Weekend cooking: Eggplant stew and potato salad

 



Today’s recipe was inspired by having eggplants and potatoes on sale in the local supermarket. I also had some green garlic growing in my backyard (by the way, the garlic is the only edible by humans item,  everything else is devoured by the animals). 

Eggplant Stew

You will need:
3-4 Tbsp of olive or canola oil for cooking
1 big eggplant, peeled, cut into slices of 1/3 inch thickness
2 cans diced tomatoes (15 oz each)
2 medium size onions, peeled and sliced in wedges of 1/3 inch thickness
several garlic cloves, peeled and cut
parsley, washed and cut
5-6 red peppers, baked, peeled, cut into smaller pieces (optional)
salt, paprika, hot pepper flakes

Instructions:
Salt the eggplant and leave it to release some of its bitter liquid (I arrange the slices on a tilted platform to collect the liquid in the opposite direction of the eggplant). Squeeze the liquid out and fry to soften. Remove onto a paper towel to soak the excess oil. In a pot, heat some oil, and soften the onions and the garlic. Add the tomatoes and 15 oz of water. Bring to boil and simmer until garlic and onion are cooked (soft). Add the eggplant and if you have, a few red peppers. Simmer for five minutes, add the parsley. Turn off the heat and season with the spices. 

Potato salad

You will need:

potatoes (10-12 medium size), peeled and cut into chunks

one can of corn (liquid removed)

several stalks of green garlic (washed and cut thinly)

one medium size onion (chopped thinly)

apple cider vinegar, salt and olive oil to taste

Instructions:

Boil the potatoes to soft. In a bowl, "massage" the onion with salt until it starts releasing its liquid (this procedure decreases the sharp taste). Mix the potatoes, onions and the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste and enjoy.  

Spring Garden: April, 2017

I did not know I had a bluebell in the garden! It just appeared out of nowhere in my backyard.

These last only a few days. I wished I could sleep under them.

They are fragrant too!

The voracious animals in my garden spared exactly two tulips this year. Let's see how long the flowers will last. I had a collection of magnificent tulips in the past, but all were eaten by the Zoo members in my yard.

I did not even have to plant these.

Almost like a ballerina. Have you read Andersen's Little Ida's flowers? I believe the ball is starting in my garden.

TV Viewing Increases Physical Frailty In The Elderly

By Wags05 at English Wikipedia - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43906515

A study was performed to determine whether the time spent watching television was associated with increased physical frailty in older individuals.

The background/objective from the abstract:

Sedentariness is an important risk factor for poor health. The main objective of this work was to examine the prospective association between television viewing time and indicators of physical function, mobility, agility, and frailty.

And the conclusions from the abstract:

Among older adults, longer television viewing time is prospectively associated with limitations in physical function independently of physical activity.

So, it would seem sitting watching television is a particularly pernicious form of inactivity that causes decreased physical function, at least in the older individuals studied.  Perhaps because watching television is such a passive experience (for example, reading a book may be physically passive but at least the mind is being used) it has such a negative impact. Get off the couch and start doing something.

The Affordable Care Act

Wikipedia page.  Author:  Pete Souza.

For anyone interested in the Affordable Care Act, this post will be highly relevant.

I hope that one day I will be a "semi-early" retiree 😀, so I was quiet grateful to read the comprehensive review compiled by a specialist.

I hope this is helpful to you as well, reader.

British obsession with gardens

I just discovered Britain's Best Back Gardens on YouTube. It is an introduction to the wild range of British obsessions with gardens, flowers, and lawns. 

I enjoyed watching the documentary this rainy Saturday afternoon. My Spring garden was off limits with the rain and low temperatures, so I satisfied my own garden obsession by soaking in the gorgeous views from England. 

Fat, Leptin, Mice, And Colon Cancer

By The original uploader was Bigplankton at English Wikipedia Later versions were uploaded by Sunholm at en.wikipedia. - Human Genome wall for SC99 on ornl.gov. Copied from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1777620 

This study used mice that model colon cancer induced by azoxymethane and dextran sulfate sodium. 

The mice were fed a regular diet or a high-fat diet (HFD), and the researchers found that the HFD-fed mice had more colon inflammation, more tumors, and different gene expression compared to regular-diet mice.  

Some of the changes in the HFD mouse colon were similar to these found in human colon cancer, particularly colon cancer with inflammatory microsatellite instability.  

Leptin and Wnt signaling were altered in the HFD mice, and such alterations are also associated with colon cancer. Upregulation of the leptin pathway is associated with worse overall survival; whereas, Wnt signaling deregulation is often the initiating step in the development of colon cancer.

Taking into account the similarities to the human colon cancer, the importance of diet becomes clear.

Lessons from a few great people

I have not prepared a post for this week.  The situation at my job is hellish and it extracts the soul out of my body.  Exactly like the dementors in the Harry Potter books.
 
