Do my ingredients match?

As I read food blogs, I've come across recipes that perplex me. They are like the questions Zen Buddhists use to meditate (I learned all about Zen Buddhism from Lisa on "The Simpsons") What is the sound of one hand clapping? If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Why did someone decide to put these ingredients together? What would that recipe taste like? It makes my brain spin in tight concentric circles.
I don't want the ingredients in most of these recipes even touching each other on a plate, let alone in the same recipe. But, someone made these recipes and liked them enough to write them down and share them with others. These recipes may be fantastic. Sometimes ingredients that sound mismatched aren't. The Ruben sandwich and a peanut butter and pickle sandwich (my Dad's recipe) have ingredients that sound like they don't belong together, but are perfectly suited. I am a regular reader of some of these blogs and know their authors to have many fabulous recipes.

Do my ingredients match?

Sweet corn ice cream at technicolor kitchen made with canned corn and sweetened condensed milk (and others).
Sweet Corn Ice Cream is also at Closet Cooking. I guess I came across this recipe twice.
Dave Lieberman's Vanilla Bean and Cannellini Bean Ice Cream. The full list of ingredients is cannellini beans, vanilla bean, sugar, and nutmeg.
Sage Ice Cream at :Pastry Studio.

Eggs on Sunday has Beet Bubbly. A drink made from beets, maple syrup, cayenne, and champagne (and more). Eggs on Sunday also had a Spiced Parsnip Pecan Cupcake. It's like carrot cake with parsnips instead of carrots. It's not that unusual, but it still keeps my brain swimming.

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake at Kitchen M.
Baked Bean and Tomato Cupcakes with Tomato Cream Cheese Frosting at Cupcake Project. Black Bean Fudge Brownies at Cookthink.
Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake at Novel Eats made with tofu and black eyed peas.

Drinking and Cancer in Women

*%#@%&*!!!! In case you hadn't heard, a new study shows that drinking in women , even moderate drinking, causes cancer. The highlights of the study are as follows. It was a big study (1.3 million women over 7 years), so the results are probably accurate. One drawback to the study is that it didn't distinguish between women who drank one drink a day for seven day, and women who drank seven drinks in a row once a week. Researchers estimate that 5% of all cancers diagnosed in women is due to low to moderate alcohol consumption. Drinking accounts for 11% of the breast cancer. Two drinks per day increases your risk for breast cancer by 32%. Three of more drinks per day increases your risk by 51%. Also, if you drink and smoke, your risk of oral,throat, and esophageal cancer is increased more then in wome who just smoke.
Michael S. Lauer, MD and Paul Sorlie, PhD who conducted an accompanying study state:

"Even if there are modest beneficial cardiovascular effects, we still don't have a clear picture of the overall risks and benefits of low-to-moderate alcohol consumption," he says. And because heart disease kills mostly elderly women, and because more middle-aged women die from cancer, the findings seem to suggest that the risks of drinking outweigh the benefits in this age group, he says.

"It might be reasonable to suspect that many women in the lay public who are asking physicians about any possible safe effects of alcohol are middle-aged: for this large group, the only reasonable recommendation we can make is that there is no clear evidence that alcohol has medical benefits," Lauer and Sorlie wrote.

Found in previous studies, women have less of the enzyme that breaks down alcohol. This means drink for drink, women suffer more liver damage and get drunk faster.

On the flip side, the 120,000 strong nurses study (the theory is that nurses report accurately in health studies) showed that women who drink one drink a day live longer. One drink a day (no, you can't save them up for the weekend) is thought to protect you from heart disease, which kills more women (although usually older women) then cancer. Alcohol probably raises HDL (good cholesterol) levels, and reduces inflammation and blood clots. The nurses study showed that moderate drinking cuts your risk of heart disease in half.
It also protects against strokes and osteoporosis.

See the article on Web Md, US News and SF Gate.

Jambalaya

It's Mardi Gras! Laissez les bon temps rouler. Back in the 80's, when Cajun food was all the rage, my mom clipped some of Chef Paul Prudhomme's recipes from a magazine. This recipe is adapted from that one. It was made originally from white rice. I always use brown rice. There are better jambalayas in the world, but this is mine.

