WHY SHOULD WE DRINK TEA?


The early history of tea is shrouded in myth - it is said an emperor/scholar Shen Nung in 2737BC sitting under a Camellia senensis bush was drinking hot water when a sprig of a leaf fell in his cup - Eureka. Kuo P'o first describes the drinking of tea around 350AD and around 780AD Lu Yu wrote Cha Jing - "the Classic of Tea" commissioned by tea merchants of the time. Brick Tea spread via the Silk Road around 618AD into Turkey, India, Russia, and the West. Our current leaf tea steeped in boiling water was developed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) - the first teapots were also developed as they are used now during this time also. Around 1644 in the Quing Dynasty, tea makers discovered the secrets of controlled fermentation (oxidation) and the first red and black teas were developed. The Portugese discovered tea around 1516 and the Dutch and the English discovered the pleasures and benefits of tea around 1615. Tea plantations were first established by the British in India by early 1800s.


Tea can only be made using the fresh tips of the Camellia plant - the scarcely opened buds that start to grow in Spring. Once a leaf is fully developed, it becomes too coarse for use. The drying of tea leaves must be done within 24hrs of picking or the juices will begin to oxidize. The main difference between Green Tea and Black Tea is in the lack of oxidation in Green Tea. In the preparation of Green tea, warm (not boiling) water must be used or a bitter taste is developed - ideally around 160degrees Fahrenheit is recommended. With Black tea boiling water should be used in steeping in order to release the flavors.

There are many rituals and traditions which have developed in the Far East with regard to tea preparation, presentation, and consumption, but I prefer the JUST DRINK IT protocols instead. Here's what I do: I put 2 or so heaping teaspoons of my favorite tea leaves in a tea ball - I pump in boiling hot water and set a timer for about 4-5 minutes. I pull out the tea ball (I re-use 2-4 times depending on what type of leaves - you can use green tea leaves 4-6 times), then pour the tea through a Kensington strainer into my tea cup - I'll sometimes add a teaspoon of sugar. I begin with pure water - I have a reverse osmosis/deionization water filtration system in my basement which produces water of 0 conductivity (distilled quality) at 200gallons/perday rate when I need it. I keep a water cooler in the kitchen filled with this water at all times. This is the water my family uses to drink and cook with also:


WHY DO I FILTER AND PRODUCE MY OWN DRINKING WATER?
Simply put, you can't trust anybody including Spring Water peddlers, your municipal water supply, etc. Here is a test I ran a year ago after I went to my local grocery store and purchased a sample of every water brand they were selling:

..........Chlorine(ppm)..Ammonia(ppm)..Nitrates (ppm)...Conductivity(μS/cm)*
“Spring Waters”
CrystalGeyser...0.........<2.5..........5...............232
1.9¢/oz
DeerPark........0.........<2.5..........<2.5............193
2.6c/oz
Evian...........0.........<2.5..........<5..............556
3.7¢/oz
FoodLion........0.........<2.5..........15-20...........236
1¢/oz
Nestle..........0.........0.25..........10..............521
0.8¢/oz
“Filtered Waters”
Aquafina........0.........0.............0...............8
3.9¢/oz
BlueMist........0.........0.............0...............0
2.3¢/oz
Dasani..........0.........0.............0...............51
3.8¢/oz
LeBleu..........0.........0.............0...............0
2.9¢/oz
My RO/Deionized.0.........0.............0...............0
~0.1¢/oz
Tap Waters
Cary(Aug 2002)..2.6.......1.0..........2.5.............313
Cary Jan 2003)..5.........1.0..........0...............194
Sink Carbfilt...1.0.......0.25.........0...............193
source: JordanLake (CapeFearRiverBasin)
Holly Springs...<0.2......trace........5...............279
source: Cape Fear River & Falls of Neuse Lake
Raleigh.........0.8.......0.5..........<2.5............256
source:Falls of Neuse Lake
Apex............0.........0............<2.5............166
source: groundwater, well

Back to Tea again...What are the Properties of Tea?
The primary beneficial aspect of Tea is in the antioxidant activities of the Camellia sinensis plant leaf. This activity can be measured using cumene hydroperoxide/hemoglobin methylene blue method - this measures the activity of the various polyphenols present in tea. A King's College study in 10/2002 documents several of these polyphenols found in teas: EGCG, 4 different Theaflavins, epicatechin gallate, alpha-theagallin, quercetin-3-rutinoside, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, flavon-3-ols, flavonols, gallic accids, hydroxycinnamates, etc. According to a report in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Pathology [51(9):859-63,2003Sept],
here are the antioxidant activities of:
heated Green Tea = 207 nmols/ml
non-heated Green Tea = 280 nmols/ml
powdered green Tea = 481 nmols/ml
black Tea = 215 nmols/ml

Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemisty [51(15):4427-35,2003Jul16] documents in 45 samples of various teas how green tea has higher contents of catechins than black or Oolong teas also. They show that the oxidation process reduces the levels of the catechins but actually elevates the levels of gallic acids. In general polyphenol levels were less in oxidized (black) teas.

What is the in-vitro and in-vivo effects of tea? There are several polyphenols in tea of which epigallocatechins (EGCG) are the most studied. Tea has been shown to cause a ~2mmHg lowering of systolic blood pressure in women, to inhibit bladder tumor growth, to inhibit the growth of prostate and breast cancer, and cause anti-leukemic effects on leukemic cell lines.

According to Antiviral Research {58(2):167-73,2003Apr], EGCG has anti-adenoviral activity via several mechanisms both inside and outside the cell.

EGCG has been shown to inhibit platelet aggregation in an Austrian study in 2002 following women using black teas for greater than 1 month.

An Indian study in April 2003 on the hot water extract of black tea seems to demonstrate an antidiarrheal effect on all models used.

A Case Western study from 10/2002 showed EGCG inhibits the cartilage resorption in arthritis suggesting possible benefits for arthritis sufferers.

An NYU study in 1/2003 using Black Tea on teeth showed the exposure to regular black tea reduced caries 57% on subjects with regular diet, and reduced caries by 64% on a cariogenic Diet - so tea may work as well as brushing with fluoride.

Archives of Internal Medicine [163(12):1448-53.2203Jun23] reported in a Vanderbilt Univ study that with use of a capsule of theaflavin-enriched green tea extract (375mg) vs placebo for 12wks, levels of LDL fell 16 mg/dL, total cholesterol fell 11mg/dL, and levels of the "good" HDL actually rose 23mg/dL. These results are comparable to low doses of the hundreds of dollars a month HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors like Lipitor, Pravachol, Zocor etc.

