primary Food in Colombia - Know Some Facts

Colombia has a privileged location in South America, with part of its coast to the cool Pacific Ocean and part in the Caribbean with its warmer waters. Part of the country has mountains, other part has valleys. Therefore they can grow all kinds of fruits, vegetables and have all kinds of seafood. 

Through its history, Colombia has received influence of the Peruvian and Brazilian cuisine's tradition, but also from the Japanese and Arabic way of cooking. To this add their own cultural heritage, as the Amerindians also raised separate species of animals, with which they could make appetizing dishes. And to this range we also must add the Spanish tradition.

Cuisine

We could say that the Colombian cuisine uses separate meats, fishes, abundance of vegetables and lots and lots of exotic and appetizing fruits.   Also their delicacies depend on the regions, as food is separate in the mountain regions than what is on the coastal regions. Its food is always, anyway, very tasty, with natural flavors, and not too spicy. Colombians also love soups, which are almost a must in each dinner or lunch. But the most foremost fact is that they love their food done with fresh ingredients, and fresh fruits.

In Colombia citizen have usually three meals a day. First one, breakfast, before to going to work. The most foremost meal is lunch. It is a meal consisting of three courses, soup, main dish and a drink, and dessert or fruit. Dinner is very light, taken colse to 9:30 Pm. 

What is more piquant about Colombia is that all changes agreeing to the region where one is. If in the jungle, or in the coast, or in the valley, citizen have their own way of dressing, have their separate food preferences, their favorite drinks. And this is what makes it such a rich country and so very interesting.

But in all these regions there are some things in base too. They take it very seriously what their food is, the recipes they use and the separate techniques are they same as centuries ago, giving them a sense of nationalism, reinforcing the feeling of being all from the same country. Their typical meals are full of tradition and history and they won't change that.

If we were to name some of the original dishes or food of Colombia, we could choose the arepa, the sancocho, the fritanga. Also lots of chicken, beef, fish corn, onions tomatoes, potatoes, rice and some separate legumes.

To all this we should add a amazing cup of coffee, the best in the world!

primary Food in Colombia - Know Some Facts

Caribbean Food - A microscopic History

The Arawak, Carib, and Taino Indians were the first inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. These first inhabitants occupied the present day islands of British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica. Their daily diet consisted of vegetables and fruits such as papaw, yams, guavas, and cassava. The Taino started the process of cooking meat and fish in large clay pots.

The Arawaks are the first people known to make a grate of thin green wood strips on which they slowly cooked meat, allowing it to be enhanced by the flavor of the wood. This grate was called a barbacoa, and the word we know today as barbeque is taken from this early Indian cooking method.

Cuisine

The Carib Indians added more spice to their food with hot pepper sauces, and also added lemon and lime juice to their meat and fish recipes. The Caribs are said to have made the first pepper pot stew. No recipes exist since every time the Indians made the dish, they would always add new ingredients. The Carib had a big impact on early Caribbean history, and the Caribbean sea was named after this tribe.

Then the Caribbean became a crossroads for the world . . .

Once the Europeans brought Africans slaves into the region, the slaves diet consisted mostly of food the slave owners did not want to eat. So the slaves had to be inventive, and they blended their primary African foods with staples found on the islands. The Africans introduced okra, callaloo, fish cakes, saltfish, ackee, pudding and souse, mangos, and the list goes on.

Most present day Caribbean island locals eat a present diet that is reflective of the main ingredients of primary early African dishes, and includes cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, plantains, bananas and corn meal.

African men were hunters in their homeland, and often away from home for long periods of time. They would cook spicy pork over hot coals, and this tradition was refined by the early slaves in Jamaica. The technique is known today as "jerk" cooking , and the incommunicable involves a slow meat cooking process. Jamaica is preeminent for jerk chicken and pork, and you'll find jerk all over the island.

