Your brisket was tough due to the cooking method. It is very important to realize that by cooking a beef brisket to 195 degrees F DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN A TENDER BRISKET. "How" you arrived at that final temperature is the whole secret. You must VERY slowly approach that final temperature by cooking it at about 225 degrees (never never any higher than 250 absolute max). This is what's called LOW AND SLOW smoking. "Magical" chemistry related things will happen to the fat and collagen when you cook it this way. Those very "flavorful" and "tenderizing" chemical reactions will not occur to any great extent by cooking it any other way. If you try to hurry the process along.....the magic will not happen. And believe me you don't want to miss the magic. IMO, brining a fresh brisket that is to be smoked is absolutely ridiculous. Brining will in no way shape or form produce a better tasting brisket than one that is cooked "Low and Slow". Low and slow means cooking at a low temperature around 225 degrees F for a long time. A good test to see if a brisket is done is to press your finger into the fattiest part of the meat. If it is soft and your finger doesn't have a problem penetrating, it's ready! In the future, take your brisket and season it literally JUST BEFORE you smoke it. Use Toni Chachere's Mo Spice seasoning mix if you can find it. It has less salt in it. DO NOT brine nor season your brisket the night before. There are very specific reasons for doing it this way. Smoke it with some chips (apple-wood is best) only for the first hour or so of the process. Keep the temperature in the cooking area around 225 until it is done. I cook mine to about 180 degrees then use the very reliable and accurate finger poking test. This very simple procedure will produce the most tender, the most juicy, and the most flavorful "beefy" tasting piece of meat that you have ever eaten. The external and internal fat whithin the brisket is "magically" broken down into a "sweet" tasting chemical sugar that only occurs at certain low temperatures. The fat that does not melt away will become "to die for" good tasting.....but, very unhealthy to eat too much of it. The converted fat residue that remains inside of the brisket muscle fibers will impart that wonderful beefy taste to the meat. And the collagen will have broken down to make the meat very tender. You simply CANNOT rush this process and try to hurry it up to arrive faster at the 190 desired end point. The brisket will be done when it passes the poke test. Again, the magic will not occur if you rush this process. FYI, an 8 pound brisket will take about 10 hours to get to that tender/juicy point. This is "extremely" easy to do in a temperature controlled "electric" smoker. However, it most certainly can be done on a BBQ pit. The real brisket experts over in Texas do it all the time. Sorry to hear that your brisket did not come out well. The cooks at Cook's Illustrated don't know much about cast iron pans either. Dan Semper Fi-cus

Foods don't really burn fat but I can tell you that a balanced diet, moderation and exercise do. I have just completed 6 weeks of Weight Watchers and so far 14 pounds - lots more to go. Here is a Sugar Free - KFC Coleslaw recipe: 1 head of cabbage, shredded 2 carrots, grated/shredded 2 onions, sliced fine 1 cup of 2% milk 1/8 cup vinegar (or more if you want it strong but not sweet) 1/2 cup of Splenda or granulated Sugar substitute 1 tbsp of lemon juice Pepper to taste This needs to AGE overnight in the fridge or at least a few hours. Stir occasionally. My hubby ate tons of it and LOVES it - HE HATES SWEETENER - so he says.... Eat more fruit, veggies, low fat yogurts. Check out your local gym or outdoor activity group and treat yourself - yoga, walking, swimming - and GOOD LUCK!

There was a big fuss in Philadelphia over a trans fat ban because butter is included, bakeries were demanding an exemption. Can you imagine a Jewish apple cake made with margarine? (ugh). I don't recall the outcome. A ban on butter (a natural product), and insisting that restaurants and bakeries substitute with margarine(a chemical compound) is a sin in my book.

Thank you, Jess and Khalid for your comforting words. I went to the PA (physician assistant) on Jan 20. He checked my ears and found the right ear badly blocked, same with the left ear. When the cold virus attacks the body, it inflames the Eustachian tube. Some info. from Mayo clinic: "With plugged ears, your eustachian tubes — which run between the middle of your ears and the back of your nose — become obstructed. You may experience a feeling of fullness or pressure in your ears. You may also have ear pain, dizziness and muffled hearing. As swelling from the cold subsides, the obstruction usually resolves." My experience is very much like what the below doc. went through: http://www.healthxchange.com.sg/healthyliving/SpecialFocus/Pages/a-common-cold-can-cause-vertigo.aspx " Dr Young, 33, started an otherwise ordinary day with a mild sore throat and a runny nose – like he was coming down with a cold. However, by the third evening, he started to feel light-headed and awoke the following morning with severe vertigo. He felt as if the room was spinning around him. “For the first two days after the vertigo set in, I couldn’t eat, drink, turn my head or even move my eyes from side to side without vomiting or feeling the room spin around me,” he said. It turns out that Dr Young had labyrinthitis, a condition where the labyrinth (the inner ear) is inflamed and not functioning normally. Dr Young, an infectious disease specialist from Britain who works at a local hospital, self-medicated with vestibular suppressants and anti-emetics. These are prescription drugs to suppress dizziness and nausea. “But they had little effect." he said. “The acute vertigo usually lasts from a few days to two weeks. As it resolves, the patient experiences slight imbalance or unsteadiness while walking. This rehabilitation phase may last for one or two months. The hearing function may or may not fully recover. The recovery period is fastest during the first month but the patient may still recover up to six months after the onset of the disease,” said Dr Tan. Labyrinthitis is often spontaneous and idiopathic but can occur after a cold, flu or upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). “These infections don’t usually affect the inner ear. More often, in URTIs, the middle ear is affected when bacteria and nasal secretions pass through the eustachian tubes to the middle ear causing fluid accumulation. A bad middle ear infection can lead to the spread of infection to the brain, or in rare cases, labyrinthitis as well,” said Dr Tan. **** From Straw, the P.A. who examined my ears recommended an MRI of the brain (magnetic resonance imaging scan) to show the inflammation. The cost? $1,000. I said, "NO way, I'm going to rinse my ears with hydrogen peroxide". I went home, fill a glass-dropper with hydrogen peroxide, rinsed my left ear. That cleared out completely. The right ear which bled, I had to rinse it 3 times with hydroxide peroxide ... and my vertigo went away !! I was able to stretch my head backward in all directions. Hydrogen peroxide kills all three: bacteria, fungi, and virus.