With all the talk from the “I hate my government” tea bagging  anti-health care crowd, I figured it was time to take a break from politics and revisit some of the hero’s from the past who advanced the concept of public health.

From the German stamp series "helper of mankind VII", Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) - The first name was printed as Florentine by mistake

The other night, at a party, a friend asked if I knew the one thing that Florence Nightingale did that saved the most lives.  While I have dim memories of the “lady of the lamp” from my misspent youth, I mostly got to know her while teaching computer classes at the FSU College of Nursing.  To nurses, Nightengale is a hero.  She was a woman of wealth who grew up in Victorian England.  As a young woman, despite the wishes of her parents, she studied nursing and became a force for good in the world of health care.

Like many people, I thought that Nightingale was a sort of folk hero, caring for the sick and injured victims of the Crimean War.  To my nursing school colleagues, she was the founder of “professional” nursing.  Actually, her most significant contribution to  health care was her invention of a type of  pie chart.

It turns out that Florence Nightingale, in addition to being a nurse, was a statistician and a lobbyist.  Like many of today’s politicians, the English Parliament of her day were not always the brightest candles in the lamp.  In order to explain the statistics of disease, and to educate politicians on the importance of health care, she used a pie chart, a new technology invented in 1801.  Her testimony and advocacy resulted in some of the earliest public health legislation in the United Kingdom.

So as our ‘leaders’ decry the idea of universal health care, let’s stop and raise a glass to Florence Nightingale, an early adopter of using graphics to educate management and a hero who knew that being healthy is good for everybody.  Anyone who puts up a PowerPoint presentation owes her a debt.

Country Joe McDonald (another hero) built a beautiful web tribute to Florence Nightingale.  You can find it here.

Thanks to my friend Stephen who educated me on Florence Nightingale and so more.

I count corned beef hash as one of the America’s greatest culinary contributions. It’s a balance of starch, protein and fat.  It’s crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. In short, the definition of deliciousness.

For many people, “corned beef hash” means a can from the supermarket shelf. While I can understand the attraction of convenience foods, you can do a lot better. Making your own corned beef hash is really simple.

The “corn” in corned beef refers to the salts used to preserve it which are supplied to the meat processor in corn kernel sized pellets. It was a method used to preserve beef in the days before refrigeration. Sailing ships carried kegs of “bully” beef, an old term for the same product, to feed their crews. These days, you can find corned beef brisket floating in a brine solution in a plastic bag at your local meat market.

I add the meat, brine and all to a pot with enough boiling water to cover the meat.  I add spices (usually peppercorns, allspice and bay leaf) to the pot, cover and simmer for about 4 hours or until it’s about 165º F on the thermometer.

The meat comes out of the broth and is allowed to cool.

Corned Beef Hash

(makes two cups finished hash)

1 cup of cooked and pulled or chopped corn beef.

1 large onion, peeled and chopped. (I prefer white onions for this dish)

1 cup of chopped potatoes.  (Try Yukon gold, but any potato will do)

unsalted butter and/or pomace oil.

salt and pepper to taste. (I like chunky salt in this dish and of course, fresh ground pepper)

Everybody has their own hash recipe.  I’m a purist and only use potatoes, onions and the corned beef. Some folks add carrots or other veggies to the recipe.  Not me.  I use equal quantities of potatoes (parboiled in water or semi-baked in the microwave) and beef, and about 1/2 as much onion as I have potatoes.

Chop everything into a size you like.  Instead of chopping the meat, you can pull it into pieces (like you would for bbq pork).  I’m fond of chunky hash and keep my pieces around a half inch or so.

To start, you heat some oil and or butter (for me: 1/2 pomace oil and 1/2 unsalted butter) in a heavy pan (I use Jane’s cast iron chicken fryer).  Add chopped onions and sweat until a bit soft.  Add the potatoes and chopped/pulled corned beef.  Mash it down and let it fry.  Some people use a ring to give the finished dish a form. Others like it a bit more rustic.

Cook over a medium fire until you hear it sizzling and smell it getting close to burning (but not too close).  Flip it over and brown the other side. I serve it with a lightly poached egg on top.  The idea is to have a mostly liquid yolk which flows into the hash. It’s a very rich dish and probably not one that you should eat too often, but well worth the effort and absolutely simple to prepare.

If you can call the very first, softest pressing of olive oil, virgin, then pomace oil must be extra slutty.

