Category Archives: Diet

Bird of the Week — Snowy Egret

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A Snowy Egret I spotted during our beach vacation near Santa Barbara, California. Photos were taken with my iPhone during a beach walk.

Scientific name: Egretta thula
Genus: Ardea

I learned that herons and egrets both belong to the genus Ardea and that there is no scientific difference between the two. Egrets are white and herons are blue or other colors. That’s it.

The Snowy Egret has white plumage with a black beak and legs. They have a yellow streak on their faces behind their beaks. Their feet are bright yellow and called golden slippers. The brightly colored feet are helpful in herding small aquatic creatures while the Snowy Egret forages in shallow waters.

When they are breeding, the adults grow wispy long plumes which were in demand for ladies’ hats in the 1880s. The plumes were valued at twice the price of gold. Many Snowy Egrets lost their lives because of their valuable feathers.

SIZE and SHAPE:

Snowy Egrets are long, thin herons with a long neck, long legs and beak.

  • Length: 22.1-26.0 in (56-66 cm)
  • Weight: 13.1 oz (370 g)
  • Wingspan: 39.4 in (100 cm)

RANGE:

FOOD:

They eat aquatic animals including fish, crustaceans, frogs, worms and insects. They forage in mud flats, along the shore, marshes and tidal flats and eat while standing up.

NESTING:

The male will start building a nest before finding a mate. He’ll select a location at the top of a tree, shrub or vines. When the male finds a mate, the two will finish building the nest together. It’s a shallow oval of grasses, twigs, rushes and moss from 14 to 18 inches across and eight to 13 inches high.

The male and female share the job of incubating their eggs. A Snowy Egret clutch usually has three to five eggs. They also share feeding their chicks. Snowy Egrets do not mate for life, but are monogamous for each breeding season.

CALLS:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snowy_Egret/sounds

The Bakery

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A week ago, we visited our son and daughter-in-law in the East Bay. This was the line at the bakery before it opened. My son introduced me to this bakery a few years ago. Now when we stay at the Claremont, I make it to the bakery which is across the street, before it opens and they sell out of the most delicious croissants.

A couple times, they sold out of my favorite ham and Manchego cheese croissants just as I was next in line! Also, they serve sandwiches a few days a week and I’ve never been lucky enough to buy one because they sell out, too.

Yum! Fortunately there are plenty of other tasty items to choose from when my favorites are sold out. I went every morning and was thankful for the steep walk down the hill from the hotel. It made me feel less guilty making the steep walk up the hill to the hotel with a bag full of treats.

One of the highlights of our trip was the food! The first night we went to a Mediterranean restaurant with our son. Night two, I treated my son and DIL to a famous French restaurant. And besides the hotel that has amazing food, we went to Nob Hill in San Francisco for Italian. All were delicious. But now I’m so spoiled nothing sounds good to eat at home.

But the biggest highlight of all was spending time with my son and daughter-in-law including a trip to Sonoma and this park in Fairfax with redwoods.

You can read more about my trip HERE and HERE.

What are your plans for this week?

Bird of the Week — House Sparrow

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A male House Sparrow on our cactus statue.


Latin Name: Passer domesticus

House Sparrows are one of the most common birds we have. Their success in the wild is a result of their close relationship to humans. They are found in backyards, cities and throughout North America and most parts of the world. The House Sparrow was introduced in Brooklyn, New York in 1851. By 1900 they spread to the Rocky Mountains. They originated in Eurasia and North Africa.

Here’s a map of their range in North and South America:

This is a female House Sparrow on the birdseed block.


They are a small bird that has an average length of 16 cm and a mass of 24–39.5 g. Females and young sparrows are pale brown and grey, while males have brighter black, white, and brown markings.

They eat mostly seeds but will also eat insects as well as left over fast food from people or bread crumbs.

A House Sparrow visiting our birdbath.

They nest in manmade objects like eaves of houses, light boxes and planters. They also take over other birds nests in trees. A typical clutch size is three to four eggs and they may have several broods per year.

Three male sparrows splashing in the bird bath. House Sparrows are my most frequent visitors to the bird bath.

Calls: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Sparrow/sounds

Comfort Food

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With the cold weather the past two weeks, I have been indulging in comfort foods. Food that my mom taught me how to cook. Namely, oxtail soup last week and this week I made clam chowder.

