posts to hear more about the content of the post. Don't change the subject. There's nothing more annoying than seeing a comment on a post about Hurricane Katrina that reads, "By the way, do you know anything about turtles?"

Contribute new information to the discussion.

Twelve people saying the same exact thing in one comment thread is useless and irritating. Before you comment, read the entire thread and make sure your comment offers something new to the conversation. If you don't have the time or patience to read an entire thread, then don't comment at all. The longer a comment thread the more likely someone has already said what you're thinking, and the less likely it is to be read by future visitors anyway.

Don't comment for the sake of commenting.

Commenters who only say "First!" or "Nice site" on an open thread have no business hitting that "Post" button at all. Further, only spammers comment for the sake of adding their name and URL to a web page. Useless comments will gain you the reputation for being a useless commenter.

Know when to comment and when to e-mail.

A weblog comment is a public one-to-many communication within the context of a blog post. An e-mail is a private interaction. A weblog comment that reads, "Oh yeah, that link is cool. By the way, how's your sister?" doesn't contribute to the public conversation and belongs in an e-mail message to the author instead.

Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.

The best kind of comments come from thoughtful, knowledgeable people who add more information about a topic. However, tongue-lashings from condescending smartypants will go over as well on someone's blog as they would in that someone's living room. Expect to get shown the door in the form of the delete button. When fact-checking, pointing out a typo or dead link or asserting a dissenting opinion, do it in a respectful, friendly way.

Make the tone of your message clear.

No one can hear the tone of your voice or see your facial expression online. Sarcasm, in-jokes and exaggerations can easily be taken the wrong way in a public forum. Remember that a simple colon and a parentheses can change the meaning of a sentence entirely. Use emoticons or additional information to communicate the spirit of your message.

Own your comment.

Anonymous commenting, while sometimes necessary, can be seen as cowardly. Build your identity and own your words by placing your name and weblog address on your comments wherever possible.

Be succinct.

Longwinded lectures are for college professors, not blog comments. Stay short and to the point. Everyone appreciates brevity.

Cite your sources with links or inline quoting.

To comment on specific bits of a blog post, copy and paste the lines in question and add your response below each section. If you're referencing information located elsewhere, provide a short summary and a link to your source so others can click through for more information at their discretion.

Be courteous.

Chances are something someone says in a comment or post is going to irk you. Still, personal attacks are unacceptable, useless and can quickly degrade a discussion to a third grade "Yo Mama" flamefest. Resist the urge, and be respectful and objective at all times.

Don't post when you're angry, upset, drunk or emotional.

There's no taking back a published blog comment - once you post, it's there for everyone to see and for Google to cache. Remember, you're not going to show your best face in the heat of an emotional moment. If you find yourself angrily typing a message into someone's blog comment box - STOP. Get up. Take a breath. Walk around. Give it a day. Revisit the thread when your head is clear. This goes doubly for public blog comments as it does for private e-mail messages.; 4/20/09, 10:39 PM
traditionalguy said...: Althouse's brain is always tender. She may also be juiced when she is drinking, but that's her secret. Never guess a succulent plant by its leaves; you have to squeeze it first and see what you get. Good night you Professors of Law.; 4/20/09, 10:44 PM
Wince said...: Be succinct.Ahem, words to live by.

Dana Carvey doing Andy Rooney impression...

Why do the call an orange an orange, but they don't call a banana a yellow?

(Tokes on invisible joint.)

They should call raspberries small purple bumpies.

(Tokes on invisible joint.); 4/20/09, 10:48 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: I heard a juicy rumor that people were posting large sections of other people's copyrighted work, above and beyond what could reasonably be considered fair use.; 4/20/09, 10:57 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Jeremy,
It is Un-American, un-Patriotic, and illegal to post copy righted material without attribution.

You have finally proven that you know nothing. You are a tool. Calling you a troll is defaming trolls, ogres, orcs, and goblins.

You libturds are all insane. You are all batshit crazy. They have places for people like you. There was a previous post here about one of them- Coalinga. Hey, you live in California. It is probably near your home. you can drive there and demand to be allowed in. Do the world a favor.; 4/20/09, 11:11 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: Blueberries can be hazardous to your health...(Hehe); 4/20/09, 11:11 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Good news from Geneva .......

