Food and Drink

Until recently, few people knew of the acai juice but, nowadays, it is hard to not notice the large number of products with the acai berry in them on the market. Not only there are plenty of products containing the acai berry sold in health food stores including the vitamin store GNC or Whole Foods but you will also find a ton of acai berry drinks in ordinary supermarkets such as Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee, Kroger, Vons, Price Chopper and so on. As a matter of fact, if you wish to try an acai berry juice, you can just pick one up when you go grocery shopping.

The little acai berry became popular when people read about all its health benefits. Not only many health experts and scientists claim that maybe the fruit of the acai palm tree is one of the most nutritious fruits on the planet, but some researchers even published that there is a possibility that it might help in discovering a cure for cancer. In one of the more well known experiements conducted and published by scientists at the University of Florida, the acai berry killed a lot of cancer in sample cells. There needs to be more research done on the subject, of course, but a lot of people are hopeful because it is a great start which can help scientists figure out a cure for cancer sooner.

Since there are so many acai berry products these days, it can be hard to find out which products are the best and which ones you need to be taking. Since the acai berry originates from the Rain Forests of Brazil, in some cities over there, you can get fresh acai berries. If you do not live in Brazil and do not like drinking acai juices then there are many other products including acai smoothies, acai powder, acai tea, and acai ice cream or sorbet that you might prefer. They are very good for you.

Smoked Alaska salmon is a delicious and decadent food that is also quite healthy. While many people enjoy smoked salmon appetizers they do not really know what goes into making it, nor how to properly prepare it. Smoked salmon is usually a fillet that has been treated and marinated.  It is then smoked, either in a hot or cold smoke house. It is usually quite an expensive food but it can be well worth the price.

Many recipes require smoked Alaska salmon, one of them is canapes. Some people also indulge in a combination of cream cheese and smoked salmon either on crackers, in a sandwich or just on its own. The salmon is purchased in very thin slices and then put onto bagels. Another very popular recipe for smoked salmon appetizers is to put the smoked Alaska salmon onto a cracker along with capers and red onion.

In the Atlantic area of the world you will commonly find species of salmon coming from Canada and Norway. In the Pacific regions of the world you will notice the majority of the salmon comes from Alaska.  This Alaska salmon is reputed to be the most delicious.

There are mainly two ways to prepare smoked Alaska salmon, either by hot smoking or cold smoking. A vast majority of smoked salmon is processed via cold smoking. This is done at a temperature of approximately 30C. This method does not cook the fish at all.  The result is smoked salmon which is very delicate and raw, yet delicious. Most smokehouses use oak chips.  This gives the salmon an oak-like smell and taste that most people enjoy. However, the larger companies often use cheaper woods that leave the salmon with a less smoky style and a different taste and texture. This is the main reason whythe smaller producers of smoked Alaska salmon seem to produce the best tasting and highest quality products.

You will also find some smoked salmon that is producedvia hot smoking techniques. This is more popular for trout and other species than it is for salmon, however, as hot smoking can make salmon less moist and a lot tougher. Smoked Alaska salmon is a delicacy due to its light and soft texture which is why hot smoking is used far less often.

Although many people prefer the quality and taste of wild smoked Alaska salmon, it is more difficult to find. Salmon has been drastically over fished in recent years and thus there have been some stringent laws applied. Although these laws were meant to help salmon survive, wild Alaska salmon is fast becoming an expensive delicacy.  The increased salmon production as a result of salmon farms has also had some negative effects on the species due, in part, to the increased use of chemicals and other additives.

In spite of the difficulties in finding wild Alaska salmon, smoked Alaska salmon remains a delicious and healthy treat.

Also known as filberts, hazelnuts are a great health food.  Like most nuts, they have lots of protein.  They have a lot of fiber.  Hazelnuts are full of nutrients like folate (a B vitamin), vitamin E and various antioxidants, which all add to their healthy food status.  These things are all good for your health.

Try Adding Hazelnuts To Your Diet

Including hazelnuts in your diet isn’t hard to do.  Eat them whole or cracked, to add them easily to your diet as a snack.  Most people really enjoy their rich flavor.

