September 19, 2023 - Cottages, Rocketman, Blue's Clues, Bacon
Spiders from space enjoy their bacon blue.
Nuggets of Information: A Cottage Industry for Tuffets
"Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet, eating her curds and whey”
There’s a lot to break down here, and we didn’t even get to the spider part. Let’s start with our protagonist. The first theory is that Little Miss Muffet was Patience Muffet, the daughter of 16th century English physician & naturalist Thomas Muffet. Dr. Muffet believed that eating spiders could help fight illness. Hey - depending on how it is prepared, I’d forego my ginger ale, tomato soup and grilled cheese for a tasty, deep-fried tarantula.
Another theory is that Miss Muffet was a reference to Mary Queen of Scots, and the spider represented Presbyterian reformer John Knox, who targeted Mary’s Catholicism, and designated her an adulteress and murderess, which led to her being executed. Yet another kid-friendly contribution to the dark side of fairy tales.
Next up: the tuffet. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a tuffet is “a grassy hillock, a small knoll or mound.” This definition is supported by illustrations from the late 1800’s showing Lil’ MM sitting on a stump-like object. A second OED definition describes a tuffet as a “hassock or footstool.” I prefer the second definition, especially for those of us who like to elaborately recreate fairy tales in the privacy of our homes, with ourselves starring as the lead characters. Where does one source a good tuffet you ask? Tuffet Source™ is your one-stop-shop for everything tuffets. The Boo’s N.E.W.S. editorial headquarters is decorated in a combination of tuffets, papasan chairs and giant bean bags. Somehow, it works!
And what of her curds and whey? That’s cottage cheese! According to USdairy.com, cottage cheese is made by acidifying milk, which results in the curds separating from the whey. After the curds are formed, they’re rinsed, and some salt may be added. In addition to being a great source of calcium, cottage cheese is full of protein, and is lower in fat than other cheeses. “Full-fat” cottage cheese is 4% fat, compared to cheddar cheese which clocks in at 30% fat. It is similar to Greek yogurt, but cottage cheese has 25% more protein. This protein is casein protein, which provides essential amino acids - the building blocks of protein that your body needs. It also helps control blood sugar, promotes muscle growth and contains probiotics which help your gut health.
For those of you trying to avoid carbs, cottage cheese can stand in as a high-protein, low-carb substitute in ice cream, cookies, chips and more. I made cottage cheese ice cream this weekend following the link above. I mixed together cottage cheese, vanilla, low-carb caramel sauce, sugar free white chocolate chips, some liquid Stevia and some raspberries. It turned out very tasty, rich and creamy, with a similar flavor and consistency to cheesecake, which the video above also points out. The added protein gave me the strength and energy to finish the entire pint.
The moral of the story is: don’t kill spiders.
Enrichment: A Million Miles Away
Last week Lisa and I went to an advanced screening of A Million Miles Away, a film based on the book Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut by José Hernández.
Here is the description from Amazon Studios:
Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, A Million Miles Away follows him and his devoted family of proud migrant farm workers on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the unwavering support of his hard-working parents, relatives and teachers, José’s unrelenting drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal. Acclaimed writer and director Alejandra Márquez Abella has created a dazzling tribute to the loyalty and tenacity of the entire Hernández family, as well as anyone who dares to dream.
We really enjoyed this film. It was warm, positive, funny and very inspiring. The casting was perfect – each actor embraced their role, and nothing seemed forced. Michael Peña played Hernández - immediately pulling us in. We couldn’t help but root for him. You may know him from supporting roles in Ant-Man, Jack Ryan or Narcos: Mexico, but he takes the lead role here and just nails it. Rosa Salazar was equally wonderful in her portrayal of José’s wife, Adela. From their initial courtship, through the early days of their marriage, and during the most challenging periods of raising five kids while José trained for his mission, their relationship, and the overall importance of family, were the central elements of the movie. Watching their romance develop made me lean a little close to Lisa during the film. Veronica Falcón and Julio César Cedillo’s performances as Jose’s parents added richness and warmth.
This is one of those movies where you really don’t need to read up on it beforehand. Just watch it. It is family-friendly, and the cinematography is excellent. There is one scene where Hernández, as a boy, watches the Apollo 11 launch, and you see the flames from the rocket reflected in his eyes. That is my second favorite film convention, after “psychic/telekinetic uses abilities too much and gets a nosebleed.”
We give two thumbs-up to this great, family-friendly film and hope you will check it out. A Million Miles Away launched September 15th on Amazon Prime.
Workshop: Feeling Blue? Good...
If you are like me, you have a list of your favorite zones. Mine include Twilight, NFL Red, Eastern Daylight Time, Highway to the Danger, North Temperate and (cover your ears kids) Erogenous. To this list I will add Blue Zones. Simply stated, a Blue Zone is an area of the world where people live longer than average. Originally posited by Gianni Pes and Michael Poulain, the idea of Blue Zones originally focused on Sardinia’s Nuoro Province, which had the highest concentration of male centenarians. National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner collaborated with Poulain and other demographers to identify and add other longevity areas to the list: Okinawa Japan, Nicoya Costa Rica, Icaria Greece and Loma Linda California.
