New knives

I picked up a blue steel no. 1 deba 180mm and yani 300mm for making sushi and sashimi.

Duck.... Duck.... Goose

I went and got two ducks and a goose for x-mass dinner. So we are going to have Duck Duck Goose!

Wine spectator article...

If you have ever watched a Samurai epic, you know that Japanese warriors
pay a great deal of attention to their swords. That same level of attention has
gone into the making of Japanese kitchen knives. Sales of Japanese-made knives
have skyrocketed in the past 10 to 15 years, according to Jeremy Watson, sales
manager for Korin Japanese Trading Corp. in New York. "We deal mostly with
professional chefs, but in the last five to six years, we've seen many more
retail customers as well," he reports.Japanese knives have become so popular
that American and European knife manufacturers are now making knives in the same
style. German-based Wüsthof, a premier producer of kitchen knives, sells more
than a dozen versions of the popular all-purpose Japanese knife called santoku
in two collections.Unfortunately, the popularity of Japanese knives has led to
some poor imitations. There are dozens of Japanese-style knives, most commonly
of the santoku variety, that are as worthless as $50 espresso makers. You often
get what you pay for. Expect to shell out at least $150 for a good Japanese
chef's knife. However, there are factors other than price to consider as
well.Japanese knives are divided into two categories: traditional and
Western-style. Japanese chefs almost exclusively use traditional Japanese
knives. Western-style Japanese knives fuse some of the elements of traditional
Japanese knives with aspects of Western knives (also known as European or German
knives).One thing to consider is the bevel, or the angle at which the two sides
of the blade come together on the knife's edge. On a traditional Western knife,
it is 50/50, meaning the same angle can be found on both sides of the edge. On a
traditional Japanese knife, it's 90/10. On a Western-style Japanese knife, it's
70/30. "[Japanese knives] give a more precise, cleaner cut," Watson says. If
you've ever seen Japanese chefs work their magic at sushi bars, you know what he
means.Western-style Japanese knives resemble Western knives in appearance, from
the handle to the shape of the blade. However, there are notable differences.
The steel in all Japanese knives, including Western-style ones, is harder, which
enables them to hold an edge longer. They also have thinner blades, which
generally makes them lighter. These two qualities, above all else, have earned
Western-style Japanese knives many converts. "I've moved from German to
[Western-style] Japanese knives," says Sarah Jay, author of Knives Cooks Love
(Andrews McMeel). "I have small hands, and the Japanese knives are less
fatiguing."But Norman Weinstein, author of Mastering Knife Skills (Stewart,
Tabori & Chang), remains unconvinced. Weinstein, who teaches knife skills
classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, is a long-time
advocate of Western knives, especially those that are German-made. "There is a
mystique about Japanese knives," Weinstein says. "They are made of excellent
steel and they are thinner. But the idea that Japanese knives cause less stress
[on the hand] makes no sense to me."To illustrate his point about lighter not
necessarily being better, Weinstein asks each of the students in the 130 classes
he teaches every year, including some small-handed women, to cut a rib of celery
using two Western chef's knives: one an 8-inch, the other a heavier 10-inch.
Most of his students (including me, when I attended one of his classes) are
stunned to find that the heavier knife cuts more easily.So, East or West? I
