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Doin' what comes naturally

Baby and Tiny are strong proponents of the peace through strength doctrine. Above, on alert just under the fence at the top of the drive facing Marginal Street yesterday afternoon, scanning the horizon for aggressors.

"In my experience, most people are motivated by some sort of self-interest when they engage in an altruistic act," writes Dr. Helen in her "Ask Dr. Helen" column at Pajamas Media:

I used to have discussions with a psychoanalyst I knew who said, like Heinlein, that no one really does anything unless it is in their self-interest in some way.

We would agree, as blogged here early and often:

We believe deeply that the denial of "life's dark side in ourselves" is the key to what's wrong with the utopianist world view . . .

It's the tragic view of human nature -- vs. the left's utopian, blank-slate, noble-savage one that denies any such thing as human nature -- that acknowledges the dark side in all of us and tries to design political institutions -- the U.S. Constitution comes to mind -- that channel our potentially destructive human nature into productive self-fulfillment (can you say invisible hand?) that redounds to the good of the larger community.

But what about those firefighters and police officers who gave their lives on 9/11? "Was that altruism, or was there underlying self-interest there that perhaps we don't know about?" asks Dr. Helen. We answered in her comments:

As for those firemen running into burning buildings, I do think it's an evolutionary survival thing having to do with avoiding shame and capturing honor among one's chosen peers. In today's parlance it comes down to "feeling good about oneself."

Approval amongst the members of one's group is all important for the psychological bonding that can mean the difference between survival and extinction, but some groups have more to feel good about than others, especially in this politically correct, self-esteem-without-effort era. We hold within us the potential for both extreme evil and extreme good . . . It all depends upon what we do with our human nature.

Update: One group that has a lot to feel good about are the cats that blog. Indigo hosts Carnival of the Cats #175 at This, That & The Other Thing.

Update II:  Pajamas Media links.

Is it love, or is it reduced calories?

In the countdown to supper, Babe stares down upon us from atop the Ivers & Pond upright, employing the think system to induce us to head for the kitchen and get the cat food into the bowls.

One paw and one thumb up! Baby Cakes loves Beef Stroganoff Lite, the newest recipe to make the cut for our Cold Turkey Cookbook. Tuck claims he couldn't tell the difference between the new version and one of his old favorites, our traditional, butter-and-oil-laced Beef Stroganoff. "This one might be even better," he ventured. We managed to shave off 335 calories --168 per serving -- by substituting a technique we'd stumbled upon in developing Faux Scalloped Potatoes with Mushrooms, a low-calorie variation on another old classic, our cream-and-butter-laden Scalloped Fennel and Potatoes.

Is it love, or is it reduced calories? The latest triumph from our experimental kitchens, Beef Stroganoff Lite, was served upon a bed of noodles with a vegetable medley of leftover baked beets and steamed English cucumbers, Yukon Gold potatoes and snow peas on the side.

Both versions start out the same:

Marinate one or two sirloin tips cut into 1 1/2-inch strips for an hour or so in a mixture of A-1 Sauce, soy sauce and tomato juice.

Chop one large shallot and five large cloves of garlic, and slice eight mushrooms.

Then they go their separate ways. Old cooking method:

Just before cooking, slice beef on the bias into bite-sized pieces.

Heat heavy-duty skillet on high, add 1 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp oil and sauté beef, stirring. Add freshly ground pepper, toss in shallots, garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking over medium heat until done. Add marinade to the pan, cook about a minute and then finish off with a cup of sour cream. Serves two.

New, improved cooking method:

Grill beef on Jenn-Air stove top or other indoor or outdoor grill 10-15 minutes, turning once or twice. When it is done to your liking, season with freshly ground pepper, move to a cutting board and slice on the bias into bite-sized pieces.

Meanwhile, bring a 14.5-oz can of College Inn "Light & Fat Free" chicken broth to a rolling boil in a frying pan, toss in shallots, garlic and mushrooms, cover and cook until liquid is reduced to a thin syrup. Add beef slices to the pan and blend in 4 tbsp sour cream. Serves two.

Update: Subsequent testing reveals a mixture of broth, vermouth and water makes the perfect liquid for cooking shallots, garlic and mushrooms: Sauce Sisu.

Bottom line: Grilling the beef and cooking the veggies in broth rather than fat adds a mere 5 extra calories to the final dish vs a whopping 340 extra calories from cooking the beef and veggies in butter and oil. The amount of beef depends upon the appetites and dietary goals in question. We used one strip for two and had enough to spare when Baby demanded his fair share.

Update:  Animal lovers who demand their fair share can fill up on treats at Modulator's  Friday Ark #149.

