Zoogirl, my biggest concern was offending anyone, even though I cant carry the bags of hammers of others. I have had situations on other forums for other things, that got weird. In some forums there are patriarch/matriarch situations where my enthusiastic wording rubs the elites of the sites the wrong way. Like "who is this jerk coming in here being all prolific like he's been here for years like me". I've had to leave sites over that. It's a shame because one was a sobriety forum...and the leaders aggravated me so much, I left...which is a failure of the goal of the site!

I really appreciate you clarifying, and please except my apology if I seemed a bit "prickly". Now you know why.



Kdc01, Thanks! I’ll give those a look, especially if they are in my local library. I’m bad about buying books. I’m very literate, but not a book reader so I buy them and they end up gathering dust after a few chapters. Even most recipe books because I’m a web-then-make it my own recipe type. Tweaking stuff to my taste and experience. For instance, a huge misnomer in a lot of recipes is when they tell you to start with garlic in oil, then onions...and so on. Garlic gets bitter when cooked too long in a frying pan and this is why a lot of people say they don’t like garlic…what they really don’t like is burnt or overcooked garlic! Most pro chefs will tell you to add the garlic at the end of a sauté, cook for a minute or so max, then add liquids or proceed with the recipe. But old habits die hard, I still see some on TV doing the old mistake, one exception is some Asian food…the burnt or browned garlic is an integral part of the flavor.






Wow, 12 cans of Coke a day...that's in the same league of my drinking when I'm fully saturated. I can drink 3/4 of a fifth (750ml) of liquor a night easily and that's not even counting a beer or wine earlier in the day or combined with dinner. I can knock down two double martinis in a half hour and be looking for more...and that's before wine with dinner and bourbon after dinner till I fall asleep (pass out?). I've found that I never want to live without drinking totally, so detoxing is the only way I can survive. But the weight loss issue may just be the trick for me to curtail me from slipping back in to total saturation mode with booze. If I lose the weight I want, I'm going to be very protective of that and hopefully get mad at booze when it adds weight back on...like I got mad a Phillip Morris when I stopped smoking...I resented the hold their product had on me. I pride myself on Independence, so addiction is a real personal failure to me.

Baking is hard to give up. That's my wife, especially around the holidays. She has piles of cookies, etc.. For me, I had just begun dabbling in my favorites...yeast breads. I am also a freak for Naan and crusty artisanal breads. There may be some whole grain options down the road we can splurge on. When shopping the other day we scored some protein bread that was on the discount rack. The numbers for both sugars and carbs are phenomenal (if true). If its anything close to bread in taste and texture it will be a party in our mouths! The loaves went in the freezer since we are both not past induction. I'm going to wait on her even though my induction 14 days ends after tomorrow...I'm going to stay close to induction until she gets there with the no-sugar diet, and then we'll sync up.

And yes, my cooking and experience will pay big dividends and already has. I do almost all kinds of application cooking as far as methods including deep frying, and like most men, grilling, but I actually do less and less grilling preferring the cast iron griddle for things I used to grill like hamburgers...you just can’t beat a burger properly flat griddled. We can have that still...just not the bun...

I have been smoking meats for a few years now too, to good success. I've cut down on store bought lunch-meats doing stuff like my own smoked turkey breasts and slicing and freezing packs. I've been looking at doing my own bacon and now is the perfect time. I can eliminate sugar for instance. An Asian store in the city we live near has a great price on pork belly all the time...that will be fun.

I've also started grinding much of my own meat and making my own sausage...unless the deal at the store is too good to pass up. (I'm also a serious coupon/bargain shopper). My breakfast sausage recipe has stopped me form buying any, except for use in recipes...mine is too good to blend with anything. I do my own Italian sausage too, and will be looking at brats as well...and, yes, I also stuff my own sausage in to links...which leads right back to the smoker sometimes! ALL low carb and I can control the ingredients and keep all sugar out! The sad thing is...I have a deep love for Boudin...the real Cajun style, and I have almost perfected it at home...but alas...its white rice heavy...not low carb.

Can you tell I love to talk about cooking?




See my previous post on the battle update

Yes, he is Correct. I refuse to use anything "Google" unless I have to, but this does apply to others. I use Firefox and the Duck Duck Go search engine. I have "political" issues with Google and don’t trust them. They have just been exposed...again...tweaking results to political leans. I don’t like leaning either way.

I do try to practice the "don’t say anything online you wouldn't say in public" rule. Being the person you are all the time no matter what is a simpler life. What you read of me here is exactly how I am in real life...except I use very vulgar language quite a bit. It's a product of me being a huge fan of standup comedy since age 12, and I'm anti-censorship...AND "mommy told me sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me!". I curtail my language in mixed company however very well, you would never know...

My biggest concern about online and sites like this is the personal info we volunteer. We are tracked everywhere, facial recognition in the store cameras tied with your checkout info...those store cards we have to use for sale prices? They know what you like and what you do and what you are about to do. At some point we will reach the "singularity"...like "1984" or the Hunger Games. But for now I'm inherently cautious and don’t volunteer too much direct personal info, especially photos. I left Facebook in 2012 for related reasons. With my "open book" style, I was bound to get myself in trouble and Facebook had already ruined my opinion of most of my friends and family anyway! I also hated when people tagged me…that’s the fast track to the singularity. (I mean our part of what artificial intelligence knows about us in the singularity...for now its all algorithms...the singularity is when the computers think for themselves and learn on their own)