After going through my recipes with a friend over the phone, I decided to check out how my great-grandmother’s recipes were different from mine.

This is the title page of the soup book. You can see my great-grandmother’s signature at the top of the page. This copy was a Christmas present to a relative or friend.

My great-grandmother, Ella Leighton Upton Owen, published a series of miniature cookbooks from 1898 to the early 1900s. I find it interesting that she went by her married name, “Mrs. Dewitt C. Owen” rather than her name — Ella Owen.

This soup book was the seventh in her series. I don’t know why she called them “Ripley Series of Cookbooks.” My great-grandfather, Dewitt Owen was a newspaper man in Dixon, Illinois. Eventually, they moved west to Washington state where he continued the trade. Great-grandmother Ella used her husband’s printing press to create her cookbooks. She had to set the type by hand! Can you imagine?

My mom told me that they hauled the printing press by covered wagon across our country. Don’t think the dates match up for that.

The cookbooks were sold throughout the country to women’s church auxiliary groups. At times, Ella supported the family with her ingenious little books.

I wrote more about her books HERE with excerpts from her “Sick Room Necessities” booklet. Two years ago, I wrote a post about comfort foods and shared snippets of the Soup book. You can read it HERE. When I wrote this post yesterday, I thought it was a brand new subject. You can imagine how I felt when I discovered I wrote the same title and subject matter two years ago! But no worries, I have more information in this post, than the one two years ago!

The recipe above is similar to my oxtail soup that I learned from my mom. But I quit dredging the oxtails in flour, because I like a clear broth. I also don’t use cayenne, wine or Worcestershire sauce. I skip the turnip cut in “fancy shapes” and I don’t “par-boil” the veggies. I do use lots of garlic and a bay leaf.

Another secret, is to refrigerate the soup overnight. The next day, I get rid of the fat that solidifies on top of the soup.

For clam chowder, I use canned clams. I cut bacon into small bits with my kitchen scissors (no fat salt pork — whatever that is) and fry it up. Then I add onions, celery and garlic to the bacon. I boil cubed potatoes in a separate pot. After the onions are clear, I stir in Wondra Flour and cook it in the bacon mixture. Add milk, let it thicken, then add clams and potatoes with the potato water. Delish and very comforting in our cold weather.

What are your favorite comfort foods?

A month of care

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A jade plant I bought myself the other day. I’m hoping the bunnies stay away from it.

I made a commitment that July was going to be a self-care month. It’s because I have a physical, blood work, EKG and minor surgery scheduled throughout the month.

Why not be the best I can be and pass all my tests with flying colors?

My husband and I embarked on a new schedule. We’re up before the sun rises to get out the door for a three-mile walk. Add to that, we’ve been consistently going to the YMCA for swims three days a week.

We’re taking a cacophony of supplements which I have no idea if they are helping or not. I’m cutting out excess sugar, starch, wine, diet coke — and my beloved white cheddar cheetos (once the bag is empty of course.)

The new early morning schedule makes me tired. I keep thinking I’ll get used to it, but between the wee early mornings and heat, I feel exhausted.

Then add to that, my vision is fuzzy. I have trouble reading books, looking at the computer, and spotting my golf ball. I had my annual eye exam and my optometrist sent me to an ophthalmologist to schedule a YAG procedure. It’s a simple and easy laser treatment that should restore my once perfect vision.

Right before COVID shutdowns, I had cataract surgery. I was born with extreme myopia and astigmatism. My Rx for glasses and contacts was a -16. In case you don’t know, that’s really, really bad.

Then things got worse. My growing cataracts had me seeing three stop signs stacked like a pyramid. And yes, I was driving!

Fast forward to cataract surgery and it was a miracle! I came out with 20/20 vision. I only needed a slight correction for astigmatism and reading. That was Winter of 2019 — but now things are fuzzy in my right eye. Today things were really extra fuzzy. I held my glasses up to the light and discovered the lenses were smudged. Oops.

According to the doctors I’ve seen, a membrane grows over the implanted lens and a quick laser treatment will get rid of it once and for all. I was surprised to learn that this happens to 40% of cataract patients!

Sunday, July 2, my second day of self care — I woke up with a pulled muscle in my butt! I’m stumbling around in pain and skipped my morning walk. July 1 we swam, so maybe I did something then? Who knows. So far, my month of health is off to a rocky start.