Update II: Teresa explicates the "Eyes-Bigger-than-Stomach Effect" in the comments:

Whenever you are making Chinese stir fry (and I extrapolated to casserole-type dishes) use about 1/4 the meat you "think" you need. [As the teacher of a Chinese cooking class] said (and I agree) Americans use too much meat in dishes where less meat and more vegetables would be much better . . . You get the flavor without all the calories.

Mummy was right: "Eat your vegetables!"

Waiting in the underwings

Like other members of the Noctuidae or "owlet" family of nocturnal moths, this Ultronia Underwing (Catocala ultronia) taking an afternoon nap on the side of our house has a colorful surprise waiting in the wings for would-be predators. Underneath the dull gray-and-black speckled forewings (above x 1.5), bright orange underwings lie in wait, ready to startle birds or bats or other Lepidopterophages looking for a tasty meal.

"You may want to look at something out in the yard," Tuck suggested this afternoon, taking a break from his grading project in the West Forty to deliver an insect advisory. The insect in question was a large, hairy, mottled gray-and-black moth attached to the side of the house that he said reminded him of our June garden visitor, the Great Ash Sphinx Moth, but "maybe a little smaller."  Grabbing our camera, we strode out and got a couple of pictures with an eye to googling a definitive ID later on. (The color above is a little browner than it looked to the naked eye. See image below for a closer match.) Then things got interesting. Hoping to coax the sleepy owlet moth onto our hand for further observation -- the way Tuck had done with the Great Ash -- we approached with a cautious finger. Suddenly it took flight, flashing a gorgeous pair of Monarch-orange underwings as it rose and banked off toward the forested edge of the clearing beside the house.

Things happened too quickly for us to stand a chance of capturing the moth's secret weapon in action. Besides, up to that moment we had thought it was just a run-of-the-mill, gray-and-black moth. These photographs from Bill Oelkhe's Silkmoths site tell the story. (Credits: D. Lynn Scott l. and Tim Dyson r.)

There the sleep-disturbed nocturnal alit upon the trunk of a venerable Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), where it proceeded to give the US Armed Forces' latest fractal and digitized camo patterns a run for their money:

Once the Ultronia Underwing had landed on the ruggedly shaggy and fissured gray-and-black bark of one of our Black Cherries, a predator would have been hard put to pick it out from the surrounds. As Defense Review said re digitized camouflage, "You can't hit what you can't see," And as we blogged awhile back in the same context, "Digitized camo is impressive, but nobody does it better than the animals."

Camouflage and surprise are great when you're trying to avoid being eaten by a bird, but some members of the owlet moth family that are preyed upon by bats have developed another survival tool, "an evasive system whereby upon hearing the high pitched note which is emitted by the bat to locate its prey, a tiny organ in the ear sends muscles in the wings into spasm, causing the moth to dart around erratically. This random movement has the effect of evading the incoming bat." That sounds like something Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi might try to avoid getting tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Ten-finger exercise

According to the "Activity Calculator," typing at the computer burns off 41 calories per hour. That compares favorably with sittiing and reading, which uses up 27 calories per hour. Every little bit helps. "Goomp in his study yesterday afternoon calls to mind St. Jerome in his," we captioned the above photo last fall. "Always ahead of his time with the latest high tech, the Goompster now enjoys a flat screen monitor with Windows XP under the hood."

Goomp weighs in to the comments on our previous post, "Weighty matters," with a happy thought:

I suppose for those who can't walk an hour a day that typing at the keyboard of the computer uses a few calories, and consuming less food can reduce an over abundance of pounds.

What with the reading (27 calories/hour), thinking -- Activity Calculator gives no calorie counts for mental exercise -- and typing (41 calories/hour) that we invest daily in blogging and keeping up to speed on things, we ourselves are expending perhaps 350 calories a day without even getting off our arse to go for walkies (364 calories). Add that to the Cold Turkey Diet, and we're on a losing streak. Or, as Pam says in the comments, "You've obviously got the thing whupped."

Weighty matters

The new taskmaster is in the house, an old-fashioned HoMedics® Analog Scale. Product shot above framed by Starburst Lilies just coming into full, glorious bloom along edge of the front porch.

Feeling pretty cocky, having lost close to 20 pounds in eight weeks on our Cold Turkey Diet, we bucked decades of denial, headed out to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought a bathroom scale to replace the one we had thrown down the stairs and kicked out of the house in blind rage many years and several diets ago. Since then, the only time we had stepped onto a scale was at the doctor's office, about once a year on average.

Walking for an hour -- as we do daily -- at a rate of four miles per hour: 364 calories. According to "So you wanna lose weight" (see below), you can lose two pounds a week if you eat 500 fewer calories than a person of your age, sex, and weight usually needs in a day and burn off 500 calories a day.

