Cuisine Manager

Restaurants in Baltimore, The Gathering April 13, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:18:00 +0000

The Gathering - April 13 - 2012

WHY SETTLE FOR ONE RESTAURANT

WHEN: April 13, 2012 5-9 PM

WHERE: 1415 Key Highway, Balto, 21230

WHAT: Great Food, Live Entertainment, Beverage

Click here to link to the Facebook Page

Top 10 St. Paddy's Day Recipes, Food For the Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Irish Central’s top ten Irish recipes for St. Patrick’s Day - corned beef and cabbage, stew and shepherds pie

It’s no secret that the Irish are fond of a nice bit of homemade, comfort grub and over the years, especially around St. Patrick’s Day, we’ve noticed that our recipes are hugely popular.

We’ve put together the top ten recipes, although some of them, such as corned beef and cabbage and stew are no-brainers, the IrishCentral readers went a little off script with spring rolls and pasta bakes making it into their top St. Patrick’s Day recipes.

Just click on the title to view the simple recipes. Knock them together and sit down and enjoy them with your friends and family their St. Patrick’s Day.

1. Corned Beef and Cabbage

Although in Ireland we opt for bacon rather than corned beef when the Irish arrived to New York there was none to be found. The Jewish butchers substituted the bacon for corned beef and low and behold the tradition stuck.

Either way it’s the top favorite meal with the Irish on either side of the Atlantic.

2. Shepherd’s Pie

As I’ve said before this is the best Irish comfort food going and it’s sure to put a smile on the face of any Irish person you know.

3. Corned Beef and Cabbage Pasta Bake

All right, so the IrishCentral readers liked a pasta bake out of all the hundreds of recipes on this site but it might just be their sensible streak showing. After you’ve cooked for all your friends, cousins and extended family over St. Patrick’s Day you’re bound to be left with a pile of left-overs.

What to do, what to do! Pasta!

4. Potatoes treats

What Irish person doesn’t like potatoes!? But it seems that the Irish palate is getting a little more sophisticated. Above Colcannon and Boxty the IrishCentral readers have voted “Potato cheesy ale and cheddar colcannon” and “Bacon and cheese quiche with potato crust” their top potato treats.

5. Corned Beef and Cabbage Spring Rolls

Our chef, Michael Gilligan, came up with this one and it really took off. He also does a very good job at explaining the place of corned beef and cabbage in the Irish diet. Although it’s Irish meets Chinese food it seems to me like this would really work.

6. Irish Stew with Guinness

Meat? Check. Vegetables? Check. Guinness? Check. What’s not to like about this delicious, nurturing Irish meal.

7. Hearty St. Patrick’s Day Sandwich

So this is essentially and Italian meal but it seems the color scheme alone was enough to entice you guys. It’s also a smart move to have a nice big breakfast before a day of revelery.

8. Traditional Irish Butter Shortbread Cheesecake

No one makes cheesecake like an Irish mammy and this recipes replicates my own mother’s well. This is one to show off at a dinner party or just to remember home.

9. Roast Leg of Lamb

This is definitely a favorite Irish Sunday dinner and a perfect big meal for any event at the start of spring. Delicious with mint sauce and roast potatoes, I wholeheartedly agree with the readers choice on this one.

10. Irish Tricolor Cookies

They’re green, white and orange what more do you want? These are the cookies that will match your face, clothes and flag for St. Patrick’s Day. Also a great idea as a gift to bring to a St. Patrick’s Day party.

Whatever you choose, just make sure it is made and eaten in the spirit it is meant, with friends, family and and special time for everyone involved!

Cholesterol, Avoid these Foods, Live Longer and Healthier. Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:12:00 +0000

Foods to Avoid if You're Watching Your Cholesterol

I really don't like to run stories like this because it simply takes some of the fun out of life but life is very diverse and there is much more fun to be had then just eating. So stay around a while and enjoy some of the other things that make life so great!

OK, I have been diagnosed with high cholesterol and I am attempting to follow some of my own advice! There are some great substitutes and who needs eggs anyway!!!

1. Shellfish such as oysters, mussels, crab, lobster, and clams contain large amounts of cholesterol, particularly in relation to their serving size.

For example, King crab legs contain 71 mg of cholesterol per serving, lobster contains 61 mg per serving, and oysters contain 58 mg per serving.

2. Cream cheese is delicious when it's spread on a bagel for breakfast, but just 1 oz of cream cheese contains a whopping 27 mg of cholesterol.

When the actual serving size that most people put on their bagel is totalled, it can add up to a very large percentage of the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol.

3. Caviar's high cost keeps many people from enjoying it on a regular basis, and this is probably a good thing considering it's also high in cholesterol and salt.

People with high cholesterol should strictly limit their intake of caviar, since 100 g of caviar contains 588 mg of cholesterol. That's 196 percent of the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol!

DUCK

Though not an everyday food for most people in the United States, duck is still enjoyed by many people in some ethnic and upscale restaurants.

Duck is an oily meat with a distinctive taste that contains large amounts of protein, iron, and vitamin B. Unfortunately, it also contains large amounts of cholesterol. It's thought that a typical single serving of duck can contain 100 mg of cholesterol or more.

Cholesterol comes from animal products, and though it's hard to think of ice cream as an animal-based food, its dairy content puts it on the High Cholesterol List.

Just 3.5 oz of a typical brand of ice cream can contain as much as 45 mg of cholesterol, and flavored ice cream's cholesterol content is even higher. This same amount of French vanilla, for example, contains nearly 80 mg of cholesterol.

Just as most people who are watching their cholesterol know to eat oatmeal, they also know not to eat large quantities of egg or egg yolk.

And with good reason. The yolks of eggs have the most cholesterol of any food, with 1234 mg per 100 g serving. This translates to 411 percent of the USDA's recommended daily allowance for cholesterol.

A mainstay of baking, butter is in many of the foods people enjoy such as cakes, cookies, and other desserts.

But just 1 tablespoon of butter contains 30 g of cholesterol. That translates to 10 percent of the recommended daily allowance for cholesterol for a very small amount. When you stop and consider that some recipes--such as shortbread--call for 2-3 sticksof butter, the cholesterol totals can soar very quickly!

A typical fast food burger averages between 60 and 150 mg of cholesterol, while chicken nuggets contain between 30 and 50 mg.

Fast food breakfasts are the worst, however. A classic egg-based breakfast sandwich contains about 260 mg of cholesterol, though larger sizes can have as much as 465 mg. And breakfast burritos are even higher, averaging about 465 mg per serving. I really hate to say this but all fast food is on the list to avoid! Sorry!

Shrimp is a puzzling food for people watching their diet, since it is very low in fat but very high in cholesterol.

The key with eating shrimp appears to be moderation. Though 100 g of shrimp contains 65 percent of the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol, a single large shrimp contains only 3-4 percent.

Bacon is made from pork that's been cured in salty brine and then smoked. It has a distinctive flavor that many people enjoy, and this unique flavor leads to its inclusion in many recipes.

But just one piece of bacon contains about 9 mg of cholesterol and 5 mg of pure fat. Given the typical serving, bacon's best avoided by people who are watching their cholesterol.

Lowering Cholesterol Might be Easier Than You Think, Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:44:00 +0000

Six Easy Foods To Lower Your Cholesterol

Firstly, limiting your intake of saturated and trans fats will have a beneficial effect on your HDL cholesterol. In particular, it is vitally important that your daily trans fat intake is zero.

Replace these unhealthy fats with monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3 fatty acids. Foods to add to your regular consumption include, olive oil, nuts, avocado, natural nut butter, tuna, salmon, sardines, and flaxseed.

Research suggests that polyphenol-rich, high-cocoa chocolate (70 percent cocoa or more) increases HDL cholesterol. In one study, participants ate 45 grams of chocolate per day, and researchers noted a significant increase in their HDL levels.

