Fire

[Guest guest]

I, too, was involved in a fire. I will not stay in a hotel room that

doesn't have a flashing smoke alarm. There was one in my room in

Arizona, and it started flashing around 6 A.M. Woke me up, reached for

my glasses and once I realized it was a FIRE alarm, I grabbed my 3G, put

on some clothes, grabbed my purse and headed for the door. Put my hand

on the door - as they remind us to do to make sure it's not hot, and thus

fire outside it. Door was fine. Looked both ways, and WALKED down 7

flights of stairs. Got to the desk and it was a false alarm. Well I was

more than po'd about this. So I told the clerk that since they got me

out of bed at the ungodly hour of 6 A.M., caused my heart to race in

fright, and made me walk down 7 flights of stairs, the very LEAST they

could do is to give me breakfast. They did. A certificate for the

breakfast buffet. $25 value.

When I went to Michigan they didn't have the ADA compliant kit for deaf,

although I'd asked when I made reservations. They did have a room with

the flashing alarm. Moral of the story is, NEVER stay in a hotel that

doesn't have the flashing smoke alarm. Because as Ralph said, you'd be

toast.

Nucleus Volunteer

Message: 5

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 08:26:53 -0400

From: " Ralph Chiaradia " <ralph.chiaradia@...>

Subject: Noise?

Saturday was my last night in London, and my companion turned on the

lights at 1am which wakes me up. She motioned about a sound & goes over &

puts her ear next to my battery charger, then walks over to my luggage. I

said I had no idea what it was & tried to go back to sleep. She shakes me

to get my attention again, so I put on my BTE. Fire alarm!

We dressed in a hurry and followed others down the fire escape route &

ended up outside. A lot of people were barefoot & had on only robes.

Turned out to be a false fire activation.

If I were alone & it were a fire, I would have been toast!

Ralph HiRes 2/03

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[Guest guest]

I actually was in a dorm fire when I was deaf, before ADA and visual fire

alarms. The smell of the smoke and room mates woke me. Fortunately

everyone got out okay, but we were told we were very close not leaving

alive. Now my problem is that even if I am visually aware of a fire alarm,

elevators shut down with the alarms and I am mobility impaired. Handicapped

rooms aren't always on the first floor.

I have a CI friend that was in a room where there was no visual alarm. The

fire alarm went off and she was asleep and totally unaware. The alarm in

her room stuck and wouldn't shut down when the alarm was deactivated. She

had the security lock on the door and was the only one in the room. That

alarm blasted all night long...they had to move people out of the area of

her room......serves them right. Just glad it was a false alarm and she

didn't turn to toast! Ruth

Noise?

Saturday was my last night in London, and my companion turned on the

lights at 1am which wakes me up. She motioned about a sound & goes over &

puts her ear next to my battery charger, then walks over to my luggage. I

said I had no idea what it was & tried to go back to sleep. She shakes me

to get my attention again, so I put on my BTE. Fire alarm!

We dressed in a hurry and followed others down the fire escape route &

ended up outside. A lot of people were barefoot & had on only robes.

Turned out to be a false fire activation.

If I were alone & it were a fire, I would have been toast!

Ralph HiRes 2/03

________________________________________________________________

The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!

Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!

Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!

[Guest guest]

Fire

> Then I was remembering how when I'v head the chance to cook food

> outdoors on a fire - a grill or a campfire - it tastes SO GOOD. Better

> than on a gas stove. I beleive, if it tastes good, it's healthier.

I don't know that it's healthier (the carcinigens you mentioned later), but

maybe the flavor comes from the flames searing the outside of the meat,

sealing in the juices, rather than letting them all leak out.

One of the things I do to " savor the juice " (and a *big* caveat here - I

have a very weak sense of smell, so what tastes ok to me is really icky to

somebody else - anybody else here nibble on a crunchy snack of dried kelp?

<lol>):

I stir fry steak bits or slices in a little seseme oil (or other oil that's

good for higher temperatures) along with garlic, onion, sea salt and raisins

(or other dried fruit). At the last minute (while the meat is still pretty

rare) I throw in brocolli, cherry tomatoes, carrots, or whatever raw veggie

I happen to have and toss it around just enough get them wet and then pour

the whole mess on top of romaine or spinach, using the oil and stuff from

the pan as my salad dressing.

Last summer my kids and I went camping for a month and about the only time

we pulled out the camp stove was for 1) heating water for dishes and 2) when

we were in a drought area that didn't allow open fires. My favorite

campfire dessert (and allowed!) is a banana, still in the skin and sliced

halfway through lengthwise, stuffed with unsweetened chocolate chips (only

about 10) and black walnuts. Wrap it in tin foil and throw in on the fire

just long enough to melt the chocolate. It's a really nice treat when

everybody else is eating smores (good with apples, also).

My favorite " real meal " is sirloin kabobs, with all kinds of veggies.

;-) Ellen

;-) Ellen

[Guest guest]

Tamara wrote:

>

> I was thinking more about how the macrobiotics don't cook with

> electric stoves, and how they put so much emphasis on cooking with

> fire, as being most natural....

>

> Then I was remembering how when I'v head the chance to cook food

> outdoors on a fire - a grill or a campfire - it tastes SO GOOD. Better

> than on a gas stove. I beleive, if it tastes good, it's healthier.

> Microwaved food tastes funny, has a weird texture...

Tamara,

Heat is heat.

You have to watch and control what it does, not where it comes from :-)

I like what you can do with heat on an open fire too - because that

makes it easier to burn the outside and undercook the inside, and that

tastes good. The burned outside creates carcinogens from the fat, which

will form carcinogens if overheated - no matter what heat you use to

overheat them.

Microwaved food has whatever texture you cause it to have by the amount

of heat you develop. The texture can be anywhere from raw meat to

leather depending how much heat you apply. I don't know what you are

doing to your microwave food to make it " taste funny " or " have a weird

texture " unless you are greatly overcooking it. I presume that you are,

and of course if you overcooked something on a fire it would also " taste

funny and have a weird texture " .

This difference is because an open fire with too much heat tends to

make charcoal and with a microwave too much heat tends to make leather.

The difference is because microwaves cook the inside first and fire

cooks the outside first. Either way will make it taste good if *not*

overcooked. Open fire will " brown " (burn?) the outside of meat which

surely appeals to many people, and also it picks up the flavour of the

wood you use to cook with. There's less risk of overheating fat in the

microwave for proper cooking time and hence less risk of making

carcinogens than on an open fire where it is harder to control the heat

of the fat. Carcinogens will happen whether the fire touches the meat or

not - it's the heat that does it, not the fact that is comes from a

flame or microwave. (Foil in-between is to try to reduce the surface

heat, and reflect it into the meat more.)

Either way - you are looking at what the heat does not where it comes

from, it is immaterial where the heat comes from, only where it is

applied and how much is applied.

The *right* amount of heat in either case will get you the right amount

of total cooking of the item.

> A long time ago, I made baked potatoes by sticking them in the coals

> of a firplace, they had such good flavor; I'm sure it would work with

> sweet potatoes...

Yes it does. You can put a whole lot of veg into one nicely sealed foil

in the coals and make a wonderful stew type veg mix. It tastes the same

as microwaved food because of the sealed nature of the foil and the

microwave cooking bag sealed nature of the veg in there. In a microwave

you also need to seal in the food you cook. You can't cook anything in a

microwave by just dumping a lid on it, it will dry out and you are using

your heat to dry it not cook it. You need to use proper microwave that

seals in the flavour and moisture or proper microwave cooking bags to do

likewise. Then you get the delicious effect you get with cooking in the

coals. I get it at least three times a day from my microwave :-))

> On the other hand, I've heard that there is evidence that cooking meat

> on an open fire will cause carcinogens to form.

Overheating of fats, whether on a fire or in a frying pan, will cause

carcinogens to form yes, and overheating of plastic releases carcinogens

too. Another reason to use microware designed for a microwave to *cook*

in. If you are just heating up something you can get away with plastic

in a microwave as it is not hot enough for long enough to cause release

of dangerous chemicals, but for cooking you need to use the proper

equipment same as any other system.

> That if you cook on a

> grill, you should cover the meat with foil, so the flame doesn't touch

> it.

It's not whether the flame touches - it's whether you can reduce the

heat to prevent fat overheating - the foil will help to spread the heat

and you will get less " browning " of the surface by spreading the heat

with foil. To brown it has to be much hotter.

So again - it is what you do with the heat, not where it comes from.

Heat is heat :-)

> Sally Fallon makes note of this. She says that while tradtional

> peoples have cooked on an open flame with no ill effect, she

> guesses that there is something in their lifestyle which must protect

> against the carcingens, that we lack.

