Greg In The Desert

Serious Eats, one of my regular food blogs, has been in New Mexico. Recently they describe Sopaipillas.

Deep-fried, the dough pieces puff up dramatically, crisping on the surface while remaining soft and tender inside. The perfect sopaipilla? The outermost layer, fried in the oil, should be paper-thin and crisp on the corners. When properly fried, the interior will separate into two layers: the chewy yet soft layer of dough directly underneath the browned shell, followed by the innermost layer—soft, a little stretchy, and just cooked through.
While each New Mexico restaurant has their own rendition, all tables are stocked with a bottle of honey, the traditional condiment for slathering.

Sopaipillas are something that most people out of state complain to me about once they have had them in New Mexico. Rarely can they be found out of state.

One thing to watch out for in New Mexico are restaurants which use artificial honey. It’s some sort of concoction of sugary syrup that looks like honey but usually contains high fructose corn syrup. It’s more common that most people know and most restaurants won’t admit to it.

• Foodborne illness: An acute and long-term health challenge for the 21st century | Science Blog – CFI's report, The Long-Term Health Outcomes of Selected Foodborne Pathogens, calls for a new approach to foodborne illness research and surveillance and provides expert reviews about some of the long-term health outcomes for five foodborne pathogens. The outcomes range from hypertension and diabetes to kidney failure and mental retardation.
• Arizona lands solar manufacturing facility – Phoenix Business Journal: – The company, which is based in Wuxi, China, and has its American offices in San Francisco, has not settled on a site as of yet. Company officials cited its work with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council as well as the state’s renewable energy standard and potential research relationships with Arizona State University as the reasons behind its decision. The plant will initially employ about 75 people with the potential to double that within the first year.
• Local News | ‘Missing’ SeaTac man found with new name, in new state | Seattle Times Newspaper – Earlier this year, Christine Francisco got a divorce and, in an interview with KIRO-TV, said she had subsequently learned her husband had been leading a double life, complete with hidden bank accounts.
• Mysterious Porpoise Deaths Blamed On Berserk Dolphins – News Story – KTVU San Francisco – Marine biologists have figured out why a growing number of dead harbor porpoises have been found on California beaches in recent years: dolphin attacks.
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Recipe For Hypertension, Study Finds – Over the last 200 years, the rate of fructose intake has directly paralleled the increasing rate of obesity, which has increased sharply in the last 20 years since the introduction of HFCS. Today, Americans consume 30% more fructose than 20 years ago and up to four times more than 100 years ago, when obesity rates were less than 5%. While this increase mirrors the dramatic rise in the prevalence of hypertension, studies have been inconsistent in linking excess fructose in the diet to hypertension.
• News : Desalinization plant presents sustainability, waste concerns – Rio Rancho Observer – Jensen is also concerned with what happens after 100 years. “The deepwater isn’t renewable, so when it’s gone, it’s gone,” he said. “So, if it’s being used to promote more growth and more development and more housing, when that water runs out, there’s going to be a huge question of where the water comes from to supply the new population. That is a serious issue.”
• Report: Motorola looking at selling unit – Motorola Inc. is seeking to sell its largest division, which includes Tempe operations, according to a report Wednesday. Motorola has a location in Tempe at 2900 S. Diablo Way. The Schaumburg, Ill., company is exploring a sale worth about $4.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal's Web site, which cited "people familiar with the matter."
• Al Jazeera English – Americas – Rio gangs down police helicopter – Suspected drug traffickers in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro have shot down a police helicopter monitoring a shootout between rival armed gangs.
• Florissant deer gores woman who tried to pet it – The Denver Post – A young buck mule deer gored a 63-year-old woman near Florissant on Monday after she apparently called to the animal in an attempt to pet him, officials from the state Division of Wildlife said today in a news release.
• Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men: Scientific American – Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.

• Reading the Tea Leaves, Snapple Refreshes Itself – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com – The popular iced teas are losing the high-fructose corn syrup and the dated font. The bottles are becoming more svelte (to better fit into cup holders, which became a force after Snapple iced teas were originally introduced). The labels will also emphasize the green and black tea leaves used to make the drink. The changes are rolling out over the first few months of the year, and they are expected to hit New York in early March, according to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which is now the owner of the brand.

  Real sugar is replacing the corn syrup. (Sugar vs. corn syrup, by the way, is the difference between Mexican and American Coca-Cola.) In some cases, that has actually resulted in a decrease in calories.

• U.S. Bancorp CEO Davis rips TARP – TwinCities.com – There is no "A, R or P" in the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, quipped U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis Tuesday morning in front of about 300 business people in Minneapolis.

  "It's just troubled," the 50-year-old CEO said at the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' Business Leaders Forum. The forum invites executives to discuss how business and their principles intersect."We were told to take it so that we could help Darwin synthesize the weaker banks and acquire those and put them under different leadership," he said. "We are not even allowed to mention that. … We were supposed to say the TARP money was used for lending."

• First Arizona jaguar captured, collared, released – Arizona Game and Fish Department officials captured, collared and released the first jaguar found in Arizona borders Wednesday.

