Anyone who has taken to keto eating may get a hankering for a carb-filled stack of pancakes and some maple syrup.
There are all kinds of recipes for keto pancakes and keto maple syrup you make at home with weird ingredients such as xantham gum.
Let me tell you right now, get over your craving and stick to your veggies, berries, and proteins. Keto pancakes, compared to whole wheat pancakes or spelt pancakes, are ghastly and should be shot on sight. And the homemade maple syrup is a profound insult to maple and syrup. Go not there.
Eventually the desire for carbs will reduce drastically because you begin to feel better without them. Stick to the real thing, no matter what it is, and if you really want pancakes, try some incredible cottage cheese pancakes--light, fluffy, and minimal flour. But don't insult them with some demonic substitute for maple syrup.
domingo, 23 de febrero de 2020
martes, 30 de julio de 2019
I see that I have been far, far away from my recipes, comments, and rants. For some reason I thought this site had folded!
A few surprises in the past few years: Lubbock produces lots and lots of wine! Who would have thought that civilization had taken root there!
Two grandchildren are now in college.
My brother has an absolutely magnificent house inside a barn!
I have begun writing for the newspaper again.
Do not rely on automatic translators. Some of the results are high comedy. Unless you want a good laugh, of course.
One of my followers seems to have died.
And now I have to go to work, so I will be back when I have something to say.
A few surprises in the past few years: Lubbock produces lots and lots of wine! Who would have thought that civilization had taken root there!
Two grandchildren are now in college.
My brother has an absolutely magnificent house inside a barn!
I have begun writing for the newspaper again.
Do not rely on automatic translators. Some of the results are high comedy. Unless you want a good laugh, of course.
One of my followers seems to have died.
And now I have to go to work, so I will be back when I have something to say.
miércoles, 15 de febrero de 2017
Cannoli from the Soprano Family Cookbook
This recipe makes 16. You can buy cannoli tubes at kitchen supply stores. You should have at least 8 in order to make this recipe comfortably.
For the ricotta cream:
2 pounds whole- or part-skim milk ricotta
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped candied orange peel (you can make this yourself with equal parts water and sugar and the outer peel of the orange. Boil until the peel is translucent.)
For the shells:
2 cups all purpose flour and more as needed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
About 1/2 cup dry white wine
1 egg white beaten
vegetable oil for deep frying
Candied cherries or orange peel and confectioners' sugar for decoration, if desired.
I used mascarpone instead of ricotta because it is richer and you don't have to drain the ricotta to get rid of the liguid; if you use ricotta, drain it with cheesecloth over a strainer, pressing out all the water you can; can be left in the fridge overnight with a plate over it as weight to press out water. (You see now why I used mascarpone!)
For the shells, in a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the oil and wine and mix to make a soft dough. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is well blended and smooth, about two minutes. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Cut dough into four pieces. Beginning at middle setting, run each piece through the pasta machine, dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Keep running it through until you reach the last or next-to-last setting. You should be able to see your hand through the dough. If you are doing this by hand, keep rolling until you get the dough very thin. The pieces should be about 4 inches wide. Measure your cannoli tubes and cut pieces from the dough that are one inch shorter than the tubes. (I just made sure each piece would fit around my cannoli tubes and were shorter than the tubes themselves.)
Oil the cannoli tubes. Place dough around each tube and dab a little egg white on the point where the pieces overlap on the tube, being careful not to get any on the tube itself.
Heat oil to around 375°F. Fry tubes, a few at a time, turning them to brown them all over. Remove with tongs to paper towels to drain. While they are still hot, remove the tubes by grasping each tube with a hot pan holder and pushing the cannoli off each tube with your hand or with tongs. Be careful. They break easily. You should have little trouble if your cannoli tubes are new and well-oiled.
Cool the shells on paper towels.
The filling:
Mix all the ingredients except the decoration. Whip until smooth. Place in a pastry bag or a plastic bag with one corner cut out, and pipe the filling into each tube, filling one side half full and turning the tube to fill the second half. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired (it's overkill!) and enjoy.
For the ricotta cream:
2 pounds whole- or part-skim milk ricotta
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped candied orange peel (you can make this yourself with equal parts water and sugar and the outer peel of the orange. Boil until the peel is translucent.)
For the shells:
2 cups all purpose flour and more as needed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
About 1/2 cup dry white wine
1 egg white beaten
vegetable oil for deep frying
Candied cherries or orange peel and confectioners' sugar for decoration, if desired.
I used mascarpone instead of ricotta because it is richer and you don't have to drain the ricotta to get rid of the liguid; if you use ricotta, drain it with cheesecloth over a strainer, pressing out all the water you can; can be left in the fridge overnight with a plate over it as weight to press out water. (You see now why I used mascarpone!)