If you are adding dark chocolate to your diet, do remember that it is calorie-rich, so therefore you must compensate elsewhere, to avoid overeating. And, don't forget that the chocolate must be high-cocoa to be beneficial.

A study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that when subjects were supplemented with vitamin D and calcium (600 mg calcium, and 200 IU vitamin D), HDL cholesterol increased, along with other beneficial changes to plasma lipid and lipoprotein concentrations.

You can get calcium from dairy foods, like milk and yogurt, but also from foods like leafy green vegetables, fish (with bones), fortified juices, legumes, dried figs and apricots.

Alcohol also plays a role in increasing HDL levels. But, if you do not drink already, do not start, as there other risks associated with consuming alcohol on a regular basis. If you do drink alcohol, do not exceed more than 1-2 drinks per day.

A study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, found that niacin increased HDL cholesterol by up to 30 percent. Food sources of niacin include mushrooms, nuts, legumes, chicken, beef, tuna, trout, mackerel, eggs, and sea vegetables. If you have low HDL levels you may benefit from taking 500 milligrams of niacin each day in supplement form, building up to 1,000 milligrams a day. Please check with your doctor first, though.

If you like fish, this would be my first choice. Fish contains DHA. Research is starting to indicate health benefits linked to DHA alone. Fish that have the highest content of omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, sardines, trout, herring, and tuna. Two favorites, tilapia and catfish, have less of this fatty acid.

Be mindful of the mercury content of some saltwater fish, including tuna, especially if you are pregnant.

Can you believe that Salmon cooked in the toaster over for 15 minutes on broil with a glass of white wine followed by a piece of dark chocolate is one of the best meals you could possibly have. Even if you cholesterol is just fine this is something that everyone should consider! It can't get much better than that!

Egg Whites Magical For Burns, Health

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:50:00 +0000

Egg Whites…Who Knew?

BURNS

A young man sprinkling his lawn and bushes with pesticides wanted to check the contents of the barrel to see how much pesticide remained in it. He raised the cover and lit his lighter; the vapors ignited and engulfed him. He jumped from his truck, screaming..

His neighbor came out of her house with a dozen eggs and a bowl yelling:

“bring me some more eggs!”

She broke them, separating the whites from the yolks.

The neighbor woman helped her to apply the whites onto the young man’s face.

When the ambulance arrived and the EMTs saw the young man, they asked who had done this. Everyone pointed to the lady in charge. They congratulated her and said: “You have saved his face.” By the end of the summer, the young man brought the lady a bouquet of roses to thank her. His face was like a baby’s skin.

A Healing Miracle for Burns

Keep in mind this treatment of burns is being included in teaching beginner fireman.

First Aid consists of first spraying cold water on the affected area until the heat is reduced which stops the continued burning of all layers of the skin.

Then, spread the egg whites onto the affected area.

One woman burned a large part of her hand with boiling water. In spite of
the pain, she ran cold faucet water on her hand, separated 2 egg whites from
the yolks, beat them slightly and dipped her hand in the solution. The whites then dried and formed a protective layer.

She later learned that the egg whites is a natural collagen and continued during at least one hour to apply layer upon layer of beaten egg white. By afternoon she no longer felt any pain and the next day there was hardly a trace of the burn.

10 days later, no trace was left at all and her skin had regained its normal color. The burned area was totally regenerated thanks to the collagen in the egg whites, a placenta full of vitamins.

Since this information could be helpful to everyone: Won’t you please pass it on?

Holiday Food, Compost, Donate, Enjoy the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:06:00 +0000

How to Avoid Food Waste

This Holiday Season

Does anyone else think it's strange that Thanksgiving—a holiday meant to commemorate the moment when settlers in America were essentially saved from starvation—now involves the biggest day of overeating in the calendar? (Actually, no, that makes perfect sense.) In any case, Thanksgiving will involve food, and lots of it—the National Turkey Federation estimates that Americans will eat nearly 46 million turkeys today, not to mention, stuffing, cranberries (watch out for the BPA), pumpkin pie and miscellaneous fixings. Put it all together, and it's little wonder that the self-reported weight of the average American is now nearly 20 lbs. heavier than it was in 1990.

Now we could not eat all of that food—but then a lot of it would end up going to waste. In fact, food waste is a major problem around the globe—an estimated 1.3 billion tons of food, or about one-third of global production, is lost or wasted each year. In a world where nearly 1 in 7 people goes to bed hungry, that waste is criminal.

In developing nations, much of that food loss actually occurs in the field or on the way to market, thanks to poor farming practices and lack of infrastructure. But in rich nations like the U.S., most of the waste is due to consumers simply not clearing their plates—about 220 lbs. is wasted by each person at the consumption stage.

One way to avoid that—while reducing obesity—would be to simply to prepare smaller meals, even at Thanksgiving, as this piece from Elizabeth Weingarten of Slate argues. Meanwhile Danielle Nierenberg of the Worldwatch Institute—a Washington think tank that focuses on sustainability—has a few more tips on how to avoid food waste at the holiday season. I've condensed after the jump—and at the very least, hold onto your leftovers. (And any snarkiness is purely my own):

Be realistic about how much food you'll actually need to serve your guests—and don't be afraid to be a little stingy. (Seriously, have you seen the size of the average American?) The Love Food Hate Waste organization has a "perfect portions" planner that can help you right-size your meal.
Create a list before you go, to cut down on the risk of impulse buys that will empty your wallet and swell your table.
Use smaller utensils and smaller plates to encourage smaller portions, thus reducing waste. Guest can take second or third servings, but the very act of having two reach for more food could be a discouragement. In other words, just do the opposite of what a fast food place does.
Encourage self-serving, which let guests choose for themselves whether they really want the Grandma's bricklike potatoes au gratin.
Store your leftovers safely, to keep them tasty for the future, and to avoid, you know, killer foodborne illnesses.
Compost your food scraps instead of simply throwing them out. It helps to have a garden or to live in San Francisco, which encourages citywide composting.
Create new meals from those leftovers—again, the Love Food Hate Waste site has a number of useful recipes for food scraps.
Donate whatever you can't use to your local food bank.
Support food-recovery systems like New York's City Harvest, which will actually collect leftovers from you.
If you're giving food as a gift, steer clear of highly perishable items and try to pick foods that you know the recipient will actually enjoy. In other words, skip the fruitcake.

Being smart about how we prepare and handle food over the Holidays takes just a moment and teaches our children lessons they will carry through life!

Breakfast, Great Recipe Ideas, Eating Healthy, Have Fun in the Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Beautiful Baked Breakfasts

Waking up to the smell of blueberry muffins or country biscuits on a Saturday morning can shape the mood of your weekend. The following breakfast ideas (ranging in taste from "cheesy-goodness" to "gooey-goodness") can brighten your day in an instant. For savory cravings try our Oversize Breakfast Biscuits, or, for something sweeter, dive into the Yogurt-Zucchini Bread. You'll be wishing it was breakfast time all week.

Looking for more breakfasts to make? Check out a few of these sweet and savory brunch ideas or a some of these whole-grain breakfast options.

Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches
An enormous step up from the usual fast-food breakfast sandwich, this fluffy biscuit is topped with eggs, cheese, country ham, and jam. If this isn't a good way to start off the day, what is?

Recipe: Breakfast Biscuit Sandwiches

Raspberry-Swirl Sweet Rolls

Soft and puffy, with a bit of raspberry inside, these rolls are a fun twist on the traditional cinnamon bun.

Recipe: Raspberry-Swirl Sweet Rolls

Butterscotch Sticky Buns

If this is breakfast who needs lunch, dinner, or anything in between? Revel in these warm sticky buns dipped into sweet-salty butterscotch sauce, flavored with a splash of Scotch.

Recipe: Butterscotch Sticky Buns

Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

In this variation on zucchini bread, thick Greek yogurt is used to add moisture without adding fat.