tried out three different brands of the Western-style Japanese chef's knives,
called gyutou, from Korin. All three, the Togiharu ($157), Masanobu VG-10 ($345)
and Misono UX10 ($210), had 9.4-inch blades. All had good balance, but the
Misono's larger wooden handle felt more comfortable in my hand than the smaller,
resin-based Togiharu handle, even though my hands aren't particularly large. The
Masanobu had a more traditional Japanese cylindrical handle, making it necessary
for me to choke up on the blade to gain more control.All three cut like a dream,
better than any Western chef's knife I've ever used. The Togiharu and Misono cut
onion slices so thin, it reminded me of Paul Sorvino slicing garlic with a razor
blade in Goodfellas. Despite the reputation of Japanese knives for being light,
all three weighed in between 8 and 9 ounces, about the same as my Wüsthof
10-inch German knife. The combination of heft and sharpness made cutting harder
vegetables, like fennel, a breeze.I also tried a Togiharu santoku ($110), which,
at 6.4 inches, fell between the Chinese-made Analon santoku (7.75 inches) and
the German-made Kuhn Rikon santoku (5.75 inches) that I own. While Analon and
Kuhn Rikon aren't considered top-of-the-line knife makers, they illustrate how
widespread the popularity of the santoku-style knife is. The Togiharu ran rings
around both, even though the Kuhn Rikon has a nonstick coating.If faced with a
choice between the santoku and gyutou styles, I'd choose the latter, which gives
you the sharpness of Japanese steel with the heft of a Western chef's
knife.There are some caveats. Unlike Western knives, Western-style Japanese
knives have no bolster, the thick band of smooth, unsharpened steel that runs
along the heel of the blade. Without a bolster, your forefinger can bang against
the unprotected heel, which can cause soreness or blisters. Of course, this
depends on how you grip the knife. I've always pressed my middle finger against
the bolster when using a chef's knife. But with the Togiharu, I had to pull my
finger back a bit and squeeze a little harder with my thumb and forefinger on
either side of the blade. Watson says he hasn't gotten complaints from customers
about soreness or blisters.A more important issue is how to maintain the
sharpness of the knife, something that far too many amateur cooks don't pay
enough attention to. "People think that because they paid $125 for a knife, they
don't have to do anything [for upkeep]," Weinstein says. "It's like buying a car
and not thinking you need to put gas in."Western knives can be sharpened in
three ways: using a stone (though few people will take the time to learn how to
do this properly); using a manual or electric knife sharpener; or by sending
them to a knife sharpening service. Western-style Japanese knives can also be
sharpened with a stone, but not with a manual or electric sharpener, because of
the bevel. The bevel also makes honing the blade, which sets the edge but
doesn't sharpen, difficult on a honing steel. However, there are fine and
superfine stones that hone Japanese knives and remove surface scratches.
Japanese knives should be sent to a sharpening service that knows how to handle
them.Finally, maintaining your kitchen knives involves more than sharpening and
honing. Wash them by hand, not in the dishwasher—the heat can damage the
steel—and without abrasives, which can scratch the metal. Wipe them dry and put
them away after they are rinsed to eliminate spots, and keep the knife tips from
getting damaged in drying racks. Store knives in a knife rack or on a magnet
bar; knives stored in drawers can get nicked—and possibly nick you. Take care of
your knives and they'll take care of you, as they did the Samurai
warriors.

