Miscellany from Pages

Swiss steak: Enjoy its rich taste

If you are looking for the origins of Swiss steak, don’t look toward Switzerland. Rather, seek out traditions of the Amish and a food culture passed down from their first settlements in the eastern counties of Pennsylvania. Then look to farm communities across the United States.

This rich meat dish, with a thick rue and fresh vegetables, is traditionally prepared in a heavy iron skillet, but it’s also great when left to simmer all day in a crock pot.

Preparation of the meat is key to tenderness. In choosing cubed steaks, forget any with large sections of white bands running through the meat, this is a sign of sinew, which causes a stringiness in the cooked meat.

Even better, select a large piece of lean round steak and cut it into smaller pieces. Pound on both sides with a meat hammer to assure its tenderness.

Swiss steak in skilLet or crock pot

4 cubed steaks or one pound of lean round steak cut into four
1 cup coarsely sliced onions
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 packet of dry au jus mix
1/4 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour for meat coating

Tenderize round steak with a meat hammer. Salt and pepper the steaks and dredge them with flour for coating. Braise on high in a large skillet with vegetable oil.

Add sugar, au jus mix and ketchup. Stir thoroughly with a small amount of water. Put in a large iron skillet or crock pot.

Add the vegetables. In an iron skillet, cover and simmer over a low heat for 30 to 45 minutes.

In a crock pot, cook on high for 30 minutes, than reduce to low and simmer until served.

Serve on plates or in bowls, adding ample gravy. Sopping up gravy with bread is a time-tested tradition.

Get strength-training
benefit in 12 minutes a week

Dr. Doug McGuff says 12 minutes a week of his high-intensity, slow cadence strength training is enough. McGuff is the author of Body Science.

He recommends:

* Lift weights slowly and smoothly over 10 seconds and lower over 10 seconds.

* McGuff says you can avoid injuries with this low-force form of exercise.

* Do each exercise until you can’t make the movement anymore. Produce a momentary muscle weakness, which triggers improvement in muscle strength.

* Allow adequate time for recovery. The bigger the muscle stimulus, the greater the adaptive response, the longer it takes for muscles to recover. That’s why he recommends people should wait a week before doing the routine again.

100 calories less = big benefit

It’s just a model prediction by the American Journal of Health Promotion, but it makes sense: 100-calorie reductions in daily intake would cut about 71.2 million cases of overweight and obesity and would save $58 billion annually in health care costs.

How to cut 100 calories:

Examples: On a salad, use two tablespoon of light salad dressing instead of two tablespoons of blue cheese dressing. Eat a 100-calorie pack of microwave popcorn instead of a buttery bowl.

Exercise is great for your health, but ...

You must eat less to lose weight

In 1980, 47 percent of Americans claimed they exercised regularly. By 2000, that figure had grown to 57 percent. Yet the number of overweight and obese people rose dramatically.

Physical activity is essential for good health, but it may not be able to melt pounds away. Exercise researchers at Louisiana State University say when it comes to losing weight, how much you eat is more important than how much you exercise.

Building muscle makes you stronger, but a pound of muscle burns only four calories more per day than a pound of fat. If you somehow gained 10 pounds of muscle, you would only be able to eat an extra 40 calories a day.

Vigorous exercise can also stimulate hunger and could lead to a self-reward system. If you burn 300 calories at an exercise machine and reward yourself with donuts on the way home, you could be gaining weight instead of losing.

Many researchers believe that frequent, lower-level activities work better for weight loss than bouts of vigorous exercise. They say it’s better to be active in your life and throughout the day if you can. Take a walk; it doesn’t have to be a fast one. Climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Dance to the music, hit a golf ball, do the laundry or play with the dog.

People only have a certain amount of energy to expend in a given day. For weight loss, it’s better to be active each day rather than do a vigorous routine a couple of times a week.

A British study compared normally active children and those in sports with vigorous athletic training and found the two groups to be equally healthy.

At the end of the day, it’s more about how many calories you take in than how many you burn off.

QUOTES

When you face your fear, most of the time you will discover that it was not really such a big threat after all. We all need some form of deeply rooted, powerful motivation. It empowers us to overcome obstacles so we can live our dreams.

Les Brown

An obstacle in life is like a log in your path. You could step over it. You could move it out of the way. Or you could cut it up and make firewood.

Unknown

Make a gift of your life. Lift all mankind by being considerate, forgiving and compassionate at all times, in all places, and under all conditions, with everyone as well as yourself. This is the greatest gift anyone can give.

David Hawkins

The lighter side

Bank loan

A frog approaches the bank teller, Patricia Whack, and tells her he wants a $30,000 loan. He says his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger and his dad knows the bank manager.

The frog shows his collateral, a bright pink porcelain elephant that’s about an inch tall and perfectly formed.

Patty finds the bank manager and says, “There’s a frog named Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you. He wants to borrow $30,000 and use this as collateral. What in the world is it?”

(Get ready now.) The bank manager sings, “It’s a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone!”

(Come on. We know you smiled.)