We already knew what do to -- eat less and exercise -- but couldn't resist Googling the topic, from Oprah's weight-loss guru Bob Greene's "Best Life Diet," where "you never have to count a calorie!" to "So you wanna lose weight," an amusing and sensible source that turned us on to something called the "Activity Calculator," where you plug in your current weight to find out how many calories you can work off in a given amount of time at a variety of activities. We've highlighted a few of them here just for fun.

Bending down and picking up street coins -- something we do thousands of times a year during walkies, where we've "earned" hundreds of dollars through the years: The Activity Calculator doesn't say, but like the bottom line of the coins themselves, the number of calories burned must add up.

Weeding: 327 calories per hour. We love to weed anyway, and our terrace, garden and yard are most helpful in providing the raw material. Smooth Crabgrass (Digitaria ischaemum), above.

Thatching/raking lawn: 312 calories per hour. Two weeks ago, the green lawn beyond Tuck's boots in the photograph above was as brown as the patch he's currently thatching -- dethatching? -- in the foreground. Removing the layer of living and dead grass stems and roots with a thatching rake "forces buds to grow near the base of the grass stems, preventing the grass plants from being dead underneath and only green on top."

Watering the yard by hand, standing/walking: 41 calories. "The Rosa Multifloras, enjoying their best year ever, frame Tuck front and back as he waters the indoor plants that have come outside for their day in the sun," we captioned this image of a rare day in June.

Sleeping: 65 calories.

But, of course, we aren't taking this dieting thing lying down.

Function follows form*

If Tuck builds it, the animals will come. Above, Tiny rules her realm from atop the venerable woodpile behind the house, keeping a watchful eye on the comings and goings of neighborhood fauna, domestic and wild. The logs -- mostly Black Cherry and Tree of Heaven -- were hand hewn through the years by the Tuckster from the trunks and branches of trees felled and pruned here on the "estate" in Chelsea-by-the-Sea. He uses them to keep the homefires burning in the Franklin stove upstairs in the living room on winter evenings when it's cold outside.

Another of Tuck's constructions, the handsome wooden compost box near the woodpile, is a big draw for the spineless community, including these two funnel-web spiders (above and below), who had created a two-decker residential complex in one corner. What with the house flies, fruit flies and other insects drawn by the scent of composting fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen, life is good for a spider in the corner of the compost box.

Update: Life is good for ailurophiles at Carnival of the Cats #174 at Laurence Simon's wild and wooly TBIFOC.

*Blogpost title is a play on Louis Sullivan's "That form ever follows function. This is the law."

Dogs will be dogs

Not suitable for work? This is how the microwaved dogs look after two minutes under fire. Nobody said having fun was going to be easy. This evening we had 'em again, but this time the veggies included sliced purple potatoes, garlic and snow peas. You add the snow peas at the very end of the steaming, of course, so as not to overcook. Wicked delicious.

Good enough to eat

We missed National Hot Dog Day Wednesday but made up for it last night with the latest recipe for our work in progress, the Cold Turkey Cookbook. It's Diced Dogs Risotto, served here with another new dish, Steamed Garden Greens.

Diced Dogs Risotto: Microwave two hot dogs,* slice into 1/4-inch coins and serve on a bed of Perfect Rice.**

*Microwaving dogs: No muss, no fuss, no doggy odor. No extra calories and no pans to wash, either. To prevent the dogs' exploding as they steam in their own juices within the oven, make diagonal slices in three rows around the circumference. For two servings use two Kayem Old Tyme Franks (made in Chelsea) or other favorite brand. Place 'em on a paper plate and microwave on high two minutes. We love the way they expand to make it seem like you're getting a whole lot more for your calorie "dollar" than you really are. Great served whole in a toasted hot dog bun or sliced and mixed with cooked rice (above) or Chelsea Baked Beans.

**Perfect Rice: Microwave 1/2 cup Uncle Ben's or other white rice in 1 1/3 cups fat-free chicken broth on high 5 minutes and then medium 20 minutes. Enough for two, with plenty left over for another meal.

Steamed Garden Greens:  Wash and cut or break into bite-sized pieces a selection of fresh green veggies, steam 10-15 minutes till al dente, sprinkle with freshly-ground peppercorns and spritz with a squeeze or two of lemon juice. Featured in photo above: Asparagus, English cucumbers and leeks. They wouldn't have to be all green, of course. Just be sure to have a variety of veggies on hand, and use your imagination to create a plate of flavors and colors and textures that look good enough to eat.

The proof is in the puddy

Thanks to Tuck's recommendation that we read the camera manual -- having previously read only as much as was necessary to get started when the Pentax Optio 450 first came into our life a few years back -- in our quest to capture detailed close-ups of tiny things like insects and spiders and the innards of flowers, we discovered along the way something called the "portrait shooting mode":

Enables to take portraits with spatial effect, by emphasizing the person.