Sam Gugino has been writing for Wine Spectator since 1994, becoming a
regular columnist in 1996.

The quest for good pork

I have been on a quest for good pork the past few week. It started over the past holiday when we picked up a 7 bone in open pasture grass feed beef rib roast. It was unbelievably good. So I got to thinking if cow can taste this good a well treated pig must be mind blowing.

The problem I have run into is all I can get at Whole Foods is "free range" pig. Free ranged means basically nothing... the animal can be considered free range if it can access the out side, but there is no time limit given. That means if your pig can see the pasture it can be called free range. It totally makes a difference in the taste and quality of the meat.

Why waste time and money on low quality meat?


Anyway I am ranting and have been up for far to many hours to be making any kind of sense.

If I find a whole pig I am buying it with the hope of butchering it myself.... I should end up with far too much pork. Some I will give away, some with get frozen and some I will try and cure(homemade prosciutto and salamis).

PIG!!!

Not just any pig...

After a year of testing and a year in cure, we can finally announce the
arrival of cured Heritage hams from a 3rd generation curer in Virginia. While
the hams taste like Serrano hams from Spain, the Edwards family has chosen the
name Surry-ano for their product since they are produced in the town of Surry.
Edwards' Heritage Cured Ham is a beacon of culinary culture in this country. The
taste of this product is equal to the finest cured meats of Italy and Spain and
even the thinnest slice engulfs your mouth with the sharp taste of a world class
cured meat.
With time this ham acquires a more intense flavor and becomes
harder but it never spoils and does not need refrigeration. The raw ingredient
(fresh ham legs) comes from Heritage Foods USA and its primary pork producer,
Mark Newman, from Myrtle Missouri. Mark's pigs are Certified Humane and are
among the only 100% Six-Spotted Berkshires raised 100% on pasture in the United
States. Every order placed with us will come from Newman Farm pigs.
The
curing process begins by packing the ham in a special salt by hand. The salt
crystals are shaped in such a way that they don't fall off during the cure. Five
days later the hams are cleaned and rubbed again with more salt where they
remain covered for another 25 days. The excess salt is then removed, and the
hams are put in netting and hung on wooden racks in the 'Spring-Time Room'? for
21 days. This room fluctuates between 45 and 50 degrees with 80% humidity,
keeping the product moist. The hams are then placed in the Smokehouse where the
temperature is gradually raised to 85 degrees over the course of 3 days. At this
point a fire is lit just outside the Smokehouse using hickory wood and the smoke
is blown onto the hams 24 hours a day for about 7 days and stops when the ham
acquires a lovely mahogany color. They are then moved to the Aging Room, which
is kept at 83 degrees. They stay here for a minimum of 11 months but as many as
20 months. www.heritagefoodsusa.com

Tastes like... well like food is ment to taste.

Shigefusa (Tokifusa Iizuka)

I realy spent way more then should have on this knife... but it is totaly worth it. This one came with a custom spalted maple handle by Daniel O'Malley (http://www.bladegallery.com). The current wait time on a Shigefusa knife is some time around a year... This special one of a kind knife was a series of collaborative knives by Shigefusa and Daniel O'Malley.

Shigefusa (Iizuka Tokifusa and his two sons) is the one of the most famous
houchou (Japanese style chef's knife) blacksmith in Japan. Shigefusa has
trained under the famous tamahagane razor maker Iwasaki Shigeyoshi for 10
years, and before he became independent he received several months of
training by another very famous swordsmith Nagashima Munenori by the
recommendation of Iwasaki-san. By the age of 38 he had already been
celebrated as the best houcyou maker in Japan. The beautiful poished look of
Shigefusa knives are acheived by applying the special Japanese sword
poishing technique creating the hazy polished look. Now with his two full
grown sons beside him, Shigefusa has achieved an unrivaled state as a
houchou maker. I can take orders for all Shigefusa knives and tools. If
you are interested in knives that aren't shown on the HP, let me know
what
you are after, and I'll get back to you with price and the waiting time. (http://www.geocities.com/soatoz/hamono/Shigefusa/Shigefusa_Santoku.html)

"Finally, the knives have ready."

Only after some 70 odd days the knives I oredred are shipping from japan.

Suisin....

Got an email from the suisin club... but I have no idea what it is or means.

SUISIN CLUB to me show details Oct 2 (1 day ago) Reply
Dear Suisin Club
Member.
How are you?Japan cooled down in the evening in the morning.I feel
autumn wind.Please be careful about the turning point of the season, physical
condition management.
By the way, SUISIN - Club began in October.Because the
production of a special product was not enough, it comes out later.The movement
that I precede it is application to the product monitor.
Please confirm the
details about it in a member page.
I may offer an interesting kitchen knife
earlier from now on.To a professional chef and knife lover.
In addition, I
think about the special movement to the sake of a student going to the cooking
school.
Thank you
SUISIN CLUB
Tatsuya Aoki

http://www.suisin.co.jp/English/product/index.htm

Beer and chicken...

I spend last Sunday making fried chicken.... so I thought I would post so picks of a pile of brined and cleaned raw chicken. I really only made this because I wanted to play with my new hattori boning knife. It was Thomas Keller's recipe from Ad Hoc.

They were organic free ranged something or other from my store.

Butter milk and flour mixture. You can see my new boardsmith ( http://www.theboardsmith.com/ ) cutting board in the left side of the picture 24x18x2 walnut.