CHICKEN JAMBALAYA

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 LB smoked ham, diced

3/4 LB boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

3 1/2 tsp Paul Prudohmme's Cajun poultry magic
OR
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp sage
pinch of cayenne pepper

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped green pepper

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 1/2 cup long-grained white or brown rice

2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup tomatoes (I use one drained can)

1/2 cup tomato sauce (one small can)

If using brown rice, preheat the oven to 350. Melt butter (I add some of the butter and continue to add the rest as needed) in a Dutch oven over high heat. Add ham and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Add chicken and 3 tsp seasoning mix; brown 5 minutes, stirring. Stir in onions, celery, pepper, and garlic; cook until vegetables are tender, about 7 minutes. Stir in rice, then chicken broth, tomatoes and sauce and remaining 1/2 tsp seasoning mix. Bring to boil.

For white rice: reduce the heat, cover and simmer about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

For brown rice: after bringing the mixture to a boil, place the covered dutch oven in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the rice is done.

Iron Chef

I was watching the Chairman on Iron Chef today. I was thinking to myself, I wonder how many takes it takes to film the scenes with the Chairman. If I were a chef on the show (which would require a horrible casting snafu followed by massive firings), I would not be able to keep a strait face. Turns out, neither can the chairman. Check out this video on youtube. (16 seconds)

Sodium Suprise

Healthy adults should get no more then 2300 mg of sodium per day (about 1 tsp). You probably know to avoid soy sauce (1160 mg per T), chicken bullion (1,100 mg per cube), frozen dinners (Stoffers Lasagna with meat sauce has 930 mg, some have more), and cured meats.

You might know that these foods are high in salt, but might not know how high.
Ramen Noodle Soup Chicken flavor 770 mg 1/2 package or 1540 mg for the whole package
1 cup Clamato Juice 880 mg
Pickles 1 Vlasic kosher pickle spear (1/4 pickle) 280 mg sodium
4 green olives 330 mg
Schlotzky's Large Original sandwich 4,590mg (about 2 days worth)

But I bet the sodium in these foods would surprise you:
Prego Heart Smart Traditional Italian Sauce has 430 mg per 1/2 c serving.
Aunt Jemima Original Pancake and Waffle Mix has 200mg per pancake.
Chocolate Jello Instant Pudding has 420mg per serving.
Progresso 50% less sodium Chicken Noodle Soup is 470 mg per serving, but more then 1000 mg if you eat the whole can.
1/2 c 1% Cottage Cheese 360 mg
1 c Heart Healthy V8 juice 448 mg
1 Pepperidge Farm Whole Grain White Bagel 440 mg
Tall Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino 220mg
McDonald's Premium Ceasar Salad with grilled chicken has 890 mg of sodium without dressing.
McDonald's Premium Ceasar Salad with grilled chicken has 890 mg of sodium without dressing. (in case you missed it)

Popcorn, Lesson, and a Tips

First, I've decided to list my popcorn recipes separately. The single post was getting too long. The Honey butter post is new. The rest are old and just reposted.
I learned a cooking lesson yesterday. If you take a pan out of a really hot oven, make sure you have a good pot holder. I thought I did, but it only looked heavy duty. When you're cooking over 400 degrees, it's a good idea to uses a oven mitt designed for a barbecue. I was making these pork chops with red onion jam stuffing with port and dried cherries and dates and smothered with bleu cheese. They sound amazing don't they. They look pretty amazing too. Too bad they were a ton of work and just pretty good. I won't be making them again.
Here's my tip. When you do inevitably burn yourself while cooking, ice the heck out of your injury. I prefer to use frozen juice cans to ice my cooking burn. The plastic on the outside protects you a bit from the ice being too cold. Also, you can refreeze the juice cans. I keep switching them out as they warm up. Keep icing your finger for hours until it doesn't hurt when you remove the ice. I wrapped a blue ice block in a t-shirt and took it to bed with me. The several hours of icing payed off. My finger is almost back to normal today. No blister at all and just a little tender.

Honey Butter Popcorn

This recipe is based on this post on slash food. The original recipe uses more butter and honey and the stove. I cut down the butter and use the microwave to make things easier and cut a few calories.

Honey Butter Popcorn
INGREDIENTS
1 Batch of Popcorn (I like white popcorn)
1 T butter
1-1 1/2 tsp honey (I eyeballed about 1/3 to 1/2 the volume of the butter)
salt

Heat butter and honey in the microwave until bubbling. This took less then 30 seconds in my slow microwave. Pour over the popcorn and salt.