No, it's that they simmer patiently over the fire, taking their time,

and know how to do it without overheating the fat :-))

It tastes much better if you do that as it retains more moisture - more

like the way you retain moisture in microwave heating in properly sealed

stuff. You only need a pinprick of hole in a microwave to release steam,

the rest needs to stay trapped. On an open fire, the oldies know how to

heat just enough to seal in moisture without losing it all, then

slow-cook it. Most people I see doing a barbecue don't know how to do

that - they are in too much of a rush. It's supposed to be done slowly

while folks are all chatting and taking their time - not in a hurry up I

am hungry approach :-) the latter puts too much heat on the outside and

makes carcinogens - and of course the carcinogens from the artificial

fuels used in modern " flame " cooking are also carcinogenic. Our cavemen

ancestors were fussy what wood they cooked with because of course that

was part of the seasoning :-)) Charcoal and fire starter fluid are not

good condiments.

> Later, I worked as a cook at a art colony. I had to cook for both

> vegetarians and meat eaters. For some odd reason, whenever I made

> ribs, most of the vegetarians would eat them.... I must have made good

> ribs.... that was a long while ago....

Sounds from your email in general like you are using too much heat too

fast whether on fire or in the microwave - and ribs being thin and bones

conduct heat - are forgiving and cook well quickly :-))

For other stuff you need to go slower. There's skill and technique

required whether you cook on an open fire or in the microwave.

With microwave cooking part of the skill is in knowing when to stop

applying heat. It cooks from the inside first so you need to stop

cooking when the outside is rare, not the inside. Also the heat is

applied so intensely you need to give it time to spread around a bit

after you stop cooking, so you need to stop cooking before the outside

is " done " in a microwave, and let it sit for a few minutes all sealed up

With fire cooking you have to be concerned that the inside cooks

enough where you can't see it - not that the inside cooks too much where

you can't see it as in microwaving. Just different techniques. Microwave

coking heat is trapped inside after you remove the heat. Fire cooking is

exposed to the cooling air after you stop cooking so it will not

continue to cook much.

Boiled eggs continue to cook after you remove them from heat because

the shell insulates and if you want to stop the cooking you need to run

it under the cold tap. Otherwise you need to stop cooking sooner to

allow cooking to continue from the heat already inside, after the heat

is removed - as with microwave cooking.

I think the reason people consider microwave food tastes funny, is that

they are over-cooking it seriously, by looking for the same outside

appearance as with other more familiar heating methods. You'd for sure

get it overdone every time by a lot that way. You do have to remember

with microwave coking that it cooks from the inside to the outside - and

not backwards from the outside to the inside. If you wait till the

outside looks the way it would look cooked some other way - then you

went way past done a long time back and you just made yourself a new

doorstopper. You need to stop microwave cooking as soon as the *inside*

is done and *before* the outside is done. The outside will get done

while you get out the plates to serve it. The heat is trapped in there -

it will get used in the food for more cooking as it evens out betweeen

inside and outside hotness - it can't disappear like heat from the fire

on the outside of meat which is why you have to overheat the outside to

get the inside done on a fire but it stops cooking soon as you remove

the heat. In a microwave when you stop heating, the inside heat is

trapped - so it is still useful heat after you stop microwaving and will

heat the outside of the meat and cook it a bit more, just as eggs in

shells carry on cooking after you remove them from the heat.

Maybe your microwave technique needed adjustment for the way the inside

is heated first and not the outside?

Food can be ruined in any cooking method if it is not done correctly.

It's why I am amazed how microwaves are sold without any lessons around

here - or at least an instruction book that explains what's what with

heating the inside and letting that spread to the outside instead of the

other way round as we are used to. It's not self-evident how to use them

properly and the society is not geared up for them in terms of readily

available microware or microwave coking bags even. Microwave cooking

bags should be as easy to find as ziploc bags, but they are not - at

least not in this country. It's like offering a stove but not having any

pots and pans available anywhere - doesn't make sense to me :-)

I cook exclusively with a microwave - I have no interest in a stove - as

done correctly the food tastes infinitely better cooked quickly from the

inside and not degraded from extended heat time on the outside. I also

like the seared meat off a fire with good rooikrans wood for flavour -

you do not get that in a microwave - but a stove gives neither

advantage. Searing in a frypan you overheat the fat and leave the meat

sitting in it, ugh! Carcinogen city. At least on a fire you drip the fat

off:-) Nothing retains the juiciness and original flavour of food better

than a properly used microwave. Cooking with sealed food in the coals of

a fire or an oven (where people usually do not seal it well enough if at

all) is a similar idea - but the heat is applied for much longer in a

fire or oven and destroys many more nutrients than heat applied a short

while as in a microwave.

Namaste,

Irene

--

Irene de Villiers, B.Sc; AASCA; MCSSA; D.I.Hom.

P.O.Box 4703, Spokane, WA 99220-0703.

http://www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html

Veterinary Homeopath and Feline Information Counsellor.