Buettner originally published his findings in National Geographic Magazine and followed up with his book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest. This has led to more books, a Netflix documentary series, and the Blue Zones Project, a partnership with global health and well-being company Healthways, and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. The goal of the Blue Zones Project is to apply the Blue Zones concept to specific communities to lower BMI and smoking rates while increasing healthy eating and exercise.
So what are the unique characteristics of Blue Zone areas? Buettner lists nine common features:
Physical Activity – many residents regularly engage in manual labor.
Purpose – why do you wake up in the morning? Having a sense of purpose acts as a source of life satisfaction.
Sleep – Get a good night’s sleep, take naps, but also make time to rest and recharge.
The 80% Rule – Don't overeat. Once your stomach is 80% full, stop eating.
Plant-based Diet – Most of your diet should be plant-based.
Moderate Alcohol Consumption – Very few beer funnels in Blue Zones.
Sense of Community – Social networks provide a variety of beneficial support systems.
Loved Ones First – Take care of your kids. Take care of your parents. Invest in family.
Social Encouragement – Leverage the social networks to promote healthy behaviors.
If you are a regular reader of Boo’s N.E.W.S., several of these features should look familiar. I’ve written here on the benefits of eating less, sleeping more and regular physical activity. This past April, we spend a week in Costa Rica, home of a Blue Zone, and can attest to the benefits we enjoyed. We embraced a slight variation of the features: we ate more (but fresh and healthy food), slept more, and balanced physical activity with time to rest and recharge.
There are some criticisms of the Blue Zone identification and methodology, mainly around lack of controlled studies of elderly people in Blue Zones, leading to the claims that this is more speculative than science based. But overall, the benefits from the list of lifestyle habits of Blue Zone inhabitants seem intuitive. Eat less and better. Exercise. Sleep & rest. Drink less. Spend time with family and friends.
I’ve done all of this over the last year and a half, and my physical, mental and emotional health is dramatically better than when I started. I didn’t follow the Blue Zone program, per se. I did what seemed to make sense, and later discovered the alignment with the Blue Zone features. Full disclosure: I have not adopted a plant-based diet, and still eat meat frequently, but even there my focus is shifting to higher-quality/less frequent meat eating as opposed to just sitting on my tuffet eating Oscar Mayer bologna. Baby steps!
If you want to learn more about Blue Zones, click the link for Buettner’s book above, or watch the Netflix series. If you have any habits you would add to the list, leave them in the comments!
Selected Content: You Had Me At Bacon
On this date in history, September 19, 1676, Rebels under Nathaniel Bacon set Jamestown, Virginia, on fire. This was the first-time colonists had burned down one of their own cities, and showed they were willing to fight for their rights and that they were not afraid to challenge British authority. Bacon’s Rebellion came to be for a number of reasons. Economic hardship hit Virginia, with declining tobacco prices and increasing competition from other colonies putting strains on Virginians. The Virginia Colony also had tense relations with Native Americans who lived on their borders, and many believed Governor William Berkeley wasn’t doing enough to protect them. They also felt Berkeley was corrupt, favoring his wealthy friends in government decisions. Bacon’s Rebellion ended soon after Nathaniel Bacon died from dysentery on October 26, 1676. According to Wikipedia, “His body was never found; upon being exhumed on Berkeley's orders, the casket contained only stones.” Whoa. Now I have a second Bacon Zombie movie idea.
It is reasonable to think that during Bacon’s Rebellion there would have been Bacon Explosions. I have no physical proof of this but am happy to share this non-Blue Zone cooking video for Bacon Explosion Stuffed with Jalepeños & Cheese. If you plan to make this historically significant dish, please invite me over.
If you are looking for a healthy companion for your cottage cheese ice cream, I recommend brown-sugar bacon skewers. Take strips of bacon, thread on wooden skewers, sprinkle with Swerve Brown Sugar (that’s what makes it healthy!) sprinkle some cayenne pepper and bake in the oven until crispy. Truth.
By now you are probably wondering if I am Baconian. I am not. Baconians, named after Francis Bacon, believe that their namesake was the actual author of the entirety of works attributed to William Shakespeare. Is it true? Susan Roberts from the Francis Bacon Society, discusses the man “who ticks all the boxes.” Oh Susan!
Back in 2012, in advance of the annual BaconFest celebration/fundraiser put on by Atlanta Improv group Dad’s Garage, organizers reached out to actor Kevin Bacon’s people and invited him to the event. Bacon was filming in middle Georgia, and wouldn’t you guess it, he showed up. Took pictures with folks.
Kevin Bacon is not only famous for his lithe sinewy footloosing, but he is also a key contributor to number theory and population migration patterning. Scientists have said Kevin Bacon is only 6 degrees away from anyone else on the planet. If you play that game, you know me, and I met Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. You are now only three steps away from Richard Gere! If you haven’t seen it, watch Kevin Bacon’s Ted Talk - it’s great.