| Weekend Beat/ Breathing Space: Wannabe Martha Stewart gives cooking class; averts disaster | | Posted Sunday, January 14, 2007 3:29:12 PM by Blog57 Team | | It was something of a fluke that I was asked to teach a cooking class, but I fit the main qualification, which was to be a U.S. citizen. The group that asked me is a Tokyo cooking club that features a different cuisine from around the world each month. Tickled at the offer, I immediately said yes, feeling like I was performing a patriotic duty. Watch out, Martha Stewart. The theme was holiday cooking. My thoughts turned to the insalubrious reputation of American cuisine. Determined to earn my homeland a name beyond Big Macs and Bud Light, I decided on a healthy but festive vegetarian meal: roasted pumpkin with cranberry stuffing, mashed potatoes with spinach and dried fruit and apple cobbler. The day of the class began rather inauspiciously. For some reason it seemed crucial to refill my heater before leaving home, and my haste resulted in a lake of kerosene across the kitchen floor and splatters all over yours truly.... | |
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| | | An unanticipated airplane meal: Indian food | | Posted Saturday, January 13, 2007 1:17:07 PM by Blog57 Team | | So imagine my shock, on a recent Continental flight from Houston to Paris, when I was served a delicious, healthful Indian meal. It was the aroma that caught my attention. The flight attendants were several rows away with their carts and trays when, in place of the usual stale plane air, the unmistakable scent of basmati rice and vibrant spices wafted by. The meal was the vegetarian option. The crew had extras, and I snapped one up. Beans, potatoes, Indian basmati rice, black-eyed peas and spices. No preservatives or artificial flavors. No ingredients that a 10-year-old would have trouble pronouncing or identifying. I dug in and savored the bright, unanticipated flavors. The rice was fragrant and the grains distinct, the green beans nicely spiced, the black-eyed peas a tad dry but perfectly palatable.... | |
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| | | Church hopes to share importance of healthy lifestyles with ... | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 1:26:09 PM by Blog57 Team | | FREDERICK -- As Thanksgiving approaches, members of Frederick Adventist Church took the opportunity Sunday to help community members educate themselves about the importance of eating healthy. "(The holidays are) when people are most likely to indulge and go off a good diet," said Bonnie Horman, parish nurse for the church. "That's why we're trying to help people make better decisions prior to the holidays." Ms. Horman was one of the members of the church's health ministry team who met with visitors Sunday afternoon at Tranquility of Fredericktowne, an assisted living home, to talk about the importance of good nutrition. The demonstration was the first of what will be monthly healthy cooking classes and health lectures held by Frederick Adventist Church beginning next year.... | |
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| | | A meat-free Thanksgiving | | Posted Tuesday, November 14, 2006 11:43:56 AM by Blog57 Team | | The trouble with cooking a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner isn't recipe-hunting or product availability. (Veggie lovers have turned the Internet into their personal cookbook, and Central Kentucky is bursting with organic produce and dairy-free milk.) No, the trouble is that you can't beg for mom's advice -- at least not my mom's -- when your whole-wheat vegan pie crust is crumbling and your soy turkey might still be frozen in the middle. She might sympathize, recalling that first Thanksgiving, when she cooked the giblets inside the turkey or sliced off her thumbnail while chopping sweet potatoes, but she won't know how to get rid of the tofu flecks from your pumpkin pie. And that's nothing compared to your next challenge: persuading people to eat it.... | |
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| | | Thanksgiving, from A to Z | | Posted Sunday, November 12, 2006 3:34:59 AM by Blog57 Team | | Thanksgiving dinner can be Rockwell perfect. . . or the mashed potatoes can be lumpy and hungry guests grumpy, the turkey tough and stuffing not done enough, the pumpkin pie cracked and dirty cookware stacked. No one can promise perfection, but perhaps we can head off a few disasters with this Thanksgiving guide and, for those experienced enough to talk turkey like a hotline staffer, provide a few new ideas. Recipes and the countdown are geared to serve 12 at 1 p.m. Dinnertime can be moved later, but there's no avoiding football as former Badgers are playing in all three Thanksgiving Day games (11:30 a.m., 3:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. kickoffs). .... | |