Whole, sliced or diced hazelnuts can also be used in such things as:

• bakery
• confectionary
• garnishes
• artesian breads
• entrees
• salads
• soups
• to encrust foods
• cereals
• bars
• dairy products
• decorating cakes
• cookies
• pastries
• candies
• mixed in yogurt.

Use them the same way you would use most nuts. They impart a wonderful flavor to foods.

Lots More Ways To Use Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts can be ground to make a butter similar to natural peanut butter.  In fact, hazelnuts are also one of the main ingredients in Nutella spread.  Although hazelnut butter is unsweetened, hazelnut paste has sugar added and is used in bakery icings and fillings, candies and dairy products.

Finely ground hazelnuts make a free flowing meal that can be used as a flour replacer, flavoring and binding agent.  Adding a special flavor, it works well in baked goods.  Add to that, hazelnut meal can replace the carbs and help make baked goods for a low carb diet.

Tips On Selection And Storage Of Hazelnuts

Pick nuts that are heavy and full when buying them in the shell.  The longest shelf life is for the whole nuts.  The more the nuts are processed, the shorter the shelf life they will have.

It’s best roast, chop, slice, or grind them just before use so the nuts stay fresh longer.  However, to have processed hazelnuts handy for addition to a huge variety of dishes, then simply roast the kernels, dice and freeze in an airtight container away from foods with strong odors. To keep them for over a year, put them in the freezer, then remove the amount you need, bring them to room temperature and use immediately.

Try Hazelnuts Today!

Put some variety in your diet with flavorful hazelnuts.  You get a food that not only tastes good, but is also good for you!  That’s a win-win situation to make everyone happy!

Throughout America, potatoes are the hottest plant, even being before other famous veggies like lettuce and onions. You can cook potatoes in a variety of methods, and they are included in one out of 3 meals eaten by almost
all US citizens. When they are prepared in a healthyway, a potato can be a good source of energy and also pack a nutritive punch.

Like oranges, potatoes are awfully high in vitamin C. The reality is, one medium potato contains 45% of the vitamin C that is commended for good health. Potatoes are also rich in fiber and carbohydrates and contain more potassium than a banana.

A potato is naturally low in calories and contains no fat, sodium, or cholesterol. The skins of the potatoes provide a beneficial dose of fiber, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, phosphorus, and several B vitamins.

You can prepare potatoes by boiling them, steaming them, or perhaps roasting them. If at all possible, you should avoid putting potatoes in the refrigerator or freezing them, as cold will turn the potato starch to sugar and lead them turn dark when
they are cooked.

When you store potatoes, keep them in a cool, dark place. Too much light will cause them turn green. You can stick ‘em in the basement if you have one, as the basement is the best place to keep potatoes.

From mashed potatoes to baked potatoes, a potatois something we all know and love. They serve lots of different tasty foods, and they supply our bodies with plenty of healthful benefits. We all eat potatoes, some of us even grow our own. Whether
you grow your on or buy them, the potato is the one vegetable that makes everything just a bit bit better.

For more easy to make recipes, visit cooking101.org and also read about how to make french fries.

scone recipes

There really is nothing quite like biting into a fresh, warm piece of homemade bread. The bread has a warm yeast flavor that seems to permeate your senses and leaves you craving for another slice. Making bread is not as hard as you might think. There are many ways that you can make bread and some are so easy that you will begin to wonder why you never attempted bread making before. Plus, if you decide to use a bread machine, then it gets even easier!

Making homemade bread all starts with a bread making recipe. It might be scone recipes for brunch, breakfast or an afternoon tea. It might even be roll recipes. You should choose a bread that you enjoy eating. The easiest types of bread to make are made with bread making machine recipes. You will be amazed at the simplicity it offers. You first need a machine for making and baking bread. Buy the type of machine that does everything for you. A good choice would be the Panasonic SD YD250 automatic bread maker. You simply buy a box of bread mix, add the necessary ingredients into the machine and then walk away. The machine will mix and knead it for you!