A recent Asian study demonstrated that Tea increases the 24hour energy expenditure and thereby helps in weight reduction. Anti-aflatoxinogenic properties were noted in coffee and teas due to the their levels of tannins. Regular consumption of Green Teas have been shown to reduce chronic halitosis significantly, mainly by anti-bacteriogenic properties. In-vitro studies have shown an insulin-potentiating effect of tea's EGCG, tannins, and theaflavins. Interestingly the addition of milk (5g of 2%), non-dairy creamers, and soy milk decreased this potentiating effect by 33%. Therefore to obtain maximal anti-diabetogenic benefits of tea, you should drink it black (or green).

Several mechanisms have been proposed as the basis of all of these activities:
1.epicatechin may bind and activate an allosteric site that enhances P-glycoproteins overall function and efficiency. P-glycoproteins transfer a wide variety of compounds from the cell interior across the lipid bilayer membranes. This includes drugs, toxins, xenobiotics, carcinogens.
2.GTE or EGCG interferes with signal transduction and activities of avarious protein kinases are thereby inhibited. The expression of nuclear proto-oncogenes declines thereby and the activity of ornithine decarboxylase is reduced. Ornithine decarboxylase catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the biosynthesis of polyamines and is closely linked to cell proliferation and carcinogenesis.
3.Increased polyamine depletion bhe the polyphenol activity of tea extracts could also be the mechanism.

What are the Potential Negatives?
Tea is a fairly strong stimulant. A Mayo Clinic Trial in 2003 in patients with metastatic prostate CA tried Green Tea in large doses (6 cups/day) - this tended to reduce the PSA levels over 2 months possibly but toxicities were noted including Insomnia, Nausea, Diarrhea, mental status changes.

If you thought tea might reduce the risk of colo-rectal cancer, there was a trial published in the US follwing tea consumption and colo-rectal cancer incidence over time. There was no association in this large study - neither a slight + nor a slight - effect.

Green tea extracts used in large doses have raised concerns over binding non-heme iron and thereby possibly worsening anemia in people who may have this problem. The Am. J. Clin. Nutr. [2001 Mar;73(3):607-612] article that raised this concern did not study black teas.

There have been concerns over organo-phosphate pesticide levels in the old-fashioned "brick teas" (levels 1000mg/kg), but levels as high as 500mg/kig have been measured in some green teas as well. More studies will need to be performed but in general, pesticide use has been reduced and regulated for most large tea plantations.

The caffeine content (the stimulation effect) of tea is viewed both positively and negatively by people. Using Fourier transformation infrared spectrometry, the caffeine levels of various tea samples can be determined easily as published by Analytical & Bioanalytical Chemistry [374(3):56-5,2002Oct]. In general the levels will vary with tea leaf brand, preparation method, concentration used etc. But using the general "One heaping teaspoon of tea leaves per 6 ounce cup in fresh boiling Spring Water" instructions most use,
The Caffeine Content of TEA/COFFEE Comparison (per 177ml = 6oz cup):
milligrams of caffeine.....Beverage
60-90......................Espresso coffee
60-180.....................Drip coffee
6-16.......................Green Tea
12-55......................Oolong Tea (Semi-black)
25-110.....................Black Tea

The beauty of tea is that you can easily "decaffeinate" your product. 90% of the caffeine content of tea is infused out of the tea leaves in the first 30 seconds of steeping. So if you pour off this first infusion after about 30seconds, you have a 90% "de-caffeinated" product - this removes 35mg of caffeine and as a bioproduct you lose 4-10% of the flavor of tea. I found this information from the website of a tea connoisseur.

So What Type of Tea is Good?
There is as much connoisseurship when it comes to tea as there is with wines and beers. The primary producers of tea in the world are in India (28% of world's tea), followed by China (23%), Sri Lanka (10.4%), Kenya (8%), Turkey (5.8%), Indonesia (5%), Japan (3%), Argentina (2%), Malawi, Zimbabwe, etc.

The undisputed highest quality teas are produced in Japan - the "Matcha" produced in the Nishio region in Aichi (on Honshu Island) Japan and regulated by the government in terms of standards/quality is a shade-grown green tea consumed in powder form and used in the Chado (tea ceremony). In Japan and Korea, only green tea is used even today. In China, green and Oolong Teas are favored.

The highest quality black teas, the type of tea preferred by the British, Europeans, and Americans, are probably produced in India - the Darjeeling Teas produced in the foothills of the Himalayas is a very refined black tea with light oxidation and high polyphenol activity. The Nilgiri teas are produced in the southern hilly regions also resulting in lighter oxidation. The "Ceylon Teas" of Sri Lanka are also famed for their refined flavors - the Kenilworth, St.James, Nuwara Eliya, Galaboda, and of course America's favorite Lipton Teas. China is famous for the delicate Keemun tea which also makes a good ice tea, smoky Lapsang Souchong, and the old standy "Gunpowder" Teas so-called for their balled tea-leaves.

We currently have vaccuum jars of Darjeeling, Nilgiri, and Japanese Sencha Green Tea sitting on our kitchen counter. I used to drink a lot of Keemun tea but I prefer to spend the money on Nilgiri or Darjeeling teas instead. My wife and mother notices that when I drink a lot of green tea, my breath smells fresh and good. We own a 8cup capacity "Brown Betty" earthenware teapot produced in England which we use to infuse all our tea. I never wash it according to directions, simply rinse out quickly in tap water and let dry. The antibacterial anti-oxidant activity of tea elixirs prevents any mold or bacteriosis in this pot.

A good convenience, though blasphemy according to tea connoisseurs is using a "hot pot" on standby:

Mine is a "Tiger" Brand made in Japan and has been in service for over 3 years. Zojirushi produces the most famous of these.

I've read maybe 6 or so books about tea, I heartily recommend Okakura's Book of Tea which can be purchased, but borrowing from your library is recommended. John Blofeld's Chinese Art of Tea is a good book as is Jane Pettigrew's the Tea Companion.