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was dealt a little humiliation.; 4/20/09, 11:16 PM
Daryl said...: Obviously the "tender" "succulent" triangle represents a woman's pubic hair.

This blog is run by a pervert.; 4/20/09, 11:25 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: BTW, Jeremy, the moron, those are not Blueberries.; 4/20/09, 11:27 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: "This blog is run by a pervert."

What's your point? You say that like it is a bad thing. :); 4/20/09, 11:28 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: "Since we ALL know that 95% of the wingnuts here are overweight...Proof! Links? You are a liar, a charlatan, and a fraud. you are Un-American, un-patriotic, and hate your country and its people. You detest diversity, the freedom of expression, the freedom of thought, and the freedom to choose. Hey, I'd bet that Iranian midget or the Venezuelan vampire would welcome you with open arms. Maybe the Taliban is your better choice. They hate dissent, criticism, and America; just like you do.; 4/20/09, 11:32 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/20/09, 11:40 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Peter, you're kind of scaring me, and I'm living at an unspecified location that's kind of scary as it is.; 4/20/09, 11:44 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Since we ALL know you wingnuts are not nearly fat enough, and that you're given to substitute vegetable oils for animal fat under the woeful misperception unsaturated fat is better for you than saturated fat, and further because as Americans you have drilled into you the believe cholesterol is bad for you. This attitude is unique to American doctors, Europeans view cholesterol as a healing molecule associated with heart disease precisely because they're the transport vehicles for other molecules throughout the body but that debate is heated and an unlovely one and our instructions are to talk about something tender, therefore I offer

Puff pastry cheese and bacon biscuits.

Commercial puff pastry is fine for unimaginative or lazy cooks or amateurs but when you tire of it, and you will, you'll want to move away from whatever unknown strange amalgamation of scientifically contrived fat-like chemicals found within commercial puff pastry up to puff made with real butter. Butter is what makes the big difference here, so use the best butter that you can find. It is not necessary to tediously pound cold butter between layers and then chill between each pounding, in fact, this method can be used to make the dough in ten minutes from start to finish. Here's the deal; chill the butter so that it's hard and use ice cold water. Rub the butter into the flour breaking it into pieces with your fingertips as you go so that each fleck of butter is coated with flour, and all the flour is butterfied. Do this rapidly so the warmth of your fingertips does not melt the butter. Then add just enough water to bring the dough together. It is not necessary to chill the dough. I have not tried this with a machine, and I have not tried chilling the dough between layers or after it's finished, I just go straight ahead and do the whole thing at once. I've made these twice and they were fantastic both times. Lucy describes things in French, so she calls this feuilletage. Leafage.

For a double batch. And what would be the point of a single batch? You'll notice by weight there's more butter than flour.

1) 9 oz. flour. This is a little over two cups by volume. More flour is used for the work surface and that gets incorporated between the layers.
2) 10 oz. butter. This is a little over one cup by volume.
3) 1/2 teaspoon salt. This assumes you're using unsalted butter.
4) 2 large chipotle chiles in adobe or up to six small ones, finely diced.
5) 5 or 6 thick slices of bacon, chopped and fried crisp.
6) 2-3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese
7) 2-3 oz. Swiss mountain cheese
8) 1/2 cup near-freezing cold water

Do not omit the chipotle in adobe. It's hot, and it's necessary. This same technique can be used for sweet cinnamon buns, but we're doing savory now.

Make the dough and roll it flat. Fold it in thirds. If it sticks, use a bench scraper and dust the surface with flour. Brush off excess flour from your layers. Roll out flat again and fold in thirds again. You've folded the dough into three layers, then you did that twice resulting in nine layers. Rolling that out that again and folding into thirds creates twenty seven layers. You can stop here. But continuing and rolling the dough again and folding a fourth time creates eight-one layers! Roll out flat one last time into a rectangle shape. Sprinkle the bacon and chunky shredded cheese over the top and gently press it into the surface. Starting at one end roll up the dough into a log form, or, channeling your inner ophiologist, into a snake form. Using a sharp knife so that you do not smash the layers together which would seal the edges and prevent the biscuits from puffing, slice the log into 1/2 inch segments. Bake on parchment paper or Silpat™ at very high initial heat. You want it to go BANG! --> puff. I like to insert the tray into the oven on very high 450°F then cut back to reasonably hot 400°F. This is my preferred oven insertion technique with all scones and biscuits. Bake until brown. If your nose works, you'll smell them. About ten minutes possibly twelve.; 4/20/09, 11:48 PM
blake said...: We need to have an Althouse meet-up at Chip's.