If you want to skip out on the bread maker and make bread from scratch, then you’ll want to start with a simple biscuit recipe. Biscuits are amazingly simple to make once you assemble the necessary ingredients. You will need flour, salt, shortening, baking soda, baking powder, milk and something to cut the biscuits. Take 2 cups of flour and add it to the bowl, along with 2 tablespoons of baking powder, 2 tsp of baking soda and 1/4 cup of shortening. Your next step is to mix until it resembles cornmeal. Add just enough milk to make it into semi-firm dough. Turn it out onto a floured rolling surface and press into 1″ squares.

The biscuits will need to be cut out and then placed on a baking sheet. Take a bowl of melted butter and lightly brush the tops. The biscuits will then go into a 350 degree oven for around twenty minutes or until they are fully risen and golden brown. Take from the oven and enjoy them hot and with a bit of butter spread between. Once you master the biscuit recipes, your next task will be bread. Before you know it, you will be a bread making master!

1. Love pie? King Tut Agrees!

Pies are old school…and have been enjoyed for more than a thousand years. It’s thought that the origins of the pie are based in Egypt and were originally filled with honey, nuts and fruit – pretty well in keeping with the pecan, coconut, apple, chocolate and cherry pies that we have come to love today. Visiting Greeks took the recipe back to Europe and from Greece, to Rome, to Britain to my plate right here in the good ole USA!

1. One for You, 6 For Me!

On average, every adult American will eat 6 slices of pie this year. The current population is estimated to be 306 million, 73% of which are adults. That’s 223,380,000 people who are all going to eat 6 pieces of pie… that’s 1 Billion, 340 Million, 280 Thousand pieces of pie…the USA loves pie! Pie has penetrated American culture so deeply, that the term “As American as Apple Pie” is common place. As reported in a recent study by Crisco, Americas favorite pies are as follows. Starting with the most popular, Apple, pumpkin, pecan, banana cream and cherry. 18% of males go on the record as saying their spouses make the best pie, while not surprisingly, only 2% of women return the compliment!

1. The Upper Crust

Pie is one of the few foods that can lay claim to its own official organization! You don’t hear much about the vegemite committee of America, but sure enough The American Pie Council is alive and well. “Designed to raise awareness, enjoyment and consumption of pies”, the APC organizes several annual events including the National Pie Championships and National Pie Day (which by the way is January 23^rd – mark your calendars!) Membership has 3 levels – Amateur, Professional and Commercial and entitles you to a tart shell full of benefits not least of which is the official newsletter – Pie Times (of course it is…)

Love pie? You deserve to try the best Southern Pies in America! Check out Mrs Sullivans Pies

The Miao are an ethnic minority, and admiring the glistening exotic jewelry the women wear from head to toe, you may think they are rich. However they have a very hard and simple life in remote mountainous areas of southern China. Food showed on a table is not luxurious at all even in their holidays and big ceremonies. However in the Miao area there is some special food unlike that in other areas of China.

Colorful glutinous rice

Glutinous rice is the staple food of Miao culture. During holidays a unique colorful rice is prepared for guests. The rice has five different colors: red, yellow, blue, white, and black. The colors are made of many different plants, like mulberries. The beautiful colors attract you to have a big bite of the sweet rice.

The colorful sticky rice is usually sent by the single women as a gift to their partners. Some special things can be put in the rice basket to tell how they like the men. A bamboo hook suggests that the man should buy the girl an umbrella as a present. The fork of a tree means their relationship is over. A toon sprout implies they can get married in the coming future. A glutinous rice paste with the pattern of dragon, phoenix, and baby will be prepared for the bride and groom when they get married.

Oil-tea

A very common Miao beverage is “oil-tea.Some people have it as their everyday drink.

The tea leaves are cooked in a wok together with salt, oil, and ginger. Then put into some water, and boil them together. The tea leaves are pounded into smaller pieces with a mallet and the concoction is allowed to boil for a few more minutes. The tea is then filtered and mixed together with corn, beans, peanuts, or glutinous rice, and then some spring onions, garlic, and peppers can be added.

Now you can enjoy a big cup of rich and deep tea.

