Saturday - I awoke to immobility.  I don't know how or why this happened, the last thing I truly remember from Friday evening was enjoying a great dinner with Susan at South Hills Market and Cafe, then going out and drinking at BW3 with friends. 

Susan drove home, as I don't really remember that trip.

Maybe this is where my ill-fated injury happened.  Who knows.. but I woke and couldn't bend my right knee, I could barely hobble down stairs, get in and out of a vehicle or bend down to pick something up without contorting myself in such a manner that made me look more so ridiculous than normally.

Saturday was the day the new oven came also.

To make a long story short, the oven is in, and my knee is still sore.  Well today the swelling is mostly down, and it hasn't hurt to jog down stairs.  There's still a little pressure it seems but overall that soreness is fleeting and I think I will try to ride on the trainer some this evening since abandoning all hope of riding for the past several days.

What gives?  Well being the MD that I am (MD = Mountain Doctor) I have a loose knee.  You see I had this knee problem once before.  Similiar situation, just woke up and I'm crippled.  Anyhow..the specialist told me my knee cap is looser than normal.  It rubs around and aggravates and get's inflamed.  At the time he viewed my MRI, said there was no permanent damage prescribed a drug and told me to do a few exercises to tighten things up.  He also threw the caveat in that I may have this problem in the future.  I'm diagnosing myself and saying my future is now.

The pain has not been as severe this time as it was then, and I see no point in getting an MRI, or paying more for prescriptions when I can just double my intake of Ibuprofen to meet the prescription strength.   It's great being an MD.  But I am doing my part to cut down on the rising tide of medical costs.

So not riding what have I been doing? 

I've been drinking, I watched the Daytona 500,  drinking, eating,.... and well low and behold the BottleOfPills mansion got it's new copy of Food & Wine Magazine (March 2010) the other day.  So what better thing than to review it.

Well the cover promises me forty healthy recipes.  Those being mexican and thai and of course the proverbial "more" all brought to me by the world's best cooks.  Also I'm going to learn what the best Australian wines to drink now are.  The cover picture is of an appealing dish of grilled shrimp and soba noodles and what I'm told is a dry Riesling outside my depth of field in the back ground..   WOW... sounds yummy...

(yes I looked for a cover picture, but couldn't find one and I'm too lazy to scan)

After flipping through the first 18 pages of ads, table of contents, and that other useless info about the magazine I get to the Editor's letter. Wich begs the question:

Why does every magazine have a letter from the editor?  Nine times out of ten this "letter" is just going to tell me what a struggle it has been to bring the best of whatever the magazine is about to me the reader and summarize what's in it.  Doesn't the Table of Contents summarize this just nicely?  Additionally, it tells me what page everything is on.  Further more, normally I either paid for the subscription (in this case it's Susan's so she paid for this) or bought the magazine from a newsstand, so any difficulty in bringing me these fine stories has been compensated for so who cares do I really even give a rat's ass about this?

Well this editor goes on to tell me how fat I am and that I need to use "Portion Control" on my meals.  Duh I knew that... plus she's also using a term I've never heard of "flexitarian"???  This is for people that want to cut back on their meat I guess, but not ready to take the full blown plunge into dining on rabbit food.  Yes they have a name for them also now I guess.

WTF - I thought this was supposed to be about drinking and eating....  If I wanted health food, I'd have picked up a copy of Cooking Light.  What gives?

Flip

The next page shows me a nice looking hamburger that supposedly has 1500 calories.  It's "fully loaded" with bacon caramelized onions, "wagyu" beef (whatever that is, I'm sure I can't buy it at Kroger's or Foodland, so I'm sure it's just overly expensive Ground Chuck).  Burger looks good, but the point is instead of eating this massive burger I could instead eat the following:  Cheese and Crackers, Camargue Rice, Filet Mignon, Wild Chicory, and Mini Whoopie Pies to get the same calorie intake.

OK, what is not easy to display here is that it gives me the costs of all these Other Items, and their relative calorie value.

The burger I think could easily be substituted for an Applebee's Burger for $8.95, but because it's fancy beef, I'll say you'll have to to some artsy place so let's make the Burger price in the mid teens - I'm pulling $15.95 out of my ass as I have no clue what this burger costs or would cost.

Total for "Other" Items:  $28 for 1lb of cheese, $7 for crackers (5oz), $17 for 2lbs of this rice, $65 for 4oz of steak, $12 for the chicory, and $28 for 12 mini whoopie pies. $157.  

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after a couple pages of adds, I'm onto the News and Notes section, with Five New Eco-Style Favorites.... I would like to say this looks interesting and maybe it would be if I was Danny Weir.  But I'm not.

