Diane, we are NOT getting older. Nope, we're not. 2013 sure flew, though. Lars, I'm sorry December was so difficult for you, I hope January is much better, and all of 2014. I'm sending you hugs, and some to Kevin too. Grainlady, here I have the world's best neighbor. He has a snowblower on his lawn tractor and always clears the driveway. In return I bake him bread. It's a great deal for me! Katie, beans and cornbrad sound really good, I need to get some more of those mayacoba beans, I like them a lot. Rob, you are definitely way late on the gloves. My problem is that I can't seem to do anything with gloves on, so whether it's pumping gas or shoveling hay, I end up pulling the gloves off anyway. Ellen, enjoy those grandkids. I have the Princess and Bud here for the night, so they baked cookies with Elery and we'll have Nutella Crepes for breakfast. Here I finally got garlic into the dehydrator, it was starting to sprout in the cellar. I had planned to keep some for seed garlic but since I put the house up for sale in October and my nephew was still living at the farm, I didn't know where the heck to plant it. So, all that heirloom garlic that Katie sent me is now dried garlic. (sigh) Maybe next year. Tomorrow we'll take the kids home and feed the stock and fill tanks. It was a high of 10F here today and about -3 when I went to the farm. It'll be in the single digits to below zero until the middle of next week and then warm up, but we have "dangerous wind chill" alerts going from Sunday until Tuesday. I hope the tank heater holds out... Angelaid, sometimes it's just like that. Take a deep breath, it'll be better. Stay warm, everyone. Annie

Well, Woody had some last night on his ice cream. Said it was too sweet for him so I asked my mum if she wanted it and she said SURE! So I'll give it to her. Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions, though. It's just too sweet for me, which is so not like me, but there's something about it I just don't like. Auntie Jodi- Gravey is fine and dandy but a little too lunchy! We laugh at her jiggly belly all the time, she's so fat. She could give Santa a run for his money in that department! But she's adorable and fun and sweet and she and Nosey Parker just love each other. They are running this scam together- If Daddy goes downstairs, they race him to his gun room and force him to play with them. If I go upstairs, they haul butt up there and make me shoot covered elastics down the long hall for them. We play Cat Quidditch. Gravey is the goalie, she likes to stop them, and Parker is a Seeker- she loves to chase them down. Sounds like a herd of wild buffalos to anyone on the 2nd floor, especially when there's a collision. :)

THANK YOU, LAVENDER, for alerting me to the danger of glycation. My best dinners were made in a slow-cooker (low heat with plenty of liquid), rather than fried !! Here's the link to my Pinterest slow-cooker recipes: THANK YOU, VAPORVAC, for setting a good example of hot whole-grained cereals for breakfast. I used to do the same, but neglected that, thanks to eating my kid's pickiness. https://www.pinterest.com/clonewar/slow-cooker/ My sister convinced me to buy a pressure-cooker, and it WAS HORRIBLE IN TASTE. The temp. was so high that it ALTERED FOODS and made everything stinky, be it cooked beans, meat, or soup. I used that a few times, and never again !! I boiled chick-peas in that pressure-cooker, and it stank so bad my kid complained loudly & I trashed the whole mushy pot. Compare that to aromatic chick-peas boiled with low-heat over the stove top, which retained its firmness & flavor. I use the microwave to quickly heat up food (with liquid) to zap out germs, rather than long cooking high temp. like pressure cooker which destroys food. Cooking food to death is not a good idea. The high-heat destroys proteins 1st, but microwaving vegetables with water for a short time to kill germs .. that still retains nutrients and beans & peas are still bright green. I checked on the nutrients retained with microwaving veggies vs. steaming veggies, and microwaving FOR A SHORT TIME IN WATER retained more nutrients, with less loss in water. My personal measure stick for AGE (advanced glycation end-products) is HOW MUCH JUICE I NEED TO DRINK to chase away the "stinkiness" or "rancidness" of high-temp. cooking or over-processed foods. More juice = more calories. http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2014/11-nov/foods-high-in-ages.html Which foods are high and which are low in AGEs. Protein-rich foods: Red meat and cheese tend to have the most. In descending order, chicken, fish, eggs, and legumes have less. Grains: Boiled grains, such as rice and oatmeal, and sandwich breads are low in AGEs. When grains are processed into crispy brown crackers or fatty cookies and sweetened with sugars, however, their AGE content can soar. Dairy: Milk and yogurt are low in AGEs, but when moisture is removed and fat is concentrated (as in cream, butter, and cheese), the AGE content rises dramatically. Fats: Vegetable fats tend to have fewer AGEs than animal fats. Animal fats are also more likely to be high in unhealthy saturated fats. To further reduce AGEs, cook foods at low temperatures and with lots of water-based moisture by steaming, stewing, poaching, and braising. Stay away from fried foods. deep-fried chicken has more than six times the amount of AGEs than steamed chicken. When you grill meats, marinating your food in an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar before cooking it will reduce AGEs by up to half. http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2014/11-nov/foods-high-in-ages.html

Very interesting discussion. I read that The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan quite a few years ago and was really quite amazed. I thought it made a lot of valid points, the key one that I took away is that the foods our grandparents and great parents ate; the beef, the chicken, and yes the veggies.... is NOT the same as we are getting now. In particular I had summarized the book to someone saying "corn is the devil". That is a bit flippant but still. As mentioned above, people didn't go to the gym, didn't need to, because their every day lives were so physical. The feed given to livestock and the method of raising them is so different from what was. I don't think HFCS is a good thing. For sure, everything is moderation is still a valid way.