Recipe: Yogurt-Zucchini Bread with Walnuts

Cardamom Spiced Crumb Cake

This moist cake, topped by a generous layer of cardamom-spiced, pecan-dotted crumbs, is a fabulous gift.

Recipe: Cardamom-Spiced Crumb Cake

Oversize Breakfast Biscuits

Extra-flaky, buttery biscuits are the backdrop for the breakfast filling of your choice! Enjoy them with house-made spiced pastrami, cheddar, and a breakfast-sausage patty, or with classic strawberry jam.

Recipe: Oversize Breakfast Biscuits

Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins

Some things can become a ritual on Sunday mornings, like baking a batch of blueberry and sour cream muffins for the whole gang.

Recipe: Blueberry-Sour Cream Muffins

Baked Currant Doughnuts

These doughnuts are adapted from a rare European recipe. Inside you'll find cinnamon and dried currants, for added texture and spice.

Recipe: Baked Currant Doughnuts

Breakfast does not need to be boring nor does it need to be unhealthy, get creative and have fun in the kitchen. There is no better home than one that smells great in the morning along with a good breakfast for all the people you love!

Were you taught how to eat healthy, probably not, how do you start?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 21:40:00 +0000

How in the world do you start eating healthy if you weren't taught (that accounts for most of us)!

Many people have no concept of what a healthy diet would look like. They have never acquired the habit of eating healthy everyday, so they don’t even know where to start. Their lives are so busy that they often just grab the fastest and easiest meals they can find. Needless to say, grabbing a Big Mac at the corner fast food joint isn’t the best way to acquire the habit of eating healthy everyday.

What so many people don’t realize is that they would actually feel healthier, feel less stress, have more energy, and accomplish more by simply changing their diet. They would also enjoy fewer illnesses and medical bills as a bonus.Â It isÂ important to remember that a sound diet is the cornerstone for having good health and well being. Eating healthy everyday is the place to start.

The foods we eat in our diets is there to provide us with energy in order to keep us active throughout the day.Â Plus they will also provide us with the nutrients that we need in order to maintain our health as well as being a source of enjoyment.Â In fact our diets can help to enhance the quality of the life we lead both now and in the future.

But just what actually makes up a healthy diet that we can eat everyday?

1.Â Grain Products

We should eat between 5 to 12 servings of grain products each day and it is better if you choose to have whole grain or grain enriched products more often in your diet. Below are some examples of what a serving of grain products can be made from.

1 slice of whole grain or whole wheat bread

3/4 Cup (175ml) Hot Cereal (oatmeal is a good example)
2.Â Vegetables and Fruits

You should be eating 5 to 10 portions of fruits and vegetables every day. Dark green and orange fruits and vegetables are especially packed with nutrients that you need. Fruits and vegetables are the backbone of any healthy diet. A big plus is that they are filling and can help you lose weight if you are eating enough portions. Here are some examples of what constitutes 1 serving of either fruit or vegetables in a healthy diet:

1 medium sized vegetable or fruit

1/2 Cup (125ml) Fresh, Frozen or Canned Vegetables or Fruit
3.Â Milk Products

Adults should have between 2 to 4 servings each day, while women who are pregnant or breast feeding should have 3 to 4Â servings.Â It is especially important for children to have adequate servings of milk. Dairy products are filled with calcium, which are exactly what growing children need to produce healthy bones. It is better if you choose to use low fat or skim milk products more often.Â An example of a good serving of milk products is as follows:

1 cup (250ml) 1-2% milk
2 Slices (50g) of cheese
3/4 Cup (175ml) of Yogurt
4.Â Meat and Alternatives

This includes lean meats, poultry and fish as well as dried peas, beans and lentils. You should try to eat between 2 and 3 servings each day.Â A example of a good serving of one of these foods is as follows:

2 to 3oz’s (50-100g) meat, fish or poultry
1/3-2/3 Can (50-100g) Canned Fish (tuna or sardines)
2 tbsp (30ml) Peanut Butter

If you are getting at least your minimum serving of each of these food groups, then you will be eating healthy everyday and maximizing your health and energy levels. You might also find that you feel less stressed out and lose weight as well.

Food For Optimal Health, The Best Way to Naturally Detox, Superfoods

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Natural Way To Detox

OK..........I get it, not everyone is going to run out and eat a bowl of flax seeds and I have to admit I will not pass up a great grilled steak with baked a potato, lets top it with cream cheese and chives and follow it up with a great dessert.

That being said it does not hurt to understand a few foods that you can incorporate into your everyday diet (or at least once in a while) for optimal health. Also, if you have stayed away from some foods when you were a little younger it might be time to broaden your culinary horizons. Something like beets, as a kid they were considered "yucky" as an adult you will probably find them sweet, different and a great new experience. So take a look at the list and stay with some of the staples like apples and give one or two of these foods a try to boost your health and your life experience. After all it not every day you can have a new life experience even if it is beets or God forbid flax seeds!

While I'm a firm believer that detoxification is an essential part of optimal health, I acknowledge there is a lot of misinformation on how to detox safely and effectively. I'm often asked, "What is the best detox/detox kit?" My answer is simple: We're all biochemically unique and thus, have different biochemical demands. There are a number of organs which aid in the removal of the dangerous exogenous and endogenous toxins from our body.

Therefore, it's highly recommended to seek the guidance of a qualified health-care provider before you begin a detox regimen.

That being said, there are a number of foods you can eat safely on a regular basis to get a gentle detox daily. Below are my favourites:

Beetroot
You can't beat beets! Beets are full of vitamins B3, B6, C and beta-carotene. They're also a valuable source of iron, magnesium, zinc and calcium -- all necessary to promote optimal detoxification and elimination. Beets also support good gallbladder and liver health -- organs that are paramount for breaking down and removing toxins. The high amount of fibre in beetroot improves digestion and helps eliminate bodily waste.

Sea Vegetables
Often known as seaweeds, these amazing foods house powerful antioxidants that help to alkalize the blood and strengthen the digestive tract. The algin in seaweeds absorb toxins from the digestive tract in much the same way a water softener removes the hardness from tap water. Sea vegetables offer the broadest range of minerals of any food, containing virtually all the minerals found in the ocean -- the same minerals that are found in human blood. Dulse is my personal fave.

Dandelions
Dandelions are considered a powerhouse food full of nutrients that are essential for anyone regularly eating the "Standard American Diet" (SAD). They're a rich source of minerals and provide a variety of phytonutrients. They're super antioxidants that support cleansing of the digestive tract and offer great liver support. Try adding dandelion leaves to your salad.

Broccoli Sprouts
Broccoli is part of the powerhouse brassica family of vegetables. Broccoli contains important phytochemicals that are released when they're chopped, chewed, fermented, cooked or digested. The substances are released then break down into sulphorophanes, indole-3-carbinol and D-glucarate, which all have a specific effect on detoxification. Broccoli sprouts can actually provide more benefit than regular broccoli as they contain 20 times more sulfurophane. Add these to your salads and get creative with them in your meals.

Flaxseed
One of my favourite "superfoods," flaxseeds serve many purposes. When detoxifying your body, it's essential to ensure toxins are eliminated properly. Ground flaxseeds provide a wonderful source of fibre that helps to bind and flush toxins from the intestinal tract. They're also a great source of health promoting omega 3 oils. Try consuming two tablespoons of ground flaxseeds in lemon water every morning.

Lemons
Who doesn't love lemon? This wonderful fruit stimulates the release of enzymes and helps convert toxins into a water-soluble form that can be easily excreted from the body. Drinking lemon water, which is alkaline-forming, first thing in the morning will help to balance out the acidity of foods we've consumed. Don't forget to add your ground flaxseeds to enhance toxin removal.

Garlic
No detox plan should be without some garlic: It's a powerful antiviral, antiseptic and antibiotic. Ridding your body of these pathogenic microbes can reduce endogenous (made by your body) toxins. The vital sulphuric compounds garlic contains makes it an essential detoxifier.