WILL CHANGING OUT ALL LIGHTBULBS IN MY HOUSE TO CF MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

According the FTC.gov website for lightbulbs 90% of the electricity used by standard incandescent lightbulbs is lost as heat. Standard light bulbs (incandescent) burn about 750-2000 hours whereas compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs tend to burn about 10000 hours - i.e. 10 times longer than standard bulbs. The light output of a 60Watt regular incandescent bulb yields about 855lumens; a 15Watt CF bulb yields about 900 lumens (brighter at 1/4 the watts used). The upshot: "The benefits of compact fluorescent bulbs are clear: lower operating costs, longer operating life and more efficient use of energy." The ftc website estimates that a 15W CF bulb would cost you $1.20/year to operate versus $4.80/year for a standard bulb when you factor in the cost of electricity. The downsides of the CF bulbs: 1. the expense (they can be very expensive especially compared to the cheap standard bulbs) 2. CF bulbs contain a trace of mercury (Hg), so special disposal is recommended - take to hazardous waste disposal sites in your town/county 3.CF bulbs have a slight "delay to full brightness" effect, though much less than standard fluorescents (those long tubes used in most schools and offices) 4.Some CF bulbs have a tendency to buzz slightly - usually defective ones.

With the summer coming on, I was thinking that replacing all the incandescent bulbs with CF bulbs may also reduce the amount of heat generated within a room, especially if enclosed, and also reduce the fire hazard of hot burning bulbs. It might even potentially reduce the air-conditioner usage (?!) by not generating additional heat in the house? Who knows. I had always tried a few CF bulbs in various fixtures, and I always used CF bulbs to light aquariums with plants and I found these CF bulbs lasted years and years - decades in fact, though the light output would very gradually diminish over time. While perusing various lighting websites, I came upon a Kansas store called lightbulbs etc. or lightbulbs direct and found a decent deal for mini-spiral 60watt bulbs - $11.98 for 4. I impulsively decided to go for the gusto and buy a CF bulb for every damn fixture in my house. It turns out that lightbulbsdirect.com did not have a good deal for candelabra bulbs (as compared to my local hardware store I'm saying), but I went ahead and purchased all of them from this one store http://lightbulbsdirect.com/. It took a good 10 days for them to deliver the bulbs and the shipping charges were fairly high. My total cost for all the bulbs were $361.30 to replace every damn bulb in my house.

Here's how the bulbs came:


And here's a comparison of a mini-spiral 4Watt next to a 60W standard bulb, and a "torpedo" candelabra base 4Watt CF bulb next to a standard 25W candelabra base bulb:


Another thing I worried about was that for some of the decorative fixtures in the house, the CF bulbs might ruin the "decorative" aspects of the lighting. I think overall you tend not to notice it unless you are really watching for it. Here are two examples. One is a ceiling fan light, another is a candelabra fixture, both with the CF bulbs installed on them:


Though I ordered about 75 CF bulbs total, I found only 1 defective light bulb in the whole lot. And only that one defective one "sang" with the rumored buzzing before burning out within a month. I'd say a decent quality control overall for generic CF bulbs.

Here's how the costs sorted out for my house. Using lightbulbdirect.com's own prices (to be fair in comparison), though I think prices can be higher for both standard and CF bulbs at my local home depot or Lowe's, I found:
Standard Incandescent set-up:
60watt bulbs - 31 bulbs x $.30 = $9.30
25watt candelabras - 31 x .47 = $14.57
100watt 3yr bulbs - 4 x 1.85 = $7.40
40watt Globe bulbs - 4 x 1.05 =$4.20
25watt miniGlobes - 2 x .79 = $1.58
150watt floodlight - 1 x 3.49 = $3.49
50/150/250w 3way bulb - 1x2.99 = $2.99
50/75/150w 3way bulb -1x1.79 = $1.79
75watt bulbs - 3 x .30 = $0.90
40watt bulbs - 1 x .30 = $0.30
total wattage: 3885watts total cost of these bulbs: $46.52

Whole-House Compact Fluorescent set-up:
Like I said, I spent $361.30 including shipping for 48 mini-spiral 15watt bulbs, 24 mini-torpedo candelabra 4watt bulbs, and 1 75watt reflector bulb. Total wattage as installed in the house: 879watts total. So the immediate painful drawback is in spending an extra $314.78 which included a bunch of shipping and handling charges. The immediate payoff is in a brighter house overall and in the knowledge that I am using 3006 fewer watts potentially throughout the house.

Fortunately, my electric company (Progress Energy) allows me to follow my usage and billing history online. This will help me better judge in real time the difference in my kilowatt-hour per month from when I was all incandescent to now that I am all compact-fluorescent. This comparison is complicated by the fact that until this past December or so, I and my family were spendthrifts not only in terms of eating out and recreational shopping, but also in how we used electricity for air-conditioning, lighting, etc. Since we made a concerted effort to be more frugal and simple, we've been trying to reduce our lighting, we've been shutting off the oven or stove a couple minutes before cooking is "complete," we've gone out and taped extra insulation around our outdoor air-conditioning unit's tubing and our indoor water-heater tubing, we've dialed up our AC thermostat from our previous 72-75F to our current 81F (and plan to dial down our winter heating thermostat from our previous 75F to about 65-68F), we've been dialing our dishwasher to rinse in cold water, we've been trying to take lukewarm to room-temperature showers instead of hot showers, we've set our hot-water heater to heat at 122F. All these efforts have made a notice-able difference in our KWH usage, but has made a smaller difference in our monthly charges due to the rising cost of electricity in the past year. So as you can see, the comparisons are going to take some fine discerning and counter-compensating.

In any case here are the raw data for a 4 month period last year (when we were all incandescent and all spend-thrift), versus a 4 month period this year (when we are all-CF and more frugal):

We were Spendthrifts, We were Incandescent:
Month ..KWH/month usage..electricity bill..avg climatic temp
April 2003........1794...........$144.30......53F
May 2003..........1843...........$148.03......58F
June 2003.........2065...........$165.05......66F
July 2003.........1912...........$173.03......74F

We are Frugal, We are Compact-Fluorescent:
April 2004........991............$83.36......52F
May 2004..........936............$79.11......61F
June 2004.........1515...........$123.75.....74F
July 2004.........1526...........$140.32.....76F

These comparisons will need to be charted out for the next year and I'll have to come up with some reasonable way to factor out our additional frugality measures and also to factor in the rising cost of electricity along with temperature patterns (this is actually done for me by Progress Energy on their website). I think I see real savings in the utility bill already but it'll take a few more months of comparing and figuring/factoring to determine a ballpark "percentage figure" of savings per month, per year, and per life of CF bulb.

Hey, this is just one of the "frugality measures" I'm trying out - whether it turns out to be a failure or not, I don't know. Some frugality measures don't really give you a good bang for the buck. My wife and I have always calculated gas mileage whenever we fill-up our cars by dividing our odometer reading since last fill-up by the total gasoline filled(used). I've found that I can add about 2 miles-per-gallon to my usual weekly work commute by NOT using any air-conditioning during the drive - actually a borderline trivial difference in terms of cost even with gasoline in our area at about $1.919/gallon, especially considering the sweaty misery you pay for in exchange for the higher gas mileage.