Together with oil-tea, a chopstick is often provided. If you don’t want tea anymore, then just lay the chopstick onto your bowl. If you don’t, tea will be served for you continually!

Sour soup

A special sour soup is served all year round. It is made of fermented rice and different kinds of steamed vegetables. The Miao would use this sour soup to cook meat, chicken, or fish, so their dishes have a unique sour flavor.

Spicy flavoring

In ancient times, it was very difficult for the Miao to get salt, so they used hot peppers to add flavor to their dishes and developed a taste for very spicy food. Today the Miao use the minced and fried chili peppers as important flavoring for their dishes.

Chili peppers can be prepared in lots of ways. After baked or fried, they can be blended together with ginger, garlic, or wine to have distinct flavor. You can keep the flavoring for long time if you put it into a jar.

Chicken and duck

The Miao like chicken and duck meat, and especially chicken or duck’s heart. The innards are always saved for the guests and elder to express respect.

Wine

Wine has a long history among the Miao. Most Miao families can make wine at home.

A sweet wine made of glutinous rice and special fruit tastes good and helps digest food. If you visit a Miao village, the local people will entertain you with a whole set of wine service. From the road to their village gate, the service will be arranged in twelve different sites. If you can finish all 12 bowls of wine, you’ll be a hero! Don’t feel uneasy if you can’t. Just touch the bowl with your lips gently, and politely say “Dou She Mo,” which in the Miao language means “Thank you!” then you can go.

Visit the Miao villages during their holidays, and you can enjoy their exciting singing and dancing performances, along with their fascinating embroidery and silver jewelry, including impressive silver necklaces. When drinking with the Miao, lots of wine will be flowing!

Dehydrated potatoes are basically the same as instant potatoes, and this latter term is more familiar to you. If you are like thousands of other USA citizens, you buy dehydrated potatoes on a consistent basis and frequently use them in your cooking.

Think about how many times you have gone to the local grocery store to buy dehydrated potatoes. Once a week? Twice a month? In those times that you have picked up a pack that asserts “Instant Potatoes,” have you ever checked the package for the list of ingredients contained in the pack? The next time you go out to buy your fave brand of dehydrated potatoes, you must try having a look at the list of ingredients. You may be in for a shock.

Actually, we have done that to one of the less expensive types of dehydrated products – check out its ingredients, that is. We went to our local Aldi’s and grabbed a box of “Great Value Instant Potatoes.” You would expect the package to contain potatoes, and nothing else right? Of course, it’s just instant potatoes, so what else should be in there?

Here is a listing of the ingredients that are basically included in the pack of dehydrated potatoes:

– potato (you would really be surprised if this was not included)
– monocerides (these are fats)
– diglycerides ( another sort of fats )
– sodium acid pyrophosphate (this is basically a chemical used in electroplating)
– sodium metabisulfate (this chemical is used with antioxidants )
– citric acid ( a weak acid used for flavoring)
– BHT or butylated hydroxytoluene ( a fat and oil antioxidant which has been quite questionable in the food-processing industry)

Out of all these listed ingredients, the only one that basically has business being in a pack of dehydrated potatoes is the potato itself. So what are all the other stuff doing in there? Just seeing the quantity of chemicals involved in making dehydrated potatoes will make you would like to think twice about purchasing them again.

You do have the option of making your own dehydrated potatoes. You may be certain that there are no harmful chemicals added, and you can even have a good time making them. The process is fairly simple, and you can turn it into a fun activity for everybody, particularly if you have youngsters around. For more data see http://www.dehydratedfoodguide.com/Articles/Dehydrated_Mushroom.php on Dehydrated Mushroom.

When making dehydrated potatoes at home, just follow these straightforward steps:

1. Cut your potatoes into thin slices.
2. Put them in a warm oven.
3. Keep turning them until they become crispy and dry.
4. Mash them into powder and store them in airtight containers.

You can ask your kids to help in this last part. Just make sure that everything is orderly so you won’t have to clean up too much afterwards.

To get more recipes and cooking ideas, visit cooking101.org and while you are at it, you might also want to have a look at recipe for roasted potatoes.

