New Arrivals: Victory Twelve, Grande Dame Oud Bruin and more

Happy Friday!

Come drown your work week sorrows with us. Got some fun new arrivals and plenty of replenishment.

-Victory Twelve
-Grande Dame Oud Bruin
-Porterhouse Wrasslers XXXX Stout
-Porterhouse Red Ale
-Batemans Mr George's Ruby Porter

Drink on...........

Nate

A Cabbage Casserole with Grilled Vegetables and Deep Fried Tofu

Piping hot from the oven and ready to serve

  A delightful one-dish meal, this cabbage casserole is chock-full of tasty deep fried tofu, grilled mushrooms and marinaded vegetables.  Easy to make, this recipe is a perfect choice for a chilly winter's day, keeping the cold at bay with its nutrient-rich ingredients and spicy flavor. 

Local organic ingredients

You'll need:  1 1/2 cups thinly sliced cabbage, 1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots, 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, 1/4 cup chopped cherry tomatoes, 1/2 cup cubed zucchini, 1 tablespoon lightly chopped garlic pearls or 1 garlic clove,  1/2 cup cubed deep fried tofu, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil,  1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger root, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon agave syrup, 1/4 cup water, 1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes, 1 teaspoon dried oregano and thyme, 1/8 teaspoon Himalayan salt.

cabbage noodles

The Noodles:  

Slice cabbage into long thin strips to resemble  noodles.  Coarsely grate  the carrots. Crush and lightly chop garlic pearls, or garlic clove. Stir together apple cider vinegar, agave syrup, and water.  Place vegetables in an oven-proof dish and pour over cabbage-carrot mixture.  Sprinkle with salt, dried oregano and thyme.

Cabbage and carrots ready for the oven

Cover dish and bake in moderate oven (350') for 20-30 minutes until cabbage is soft and slightly translucent.  Cabbage and carrot will become sweeter with baking.  Remove from oven and set aside while vegetables are grilling.

Marinaded vegetables ready for Grilling

The Vegetables: 
While cabbage is cooking, whisk lemon juice and olive oil together.  Add chopped ginger root and dried red chili pepper flakes. Add thinly sliced mushrooms, quartered cherry tomatoes, and cubed zucchini to the dressing.  Let vegetables marinade until cabbage is ready to remove from oven. Transfer vegetables to broiling pan, and grill until tomatoes are bubbling, and mushrooms are juicy. 

Deep Fried Tofu

The Tofu:
Cut deep fried tofu into small cubes.

Adding Tofu and Vegetables

To Assemble:
When grilled vegetables are ready, add them and the tofu to cabbage and carrot mix. Carefully stir ingredients together, cover and return to oven (350) for 5 minutes to blend flavors and heat through. 

A warming meal for a chilly winter's day

To Serve:
Enjoy this filling casserole on its own for a light lunch, or serve with a garden salad and brown bread for a more substantial supper.

Roasted Butternut Squash

This was a really fun use of my Butternut Squash that I got this week at Abundant Harvest Organics, our local CSA. It made a great side dish and my daughter loved them- if you like Sweet Potato Fries, you will probably like these too! Sorry about the bad picture... don't let it stop you!

Ingredients:

1-2 butternut squash

grape seed oil

sea salt

pepper

Alternative Spices:

cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425. Cut your squash in half (vertically & then horizontally) then peel the outside "skin" off with a paring knife and deseed the inside cavity. Then slice your squash in thin slices, put it in a bowl and drizzle grapeseed oil on top. Sprinkle with seasoning- either sea salt and pepper OR cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Then spread them out on a roasting pan so that none of them are touching and bake for 35-45 minutes or until they begin to brown and edges are crisp. Let cool for a minute or two then begin snacking- YUM!

Why Grape Seed Oil???

I received a comment the other day asking about the difference between Grape Seed Oil and Olive Oil and when I use which and why... so here's a brief breakdown of MY understanding...

I switched over to Grape Seed Oil with my cooking when I first heard about the high Smoke Point it has (421 degrees F) which means that you can use it to cook food up to that temperature without the oil breaking down or deteriorating or really changing flavor. Olive Oil on the other hand has a lower Smoke Point (350 degrees F) which means that when you cook with it, be it sauteing, frying, or baking it will begin to break down, change flavors, and possibly even let off a toxicity which you can often smell when cooking with it at high temperatures. So almost always, I use Grape Seed Oil when cooking with heat- with the exception of Coconut Oil (I use that when cooking eggs and when making baked goods, it's Smoke Point is 360 for reference) and I leave my Olive Oil for "cold cooking" such as salad dressings and the like.

All 3 oils that I mentioned above have great health benefits as well. For instance, Grape Seed Oil contains antioxidants as well as Vitamin E & C and beta-carotene. It has also been shown to lower LDL cholesterol ("bad cholesterol") and increase HDL ("good cholesterol"). Similar findings have been shown with Olive Oil, as well as it's benefits for the heart and preventions of cancer.

How come evolution hasn’t made us immortal? Death, like sex, helps animal populations avoid extinction

Genes do not evolve, nor do traits that are coded for our genes. We say that they evolve to facilitate discourse, which is alright. Populations evolve. A new genotype appears in a population and then either spreads or disappears. If it spreads, then the population is said to be evolving with respect to that genotype. A genotype may spread to an entire population; in population genetics, this is called “fixation”.

(Human chromosomes capped by telomeres, the white areas at the ends. Telomere shortening is caused by oxidative stress, and seems to be associated with death of cells and organisms. Source: Wikipedia.)