Olive oil ratings mostly have to do with how much pressure is placed on the olive pulp and seeds and how long it was pressed.  You load the press up with crushed olives, and start pressing.  The first oil that comes out of the press with the lighest amount of pressure is called “extra virgin”.  The olive pulp gets pressed a bit harder and a bit longer and you get regular olive oil.  Take what’s left over, grind pulp and seeds and process it using various secret methods (chemistry is involved).  What comes out is “pomace” oil.  This is the lowest edible grade of olive oil.   After this, comes the oil that burns in shrines throughout the mediteranean.

Some people turn up their noses at pomace oil, disrespecting it’s industrial birth.  Some people will tell you that pomace oil is only fit to be use in a lamp or to lubricate your bicycle chain.  I disagree.

Pomace oil has none of the flavor or aroma of olive oil.  It burns at a higher temperature.  It doesn’t have the (at least to me) bitter taste of rapeseed (canola) oil or corn oil which also goes through some major processing.

I’ve used it a little mixed in baked goods and pancakes, but mostly I fry with it.  I mix it with about 1/2 toasted sesame oil when I do panko frys.   While it cut’s the sesame flavor a slight bit, things seem to fry better in the mixture than with toasted sesame oil alone.  It’s hard to beat for frying fish.  It’s the perfect media for frying squid.

It’s difficult to find pomace oil.  Look for a store that specializes in Italiano or Greek cuisine or just click on the Amazon link below and make me richer than my wildest dreams.

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Late Sunday night:

I love fire. For 25 years, I was a fire fighter until I retired as an Assistant Chief.

I have a fire ring in my yard, heat my house with wood, and consider myself one of the firedogs  at community bonfires.

I really like making fire.

Summer in Florida is all about heat, humidity, biting insects and did I mention humidity. It’s really no time to make fire. Fall is the prefect time. Some Floridians prefer the springtime with it’s show-off blooming goodness. I understand and appreciate spring, but autumn is incredibly wonderful.

Pay attention you folks who are thinking that Florida is paradise and how there are all those foreclosed houses and all…this place is not for sissies. The humidity is exhausting in August. We have bugs the size of small dogs and don’t get me started on the snakes and alligators.

None the less, I (heart) the silly place and fall is my favorite time to be here.

My fire tonight wasn’t the first of the community this fall, but it was my first one. I paired the fire with a tasting of three sour mash bourbons. While sour mash has a rich history in the South as good moonshine, all mine were tax paid and legal. We did an Eagle Rare, a Maker’s Mark and an Evan Williams single barrel 1997. The Eagle Rare was sweetish with a aftertaste similar to Scotch. The Maker’s Mark was smooth and wonderful. The Evan Williams was amazing.

Bourbon is, for certain southerners, a holy sacred elixir. It was the ‘crack’ of an earlier generation.

The best thing about the beginning of fire season is that oyster season is just around the corner.

Sunday morning update:

No hangover despite sour mash tasting. I consider this a sort of positive health checkup.

Bond Community Health Care Center in Tallahassee

Over the past few months, the financial system in the US has suffered a bit of a meltdown.  The politicans are all pointing fingers at each other, while riding to the rescue of ailing insurance companies, banks and brokerage houses to pay for their errors and, in some casese, criminal misconduct, with taxpayer dollars.

If you ask those same politicians about a national health care system, they are quick to call it “socialism” and “welfare” and say it’s not the American Way.  Apparently, with the current financial problems, those same politicans are not quite so opposed to socialism.

The case for universal health care in the United States.

Americans pay 40% more per capita on health care than any country in the world that has universal health care.  We’re far from the healthiest nation with a higher infant mortality rate and a lower expected life span than many other countires.

To me, this is the “sentinal” issue that I use in deciding who I vote for.  As you might guess, Barack Obama is going to get my vote.

The image in this posting is from the web site of the Bond Community Health Center, a group of local heros in Tallahassee, Florida who operate under a very limited budget and who provide health care to a limited number of local citizens.

Ghost bike image from flickr user ( kurtz ) and is covered by a creative commons license.

I just received word that a young friend and neighbor was killed this evening in a accident while riding his bicycle. In my city, and most of the US, there is not a whole lot of transportation planning that focuses on bicycles. Instead, it’s all about the cars and trucks.

I was already pretty pissed off about how bikes are treated in my local transportation system. I have a brother and a son who commute on their bicycles every day. I commute on mine every now and then.

The death of this boy is a tragedy in my community and in my city. It’s a tragedy for his family and friends. We all handle grief in our own way. I’m planning to channel mine into being a pain-in-the-ass to the politicians and bureaucrats who claim they work for me on the issue of bicycle infrastructure in our transit system.