I'll sous.

No, there are probably 15 people better qualified, so I'll provide music.

Crap, probably 15 people better qualified at that, too. Hmmm, I'll provide the witty banter?

Yeah, right.

OK, I'll haul the garbage. I may not even be the best at that, but I call dibs.; 4/21/09, 12:14 AM
Unknown said...: Spring is here! The first razzers in the woodland! Truly framboises des bois. On respire! Now all you need is a bowl and spoon, a whisper of raw sugar, a bit of creme fraiche..... Mmmmmm.

Le temps a laissié son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye,
Et s'est vestu de brouderie,
De soleil luyant, cler et beau.

Il n'y a beste, ne oyseau,
Qu'en son jargon ne chante ou crie
Le temps a laissié son manteau
De vent, de froidure et de pluye.

Riviere, fontaine et ruisseau
Portent, en livree jolie,
Gouttes d'argent, d'orfaverie ;
Chascun s'abille de nouveau
Le temps a laissié son manteau.

Charles d'Orléans (1394-1465); 4/21/09, 12:14 AM
hdhouse said...: Open Message to Peter the cute:

Read JSF's post above.
Contemplate what you are going to say, perhaps write it out in word first, read it aloud, just don't do a type and dash (particularly you)!
Re-read JSF's post above and think carefully about what and how you want your tidbit to sound; not only to you but to the rest of us.

When in doubt hit the delete button - hit it often we pray you.; 4/21/09, 2:13 AM
Anonymous said...: Ah, JSF! Such lovely sentiments!

I, myself thought they were words to live by all those years ago when I first started commenting on the Althouse blog.

I may not have been concise, but I always tried to be polite. After all, I had been a chat room host on AOL in the old days, and my job was to move things along in similar lines, and to issue TOS violations to "Snerts," as we called them on AOL 15 years ago. But mostly, I thought, public online conversation should be civil.

Oh, have I learned better. Yes, I have.

I have been toughened by the daily bar fights here on Althouse. And, I'm a little ashamed to admit, they've improved my writing.

My dreary song of innocence has been replaced by one of experience. I suppose it's better in some ways, but mostly it's about not singing, lest someone throw a rotten tomato.

And if I should stand up in the Karaoke bar, I usually have a few highball glasses nearby to throw right back.

And so I will say in my polite and personable way, good night, and go the hell.; 4/21/09, 2:42 AM
hdhouse said...: It is approaching 6am here and I'm treated to the aftermath of a terrific spring rainstorm. The Atlantic is still making lion's noises and here, in the tidal ponds, it is slack and foggy with just the first hint of sun. Everything reminds me of a 30s Sherlock Holmes movie. I'm sorry that dawn will fully break and ruin this scene. Cats are up and they are hungry.; 4/21/09, 4:51 AM
Michael Haz said...: @Chip Ahoy - How are things at the Chip Ahoy test kitchen? Are you in need of a taster/tester? I'd like to, you know, volunteer, and even offer to scrub pots and pans.

I have a valid driver's license, can pass a drug screen, and will arrange my own accommodations. Plus, I'll bring a cooler of Neuske's bacon, possibly the best cooking ingredient on earth.; 4/21/09, 6:40 AM
Bissage said...: (1) I’m glad to see that Theo is back.

(2) Hilarious, blake. I call doing the dishes!; 4/21/09, 6:45 AM
Bissage said...: Michael H. beat me to it.

DAMN!!!

Uh . . . I call . . . uh . . . I call . . .

I’ll bring the BOOZE!!!

(Even I can’t screw that up.)

Ha!; 4/21/09, 6:49 AM
KCFleming said...: Hey, Theo,
I learned the same thing!
Glad to see you here again; this place is always the better for it.; 4/21/09, 6:52 AM
TMink said...: Blueberries are also wonderful for the brain. They can help reduce generalized cognitive impairment due to aging as well as the specific deficits caused by Alzheimer's.

