Eva's Wine Cellar

I can eat anything Eva. It's just that I try to keep my cholesterol level below 3.5. I read Food Is A Wonder Medicine by Dr Barnard. It worked for me.

If you can control your cholesterol level by diet alone, that's great!

It's 100 degrees here again today. Let's have gazpacho tonight. I add a little cream sherry to mine, and garnish it with diced avocado.

Did you not know that Eva. Shame on your educators.

If you think of Oswald's Dilution Law it can be reduced by blood loss because when the loss is made up it's good stuff. So leeches made sense. Them being used for everything got them discredited.

That's why women can eat more fat that men. Up till about 45 I mean. But even then, at 45, they have a better start which might be why they live longer that us poor sods.

I could think of other reasons for that mind you.

It's a good topic for a Wine Cellar discussion.

What you could do with that confection Eva is shove it through a blender after adding a pint of John Smith's Extra Smooth and a Tequila Surprise and drink it.

I've been told by several medical professionals that diet is responsible for only about 10% of one's cholesterol level, and genetics plays a much larger part. They also said that even with a severely restricted diet, most people cannot reduce their cholesterol level more than 5-10%. (The source you quoted probably differs, right?)

Since high cholesterol levels run in my family, and we're all in the 350-400 range regardless of age or weight, I've been on statins for many years. My last test came in at slightly below the recommended level, right where it has been for the last 10 years. My sister, an RN, did not have a good reaction to statin drugs, so she does the best she can with regular physical exercise and strict diet modifications. Her levels, however, are much higher than mine, despite the fact that she is much more active and slimmer than I am.

I think whatever a person finds that works for him/her is great. I'm not one of those who thinks one solution fits all.

Eva, I'll have some of that.

I was going to make a cheese and olive and mustard green bits omelet until I saw your gazpacho photo. Such a good thing to eat.


Meantime, I just came back from the store, where among other purchases, I picked up a couple of packages of cream cheese.
Time for my version of Fresh Sage Pate -

quoting self, about my version of a recipe that came with sorta fresh sage in the produce section of the market (now am fostering some in my sand lot):


Nutty Sage Pate
1 cup of shelled hazelnuts, toasted (I used almonds, didn't toast them)
1/4 cup sesame seeds
8 oz cream cheese
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh sage, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons milk

Grind seeds and nuts. Beat cream cheese, salt, pepper, sage, and oil together in a bowl. And nuts and seeds. Add milk. Serve chilled.

So I made this, put in two small plastic containers, one for the refrigerator for present use and one in the freezer. Good with crackers or bread.
(Now to get started making my own crackers)

Crackers - lets try a recipe I haven't made but is high on my "do it" list:



Scroll down to Pane Carasau on Flitzy Phoebie's blog:
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99 degrees F here in a couple of hours, winds on the gusty side when I went to the market.

100 F is not the weather I'd like to have....we're still in the low 70s here at the coast.

The other day I had a refreshing cucumber water at my hairdresser. Never had it before but I will do now - you should try that too, Eva!

My cholesterol levels are around 160/180, but I agree with Eva, it's mostly
hereditary and sometimes you only can use medication to lower levels.

Spendius is an old geezer, he probably has much more than just cholesterol to worry about

Actually, my gazpacho is a favorite of many of our family friends. It's very healthy, actually. I got the original recipe from a chef here in town and made a couple of minor changes. We make a big batch of it every couple of weeks in the summertime when we can get good local vine-ripened tomatoes. Would anyone like for me to post the recipe?

Oops, my mistake. Make that "in the 250-300 range."

With medication, I'm between 170 and 180.

Now that looks GOOD!!!

I absolutely hate dried sage...the powdery stuff. But fresh sage is SO wonderful! I am definitely going to try that!

CJ -- the cucumber water sounds very refreshing. While I'm at the store, I think I'll pick up an extra cucumber and try it. I assume that slicing it thinly and leaving it a cold pitcher of water for a few hours should do the trick...?

Yes, your recipe, por favor.

I agree with Eva's doctors too. Have read similar from many sources.

Yes, thinly sliced and left into a pitcher with ice cold water for a while...
I don't know how long it was standing there at the hairdresser, but the beautiful glass pitcher was almost full, so I assume it was fresh. Take one of
those long thinner cucumbers, Eva!

We also can blend a sweet juicy watermelon, add lime juice, sugar and
whatever amount of Vodka you can take....hehe. I'll take that tonight, it's been a crazy Friday, but for now I still have to run some errands...

Here you go. This one is a winner. No V8 juice in this one...it has very complex flavors.

GAZPACHO

3 large ripe tomatoes
1/2 medium white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 medium cucumber, seeded but not peeled
1 green bell pepper
3 c. tomato juice
1 c. chicken stock, chilled
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
2 T. olive oil
1 T. paprika
1 t. ground black pepper
1 t. cumin
Tabasco sauce -- a few dashes
Worcestershire sauce -- a few dashes
1/4 c. cream sherry
1/4 c. chopped cilantro (optional)

Chop vegetables finely in food processor, drain and transfer to large bowl. Add tomato juice and chicken stock. Let stand while you measure out remaining ingredients. Then add wine vinegar, oil, paprika, pepper, cumin, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces. Chill several hours. Add more chicken stock if too thick.

Add sherry and cilantro just before serving. Garnish with diced avocado, croutons, or chives. Serve very cold.

That reminds me of my surprise and delight when I kept (and simmered down) the water from cooking a large batch of kale, which you know I like cooked as well as raw, or maybe better than. Anyway, I put the partially simmered down kale water in the fridge was amazed how delicious it was.

Haven't tried cucumber water myself.

Those are english cucumbers, aren't they? I've never tried them..

Ok, that's going in my a2k recipes file.

I don't do any drugs for Chol.

The hereditary thing is only a warning sign. It doesn't cause high Chol. Eating does that.

You could blame heredity for six foot sixers banging their heads on cave roofs. It's actually not ducking or avoiding low roofed caves.

Ya dig. You eat statins to allow more bad eating habits.

They have a nice angle to their bend I've been told osso.