The proof is in the puddy (Babe, above, out on his tether sniffing the breeze this afternoon).

Getting off on scent marking the privet, he neary toppled over backwards in ecstasy. Note right ear squished down by branch responding to the ardor of his caress.

A portrait of determination. Straining to reach something just beyond his reach (see blue tether stretched taut, lower left), the Babe started gagging just after we caught this "Microcosm of America at its best" moment.

As the dinner hour approached, the cats grew restive, attempting to displace -- in the Dr. Sanity sense -- their impatience with diversionary tactics. A great social yawn on the part of Baby Cakes elicited the usual look of disgust from a disapproving Tiny.

Update: Our imail correspondent comments:

I must say, though, if you cut out the commentary, Baby's supposed "social yawn" could easily be used as "I want to kill my sister."

Dr. Sanity would approve.

Update II:  More portraits of all creatures great and small, with and without backbones, at Modulator's Friday Ark #148, plus all cats all the time at Carnival of the Cats #173 now playing at one of the Father of All Cat Bloggers, Laurence Simon's other blogs, 100 Word Stories Podcast.

Silk Stalkings*

While Chelsea slept, one of the resident Daddy Longlegs Spiders (left) captured an exquisite lacewing (Note part of wing, lower left -- more below) and was preparing its catch for breakfast by packaging it up in a silk wrapper when we came upon the scene. A perfect opportunity for our ongoing macro-photographic experimentation with existing equipment. The purchase of a fancier camera and macro lenses is still in the research and development stage. The hand-held, flash image above, taken in our Pentax Optio 450's macro mode, compensates for what it lacks in photorealistic detail with a kinetic choreographic energy reminiscent of Martha Graham's "Lamentation" (right).

Daddy Longlegs [Daddies Longlegs? Daddy Longlegses?] "have a special method of hunting," writes Bryan Goethals of the Werkgroep Inheemse Spinnen. Unlike orb-web spiders, whose sticky silken structures enmesh passing prey, or funnel-web spiders -- blogged here --  who wait inside their funnels to pounce upon unwitting wanderers who stumble into the sheet webs spreading from their door, Daddy Longlegs perform a maneuver akin to gameskeepers' hobbling a large mammal by casting a heavy, entangling net over the animal's body. Goethals explains:

Their untidy web is used more as a place to stay than for catching prey . . . Normally the spider throws tough stiff web material over the victim and disables its mobility. After the prey is motionless, the spider engulfs its prey by spinning the web all around it. The spider makes a hole in the ball of the web and bites with its small jaws in the weaker parts of the prey. Then it spews digesting juices in the wound. Most of the time the prey is not consumed completely and larger preys are often left behind unfinished.

We tried taking a few shots using the Velbon DF 40 tripod, but none were as sharp and detailed as this one taken free hand. 'Course we couldn't get as close as we wanted, what with the spider's having relocated to a narrow, remote corner not designed to accommodate a standard tripod. Gotta practice a lot more with the tripod in more open situations, preferably with good available light. The super macro mode -- as opposed to the macro mode used here -- records only the sunny hours (no flash), and today is overcast with intermittent rain in these parts. Note victim's eye just to left of spider's purple/brown abdomen near top and slender pink body lying diagonally behind transparent wing middle right.  What a way to go. The dance hold of Fred "Daddy Long Legs" Astaire himself comes to mind (above right in Silk Stockings).

Daddy Longlegs Spiders also have a special way of warding off intruders:

Also known as Vibrating or Cellar Spiders, members of the Pholcidae family live in houses and buildings. They make their untidy webs in the corner of a wall or a ceiling. They are also often found in the basement or cellar . . . When they are disturbed or when they are under a threat of attack, they start vibrating in their web violently to scare off and discourage their enemy.

By late morning when we went back to check, the night stalker had moved its silken bundle across the room to a more secluded wall near the sink. We tried to get a closer look using one of those bar-magnifier rulers. When it inadvertently touched the web, the spider went into a spinning frenzy worthy of a Clinton spokesperson, even as what was left of the silk-encased lacewing hung motionless attached to the wall close by.

Shall we dance?

Update: Pajamas Media links.

Update II: Eric of Classical Values links, with some intriguing, illustrated spider-inspired insights of his own:

This reminds me of a post I wrote after seeing a funnel weaver spider in my backyard which I thought was "so feminine and graceful in appearance that it reminded me of Salvador Dali's painting of the half human spider Arachne."

As we commented in response, "Art imitates life imitates art. What gloriously tangled webtales we weave . . ."

*Blogpost title is a play on the title of the musical "Silk Stockings," music and lyrics by Cole Porter.