"It's Genetic." Riiiight.

unless you can turn that place around...

healthy, or reasonably healthy, doesn't have to taste like cardboard. I know you by your posts, Mame, you are a good cook.

I assume the problem is you don't have power (what a surprise)... but before you make a stand and wander off, you could possibly make a pitch????

osso, I suspect we are cut from the same cloth as regards food.

No, the owners have owned this pub for 25 yrs and apparently the menu hasn't changed, except for specials, in all that time. I might go to work as a baker or something I really had forgotten how long fish is in the fryer... I mean, all their seafood is fresh and everything, but the cream sauces, the butter, the cheeses, the salt... yiii... I'm sure it's tasty, it's just way too rich for my blood.

The people are really nice, so I'll probably hang in there, and if anything, I might lose a few lbs!

I bought my husband (well, me, really!) a salad book for Christmas, just to keep our interest up - there was a beautiful lemon dressing, osso, that I fell in love with... if you're interested, I'll type it out somewhere for you.

Yes, please do, re the lemon dressing. That reminds me of my new fav olives, of the commercial sort, which I'll happily agree exists in an olive desert - the Mezzeta (I know I'm messing up re the brand's exact name, but I've boosted it rather a lot so I don't care) olives in chardonnay, herbs, lemon...

All very nice, but not as good as the picholines at Oakville grocery or at the place in Eureka, name failing me now.

The whole olive thing is about to explode. I've some saved websites re key trees for introduction in the right zones - alas not on my present computer.

Well, who knows re explosian.

Well, I love olives, but I'm certainly not a connoseur (sp) - I went to some Olive Barn place outside of San Francisco one time and couldn't believe the varieties... too many bins and too little time.

Lemon Dressing

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
1/3 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
zest of the lemon
liquid honey to taste (1 - 2 Tbsp)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp hot sauce
S&P

I omitted the garlic and hot sauce because I made a salad with spinach, green leaf lettuce, pine nuts, apples, strawberries, bacon bits, avocado and red onion and I thought it wouldn't be so nice... too much fruity stuff in my salad for the garlic, I thought, and I'm not a fan of hot sauce.

If you put them in, please let me know how it tastes... and notice the oil:lemon juice ratio - interesting. It really is light and refreshing, but of course, I'm a lemon addict.

I cook most of my rice in chicken broth and lemon juice, and oh, here's my husband's favourite soup (yes, it has lemon in it!):

Chicken broth
lemon juice (to taste)
sauteed sliced almonds
sauteed sliced mushrooms

simple.

I can't believe I can't remember how to spell conneseur - shite, that's wrong, too! Bloody French words! Connosieur. That looks better but is probably still wrong. Agh!

Almost no one on a2k has spelled it correctly recently and I won't try now.

Besides, I'm sure I messed up Mezzeta olives...

and I misspelled 'explosion'.

and hey, happy new year. Time for me to go read a book.

connoisseur

PS Dunno where the olive oil explosion is supposed to be coming from. I've been told to use it (monounsaturated fats) for years -- at least 10, I'm sure of that.

Interestingly enough, I watched two shows over the weekend regarding weight. One was about obesity and the other was about eating disorders.

On the one about obesity, they followed several people on their quest to lose weight. Not be thin necessarily but to lose weight. One lady did gasteric bypass (which to me should only be used in extreme cases), one guy did lifestyle change and the others were kids in a program specifically geared towards kids (the biggest focus of the program was childhood obesity and how bad its getting).

The adults both lost a lot of weight, one using surgery and the other changing his lifestyle completely. The children, once they got moving also lost weight.

Obviously, this documentary was only a tiny group of people but it showed me that not all fat people are fat because they are not trying....reason for my conclusion: kids of fit parents and with thin siblings were still fat despite a fairly nutritious diet. That means that something must be in our genetics that predisposes us to being overweight. True, many fat kids have fat parents but is that because of a poor lifestyle or because of a genetic trait passed down? It made me think. While I don't think that genetics MAKES us fat, I seriously think that genetics may predispose us to become fat and perhaps inhibits us to lose weight.

All joking aside, I think it's pretty obvious genetics play a huge role on how easy it is for some to be fat, or skinny.

You might be growing up. It only took you 15 pages to acknowledge that obesity might not be a joking matter to the obese.

Pretty much any joke topic is going to offend someone. It didn't take me 15 pages to realize anything.

Actually, Slappy, it started out as an interesting thread topic. The discussion of how environment and lifestyle changes through the generations have contributed to today's weight problems.

It went into the ditch for a page or two of porking fat chicks and skinny chicks and one-armed chick jokes.

When the thread got back on to discussing the initial topic it has become interesting again, with a lot of people sincerely participating and reconsidering assumptions from many angles. Believe it or not, you did some good by starting the thread, even if you did just intend it as a joke.

Thanks.

Right, those who are subjected to ridicule are going to be sensitive to that topic. Others making jokes all in the nature of fun, or even trying to be helpful in some cases, aren't intentionally setting out to hurt someone, but it hurts nonetheless.

If someone has had their worthiness as a person challenged based on being too fat, too skinny, too poor, too ugly, too black/asian/hispanic, too whatever, then the topic will remain offensive and hurtful to that person even if the situation no longer applies.

People who have lost significant weight are still sensitive to fat jokes, people raised in poverty are still sensitive to socio-economic digs regardless of their income, blacks are sensitive to racial jokes even from close friends, etc. Sources of ridicule have a tendency to stick with us from childhood and remain lifelong sources of emotional pain.

you are pretty smart for a white boy...

Or a cracka-ass-cracka'.

Btrflynet, you were wonderful to whisper in that little boy's ear about making fun of all sorts of people. You probably did him more good that lots of preaching about bigotry. Too bad his idiotic mother isn't smart enough to see how damaging her attitude is and how badly it will effect her son's perspecitive (unless he remembers what you said--and he just might).

I do understand how excessive sensitivity can become tiring and rightly so. It can so easily turn into a plea for sympathy instead of a natural reaction to rudeness. Overly sensitive people soon become ignored because of their constant indignation.

Anyway, I thought you were great and hope that you can continue with a sense of humor backed with a quick wit. Sometimes those moments that only last a few seconds are remembered for a lifetime.

Radio Netherlands Press Review, 18 January 2007

* Dutch motion

Finally, De Telegraaf tells us that Dutch GPs are going to start giving unhealthy overweight patients a prescription to do some exercise. If they come to their doctors with ailments which are caused by their unwillingness to get up from the sofa, the paper says, they will no longer receive medication. The move is all part of the campaign, '30 minutes of Motion', launched by the Dutch Sport and Movement Institute. It appears that half of us here in the Netherlands don't come up to the required standard of 30 minutes gentle exercise a day.