Flyer's diary

no doubt about it... i need some bigger pots!

on my porch deck with a 4 foot wall around it, they wouldn't get enough sun, so i bought some brackets a few weeks ago and when i get the motivation i will use some lumber to "thicken" the top of the wall so i can balance some larger pots up there. i also got a pretty late start this year in general... have to look into getting some plants started in Apr/ May. this year i didn't get around to planting anything until June and into July.

so much for my theory about peppers turning red from the bottom up... i noticed a few this morning (a Jalapeno and the Jolokias) that seem to be changing "top down"... go figure.

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ONE YEAR Intermittent Fasting (IF).... give or take a few days.

i cannot remember the exact date.... funny how that seems to always happen with changes that really work... but i am sure it was some time in August a year ago when i started an intermittent fasting diet. to summarize the process i have described before over a few posts, i was never a big morning eater often putting off anything substantial until noon or later. probably the worst thing i was doing was occasionally having a bagel or something relatively light first time in the morning, but without knowing at the time, just enough calories to kick me out of the start of a good overnight fasting time... at least ~12 hours, ...very close.

my biggest change was eliminating evening snacking. i eventually learned about IF and eliminated the morning "snack", but still had to deal with the time after dinner. quitting at ~8pm, i could get in 16 hours of fasting if i didn't eat until noon the following day. this actually turned out to be easier than i thought, and even with a minimal 16/8 IF, i could see/ feel a change almost within days.

to speed things up i kept shrinking my eating window and eventually got it down to 4 hours many days, but still being able to fall back to 16/8 or 18/6 still getting good results. during the next 4 months or so, i dropped from 215-218 down to 180-182. 10 lbs less than i was actually shooting for... and it really slowed down at this point, but kept on going. in another 2-3 months i was weighing in the low 170s.

since then i have pretty much stuck to IF diet for maintenance. every once in a while i have a 12/12 day... not really IF times, but i rarely do that two days in a row... in fact i rarely do that more than once or twice a month. usually happens on days out of my control. last Sunday there was a free buffet at a local place celebrating their 25th... how could i say no!?! ... :)
 
picked a few Cayennes the other day... had to try one....

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not nearly the heat of the Jolokias... but certainly a little kick even from the little bit i tried. mixed the rest of the pieces into some pizza sauce i'll use later and dropped the other two into some garlic infused Olive Oil i had just started.
 
some 411 on hot peppers...


as a point of reference, the Bhut Jolokia peppers i'm growing have a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) score of 1 million. Cayenne peppers average about 40,000 SHU.
 
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funny how the perception of size works... before i went out for a walk today, i noticed my phone was only at 60% so having some time i decided to make up some hamburger patties out of 3lbs of ground beef i bought yesterday. well, i usually quarter a lb to make 4 patties, but today i decided to half the quarters to make slider (White Castle?) size burgers with 1/2 the lot.

but after making a dozen "1/8th pounders", i started to make a 1//4 pounder but stopped because it looked SO BIG. when the dust cleared (hmmm... that's a pretty horrible cooking metaphor... :)), i wound up with 24 mini patties... wrapped up as six-packs in the freezer, i think these will work out great.
 
hmmmm.... after some thinking, i decided to rearrange things...

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btw... the 1/8th lb burgers are working out great... bought some mini-kaiser rolls and it's like White Castle with flavor!
 
overlandflyer said:
is there any reason not to let them ripen (turn completely red) on the vine?
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My wife likes to oven broil them and then peal the burned skin off before using. For that purpose you want them fleshy and greener; as they turn red they dry out. She tells me the batch in the picture were probably redder than ideal. She uses all the anaheims, When I do peppers I usually like hotter ones and either put them directly into a dish, or dry and grind to use for sprinkling. For my purposes I usually prefer red.
 
i like to think of my patio as a pepper produce stop. pick 'em, use 'em. couldn't be more fresh. i have never let the Anaheim peppers turn red, but by default i'm giving it a try this year. the only green ones that i don't think will turn are the Pablanos and some Jalapenos. i'm making soup today.... thinking about throwing ONE ghost pepper into the pot.

good day of multitasking in the kitchen. knew i was going to roast marrow bones, so i used to oven first to roast some chicken legs...

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(oilve oil, salt, pepper, paprika)

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mmmmm... now i have lunch (for a few days) while getting the soup started...

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taking advantage of an oven already at 450°, in go a dozen bits of bone for an hour.
 
an hour later, i wish i could copy & paste the aroma....

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into the pot... with a little salt.
when the pan cools down, the rest of whatever was left in there will be added.
the longest and easiest part... just keep it from boiling over for the next 12 hours.

thinking about the days when you used to get a free oven mitt with a full tank of gas... could really use a new one.
 
You’re inspiring me to experiment more with my own cooking, flyer. Chicken legs look good. I can imagine the smell of the bones.
 
i pull the skin off the chicken legs but the paprika gives them a nice look and i like the taste.

the soup is filling the place with a great aroma. i'll get up in the morning and prep the carrots, tomatoes and onions. picking up some packages of frozen corn, peas and green beans to add to the pot eventually is the easy way i chose to go this time. i've got burgers on hand and chicken in the fridge now, so this will strictly be a vegetable soup this time.... well, aside from the beef broth.

at 165 today i'm at a maintenance low... going to try to actively avoid carbs this week and have a very active weekend ahead. to be social, i may have to ditch IF for a day or two. couldn't be a better time than now to experiment.

good luck to anyone on the east coast ... damn, that looks like a monster storm.
i have a nephew close to Virginia Beach who will likely see a bit of it.
 
overlandflyer said:
at 165 today i'm at a maintenance low... going to try to actively avoid carbs this week and have a very active weekend ahead. to be social, i may have to ditch IF for a day or two. couldn't be a better time than now to experiment.
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165 sounds pretty good, what is your goal? It seems you are close.
overlandflyer said:
good luck to anyone on the east coast ... damn, that looks like a monster storm.
i have a nephew close to Virginia Beach who will likely see a bit of it.
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Yep, having weathered too many of those in Florida and Louisiana I can't help but follow them even from Utah. I've been on the phone with my brother in Florida off and on trying to guess where its going, looks like he will be ok. If it stays on the forecast track Virginia Beach should be ok, but a small shift to the west would make a big difference. I have a 95 year-old aunt in south Louisiana who says she now has trouble remembering events by years, but she can tell you which hurricane happened when, and which one was associated with which of her life or other historical events. One thing I like about being in Utah is the lack of hurricanes.
 
it's always fun to talk with my 80 year old aunt and i often remind her of the hurricane that literally wiped out my college town in Pennsylvania in the early 70's... her name is Agnes... lol.

when i'm at 165-173 my BMI is 23/24 so i'm considering myself in maintenance mode now. i can see a few lbs here and there i could do without, but in general some friends are telling me i'm too skinny as it is. i believe they are just used to what most people see as normal these days. most of my weight control now is based on how active my days are. this coming weekend i will be running my live steam locomotive .... a fun hobby, and one that keeps me moving the whole day without usually thinking about what's in the fridge.

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i love this picture.... a little over a year ago, i'm still at 215 here, but getting a big hunk of metal between me and the camera always paid off... :)
 
one of these days i'll figure out why my iPhone keeps burying some pictures... a bit of yesterday's cooking spree. don't think i've ever had all four burners going... bought enough carrots that i had some yesterday just steamed. onions for the soup in the skillet and the big soup pot and overflow pot simmering on the back burners. ... wish it was February so i could take advantage of all the heat...!

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