Super Size Me

I saw this last night. Some reactions:

• More graphic than I expected. I don't watch myself giving blood, and I didn't expect to see anyone else do it. And a somewhat more invasive procedure, as well.
  
• This guy started out in great shape, and even the doctors were surprised at how fast things changed. Sure, he's just one guy, not everyone has the same reactions, etc, but wow. (And that guy in wherever-it-was who's eaten more than 19,000 Big Macs and has 140 cholesterol... nice genes, man.)
  
• I knew some of the information shown (from Fast Food Nation, mostly), but the interviews with people... I hadn't realized how many people have so little information.
  
• It seemed odd at times how some people's eyes or faces were blocked out. I couldn't figure out a pattern, though there were definitely more obese people that this happened to.
  
• I was impressed to see where he went for interviews and information. Not only doctors and nutritionists, but gym teachers, school kids (from Worcester!), people on the street.

Definitely worth seeing.

Dinner for a heatwave

Mid-90s is just too hot to do much cooking at all. I'd had thoughts of elaborate meals, including flatbreads, melon, perhaps roasted peaches or nectarines for dessert. None of that happened.

What I made was salad and lemonade, and that turned out to be just right.

For the salad, I hauled out the big fleishig platter (celadon with some leaf imprints) and started heaping it with greens. I had some red leaf, arugula, basil, and mesclun, to which I added scallions and halved grape tomatoes. While I was doing the veggie prep, I poached two chicken breasts. When they were just done, I diced them and added them to the salad. For dressing, I ground a bunch of black pepper on top, then drizzled olive oil and Trader Joe's Scoville Scoundrel. The salad had sweet tones from the Scoundrel, which faded into spiciness afterward, with bright notes from the basil and arugula.

For the lemonade, I juiced three lemons and four limes (ok, it was lemon-lime-ade), adding as much pulp as possible, then some sugar and many mint leaves. Once the sugar had dissolved, I stirred in some water. This turned out to have the right balance of tart and sweet for me; I have to remember to use limes more.

It stayed fairly warm through dinner, but afterward the clouds started blowing in, on pleasantly cooler winds. And then a fat raindrop fell. And another. And while I was typing this it was pouring, but now it seems to have slacked off, though I can still hear a bit of thunder every so often. I hope the weather will be much cooler tonight as predicted.