Abetrujillo

I’d like to use this space to make the announcement that last night I scored 100 points with just Peyton Manning, Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas. In your face Aaron!  I’d also like to use this space to apologize to my wife.

Happy Labor Day :)

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

“How long did it take you to catch them?” The American asked.
“Only a little while.” The Mexican replied.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” The American then asked.
“I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.” The Mexican said.

“But,” The American then asked, “What do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”

“Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will all this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

The American said slowly, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos…”

—–
Photo by David Amsler

The post The Mexican Fisherman appeared first on Budgets Are Sexy.

I have never met a challah I did not like. There is simply something magical about the puffed, egg-enriched loaves that sit at the center of many Jewish holiday meals and that make an extravagant base for French toast. And yet as a kid, I would count down the days to Rosh Hashanah when my mom would bring home challah baked specially for the holiday.

There are some tasks in the kitchen I don't enjoy: grating cheese, shucking corn, and peeling and chopping garlic among them. The kids can take over some of those tasks, and they should, because — just like my mother told me, over and over — while they live in my house, they have to live by my rules. She also observed that when I had my own house, I could make my own rules. She was right. This totally came true! I make rules all the time! Even though they get broken. This can be frustrating, so I try to avoid additional frustration when I can. And I have figured out how to avoid chopping garlic.

The fact that some pirates wore eye patches most likely had nothing to do with a missing eye, and everything to do with being able to see—specifically, above decks and below them.

Floral honey complements the natural sweetness of carrots, for an innovative take on a pantry staple. [Photograph: Sang An]

While there are plenty of complex, show-stopping recipes in Domenica Marchetti's new cookbook, The Glorious Vegetables of Italy, the recipes in which she truly shines are often the simple pantry-based ones. Take these roasted carrots: Instead of slicing the carrots into coins or chunks, Marchetti cuts them into elegant thin fingers. (This technique also happily increases the ratio of crisp browned parts to soft interior parts.) She tosses the carrots in a potent mixture of olive oil, balsamic, and honey before throwing them in a hot oven until they've turned spotty brown and just barely tender. The floral honey complements the natural sweetness of the carrots, and balsamic adds zip to keep the sugar in check. If you use a honey and a balsamic with character, you won't regret it—the carrots are more like a provocative dessert you get to eat for dinner.

Why I picked this recipe: I can always use a new way to prepare carrots, a staple in my kitchen.

What worked: I used a strong local wildflower honey in this recipe and definitely didn't regret it—the floral dimensions of the honey transformed the carrots.

What didn't: I didn't like the way that the sauce pooled on the roasting pan when I tossed everything together on the pan: it caused the carrots to steam instead of roast for the first 20 minutes of cooking, and I needed to extend the cooking time a bit to get good browning on the carrots. Next time I'll coat the carrots in the sauce before placing them on pan.

Suggested tweaks: You could roast any root vegetable like this. Beets would be especially good.

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of The Glorious Vegetables of Italy to give away this week.

About the author: Kate Williams is a freelance writer and personal chef living in Berkeley, CA. She is a contributor to The Oxford American and Berkeleyside NOSH, and she blogs at cookingwolves.wordpress.com.

Photo: Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock

Can you be fat and healthy at the same time? Apparently so, according to a new study by University of Pennsylvania physicians and obesity researchers who say that there are people with "metabolically healthy obesity."

Many obese people are classified as such when their body mass index or BMI reaches a certain value. BMI, a formula based on a person's weight and height, was invented by Belgian mathematician Adolphe Quetelet in the early 19 century and has garnered wide acceptance as a simple way to measure "fatness." It's quick and easy to administer - requiring only a scale and a ruler - and allows for comparison for broad populations, taking in age and country-by-country variations. Indeed, BMI is a good statistical measure of the obesity of a whole population of people.

