Dear Reader,

Welcome to Yummy Lummy. Yummy Lummy is a blog for people who live alone and are keen to cook meals for one.

I also share my opinions on topics others may be interested in. With my change in diet, the emphasis is shifting to my opinion on some food and non-food-related topics.

You can skip the introduction and jump to the recipe if you don’t care to read my views.

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine was great. I continue to recover from my injury. My surgeon is happy for me to see a physiotherapist, and I’m doing some range of motion exercises thrice daily.

What have I been watching?

The Equalizer trilogy

There used to be a TV show from the 1980s called “The Equalizer”. It starred Robert Woodward as Robert McCall. McCall is a retired intelligence agent who helps people with trouble coping with life.

The movie series starred Denzel Washington as McCall. The third and final movie was released a couple of months ago. I like Denzel Washington as an actor. He also seems like he’s a decent bloke too.

A new TV series has been produced. I don’t think I’ll watch it. The movies are sufficient for me.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick (TV Mini-Series 2023‑2023)

Set in 1970s New York City, The Continental explores the origin of the hotel-for-assassins focus of the John Wick movie series seen through the eyes and actions of a young Winston Scott.

The biggest star of the John Wick movies for me was the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1, which featured a 428 in³ big block V8.

What have I been reading?

Life expectancy associated with different ages at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in high-income countries: 23 million person-years of observation. (Kaptoge et al., 2023)

This study looked at the effect a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) has on longevity. This observational study was conducted using information from 19 high-income countries. The authors calculated age-adjusted and sex-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause mortality according to age at diagnosis of diabetes using data from 1,515,718 participants, in whom deaths were recorded during 23.1 million person-years of follow-up.

Every decade of earlier diagnosis of diabetes was associated with about 3–4 years of lower life expectancy.

The main message

While longevity isn’t my most important goal, I’d like to keep living if I’m happy and living happily. Avoiding T2DM will help achieve this. Rather than my end of life being a medical intervention, I’d like to use nutrition for the same outcome. Avoiding unnecessary carbohydrates (noting that no dietary carbohydrates are necessary) by focusing on real foods seems to make the most sense.

What have I been listening to?

Monroe Doctrine book series

I’m now in volume VI and hopefully get to volume VII this weekend.

As a book series, I think this is a series I could easily re-listen to annually.

Making It So a Memoir by Patrick Stewart

Kathleen gave me a copy of this book to listen to as a gift.

The title refers to similar words one of Sir Patrick’s best-known characters says in most episodes of that TV show. If you’re not familiar with Sir Patrick and the roles he plays, I’m guessing you may not be interested in this book.

His Wikipedia entry mentions a bit of trivia I wasn’t aware of. Sir Patrick holds a world record for longevity performing a character.

Recipe

The dietary lifestyle I’ve now adopted is mundane regarding recipes. While it remains spring in Australia, and noting that Canberra isn’t the warmest place in the country, I’m still using my slow cooker and air fryer for indoor cooking.

I hope as summer approaches, I can use a frypan more. I don’t have a very efficient exhaust system in my flat, so unless I open windows and doors, the smoke from cooking meat easily triggers the smoke alarm. I can get good airflow in the flat when the windows and doors are open.

I see outdoor cooking in my future, but more about that when we’re in summer.

I chose two styles of beef short ribs for this recipe because I wanted to eat the meat directly from the smaller ribs and keep the meat from the short rib fingers for later in the week.

Equipment

• Slow cooker
• Air fryer

Ingredients

• Beef short ribs (3 ribs)
• Beef short rib fingers (2 ribs)
• Beef, chicken, lamb, and pork stock — you can use any meat-based stock for this. You could also use a plant-based stock or a meat and plant stock. I’m using this because it’s what I have at hand.

Instructions

1. Place the meat and the stock into the cooking vessel.
2. Slowly cook for eight hours.
3. Remove the meat and place the ribs on a tray and into the air fryer for 20 minutes at 160 °C (320 °F).
4. Set aside a portion of the ribs for dinner, put the rest of the ribs into a container and refrigerate. The rib meat can be used for lunches during the week.
5. Filter the cooking liquor and keep it as the perpetual master stock.
6. Serve the ribs with vegetables or eat them alone. If you’re following a carnivore diet, just the ribs will be more than sufficient to satisfy your hunger. If you’re low-carbohydrate, healthy-fat eating, the meat and some plant-based real foods like avocado, leafy green leaves, olives, and tomatoes are a good combination. If you’re not concerned with carbohydrates, mashed tubers like potatoes or sweet potatoes would work well, as would mashed pumpkin. You could make a roux with flour, oil, or butter to make a gravy. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, these ribs won’t be suitable.
7. Always give thanks to the Lord.
8. Eat with whatever implements you prefer. This includes your fingers. I like holding the rib in my fingers and gnawing the meat from the bone. I ate the prawns with chopsticks. 🥢

Thoughts on the meal

As far as slowly cooked meat goes. Ribs are great. I don’t seem to be able to get beef cheeks delivered. I think as I become more ambulatory, I’ll make excursions (also known as hobbling) to the shops to buy cheek meat.

Refreshment from Kathleen

Kathleen introduced me to a new drink. Kathleen suggested a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of sparkling mineral water. Occasionally, I’ve enjoyed morning lime juice and tap water, but the ACV and mineral water drink is next level. It tastes good.

I also like that the ACV will possibly help stave off dementia so I don’t lose my mind too early as we grow old together. 🤪 (Tripathi et al., 2020)

Disclaimer and comments

This post and other posts on this blog do not constitute medical or health advice. I’m sharing my personal experiences from my lived experience.

References

Kaptoge, S., Seshasai, S., Sun, L., Walker, M., Bolton, T., Spackman, S., Ataklte, F., Willeit, P., Bell, S., Burgess, S., Pennells, L., Altay, S., Assmann, G., Ben-Shlomo, Y., Best, L., Björkelund, C., Blazer, D., Brenner, H., Brunner, E., … Kromhout, D. (2023). Life expectancy associated with different ages at diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in high-income countries: 23 million person-years of observation. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 11(10), 731–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-8587(23)00223-1

Tripathi, S., Kumari, U., & Mitra Mazumder, P. (2020). Ameliorative effects of apple cider vinegar on neurological complications via regulation of oxidative stress markers. Journal of Food Biochemistry, 44(12). https://doi.org/10.1111/jfbc.13504