What special plans do you have for the month of July?

Who knew cottage cheese would trend?

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My favorite brand of cottage cheese.

I’m a big cottage cheese fan. It’s one of my staple foods. I like a high protein diet and cottage cheese is a good way to get there besides eating fish, chicken and beef. I add cottage cheese to salads. I have it on toast with a poached egg, or eat it plain.

There are some brands I can’t stand and they make me gag. I like the brand above and basic grocery store cottage cheese from Kroger’s and Safeway, too. Growing up in Washington, I liked Darigold.

I was surprised to see that cottage cheese, once considered an old person’s food, is making a comeback. I remember having lunch with my husband’s grandfather in the early 1990s, and grand-dad prepared us a hot dog without a bun, cottage cheese and black olives. I loved it!

In the Wall Street Journal in an article by Julia Munslow called ‘We Knew Cottage Cheese Could Be Sexy’ Gen Z Discovers Lumpy Staple, cottage cheese is now going viral on TikTok.

There are all sorts of recipes of frozen cottage cheese with peanut butter, honey and chocolate chip type mixtures, which is a healthier version of ice cream. People are adding cottage cheese to pasta sauces.

Millennials and Gen Z-ers have started tossing tubs of their grandmother’s favorite weight-management tool into their grocery carts. They blend it into creamy pasta sauces, pancakes, dips, cookies and two-ingredient bread. It’s a departure from when cottage cheese surged in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s and was often eaten more plainly, with fruit or on salads. A “diet plate” once consisted of a scoop of cottage cheese next to a hamburger patty.

Dairy executives credit the resurgence to the innovation of the recipes spreading on social media—the #cottagecheese has more than 323 million views on TikTok—and the young consumers who are discovering it for the first time. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cottage-cheese-recipes-gen-z-discovers-98941401?mod=hp_featst_pos5

I also like potato salad, but I find it healthier if I reach for a scoop of cottage cheese instead. One thing my mom loved, that I couldn’t swallow was buttermilk. She drank a glass of buttermilk every night. Somehow I doubt that will be a trend on TikTok.

What are your thoughts about cottage cheese?

Is it something you grew up with and liked? Or are you not a fan? What’s your favorite brand? Do you like it plain or in a recipe?

When you eat vs. what you eat

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lobster roll and chips
Lobster Roll at Freshies in Park City–the best food I’ve had in Utah.

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that said when you eat can affect your mood. And not just your mood but mood disorders. It was called When We Eat Can Affect Our Mental Health by Alina Dizik.

Here’s an excerpt:

The hunt for connections between our food and our mood is gaining steam in scientific research. New findings show that it isn’t just what we eat but also when we eat that affects how we feel.

Delving into the relationship between eating patterns and the body’s circadian system shows how eating on an unpredictable schedule such as during the body’s resting phase at night can hurt our mood or exacerbate symptoms of mood-related disorders, according to research from Elisa Brietzke, a professor of psychiatry at Queen’s University School of Medicine in Kingston, Ontario, and Elena Koning, a doctoral student at Queen’s University Centre for Neuroscience Studies. Their research builds on earlier studies showing that eating meals at different times each day contributes to weight gain and is linked to depression.

https://www.wsj.com/news/life-work

Their advice is to fast 12 hours at night. In other words don’t eat too close to bedtime. It can interfere with circadian rhythms that I wrote about last week HERE.

It’s also important to stick to the same schedule of eating — even on the weekends.

Here’s more:

MS. KONING: Eating rhythms that aren’t consistent from day to day, or that occur in the incorrect phase, desynchronize the circadian clock, which has a negative impact on mood. It can be hard to pinpoint an exact cause of altered mood, but we know that the brain is susceptible to changes from the body’s energy supply.

A meal eaten in the day has a very different effect on your brain and body than a meal eaten at night. Food is a wake-up cue to the brain and can worsen sleep quality if eaten too close to bed. Melatonin levels start to rise three hours before bed, and the metabolic process following food intake is negatively influenced when the melatonin levels rise. Essentially your body needs at least 12 hours of fasting at night, yet most people only get nine hours.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-we-eat-can-affect-our-mental-health-11660319113?mod=e2tw

Do you stick to a regular schedule for meals? How does your mood get affected if you’re off schedule? Or if you eat too close to bed time?