Artichoke
Artichokes are not only a very tasty food, they're also incredibly healthy. Artichokes have been shown to increase bile production and purify/protect the liver. They also have a mild diuretic effect on the kidneys, ensuring proper removal of toxins once the liver breaks them down.

Tumeric
Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice turmeric, which gives it its yellow color. The rate at which your detox pathways function depends on your genes, your age, lifestyle and a good supply of nutrients involved in the detox process. Curcumin is used a lot in Ayurvedic Medicine to treat liver and digestive disorders.

Apples
Apples are full of wonderful nutrients. You get fibre, vitamins, minerals and many beneficial phytochemicals such as D-Glucarate, flavonoids and terpenoids. All of these substances are used in the detox process. One flavonoid, Phlorizidin (phlorizin)

Dr. John Dempster is a Naturopathic Doctor in Toronto. He's the founder of The Dempster Clinic -- Center for Integrated Medicine and embraces the biochemical uniqueness of each patient. With a large focus on regenerative and anti-aging medicine, he focuses on optimizing nutritional and biochemical imbalances. Dr. D can be contacted through his website, www.thedempsterclinic.com

Pineal Gland, Third Eye, Food That Feeds The Pineal Gland

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Food that Feeds The Pineal Gland

Our pineal gland otherwise known as our master gland or the gland that governs over our third eye is the center of psychic awareness in the human mind. It is about the size of a pea and sits inside a cave located... behind the pituitary gland. It naturally produces a hormone called melatonin which regulates human daily body rhythms that deal directly with the day and night cycles.

Developing and expanding the function and the energy of your pineal gland is extremely important as it affects every system in your body physically and it has the potential to determine the expansion or the contraction of your psychic awareness, consciousness, and experience.

Sunlight is extremely important for the pineal gland and yes sunlight is a form of food as food is any substance that nourishes the body. Sunlight can be taken in and digested through the eyes, skin, hair, nose hairs, and ears and should be consumed for at least 30 minutes a day. To fully engage the pineal gland, sunlight should be taken in through the pupils.

Seaweed vegetables that are sun-dried by the sun contain high amounts of vitamin D, many vitamins in the B-vitamin family and iodine. Those vegetables include and are not limited to kombu, arame, wakame, dulse, nori, etc.

Dark leafy greens like our kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, bok choy, collard greens and so forth are extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as this gland absorbs the properties of the green color of the vegetables and properly distributes them to the appropriate systems of the body so that the body is thoroughly nourished.

Consuming meats including fish that has high amounts of mercury, carbonated beverages, fluoride in our water and our toothpaste and access to smog negatively affect the pineal gland and can block its ability to function properly.

When you consume meat from an animal, you are ingesting the DNA of that animal and therefore taking on the negative and positive experiences of an animal which could interrupt the ability of the pineal gland to take on its own psychic awareness blueprint of the individual.

The proper foods can positively affect your pineal gland but you can also activate your pineal gland by eating more of a raw foods, vegan, or vegetarian diet, running an ozone machine in your home to clean up the air in your home, and drinking filtered water.

As much as the pineal gland needs sunlight, it also needs to produce enough serotonin to be activated so that it can increase its psychic awareness therefore serotonin is produced when the brain is asleep and therefore sleeping in a very dark room is extremely nourishing for the pineal gland as well.

Foods that produce serotonin are almonds, bananas, hot peppers, rice, potatoes, and black-eyed peas and when consumed can also nourish and feed the pineal gland as well.

My note: I found this to be of great interest and especially the part about taking on the DNA of what you eat ~ it gives eating beef and other tortured animals a whole new aspect. Even blessing what you eat may not wash away or be able to neutralize the harmful aspects of this one. Food for thought.

Also how we absorbs the sun through every pore and even through our eyes. While it may seem obvious to some, I never considered it in quite the same way I am considering it now. I hadn't thought of it in quite these terms but it is wonderful to know these things. These two glands are so valuable ~ no one properly appreciates how much they have to do with our ability and openness to receiving and allowing full consciousness. Taking care of them is paramount to our wellbeing. And so it is...

The Top Ten Sandwiches, Well..Kinda, Top Ten Craziest Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:59:00 +0000

THE WORLD'S 10 CRAZIEST SANDWICHES

After becoming a staple of cosy afternoon teas and schoolchildren's lunch boxes, sandwiches have been unfairly branded as a 'safe' option for lunch.

Here to break that myth into lots of stunned pieces, we've been discovering the secret double-life that our sociopathic breaded friend has been leading. After reading, and wincing, at these 10 sandwich variations, you'll probably feel just as betrayed as we do right now.

Let us know if you have any better contenders at the bottom.

Now, in no particular order...

1. THE CANDWICH

Useful perhaps only in the event of an impending apocalypse, the sandwich-in-a-can is every bit as suspect as it sounds. A long shelf life, no need for refrigeration and achilling selection of flavours (including BBQ chicken and pepperoni pizza), make this a meal we'd happily skip. Again and again.

2. THE LASANDWICH

Oh Lasandwich, how you continue to bewitch us with your utter ridiculousness. The cold, disgusting alternative to the warm, delicious Italian favourite kindly provided us with cheese-fuelled nightmares and a temporary increase in heart rate. Makers Tesco have since followed it up with the Strawberries & Cream sandwich, which somehow manages to make even less sense than this one.

3. THE MCDONALD SANDWICH

The obligatory most expensive sandwich ever entry on the list comes from those posh folk at Selfridges. Named after its creator, chef Scott McDonald, the £85 ($150) meal uses wagyu beef, fresh lobe foie gras, black truffle mayonnaise, brie de meaux, rocket, red pepper and mustard confit and English plum tomatoes. For £85, we'd expect a plaque too.

4. THE DOUBLE DOWN

If you're in the small minority of people who love sandwiches but hate the stupid, foul-tasting bread that's always included, you'll be a big fan of this one. The KFC special used two fried chicken fillets to house bacon, two kinds of cheese and special sauce. Oh and they also used just under a day's allowance of sodium. Oh and no that wouldn't stop us from trying one.

5. THE BIG SANDWICH

While sandwiches might aim to be healthy, their unavoidable bread content makes them a fattier sibling to the smug salad. This super-sized sandwich is embracing this black, chubby sheep status and aiming instead to cause a heart attack to anyone brave enough to try. Containing a mixture of pepperoni, burgers, sausages, bacon, crisps, cheese, chicken nuggets and other pulse-quickening ingredients, the final product contained around 50,000 calories. You can see them make magic here.

6. THE TASTYKAKE SANDWICH

Now, we're not entirely opposed to combining sweet with savoury. In fact, we still mourn the loss of chocolate pretzels from UK shelves. But when it comes to combining chocolate covered, peanut butter flavoured sponge cakes with cheese burgers, we're not so sure. These strange sliders were an actual dish in Adsum restaurant in Philadelphia.

7. THE MELO

When making a sandwich, skimping on the fillings is up there with burning books and drowning puppies in our mind. So you can imagine how our eyes and jaw widened when we saw this monster from the Carnegie Deli in New York. Named after Knicks player Carmelo Anthony, the intimidatingly tall sandwich is made from salami, pastrami and bacon. We think we've had this dream before.

8. THE LUTHER BURGER

After being reminded enough times, we're conditioned to believe that we shouldn't ever play with our food. This sandwich is therefore quite a frustrating proposition. Built like a Rubik's Cube yet with cold meats and cheese, it also looks pretty frustrating to eat. So, yeah it's cool and all that but we're sort of annoyed now.

10. THE FRIED BRAIN SANDWICH

Unless you're dining near the Temple of Doom or you're Hannibal Lector, chances are you're probably not big into eating brains. You'll therefore be every bit as repulsed by this sandwich as we are. Sliced calves brains get deep-fried in batter and served at a number of mid-western eateries. Well, they did before BSE got all serious and stuff. Now they've been replaced by pigs' brains. Much better, obviously.