The loose ends to this story is this:


That is, what do I do with the 74 standard incandescent light-bulbs I have left after changing out all the lighting in the house? Here are some possibilities: 1.Try selling them at the next yardsale (?who would buy used bulbs? How to price them?) 2.donate them (?who would accept used bulbs in donation? How much should I deduct for tax purposes?) 3.keep them around to use as emergency replacements 4.Use them to stop traffic (Spanky did this on one of those old 1930s "Our Gang" movies - here's how it works: you throw down a light bulb and it makes a popping sound and makes everyone on the road stop and get out to see if their tires popped - problem is modern tires don't pop that easily and modern drivers couldn't hear such outside noise in their hermetically sealed driving environments).

which makes me wonder why those old Little Rascals comedy shorts are no longer to be found anywhere on TV. I was thinking that the politically-correct-police made all networks forego airing those episodes, just as theatres and video outlets no longer will show Disney's Song of the South, or many of those old Looney Tunes cartoons, or the old 1940s Superman cartoons, or any more Benny Hill masterpieces etc. A great loss for us all.

We've Been On Vacation

Though not the one I was thinking we would go on. When I started posting these weblogs, I had mentioned that we planned a long 2 week West trip but several factors interceded to make us change our minds. 1. We have a 23 month old baby who absolutely hates taking trips longer than 20 minutes in a car - she whines, bawls, screams without giving it up for up to 3 hours at a time before she will collapse from fatigue. 2. With the recent upsurge in gasoline prices, several hundred dollars would have been added on to an already costly trip if you take into consideration that those weeks I do not work amounts to so much loss in pay. 3. Taking long, self-indulgent, extravagant voyages do not fit appropriately into the simple lifestyle and is discordant with our changed (hopefully) outlook on our life.

So instead of driving out west toward the Dakotas to visit Roosevelt Natl Park in N.Dakota, we went instead to a place which ironically is an absolute den of affluenza - Myrtle Beach, SC. We did this because it is within a few hours drive from our house and we hoped to be able to stay there relatively conveniently and be "fun" for our 7 year-old and 2 year-old. Driving through I-95 you see one of the most dastardly self-evident tourist-traps on the East-coast:



When I was a kid back in the mid-1970s, my family stopped here and we purchased dozens of over-priced souvenir items for no good reason. My parents weren't doing it for comic effect or out of sardonic glee as many who frequent "Roadside Kitsch" do nowadays. They were simply naive and were honestly impressed with the roadside billboards set-up for hundreds of miles along I-95 proclaiming the importance of this monument - when we finally arrived, we all jumped out of our car to exult in this promised land of Kitsch. As Kitsch goes nationwide, South of the Border is unusually low-quality Kitsch - by this statement, I'm comparing SotB to other Hall-of-Fame Kitsch sites nationwide I've visited: The House On The Rock in Wisconsin (near Madison), Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota and the Crazy-Horse monument in Western South Dakota, Niagara Falls area near Buffalo NY. Each site of Kitsch I've visited I can claim honestly I entered without the slightest clue that I was about to be bombarded by kitsch. I've been very naive about such things throughout my life and I came to realize that people throughout the world are prone to erect monuments to bad taste only after visiting dozens of such sites, all in good faith. Last year I discovered roadsideamerica.com and perusing this site, I decided to re-visit many of these sites again, this time with a more appreciative eye for kitsch. This was part of the reason for the grand Western trip I had planned, but decided that it really was a waste of time and effort, and would have been exhausting and obnoxious for my kids.

So we went for Myrtle Beach. Driving through Conway, the run-down little town attached to this tourist mecca, you can't help but notice how hopeless the South Carolina economy seems to be. They do attract the occasional large car-factories etc. but in general, this is a state which is unable to drum up any of its own business very well. The economically depressed, semi-rural, failing strip-mall towns dotting South Carolina is very typical of the deep South. You some of these in Eastern and Mountain-region North Carolina and Virginia also, but not nearly in the quantity you see in SC, TN, GA, AL, WVa, MS.


Once we were at the beach I'm afraid to say we indulged in the decadence of a "Resort hotel" - though I partially blame this on catering to my kids. The "resort hotel" however was not of the 4 diamond variety, but rather a seedy set-up along the raucous South Myrtle Beach streets (The Yachtsman Hotel). South Myrtle is a haven for teenagers and as such offer relatively cheaper lodgings. The strip along the "Grand Strand" is full of low rent stores such as tattoo and piercing parlors, bars, chintzy amusement parks, Ripley's believe it or not tourist traps, etc. We avoided all of these places and stayed around the beach and our hotel pool. One interesting thing - my son and I were just absent-mindedly putting together a modest sand castle using a couple of buckets and our hands - it may have taken us 30-40 minutes to do it and the product was rather mediocre, though a marvel for my 7-yr-old son. Well, within minutes this thing attracted several (5-6) groups of people passing by and they felt the need to gawk at it and compliment us as if it were one of those masterpieces you see produced by artists at beach festivals. It made me wonder if one were to sit down near Washington Square in NYC or at that Piazza San Marco in Venice and started drawing little childish stick figures whether you could attract a crowd to gawk at your (absence-of-)talent.

This is the actual thing that seemed to draw passersby.

The Special Forces Museum

On the way back from the beach we stopped by the dreadful city of Fayetteville NC where I spent a large part of my childhood. We did this because my wife and son wanted to see the Special Forces Museum which is located in the downtown area. I warned them that the Fayetteville area is not a great place for kids - and to bear me out, on our way out of the parking lot a Schizophrenic army vet bicycled up to us and frantically started showing us a stained & ripped piece of museum brochure. I reminded my wife again that Michael Jordan's dad was shot and killed near Fayetteville NC. In any case, the Special Forces Musuem was FREE and probably worth a visit, though strewn with much propaganda. The museum is large, very clean and well-set-up. Here's a close-up of a parachute frozen in deployment:


Here's a shot of the underside of an actual C47 in the Normandy, D-Day exhibit:




Genealogy



One of the other things my wife and I have been hooked-on recently is the idea of tracing one's genealogy the best you can. My wife's lines we thought would be relatively easy since her family on all four lines were all in North Carolina since the 1700s and many of their graves were nearby. It turns out nothing is very simple. When we visited the NC State Archives, we were disappointed to realize that once you go back to pre-1900s and before, all census data, marriage records, death records, land deeds, wills, etc. were written in long-hand, usually cursive, with a fountain-pen or quill-pen. In fact, even blown-up on microfilm, it can be very difficult to decipher with certainty what you are reading. It takes a lot of detective work and much corroborative and redundant pieces of evidence to convince yourself that something such as a birth or marriage date is an absolute fact. Many times the dates are off by a year, or by a day, purely by the vagaries of the person entering the data. It would turn out that some scribe re-copying information collected during a census would read "Sarah" written by an individual in the field as a "Mary" and confidently write it as such on the official records - exasperating. What we found to be the source of greatest certainty is often the family Bible. Here is a copy of my wife's maternal grandfather's:

It seems old folks used to write in birth, marriage, and death dates into the middle of these bibles on pages duly meant for such purposes. Again an ancestor's bad penmanship ruins any efforts at properly confirming these records also, but fortunately these were much more legible.