Asexual reproduction is very uncommon among animals. The most accepted theory to explain this is that animal populations live in environments that change very quickly, and thus need a great deal of genetic diversity within them to cope with the change. Otherwise they disappear, and so do their genes. Asexual reproduction leads to dramatically less genetic diversity in populations than sexual reproduction.

Asexual reproduction is similar to cloning. Each new individual looks a lot like its single parent. This does not work well in populations where individuals live relatively long lives. And even 1 year may be too long in this respect. It is just too much time to wait for a possible new mutation that will bring in some genetic diversity. To complicate matters, genetic mutation does not occur very often, and most genetic mutations are neutral with respect to the phenotype (i.e., they don’t code for any trait).

This is not so much of a problem for species whose members reproduce extremely fast; e.g., produce a new generation in less than 1 hour. A fast-reproducing species usually has a short lifespan as well. Accordingly, asexual reproduction is common among short-lived and fast-reproducing unicellular organisms and pathogens that have no cell structure like viruses.

Bacteria and viruses, in particular, form a part of the environment in which animals live that require animal populations to have a large amount of genetic diversity. Animal populations with low genetic diversity are unlikely to be able to cope with the barrage of diseases caused by these fast-mutating parasites.

We make sex chiefly because of the parasites.

And what about death? What does it bring to the table for a population?

Let us look at the other extreme – immortality. Immortality is very problematic in evolutionary terms because a population of immortal individuals would quickly outgrow its resources. That would happen too fast for the population to evolve enough intelligence to be able to use resources beyond those that were locally available.

In this post I assume that immortality is not the same as indestructibility. Here immortality is equated to the absence of aging as we know it. In this sense, immortals can still die by accident or due to disease. They simply do not age. For immortals, susceptibility to disease does not go up with age.

One could argue that a population of immortal individuals who did not reproduce would have done just fine. But that is not correct, because in this case immortality would be akin to cloning, but worse. Genetic diversity would not grow, as no mutations would occur. The fixed population of immortals would be unable to cope with fast-mutating parasites.

There is so much selection pressure against immortality in nature that it is no surprise that animals of very few species live more than 60 years on average. Humans are at the high end of the longevity scale. They are there for a few reasons. One is that our ancestors had offspring that required extra care, which led to an increase in the parents’ longevity. The offspring required extra care chiefly because of their large brains.

That increase in longevity was likely due to genetic mutations that helped our ancestors extend a lifespan that was programmed to be relatively short. Immortality is not a sound strategy for population survival, and thus there are probably many mechanisms through which it is prevented.

Death is evolution’s main ally. Sex is a very good helper. Both increase genetic diversity in populations.

We can use our knowledge of evolution to live better today. The aging clock can be slowed significantly via evolutionarily sound diet and lifestyle changes, essentially because some of our modern diet and lifestyle choices accelerate aging a lot. But diet and lifestyle changes probably will not make people live to 150.

If we want to become immortal, as we understand it in our current human form, ultimately we may want to beat evolution. In this sense, only very intelligent beings can become immortal.

Maybe we can achieve that by changing our genes, or by learning how to transfer our consciousness “software” into robots. In doing so, however, we may become something different; something that is not human and thus doesn’t see things in the same way as a human does. A conscious robot, without the hormones that so heavily influence human behavior, may find that being alive is pointless.

There is another problem. What if the only natural way to achieve some form of immortality is through organic death, but in a way that we don’t understand? This is not a matter of faith or religion. There are many things that we don’t know for sure. This is probably the biggest mystery of all; one that we cannot unravel in our current human state.

Chicken Fried Rice

This is a great "all-in-one" meal that has a healthy grain (brown rice), some protein (eggs & chicken) and TONS of Veggies!! My favorite recipe I've tried so far for Fried Rice... I think you'll like it too!

Ingredients:

2 cups brown rice

4 cups water

2 TBSP Grape Seed oil

3 eggs, beaten

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp ginger

1 cup carrots, shredded

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 scallions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/3 cup tamari soy sauce

1 TBSP sesame seeds

1-2 chicken breasts, diced

s & p

Directions:

There are s few different steps going on in this dish- Step 1: you need to cook your rice, so get your 4 cups water boiling and then add your brown rice letting it cook per directions on package. Step 2: While that's going, wash and dice your chicken breasts and throw them in a skillet with a drizzle of Grape Seed Oil and give them a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Let them cook up until they are nice and browned. Step 3: in a large skillet or a wok, add your 2 TBSP Grape Seed Oil and your scrambled eggs. Cook them like you would scrambled eggs, then push them to the outside edges of your pan and add your chopped bell pepper, carrots, garlic, and ginger to the middle of the pan and let them cook that for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Last step it so put it all together. So, when your rice is done, add your rice, frozen peas, cooked chicken from your other skillet, your soy sauce, and sesame seeds and keep turning it over until all the ingredients are well mixed. I serve this for dinner. It makes a ton- enough for 4 people to eat as a meal with some left overs! It's a perfect combination or a healthy grain, veggies, and some chicken for protein! Enjoy!!!

Gluten Free: This meal can easily be made Gluten Free by using Tamari Sauce and Brown rice.

Vegan: This is also an easy Vegan Recipe by omitting the chicken and eggs.

The Abyss back on the shelves

Ding ding,

And in this corner, wearing brown and black trunks and weighing in at 22 OZ, with the delicious flavors of licorice, molasses and oak, none other than Deschutes "The Abyss" A.K.A the Northern Dandy. Ordering the Abyss this year has been kind of like going a couple rounds in a heavy weight championship fight. Fortunately we channeled our inner Rocky Balboa and scored a few more precious cases for our beloved following. Next year I hear we have to fight Hulk Hogan or Mr. T or something like that.....

Drink up

Nate