Doctors have noted, however, that some people with BMI in the obese range are actually quite healthy and that in many cases, fat people fare better than thin ones with the same ailments. In the "obesity paradox," researchers noted that diabetic patient of normal weight are twice as likely to die than those who are obese. Others have pointed out that thin dialysis patients are more likely to die than heavier ones.

In recent years, the medical field has began to accept that BMI is not a reliable measure of health in individuals, and that some people who are obese do not have nor are they in any danger of developing obesity-related diseases.

But how many people are actually "fat but fit" and "not fat but not fit"? The answer may surprise you. For 1 in 5 Americans, BMI may actually tell the wrong story:

- 8% of normal-weight adults in the United States are actually metabolically unhealthy
This translates to 19.2 million people whom doctors may not currently worry about but should.

- 10% of obese adults are actually metabolically healthy
This means that 24 million chubby Americans are not in any danger of dying because of obesity-related illnesses, but are probably badgered by their family, friends and employers to lose weight.

Making chicken stock is one of the top reasons why many people own and love their pressure cooker. Not only will a pressure cooker help you to make a big pot of stock in just about 1 hour, it will likely taste richer and more fully flavored than the slow-simmered version, too. Read on for our favorite way to make chicken stock in the pressure cooker.

I rarely use commercial pectin in my jams, relying instead on the natural pectin of the fruit (plus I like a looser set). But there are times when a little boost is helpful if I'm preserving low-pectin fruits, making a larger batch, or wanting to reduce cooking time. That's when I reach for my perpetual stash of lemon seeds.

What do Disney Princesses text their Princes? Miss Macey Mouse shows us a few snapshots of their texts. Whatever you do, don't piss off Belle.

Take a look at more over at her Tumblr blog: Link - via Pleated Jeans

Image: Dustin Cable/Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service/University of Virginia

Where are you in the map above? Demographic researcher Dustin Cable of University of Virginia plotted every person in the United States of America - all 308,745,538 of us as single dots in the map of the country - to create the Racial Dot Map.

Cable used the 2010 census data and color coded each dot according to racial breakdown. Caucasians are blue, blacks are green, Asians are red, Hispanics are orange and other races/Native Americans/Multi-racial as brown.

The location of the dots do not represent actual addresses - the smallest geographical unit in the data used by Cable is the census block, which is roughly a city block in large cities (but may cover greater dimensions in sparsely populated rural areas).

At first glance, there seems to be quite a bit of racial integration in the United States as shown by large swaths of purplish area. But in many cases, zooming in reveals racial segregation at the city or neighborhood level. Cable pointed out to the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area:

Is your neighborhood a model of racial integration or racial segregation? Take a look over at The Racial Dot Map | Full Screen Map

Just because something is named after a place doesn't mean it came from there.

Outback Steak House, the Australian-themed restaurant, was founded in Tampa, Florida.

Irish Spring Soap is manufactured by Colgate in the United States, and is not sold outside of North America.

Uno's Chicago Grill pizza restaurant chain is Boston-based.

Texas Pete Hot Sauce, a popular brand in the South, is made in North Carolina.

AriZona Iced Tea is headquartered in New York City.

London broil is a method of marinating and preparing flank steak. The dish originated in the American Midwest; it's virtually unknown in London.

Old Milwaukee beer is brewed in Detroit.

Lone Star Steakhouse is the name of a restaurant chain that was founded in North Carolina. In Texas, the Lone Star State, there are no Lone Star Steakhouses.

Hawaiian Punch is made with Hawaiian fruits, including papaya and pineapple, but it invented in Fullerton, California.

Vienna Beef is a popular brand of hot dogs and deli meats manufactured by a Chicago-based company.

Arizona Jeans clothing is produced by and sold at J.C. Penney stores, based in Plano, Texas.

Budweiser beer is named after the town of Busweis in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), but it originated in Missouri.

Vermont Castings manufactures wood-burning stoves and grills. The company's home offices are in Kentucky; all of its products are made in China.

New York Brand Texas Toast is produced in Ohio.

This list was reprinted with permission from the Bathroom Institute's book Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!