Obesogens?

Obesogens?

The word is so new that my spell checker flags it.  I heard about it on the radio yesterday.  They're chemicals that upset your metabolism and tend to make you fat.  (The Wiki definition has a lot more big words in it--look it up.)  The first reference to the word I can find is Sept. 2009. 

Leave it to our society to come up with yet another scientific thing to study.  Carcinogens cause cancer.  Obesogens cause obesity.  Seems like we can't get away with anything lately. 

Well, I found the timing of such a report interesting--given that my kitchen is literally full of what I'd call obesogens--chocolate covered cherries, peanut brittle, cookies, .....

Time for some New Year's Exercizogens. (Yeah--spell checker got that one too.  Probably because I just made it up.)

Some of my favorite cookies!

Oatmeal Date Cookies

3 cups quick oatmeal

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup brown sugar   

1 cup shortening

Mix as for pastry - moisten with 1/3 cup water, 1 teaspoon soda stirred in, soft enough to roll..

Roll them out fairly thin and use a cookie cutter to cut circles.  (Or get more efficient and get a hexagonal cookie cutter)

Filling

Chopped dates,  a bit of sugar, mixed with a little water to soften.   Sometimes add a little lemon juice for a zippier flavor.   Heat it up on the stove.  Spread the filling into the cookies while they're still warm.  

These get even better in a day or so as they get softer.  If they last that long, that is.

Some of my favorite cookies

350 for 10 minutes

Coffee Interface?

The little box kept popping up--"New Device Found" along with it's little pop sound letting me know the computer is trying to configure something.  The only problem was that I hadn't plugged anything new into it.  "Unable to configure device"  it told me.  I hit cancel.  Again--same thing.  Cancel.  Unable.  Cancel.  

What's the deal here?

While rearranging things on my desk a few minutes earlier, I had accidentally dropped the end of my iPhone charger cable into my coffee cup.

Apparently, there's no app for that.