Source: http://www.shortlist.com/shortlists/the-worlds-10-craziest-sandwiches#image-rotator-1

Baltimore, Baltimore Weekend Events, The Gathering July 8, 2011, Baltimore Restaurants

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:59:00 +0000

The Gathering: Trucks circling for Baltimore's first food truck rally

By Richard Gorelick

Thu Jun 30 2011 10:15 AM

The Gathering, Baltimore's first food truck rally, is set for next Friday night in Harbor East. Baltimore's fleet of shiny, happy food trucks will gather on July 8, from 5 to 10 p.m. on the lot at 421 Central Avenue.

The newly formed food-truck consortium was considering a rally for the Fall, but Damian Bohager, whose new Silver Platter truck has taken up semi-permanent residence at the Central Avenue site, pulled the Gathering quickly. Confirmed for the rally are Kooper's Chowound Burger Wagon, Miss Shirley's, Iced Gems, Souper Freak, GrrChe and Gypsy Queen. You can find more information on the Silver Platter Facebook page.

The Gathering will give people who don't come into daily or weekly contact with the food trucks a chance to sample them all in one place. For food-truck regulars, it's a fever dream. Beer and wine will be for sale at the event, which is a benefit for the There Goes My Hero Foundation.

Rallies like this one can be either an alternative or a supplement to on-street food truck operations. They're the big thing right now in Portland, where weekend truck rallies have become destinations. If this event goes well, Bohager says, the Gathering could turn into monthly event.

Source: Baltimore Sun http://mobile.baltimoresun.com/p.p?m=b&a=rp&id=489206&postId=489206&postUserId=46&sessionToken=&catId=6945&curAbsIndex=2&resultsUrl=DID%3D1%26DFCL%3D1000%26DSB%3Drank%2523desc%26DBFQ%3DuserId%253A46%26DL.w%3D%26DL.d%3D10%26DQ%3DsectionId%253A6945%26DPS%3D0%26DPL%3D3

Study on Olive Oil Linked to Lower Stroke Risk

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:47:00 +0000

High olive-oil consumption linked to lower stroke risk

Bordeaux, France - A diet rich in olive oil may reduce the risk of stroke in older adults, new research suggests [1].

In roughly 7600 elderly adults, higher olive-oil consumption at baseline was associated with a lower incidence of stroke over roughly the next five years, after researchers controlled for numerous confounding factors, including lifestyle and nutritional factors, stroke risk factors, and blood lipids.

Dr Cecilia Samieri (University of Bordeaux, France) and colleagues report their findings online June 15, 2011 inNeurology.

"The high prevalence of stroke in older subjects emphasizes the need for primary and secondary prevention in this age group," they conclude. "Showing a strong association between intensive olive-oil use and lower stroke incidence, our study suggests a novel approach of dietary recommendations to prevent stroke occurrence in elderly populations."

But the authors of a commentary caution against jumping to any conclusions, noting that the putative health benefits of olive oil and a Mediterranean-style diet are complex.

The Three-City Study

Samieri and colleagues examined the association between olive-oil intake and stroke incidence in 7625 people aged 65 and older from Bordeaux, Dijon, and Montpellier, France. They are enrolled in the ongoing, population-based FrenchThree-City Study, which is looking at vascular risk factors for dementia.

At baseline, 1738 (22.8%) subjects reported no olive-oil use, 3052 (40.0%) reported moderate olive-oil use, and 2835 (37.2%) reported intensive olive-oil use.

The authors note that moderate and intensive olive-oil users (relative to nonusers) were younger than nonusers and had lower values or frequencies for several stroke risk factors, weighed less, and had lower triglycerides and a lower total/HDL cholesterol ratio. They were also more apt to be regular exercisers and ate fish, fruits, and vegetables and omega-3 rich oils more often than nonusers.

Over a median of 5.25 years, 148 incident strokes were recorded (115 ischemic, 28 hemorrhagic, five undetermined).

After adjusting for sociodemographic and dietary variables, physical activity, body-mass index, and risk factors for stroke, the researchers observed a lower incidence of stroke with higher olive-oil use (p for trend=0.02). Compared with those who did not use olive oil, those with intensive use had a 41% lower risk of stroke. No other dietary variable was significantly associated with stroke incidence.

Multivariate association between olive-oil use and six-year incident stroke

Olive-oil use	Hazard ratio (95% CI)*	p
None	Ref	—
Moderate (with cooking or dressing)	0.80 (0.53-1.20)	.28
Intensive (both cooking and dressing)	0.59 (0.37-0.94)	.03

*Fully-adjusted model

The researchers also examined the association between plasma oleic acid and stroke incidence in a subgroup of 1245 subjects. In this group, there were 27 incident strokes during a median follow-up of five years, including 20 ischemic and seven hemorrhagic strokes.

After adjustment for a wide variety of potentially confounding factors, compared with those in the first tertile of plasma oleic acid, those in the third tertile had a 73% reduction in stroke risk (HR 0.27, 95% CI 0.08-0.90, p=0.03).

However, in the fully-adjusted model utilizing "component analysis" of total saturated fatty acids, total omega-3 fatty acids, and other dietary factors, the intensity of the association between plasma oleic acid and stroke was reduced (HR 0.25, 95% CI 0.08-0.86; p=0.03).

One limitation of the study, Samieri and colleagues say, is not being able to distinguish between the different types of oil olive consumed. They also say the validity of plasma oleic acid as an indirect marker of olive-oil consumption remains to be evaluated.

Olive oil pertinent to neurologic disease, too?

In their commentary, Dr Nikolaos Scarmeas (Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY) and Dr Luc Dauchet (Institut Pasteur de Lille, France) make the point that exploration of the relation of the Mediterranean-type diet with neurologic diseases has started "only very recently and has suggested potentially beneficial associations for Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, cognitive decline, essential tremor, Parkinson disease, and stroke."

While the current study suggests a protective effect of olive oil in stroke, the authors caution against drawing any firm conclusions from this study until the observations "withstand the trial of randomized intervention."

They point out that covariate adjustment "can never be complete." In addition, other potentially beneficial effects of olive oil, not considered in the analyses, may be mediating the association.

They also note that olive oil is not consumed in isolation, but with a whole host of potentially healthy foods. "To add further to the complexity, the potentially beneficial biological elements of olive oil are not clear."

Foods high in Transfat can increase the risk of depression

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:27:00 +0000

Eating foods high in trans-fats increase the risk of depression, research finds.
Eating fish and vegetable oils and olive oil are associated with lower risk of depression.

Eating foods high in trans-fats and saturated fats increases the risk of depression, according to a Spanish study published in the United States Wednesday, confirming previous studies that linked "junk food" with the disease.
Researchers also showed that some products, such as olive oil, which is high in healthy omega-9 fatty acids, can fight against the risk of mental illness.
Authors of the wide-reaching study, from the universities of Navarra and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, followed and analyzed the diet and lifestyle of over 12,000 volunteers over six years.
When the study began, none of the participants had been diagnosed with depression; by the end, 657 of them were new sufferers.

"Participants with an elevated consumption of trans-fats (fats present in artificial form in industrially-produced pastries and fast food...) presented up to a 48 percent increase in the risk of depression when they were compared to participants who did not consume these fats," the head study author said.

Almudena Sanchez-Villegas, associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also noted that in the event "more trans-fats were consumed, the greater the harmful effect they produced in the volunteers."

The research team found, at the same time, that after assessing the impact of polyunsaturated fats -- composed of larger amounts of fish and vegetable oils -- and olive oil, these products "are associated with a lower risk of suffering depression."

The report, published in the online journal PLoS ONE, noted the research was performed on a European population that enjoys a relatively low intake of trans-fats -- making up only 0.4 percent "of the total energy ingested by the volunteers."