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| | | For BH&G, bigger is better | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 11:31:22 AM by Blog57 Team | | "BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS NEW COOKBOOK, 14th Edition," Meredith Books, $19.95. A circa-1960 BH&G cookbook was my first of many cookbooks. Today, it is a sorry-looking, recipe-stained, dog-chewed-on-one-corner, first love that I still refer to. In 2000 came a limited edition and much revised, slicked up, BH&G book that, for whatever reason, I really did not care for. Fast forward to today and the 14th edition of this venerable kitchen staple and you have a winner. First, let's consider the numbers: 1,400-plus recipes, 656 pages, 800 color photos and an additional 150 how-to photos and diagrams. Second, look for "easy" symbols, whole grain, vegetarian, low-fat, no-fat recipes. Second, the recipes are presented in a spiral-bound, easy-to-use format and it has slick pages that, if the gravy recipe splatters, a quick wipe of the page will take care of it.... | |
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| | | Need Inspiration? Look No Further Than The Web | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 3:23:11 AM by Blog57 Team | | Entire communities of like-minded food-obsessed people can be found online. When computer dating first started to grow in popularity, I scoffed at it. But then I ended up meeting my fiancée online. Lately I've been looking at some of the many wonderful food blogs where people talk intimately about food. Although I'm still in the "look, don't comment" stage, I'm overwhelmed at the kind of food communities that have sprung up. Food blogs are prolific, and the people that host them or post messages seem to be warm, loving and genuine in their obsession with ingredients and food issues. .... | |
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| | | Swap Meet & Chili Cook-Off 11/11 | | Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 3:34:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Topanga Community Club will hold its 17th annual Swap Meet & Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, November 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Topanga Community House. This year we will have lots of thrift, vintage and new items, a kids swap, silent auction and prizes as well as skits by Topanga Youth Services and a drumming circle. The day will begin with an opening ceremony and prayer circle led by Edwin Lemus. From 10 a.m. to 12 noon there will be an open mic jam and musical performances by The Nutty Nut Nerds, Jewels & Johnny, Steve McCormick & Friends, The Family Rock, Iffa & the Zion Train, and more. You must reserve space to enter the chili contest. The chili can be meat or vegetarian, but has to be cooked on the premises, and you have to supply your own cooking power (camping cooker, propane, hot plate, etc.), you cant hook up to the TCC outlets.... | |
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| | | Welcoming fall with autumn cooking | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:28:57 AM by Blog57 Team | | I am in autumn cooking mode. I'm busy stockpiling apples, pears, pomegranates and root vegetables. I'm simmering cinnamon sticks, grating ginger, reacquainting myself with maple syrup and brown sugar. I'm pulling an apple butter spice cake out of my oven as we speak. And I'm looking for ways to use sun-dried cranberries, black berries and goji berries, a new Amazonian dried fruit. I just bought a giant can of pumpkin pulp, and I'm discovering ways to make savory dishes with it. I'm collecting bags of organic rolled oats and barley as I hoard a selection of hard squash. This is my way of welcoming fall. Far to often, these ingredients are used only in desserts. But that's unfortunate. Take pumpkin for example. It's great in pie, pound cake and pudding.... | |
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| | | FAB OR FLUB | | Posted Monday, October 30, 2006 7:19:13 PM by Blog57 Team | | What it is: Everyday Food: Fast, Family-Friendly Ideas. This is the first DVD based on the TV series inspired by the monthly magazine of the same name. Who makes it: Warner Home Video; Everyday Food is part of the Martha Stewart empire. Details: Hits the shelves Oct. 17; 125 minutes; $14.98. What's on it: Twenty-four demonstrations of recipes; six "tip" demonstrations (including three favorite knives; frozen cookie dough); special features (tools and techniques; meet the cast; recipes) and other bonus content (tofu glossary; choosing baking pans). Who it's aimed at: Beginner cooks. What we like: Everyday Food magazine is packed each month with easy-to-re-create, tasty and fairly simple recipes. The TV show, based on the magazine, takes the same approach.... | |
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