After slavery was abolished, the Europeans went to India and China for labor, and more cooking styles were introduced. Much of the Indian cooking culture remains alive and well in the Caribbean of today with the introduction of curried meats and curry powder. Indians call it kari podi, and we have come to know this pungent flavor as curry.

The Chinese introduced rice, which is always a staple in home cooked island meals. The Chinese also introduced mustard, and the early Portuguese sailors introduced the popular codfish.

Most visitors to the Caribbean have no idea that the fruit trees and fruits so well-known to the islands were introduced by the early Spanish explorers. The fruit trees and fruits brought from Spain comprise orange, lime, ginger, plantains, figs, date palms, sugar cane, grapes, tamarinds and coconuts.

Even the Polynesian islands play an important role in Caribbean cooking. Most of us remember the movie "Mutiny on the Bounty", but do not know that single ship carried breadfruit, which was loaded on board from the islands of Tahiti and Timor. In the movie the crew took over the ship, forced the captain into a small boat to fend on his own, and they threw the breadfruit, which they carefully "strange fruit" overboard. an additional one ship was more successful in bringing breadfruit from Polynesia to Jamaica and the St Vincent and the Grenadines. Breadfruit is a staple diet in the current day Caribbean

America is responsible for introducing beans, corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, and chili pepper to the Caribbean. In fact these single foods had never been seen in Asia, Europe or Africa, so America indeed introduced these foods the rest of the world via the Caribbean.

So it's no wonder Caribbean cooking is so rich and creative with the flavors of Africa, India, and China, along with Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, French and British influences. Food served in the Caribbean islands have been influenced by the cultures of the world, but each island adds its own extra flavor and cooking technique.

Caribbean Food - A microscopic History

Coping with Change: compose Your Personal Strategy

Why do we resist change?

[b]Cuisine[/b]

As the saying goes, the only population who like turn are busy cashiers and wet babies. We find turn disorienting, creating within us an anxiety similar to culture shock, the unease visitors to an alien land feel because of the absence of the well-known cues they took for granted back home. With an established routine, we don't have to think! And thinking is hard work.

Change is a firm fact of life

Is your firm is currently undergoing major changes that will sway the lives of all of its employees? These changes are probably in response to the evolving needs of your customers. They are made potential because of improvements in telecommunications and digital technology. They are likely guided by accepted principles and practices of total capability management. And you can expect that they will result in requisite improvements profitability--a success that all employees will share. Because our customers' needs are Now, we must make changes swiftly, which means that all of us must cooperate with the changes, rather than resist them.

How do we resist change?

We tend to sass to turn the same way we sass to anything we realize as a threat: by flight or fight. Our first reaction is flight--we try to avoid turn if we can. We do what futurist Faith Popcorn calls "cocooning": we seal ourselves off from those nearby us and try to ignore what is happening. This can happen in the workplace just by being passive. We don't volunteer for teams or committees; we don't make suggestions, ask questions, or offer constructive criticism. But the changes ahead are inescapable. Those who "cocoon" themselves will be left behind.

Even worse is to fight, to actively resist change. Resistance tactics might contain negativity, destructive criticism, and even sabotage. If this seldom happens at your company, you are fortunate.

Take a distinct arrival to change

Rejecting both alternatives of flight or flight, we seek a great option--one that neither avoids turn nor resists it, but harnesses and guides it.

Change can be the means to your goals, not a barrier to them.
Both fight and flight are reactions to perceiving turn as a threat. But if we can turn our perceptions, we can avoid those reactions. An old proverb goes, "Every turn brings an opportunity." In other words, we must learn to see turn as a means of achieving our goals, not a barrier preventing us from reaching them.

Another way of expressing the same conception is: A turn in my external circumstances provides me with an opportunity to grow as a human being. The greater the turn is, the greater and faster I can grow. If we can realize turn along these lines, we will find it curious and energizing, rather than depressing and debilitating.

