I’ve been playing around with Brownie recipes.  After some experimentation these are the best:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter unsalted – melted
6 table spoons of cocoa
2/3 to one cup of brown sugar(demerara)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 whole eggs
1 cup walnuts
2 squares of baking chocolate unsweetened – melted
1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and I use an 8×8 glass baking dish – you can lightly butter first.
I preheat the oven to 300 and bake for about 35 minutes on a rack that is in the middle of the bottom half of the oven.  Set for about 30 minutes then keep an eye.  Yummy!

Do lemmings commit suicide?

I’ve known that this was not true for decades and still hear references to the fact, in texts, tv, wherever that lemmings commit mass suicide.  It is not true. It is easier to find the truth about stuff with the availability of the internet but there is also a lot of false information out there.  

Anyway, the source of this totally false information about how lemmings commit mass suicide by plunging into the sea was perpetrated by none other than Disney – well, a filmmaker for a Disney piece called White Wilderness, filmed in 1958.  It was entirely faked.  So, this has become part of our cultural reference.  Even psychiatrists use this datum in evaluating their clients/patients – OK – you are right – psychiatrists will believe pretty much anything you tell them – not the brightest bunch. 

Actually there are a lot of websites now that dispel this myth but the reason that I’m adding my few cents worth is that I’ve still heard the reference on the media – even recently – so, thought I’d add my bit. 

Just across the river from downtown, a short walk if the weather isn’t too bad is Kensington. Lots of different kinds of restaurants, shops – several of which are coffee shops. Being from somewhere else I can’t help comparing – to Queen Street West in Toronto – particularly The Roasterie.

Absolutely marvelous coffee. A corner of the very small cafe is taken up to roast and sell the many different kinds of coffee from around the world to take home – you can watch the coffee being roasted. The place is rich with the aromas of roasting coffee. Pick your roast and take it home or brave the baristas on the other side and order one to stay and find a seat if you can. The baristas are both cheerful and sometimes antagonistic – in a friendly way.

Not your usual Starbucks crowd but believe me the coffee is worth it.

They can be found at:
The Roasterie‎
314 10 Street Northwest,
Calgary, AB T2N 1V7

Phone:(403) 270-3304‎

Recently I have been spending more time at my desk working – less moving around.  Although, I was getting some exercise, cycling, swimming, stretching(yoga – sort of), I was still very gradually gaining some pounds.  I’m generally pretty comfortable around 180 – 185.  One eight-five is my limit, but I was several pounds over that and I didn’t want to get back up to the 212 that I was about 8 years ago. 

There are a million diets, some claiming I eat too much fat, or eat too much meat, or eat too much cheese or eat too much bread – well, you get the idea.  I think I was just eating too much.  There was a datum that I used many times before to trim down: Don’t eat until I’m full.  Recently I tended to eat until full.

By ‘eat until full’ I mean that I would sit with a plate of food before me and continue eating until I was full. What happens then is that in five or ten minutes the rest of the food hits the stomach and I’m ‘stuffed’.  I’ve over-eaten.  That was fine when I was young and active, either swimming several miles a day or doing construction.  But not now.  So, I make smaller meals and stop before I’ve finished the plate or bowl and wait to see if it is enough.  That and cutting out – or at least down – the desserts, has in a few days turned the gaining into losing weight.  I want a way to keep my weight down that I can live with my whole life and not have to eat special foods.  I eat pretty well and generally take care of myself but do like my food. 

I’m not sure where I originally came up with this idea of ‘not eating until full’ – it may very likely have been Adelle Davis but I’m not certain.

How not to over eat:
1. Eat more slowly (this one does NOT work for me).
2. Put less on your plate.  (Put your food on your plate and then take some off before you go to the table.)
3. Cook less.  If you are used to having 3 potatoes for dinner, cook only 3.
4. Don’t eat in restaurants.  Believe me, unless you are willing to leave food on the plate at a restaurant, they stay home and eat – the food will be healthier anyway.
5. If you have to have dessert, have it on certain days and halve the amount that you usually take.  Or try and have something with less sugar.  Though, just straight less is better than less sugar or less anything else specific.