For the shells, in a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the oil and wine and mix to make a soft dough. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is well blended and smooth, about two minutes. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Cut dough into four pieces. Beginning at middle setting, run each piece through the pasta machine, dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Keep running it through until you reach the last or next-to-last setting. You should be able to see your hand through the dough. If you are doing this by hand, keep rolling until you get the dough very thin. The pieces should be about 4 inches wide. Measure your cannoli tubes and cut pieces from the dough that are one inch shorter than the tubes. (I just made sure each piece would fit around my cannoli tubes and were shorter than the tubes themselves.)
Oil the cannoli tubes. Place dough around each tube and dab a little egg white on the point where the pieces overlap on the tube, being careful not to get any on the tube itself.
Heat oil to around 375°F. Fry tubes, a few at a time, turning them to brown them all over. Remove with tongs to paper towels to drain. While they are still hot, remove the tubes by grasping each tube with a hot pan holder and pushing the cannoli off each tube with your hand or with tongs. Be careful. They break easily. You should have little trouble if your cannoli tubes are new and well-oiled.
Cool the shells on paper towels.
The filling:
Mix all the ingredients except the decoration. Whip until smooth. Place in a pastry bag or a plastic bag with one corner cut out, and pipe the filling into each tube, filling one side half full and turning the tube to fill the second half. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar, if desired (it's overkill!) and enjoy.
lunes, 7 de noviembre de 2016
Estos, sí
Capeado sabroso
3/4 taza de harina
2 cucharadas fécula de maíz
1/4 cucharadita bicarbonato
1/4 cucharadita polvo para hornear
1/4 cucharadita sal (esto lo encontré insuficiente, yo usé como 3/4 cucharadita de sal)
3/4 taza agua
Agregar al gusto: paprika, chili powder, ralladura de limón, polvo de ajo.
Mezclar justo antes de freír el pescado. Servir con salsa tártaro o gajos de limón.
Capeado II
Esta receta es muy diferente, pero deliciosa:
Picar finamente ajo y romero; rallar cáscara de limón. Mezclar con maíz para polento. Salpimentar pescado, o agregar la sal y la pimienta a la mezcla para capear. Presiona el pescado en la mezcla de polenta, freír para dorar el capeado en una aceite neutro.
3/4 taza de harina
2 cucharadas fécula de maíz
1/4 cucharadita bicarbonato
1/4 cucharadita polvo para hornear
1/4 cucharadita sal (esto lo encontré insuficiente, yo usé como 3/4 cucharadita de sal)
3/4 taza agua
Agregar al gusto: paprika, chili powder, ralladura de limón, polvo de ajo.
Mezclar justo antes de freír el pescado. Servir con salsa tártaro o gajos de limón.
Capeado II
Esta receta es muy diferente, pero deliciosa:
Picar finamente ajo y romero; rallar cáscara de limón. Mezclar con maíz para polento. Salpimentar pescado, o agregar la sal y la pimienta a la mezcla para capear. Presiona el pescado en la mezcla de polenta, freír para dorar el capeado en una aceite neutro.
sábado, 27 de agosto de 2016
Cornbread, Northern style
1 taza harina
3/4 taza harina de maíz (corn grits o maíz para polenta)
1/3 taza azúcar
3 cucharaditas polvo para hornear
1/2 cucharadita sal
1 taza leche
1/4 taza aceite vegetal (no aceite de olivo)
1 huevo
(Mónica, tendrás que ajustar la receta para hornear a la altura de la Cd de México, instrucciones en Internet)
Mezclar todo para incorporar bien los ingredientes. Colocar en un molde para panqué, previamente engrasado e enharinado. Hornear a 425°F durante 20 minutos o hasta que un palillo insertado en el centro salga limpio.
Se pueden agregar granos de elote amarillo. El pan es delicioso con "chile con carne" y platillos picosos o fuertes.
viernes, 10 de julio de 2015
EXCESO DE SENTIDO
En
una conversación reciente con algunos colegas, salió a relucir un comentario de
Albert Camus sobre el suicidio. Como
bien reconoció Freud, cada vez que se hallaba pisando terrenos psíquicos
misteriosos para explorarlos, encontraba las pisadas de los poetas que lo
habían precedido, y el tema del suicidio no es una excepción.
La sabiduría popular reza que el suicidio
sucede cuando una persona no encuentra un sentido a su vida. Camus sabía, sin embargo, que un individuo se
suicida cuando su vida tiene un exceso de sentido.
