Celebrated with a BLT today.

I would like to have a BLT with my fresh garden tomatoes every day. I don't because I figure all the bread and bacon wouldn't be good for my health.

I went to the doctor for my regular checkup as I do every two years. They perform all the blood work and X-rays and call me with the results. I don't take any prescription medications but my blood pressure was 94 over 61 and all my lipids were well within acceptable ranges. Everythiing else looked good as well, so I had a big BLT this evening and look forward to many more in the future.

Ted

[b54red]

Congratulations, I wish I could get a report that good; but I still have to have my BLTs.

[Sun City Linda]

I, on the other hand stuck my arm into one of those blood pressure cuffs at Vons (Safeway) and came up 180 over 120 a few years ago. With meds, I am in a much better range these days and well able to eat BLTs!

[PA_Julia]

Ted,

I'm a huge fan of tomatoes and a huge fan of bacon and of course BLT sandwiches.
Yesterday I went to the Allentown Farmers Market and purchased my favorite bacon from S. Clyde Weaver Butchers out of East Petersburg, PA.

At close to 10.00 a pound it is the most expensive bacon I buy but the most delicious.
What's nice is the sheer amount of butchers in eastern PA.
I always have a nice variety of the highest quality bacon for my BLT's.
I'm very happy you received a clean bill of health and that you ate my favorite sandwich!!


Julia

Julia,

I buy Wrights brand, thick sliced bacon. I've only eaten one better and it wasn't a brand. I had a physician friend who made yearly trips back home to Virginia or West Virginia. When he returned, he always had a car trunk full of cured meats including cured bacon. I've never tasted anything as good as those country cured hams and bacon. My mouth still salivates just thinking about it. My friend passed on many years ago and I have been searching for cured meats that taste like that for many years.

Ted

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

I, on the other hand stuck my arm into one of those blood pressure cuffs at Vons (Safeway) and came up 180 over 120 a few years ago. With meds, I am in a much better range these days and well able to eat BLTs!

My wife on the other hand has always had hypertensive blood pressure. She has taken blood pressure medication since before we met and married forty four years ago. I took her to the emergency room one evening last year when her blood pressure reached 217 over 125. I thought it was a serious problem but the emergency room physician and her personal physician thought it was no big deal unless they were not able to get it back down. She says her problem stems from the fact that I drive her nuts.

Ted

[PA_Julia]

Ted,

I think you would find that here in PA.
There are hundreds of family owned meat shops and butchers in the state.
The choices are incredible.
Wrights Brand I have heard of but have not tried.

On occasion I will buy Oscar Meyer Center Cut if I'm having a gathering that has more than a few people attending at my house.

For myself and immediate family it's off to the butcher to obtain the slabs of gold.


Julia

[babice]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

I, on the other hand stuck my arm into one of those blood pressure cuffs at Vons (Safeway) and came up 180 over 120 a few years ago. With meds, I am in a much better range these days ...

Moi aussi! Although I'd love to not have to be on meds! Way to go tedIn! I used to eat mustard sammy's. Yellow mustard, please. Put a home-grown-mater on there! Heaven...

[Sun City Linda]

Originally Posted by babice

Moi aussi! Although I'd love to not have to be on meds! Way to go tedIn! I used to eat mustard sammy's. Yellow mustard, please. Put a home-grown-mater on there! Heaven...

Well, I did later quit smoking and that alone let me reduce the strength of my meds by 50%. But I aint giving up BLTs!

I had a full check up by a cardiologist a couple of years ago including a stress test on a treadmill. When all the results were in, I was in perfect condition. The doctor asked how long I've smoked. I said fifty four years. He said "I guess it's a little late to advise you to quit. Just keep on doing whatever your doing. It's working well for you."

When we lived in East Texas, my personal physician was an internist. When I would see him for medication for the flu or a cold, he would say "Ted, I have to advise you to quit smoking". We would then go to his office, close the door, and we would both light up and talk for awhile.

Ted

[Sun City Linda]

I would have liked to keep doing what I was doing too but it wasnt working out as well for me!

Julia,

Old fashioned meat markets are a thing of the past where we live. We have one little market in a town near us, but it isn't very good. We also have a German style market in a little German town near us. The closest thing we have to a butcher shop is a few Mexican style grocery stores that have hand cut meat counters in the back of the stores. I love all the marinated meats they sell and some of the unusual cuts they offer. I still wish I could walk into an old style butcher shop and tell the butcher I want a slab of smoked or cured bacon or a sirloin cut 1 1/2" thick. Today, about the best you can do is buy the 1/4" steaks at Walmart which have also been pressure infused with water to increase the weight.

Ted

[materlvr]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Well, I did later quit smoking and that alone let me reduce the strength of my meds by 50%. But I aint giving up BLTs!

Me neither, Linda!

[babice]

Tedin - my grandparents gave it up after something like 60+ years of smoking.

Yeah - HBP and heart disease runs in my fam. I've had HBP since I was in my early thirties. I actually get symptoms when my BP goes up high - heart palps is the main one. I can't believe your DW's went that high! GEESH!

[zabby17]

Julia,
Wow, you are lucky with the meats!

I feel happy to have *a* butcher in my little town. A few years ago, my husband and I decided to make it a goal to eat less meat but better meat. I started skipping right over the parts in the meat items in the No Frills grocery flyer and visiting the butcher regularly and making excursions to check out the freezers in the country store that sources straight from the farmers. At the same time I worked on cooking a lot more beans & to fu.

No regrets!

The town is small and so is the butcher store, and in the winter (it's a tourist town, so things are real quiet then) the selection can be limited. But there is always house-smoked bacon and ham, and store-made sausage, and store-made burger patties with exactly the right mix of fat and lean.

One of the first times I was there, I asked for some bacon. The owner was busy elsewhere and it was the very young, shy apprentice who was serving me. He asked which kind of bacon I wanted. What's the difference, I asked? Well, he said, slowly and quietly, this one here we smoke ourselves, and it's a little bit ... more delicious.

Well, then, I said, I'll have some of the more delicious bacon, please! The owner heard me and teased the poor young fellow for his choice of wording, but I thought it was very accurate, and ever since I always go in and ask him for some of the "more delicious bacon."

Which is what'll be on my sandwich at lunchtime... I picked up some fresh Goodhearth bread from the baker ... and I think I have about two lettuce leaves left in the garden, just enough.... ;-p

Z