Instead of writing something on my own, I would like to share a few great posts written by Cory Galbraith.

If you read the first post, Get Paid What You're Worth: Advice from the 4 foot Mathematician, at the end of it, you will be able to access other posts by the same author.
 
They are all good stories. It is sad, however, that history repeats itself, but we never learn its lessons.

Weekend cooking: Easter bread

This is the Easter breakfast of my childhood: hot cocoa, sweet Easter bread, dyed eggs, and a few pieces of cheese.

Back then, to prepare the breakfast we would drop by the local bakery and buy a magnificent huge loaf of Easter bread. Today, there is no bakery in sight! So this year, I downloaded several recipes from Internet, and braced myself to bake my own Easter bread version. Of course, I introduced a few quirks in the recipe.

Easter bread
You need:
a pinch of salt, 1 lemon, (for its zest)
2 Tbsp rum (any)
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup of raisins (optional)
1 packet of dry yeast
1 cup of milk (room temperature)
3/4 cup of sugar
4 eggs (save one yolk to brush on top of the bread)
1/2 cup olive oil
4 1/2 cups of flour (I use 1:1 white to whole wheat flour)
 
For the glaze:
1 yolk
1 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
 
Sprinkle:
2 Tbsp crystal sugar

Instructions:
Dissolve the yeast in the milk with a teaspoon of sugar. Leave for a few minutes to re-hydrate the yeast. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt. Separately, mix the eggs with the sugar until well combined (I use a fork to vigorously beat the eggs). Add the yeast, oil, rum, vanilla, lemon zest, and raisins.

Make a well in the flour and pour the egg/sugar in. Slowly start incorporating the flour with the liquid (by hand). The dough will be soft. Make sure that the bowl has flour on the bottom, under the dough. Cover with saran wrap and a kitchen towel. Leave to rise for four hours (I leave the dough on top of the fridge, where it is warmer). Mix the three ingredients for the glazing, and store in the fridge until use.

Separate the dough into three parts, shape into long strips and braid them on top of a cookie sheet that has been oil-sprayed and floured. If the dough braid is long enough, make a circle out of it. You could also separate the dough into five to six balls, and then combine them into a dome-like structure. The shape of the bread depends upon your preferences. Cover the shaped bread again, and let it rise for at least another 30 minutes. Before baking, brush the bread with the glaze and sprinkle with crystal sugar. Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.

Verdict: The bread was delightful, fragrant, and not too sweet. If you want it to rise more, use only white flour. 

What else was for Easter?  I made the stuffed chicken again. 

On Easter morning, we had an early breakfast with an introduction played by our vintage Easter bunny (see below), and egg "fights", in which we established whose egg was the strongest.

Our vintage Easter bunny-egg.

Happy Easter!

This year the Orthodox and Catholic Easter coincide! So, millions are celebrating together this Spring and the rebirth of Nature. 

I tried for the first time to make a sweet bread for Easter breakfast. It seems that it was not a failure and in a future post, I will include the recipe.

For now, here are the pics from my table and garden:

Obesity, Cell Signaling, And Cancer

Let's take a look at the abstract from this paper:

Epidemiological studies have convincingly suggested that obesity is an important risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer, but the mechanisms responsible for this relationship are still not fully understood. We hypothesize that obesity creates a low-grade inflammatory microenvironment, which stimulates Wnt-signaling and thereby promotes the development of breast cancer. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the correlations between expression of multiple inflammatory cytokines and Wnt pathway downstream genes in mammary tissues from women (age ≥ 50) undergoing reduction mammoplasty. Moreover, we specifically examined the role of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), an important proinflammatory cytokine associated with obesity and a possible modulator of the Wnt pathway. The regulatory effects of TNF-α on Wnt pathway targets were measured in an ex vivo culture of breast tissue treated with anti-TNF-α antibody or TNF-α recombinant protein. We found that BMI was positively associated with the secretion of inflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α, all of which were negatively correlated with the expression of SFRP1. The transcriptional expression of Wnt-signaling targets, AXIN2 and CYCLIN D1, were higher in mammary tissue from women with BMI ≥ 30 compared to those with BMI < 30. Our ex vivo work confirmed that TNF-α is causally linked to the up-regulation of active β-CATENIN, a key component in the Wnt pathway, and several Wnt-signaling target genes (i.e. CYCLIN D1, AXIN2, P53 and COX-2). Collectively, these findings indicate that obesity-driven inflammation elevates Wnt-signaling in mammary tissue and thereby creates a microenvironment conducive to the development of breast cancer.

So, in summary, inflammation that can result from obesity may induce cell signaling, creating a favorable environment for the development of breast cancer.  I believe this would more generally apply to most other forms of cancer as well. Yet another reason to prevent/reverse excessive weight gain.

Weekend cooking: apple strudel

Easter is coming; therefore, some excitement on the table in the form of desserts is expected.

However, if you have read a few posts of mine, you already know that I try not to use sugar in my baking recipes, and I like experimenting in the kitchen. 

