Last year I hosted Thanksgiving, so this year I’m not cooking: we’re going to my brother-in-law’s for the family get together. But I realized a few years ago that not cooking Thanksgiving has a huge, huge downside — I don’t have leftovers for several days of “hot lunch” (as my husband likes to call my preferred leftovers for lunch choice.)
So now, on the years I don’t host the actual Thanksgiving feast, I cook ‘Thanksgiving Friday” for local friends and family.
The beauty is: it’s not the ‘real deal’ so I can experiment a bit. The downside: I’ve found that as we get older,
The new cholesterol treatment guidelines were unveiled on November 12, 2013 and controversy flared almost immediately.
The issue?
A duo of doctors are concerned that the new calculator used in one part of the guidelines seriously over-estimates heart disease risk (the calculator delivers a person’s 10-year risk of heart disease: the new guidelines state those with a risk above 7.5% should take a statin). If they are right, the result would be millions of new people taking a statin — who maybe don’t need this drug.
A serious concern, indeed.
Am about to go into a bit of detail about why it might be over-calculating: if you know already/have been following in the news (or don’t care for the details) skip down to BOLD below!
Last week the FDA declared that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), a very common processed food ingredient, are now not safe. As explained in FDA: Trans Fats are not GRAS, if PHOs are indeed declared not GRAS (generally regarded as safe), FDA will have found a way to significantly reduce unhealthy trans fats from the American food supply. Which is huge.
Then this week, more enormous cholesterol news. On November 12, 2013, the American Heart Association and the America College of Cardiology released new guidelines for the treatment of high blood cholesterol.
On Thursday, November 7, the FDA proposed a new law which would effectively eliminate partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) or artificial trans fats.
Why does this matter?
Because PHOs are in a LOT of the processed food we Americans eat. According to the FDA, PHOs are “the major dietary source of trans fat in processed food.” In fact, PHOs are a key ingredient in many popular snack foods. The NYT article, FDA Ruling Would All But Eliminate Trans Fats, explains that artificial trans fats “still lurk in many popular products, like frostings, microwave popcorn, packaged pies, frozen pizzas,
First, there was the baked chicken with great flavor, that was sadly ruined because the chicken was dry and overdone. That sent me to the internet where I did a lot of research. That led to chicken number 2: a different recipe (but still baked) and the result was delicious chicken: not overdone or dry at all.
Woot.
This chicken foray all started began because my mom was planning to make pot roast for out-of-town guests.
Yes, pot roast.
She was throwing a casual dinner party for out of town guests,