"Despite this, we observed an increase in the risk of suffering depression of nearly 50 percent," said researcher Miguel Martinez.
"On this basis we derive the importance of taking this effect into account in countries like the United States, where the percentage of energy derived from these fats is around 2.5 percent."

The report pointed out that the current number of depression sufferers in the world is around 150 million people, and has increased in recent years.
This rise is attributable, according to the authors, "to radical changes in the sources of fats consumed in Western diets, where we have substituted certain types of beneficial fats -- polyunsaturated and monounsaturated in nuts, vegetable oils and fish -- for the saturated and trans-fats found in meats, butter and other products such as mass-produced pastries and fast food."
Though not a focus of the study, researchers pointed out that deadly cardiovascular disease is "influenced in a similar manner by diet, and might share similar mechanisms in their origin."

Bread is a Superfood

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:38:00 +0000

NaturalNews) There have been several studies concluding that sourdough bread is the healthiest type of commercial bread available. How and why is presented in this article. The benefits seem to parallel sprouted grain brains, which will also be referenced in this article. Perhaps the healthiest bread would be a combination of these two types, sprouted sourdough.

What Makes Sourdough Bread Different

Regular breads use yeast to rapidly expand the dough mixed for bread. The yeast creates a gas that expands rapidly. So baking with a yeast base is faster. Consider the word yeast and all it implies.

Sourdough is a fermented culture combining friendly yeast and bacteria. This becomes the starter culture for making sourdough bread. The process of fermenting the culture makes the baking process slower than yeast based baking.

Fermented foods are often healthier than their unfermented versions. For example, all the health problems caused by soy products are removed in tempeh, which is fermented soy. The cultures for yogurt and kefir are created by a fermentation process.

Health Benefits of Sourdough

Sourdough breaks down gluten, allowing some wheat sensitive consumers to enjoy bread that tastes good and is not too expensive. But many researchers consider sourdough rye to contain even more nutrition than sourdough wheat breads.

Research has shown that using the sourdough culture for making bread increases the bread`s nutritional impact beyond yeast produced bread. The sourdough process makes starches more digestible by predigesting them, and it lowers insulin resistance while increasing glucose tolerance.

The most controversial benefit is phytic acid or phytate reduction. Phytates are salts derived from phytic acid contained in grains, legumes, and nuts. These phytates bind with several different minerals, including magnesium, and inhibit mineral absorption into the body.

There are two points of view on phytates. Some say we need all the minerals we can get. Anything that inhibits mineral absorption should be at least reduced. Others say phytates have antioxidant and cancer fighting benefits and inhibit excess iron. But even this camp seems to agree that the mineral blocking aspect of phytates can adversely affect those who are mineral deficient.

And who is not mineral deficient? Magnesium, the most important essential mineral for human health, is deficient among most of the civilized population. Magnesium is essential for over 300 different metabolic events in the body. So the phytate factor is a mixed bag nutritionally.

Completely eliminating phytates may not be wise or even possible. Well, the cultured sourdough process does not completely eliminate phytates. It reduces them. Since most of us tend to be mineral deficient, reducing phytates can allow us to have our bread and eat it too.

Sprouted Grains

All sprouted grains, seeds, and legumes have one thing in common: Higher nutrient density. Sprouting converts a starchy food into a virtual vegetable, easier to digest and more nutritious than its source. So why bring this up?

Combining a sourdough culture with sprouted organic grain flour looks like an extremely healthy choice for bread. It`s a little more pricey, but not out of range for most who are health conscious.

However, if you love to prepare food, you can make your own. There are sources available on the internet for the enterprising foodie to make your own sourdough sprouted bread. All you need to do is use an organic sprouted grain or wheat flour with the sourdough culture process. (Sourdough, source below)

Sources for more information include:

Sourdough (tells you how to make your own sourdough culture) http://www.ranprieur.com/misc/sourd...

Why sourdough is good for you http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2...

Balancing the mixed reviews on phytates or phytic acid http://livefitblog.com/2009/09/23/a...

Sprouting eliminates the health issues of grains
http://www.naturalnews.com/028578_g...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031078_superfood_breads.html#ixzz1C3dummu0

Benefits of Spice

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:05:00 +0000

http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Health/Diet-Nutrition/Surprising-Healing-Benefits-of-Spices.html

THE PICNIC

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 12:25:00 +0000

Recipes with Life Lessons

Baltimore Maryland
The Picnic

Cuisine Manager wants to let you know that this is not for the faint of heart or the casual admirer.

Sometimes you don’t even have to cook to have a great meal and an unforgettable life experience. I know because I had one of those 19 years ago and it changed my life. A good friend of mine called and asked if I would be interested in a blind date. Single and not dating anyone in particular at the time, I thought what the heck. I was given a phone number and called Maggie. The conversation actually went quite well. We made a date for the next evening and went to a very nice restaurant and had a great time. Never having been on a blind date, I was not sure what to expect and by the end of the evening I knew that I wanted to take this lady out again. . I had planned on waiting a day or two before I called her for a date but I received an invitation to attend an opera at the Kennedy Center for that Friday so I called and asked her to go with me. Our second date went even better than our first and I could tell that if I wasn’t careful I might start falling for Maggie. I know this sounds funny after only one or two dates but sometimes you just know; sometimes there really is such a thing as love at first sight. We had gone on two dates and had barely kissed goodnight at the door. By the third date we were both relaxed and started to realize that we were into something special. I called Maggie and asked her out for a picnic for Friday, oh by the way, it was February. I spent whole afternoon that day preparing for our Picnic. I knew it was going to be memorable, exciting and dangerous. I went to Williams Sonoma and bought a wicker picnic basket complete with a tablecloth and matching napkins.

Next I went to wine and cheese store to pick out cheeses, fruit, crackers and a little pate. I then headed for the champagne and chose a bottle of White Star because Maggie had mentioned that she liked it. I chose a bottle of Opus One Cabernet and also purchased a bottle of 150 year old Grand Marnier for good measure. Next I was on my way to find some great French bread to go with the cheeses.

I arrived around six, Maggie’s kids were at their fathers for the weekend and my son was at his mother’s. When Maggie opened the door and saw the picnic basket and smiled that deep down inside smile you feel for Christmas. I built a fire in the fireplace and spread the table cloth on the floor in front of it. I had bought some special music and quietly put it on and proceeded to open the champagne as Van Morrison sang "Moon Dance". Evidently, the picnic was a success. Within the next week I asked Maggie to "go away on a wander with me". We were married 3 1/2 weeks from our first date.

The Picnic ( Do not attempt if you are just looking for a casual relationship)
Wicker Picnic Basket / Table Linens
Champagne, White Star
Bottle of Wine, Opus One Cabernet
Grand Mariner 150 years old
Cheese / Westfields Farm Goat's milk cheese, Brillat Savarin French Cheese, Double Glouchester
Pate
Fruits, grapes, figs, apples
French Bread
Great tunes, Van Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Peter Gabriel... etc
Candles & candle holders

Champagne & champagne glasses

Food Matters a must watch

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:55:00 +0000

Food matters....is an absolute must watch video, it is long (one hour) so treat it like a TV show. It deals with food, vitamins, prescribed medication and the ultimate healing power of the body! After 20 minutes it starts to come together and makes a ton of sense! Enjoy!

http://mustwatch.hztz.cz/film/food-matters/?p=Food+Matters

Top 10 benifits to growing your own herb garden

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:52:00 +0000

The Top Ten Benefits of Growing Your Own Herb Garden

By: Robin Svedi

Why should you go through all the trouble of growing your own herbs when there are plenty of fresh herbs for sale at the market? What is the point to getting all that dirt under your fingernails when you could pull open a plastic package and get the same ingredients? There is more to herb gardening than meets the eye, and the benefits are profound. I’ve listed ten of my favorite reasons for growing your own fresh herbs. I’m sure once you get started, you’ll come up with a few ideas of your own.