Yet this restructuring of our perspective on turn can take some time. In fact, coping with turn follows the same steps as the grieving process.1 The steps are shock and denial that the old routine must be left behind, then anger that turn is inevitable, then despair and a longing for the old ways, eventually supplanted by acceptance of the new and a brighter view of the future. Every person works straight through this process; for some, the transition is lightning fast, for others painfully slow.

Realize your capacity to adapt.

As one writer put it recently:

Our foreparents lived straight through sea changes, upheavals so cataclysmic, so devastating we may never appreciate the fortitude and resilience required to survive them. The next time you feel resistant, think about them and about what they faced--and about what they fashioned from a fraction of the options we have. They blended old and new worlds, creating family, language, cuisine and new life-affirming rhythms, and they encouraged their children to keep on stepping toward an unknown but malleable future.2

Human beings are created remarkably flexible, capable of adapting to a wide variety of environments and situations. Realizing this can help you to embrace and guide turn rather than resisting or avoiding it.

Develop a coping strategy based on who you are.

Corporate employees typically result one of four decision-making styles: analytical, directive, conceptual, and behavioral. These four styles, described in a book by Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason,3 have the following characteristics:
Analytical Style - technical, logical, careful, methodical, needs much data, likes order, enjoys problem-solving, enjoys structure, enjoys scientific study, and enjoys working alone. Conceptual Style - creative and artistic, future oriented, likes to brainstorm, wants independence, uses judgment, optimistic, uses ideas vs. Data, looks at the big picture, rebellious and opinionated, and committed to principles or a vision. Behavioral Style - supportive of others, empathetic, wants affiliation, nurtures others, communicates easily, uses instinct, avoids stress, avoids conflict, relies on feelings instead of data, and enjoys team/group efforts. Directive Style - aggressive, acts rapidly, takes charge, persuasive and/or is manipulative, uses rules, needs power/status, impatient, productive, single-minded, and enjoys private achievements.

Read once more straight through these descriptions and recognize which style best describes you. Then find and study the strategy population who share your style result to cope with change:

Analytical coping strategy - You see turn as a curious puzzle to be solved. You need fullness of time to secure information, analyze data, and draw conclusions. You will resist turn if you are not given sufficient time to think it through. Conceptual coping strategy - You are concerned in how turn fits into the big picture. You want to be complex in defining what needs to turn and why. You will resist turn if you feel excluded from participating in the turn process. Behavioral coping strategy - You want to know how Every person feels about the changes ahead. You work best when you know that the whole group is supportive of each other and that Every person champions the turn process. If the turn adversely affects person in the group, you will realize turn as a crisis. Directive coping strategy - You want specifics on how the turn will sway you and what your own role will be during the turn process. If you know the rules of the turn process and the desired outcome, you will act rapidly and aggressively to accomplish turn goals. You resist turn if the rules or improbable results are not clearly defined.

Realizing what our normal decision-making style is, can enable us to build personal change-coping tactics.

How can we cope with change?

Getting at least this much comprehension of the big picture will help us to understand where each of us fits.

2. Do some anchoring. - When all things nearby you is in a state of flux, it sure helps to find something carport that isn't going to change, no matter what. Your company's values (whether articulated or not) can contribute that kind of stability for you. Ours contain the firm Family, Focus on the Customer, Be Committed to Quality, and enounce Mutual Respect. These values are rock-solid; they are not going to disappear or rearrange themselves into something else. Plus, each of us has personal values that possibly are even more requisite and permanent. Such immovables can serve as anchors to help us ride out the storm.

3. Keep your expectations realistic. - A big part of taking control of the turn you sense is to set your expectations. You can still enounce an optimistic outlook, but aim for what is realistically attainable. That way, the negatives that come along won't be so overwhelming, and the positives will be an adrenaline rush. Here are some examples:

Invest time and power in training. Edge your skills so that you can meet the challenges ahead with confidence. If the training you need is not available straight through Bowne, get it somewhere else, such as the community college or adult instruction agenda in your area.