Here is the chicken all coated. I dipped it twice to make sure I got a nice thick batter.

There are no finished photos... it just did not last long enough. I also meant to take pictures of my first watermelon, but it also got devoured before I could get any pictures. So.... heres some beer after all what is fried chicken with out beer.

Thats a nice looking set of knives... wonder how much they cost.

Cleaver

CHOP CHOP CHOP!

Its another night...

And another thunder storm... theres been basicly one every day this week. Tonights is right over us, so I can see and feel a few realy good strikes and one or two that feel like the crack from them is going to blow me out of my chair.

Anyway... here a random picture of some onions cooking down.

Garden and crap...

I can not belive what a difference a month makes in the garden. I will put up the pics later on today. I belive I am still behind where they should be due to the freaking rabbit. When I cools down later in the year I will start plan "Distroy The Front Yard." Baicly its me ripping up everything that is grass and laying out beds for next year.

In other news I orderd two cutting boards one cherry and one walnut. they are both MIA who knew speical ordering cutting boards from a small company in vermont would take over a month( http://www.vermontbutcherblock.com/ ). Maybe I will call the guy later today too... between work and massive amount of time I waste on other equaly useless activities I never seem to get anything I want done.

I have some pics of my newest knives too...

Two 270mm wa gyuto "cow sword." Both made by hattori one under his name and the other under the nenox name.

A blue bone handled 240 western gyuto

150mm buffalo horn handled petty.

Still looking to pick up a 270 kikuichi ginsan for sex appeal either a cow sword or a slicer/Sujihiki; a large and small western deba for hard squash and boning work; another hattori petty and maybe a sujihiki ( http://www.japanesechefsknife.com/HattoriForumHighEndChefsKnives.html ); Aritsugu gyouto because I hear they kick ass... That will be it I think maybe a single sided deba for fish.

Home cured meat...

I have a new plan... I am going to cure my own meat.

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/

Like this guy does... just need some place to cure the meat. I have not realy worked that part out yet.

Also I am turning the front yard into a garden like this...

http://abigaildoan.blogspot.com/2007/07/edible-estates-new-york-city-suburbs.html

More garden pics

New pics from the garden... and pics of the dog.

Rabbits

The rabbits have eaten 4 of my cucumber plants and 2 pumpkins... its hunting time.

New Camera

Time for a new camera... I have been using my phone becasue the pile of shit olympus I got a few years back was about as good as my phone. I realy want a dSLR or rangefinder, but dont realy want to go back to hualling around lenes again. I finished with that when I put the film SLR away. A leica m8 rangefinder is pure sex though... ( http://us.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m8/ ). I havent realy looked into the DSLRs that are out now, but I have always like nikon and pentax...

I think I will just save money and pick up a compact DMC-FX500 ( http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Cameras-Camcorders/Digital-Cameras/Lumix-Digital-Cameras/model.DMC-FX500K_11002_7000000000000005702 ) How many other point and shoots have great glass like the leica on this camera...

Garden is set up for the year

I guess I will try to put up pics as the season goes along. I have already had a few casualties... 3 lemon cucumber sprouts were chewed and spit out by the rabbits. I also had a few problems with the mulch this year; at first I was not going to use any; then just compost; them coco or buckwheat hulls; then salt marsh hay.... All of those ended up having their own problems. The coco being the best who knew it was poisons to pets? HAHA! I ended up using a "mainly hay" which is basically a mix of grasses grown in Maine that have been baked to kill any seeds in it.













Most of the plants in the front of the pics are squashes, cucumbers and some strawberries.

http://www.pbase.com/totoherbs/garden

The back is all tomatoes and behind them are my new lilacs purple and white. I also pick up a new grape vine, blueberries, and raspberries.... They don't have a home just yet... I may have to take down a few trees. The beery plants we put in the backyard are not doing too well there just is not enough sun with the massive ( http://www.pbase.com/totoherbs/image/27029419.jpg ) beech tree that covers the whole yard.

After seeing how thoes pics turned out I need a new camera... the phone camera isnt going to work.

Went to another cooking class the other night...