  The 118-pound male cat was found in a lug hold snare set out by department officials and fitted with a satellite-tracking collar and released.

  Terry Johnson, Endangered Species Specialist at the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said the jaguar was confirmed by his spotted pattern to be Macho B, a jaguar that has been photographed by trail cameras for about 13 years.

• Green Chile Chatter: SOS audit finds "severe mismanagement" – State auditor Hector Balderas has just released an audit of the Secretary of State's Office for the time period of July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007. According to the office, the auditors were "unable to express an opinion on the financial condition of the SOS due to questionable payments of $6,308,350 in federal voter education funds made to a contractor by the former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron’s administration."
• Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Ingredient Spotlight: New Mexico Green Chiles – I visited Albuquerque last week and although I wasn't in town at the right time for farmers' markets or the annual chile harvest, I did get to experience some of the local cuisine. Just about every other meal I was served contained the famous New Mexico green chiles. These deliciously hot peppers made their way into everything from omelettes to biscuits to enchiladas.
• Young man paralyzed in crash after underage drinking party settles lawsuit against Lake Forest homeowner — chicagotribune.com – A Lake Forest woman's homeowners insurance will pay $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a young man who was paralyzed in a crash that occurred after an underage drinking party in her home.

  Unlike other lawsuits alleging that adults played a role in teenage drinking parties, Pfeifer did not buy the alcohol for the teens or know they were drinking in her home. Pfeifer did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, said Michael Borders, her lawyer.

• Books reject Wyatt Earp as hero at OK Corral gunfight – But not everyone agrees that Earp was preserving law and order when he led his band against the Clanton and McLaury gang, killing Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury.

  A recent book and one that's soon to be published contend that the gunfight actually was a murderous ambush led by Earp, continuing a debate that has echoed since the incident.

• Hewlett Packard disappoints in so many ways – Top Stocks Blog – MSN Money – Although many corporate communication plans may be designed to confound and confuse, it is important that you as an investor understand how to read between the lines. The truth is that companies use differing tactics in an attempt to put a positive spin on the corporate outlook. Unfortunately though, that does not provide investors any real benefit since guidance is suppose to help investors understand more about a company's outlook, not to put an additional layer of lipstick on the pig…so to speak.

  With that as a backdrop, let's have a look at the most recent earnings releases and guidance announcements from HP.

• Google Earth’s ‘Atlantis’ Just A Data Glitch — Google Earth — InformationWeek – The addition of sea-floor topography to Google Earth earlier this month revealed what some claim could be the lost city of Atlantis.

  But Google says the undersea grid lines spotted by aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford while browsing Google Earth's ocean maps are data artifacts rather than sunken streets.

• Let’s put it to the tourists, or how to bite the hand that feeds you. – I got a notice today from TANM (Tourism Association of NM) via the NM Bed & Breakfast Association. Apparently there is a freshman Senator from Corrales who thinks it would be a good idea to add a statewide lodge tax of 10% on all lodging across the board – statewide. Let me tell you something about this.

  John Sapien

  NM State Senator – District 9 "

  What a crock of shit. He is sponsoring the bill, FGS.

  Here is what he told an innkeeper in Corrales:

  "He was not at all sympathetic to any of my arguments why SB595 is not a good bill, especially in the current economic times. He said “no one looks at taxes when they are booking rooms- they just ask for the room rate and then may be surprised (and may be temporarily annoyed) when they check out and see what the ultimate price of the room was”. Nothing I said- based on our experience with potential guests would dissuade him."

My favorite cooking show host Alton Brown has seen the light

“research has led me to believe that the obesity crises in this country stems not only from lack of exercise but from the uber-ubiquitous use of two ingredients in packaged/manufactured foods: high fructose corn syrup (devised in Japanese labs in the early ?70s) and hydrogenated (or partially hydrogenated) fats. I believe?or at least hypothesize, that were these ingredients completely removed from our diets, we?d be okay. No we wouldn?t be able to eat anything we want and still sit on our butts Tivo-ing Dr. Phil but we?d be a heck of a lot better off”

(May 7th 2004)Well DUH! I respect this guy but I cannot believe it he has just now figured it out. Hopefully he uses his new found knowledge and incorporates it into his show. I came to this realization about 2 years ago and about a year ago I started to reduce my intake of high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats. The results: over 25lbs of weight loss without doing anything else. I haven’t been able to completely eliminate them but the increased amounts of fiber and heathy foods should be enough to flush out the crap, so to speak.

I’m still not the weight I was when I was 18, that would take another 25lbs. What I really need to do is, as Alton did, work out. I was doing that quite a bit about 5 years ago with good results but I didn’t change my diet. Today I’m just not motivated. It’s getting more and more a priority, maybe I need to make this a goal for this year.

For you dear reader I implore you. Next time you buy something at the grocery store that’s in a convenient factory made package. Look closely at the ingredients. If you don’t know what they are should you be putting them in your body or your families body? It’s doing more bad than good.