Get help when you need it. If you are confused or overwhelmed with the changes swirling nearby you, ask for help. Your supervisor, manager, or coworkers may be able to sustain you in adjusting to the changes taking place. Your human resources department and any company-provided counseling services are other resources available to you.

Make sure the turn does not compromise whether your firm values or your personal ones. If you are not careful, the technological advances jostling each other for your concentration and adoption will tend to separate you from personal sense with your coworkers and customers. E-mail, teleconference, voice-mail, and Intranet can make us more in touch with each other, or they can keep us antiseptically detached, removed from an awareness that the digital signals we are sending reach and sway an additional one flesh-and-blood human being.

Aware of this tendency, we must actively counteract the drift in this direction by taking an interest in population and opportunity up ourselves to them in return. We have to remember to invest in people--all of those nearby us--not just in technology.

The "new normalcy"

Ultimately, we may survey that the current state of flux is permanent. After the events of September 11, Vice President Richard Cheney said we should accept the many resultant changes in daily life as permanent rather than temporary. "Think of them," he recommended, "as the 'new normalcy.'"

You should take the same arrival to the changes happening at your workplace. These are not temporary adjustments until things get "back to normal." They are probably the "new normalcy" of your life as a company. The sooner you can accept that these changes are permanent, the great you can cope with them all--and enjoy their confident results.

Notes

1. Nancy J. Barger and Linda K. Kirby, The Challenge of turn in Organizations: Helping Employees Thrive in the New Frontier (Palo Alto, Ca: Davies-Black Publ., 1995). This source is summarized in Mary M. Witherspoon, "Coping with Change," Women in firm 52, 3 (May/June 2000): 22-25.

2. Susan Taylor, "Embracing Change," Essence (Feb. 2002): 5.

3. Alan J. Rowe and Richard O. Mason, Managing with Style: A Guide to Understanding, Assessing and enhancing Decision-Making (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass supervision Series, 1987) cited in Witherspoon, "Coping with Change."

4. Emily Friedman, "Creature Comforts," health Forum Journal 42, 3 (May/June 1999): 8-11. Futurist John Naisbitt has addressed this tendency in his book, High tech/high touch: Technology and our quest for meaning (New York: Random House, 1999). Naisbitt co-wrote this book with his daughter Nana Naisbitt and Douglas Philips.

Coping with Change: compose Your Personal Strategy

How To Make Sure You Are Buying The Best Prime Rib

Six Ways to Make Sure you are Buying the Best Prime Rib Available

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The best grade of rib or any type of beef is of policy prime grade. The problem comes in when trying to buy prime grade beef, there is only 20 percent of prime grade beef in America cut and most of this grade of beef finds its way to those fancy restaurants. Some prime rib can be found in your local grocery store and some in the butcher shop. If you are lucky sufficient to find prime grade then you will still need to know how to make sure you are buying the best prime rib available. Here are some things to look for and some to steer away from.

Now, you know what prime rib is but did you know that that the rib cut includes cuts like the Rib Roast, the Rib eye Steak and the back ribs and is the least tender of all the other sections. So, when you begin to look at the prime ribs in the store you will want to seek out the more flavorful and best you can find in order to prepare a delectable meal. With this guide you should be able to make sure you are buying the best prime rib you can find.
Always look at the date the prime rib was packaged. This is an indicator as to how long it has been sitting around in the store. Look at the color of the prime rib; it should have a provocative red color and no dry or brown edges. Check for any damage to the packaging and wrapping. Buying prime rib that has been injected with flavorings is also a very bad idea. Many population believe that this process will ensure that their prime rib is flavorful and juicy but that is not the case. Usually the flavorings will cause the meat to break down and come to be mushy. This can furnish a tougher prime rib. Several population also hunt out prime rib that has been tenderized by the butcher, but once again that is someone else error. When the butcher tenderizers the prime rib or any beef he beats and pierces the meat. Any piercing allows the natural juices and flavorings to escape. This will not only leave your meat un-flavorful but it will also be tough. Next is how the prime rib is aged. The best formula of drying your prime rib is dry aged. . Dry aging is when the meat is taken from the bag that it arrives in to the butcher and is hung in a cooler for a inevitable number of time to dry out. This formula allows for the meat to shrink naturally. Most meat you find in your supermarket has been cut beside the slaughter house, wrapped in plastic and has aged on the way to the store in a Styrofoam packaging and plastic. This is for sure not the way to get a great tasting prime rib. You can talk with the butcher at your supermarket and ask him about the aging process used if he knows. If not and you desire the best prime rib around, then you should go directly to a butcher shop and talk with them. Not only should your prime rib be provocative red but it should have some fat. This is called marbling. The fat should be in thin lines and distributed evenly throughout the prime rib. The marbling will give your prime rib more flavor. You also want to buy prime rib that is cut close to the bone or with the bone still intact as much of the flavoring also comes from the bone marrow. With these few tips you should know how to make sure you are buying the best prime rib.

