really, is there a better way to spend a weekend?  i think not!

according to that report, the yolk contains all or most of the vitamins in eggs.

As you can see from the table, the yolk contains 100% of the carotenoids, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, E, D, and K (6 items). The white does not contain 100% of any nutrient.

in addition to all that, the yolk also contains the good, fatty acids which are healthy.

Egg yolks contain the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA, which is necessary for the brain and proper retinal function in the eye, and the long-chain omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid, which is required for the healthy skin, hair, libido, reproduction, growth and response to injury. These fatty acids are primarily needed by young children, pregnant and lactating women, and people with degenerative diseases involving oxidative stress, especially those of the nervous system such as Alzheimer’s.

whites don’t have that.  when you dump the yolks for the whites only, you lose all the good stuff.  i’m finding that keeping the whole egg in my diet has been the better choice for my health.  check out the rest of the report.  you’ll be surprised how little the whites have going for them.

we’ll all be doing this again with our fams in a week.  that gives me plenty of time to deal with what i loaded up on today.  thanks, again, to all who helped out!

line up the food

hanging around the ham

the honey baked hams smelled like smoked bacon

veggies and stuff

freddy works on round one…or two…maybe three?

there be pies here!

jim and lola

don ran a long time making sure the food was flowing

i like your peanut butters very much.  i especially like the crunchy.  it is an important ingredient to my sandwiches which also can include yet are not limited to bananas, honey, jelly, jelly beans, chocolate chips, and bacon.

but i find the jars i need of one major improvement:  a wider mouth.  i realize technological advancements in jar designs haven’t changed in the past many centuries, but when it comes to the butter of the peanut i think something needs to change.  visualize if you will me trying to scrape out the last one-fifth of the contents of the jar on the left (see picture) with my hand holding a knife.  you can imagine the peanutty butter coating the back of my hand as i reach down for the main feature?  can you feel it coat you hand?  it lends itself to needing to scrape it off my hand.  if i choose not to be coated, good peanut butter goes to waste.  do you know how much is thrown away each year?  can you fathom all those peanuts dying in vain?

now, the jar on the right has a better design, although it too is not really wide enough.  i am able to extract more of the p.butter out with a simple knife with less coating of my hand.  but i don’t believe this to be the final design to eliminate peanut butter hands.  more work needs to be done!  i mean, you guys have laboratories set up for just this kind of testing, right?  guys in lab coats and clipboards watching people stick their hands into jars of peanut butter playing a game of “operation” to try to avoid touching the sides?  this is the twenty-first century!  i truly believe you can do better.  i have faith in you.  and i do believe that we will never have flying cars until we can solve this problem.

so, what do you say, guys?  jif?  peter pan?  skippy?  who’s gonna step up to this challenge?  you could be the trend-setting company to redefine peanut butter jars for the industry.

very sincerely,
mock

i snapped a bunch of photos experimenting with very fast and very slow shutter speeds.  i posted a few of what i came up with, including a few of my niece, on flickr.   i also messed around with a polarizing filter to help cut down on the glare from the sun.  this was quite educational.  rotating the filter changed the light and color of the image.  although i’ve used this filter before, i’ve not played around with it to this extent.  (see “how to use a polarizing filter.”)

after we finished (aw) snapping our photos, our trek back took us close to benton’s bacon in madisonville.  did we stop by?  are you kidding?  i contained my excitement as we walked into the modest storefront.  once you step through their portal, the wonderful smell of smoked goodness fills your senses.  although visually there’s not much to see, the aroma tells a different story.  when i was asked i could be helped, i immediately told the fellow, “i need bacon!”

“how much?”

hmm, what a question?  i really hadn’t considered a limited amount.  but i knew i wanted a slab.  i asked rationally, “how much is it?”

he told me the price per pound.  i pondered for a moment and knew he needed an answer.  so i uttered, “twenty pounds.”  unphased, the benton’s butcher turned and walked toward the back.  in a moment, he returned carrying a slab and a half.  he loaded it on the scale and told me it was close to twenty pounds.  i told him that was fine.

benton’s bacon redefines how i rate the taste of bacon.  my senses have been re-calibrated to  a high level of quality.  everything else pales in comparison.  i don’t think i can eat regular bacon again.

with several of my pals going in together with my family, i now am going to receive different bacon from the grateful palate each month for the next twelve.  some of the different bacons include applewood smoked, peppered, cob smoked, hickory smoked, and maple and alder smoked.  (see the full list here:  http://www.gratefulpalate.com/?p=Category_12.)  i am very psyched!  mom presented a box to me with a stuffed pig along with the information about the club.

my sister made one of the best chocolate cakes ever.  and to step it up a notch, she sprinkled bacon on top of it.  the frosting is super creamy.  the cake as moist as if it came right out of the oven, even the next day.  and of course, there is the bacon.

another couple of friends also purchased a couple packages of benton’s bacon.  i’ve heard about this bacon.  it’s a local favorite/phenomenon making some news.  they hosted this year’s knoxville bacon fest.  i can’t wait to fry this up.

i got a few other items too–i’m set for movies for blockbuster summer season, got some dvds of a favorite series, and my fill of sushi during a dinner out.  it was a very good birthday.

thanks, family and friends!

this was pie number one out of the oven.  pie number two was working as was a loaf of pumpkin bread.  and yes, that’s timmy the code monkey in the background eye-ing the spicy goodness cooling on the rack.

mmm, bacon

full plate

i had mentioned this to a friend of mine who did a little research on the web about this fact and found that there is a big deal about cherries and melatonin.  a simple google search gave me a site with this quote (source choosecherries.com):

Cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, a potent antioxidant produced naturally by the body’s pineal gland that helps regulate biorhythm and natural sleep patterns.  Scientists have found melatonin-rich tart cherries (commonly enjoyed as dried, frozen, juice or concentrate) contain more of this powerful antioxidant than what is normally produced by the body.  Eating cherries can be a natural way to boost your body’s melatonin levels to hasten sleep and ease jet lag.

i’ll have to give this a try when i fly across time zones next time.  another article at msnbc.com says the same thing.  follow this link for the nutrition four-one-one:  www.nutritiondata.com/facts/.

as for regular sleep patterns, i am planning on trying this out for a while to see how my body adjusts.