Ham, Gorgonzola, and Pecan Salad

1/2 cauliflower head -- a big one
1 cup pecan halves
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon ground dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces ham, in 1/2" cubes
5 ounces crumbled gorgonzola cheese -- or other mild blue cheese -- you can buy five-ounce tubs already crumbled.
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350.

So I'm working on a new recipe, and watching the History Channel, which pleasantly surprised me by actually showing a program about history, when an ad comes on for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars. There's a guy in the office, sitting in his gray fabric box on the cube farm, just another stressed-out cog in the economic machine. He stealthily unwraps an Almond Joy candy bar, as the perspective changes to a shot from the outside of his cube. Palm trees appear, rising above the fabric walls, and sun is shining only on his little gray box.

I was just looking at the Amazon page for 1001 Low-Carb Recipes. I noticed that it was averaging four stars. Most of my books do better than that, so I looked at a few of the negative reviews to see what folks' objections were.

Our favorite cut of steak is ribeye, but sadly it's running $11.99/lb around here. That's just not in the budget. Happily, I can still get chuck for $3/pound and under. It's too tough to broil or grill as-is, but marinated and tenderized, it's wonderful -- tender and flavorful. This is my latest marinated chuck steak, and That Nice Boy I Married and I both thought it was wonderful.

Lime-ginger Marinated Chuck Steak

1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Splenda -- or other sweetener to equal 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons soy sauce

Have you heard? The source of the killer e coli epidemic in Europe -- epicenter Germany -- has been identified. The culprit? Sprouts.

Yep, sprouts. Cute, nutritious, totally health-foody, utterly vegan sprouts. After all, they're kept damp and warm while they're growing. Get a germ in there with them, and you might as well have invited them to the bacteria version of the Ritz.

Brooklyn Deli UnPotato Salad

This started with a recipe I found in the same book that I consulted for the basics of chopped liver. This started with a potato salad recipe in a chapter about the Jewish deli culture of New York City. I was intrigued, mostly because of those olives. Sounded different from anything I'd tried before, and it is. Good, too. I think it would be particularly good with poultry or fish, but decide for yourself.

1 cauliflower head
3 celery ribs
1/4 red onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley

Seriously WASPy Girl Chopped Chicken Liver

I started with a recipe for chopped liver in a Jewish cookbook, but obviously with butter in it, this ain't kosher. Awfully good, though; I'll be making this often. A great way to work liver into my diet -- and yours, I hope! You can make this kosher easily by substituting chicken fat or coconut oil for the butter, but if you go with coconut oil, I'd go with one that doesn't have much of a coconut flavor or odor.

5 ounces chicken livers
1 cup finely chopped onion fine
3 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper

I've been quiet for most of the week; haven't even posted much to Facebook. I apologize, and feel like I owe you all an explanation.

Those of you who have listened to this week's podcast know that Dr. Andry, the doctor who diagnosed me with PCOS in the late winter, put me on a new blood sugar drug, Victoza, a week ago this past Wednesday. It seems to be doing the job, though the verdict is not yet in. My morning, fasting blood sugar numbers are sporadically looking better; the question is will that become a constant thing?

If you look in a dictionary of English idiom under "fool's errand," you will see a picture of me in my trusty old Camry, driving all over hell-and-gone in the Midwest on a June Sunday. That's how I spent my day yesterday.

There it was, in my Google News Alert: Simply Eating Less Fat May Cut Diabetes Risk. "Uh-huh," I thought, "Sure it can. Let's see what this one has to say."

What I find notable about this is that not so long ago -- within living memory -- lard was not only acceptable, it was considered a superior food. Amazing, the successful hatchet job done by the oil seed industry, huh?

Oh, good Lord. I was just at a local health food store, buying dried mustard and xanthan gum, when I spotted it on the shelf: Organic Light Corn Syrup. Yes, there is now an organic corn syrup on the market. I looked at the label; it's a blend, actually, of corn syrup -- oops, I'm sorry, organic corn syrup and organic glucose syrup, plus some organic vanilla and some salt. Not organic salt, but then, salt is inorganic by definition, not containing carbon.

Sweet-and-Tangy UnPotato Salad

1/2 cauliflower head
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup extra light olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons pickle juice from sugar-free bread and butter pickles
1 teaspoon salt or vege sal
Tabasco sauce to taste -- a few dashes
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 small green bell pepper, diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1/4 cup chopped sugar-free bread and butter pickles
3 hard-boiled eggs

We've all heard the arguments against low carb diets: glucose is the most important fuel of the body, all that fat will give you heart disease, you'll have no energy, any diet that requires you to give up a whole category of food is bad, yadda-yadda-yadda. Among the arguments most commonly trotted out is "It forces the body into "starvation mode," so you're making ketones!" As if this were a bad thing.