Dancing Spoon

Moving Lakes

Green Becoming

by J. Michael Wheeler

Just how bad is your tap water? Well, if you live in the US, except in a few rare instances, it is impressively safe. It is constantly monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency and the results are publicly available (EPA Water Quality Monitoring). Some tap water is so good that the EPA doesn’t even require it to be filtered. San Francisco gets its tap water from Yosemite National Park.

But we love our bottled water. And why? Is bottled water is safer, tastier, healthier than tap water? Well, there are no scientific studies that establish regularly drinking mineral water improves your health. The FDA even forbids the waters to make any such claims.

Crunchy Ripe Tomatoes

Tomato A Real

by J. Michael Wheeler

Tomatoes shouldn’t crunch when you bite into them. Eating a tomato from my big chain supermarket can sound more apple then tom. Why is that? Because that vine ripened (but rarely ripe) tomato has been shipped many miles, perhaps thousands. But truly ripe, juicy, naturally red tomatoes don’t like to travel: they are travel-averse. They like their own ‘hood: they get all squishy when they must be packaged and shipped from Mexico, or Spain, or California, to Bismarck, North Dakota or Boston, Massachusetts.

But a tomato can travel pretty well if you let it vine ripen just to the ripeness of a major league baseball. Then you can ship it anywhere in the world. If we want tomatoes in February, well the sun’s over the yardarm somewhere, and tomatoes are growing there. Pick ‘em, pack ‘em, ship ‘em. Trucks, ships, trains, planes, more trucks: don’t worry, what that traveling tom lacks in taste, he more than makes up for in structural integrity.

Espresso 101

RoastMaster From the

by Adam Desrosiers

A Roast or A Brew?  
It is one of the more persistent myths in the coffee biz, that “espresso” signifies a style of roasting. In the popular conception this style would be expected to look extremely dark and showing a glossy sheen from the emergence, to the coffee bean's surface, of the oils that such a dark roast forces out. Certainly, this is a popular way to roast coffee for espresso; for one it's quite easy, with such an approach, to achieve consistent results but, and maybe more pertinently, it's also a lot cheaper.

Boozy Fruit Cocktails

Trends Cocktail

by J. Michael Wheeler

Booze for Nothing and Your Vits for Free
The New York Times reports that the latest trendy cocktail is more fruit than gin, like the cocktail made from fresh lime juice, fresh strawberries, mint and VeeV, a 60-proof liqueur made from the açía berry. You can order a Joie de VeeV at the Mondrian Hotel’s Skybar in NYC and the Bar Mormont in LA.

How about a drink called Samba Juice, made with açía, passion fruit, guava juice, banana liqueur, and rum? You’ll find it at one of the Sushi Samba locations in New York, Miami, Chicago, or Tel Aviv.

Beautiful Eating: Skin Spa

Eating Beautiful

by Fiona Barrett

A Spa for Your Skin 
If we think of our skin as our body’s protective layer (it is our “outer covering” after all) and as one of the major organs in our body, then what we eat to feed and nourish our skin is critical to creating “beautiful skin.”

Our skin helps regulate our body's temperature by increasing perspiration when our body gets too hot. As the perspiration evaporates it cools our skin, and our bodies. Our skin also helps eliminate toxins from our body. Did you know that over one pound of waste products from our body is excreted through our skin each day!

Naked Wine

Chardonnay UnOaked

by David Haley

Naked, Naked, Naked
A new trend gaining popularity in chardonnay wine production is the absence of oak: Naked Chard. To be sure this is a trend that is gaining momentum with wine producers throughout the world. The credit for this change rests with you, consumers who voice their preferences and the producers who respond to market drivers. Wines produced in this manner emphasize apple, pear, citrus and mineral qualities. Naked Chardonnays are lighter in body than oaked Chardonnay, easier to drink, and pair better with food. All good reasons to give them a swirl!

Let's examine how oak changes the character of Chardonnay to understand how the absence of oak can be a refreshing influence on the world’s most popular grape.

Your Bag o' Bags

Green Becoming

by J. Michael Wheeler

How big is your Bag of Bags? You know, the plastic supermarket bag that you stuff all of those other plastic supermarket bags into. Mine hangs in my pantry and it had grown huge. Then it started oozing over-flow bags and I had to hang another one right next to it.

Americans use more than a gazillon plastic bags everyday. From the New York Times article Taking Aim at All Those Plastic Bags:

Plastic bags have virtually taken over the grocery market since they were first put at check-out stands in 1977. Ninety percent of all grocery bags are now plastic, according to the Progressive Bag Alliance, an industry group of plastic bag manufacturers. Estimates of the number of plastic bags used around the world each year vary wildly — from 100 billion to as many as one trillion.

Recipe: Jicama Slaw

Summer Slaw A Different

by Gloria Bakst

Cooking with Gloria
Jicama is crisp, juicy, and sadly underused in much of the country. It's popular in the Southwest and throughout Mexico, and you also find it in many Asian dishes. Peel the tuber's thin skin to reveal the white flesh, which tastes good and adds crunch to this versatile, colorful slaw.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 to 1-1/2 pounds thin-skinned jicamas, peeled and cut into julienne
1 red bell pepper, cut into julienne
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into julienne
1 orange bell pepper, cut into julienne
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

To make the slaw, in a large bowl, toss together the jicama, bell peppers, and cilantro.

For the vinaigrette, in a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, whisk, and pour over the slaw. Toss, and serve immediately.

Gloria's recipes and approach to a balanced lifestyle have been published by McGraw Hill in her book, ZonePerfect Cooking Made Easy. Her recipes have appeared in the Weight Watchers' Grilling Cookbook, Weight Watchers Meals in Minutes Cookbooks, The Jewish Vegetarian Year Cookbook, and The Healing the Heart Cookbook.

Gloria’s menus are always healthy and nutritious with an emphasis on flavor, freshness, and sophisticated tastes.

Have questions or comments?  . To learn more about Gloria and her nutritional coaching go to her web site at Balanced Nutritional Lifestyles.

If you like Gloria's recipes, you can purchase her book here.
ZonePerfect Cooking Made Easy, by Gloria Bakst

 

 

Recipe: Quinoa Super Salad

Salad Summer

by Gloria Bakst

Cooking with Gloria
This is an easy salad to serve in the summer. It requires very little cooking or preparation time. It can be served warm or chilled. This salad is high in calcium. Quinoa, sunflower seeds and parsley all are very high calcium foods.

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is an ancient grain that the Incas of South America held sacred. They referred to it as "mother of all grains." It has a very high protein content (12%-18%) and is an unusually complete plant protein containing a balanced set of essential amino acids. Quinoa is gluten free and considered easy to digest.

The Palm Peeler

Stuff Cool

A better mousetrap? We think so. We've got a drawer full of vegetable peelers, and frankly, they all leave something to be desired. Meet your newest kitchen gadget: the Palm Peeler.

It's a peeler that slips over your middle finger with the peel blades beneath. That means that the peeler is an extension of your palm, hence the name. And that gives you great control over the peeler.

Peeling slices of ginger is alway tricky. Last night I took a two inch slice of ginger and within moments, using the Palm Peeler, I had a perfectly naked slice ready to be minced. ( I was making a marinade for grilled chicken: minced ginger and garlic, some mirin (rice cooking wine), soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, a touch of molasses and Tabasco.)

The Palm Peeler is an inexpensive and very cool kitchen tool. It comes in three colors: avocado (shown), cherry, and stainless. Try it and it will become your peeler of choice!