Besides communicating with many of the older members of the family, an exciting aspect of genealogy tracing is visiting old cemetaries. It takes a lot of good research to locate the place of burial of a long-lost ancestor - we were able to track several down by reading a newsletter written by one of my wife's great-aunts. It actually took a trip into a local (county) library where we thought the cemetary was located to ascertain the actual location.

This is the Randolph Library in Asheboro, NC.

We found that there were two churches with identical names located within 30 miles of each other, Tabernacle United Methodist Church - by happenstance, we had wasted an afternoon rooting through the wrong church cemetary. By looking through the cemetary rolls at the county library, we discovered that there are ladies who go around every 50 or so years or and read tombstones and record what they read - by looking through these readings, my wife finally located a cemetary where several of her direct ancestors were buried (not in Randolph, but in Guilford County, NC). Once we arrived, we were shocked to find the condition some of these 200+ year-old tombstones were in:


We were gratified to be able to read (via tracing on paper over the markings) some of them and confirming the birth/death dates we had researched from family bibles and state and county archive records. It turns out that doing "tombstone rubbings" is bad for the delicate old tombstones - there are better ways to read it using tangential lighting at night, or with water, etc. Here is an impressively well preserved tombstone of a great(5)grandfather of my wife who was born 1775:

His wife Hanna Fields buried next to him was grand-daughter of a Christopher Vickery who fought with George Washington in Valley Forge. It seemed like none of the tombstones much older than this, and many of the tombstones even a hundred years younger were easily legible. I guess limestone was used for some of the worst ones because it was cheaper than granite or marble. It looks like really tracing out one's genealogy and keeping up with all 4 grandparents lines with all the children in all branches will be a nearly lifelong endeavor. We'll be writing it into a genealogy software program and hopefully publish it onto our websites to share with family if we ever get on with it.

Swan Chicks

We've been busy thus far this Spring, hiking, doing school projects, working, etc. Above is a picture I took hiking around our neighborhood - there is a group of Swans which hatched out some young around a lake - these young chicks looked very hardy but within a week only a couple were left and all were gone within 3 weeks - I wonder if neighborhood cats might have eaten them.

Our Very First Yard Sale
Last month, one of our neighbors suggested they were thinking about yardsaling and we jumped on-board (actually my wife did). Someone else in our neighborhood had taken out a newspaper ad in the local papers to run a yardsale in our neighborhood, so we took advantage of this fortuitous free advertising to go for it. We gathered up a whole bunch of junk we thought might be sale-able and tagged them as to price (this took all day).

Here are some photos of the junk we were setting out in our garage the night before the yardsale:


It took 3-4 good truck-fuls to drive down the hill to our neighbors house for storage overnight. Apparently the yard-sale went from about 07:30 to about noon-time. This was our very first attempt at a yard sale and we didn't know that most yard-salers were looking for items in the 25cents to $3 range. We tried to unload our Sears power edger, our push-reel-mower, and things like that and they didn't sell at all. We got rid of a lot of my kids' junking plastic toys though as well as a huge plastic toy boat/sand-pit monstrosity (this huge item sold for $6). In the end, she ended up bringing back about 2-3 truckfuls of stuff which didn't sell. We were surprised at what did and didn't sell. For instance, nobody would buy the highest quality items like new-appearing Gymboree toys or furniture, but would buy the junkiest junk (like an ancient Pentax camera with scratched lenses). My wife was very stressed out over this yard sale so I don't know how often or if we'll do this again. I unfortunately work most weekends so I couldn't help much. She made about $184 for all this effort - the biggest benefit of it was actually in freeing up some free space in our attic and garage. We still have a basement and attic full of junk to get rid of. We're thinking of donating some of our inappropriate furniture to Habitat for Humanity later this year.

Changing Schools for Next Year

Good news is our son was accepted into a local Charter Montessori school for next year. Our son has been going to a private Montessori school over the past 2 years. Though he enjoys his school and has become quite attached to his classmates, we couldn't justify the thousands of dollars a year in tuition and expenses for a school which frankly we didn't think gave us good value for the money. We had our son tested recently by a neighbor who is an academically-gifted programs instructor for our local county school system. We had him tested because we were honestly worried that he was lazy, unmotivated, and slow to respond to questions about math and reading comprehension. However, he was always a quick study on various matters and usually remembered things well. We were concerned that he needed a more "standard" and goal-oriented program of study, including more testing and competition than a Montessori education could offer. I've read several Montessori books including all of Maria Montessori's fabulous original works and the system seems almost too good to be true. I'm convinced now however that the drawbacks of the system is in the lack of teaching to the real-world of test-driven education. It would be great to be able to get into a good college or high-school without having to submit standardized test scores, but this is not how the world works anymore. Well the good news was that our son tests so well on the 3rd grade level tests (though he is only a first grader), that our neighbor tells us that these IQ and achievement tests are unable to measure his skills adequately. Hopefully he'll be a good test-taker in the future as he seemed to genuinely enjoy taking these batteries of tests. Speaking of testing, I don't know why the College Board folks wanted to change the SATs now into a completely different format - if I were on an elite college admissions board, I'd want some kind of test to show me how intrinsically smart a kid was as well as how active and well-rounded he has been throughout his school years. With this politically-correctoid change in the system, it looks like most college boards might have to resort to a standardized IQ test like the Wechsler test to get this information - what a waste of resources. I saw that Frontline show on the SAT a couple years ago and I can see the problems inherent in the test, but you're not going to be able to ever create the perfect test and the SATs have been in place for so many decades now that it has created its own history and culture. Everybody knows what you mean when you say "my girl scored 1580 on the SATs" or "my son scored 1100" - you automatically start thinking various subsets of colleges when you couple their scores with their high-school grades and activities profiles. Now with this standardized test score totally tabula rasa, it's going to be very difficult for everybody to figure a kid's near-term future out.