Cualquier psicólogo clínico puede confirmar
lo preocupante de estar acompañando en psicoterapia a un paciente que desee
quitarse la vida. Las formas de morir no
se limitan a aquellos actos fácilmente reconocidos como letales, sino que
incluyen la anorexia, la bulimia, toda la gama de conductas riesgosas desde los
actos sexuales sin protección con gente desconocida hasta manejar sin
precaución.
Los pequeños suicidios metafóricos en la
gente joven no son raros: mutilarse, cortarse, perforarse, quemarse, someter el
cuerpo al dolor de mil formas, a veces con el paradójico fin de saberse vivo,
ya que se siente muerto, o de poseer mediante el dolor un cuerpo que no se sabe
propio.
¿Qué quiso decir Camus al hablar de un exceso
de sentido? Nos tiene que preocupar,
porque existe una particular relevancia cuando vemos con tristeza el número de
jóvenes que piensan en la muerte.
El informe de la Organización Mundial de la
Salud sobre violencia nos dice que el suicidio, como acto cumplido, tiende a
presentarse con mayor frecuencia entre los individuos que envejecen, pero en
términos absolutos, hay más suicidios entre las personas menores de 45 años de
edad. Este perfil difiere notablemente
de aquel de hace 50 años: el número absoluto de suicidios tendía a aumentar
junto con la edad.
Actualmente, la incidencia de suicidio es mayor entre los individuos
menores de 45 años en una tercera parte de todas las naciones,
independientemente de su nivel de desarrollo o riqueza. Este es un cambio impactante, y de seguir
así, pronto no sólo en términos absolutos, sino también en proporciones, serán
los individuos relativamente jóvenes los que se quitan la vida.
¿Qué llevaría a una persona a querer morir en la plenitud de su
vida? ¿Por qué quisiera morir un
adolescente o un adulto joven, con toda la vida por delante?
Tal vez sea más fácil observar la verdad plasmada en la opinión de Camus
cuando se trata de un joven con deseos de morir, aunque es válida la
observación a cualquier edad. ¿Cuáles
desilusiones, qué vaciedad puede haber en una vida que apenas arranca? ¿Qué podría interferir tan mortalmente en la
realización de lo que Freud consideraba la salud del alma: amar y trabajar?
Si tuviera que resumir brutalmente la respuesta en una frase única,
sería: el letal peso del deseo ajeno.
No es la falta de valores, aquella trilladísima frase que ha quedado sin
sentido ya, pero sí puede ser una forma muy particular de desilusión: la
desilusión consigo mismo del que no puede cumplir las expectativas imposibles
de un otro, expectativas silenciosas que se transmiten de mil maneras. Es el hijo que no puede realizar la consigna
de rescatar el matrimonio de sus padres, de ser el sustituto emocional de su
padre o madre, la joven cuyo único campo de autonomía es el alimento que se
rehusa a ingerir. Son los jóvenes que sólo encuentran un camino a la libertad
de tantísimo exceso de sentido mediante la muerte.
Casi todos los que trabajamos en la psicología clínica hemos encontrado
a jóvenes cuyo significado y sentido yacen en la consigna de, precisamente,
morir, una orden emitida por la locura ajena de padre, madre, o abuelos. La importancia de su vida se halla en la
necesidad de sacrificarse para salvar a algún otro, de realizar una peculiar
forma de homicidio en representación de ese otro, y practicado sobre ellos
mismos.
Para estas personas, su dilema no se compone de las imposibilidades de
ser perfectas, de ocupar lugares de otros, de cargar con las necesidades
emocionales de seres queridos, sino de servir a los vivos a través de una
muerte.
El terrible peso de semejantes deseos ajenos reside en su invisibilidad
al ojo común, y su insidiosa actuación dentro del individuo se percibe como un
vacío, un hastío, una ausencia de los placeres ordinarios de la vida
cotidiana. Por eso lo que reporta el
involucrado es un árido llano gris sin horizonte, un paisaje ni siquiera de
pesadilla, sino de desolación callada.
La sabiduría de esta observación de Camus señala el camino a la
salvación, pero parece ser un camino poco reconocido: la vida cobra importancia
cuando al individuo se le resta la misma.
Para el que desee morir, no hay que luchar por enseñarle cuán importante
es, cuántos valores bellos contiene la vida, cómo lo quieren otros. El que desee morir sufre ya de una
importancia excesiva que no quiso, valores que no son suyos, amores que
matan. El aire que deseara dejar de
respirar está vacío: su oxígeno ya lo consumieron otros.
El que desee morir requiere la enorme libertad de ser insignificante,
ordinario, común y corriente. Necesita andar por el mundo descubriendo sus
propios deseos. Tiene que deshacerse de las cadenas de la omnipotencia
imposible y la perfección inalcanzable.
