Do You Want Cheese With That? Princess Grace Kelly. Dee and Arlene Visit.

For “Foodie Friday”:

American Cheese: Neither American Nor Cheese

“You will find it on white bread bologna sandwiches in lunch boxes, melting on the top of hamburgers and oozing throughout bowls of macaroni and cheese all over the country – however what we know and love in this country as “American Cheese” is neither American nor cheese.

Look closely at the label on your orange slices of American cheese and you will see that the word “cheese” only appears in the tag: processed cheese product.

Processed cheese product was invented in Switzerland in 1911 by Walter Gerber. However, a very smart man named James L. Kraft grabbed the American patent for the processing method, and it was his company that created the first commercially available sliced “American” cheese singles, which hit the market in the 1950s.

Although Kraft was criticized for using marketing tricks to sell second-rate cheese as a first-rate product, it worked. Americans sacrificed the taste and quality of their cheese in favor of convenience, a growing trend that would play out over and over in the country as quantity and ease became more important that anything else in many Americans’ diets.

Cheaper than real cheese, easy melting and with a much longer shelf-life, processed cheese product became popular and soon was to be found on dinner tables all over the country, so much so that it became known as “American cheese.” Today, most of us have eaten our fair share of those orange slices in convenient plastic packages, not to mention Cheez Whiz and Velveeta.

But if American cheese isn’t cheese… then what is it?

Processed cheese product or “cheese food” is made from cheese as well as unfermented dairy products, emulsifiers (stabilizers – usually sodium phosphate, tartrate or citrate), salt, food coloring and whey (milk plasma). Most varieties cannot legally be labeled “cheese” because of the high amount of additives. Real cheese has a lower moisture content and contains more milk fat.

Whether it comes in a block or a spray can, processed cheese product is known for its bland, inferior taste, chemical preservatives, artificial colors and trans-fats. A laughable product in most other countries, for some reason in America this weak-tasting artificial cheese-like food product seems to fit the palates of many.

While real cheese is no champion on the healthy side of the diet chart, at least it is free from the chemical additives and artificial flavors and colors found in many types of processed cheese.

Despite the sad trend towards food products instead of food in America over the past few decades, consumers are finally waking up to the fact that the quality of food might be more important that the quantity that you can buy. While budget concerns are ripe for many these days, the true cost of eating “foodstuffs” instead of food is impossible to measure not only on your waistline, but on your future health as well.

If “you are what you eat,” do you really want to be a processed product, and a "cheese" one at that?

Your body and your loved ones deserve real food. The next time you’re at the grocery store and you reach for an easy package of cheese product for your family’s lunches, opt for real cheese instead. Test yourself and you will see that one bite of real Wisconsin cheddar is far more satisfying and delicious than five slices of cheese-like product.”    From: http://www.organicauthority.com/mojo-foods/american-cheese-neither-american-nor-cheese.html#s.abucs7zuibaaa

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Why Don't The French Get Fat?

“What is it about the French culture that seems to favor thinness, even in the midst of all of that bread, cheese, butter, wine and heavy sauces? In a sentence: they eat real food, and they savor it.

Allow me to explain.  French People Eat REAL Food
Unlike the United States where mega-supermarkets are the norm, many people in France still shop for fresh unprocessed food every day or two. They have access to wonderful farmer’s markets, specialty food shops, and butchers that sell fresh produce, hand-made cheeses, high-quality meats, and fermented, sourdough breads. (And many of them WALK to get there.)

Whereas an American may sit down to a breakfast of a cheese omelet made with processed cheese and store-bought eggs, a similar French-made omelet would include naturally fermented cheese made from raw milk from grass-fed cows, and eggs that came from a small farm, and were not refrigerated but simply left out on the counter (which is the best way to store your eggs, assuming they are of high-quality).*

Now I am not one to recommend eating cooked eggs at all, but my point is that the difference in food quality is quite extraordinary. Though Americanized junk food and fast food is slowly infiltrating France, it is still not the norm, at least for the older generations. The majority of their food comes fresh, without preservatives and food colorings, and without synthetic ingredients.

And did I mention the butter? French people eat this regularly, along with a host of other full-fat foods. Contrast this to the United States, where many seek out fat-free or low-fat versions that are often pumped full of corn syrup or artificial sweeteners as an alternative.” More at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/03/08/why-don-t-the-french-get-fat.aspx

*”Scrambling your eggs is one of the worst ways to eat eggs as it actually oxidizes the cholesterol in the egg yolk. If you have high cholesterol this may actually be a problem for you as the oxidized cholesterol may cause some damage in your body.”  From: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/02/19/most-grocery-store-eggs-far-more-likely-to-be-infected.aspx

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From me:  Back in the late 1970’s, I came down with Hypoglycemia or Hyperglycemia, I don’t remember which.