The best news for us in the change to a charter school is that this school is free, and thus fits into our new goals to live a frugal lifestyle. It will also free up money we could invest into a college/private high-school fund for both our kids. I'm either going to go ahead and call up a Schwab broker to set something up myself in the near future or maybe call up an old friend of ours who is a successful lawyer/financial advisor to help us.

I read some books recently which I wanted to comment on:

1. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

2. Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, by Barbara Ehrenreich

3. The Wealthy Barber, by David Chilton

4. Frugal Families: Making the Most of Your Hard-Earned Money, by Jonni McCoy

Barbara Ehrenreich is a liberal sociologist who writes mostly about American culture. She makes some very interesting observations and meta-analyses political movements and media behaviors. Her approach is sympathetic to left-wing causes and her Fear of Falling is I think a very good book to read alongside Bernard Goldberg's very provocative Bias : A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News. I enjoyed her Nickel and Dimed book the most as it was mostly a voyeuristic recounting of her experiences as a minimum-wage worker. I couldn't help but think that most of these minimum wage-earners ought to read Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad books and Dominguez's Your Money or Your Life to help themselves to a better life.

The only thing I have to say about the Wealthy Barber and Frugal Families is that these are two fairly inferior publications. I think if you know nothing about managing your money the Wealthy Barber is something you could pick up, though there are many better books of its type. Jonni McCoy's Frugal Families, like her Miserly Moms book is a copy-cat frugal lifestyle book in the tradition of Heloise or the Tightwad Gazettes.

Our Food Bill is Getting Better

By trying to copy many of the tips and tricks from all these frugality books, we've been having some good results with our grocery bills.
Here are our grocery bills from 2003:
Jan - $742
Feb - $732.90
Mar - $742.98
April - $621.20

Here are our grocery totals from 2004:
Jan - $330.97
Feb - $459.47
Mar - $491.93
April - $316.43

In addition, our dining out bills for 2003 were, as I've said before, astronomical - we never kept up with all our receipts and never counted the stray can of ice tea from a vending machine for sure. I'm estimating from our past receipts that we might have spent $500 to $1000 per month on dining out last year. Check out our dining out totals for this year thus far:
Jan - $137.65
Feb - $33.06
Mar - $75.80
April - $54.17

These figures do include every penny spent - including our son's weekly "pizza day" at school and meals we paid for to celebrate birthdays and for when friends or family came over and wanted to order out pizza (i.e. things which would have been nearly impossible to avoid without an ugly scene). I think practically ~$30/month is as good as we're probably going to do, though we'll keep trying to do better.

Here are two big expenses for us this May: our son's taekwondo program costs about $150/month if paid monthly, $119/month if paid annually, $109/month if paid 2 years at a time, and $99/month if paid 3 years in advance. We've decided to go for the 3-year program after talking at length with our son. Our son's taekwondo is advantageous not only for its fitness promotion and acculturation to his ancestry, but we feel could become an asset in term of self-defense, self-confidence, and future admissions to competitive schools. He has already won a medal and two trophies from local competitions. He is very eager to continue it even though I have suggested to him to quit if he is losing interest (said in a moment of "simple/frugal life" ethos excess). This is going to cost us around $3600 but we happen to have some extra cash in our accounts and though this is clearly not a frugal move, we believe it is a good investment in our son's education and future.

The other big expense is that we are going to pay off our 2nd car (the Honda Pilot) - about $3000 left on the purchase from last January 2003. This behemoth cost us about $36,000 with all its fittings and options. By paying off this car, we will deplete our savings over the past year, but we will be able to re-set our expenses to exclude the "car loan" line which has been between $658 to $1200 monthly. This will get rid of our 4th largest monthly expenditure (after mortgage, kid's education fund, and retirement). In the future, I've vowed to never purchase a car with financing every again. Also, we are never going to purchase a gas guzzler ever again. Our Honda CRV guzzles gas at the rate of between 20 and 25 mpg (all-around usage). Our Honda Pilot guzzles gas at the rate of between 17 and 21 mpg (all around usage). With gas prices around 1.72/gal at our local warehouse clubs' gas pumps, that figures out to a couple hundred dollars a month on gas! Gas at our corner station is being sold at a criminal $1.96/gallon. We are monitoring with great hopes to the future of hybrid cars like the Toyotal Prius If only their Consumer Reports repair records, NHTSA/NCAP crash records, insurance institute crash tests, and Edmunds.com reports within the next coming years come out favorably disposed toward these vehicles, we hope to make them our next automobile purchases. When our kids are grown and out of the house, I think my wife and I could easily get by on one small automobile (for long trips), and maybe a scooter - kind of like the one Jim Carrey used on Dumb and Dumber.

Stepping Off the Consumerist Track

A couple of books which everyone from teens onward need to read before entering into our Society today:

1.Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

2.The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn

3.The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko

4.Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin

5.Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf et.al.



De Graaf and Elgin approach the consumerism of our American society with a left-wing liberal stance while Amy Dacyczyn approaches it from a very pragmatic and conservative perspective. Joe Dominguez is probably somewhere in the middle in his approach, but more conservative than liberal. No matter what your ideology may be, these books carry the common thread that WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF cluttering our lives - that we have let ourselves become puppets in a game played by Marketers. Why do we need to upgrade the Microsoft Windows program every 2 years? Why do we need 100 television channels (all garbage)? Why do we need a 52" plasma-screen TV? Why do we need new clothes every year? Just a cursory review of one's values and a moment's thought will convince any reasonable person that he needs none of that garbage.

There is a very brief and trendy book written by Elizabeth Warren and her daughter (The Two-Income Trap...) which tries to enable the modern consumerist behavior of Americans by providing several lame excuses. In typical liberal fashion, the Warrens point the blame for such behavior on everybody and everything except on the perpetrators themselves. According to them, we have already done the best we can - shopping and overspending are all justified in the name of our own well-being. According to them Banks, large Corporations, and governments have led us ignorant pawns into debt traps - we must change the laws instead of our own behavior in order to help ourselves. This is all drivel - I'm certain anyone who decides to purchase something they can't afford realizes they are making a mistake. This type of over-spending is a disease, a pathological behavior, not an inevitable series of decisions made for justifiable reasons as the Warrens claim.

