everclear-alcohol

They say it’s never a good idea to drink alcohol on an empty stomach. That may be true if you’re not worried about gaining a little weight. By the same token, alcohol is full of ‘empty calories’. So, how can adding empty calories on an empty stomach possibly do us any harm? What it really means is that we run the risk of putting on extra weight by adding calories to our diet that our bodies don’t need.  Whether we drink or not, we still need to fuel our bodies with three square meals a day. Alcohol is not part of a daily, balanced diet, though I often try to prove that idea wrong. So, what do you do if you are a moderate drinker that likes to enjoy a couple of cocktails before a meal; a couple of glasses of wine with dinner … or both? I think it’s important to know what we’re putting in our drinks in addition to the alcohol. A 1 ounce serving of 100% alcohol would contain about 200 calories. I used the nutrition label on a bottle of Everclear Alcohol to deduce this simple bit of math. A 190 Proof, 1 ounce serving of Everclear alcohol contains about 190 calories. But, who wants to drink Everclear Alcohol? Read More...

Posted under Food & Dining

Veggies Straws: A Healthy Snack or Not?

Veggie Tale Veggie Straws

In my never ending search for healthy delicious snacks, I often find they taste more healthy than delicious. The ironic thing is that the less delicious they taste the more suspicious I become about how ‘healthy’ they really are. If you’re as old or older than me, you remember how much better McDonald’s French Fries tasted when they were deep fried in Beef Tallow. Unfortunately, our nation’s health experts came up with the mistaken notion that saturated fats caused heart disease and flavorful healthy eating have never been one in the same. These very same nutrition geniuses that told us saturated fats and cholesterol were going to kill us were the same ones who spurned the invention of the one thing that really is dangerous to eat: Trans-Fats. When McDonald’s started cooking their French fries in vegetable oils they not only tasted worse, but it turns out they weren’t so healthy after all. In fact, they were loaded with these deadly trans-fats. So, now we have McDonald’s French Fries cooked in Canola or some other oil that supposedly is void of any trans fats OR saturated fats. Well, I’m here to tell ya – it still tastes fishy to me, and I mean that literally. If you’ve ever tasted any type of oily, crisp snack and wondered what that fishy taste is, you can be sure it's the result of the canola and vegetable oils which are being used in place of saturated fats. I once watched a potato chip taste test where an entire audience rated one product, "dead-last" because it tasted like fish oil. The culprit was canola oil. The winner of the taste test was the product that was cooked in sunflower oil. There is a reason our grandparents, great grand parents and beyond, used meat fats for cooking oil. It tastes better, it cooks better and it really IS healthier for you. I no longer rely on what is considered to be ‘healthy’. I rely on my taste buds. What tastes natural and good to me, is what I consider healthy. I stay away from fake-oil fried chips and I wish so badly that the burger joints would start making their fries the old way again. As I discussed earlier in my article, “How To Lower Cholesterol Fears”, this whole notion about dietary fast, cholesterol and heart disease is a dangerous and unfortunate myth. Does anyone think the nation has lost weight since the low-fat diet became popular? Read More...

Posted under Food & Dining, Healthy Snacks

ICF-CS10iP iPhone Clock Radio Docking Station

Sony Dream Machine

I once dreamed I would get a Sony Dream Machine for Christmas. I am no longer dreaming, but waking up every morning to the tunes coming from my iPhone MP3 player docked inside my new ICF-CS10ip model, Sony Dream Machine. Since receiving the Sony Dream Machine from Santa, I’m a little bit surprised at the number of unfavorable user reviews and comments that I’ve read on this particular model. The ICF-CS10iP is Sony’s latest iPod Docking Station/Clock Radio/Music Player. Perhaps my reasons for wanting this unit fall short of some people’s dreams, but the ICF-CS10ip has actually exceeded my own expectations. As a relatively new iPhone owner, this is the first docking station/music player I’ve ever owned. My reason for dreaming for a Sony Dream Machine in the first place was simply to be able to play music in the bedroom and keep my iPhone conveniently charged at night. I got the idea from my Sony- Dream-Machine-owning brother who told me that this nifty little gadget filled a room with reasonable quality sound. Read More...

Posted under Technology

Daves Insanity Sauce

What is the hottest hot sauce? I would bet that most of us have met people in our lifetimes who claim that they can eat anything. They will proudly claim that they’ve never tried a pepper that was too hot. They think can eat the hottest chili in the world and any other number of spicy things that most normal men or women would not even dare to touch with their bare, naked lips. And if you tell them that you once ate something very hot, they will argue that it was nothing like the ridiculously, incredibly hot stuff they once had. That’s the way these boastful, hot-pepper people talk. If you know someone like this, maybe you should put them up to the task. I’m here to tell ya: Just a spoonful of Dave’s Insanity Sauce will have these manly, macho, hot-pepper-touting fools squealing like remorseful pigs before you can say, “pass the Cholula.” This stuff is not merely just another pepper sauce like Tabasco or Cholula hot sauce; it’s in a league all of its own. In fact, one dash of Insanity Sauce will have you reaching for the Cholula or Tabasco to wash it down. I used to eat lunch with a guy at a Vietnamese Pho restaurant, who would squirt gobs of hot Sriracha sauce onto a spoonful of jalapenos and gobble them down like they were vanilla wafer cookies. Unlike some of the other hot-pepper connoisseurs I’ve known, he didn’t do this to brag, show-off or impress anyone. He simply thought it tasted good and judging by his expression, he never had a bite that was too hot. I often wondered if his taste buds were dead. If I run into him again, this is the one guy that I would like to introduce to Dave’s Insanity Sauce. If this guy can eat a bite of Dave’s Insanity Sauce without flinching, it might give Dave a reason to go back to work on developing another product. What should he call it? Dave’s Ultra Ridiculously Insane Insanity Sauce? Based on the hot pepper scoville heat scale alone, I don’t think Dave has much room for improvement. Read More...

Posted under Food & Dining