This report is surprising. I would assume that white tea would do an even better job. Remember, BTW, that a squeeze of lemon makes green or white tea more effective by preserving the good stuff as the tea is digested.

A cup of green tea may be just what the doctor ordered if you have learning and memory problems related to obstructive sleep apnea, the most common type of sleep-related breathing disorder.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) starves the body of oxygen during sleep. Persons with the condition experience pauses in breathing while sleeping. This condition can cause a drop in oxygen levels, which can affect organs of the body. OSA increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes, and affects cognitive function such as learning and memory.

The powerful antioxidants found in green tea may help thwart such cognitive problems, according to a study published in this month’s second issue of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Green tea contains compounds called polyphenols, which animal studies suggest can protect against neurodegenerative changes related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Green tea polyphenols (GTP) work by counteracting oxidative stress in the brain. Oxidative stress is cell damage brought on by harmful molecules called free radicals. Antioxidants protect against this damage. Oxidative stress is believed to play a role in many diseases.

Signs of oxidative stress and changes in the brain have been documented among some patients with OSA, the study cites.

“OSA has been increasingly recognized as a serious and frequent health condition,” study author David Gozal, MD, professor and director of Kosair Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the University of Louisville, says in a news release. “A growing body of evidence suggests that the adverse neurobehavioral consequences imposed by [intermittent hypoxia] stem, at least in part, from oxidative stress.”

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And I’m simply delighted to read that charring the peppers over a gas flame is NOT the way to go. Read this tutorial.

Mark Bittman offers a recipe for fast and simple pot-stickers:

Fast Pot-Stickers

Yield 4 main-course or 8 appetizer servings
Time 1 hour or less

Round wrappers are somewhat easier to handle than squares, though both work. As for filling, you can use any you like. For a vegetarian pot-sticker, cabbage can dominate, complemented by chopped shiitakes, minced tofu, minced celery and carrots, chives or a combination. Shrimp dumplings are also quite fabulous.

• 3/4 pound ground pork or other meat
• 1 cup minced cabbage
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 6 scallions, the white and green parts separated, both minced
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons good soy sauce
• 48 dumpling wrappers
• 1 egg, lightly beaten in a bowl
• 4 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil, more or less
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar or white vinegar

1. Combine meat, cabbage, ginger, garlic, scallion whites and 2 tablespoons soy sauce in a bowl with 1/4 cup water. Lay a wrapper on a clean, dry surface, and using your finger or a brush, spread a bit of egg along half of its circumference. Place a rounded teaspoon of filling in center, fold over and seal by pinching edges together. (Do not overfill.) Place dumplings on a plate; if you want to wait a few hours before cooking, cover plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Or freeze, for up to two weeks.

2. To cook, put about 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet and turn heat to medium-high. A minute later, add dumplings, one at a time; they can touch one another, but should still sit flat in one layer. Cook about 2 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned. Add 1/4 cup water per dozen dumplings to pan, and cover. Lower heat to medium, and let simmer about 3 minutes.

3. To make the dipping sauce, combine remaining soy sauce, green parts of scallions and vinegar.

4. Uncover dumplings, return heat to medium-high and cook another minute or two, until bottoms are dark brown and crisp and water evaporates. (Use more oil if necessary.) Serve hot, with sauce.

Vegetarian Pot-Stickers: Make a filling of 2 cups minced cabbage, 1 cup minced shiitake caps, 1/2 cup minced scallions or chives, and ginger, garlic and soy as above (omit water).

Shrimp Pot-Stickers: Make a filling of 2 cups peeled and minced shrimp (about 1 pound unpeeled), 1/2 cup minced snow peas, 1/2 cup minced shallots, and ginger, garlic and soy as above. Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or 1 tablespoon minced bacon).

Very good article by Mike Lillis (he’s been doing a lot of them, eh?) in the Washington Independent. Interesting that, from my point of view, the White House is on the right side of this issue. The article begins:

Millionaire farmers will continue getting taxpayer subsidies, sugar producers will inherit more government protections and foreign food aid will take a whack under a five-year, $300 billion farm bill approved by the Senate Thursday.

The vote was a sweeping 81 to 15, far beyond the two-thirds majority needed to override the Bush administration’s promised veto. The House approved the same bill Wednesday by a 318 to 106 count, also safely veto-proof. The margins indicate that the bipartisan proposal is almost certain to become law.

Enactment of the enormous bill would mark a rare departure from the legislative stalemate that has otherwise marked the year. Faced with the choice between moving legislation to the right to satisfy the White House or pushing it to next year, Democratic leaders have increasingly picked the latter. That the farm bill is an exception, lends testimony to the influence of the agriculture industry over congressional lawmakers — and to the fear among party leaders of losing middle-of-the-country seats in November.

Not insignificant, agribusiness has donated roughly $31 million to Washington lawmakers in the 2008 election cycle alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making it one of the most powerful lobbies in the nation.

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Mark Bittman talks about food and the issues around it. Worth watching.

from bitten.blogs.nytimes posted with vodpod

I’m cooking a pound of black beans right now. (I don’t know why people soak beans: you can cook them perfectly well by just simmering the beans with no soaking.) My plan: drain them, rinse with cold water, drain again. Then I’ll put them in plastic bags, one cup per bag, and freeze them. Then I can use as needed in place of canned beans.

And tonight I’ll cook some Lima beans and then put them in the oven overnight (with the brown sugar, molasses, etc.) for baked beans.

I don’t think I could ever master food carving, but the results are astonishing.