How To Make Sure You Are Buying The Best Prime Rib

Are Plastic Food and Beverage packaging Safe?

Question: Have plastic food and beverage packaging been proven safe?

[b]Cuisine[/b]

Answer: No.

During the film's graduation party in The Graduate, Mr. McGuire pulls Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) aside to offer sage advice for his future. His time to come would be one word: "plastics."

Of course, we all know Mr. McGuire's advice and prognostication was correct. Plastics can only be made by man in his infinite wisdom, hence they are patentable. The profit in the design of plastics has been huge. Plastics are everywhere. Plastic manufacturing now uses 4% of the world's oil yield annually. Automobiles are now 9% plastic. It is of my extra concern that more foods and beverages are being put into plastic containers. Plastics are ubiquitous now. They persist and accumulate in our society as their yield exceeds their chemical degradation rate. Harmful chemicals from plastics are now commonly found in groundwater, waterways, and drinking water.

While standing out in the summer heat in Phoenix, Arizona in 1981, my girlfriend asked me what was causing the film to form on the inside of the windshield of her new Mazda 626. She said that she had to wipe it off every morning so she could see to drive to work. I didn't know then. I do now! It was phthalates, the chemical that was added to the plastic dash cover to soften it and prevent cracking. I'm sure by now most of the phthalate has evaporated into our climate and the Mazda is in some junkyard with a cracked up dash.

Phthalates are Edc's (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.) They are chemicals found in recycle codes #1 through #6 plastics. Other Edc (Bisphenol A) is in recycle code #7 plastics. All of these types of plastic Edc's interfere with the function of sex hormones receptors. In The Graduate Benjamin was quite a stud. I wonder if he's now taking one of the popular drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, a disorder that has become one of the many epidemics in our new plastic world.

In 2003 a group of Croatian scientists reported that phthalates in plastics dissolved in discrete solutions. They used a variety of plastic items, together with plastic food containers. After 10 days of sitting in distilled water, an mean of 55.4 mg/ of phthalates from each kilogram of plastic "migrated" into the water. To a lesser degree the phthalates from plastics dissolved into acetic acid 3% (44.4 mg/kg) and 10% ethyl alcohol (32.3 mg/kg).

The Croatian study shows what Benjamin would suspect, if he took chemistry in college: Water is the universal solvent; and it dissolves even the primarily fat soluble phthalates. The more that you filter water to take off other toxic solutes, the more aggressive water becomes in its power to reach osmolar equilibrium by dissolving its non-inert containers.

What is also obviously missing from the Croatians' controlled, static testing model are the climatic characteristic variations that the plastic bottled water product goes through to get from bottling point to the mouth of the consumer. Transport trucks probably reach a very high climatic characteristic in the non refrigerated cargo areas that carry Pete (recycle code #1 plastic) bottled water in the summer. Heat facilitates the dissolution of phthalates into the water. Then the bottles may be stored for a much longer time than 10 days prior to consumption. Furthermore, icy the packaging produces micro-fissures in the interior outside of the plastic bottle holder as the water expands, exponentially exposing more solute outside area. Traumatic handling or any motion of the holder will additional improve diffusion. Applying the laws of physics, all of these factors clearly by extrapolation will growth the water dissolution of the plastic containers.