When I collapsed at the newspaper where I worked, I was rushed to the hospital.   They found out that I had been run ragged by my job of driving around Houston selling ads for the newspaper, and often didn’t take time to eat.  So I would load up on sweetened coffee to take with me in the car.

I was put on a diabetic diet with no more sugar in my coffee, lots of good protein, and no processed cheese.  The doctor especially said, NO processed cheese.  That is when I learned the pitfalls of processed food, and this was before all these other processed foods came on the market.  So then I had to carry protein pills with me, and take time for lunch.  Lesson learned, way back in the 70’s!

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On This Day:

Hollywood star and real-life princess Grace Kelly dies, Sep 14, 1982:

“On this day in 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco--the American-born former film star Grace Kelly, whose movie credits include The Country Girl and Rear Window--dies at the age of 52 from injuries suffered after her car plunged off a mountain road near Monte Carlo. During the height of her Hollywood career in the 1950s, Kelly became an international icon of beauty and glamour.

Kelly, the daughter of a former model and a wealthy industrialist, was born on November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, and began acting as a child. After high school, she attended the American Academy for Dramatic Arts in New York. While she auditioned for Broadway plays, the classic blonde beauty supported herself by modeling and appearing in TV commercials.

In 1949, Kelly debuted on Broadway in The Father by August Strindberg. Two years later, she landed her first Hollywood bit part, in Fourteen Hours. Her big break came in 1952, when she starred as Gary Cooper’s wife in the Western High Noon. Her performance in 1954’s The Country Girl, as the wife of an alcoholic actor and singer played by Bing Crosby, won her a Best Actress Oscar (Kelly beat out Judy Garland in A Star is Born). Among Kelly’s other acting credits were three Alfred Hitchcock thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), with Ray Milland and Robert Cummings, Rear Window (1954), with James Stewart, and To Catch a Thief, with Cary Grant. Her last big-screen role was in 1956’s High Society, a musical adaptation of 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, co-starring Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

Kelly gave up her acting career after marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923-2005) on April 19, 1956, in a lavish ceremony in Monaco. The couple, who had met the year before at the Cannes Film Festival, went on to have three children. On September 13, 1982, Princess Grace was driving with her youngest daughter, Stephanie, when she reportedly suffered a stroke and lost control of her car, which plunged down a mountainside. Seventeen-year-old Stephanie survived, but Princess Grace died the following day. Her death was mourned by millions of fans around the world.”

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Yesterday:

Arlene (http://roamingwhenwecan.blogspot.com/) picked up Dee (http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/) at Thousand Trails Willis, and they came to visit me here at my house.

They had not heard about Dave’s (‘Thunder’ in the RV-Dream’s chatroom)(https://www.facebook.com/dsussman2?ref=ts) untimely passing so they were sending messages to Jim, Nette and Phyllis.  This is so sad as Dave wasn’t very old, he would have been 41 on 25th December.  He had been born with some spinal deformity, but still bought a 5th wheel and had just started fulltiming with his cats.  He was parked at his sister’s in FL when this happened, so I do hope that she will take in his beloved kitties, and care for them as much as he did.

Misty welcomed Arlene and Dee, she wagged her tail at them both, and they petted her.  They have Misty’s stamp of approval!  After I had shown Dee and Arlene around, we went for a drive in my van.  I took them to the local marinas/RV parks which are west on my road, Calvary Road.

First, we went to Stow-A-Way Marina.

Hidden under all those trees are the campsites.

There is a fulltime store with gas station. The BBQ restaurant is only open on weekends.

http://stowawaymarina.com/

 

We continued west, left on Calvary, the road at the bottom left corner in the above picture, to the Lochness Marina.

Both Arlene and Dee loved Lochness, as some of the sites are right on the water, and there are steps going down to a floating fishing pier.

I went inside the restaurant and got a card and menu for Arlene.

http://lochnessmarina.com/

 

 

 

That sandy area is where the boat ramp and waterfront RV sites are at $37 a night or $195 a week.

Arlene had never been on the 1097 bridge over Lake Conroe, which gives spectacular views to the north and south. 

So we went back east on Calvary to the I-45 freeway, and took the second exit south to 1097, and we drove across the bridge and back again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the distance, we could see great big black clouds gathering over the lake.

 

 

 

 

We took a quick look at Sunset Shores on the east side of the bridge.

 

We stopped at the only place that I knew to eat overlooking the lake, but it has changed hands and now it’s a sports bar that only opens in the evenings.  By that time it was raining hard, the kind where you don’t want to get out of the car, so we didn’t stop for anywhere for lunch.

As we were coming back to my place we saw that the southbound lane of the I-45 was at a standstill, so I showed Arlene a different way to get back to her house in Magnolia.  She went back over the 1097 bridge, through Montgomery to the 149 and south to her home near Magnolia, where Dee was going to help her make her travel blog into a book.

Another great day.