1.Fresh Herbs Always Available – One of the best benefits of growing your own herbs is having fresh herbs right at your fingertips, whenever you want or need them. When you have your own herb garden growing right outside – or inside – your door, you will always have the right ingredients waiting for you to make dinner time magic.

2.No Boring Dinners – Adding a few different herbs to a simple chicken dinner makes it a whole new meal. Your simple side dishes become the main feature. Potatoes are a new adventure on a nightly basis. The results are only limited to the types of herbs you decide to plant and how daring you want to be with your menu.

3.Good For You – Adding fresh herbs to your diet is a great way to boost your meal’s vitamin value, but that isn’t the only health benefit you can obtain. Gardening is a wonderful form of exercise. All of that digging, bending, and stretching will pay off in tightly toned muscles, and if you keep at it, you’ll also achieve a bit of weight loss and healthily glowing skin.

4.Save Money – Let’s face it: fresh herbs can be expensive when you purchase them individually at the grocery store every time you need them. And the local grocer doesn’t always stock all the herbs you are looking for. When this happens you’ll need to find a specialty store, where you are going to pay even more. After the initial investment of getting your herb garden started, the money you save will be your own.

5.Educational – Herb gardening is an educational experience for adults as well as for children. There is always something new to learn, whether it be a new gardening technique, a different recipe, a new and improved use for the herbs you thought you knew so well, or the fascinating history of herbs that dates way back to medieval times.

6.Relieve Stress – Tending, or just visiting, an herb garden can do a world of good towards relieving all that built up stress that daily life likes to give us. The sights and scents that abound in an herb garden delight the senses and revitalize the soul. Having one at your own home makes it that much easier to get to.

7.Curb Appeal – Adding an herb garden to your home’s landscape gives your yard real curb appeal. Most herbs are just as pretty as shrubs and flowers. You can even add them to your shrubs and flowers if you don’t have room for a formal herb garden. They blend in beautifully.

8.Share the Wealth – Growing your own herbs means that you will always have more than enough herbs than you can possibly use yourself, leaving you plenty of extras to share with friends, family, and neighbors. Just think how popular you will be when you show up at the next dinner invite with a basket full of fresh herbs. Dried fresh herbs in pretty jars make wonderful gifts too!

9.Exotic Variety – Did you know that there are more than 30 different types of basil? The local market will usually only carry the most common, sweet basil. Dark opal basil, which is purple in color is a bit more difficult to find, as are cinnamon basil, anise basil, Italian basil, and globe basil, which happens to be perfect for those of you with smaller gardens. Growing your own herb garden will allow you to sample some of the other more exotic and fun herbs that are out there waiting for you.

10.Good Clean Fun – Okay, well maybe it’s not the cleanest hobby, but gardening and watching your fresh herbs grow is well worth the little bit of dirt you’ll need to wash off. Get out there and start planning your own beautiful and aromatic herb garden. It really is fun, and the benefits can’t be beat!

Cuisine Manager............The Picnic

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Recipes with Life Lessons

Baltimore Maryland

The Picnic

Cuisine Manager wants to let you know that this is not for the faint of heart or the casual admirer.
Sometimes you don’t even have to cook to have a great meal and an unforgettable life experience. I know because I had one of those 19 years ago and it changed my life. A good friend of mine called and asked if I would be interested in a blind date. Single and not dating anyone in particular at the time, I thought what the heck. I was given a phone number and called Maggie. The conversation actually went quite well. We made a date for the next evening and went to a very nice restaurant and had a great time. Never having been on a blind date, I was not sure what to expect and by the end of the evening I knew that I wanted to take this lady out again. . I had planned on waiting a day or two before I called her for a date but I received an invitation to attend an opera at the Kennedy Center for that Friday so I called and asked her to go with me. Our second date went even better than our first and I could tell that if I wasn’t careful I might start falling for Maggie. I know this sounds funny after only one or two dates but sometimes you just know; sometimes there really is such a thing as love at first sight. We had gone on two dates and had barely kissed goodnight at the door. By the third date we were both relaxed and started to realize that we were into something special. I called Maggie and asked her out for a picnic for Friday, oh by the way, it was February. I spent whole afternoon that day preparing for our Picnic. I knew it was going to be memorable, exciting and dangerous. I went to Williams Sonoma and bought a wicker picnic basket complete with a tablecloth and matching napkins.

I went to a wonderful French Bakery in downtown Baltimore and bought some unbelievable little French pastries. The last stop was a shop where I purchased two candles that matched the linens in the picnic basket and two candle holders. I was ready for the “Picnic”.
I arrived around six, Maggie’s kids were at their fathers for the weekend and my son was at his mother’s. When Maggie opened the door and saw the picnic basket and smiled that deep down inside smile you feel for Christmas. I built a fire in the fireplace and spread the table cloth on the floor in front of it. I had bought some special music and quietly put it on and proceeded to open the champagne as Van Morrison sang "Moon Dance". Evidently, the picnic was a success. Within the next week I asked Maggie to "go away on a wander with me". We were married 3 1/2 weeks from our first date.

The Picnic ( Do not attempt if you are just looking for a casual relationship)
Wicker Picnic Basket / Table Linens
Champagne, White Star
Bottle of Wine, Opus One Cabernet
Grand Mariner 150 years old
Cheese / Westfields Farm Goat's milk cheese, Brillat Savarin French Cheese, Double Glouchester
Pate
Fruits, grapes, figs, apples
French Bread

Great tunes, Van Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Peter Gabriel... etc
Candles & candle holders
Champagne & champagne glasses

Foreward

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:16:00 +0000

Recipes with Life Lessons

Cuisine Manager

Food plays such a large part in our lives. Think back to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners spent with family and loved ones. I’m sure you begin to conjure up fond memories. Now think of every day occasions spent with family, friends or even strangers that involved or were centered on food. Maybe it was a special dinner you prepared for a lover. Perhaps a meal shared with friends that when thinking back a smile immediately spreads across your face. No matter what the event was I bet food was involved in some fashion. Have you ever gone out to eat and expected to just have a meal and something happens either on the way or while you are there to make it one of those stories that become woven into the fabric of your life. This book is about those stories and the meals that accompanied them. Richard and I have known each other since grade school and have shared our life’s experiences over the last 45 years. Through good times and bad we have laughed, cried and supported each other through this journey we call life. Along the way we have lived and eaten in some amazing places and have some interesting stories to tell. As with everyone else the majority of these experiences had a meal or a special food associated with them. As in real life some of the stories are funny, some are heartwarming and some will make you think of your own stories.

Shopping for family or friends is part of the process!

Neither Richard nor I are chefs but like so many others we do like to cook. Surprisingly most of our meals turn out quite well. As a matter of fact we probably cook like you, we read a recipe, follow the parts we understand and hope for the best. The Internet has been a God send to cooks like us. You can now watch a video from an accomplished chef and follow directions step by step. There is a great pleasure in planning a meal, shopping for the ingredients and spending the day in the kitchen preparing and cooking a culinary creation which you get to share with family and friends. A well thought out and executed meal is like a work of art that you get to digest. Enjoy our stories and please try the recipes, they can't be that hard if we can cook them so can you.

Please leave us a post, we would love to hear what you think of our stories. Please check the archive for Cuisine Manager for our earlier stories. Many Thanks
C3FK5UWNW6NY

The Odd couple in Stockholm / County Cork Irish Stew

noreply@blogger.com (Damian) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Recipes with Life Lessons

Stockholm, Sweden

Cuisine Manager

If you read the earlier story about Richard meeting his first wife and her recipe for that weird Swedish dish, you know why I was living in Stockholm with Rich.

I had been there for about a month by this time and was tired of telling people that I was just visiting. I decided to become something. I chose to be a writer. I went out and bought a sports jacket with leather patches on the elbows carried a newspaper under my arm and hung out in coffee houses and pubs. I became known around Stockholm as the American writer.