Of all these books, probably the most life-transforming book is Joe Dominguez's unfortunately & kitschily-titled book (Your Money or Your Life) - this books looks very much like one of those self-help-pop-psycho-babble financial-gurued-Ponzi-schemoid-looking rags and its appearance and title might be off-putting to people who believe themselves to be too good for this sort of advice. This book nevertheless distills in very concise and simple terms the essential philosophies and actions one must take to transform oneself from a mindless automaton who shops recreationally and spends his life energy away into a person living with common old-fashioned sense. Some of the advice in this book is a bit too simple, maybe too inflexible, but the essential points in the book are worth millions of dollars to anyone: that one must keep track of every penny one spends, that one must live with near-term and long-term financial goals in mind, that there is more to life than making money, that one must live with frugality and wisdom.

My favorite book of the above however is Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette - her approach is so revolutionary and her example is so inspiring that this book has caused my wife and me to make spectacular changes in our lifestyle. Last year at this time, our typical day began with deciding where to eat for lunch - typically someplace like Quizno's subs where we gobbled down about $15 worth of fast-food with sodas. We'd then drive around our local mega-shopping conglomerations, touring Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, BJ's Warehouse, Best-Buy, Home-Depot, and maybe our local mega-mall as well. We might have a specific item we would consider purchasing such as a $600 set of All-Clad cookware and look at some prices at various places, but not buy them and so consider ourselves good shoppers. Yet we'd along the way pick up a stray $10 toy here, and some unnecessary $18 stationary items there, and maybe some baby clothes here, some toiletries there, etc. By the end of the day we'd rack up $50-$100 in meaningless purchases. After picking up our son from school, we'd discuss where to eat supper and typically dine at maybe an Italian restaurant where we'd ring up another $35 meal before heading home tired and inexplicably frustrated. Since reading those books above, and especially Amy Dacyczyn's books, we make our own meals (~98% of the time anyway), we have found an ALDI Foods store in Raleigh where we can purchase an all-generic high-quality super-cheap groceries. We've shopped alternatively at a bread outlet store. We've decided to forego our nearest Harris-Teeter (our erstwhile favorite high-priced grocery chain). Yes, we've put together a grocery "PriceBook" per Dacyczyn's advice (I had 5 - that's right FIVE - managers at one grocery store accost me angrily while I madly scribbled the price of almost every item on their shelves). My wife even went to a yardsale last weekend where she purchased a half-dozen outfits for our 2 year-old at 25cents each. These behaviors are unheard of for us - we were inveterate brand-name and label readers. Our favorite phrase used to be "you get what you pay for." But on further investigation and experimentation, we found that many of Dacyczyn's advice rang true - just as with most pharmaceuticals, many generic products perform just as well as their brand-name brethren costing much more. As an example a generic Aldi vanilla wafer costing less than half Nabisco's Nilla wafers taste just as good. A slice of 55cent per loaf honey-wheat bread taste just as good as Nature's Own Honey Wheat slice costing $2.39 per loaf! There are certain items where a specific flavor may be so imprinted into my chemoreceptor-memories such as Heinz's ketchup or Tabasco sauce, that a generic will not suffice. But these items are few. I've calculated that we could possibly cut into our monthly food bill by another 33-50% if we followed many of Dacyczyn's techniques (such as "shopping to stock your pantry" rather than shopping to fulfill certain meals). We used to spend about $1000 per month dining out on top of another $500-$600 on groceries. We were able to cut our monthly grocery and dining bill to $400-$500 thus far, and can project that we could eat happily and comfortably on between $250-$300 per month - Amy Dacyczyn would scoff at such numbers since she has fed her family of 8 on $180 per month. But for us, this is tremendous. I've placed an order for TVP (texturized vegetable protein) - a dry soybean by-product substitutable for meat in many dishes, cheaper than tofu and all meats. My local small health-food store is letting me have a 25lb bag of this stuff at 10% off their $1.09/lb price.

We went to the Wake County Libraries annual booksale last week - it was quite an extravaganza. There were literally hundreds of people lined up around the block waiting for the warehouse to open - camera crews from our local WRAL newsteam were there filming hundreds of tightwad nerds near-rioting over used books. Hardbacks were going for $4 each (no bargain), paperbacks for $1 each (ok deal) the first night. The weekend promised BOXFULS of books for $5 or bagfuls for $2. Needless to say, we got ourselves a buttload of books this weekend. We actually spent $25 total in books, but got a load of books - What Color is Your Parachute 2001 edition, Motley Fools' Investment Guide, The Frugal Gourmet, Betty Crocker's Cookbook, about a dozen children's books, several medical books, etc. including an entire set (I,II,III) of Amy Dacyczyn's Tightwad Gazette books! (we read from library copies and didn't have our own copy til now). We plan to eventually resell most of these books to our local used bookstores for credit or cash. Since we didn't really need any of these books, I guess this was a very consumerist thing to do and only added to our clutter and affluenza, but this was a hell of a good time and served as good entertainment as well.

My near-term goal is to participate in a yard-sale where we actually are selling our own stuff instead of buying other people's junk. We have so much junk in our house that I believe yard-salers would salivate over some of our stuff. According to the Millionaire Next Door book's research, physicians are horrendous spendthrifts and are almost always "Under Accumulators of Wealth" for many reasons enumerated in that book. The reason that most rings true is that we are expected to live in a certain lifestyle and behave and appear at a certain level toward our public and our patients. Just as Realtors must "look successful" in order to be successful, doctors must appear affluent and successful. As a result, as described in that book, a surgeon earning $700,000 a year, might have $300,000 in annual basal expenses and so after taxes end up with the "Big Hat, No Cattle" syndrome. Well, we are determined to break the mould - neither my wife nor I give a shit about what others think about us, including most of our patients honestly. Both my wife and I dress like we did when we were in college - typically in T-shirts and sneakers. We will honestly never purchase a luxury car. We will try to avoid cavorting with our physician friends and colleagues. In fact, we try to avoid letting anyone know we are physicians because we know that doctors get crapped on everywhere they go. For example, at a typical Medical Conference, our medical societies would tip us off that we will get cheap rates at the hotel if we tell them we are with them - of course when we fall for this sucker-bait, we are indeed offered the "Special Rate for Doctors Only" - gee thanks for the special deal guys! Physicians are one of the most likely to get audited by the IRS, we get one of the highest automobile insurance rates, we are the most likely to get sued (I've been sued already once and had to endure a grueling 2 week trial last year - more about this later), and this book shows us that physicians are one of the people least likely to become millionaires. Despite this, the public believes all doctors are rich and live like Orthopedic and Plastic surgeons to the Hollywood stars. After finally climbing out of debt 18 years after highschool, this poor physician couple (both primary care) are happy to be living paycheck to paycheck. Sure we could have done better had we lived frugally like Amy Dacyczyn, but we are surrounded by Affluenza-stricken, consumerist spend-thrifts, bad advisors, and most importantly, "the inner desire for More" within us which we kept caged within during our poor college years and medical-school years, through our overworked-yet-still-poor-as-hell residency years (while our friends who began work out of college were socking away thousands in their 401ks and making big bucks during the dot.com boom/bust cycle). The mantra of "delayed gratification" which keeps many student-physicians going through residencies and fellowships lasting decades will often lead to a burst of wild spending upon landing their first jobs. This self-destructive spending post-education often entrenches young doctors into the under-accumulator-of-wealth track - we are one of the thousands of examples. Upon careful calculation, I have determined that my wife and I will never be rich, but we also will never be destitute, and we are happy enough for that. My long-term goals: to stay married (never divorce), to reasonably fund my two babies' college education using the 529 college savings plan, to try to pay off my mortgage as soon as possible (before 14 years), to sock away as much into retirement as possible before I turn 60 years old - so as to generate an amount providing financial independence as defined by the late Joe Dominguez.

