Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" Anyone that is trying to loose weight knows that the holidays are a bad time to be on a diet. Everywhere you look,from the mid-October candy sales to mid-February and the boxes of hears it is one diet obstacle after another. It starts in October,with stores putting out the Halloween candy in large bags priced to encourage people to buy candy for every passing trick-or-treater. In today’s world,however,there are some of us that never see any trick-or-treaters. Caution and concern has lead the yearly activities indoors to places that are known safe for children to trick-or-treat for candy. There are,of course,still a lot of trick-or-treaters that go door to door,but there are also those,such as myself,that buy several bags just in case and end up never handing out any candy. It is tucked into an old cookie jar and spends the rest of the year thwarting diet efforts in times of stress. Escaping the candy of Halloween we find ourselves preparing treats for Thanksgiving. Turkey and ham and all the trimmings,followed by half a dozen different varieties of pies and other desserts. It takes a month just to finish off all of the leftovers,and by then,Christmas time is here with the stockings of candy canes and the plum puddings,gingerbread houses,cookies and all of the other delicacies of the season. Like Halloween and Thanksgiving the treats to be had at Christmas last long after the holiday itself is over,and well into the New Year celebrations and any drinks or fancy dinners that might accompany hopes for a better year ahead. And just when you think it is over,the shelves are starting to fill with heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. We’ll not even follow this madness on around to Easter and the chocolate overload it brings,The point is,that for a solid six months of the year,dieters are doomed to failure. And what is worse,it if during the winter months when exercise is at a low point. By the time the feasts of the winter months are escaped there is not enough summer to exercise the added weight back off. So,what is a dieter to do during the holidays? The only thing that can be done,really,is to exercise care when selecting treats and goodies. If you rarely ever have any trick-or-treaters,then consider an alternative to handfuls of sweets. Maybe buy one small bag of sweets,and a bag of assorted party toys,give each trick-or-treater a toy and one candy bar. You will have less leftover sweets,and the trick-or-treaters will have more than candy at the end of the evening –but not feel cheated by the person that gave out toothbrushes or something similarly un-fun on Halloween. For the rest of the holidays…when you figure that one out please let me know. All I can say is try a little tiny bit of the things that you never get at other times of the year,and take it easy or skip things that you can get at any time. Do you really need several sugar cookies,or would you be happier at the end of the holidays to skip them in favor of a bit of warm gingerbread with whip cream? You can buy sugar cookies as a treat in the summer,right? I know at the near end of the season this is a late post about the topic,but I myself fell into a few different sorts of holiday traps and ended up not getting as much done as I had hopes,and am now trying,desperately,to avoid taking a long winters nap to hide until the snow passes and spring is here and I can get out and hit the trails and exercise away the holiday bulge. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes"  Tradition says that we put out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. If Santa has hinted to you that the extra calories are a nightmare,then you might consider a healthier alternative to sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.
This year leave Santa some sweet cornbread cookies and a glass of milk. Check out the cornbread cookies that I have added to the recipes. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" Thanksgiving at my mom’s house was a major event. I remember her sitting for weeks before turkey day writing out what she wanted the menu to be,even still have several of her old handwritten menus and while a few things might change,they were basically the same each year. A turkey and a ham (we always had both,because there is a person in my family that is allergic to turkey),lots of pies and other sweets,and plenty for everyone to take home leftovers. Mom would start making pies a couple of days in advance. Lemon meringue,chocolate,mincemeat,pumpkin…I would set up a special area off to one side for the desserts to go on. While there would be additions or subtractions,the base list for Thanksgiving dinner was always – Roast Turkey
Baked Glazed Ham
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Giblet Gravy
Yams
Peas with Pearl Onions
Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce
Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Hot Rolls &Home Made Bread
Potato Salad
Deviled Eggs
Red Wine White Wine
Milk Chocolate Milk Egg Nog
Coffee Soda Pop
Chocolate Cake
Ambrosia
Jell-O
Cookies
Candy
Mincemeat Pie
Lemon Meringue Pie x2
Chocolate Creme Pie x2
Pumpkin Pie x4
Whipped Cream (for pies) (We always had ham and turkey because a member of my family is allergic to turkey) Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" I got a package of meat marked “M Burger”,which I assume stands for “Moose Burger”. It seemed to have a bit of a bland taste to it to me,so I got out the bottle of Kenai Premier Old Alaska Style BBQ Sauce that I bought to try it on the burgers. I was not sure what to do with the BBQ sauce,since it really meant it when it says “spicy”and was too spicy for me to enjoy it. The mystery burger however was a very nice use for the spicy BBQ sauce. The rather bland mystery meat was a perfect base for the very spicy BBQ sauce and did a very nice job of cutting the sharpness of the spices. And with it nicely BBQed into the meat I can say that I really like that BBQ sauce and would definitely buy more,even though it is too spicy for me to use as a regular sauce on things such as chicken. 
Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" I picked up a couple of bell peppers while I was in town the other day,a red one and a yellow one. I just finished washing them off and slicing them into slivers that were packaged into a freezer container and put in the freezer with my already stored green bell pepper. Now when I make an omelet or pizza or something else that bell peppers are good on,I can add my choice of red,green or yellow bell pepper. I just get the container out and remove how much I want. Frozen bell peppers slivers snap really easily,or can be chopped up for adding to any dish. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes"  chayote squash on sale,Réunion Island Photographer:David Monniaux Date:2005 I was grocery shopping yesterday and spied something I have usually just noted and moved on past. The odd little pear-like things that the store’s ID tag said were “Coyote Squash”. They were actually chayote squash,which is a member of the gourd family –along with melons and squash. Chayote squash is native to Mesoamerica,but has been introduced as a crop all over the world now. I contemplated buying one,just to see how they are. I even looked them up briefly on my cell phone,an article from All recipes saying they made an excellent side for fish or chicken. I was trying to sort out how to determine what a fresh one looks like and asked the produce guy,he seemed to have limited knowledge,saying that either the greener ones or the more yellow ones were the riper ones. He just did not seem to know what direction it went. He did say something that made me think more research is needed before I try it. He warned me I might now like it if I do not care for spicy stuff. Chayote squash is,according to him,very spicy. I decided that I need to do more research before I try them out. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" I noticed a few days ago that my lettuce seemed to have got iced around the edges,but I did not think much about it. At least not until I went to make breakfast this morning and cracked an egg into the frying pan and it was partially frozen. I’ve never had to worry about a half frozen egg before,so I did a little looking online to make sure that eggs were okay to freeze like that. The USDA website has information on Safe Food Handling,including information on Freezing and Foods Safety,with a sub-section on Frozen Eggs that says that eggs should not be frozen inside the shell. The issue is in the structural integrity of the shells. They would break as the egg freezes. The answer to “Can I freeze eggs?”is,yes,you can freeze eggs. Frozen eggs are best done with the egg being broken and placed into a container suitable for freezing. To freeze an egg for storage,the egg should be cracked into a freezer safe container,then frozen. Eggs used for cooking or making scrambled eggs can be lightly beaten before they are frozen. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" My test cooking of arrowtooth flounder was a failure. I based my efforts on what research indicated and gave it a citric bath in lemon juice first,which was good for me,since I love lots of lemon on my fish anyway,then I used a basic egg white and flour coating to pan fry it for just a few minutes per side –recipes I had found online said 4-5 minutes per side for arrowtooth flounder. The first turn over in the pan went nicely,the flounder looked very nice when I turned it over and felt right for the texture even if it did break at the center…the second time I touched it with the tongs,however,it disintegrated. I ended up with something less like fish and more like a pile of mushy crab meat. I can see why the fish is most often used to make imitation crab meat or fish sticks. I have decided that I am probably going to try a few more times,after considerable research,to see if arrowtooth flounder can be made into a usable cooked fillet. I will not,however,be eating it aside from testing the consistency and flavor. I just don’t feel comfortable eating something that has enzymes in it that strongly order an immediate decomposition even when dropped into hot frying oil. That could be a possibility though…I might try using the deep fryer so it is fried on all sides at once,rather than the pan that fried it one side at a time. Thinner sections did cook better than the thicker ones,so another key might be to cook very fine fillets of the fish. The problem there is care would need to be exercised,since handling of the fillet can cause the enzyme release as well. Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes" I stopped at the store on the way home last night to pick up something for dinner. I was not sure exactly what I wanted,but I knew that I wanted something …. different. No ground beef,no chicken,already have prawns in the freezer… I decided that it had been too long since I had fish for dinner so I went to see what the price on salmon was. Yes…I live in Alaska and I buy my salmon out of the store.:::hang head in shame:::What can I say? No one ever seems to want to go fishing for it with me,and I don’t like to go out where the bears are all on my own. Anyway,as I was looking at the seafood offerings,and seriously contemplating a catfish fillet,I spied something that was actually within my budget. A fillet of Arrowtooth Flounder for under a dollar. Hmmm…I could not remember ever having flounder before. Beside it was Tilipia. Don’t think I have had that before either,but I decided to experiment with the flounder first. –in part because I am at least more familiar with the name,and in part because the tilipia was almost three times as much. Still very economical,but the flounder just sounded and looked better to me. I have rarely had anything other than trout and salmon,so this is going to be an interesting experiment for me.  Arrowtooth Flounder - image by NOAA Arrowtooth flounder are an ugly fish. The NOAA picture to the right shows what they look like. Fish faces that only a mother could love. Arrowtooth flounder are currently one of the most abundant fish in the Gulf of Alaska,and range from central California up to the Bering Sea. They are a significant food source for Stellar sea lions in the Kodiak Island area,and prey on juvenile walleye pollock. My only hesitance on the fish,and likely the cause of the low price,is the fact that they are not exactly a food grade fish. When the Arrowtooth Flounder is caught there is a proteolytic enzyme that is released in the flesh of the fish. The enzyme destroys the flesh when the fish is cooked. In 2004,Cornell University teamed up with the University of Alaska to find a way in which Arrowtooth Flounder might be made into a viable food source. Their experimentation focused on the use of acid treatments (such as the use of vinegar or citric acid) to toughen the meat. Earlier testing at Cornell University had revealed that acid treatments tended to toughen up minced fish meat. Cornell University reported in their 2004 Impact Statement that they were pleasantly surprised to discover that the technique had worked. The breakdown of the flesh of Arrowtooth Flounder could be stopped using an acid treatment such as vinegar or citric acid. In 2007,an article in the Journal of Food Biochemistry compared four species of Pacific fish:Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus);arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias);Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma);and Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus). Both Pacific whiting and arrowtooth flounder were known to be affected by flesh softening during handling and cooking,while Alaskan pollock and Pacific Cod were not. Their research showed varying levels of certain cathepsin types in the different fish types. Cathepsin is a protease that are,in certain conditions,released into the cytoplasm where they trigger apoptotic cell death. The article in the Journal of Food Biochemistry determined that it was likely cathepsin L that caused the most damage in arrowtooth flounder and Pacific whiting,since temperatures of greater than 70c (158 F) were required to cause inactivation of cathepsin L. If my non-science background comprehension of this information is right,then this would require arrowtooth flounder to be handled at 158 F from the moment it was caught to prevent the release of the cathepsin L proteolytic enzyme that triggers flesh softening. Recent food grade additives have been used to successfully inhibit the enzymatic breakdown triggered by the release of the proteolytic enzyme,these discoveries enabling the start of a targeted fishery in the Kodiak Island area that has,I suspect,lead to the appearance of the frozen arrowtooth flounder fillet in my local store. The lowly arrowtooth flounder has come a long way from being a useless food product that had a too-soft flesh after handling and cooking,to being a possible viable fish to help ease the demands on Alaskan pollock harvesting. I will be doing a little experimentation with the fillets,after all,at under a dollar each they are priced reasonably low enough to try a few different cooking methods on them. I do not think they will become a regular part of my diet,but I am curious as to how the arrowtooth flounder tastes and what kind of dish can be created using it. _________________________________________________________________ Sources:
Arrowtooth Flounder Research:Alaska Fisheries Science Center
COMPARISON OF CATHEPSIN B,D,H AND L ACTIVITY IN FOUR SPECIES OF PACIFIC FISH:Journal of Food Biochemistry
Cathepsin-regulated apoptosis:US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health Recipe Source "Sandra Fikes"  As I said,here is the recipe for the Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms –this is a fast and easy recipe that uses a box of Stove Top Savory Herbs stuffing mix with a few additions as the stuffing for the mushroom tops.
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