We made lots of tamales...

http://olemexico.blogspot.com/2008/05/tamales.html

Way too much dirt...

I started my garden a few week ago and them moved on to other things. I kept putting it off untill today when the truck full of dirt we had ordered showed up and I had to find a place to put it that was not the driveway... somehow we failed at the math part of things and ended up with way too much dirt. Now my beds are full and I still have a pile in the drive way.

The plants will be picked up tomorrow and this weekend...

Change We Can Stomach

COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is essentially a solitary craft. But lately it’s feeling more like a lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our menus — food that’s clean, green and humane — is about as easy as securing a housing loan. And we’re suddenly paying more — 75 percent more in the last six years — to stock our pantries. Around the world, from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It’s enough to make you want to toss in the toque.
But here’s the good news: if you’re a chef, or an eater who cares about where your food comes from (and there are a lot of you out there), we can have a hand in making food for the future downright delicious.
Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval since the Green Revolution, bringing harvests that are more healthful, sustainable and, yes, even more flavorful. The change is being pushed along by market forces that influence how our farmers farm.
Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, with its macho fixation on “average tonnage” and “record harvests.” But there’s a cost to its breadbasket-to-the-world bragging rights. Like those big Industrial Age factories that once billowed black smoke, American agriculture is mired in a mind-set that relies on capital, chemistry and machines. Food production is dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and pesticides, in the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy it takes to process it.
For decades, environmentalists and small farmers have claimed that this is several kinds of madness. But industrial agriculture has simply responded that if we’re feeding more people more cheaply using less land, how terrible can our food system be?
Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a competitive advantage. They aren’t as reliant on oil, because they use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer.
In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre farm in the United States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms have long compensated for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it’s no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it’s grown.
The high cost of oil alone will not be enough to reform American agriculture, however. As long as agricultural companies exploit the poor and extract labor from them at slave wages, and as long as they aren’t required to pay the price for the pollution they so brazenly produce, their system will stay afloat. If financially pinched Americans opt for the cheapest (and the least healthful) foods rather than cook their own, the food industry will continue to reach for the lowest common denominator.
But it is possible to nudge the revolution along — for instance, by changing how we measure the value of food. If we stop calculating the cost per quantity and begin considering the cost per nutrient value, the demand for higher-quality food would rise.
Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients than their chemical-fed counterparts. And animals raised on pasture provide us with meat and dairy products containing more beta carotene and at least three times as much C.L.A. (conjugated linoleic acid, shown in animal studies to reduce the risk of cancer) than those raised on grain.
Where good nutrition goes, flavor tends to follow. Chefs are the first to admit that an impossibly sweet, flavor-filled carrot has nothing to do with our work. It has to do with growing the right seed in healthy, nutrient-rich soil.
Increasingly we can see the wisdom of diversified farming operations, where there are built-in relationships among plants and animals. A dairy farm can provide manure for a neighboring potato farm, for example, which can in turn offer potato scraps as extra feed for the herd. When crops and livestock are judiciously mixed, agriculture wisely mimics nature.
To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic bid to revert to the agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look toward the future, leapfrogging past the age of heavy machinery and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun’s free energy and use the waste of one species as food for another.
Chefs can help move our food system into the future by continuing to demand the most flavorful food. Our support of the local food movement is an important example of this approach, but it’s not enough. As demand for fresh, local food rises, we cannot continue to rely entirely on farmers’ markets. Asking every farmer to plant, harvest, drive his pickup truck to a market and sell his goods there is like asking me to cook, take reservations, serve and wash the dishes.
We now need to support a system of well-coordinated regional farm networks, each suited to the food it can best grow. Farmers organized into marketing networks that can promote their common brands (like the Organic Valley Family of Farms in the Midwest) can ease the economic and ecological burden of food production and transportation. They can also distribute their products to new markets, including poor communities that have relied mainly on food from convenience stores.
Similar networks could also operate in the countries that are now experiencing food shortages. For years, the United States has flooded the world with food exports, displacing small farmers and disrupting domestic markets. As escalating food prices threaten an additional 100 million people with hunger, a new concept of humanitarian aid is required. Local farming efforts focused on conserving natural resources and biodiversity are essential to improving food security in developing countries, as a report just published by the International Assessment of Agriculture Science and Technology for Development has concluded. We must build on these tenets, providing financial and technical assistance to small farmers across the world.
But regional systems will work only if there is enough small-scale farming going on to make them viable. With a less energy-intensive food system in place, we will need more muscle power devoted to food production, and more people on the farm. (The need is especially urgent when you consider that the average age of today’s American farmer is over 55.) In order to move gracefully into a post-industrial agriculture economy, we also need to rethink how we educate the people who will grow our food. Land-grant universities and agricultural schools, dependent on financing from agribusiness, focus on maximum extraction from the land — take more, sell more, waste more.
Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food and cooking seriously. We never bought into the “bigger is better” mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking — not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but food that has evolved from the world’s thriving peasant cuisines — is based on the correspondence of good farming to a healthy environment and good nutrition. It’s never been any other way, and we should be grateful. The future belongs to the gourmet.
Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11barber.html?ei=5070&en=a79e5de80e113804&ex=1211688000&emc=eta1/&pagewanted=all