No le hacen falta las lecciones moralistas, llenas de acusación
disfrazada de cariño, para agregar a su culpabilidad y su rabia.
Su alma requiere ese silencio lleno de vida que reconoce nuestra
impotencia ante la muerte. No es el
silencio de la desesperanza, sino de la escucha. Existe un destello de salvación en el mensaje
de un ser querido, dispuesto a amar sin acusar, que se confiesa indefenso ante
el deseo de morir del otro.
En el horizonte vacío de su existir, que se reconozca la validez de un
solo deseo suyo, aunque sea la muerte, puede ser el inicio de la vida, una vida
felizmente sin exceso de sentido.
karen_batres@yahoo.com
lunes, 4 de mayo de 2015
A slight difference...
In science, a theory is a comprehensive explanation of observed phenomena which manages to cover all bases. Its value can be seen when the scientific theory is used to predict events--the arrival of a comet, the shape of a hummingbird bill as derived from the shape of the flower it feeds upon, the existence of subatomic particles which explain the behavior of atoms--and are subsequently discovered.
A hypothesis is not a theory. A scientific theory does not mean that someone has an opinion about something; it is a set of FACTS. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of observed phenomena that cannot attain the status of theory until the scientific method has provided enough evidence to support the explanation. Only then does it become a theory, a term indicating its validity in the face of testing.
This means, of course, that the theory of evolution is not someone's opinion. It is a set of facts. The difference between science and other types of thinking is that science never claims to have discovered the ultimate truth, since as science itself advances in its ability to observe phenomena, new events may come to be known. It is precisely science's astonishing ability to observe more and more of the cosmos that is so exciting and ground-breaking.
Nothing so far, however, has been able to undermine the facts on evolution. Quite the contrary, it has been enlarged by many thinkers who add a swirl here, a squiggle there, to enrich it hugely.
So when someone tells you that evolution is "only" a theory, that person really means that it is just someone's opinion. The person does not understand what a scientific theory is and cannot distinguish it from a hypothesis. Most of these people, however, are uninterested in the difference, since their agenda is usually religious, where they want you to accept a given truth and stop thinking.
It would be well to note that Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, was a religious man, as were many others before and after him. The difference, however, is that their God was impressive enough to work with atoms, subatomic particles, calculus, gravity, the Big Bang, eons of time, DNA, the primeval ooze, and the evolution of life. Newton didn't go around scared silly of finding out that orbits are elliptical and Darwin wasn't appalled into silence at the idea that all life crawled out of some mudflat (a fact that DNA has amply proven). Their God was not one of these prissy little man-made, small-brained creations that don't want you to think.
Their God was magnificent, flinging the universe down as a challenge, defying humankind to discover its fathomless secrets bit by bit, century by century, one atom at a time. Now that was a God not made in man's image.
A hypothesis is not a theory. A scientific theory does not mean that someone has an opinion about something; it is a set of FACTS. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation of observed phenomena that cannot attain the status of theory until the scientific method has provided enough evidence to support the explanation. Only then does it become a theory, a term indicating its validity in the face of testing.
This means, of course, that the theory of evolution is not someone's opinion. It is a set of facts. The difference between science and other types of thinking is that science never claims to have discovered the ultimate truth, since as science itself advances in its ability to observe phenomena, new events may come to be known. It is precisely science's astonishing ability to observe more and more of the cosmos that is so exciting and ground-breaking.
Nothing so far, however, has been able to undermine the facts on evolution. Quite the contrary, it has been enlarged by many thinkers who add a swirl here, a squiggle there, to enrich it hugely.
So when someone tells you that evolution is "only" a theory, that person really means that it is just someone's opinion. The person does not understand what a scientific theory is and cannot distinguish it from a hypothesis. Most of these people, however, are uninterested in the difference, since their agenda is usually religious, where they want you to accept a given truth and stop thinking.
It would be well to note that Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, was a religious man, as were many others before and after him. The difference, however, is that their God was impressive enough to work with atoms, subatomic particles, calculus, gravity, the Big Bang, eons of time, DNA, the primeval ooze, and the evolution of life. Newton didn't go around scared silly of finding out that orbits are elliptical and Darwin wasn't appalled into silence at the idea that all life crawled out of some mudflat (a fact that DNA has amply proven). Their God was not one of these prissy little man-made, small-brained creations that don't want you to think.
Their God was magnificent, flinging the universe down as a challenge, defying humankind to discover its fathomless secrets bit by bit, century by century, one atom at a time. Now that was a God not made in man's image.
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