Just made the second batch of pimento cheese. This time it was cheese, pimentos, mayo, ground black pepper, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, 1 clove garlic, and 4 pieces crisp bacon. I had planned to use just 2 pieces of the bacon (the other 2 were for the salad tonight), but 2 pieces was not enough bacon flavor.

Next time I’ll try adding just a little horseradish to the above.

Via Lifehacker, SmarterFitter offers a downloadable grocery list (your choice of Excel or PDF) that focuses on good food choices.

Man, this recipe both sounds and looks good. I may make it this weekend.

So, after blogging about it, I couldn’t wait to try it. I bought a couple of packages (8 oz each, more or less) of Canadian 2-year-old sharp cheddar and two 4-oz jars of pimentos. First batch:

Grated one of cheeses using the food process (6 mm grating disk), then put in the blade and added:

One jar of the pimento, drained
About 2 Tbsp mayo
Lots of ground pepper
Dash of Worcestershire sauce

I processed that, tasted—very cheese tasting, so added a bit more mayo.

It was pretty good, and certainly easy to make. Next batch will include: a clove of garlic, a couple of pieces of crisp bacon, and a dash of Tabasco in addition to the ingredients above. I may even try the homemade mayo instead of store-bought.

Great recipes at Cookthink for variations on pimento cheese. Take a look. Post begins:

You could make pimento cheese every day for the rest of your life and never follow the same recipe. Once you’ve figured in the three basics—cheddar cheese, jarred pimientos and mayonnaise—pimento cheese is whatever you want it to be.

Add black pepper, cayenne pepper or white pepper. Hot sauce, Worcestershire or beer. Onion, garlic or jalapeño. Oregano, nutmeg or cumin. Sugar, parmesan or cream cheese.

Even the three staples allow for variation. You can use cheddars of varying sharpness, which you can grate, shred or blend. Some people insist on Duke’s, while others prefer Hellman’s or their own homemade mayo. Do you leave the pimientos in strips or do you chop them? If you chop them, how finely? Do you use the back of a fork to work the cheese and seasonings together and then add the mayonnaise for consistency? Or do you use a food processor to blend the core ingredients and then stir in the seasonings? Speaking of consistency, should it be more like a paste, a spread or a dip?

More at the link, including various “bests”.

Very nice looking salads, and Trader Joe’s has Persian cucumbers right now. I’m going to stop and pick up a few.

UPDATE: Oops. Fixed the link.

First recipe is from Mark Bitten, and his hint:

Fat asparagus spears have their charms, but pencil-thin spears have two distinct advantages in a time-sensitive kitchen. They can be cooked without peeling, because their outer sheaths are so tender, and they cook so much faster, which is an asset for roasting.

Second recipe is from Simply Cooking, and her hint:

Have you ever had roasted asparagus turn out tough and stringy? Here’s a tip from my friend Alanna: use the fat spears, not the skinny ones, for roasting. This is a quick and easy recipe for beautifully roasted, tender asparagus.

Gezellig-girl just had a post on the new Dunkin’ Donuts giant coffee serving: the Big One is 24 ounces of coffee: a pint and a half. Kate, in the comments, has this interesting quote:

James Freeman, the owner of my company, was quoted in some magazine somewhere saying the following…:

“Serving size is about the American fear of death. Instead of a great, short experience, people want to prolong a mediocre experience.”

I was at Trader Joe’s buying some breakfast cereal, and as I passed the shelf of trail mix varieties it occurred to me that trail mix would be a very nice additive for the breakfast cereal, so I got some. I add bananas, and now a little trail mix.

This recipe sounds extremely tasty and I’m going to try it. Note the comment about squeezing some of the water out of the tofu. I usually put the tofu on paper towels if I’m pressing it, otherwise the water runs over the counter. Here’s just the marinade part:

In a blender jar add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon chili oil, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 a shallot, 3 cloves garlic, 2″ x 2″ knob of fresh ginger (cut into pieces). Let this rip on medium speed until the ginger, shallot, and garlic are emulsified. Pour 1/3 of it into a dish. Slice a firm-style block of tofu into 12 pieces and arrange the tofu on top of it, pour the remaining marinade over the tops of the tofu.

I’m a big fan of Rancho Gordo beans, and that delicious looking dish of Giant White Lima Beans was cooked by The Wednesday Chef, who (it turns out) is another fan. Their Christmas Lima beans are also extremely good, and the Black Valentines have replaced Black Turtle beans in my own cooking. Of this dish, she says:

The beans are creamy, yet still pleasingly firm. The ones at the top have a chewy little crust that is browned in spots. The peppers and onions are stewy and sweet, and the vinegar gives the dish just the right amount of acidity. You could swap out the bay leaf for oregano, scattered throughout, or sage could also be a nice choice. We ate our beans with fresh slices of country bread and murmured delightedly through bites that we should eat nothing but beans and vegetables (steamed asparagus with a mustard vinaigrette) forever and evermore.

Go check it out. Sounds easy to make.

Well, perhaps not the very worst, but take a look at this story by Mike Lillis in the Washington Independent:

Congress has found a novel way to address the food crisis facing the developing world: Slash the budget for a bipartisan program providing school lunches to poor kids abroad to encourage them to remain in school.

According to The Washington Post this morning:

Under a deal worked out in the last few days, required spending on the Dole-McGovern International Food for Education program was set at $60 million. That is $780 million less than proposed by the House, and $40 million less than was allocated in the expiring farm bill.

That’s Dole, as in former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), and McGovern, as in former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.). Neither is pleased with the development, and said so in a biting op-ed this morning, also in the Post:

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Very interesting profile of a chef and his work and his fight against cancer.