Sadly Jeremy, they are not helpful to people whose brain is already kaput.

Trey; 4/21/09, 7:27 AM
Penny said...: I love the sound of the word "succulent". It sounds rather sexy. "Juicy and tender" thoughts take me straight away to steak territory.

It was interesting that the picture was of succulents - the plants. They're tough buggers. Not how I like my steaks.; 4/21/09, 7:31 AM
MadisonMan said...: Here's a cool post:

Then there follows paragraphs of suggestions and explanations, then this suggestion:

Be succinct.

Longwinded lectures are for college professors, not blog comments. Stay short and to the point. Everyone appreciates brevity.

Then MORE paragraphs of suggestions and guidelines.

Heh.; 4/21/09, 7:39 AM
KCFleming said...: First!

Nice site.; 4/21/09, 7:52 AM
john said...: Jeremy knows.

I can't even call him a xoxksuxker correctly because they haven't giantsized the keyboard for my pudgy wingnut fingers.

And the m button sticks because my fudgesicle dripped in it. It's always the m button (I'm righthanded).; 4/21/09, 7:54 AM
Jennifer said...: LOL POGO!; 4/21/09, 8:00 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: "Everything reminds me of a 30s Sherlock Holmes movie. I'm sorry that dawn will fully break and ruin this scene. Cats are up and they are hungry."

Old guys like you should stay off drugs. Next you will be telling us about hounds on the heath.

If you cared for your pets properly, they would not be hungry. Buy less drugs and more pet food. That is the problem with drug abusers, house, you people do not take care of your responsibilities.; 4/21/09, 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Although "moist" and "damp" are synonyms, no one ever says, "The steak was damp and tender."

Just an observation.; 4/21/09, 8:44 AM
former law student said...: you'll want to move away from whatever unknown strange amalgamation of scientifically contrived fat-like chemicals found within commercial puff pastry

Ah, an expert. I'm curious about a rule of thumb re viennoiserie which I have accepted but never analyzed: Croissants made with butter are supposed to form the traditional crescent shape, while croissants made with margarine or other ersatz are supposed to end up in a straight line, more or less.; 4/21/09, 8:51 AM
ricpic said...: If a man entered a room in a grey jacket, a purple shirt and green pants, everyone would go, "Ewww."
But somehow nature pulls off the combination and makes it beautiful, too.; 4/21/09, 8:52 AM
Christy said...: I love a rock garden. The plants un-barren a hostile environment. Life feeds on life until, eventually, that world is transfigured. Rock gardens are a snapshot of a world changing.

Chip, tell us about silicon bakeware. Is it really an advantage to a cook who has, at long last, learned not to burn her pans when baking?; 4/21/09, 9:01 AM
KCFleming said...: "If a man entered a room in a grey jacket, a purple shirt and green pants, everyone would go, "Ewww.""

Geez, I thought most people would have forgotten that episode.

In my defense, however, the salesgirl was rather cute.; 4/21/09, 9:20 AM
former law student said...: If a man entered a room in a grey jacket, a purple shirt and green pants, everyone would go, "Ewww."

The reaction would depend on what his score was for 18 holes.; 4/21/09, 9:37 AM
JSF said...: Actually, the link and the comment was done as a responce with what Jeremy's first comment.

Hd, are you willing to say that Jeremy did not stereotype the folks on the right? Has he been courteous to people who disagrees with him?

I take Peter's side here. When I learned politics at 15, I learned from the old Machine guys in NYC (in Queens), and one of the things they taught me:

If you debate with someone and become enemies you lose. If you debate with someone and have a drink afterword, you win. Why? Because you win another chance to get them on your side.

Peter understands, Jeremy does not.; 4/21/09, 10:11 AM
chickelit said...: Beautiful words V.B.!

And nice thoughts Penny.; 4/21/09, 10:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I love the sound of the word "succulent". It sounds rather sexy. "Juicy and tender" thoughts take me straight away to steak territory."

It doesn't me.

And wasn't that Meade in the green pants?; 4/21/09, 11:12 AM