Hows that big mac tasting thies days... more reading and watching.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/whats-wrong-with-what-we-eat/

Is it meat?

Scientists are experimenting with DNA and livestock so that the livestock has "human" parts to it. For example cows that produce human blood for blood transplants; or goats with human livers...

My question is if those beasts or gets into the food chain and are eaten is the person who ate them a cannibal?

Cooking class

Went to ole Mexican grill( http://www.olegrill.com/ ) for a cooking class tonight. You figure hey mexican food... the chef must be from mexico. Umm... no, hes from the Philippines. Go figure right? We were talking to his wife about how they are the only Filipinos we have met out here, she agreed that it is just too cold out there for them and that they only knew one other filipino and she was working in the resturant.

Anyway it was a great time had by all. I would have had photos, but I was having too much fun to pull out my camera. The chef showed us different kinds of salsas, moleas, and such... I think there is going to be another class in may. I may even take they day off to go again if its not on a wedesday.

Shrimp its whats for dinner?

Where do you get your shrip from? Where does that supplyer get his? I know the ship my store sells come from thailand... no idea if the same plants are used for the shrimp we sell.

Workers in Southeast Asia's shrimp industry suffer
regular abuse and sometimes live in what amounts to virtual slavery, a
human-rights organization said Wednesday.

The Solidarity Center report
says the global shrimp industry is worth about $13 billion
annually.

Sexual and physical abuse, debt bondage, child labor and unsafe
working conditions are common in Thailand and Bangladesh's shrimp processing
factories, the Solidarity Center said in a 40-page report.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/23/shrimp.workers.report/?iref=mpstoryview

Paul can fly...

http://www.pbase.com/totoherbs/paul

Food Prices

The WTO ( www.wto.org ) is totaly to blame for the huge rise in food prices espicaly in the price of rice and is going to cause the death of millions...

Yes or No?

Book of the month/week/when ever I get to up dateing this post.
First book got lost... on the way home from school?
Second book... Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are



"This Sendak classic is more fun than you've ever had in a wolf suit"

I dont know I have had a lot of fun in a wolf suit.

New TMNT moive

I just saw the last half and what a pile of crap... its not even worth going to the on demand menu to watch it free.

Garden

I am going to rip up all the grass in my front yard this weekend and start a veg. garden...

I got the idea from Chow ( http://www.chow.com/stories/10995/ ). I had wanted one in the backyard, but with the monster tree back there I dont get enough sun. http://www.pbase.com/totoherbs/image/27029422.jpg

That is facing east, so you can see between the beech tree on the right and the hemlocks I could never grow anything back there. The grapes, blue berry, rasberry and white rasbeery bushes that are back there never have any fruit.

I am tired of being sick...

I think I have been sick for the past two weeks...

Hmmm...

It is a good think this place has spell checking...