How to Make Banana Pudding, Sloppy-Tofu

First the Banana Pudding, a Southern staple dessert.
1.My wife separated the egg yolks from the egg whites, then beat the egg yolks,
and finally poured 3 cups of milk into the beaten yolks:


2.Combined 3-1/2 TBSP of all-purpose flour, 1-1/3 cups of sugar, a dash of salt in a deep pot, then
poured the above milk/egg mixture into this pot and cooked over medium heat stirring constantly til
smooth and thickened, this is your banana pudding base:


3.Then removed from heat and added 1 TSP of vanilla extract.


4.In a presentation dish/pot, you start your layering of Nilla wafers:


5.Add 2-4mm slices of bananas:


6.Pour some of the pudding base onto this, then start your second layer:


Pour more base and your ready for your final layer. You arrange some Nilla wafers
circumferentially and you're ready to whip up your egg whites into a meringue:


7.Gradually add 1/4 cup + 2TBSP of sugar slowly while beating your egg whites til foamy.
Add 1 TSP of vanilla and beat til blended:


8.Then spread your meringue over the custard and seal to edge of dish. Bake at 425F for 10 minutes.
Here's the resulting Banana Pudding:


9.Place this into your refrigerator to cool, and get ready to make some

SLOPPY TOFU:

I.This is easily done using Hunt's Manwich sauce. First get two blocks of extra firm tofu - like
Melissa's. Dice the tofu into 1/2cm bits or smaller:


II.Fry up for 10-15minutes after draining as
much water out as possible in a frying pan with some canola oil. You can tip the frying pan
slightly and spoon out as much of the water as possible during this frying also.
When the tofu bits are looking fried and less jiggly, you're ready for the Manwich sauce.


III.Pour on the Manwich sauce and mix into the tofu bits. (If you're not vegetarian, you can also
add scrambled egg bits, bits of chicken, turkey, or groundbeef, whatever).


IV.Stir and mix constantly in the Manwich sauce for about 4-5minutes, then let cool another 5 minutes.
While the Manwich mix is cooling, you can toast some buns and put a slice of cheese on the bottoms
(to hold in the Manwich sauce). Here's the final Manwich sauce vegetarian sloppy joe's - SLOPPY TOFU:


This tofu-Manwich meal with Banana pudding dessert takes maybe 1-2 hours to make depending on whether
it's just one or two people making it. It serves up to 4 Jethros. This might be the last recipe entry in my journal for a while. But here are some other plates we fix up for ourselves when we feel like it. The one I
was most tempted to do as my next "recipe" was the Inari Sushi dish which is very excellent and easy to make Japanese item:

You could fry up some Tempura with dipping sauce, some California-rolls to go with it all. It makes an
excellent dinner which all kids will eat once they try it.

Here are some other simple plates we fix for ourselves:
Ramen:


Pancakes and sausage (and scrambled eggs, hashbrowns in ketchup):


Tempura - vegetables lightly fried in batter served with tempura sauce and rice:


So this will probably be the last of these menu items on my weblog. But I hope you can see
how and why we don't need to go out to eat anymore.

Baked Ziti (and mashed potatoes)

Today we made baked ziti. Here are the ingredients:



This is a recipe I from from someplace I forgot. We've been making ziti this way since around 1997.
First you boil some filtered water - about 4-6qt, enough to cover all the ziti that comes in one of those 16oz boxes. At the same time, you can heat up the sauce on medium to low - avoid burning it, just roil it enough to kill off any remaining bacteria if present. You can also get your baking pan oiled up with olive oil, bring out some butter to soften:


Once the water gets boiling good, turn the heat down from high to about 7, pour in the ziti and let cook about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking on the bottom. Once the ziti is cooked, pour it into a collander (an absolutely necessary cooking item, even if you are a non-cook bachelor - I've had mine since I was in college). Turn your oven to 350F and set to bake for 19minutes.


Now to make the ziti sauce, throw about 1 tablespoons of butter onto the pot you just used to heat the ziti - set the heat to about 4. Pour about 2 cups of milk into the pot, add about a teaspoon of salt, break out the mozzarella cheese, and add about 1/2 of an 8oz packet of this into this concoction, allow to simmer until numerous small bubbles show on the top and all the cheese and butter is melted. Add the SECRET INGREDIENT: 3 good squirts of French's golden yellow mustard. Turn off the heat and allow to simmer about a minute or so with constant stirring. Add about 1/2 cup of cornmeal mix (or self-rising flour works ok too). Now add the cooked and drained ziti into this concoction carefully and stir and mix up and pour onto your baking plate:


Stir-up some more in this baking plate (pre-oiled) and ladle on some of your tomato sauce on top, then add the rest of the mozzarella from your packet and you're ready to put the plate into the oven:



Go ahead and put it in. Now let's make

Mashed Potatoes



This is SO easy to make. I'm going to make 6 servings of it here. You boil 2 cups of filtered water with 3 tablespoons of butter in it. As soon as it starts boiling well, turn off the stove, and add 2 cups of "instant mashed potato flakes" and 1/4 cup of milk:


You stir but not too vigorously and within seconds like magic you see mashed potatoes forming. All children like this stuff. You can also add this sidedish to the vegetable plate we made a couple days ago.
Within a few minutes the timer for the baked ziti will beep and it's time to set the table. So here's the final product: