It's all about food

I read a section of a nutritional book the other day about gout.  My dad has gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, a pacemaker, numbness in his right leg, bone spurs on his spine, and about 10 stints in the veins around his heart. You would think there was more to be worried about but since he just has his kidneys and heart checked out through a catheratization, they are not my worry.  What I wanted to know is, what is gout, how do you get it, and can you ever get rid of it.
Here are the answers, gout is a type of arthritis.  This book said it was very common among the wealthy in Europe way back when because they could afford to eat more food, and the food was fattier, sweeter, and saltier than what the poor folk were consuming.  Seems that gout is becoming more common here in the states because we are eating more food, that is higher in calories, with more sugar and more salt.  Who would have thunk.  So the section in the book said that they are looking at the connection between the rise in gout in today's society with the rise in using high fructose corn syrup in pretty much every food on the shelf of your local grocery store. 
How do you get it?  Well, it' caused by too much uric acid in your blood. If you get it, it's yours for life - ain't that grand?
To me it sounds much more painful that the other issues he has going on.  I hope the research referenced in the book is done and published.  For now, I'm going to work to keep myself from getting it.
Our Winter garden is in.  It has been for weeks now, I've just forgotten to mention it.  It's probably because I had absolutely NOTHING to do with getting the beds ready or planting this fall.  I was busy with other things, my husband will back me up on that, promise.
Anyway, we found heirloom tomatoes at HEB, of all places. So we have some boring every day tomatoes found at your large box store and the heirlooms.  I'd ask Roy which ones they are but he's in the living room and I"m in the bedroom, I'll fill you in when they are harvested.
The garden also has lettuce, peas, and carrots. The carrots are not ready but tonight, Roy and Sy harvested peas and lettuce. We had both with dinner. Sy ate quite a few peas while watching Roy harvest and then came in and ate some more. We made a salad with the lettuce and it was mighty yummy.  I love that Sy will eat veggies from the garden and will choose his veggies over other foods (except for chocolate). 
Did I tell you the story of going to a "thank you" dinner and they served Chicken Parm with homemade green beans. Sy decided that he just wanted a big bowl of green beans for dinner. I was so proud, he got to have two brownies for dessert.  I'm not sure that was good reasoning but it worked that night, so let's just stop giving me that look through the screen.  Not going to work on spilled milk.
More food, we have found an HEB Plus that we actually like.  Well, I'm not sure I like all the extra stuff in the store or that it took Roy and me 15 minutes to find each other when I sent him back for meat selections.  Note to self: take cell phones and make to use them.  It really would have helped but they were both in the car - what were we thinking?  HEB Plus - the PLUS stands for everything you would find at a Super Walmart but not as nicely laid out - and only with baby clothes, no adult clothes.  It's really annoying because they are #1 a grocery store so they have to keep all the shelves stocked and then because they want you to buy the overpriced extras, you have to walk through party supplies, crafts, small kitchen appliances, etc, to get your food.  It's annoying but this HEB Plus is about 23 miles from our house.  I know that's far, but we live in the sticks.  They have fresh baked bread in more varieties than White. Today I bought sourdough and asagio cheese bread.  They have an olive bar, carry Boar's Head meats, have an awesome cheese and wine section along with lots of other things. 
The HEB close to our house is small. You can only get white bread baked fresh, really.  You want whole wheat head to the bread aisle and marvel at the three selections on the shelf.  Olives are canned and in the salad dressng aisle.  The cheese selection is one small cooler next to the deli.  Don't get crazy, they sell out of cheap white bread and milk pretty much every day. But for large orders, there is always something I want/need that they don't carry and I have to somewhere else.  Example - they don't carry Downey.  Now what store in this wonderful nation under G-d doesn't carry Downey?  Just come down to your local Lytle HEB and take a meander in the laundry aisle - it's not there. 
Before finding this overwhelming super-sized grocery store, we were shopping at the Brooks City Base HEB. Nice store, the one item they have that this Plus store doesn't have - pierogies.  If you know me, you know pierogies are a staple in my diet and living in South Texas hasn't changed that. Now mind you, I only eat them once a month, if that, but still I like to get them and keep them in the freezer. 
Our find today, cherry stone clams.  A dozen for $14.99.  All you down easters, please don't have a heart attack.  I know that this same dozen would have been $7.00 in New England or the MidAtlantic states. I say $7.00 because they were HUGE and I didn't have to pay for the flight home to get them.  That would have added $250 to the cost, for just me and I can't go home without Sy. 
Now that we have taken a deep breath regarding the price of clams, I want to tell you that they were GOOD! Really good. Some of the best clams I can remember having and I can eat my fair share of clams.  I had to split the dozen with my wonderful husband (who steamed them) but it was worth it. Now I'm wishing they were $7.00 a dozen so I could justify splurging on another dozen, but I guess they will have to wait until I spend $250 on a plane ticket.
Salmon - that's next.  Roy did salmon steaks seasoned with dill.  They were good too. I couldn't eat mine, only tasted it. I was too full on clams, peas, and salad. I am taking it for lunch tomorrow. But where I'm going with this is - how do you get your kids to try new things?  I bribe Sy with quarter. It works. Tonight, he tried the salmon and decided he liked it.  But this bribe had a turning point in our relationship, he actually wanted the quarter.