Since the only "free" time to do my experiments is on weekends, and mostly during the cold months of the year (when the garden is off-limits), my Easter dessert recipe was already tried and tested this past weekend.

I decided to experiment with apple strudel recipe without added sugar (unless you sprinkle some on the crust before serving). The sweetness comes from the bananas and apples.

Apple strudel

You need:
Crust ingredients:
3 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup apple sauce
3 Tbsp olive oil
½ cup water
¼ tsp baking soda

Filling ingredients:
1 ¼ cup cut walnuts
6 medium size apples (diced)
2 Tbsp cinnamon (to taste)
2 ripe bananas (mashed)

Instructions:
Dice the apples without peeling them, and mix with the mashed bananas, cinnamon and walnuts. Set aside and make the dough. In a large bowl, make a well in the flour. Mix the applesauce, water, oil, and baking soda and pour into the flour well. Gradually incorporate all ingredients by hand to form the dough. Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten the balls and roll to the size of the pan (I used 9 x 13 inches baking pan). Place the first layer of dough at the bottom of an oil-sprayed pan, top with the apple filling and cover with the second layer of dough. Pierce the upper layer of dough with a fork and bake at 400°F for 50 minutes. Until the strudel is still warm from the oven, you could sprinkle some cinnamon-sugar on top (this would be the only "added" sugar in the recipe).

Verdict: 
My husband and I liked the result, my daughter stated that she never wanted to try it again. 

Vegetable Extracts And Colon Cancer Cell Growth

Broccoli. By Fir0002 - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5772317

Here is an interesting paper about colorectal cancer (CRC) that examines the effects of extracts enriched in isothiocyanates (ITCs), which are known to have anti-CRC properties, on different cell culture models of CRC, including more advanced 3-D spheroid approaches. Spheroids are more analogous to actual tumors and represent a useful methodology for analyzing the effects of different agents.  

Abstract:

Colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence is often attributable to circulating tumor cells and/or cancer stem cells (CSCs) that resist to conventional therapies and foster tumor progression. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) derived from Brassicaceae vegetables have demonstrated anticancer effects in CRC, however little is known about their effect in CSCs and tumor initiation properties. Here we examined the effect of ITCs-enriched Brassicaceae extracts derived from watercress and broccoli in cell proliferation, CSC phenotype and metastasis using a previously developed three-dimensional HT29 cell model with CSC-like traits. Both extracts were phytochemically characterized and their antiproliferative effect in HT29 monolayers was explored. Next, we performed cell proliferation assays and flow cytometry analysis in HT29 spheroids treated with watercress and broccoli extracts and respective main ITCs, phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) and sulforaphane (SFN). Soft agar assays and relative quantitative expression analysis of stemness markers and Wnt/β-catenin signaling players were performed to evaluate the effect of these phytochemicals in stemness and metastasis. Our results showed that both Brassicaceae extracts and ITCs exert antiproliferative effects in HT29 spheroids, arresting cell cycle at G₂/M, possibly due to ITC-induced DNA damage. Colony formation and expression of LGR5 and CD133 cancer stemness markers were significantly reduced. Only watercress extract and PEITC decreased ALDH1 activity in a dose-dependent manner, as well as β-catenin expression. Our research provides new insights on CRC therapy using ITC-enriched Brassicaceae extracts, specially watercress extract, to target CSCs and circulating tumor cells by impairing cell proliferation, ALDH1-mediated chemo-resistance, anoikis evasion, self-renewal and metastatic potential.

Therefore, these vegetable extracts inhibited the growth of the CRC 3-D spheroid cultures, possibly due to damage to cell DNA induced by the ITC component of the extracts.  Other indicators of CRC cell growth and cancer-causing potential were also suppressed, particularly by the watercress extract.  These findings suggest the potential of such extracts for CRC therapeutics.

More about watercress, including possible health concerns about consumption (which need to be noted and considered) is at the link.   For me, I’ll continue eating my broccoli.

2017 GARDEN SEASON IS HERE

In our corner of the U.S., these two weekend days the temperature broke above 50F, and I finally had time to start cleaning the garden. It is a huge job, it will take days and weeks, but at least I made some progress with the garden in front of the house. 

The back garden still looks wild and some parts of it are impassible due to the water pooling. We had a huge thaw (of a three-foot snow), followed by rains.

My body hurts all over, but I am excited by the sighting of the first "girls" in the garden, I call all my flowers "girls". 

My miniature daffodils were the first to open and announce that Spring is here

My succulents form a colorful carpet that breaks the early Spring austerity

The hyacinths are just about to open. I hope they do for Easter!

The opportunity to work in the garden came just in time to save my sanity. After two weeks of horror stories and unfortunate events at work, I needed some "garden-work meditation". 

Another difficult week is coming, and it will not be a short week for me, since my employer does not consider Good Friday as a holiday.