I had been there long enough that I thought I should contribute to our living situation in some fashion. I started cooking meals for us. Richard had a linen calendar hanging on the wall of his kitchen he had brought with him from his stay in Ireland. On it was a great looking recipe for Irish stew.

I decided to surprise him and make it for that nights dinner. I took the bus into downtown Stockholm and spent the afternoon going around buying all of the ingredients need for our Irish Stew feast. I splurged and took a cab home so that I could make the stew and let it simmer for hours before Richard came home. I put some great music on the stereo and spent the next hour making my stew. I stirred and tasted the stew all day and couldn’t wait for Richard to come home for dinner. Rich had said that he would be home at the normal time about 5:30ish. I had bought a loaf of special bread that I put in the oven and timed it to be ready about ten minutes after he got home. At about ten of six I started to wonder if Richard was going to be much longer. At 6:15 I started to get a little perturbed. By 6:30 I was pissed. No Richard, no phone call and my bread was getting hard and cold. When Richard walked in at 6:40 I said" where the hell you have been". Richard stopped dead in his tracks because of the tone in my voice and before he could answer I said," I worked all afternoon making this Irish Stew and you said you would be home at 5:30"." If you were going to be late you could have had the courtesy to at least call me". We looked at each other and both burst out laughing. We realized we were one step away from being an old married couple. We ate the stew, it was delicious and went out to hit the club scene to prove to ourselves that our manhood was still intact.

Night life in Stockholm

From the TAO--

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other. Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

COUNTY CORK IRISH STEW

8 small lamb chops
1 tablespoon olive oil, butter, or lard
1 tablespoon fresh Parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon each whole peppercorns, rosemary, thyme
3 to 4 medium potatoes
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek white, thinly sliced
10 small white onions
1-1/2 cups celery stalks, diced
1-1/2 cup peas
Salt and pepper to taste

Season lamb with salt and pepper. In large saucepan, layer the chops side by side.

Turn once to brown both sides. Spoon off any melted fat and add enough water to cover chops. Bring to a boil and add parsley, bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and rosemary tied up in cheesecloth for easy removal, or simply add to stew.

Reduce heat and simmer on low heat. Peel potatoes and shape into bite sized rounds. Add potatoes, cabbage, onion, leek, white onions and celery to stew.

Simmer 20 minutes and add peas. Add a little more water if required during cooking.

Simmer an additional 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Correct seasoning.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve.

Serves 4.

Please leave us a comment, we would love to hear from you. For early stories of Cuisine Manager please check the archives. Many thanks.

Food Plays a Major Role in our Lives

noreply@blogger.com (Damian) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:47:00 +0000

Food plays such a large part in our lives. Think back to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners spent with family and loved ones. I’m sure you begin to conjure up fond memories. Now think of every day occasions spent with family, friends or even strangers that involved or were centered on food. Maybe it was a special dinner you prepared for a lover. Perhaps a meal shared with friends that when thinking back a smile immediately spreads across your face. No matter what the event was I bet food was involved in some fashion. Have you ever gone out to eat and expected to just have a meal and something happens either on the way or while you are there to make it one of those stories that become woven into the fabric of your life. This book is about those stories and the meals that accompanied them. Richard and I have known each other since grade school and have shared our life’s experiences over the last 45 years. Through good times and bad we have laughed, cried and supported each other through this journey we call life. Along the way we have lived and eaten in some amazing places and have some interesting stories to tell. As with everyone else the majority of these experiences had a meal or a special food associated with them. As in real life some of the stories are funny, some are heartwarming and some will make you think of your own stories.

Neither Richard nor I are chefs but like so many others we do like to cook. Surprisingly most of our meals turn out quite well. As a matter of fact we probably cook like you, we read a recipe, follow the parts we understand and hope for the best. The Internet has been a God send to cooks like us. You can now watch a video from an accomplished chef and follow directions step by step. There is a great pleasure in planning a meal, shopping for the ingredients and spending the day in the kitchen preparing and cooking a culinary creation which you get to share with family and friends. A well thought out and executed meal is like a work of art that you get to digest. Enjoy our stories and please try the recipes, they can't be that hard if we can cook them so can you.

Help for Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:42:00 +0000

For each person that becomes a fan of Cuisine Manager on Facebook and a follower of this website between April 15 and June 30, 2010 we will donate $1 to a reputable charity involved in the reconstruction of Haiti. When the number reaches 250 the donation will double to $500. Once 250 people have signed on we will have new donations levels in place at 500, 750 and 1000 people. The results will be sent out on facebook May 16, 2010.
April 15, 2010 - May 15 2010
May 16, 2010 - June 30, 2010 Animal Preservation in the Gulf / Nashville Assistance
Many Thanks for your help with this important effort!

Haiti should be a tropical paradise but through corrupt government and a devastating earthquake it has been ravaged! While there is no real immediate silver lining there is a chance to rebuilt into something Haiti should have been a long time ago!
Thanks for your time, effort and caring!

Ben's Worst Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:46:00 +0000

Recipes with Life Lessons

Lutherville Md

Perfect Mashed Potatoes

I met my wife on a blind date and even though neither of us was looking for a long term relationship, we were married three and a half weeks after we met. My wife, Maggie had two boys, PJ, 11 and Ben who was 8 at the time. I had a 5 year old son, Halston who lived with his mother. When we decided to run away for the weekend and get married we had to pick a weekend that neither of us had kids. It actually worked out that both of us had our respective kids on the same alternating weekends. We told the boys on Thursday evening and had made plans to be married that Saturday in Severn, Maryland. We would spend our honeymoon in the beautiful Inn at Perry Cabin in historical St. Michael’s and be home by Monday morning. The first night back I wanted to make dinner at home and start to get to know my two new step sons. After all I had only met them about three or four times in the last three and a half weeks. I love real mashed potatoes and decided to make them and asked Ben to help me peel them in an effort to bond. Of Maggie’s two sons, Ben was extremely skeptical about this strange man his mother had brought home to compete for her attention. Ben was standing on a stool by the kitchen sink next to me as I showed him how to peel a potato. During the conversation I said to Ben “so what do you think about having a new roommate“?

Ben still mashed potato challenged to this day!!

Ben immediately looked at his mother with a look of terror on his face and tears beginning to form and said “I thought he was sleeping with you”. It was all we could do to keep from laughing as Maggie explained what I had meant by” roommate“. The look of relief on poor Ben’s face when he realized that he did not have to share his bedroom with this strange, old hairy guy was priceless. The boys soon found out that real mashed potatoes would become a component of our new family dinners several times a week. Strange as it may seem, Ben never volunteered to help peel potatoes again.
That night was a precursor of things to come between my youngest step son and me. Over the next several years Ben and I butted heads a lot. I couldn't understand why he didn't accept me the same way PJ, his older brother had. I expected us all to get along because we were a family. What I didn't realize was that I needed to earn Ben's respect. Ben was right that night. Who was this strange man and why did he have to let me into his life? Would I become his worst nightmare? I am happy to say that over time we earned each other’s respect because deep down we wanted to like each other. We just needed to not prejudge each other and be willing to work through our differences. You tend to meet people throughout your life that at first you think, there’s no way I want this person involved in my life. Given the chance, that person could become your best friend.

Ben at 28

Perfect Mashed Potatoes Recipe
Recipe courtesy of Damian a lifelong meat and potato guy!
1 1/2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and quartered length-wise
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup half and half
Salt and Pepper

Peel and quarter potatoes and place in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium low for 25-27 minutes. Drain potatoes and let steam dissipate. In a small saucepan add butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces plus half and half. Simmer until the butter melts and the half and half is hot but not boiling. Add salt and pepper to taste and place potatoes in a mixing bowl and mash with a hand held potato masher. Slowly add butter and half and half mixture while mashing potatoes until you reach the desired consistency. If needed add a bit more half and half and butter (no need to heat) until you achieve the perfect mashed potato. If you are not going to serve immediately then cover and place in a warm oven or stove-top.