The instrument on the left is a euphonium.  The instrument on the right is a tuba.

A week ago, I wandered through one of the many salvage shops in Tallahassee and spotted what I thought was a small tuba.  I’ve been enamored with brass instruments after a visit to Festival International in Lafayette Louisiana a few years ago.  It’s a great festival and pulls in acts from around the French speaking world.  We thought we went there to hear Urban Trad (a great band from Belgium) perform, but it turned out that we went there to hear all sorts of wonderful musicians.  That year, for me, the theme was tubas.  There were tubas in at least 5 of the bands we heard.  In one amazing band from Quebec, there was  a sousaphone.

So when I saw the little “tuba” sitting on the shelf at the shop, I had to check out the price.   It was out of my comfort range so I forgot about it until today. I was back in that store and sure enough, it was still there.   The manager saw me checking it out and asked if I was going to buy it.  I said “not for that price” and made a counter offer a lot lower than I thought they’d go.  So now it’s mine, at least temporarily.

It turns out that it’s not actually a small tuba, but something called an euphonium.  Mine is a little dinged and two of the four valves need a bit of love.  It might be for sale or I might just keep it and toot on it.  Even with the dings and sticky valves, it’s making a very lovely noise when I blubber (is that the proper term?) on it.

I guess that the moral to this story is: “sometimes a good deal at the salvage shop is a lifestyle decision.”

This post is dedicated to furry fat boys of the 1999 James Madison University Marching Band tuba section.  Greece rocked.

It’s been a long week and I even went into work for a bit this morning. It’s time to loaf. My favorite kind of loaf is turkey loaf. In honor of my brother Steve, who’s going to be older next weekend while I’m out-of-town, I’m cooking a delicious turkey loaf. Here’s my recipe:

This image is by a flickr user with a trademarked user name. It’s covered under a Creative Commons license. Mine looked a bit different but I’m too lazy tonight to get my own photo together.

Start with ground turkey. The quantity is up to you. Put it in a mixing bowl and add bread crumbs (I like panko for the better texture), an egg, some hard grated cheese, some fresh herbs (today I used tarragon, rosemary and cilantro), chopped up green pepper, scallion, onion (I did a big Vidalia)

Chop everything up as big or as little as you want. Mix it up as much or as little as you want. Add salt and pepper but go easy. It’s not a good idea to taste raw turkey.

Put it into some sort of baking pan. For tonight, I’m using a French ceramic casserole pan with a cover. I checked two sources for the appropriate internal temperature. A professional cook told me 155 degrees F. A cooking web site told me 165. You should make your own decision about that.

It’s guaranteed to be yum.

Creative Commons Attribution Licensed image by rachaelvoorhes via flickr

When someone dies, there are taxes to be paid. The estate pays taxes and individuals who receive assets from the estate pay taxes too. There are ways to “minimize” taxes and the current bunch running things in Washington would like to eliminate what they call “death” taxes.

Actually, from where I sit, taxes are not an evil thing. I try to look at the other side of the equation; what I receive for what I pay. The closer I get to my home, in terms of governments, the better deal I get.

My county taxes provide fire and police protection, environmental management, trash disposal, and excellent schools. I don’t mind paying my county taxes at all. In my state, the state revenue comes mostly from our version of the V.A.T., the state sales tax. I’m a little less happy with how my state government spends money. They seem to waste a lot more of my tax money than the county does.

Don’t get me started about my federal income taxes and how they are spent. Geesh.

Then, along come this new “run the country like a business” and “cut taxes, downsize government” crowd. These guys really piss me off. They get their money from folks who make their money through their investments and pay a much much much smaller share of their earnings in taxes than working people do.

Of course, they’re not doing much cutting of federal taxes here in the U.S. Instead, they’re spending money that they don’t have and putting our great great great great grandchildren in debt. They’re spending on big defense projects that put a lot of money back in the pockets of the rich folks investment club. Meanwhile, the services to working people; the folks who get most of their money from their paychecks are being eliminated.

Don’t even start on health care. They used to fool us by pointing to long wait times for medical services in countries with single-payer government-run health systems. Now, with “managed” care, it’s not a bit different. What is different in the US is that a large number of hard working Americans don’t have any health coverage.

We spend way too much of our national health care budget on paying for useless insurance infrastructure, not to mention the obscene profits being made by the “investors” in the scheme who make more money by not providing services to insured sick people.

It’s disgusting.