All types of food are presently classified as organic or non-organic from fruits and vegetables to bread, meat and dairy products. Although organic bread, for example, is not that widely available, lots of people make it the only choice to include in their diets. In fact, the emphasis on organic bread brings us back to a time when bakeries supported the life of communities, long before huge bread manufacturers took over the processes and automatized them. Whole grain bread from crops that have not been exposed to any sorts of chemicals represent the only ingredients of handmade organic brain.

organic bread flour

Besides the organic bread made with normal whole grain flour, there is always the option of buying bread made of whole grains exclusively. This helps people with food sensitivities or intolerance to wheat, but generally speaking a consumer will prefer one kind o of product only. The popularity and sales level for organic bread differs in various parts of the world. Fortunately, in quite a number of farms, chemicals are not used that much in grain crops, which makes the resulting products a lot better for one’s health.

organic breads

Yet, heavily industrialized countries in the West heavily rely on chemicals to increase grain crop productivity and reduce the risk of plant disease. Organic bread will be a privilege in such parts of the world under the circumstances. People can even order organic bread online from family bakeries in their home area. Of course the costs of such breads be a little higher but if you have a reasonable monthly budget you can definitely afford such food products. Organic bread is not a luxury, but it rather represents a return to the natural, the authentic and why not to the traditional.

organic bread

Small family farms are the ones that support organic bread producers. There are products that rely on a combination of organic whole grains and regular grains. However, such bread types cannot claim the title of organic since they are only partially free of artificial elements. Organic bread remains a tradition in many countryside locations where the farming activities have kept some of the specifics of the occupation. Even so, farmers and manufacturers are regularly checked and monitored by the authorities who pass the organic certification.

The real question about BBQ is not how it is spelled, but what is it? I really think BBQ came about through a combination of influences (Caribbean, African, Europe, American Indians, cowboys, etc.). The purists will tell you that BBQ is slow smoking with indirect heat from a hardwood fire. People in general will also refer to grilling as BBQ (that really ruffles the feathers). There are so many variations to BBQ that it can’t really be given just one definition that is acceptable to everybody.

One option is to simply buy a disposable grill whenever you need one. There are a variety of types including simple braziers, hibachi grills (which are a step up from braziers), and the classic American-style, kettle grill. It can some skill to master cooking on a charcoal grill, and you must of course clean up the ashes after use, but many barbecuers say that they do prefer the taste of food cooked on these grills.

Barbeque rubs are comprised of certain proportions of herbs, spices, sea salt, and minimal sugar or sweetener. Note that diabetics may prefer homemade barbeque rubs using Stevia. A pressing consideration is whether to use store-bought sauces, marinades or rubs on your meats, or if one should you use your own homemade blend of herbs and spices to add intense flavor. Widespread herb irradiation, hydrolyzed cornstarch, MSG, artificial sweeteners, corn syrup, sugar, and other taste impostors will hurt your body whilst tricking your taste buds. Impart the stronger ingredients lightly with a larger amount of milder, complementary spices to create a steady, natural seasoning.

Most people will celebrate spring by wearing shorts when its 50 degrees outside (something they’d never due in the fall), taking long walks outside, or having people over for a Spring Kickoff BBQ. You will not be smoking or charring with bbq grill light as when using a smoker or an outdoor grill so you will need another way to get that good smoked/charred flavor. Spring BBQ’s are a great way to get friends together who you haven’t seen for awhile. And if they are coming over for a spring kickoff, then you don’t want to just play games or chat inside right? Another good option is a game called cornhole. Cornhole is a game similar to horseshoes or washers where you pitch 1 pound bags filled with corn at a wooden platform with a 6 inch hole towards the top.

This is a fun way to socialize, plus you get the chance to make new friends by having a backyard BBQ party. Once you make the decision to host a backyard BBQ party, grab a pencil and paper and start writing down the foods that you plan to serve, as well as foods that others enjoy. In addition to meats (sirloins, ribs, etc), popular side dishes may include toss salads, baked beans, coleslaw, plus potato chips and dip. This encourages participation!