Fatty foods in plastic packaging are even more problematic, as fats are absorbed differently and carry their phthalate solvents into our bodies more easily. Phthalates bio-accumulate because of their fat solubility. Phthalates consolidate in such fat organs in our bodies such as brains, prostates, testicles, ovaries, breasts and, unfortunately, breast milk. (The other popular food alternatives for infants are worse. Commercial baby formulas are loaded with the manmade phthalates.)

I think the worst example of food containment in plastic is milk. All milk except non-fat milk contains fat. Cow milk itself represents a major source of the fats ingested by the public, especially children. Cattle consolidate these chemicals by bioaccummulation because Edc's from plastics are ubiquitous in water and most animal food sources. Meat and dairy products are therefore a major contributor to this group of human food chain derived toxins, regardless of their containment. It is now irresponsible to add more phathalates to the products by putting the milk products in plastic packaging that add More Edc's.

Cattle have intentially been "fattened up" by adding hormones And unintentially "fattened up" more by the contamination of cattle food and water by Edc's. The mixture of these chemicals passed on to the consumers in concentrated form in milk products will most likely exacerbate obesity in humans that consume them as well.

Our current scientific knowledge and tasteless sense screams for an end to buyer buy of milk bottled in plastics. Until milk fellowships have their products quantatatively analysed for these Edc's by competent independant laboratories, my strong advice is to avoid buy and consumption of milk and dairy products contained in plastic.

Sadly, the Croatian authors' 2003 conclusions about the protection of plastics were: "These (exposure) levels would not present a hazard for human health, not even for a continued period of time." However, what was deemed appropriate levels of phthalates in 2003 now is recognized as "crystal clearly" too high.

Selective interpretations from the Acc (American Chemistry Council) lead to this erroneously high level being "set" for past toxicity standards. The Acc is an "industry group" advisor. It's much like the wolf guarding the henhouse. Thanks to the Acc efforts, operate regulations located upon this chemical class are minimal. An ongoing perpetuation of phthalate approval for use in virtually everything, together with containment of food, has resulted. In fact, the perpetuation of these mythological high protection standards has resulted in the majority of our food being wrapped or contained in plastics that leach Edc's into our foods.

The Acc's Phthalate Esters Panel is made up representatives from Basf, Eastman Chemical, Exxon-Mobil Chemical, Ferro, and Teknor Apex Corporations. After graduating, Benjamin could have gone to work for any of these fellowships to share the wealth that plastics manufacturing have reaped, instead of hanging colse to and sporting Mrs. Robinson for the summer!

I love one of the rationalization examples the Acc makes on their Phthalates data town webpage: "Thanks to phthalates, your nail polish doesn't chip." I wonder if they are aware of the "unexplained" high rate of breast cancer in manicurists. I also wonder if they are aware that most breast tissues and breast cancers have sex hormone receptors that are acted upon by the Edc's found in plastics.

To additional confuse the public, the Acc webpage also redefines the Precautionary Principle which in its un-perverted definition plainly is: A (chemical) should not be determined safe until it is proven safe. Environmentalists who are trying to unravel the cause-effect relationships of environment chemicals, to the otherwise unexplained epidemics of discrete diseases now affecting man as well as every species on our planet, encourage its application. The Acc's watered down version suggests that cost effective, fearless risks are worth taking.

Can the Acc keep up the phthalate protection illusion forever? The American Tobacco relationship approximately got away with it!

We now know that Edc's, like hormones themselves need very minute amounts to have physiologic impact. Edc's are active in parts per trillion! For example, the usual adult maintenance dose of levothyroxine, a drug to replace depleted natural thyroid hormone in hypothyroidism, is 1.6 micrograms/Kg/day. Why would I even think about saying that a dose in the milligrams (1000 times as much as a microgram) of a known Edc would be safe, especially for a child or developing fetus?

