Carl's Low Carb Belgian Waffles

This blog post has been moved to the 2 Keto Dudes blog. Click the link below:

http://blog.2keto.com/recipe/carls-low-carb-belgian-waffles/

Keto Bread. No Carbs. No Gluten. Big Flavor

This blog post has been moved to the 2 Keto Dudes Blog. Click below:

http://blog.2keto.com/recipe/keto-bread-no-carbs-no-gluten-big-flavor/

Introducing "2 Keto Dudes" Ketogenic Lifestyle Podcast

I've just completed the second episode of 2 Keto Dudes, a weekly podcast I'm doing with Richard Morris. We are both overweight middle-aged software developers with Type 2 Diabetes. 

Richard has been on a ketogenic diet since April, 2014. Within 6 months he had no bio markers of diabetes. I have been on the diet since February 1st, 2016. As of this writing (Feb 22) I have dropped 27 pounds and I feel powerful.

2 Keto Dudes is a document of my journey to wellness AND Richard's continuing success story. We share lots of science, research, and (of course) recipes!

The Ketogenic Diet is essentially reducing carbohydrates to less than 30 grams per day, reducing protein to a moderate level (I eat about 100 grams a day) and getting the rest of your calories from fat. You also need to increase your salt intake (because the kidneys desalinate your body while in ketosis) and take an electrolyte supplement (potassium and magnesium, especially).

Learn more about this very easy way to reverse Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which includes hypertension, high blood pressure, poor cholesterol balance, and high levels of triglycerides.

http://2ketodudes.com

"Kiosk Mode" in Windows 8.x

This little snippet of code came from a real project I worked on. The customer wanted a touch-screen Kiosk. We had to use Windows 8.1 due to hardware requirements. I was able to make a great WPF UX using touch and make it full screen with no borders, and always on top.

In your <Window> Xaml object set these properties: 

 WindowStyle="None" WindowState="Maximized" Topmost="True" ResizeMode="NoResize"

That only got me so far. That pesky right-swipe charm is always there, and there's seemingly no way to get around it.

Turns out all that charm stuff is in explorer.exe, the Windows Explorer. That's the shell that lets you run all your apps. It contains all the taskbar, and gives you all the swipy gestures, corner hot spots, and all that. All you need to do is kill it. 

Also turns out that if you don't kill it properly it will come back with a vengence. So, I discovered this little trick using a ProcessStartInfo object. I call this in the MainWindow_Loaded event and all is well.

If you ever want to restart Explorer after running this app, you can press Ctrl-Alt-Del, bring up the Task Manager and run explorer from File -> Run new task -> "explorer.exe"

Be careful, and enjoy!

        void KillExplorer()

        {

            // Create a ProcessStartInfo, otherwise Explorer comes back to haunt you.

            ProcessStartInfo TaskKillPSI = new ProcessStartInfo("taskkill", "/F /IM explorer.exe");

            // Don't show a window

            TaskKillPSI.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

            // Create and start the process, then wait for it to exit.

            Process process = new Process();

            process.StartInfo = TaskKillPSI;

            process.Start();

            process.WaitForExit();

        }

In Defense of Flavor

I am one of those Americans who has had the good fortune to be able to travel all over the world. The first time I was in Europe and happened to order a sandwich at an airport shop I noticed two things. Firstly, the bread was a fresh baguette, not an afterthought. It was most likely made that morning by hand. Secondly, what was between the bread didn't look like enough. One slice of meat, a slice of cheese and maybe some tomato. Still, I ordered what looked good and was surprised at how amazingly flavorful it was.

Go to any American chain restaurant and order a sandwich. It comes on bread, but the bread is not considered important. Otherwise, why would it occasionally be stale? Usually restaurant bread is whatever they can get at the cheapest price. The sandwich filling is quite a bit more substantial, but not particularly flavorful. 

We in the States tend to think that salt and fat equals flavor. At least the people who are selling us our food seem to think that's all it takes.

I just went to a local cheese shop and came home with a fresh long baguette, rosemary olive oil, a roasted red pepper, some Serrano ham sliced paper thin, and an assortment of cheese, my favorites being smoked bleu and 7-year Quebec Cheddar. 

Slicing the bread on a bias about 1/2 inch thick, I ended up with a couple 5 inch slices. I brushed each side with olive oil, sprinkled on kosher salt and laid down a single slice of ham, a thin slice of Cheddar, and a bit of roasted red pepper. It didn't look like much, but BAM! What flavor!

I live by the rule that any kind of sauce should be reduced and reduced and reduced more until it's naturally thick. Start with a little chicken or vegetable stock, add herbs, butter, a little soy sauce, some wine, meat drippings if possible, and reduce it down to a thick sauce. You can pour right over your main dish or use it as a sandwich spread. Big flavor.

So, when cooking and shopping, opt for more flavorful food as opposed to mass quantities of less flavorful. Your mouth will thank you, and so will those you cook for. :)