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A Foodies Culture Calendar hmmmmmm

According to this I should SEE - art in Philly, because there is going to be the only stop for some Art exhibit that concerns Picasso.  I should EAT at Village Whiskey - hmmmm this does sound fun, I admit... and STAY at Kimpton's Art Deco Hotel Polamar... for about $200 a night... I've paid more, so it doesn't sound too bad....

FLIP

Next up is a peace on Iceland, and whether or not I should eat like an Icelander.   According to the blurb Icelander's are among the planet's healthiest and happiest people.  Is the secret their pure diet?  I'm sure Food and Wine did a lot of research on this.

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Where to go next - Anguilla, Barbados, & Mexico - I've never heard of the first one, so won't be going there, have no desire to go to Barbados, and the only place in Mexico I'd like to go would be Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina.

Flip Flip flip

a burden of adds here to the next article on an Overachieving Underchewer...... hmmmmm Basically it's several pages of why eating slower may be good for you.

FLIP

On page 45 we get to the Thai Recipes... yummy Thai food is good... may have to make some this weekend...  Let's see what we have...

Roasted Mushrooms and Shallots with fresh herbs - hmmm doesn't really blow my skirt.  Warm Escarole Salad with snow peas and sausage - like Anguilla's above, I don't know what Escarle is so won't be purchasing that at the local Foodland...Stir Fried Red Rice with sliced sirloin and some peas... sounds OK, but I'm not a pea fan. 

OH Shit, we have a dog eared page.... that means Susan has violated the magazine before me and has found something that interests her.  (well officially it is hers I guess) I'm also guessing it's not a reminder to pick up some Hellman's Real Mayonnaise as depicted on the full page add on page 49. 

It's the Soba noodles and grilled shrimp I'm betting depicted on the front of the magazine - let's see according to this she will be serving it with an Australian Riesling - also pictured on the cover.  But if I'm lucky she may be thinking of making the Cornish Hen Stew with lemongrass and Chiles - this sounds very good, with ginger and cilantro, we could really spice it up too... What wine is suggested? Shit it doesn't say it suggests serving with steamed rice... I thought all asian dishes were to be served with steamed rice  so is this not a default??.....   I'll be damned... I think a mojito would go good with this if it was spiced up nice.  (yeah I know that's not wine but neither is steamed rice). 

Another Dog eared page - Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower - this is Indian in my opinion, not Thai...we eat this alot, so why it's dog eared is beyond me.

Flip

Mexican Favorites Made Healthy - great we're going to eat healthy beef and bean burritos!!!!  

Beer Braised Turkey Tacos - this sounds good..  Several Salsa's ie:  Pineapple Habanero - sounds good. 

DOG EAR Alert!!!!!

Susan having a fish taco fetish makes me think the reason for the Dog ear is the Chipotle Rubbed Salmon Taco recipe....  hmmmmm not bad.   Shrimp Stuffed Peppers....  looks better, and of course another salsa:  Mango-Tomato Salsa..

Is now a good time to mention that neither of these articles have the nutritional values listed?

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An article about a guy that likes salt....I guess there's something more to salt than : Table, Kosher, and Margarita.

learn something new everyday.

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An article on online wine friends. This does have a section on five amazing party wines, but none are in the BottleOfPills income range.  We stick with Two Buck Chuck.

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Now were going to taste and test -  I don't know how I can taste from a magazine, but keep reading...

An article on grains.... and two recipes for "grain salads"...

Flip (several pages of ads)

Everyday Japanese - hey I'll be full blown orient after this issue...  Recipes for Pork Tonkatsu and Chicken Sukiyaki.... ummm whatever...surprised there's no dog ear.

Fish Teryaki and Sweet and Sour Cucumbers.... hmmmm sounds interesting not kidding here, I usually grow cucumbers and at a loss as to what to do with them besides cut them up and put salt on them.. Sweet and sour sounds interesting...  Beef Yakatori..... how bad could it be it has beef.

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Australia's Cool New wines....

A section on Australian wines... gives about 10 wines ranging from $10 to $65 of whites and reds, along with a map and explanation of Australia's various wine regions.

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an ad for Arizona

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Sophie Dahl's Voluptuous Cooking... there's nothing Voluptuous about Ms Dahl.  least from any picture presented here... she's kind of homely, and if I saw her on the street I'd probably stay away from her. 

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next is an article by the editor pleading with chefs to lighten their food...I guess she wants to ask all these great chefs to make their meals more healthy.. I haven't read the article yet.. don't really know.  If I was them I'd ask her to just not eat as much, because there's people like me who would want more.

FLIP

more recipes...

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now we're in Turkey for a picnic... a dog ear....  I'm not eating one of these grape leaf wrapped things....

another dog ear...

more recipes...dirty potatoes looking like the most attractive... seriously who would eat something titled "Bulgar Salad with Lightly Roasted Vegetables"...... not me unless the Salt guru from a few articles back was there to up my sodium intake about 100 fold.

not much on wine, but heavy on food...

and that's pretty much it for March.