We now know that phthalates also work in synergy with chemicals in other classes to exert "more than additive" physiologic effects.

Previous experiments in rodents showed that high levels of phthalates interfer with testosterone during gestation resulting in birth defects of the genitalia, testicular cancer, and infertility in the rats.

The Acc inspired appropriate level of phthalate myth should be blown out of the water with a up-to-date study completed by the University of Rochester School of medicine and Dentistry. This study of 85 human baby boys reported in May 2005 showed that phthalate levels found usually in the general people adversely influenced sexual development. The phthalate exposure these children had correlated with smaller penis size and incomplete testicular descent, which is a health that greatly increases the risk of testicular cancer if left untreated.

Solution 1 - pick glass packaging over plastic for buy and warehouse of food and beverages together with milk and water.

American children can consume any milligrams of phthalate each day.

I wonder if The Graduate's Mr. Robinson noticed that most of the youthful girls now-days have bigger breasts than his seductive wife (gynecomastia), and that they begin thelarche (breast development) and menarche (menstruation) at a significantly younger age, or that many more have an endocrine analysis called Pcos (polycystic ovary syndrome).

The chances of a woman getting breast cancer in her lifetime has probably gone from a risk of less than 1 in 10 (10%) before The Graduate was made to a 1 in about 7.5 (13.2 %) rate today.

The selection to avoid food chain plastics is a "no-brainer" when you understand how these chemicals persist and accumulate in our environment, and how they function in our bodies!

Solution 2 - pick stainless steel packaging over plastic for warehouse of food and beverages together with water.

Unfortunately, we are past the point of no return with phthalates. Just like
cigarettes I think we'll have to live as prisoners with their impact on time to come generations. The only defense we have at this time is to individually pick to avoid them when we can, to mitigate their effects on our health.

Phthalates clearly act upon hormone receptors in both men and women. A concern is the possible phthalate impact on breast and other hormone sensitive tissue in human females, but phthalate's demasculinizing possible on males is more of a threat to all species on the planet.

Unlike Mr. McGuire, I think we can pick a best time to come by avoiding his "one word." We should start by trying to sell out plastics in our food chain exposures.

Bottom line:

I would strongly advise consumers to buy beverages and non-solid food products packaged in glass rather than plastic if given the choice.

© Life Dynamix 2005 All rights Reserved

Are Plastic Food and Beverage packaging Safe?

Four astonishing Small Towns in the United States

In the United States, there are some small towns, which are so cool. The populations of these small towns are less than 10000, but their cuisine, culture and quality of life are so enough and even can assess with big cities. At the same time, the tranquility and relieve environment they provided can't be found in big cities. Their simplicity and difficulty have attracted thousands of foreign tourists. Here are four famous small towns you can select to visit.

Manitou Springs, Colo.
The total population of this small town is 5,038 and the nearest city is Colorado Springs, which is only 6 miles far away. population love this town because its inhabitants are from various communal strata, from scientists to businessmen. At here, you will not find a crowded store and each store has its own unique charm. The place, from live music to a ceramic sculpture, from pop to the delicious gourmet coffee, makes all visitors feel fantastic.

Cuisine

Port Jervis, N.Y.
Port Jervis is 93 miles far away from New York City and the population of the town is 9619. As the rents in the New York City rise, many artists and shopkeepers have gotten into town where they can rent affordable shops. Now, tourists can go to town to visit the artist's galleries, fine ancient shops, you can also enjoy delicious American dishes such as stuffed pork chops and pumpkin braise.

Yellow Springs, Ohio
The small town only has a total of 3675 population and the nearest city from here is Dayton which is only 21 miles. Since 1852 when Antioch College had built at here, yellow spa town has come to be the guiding light of the artists, activists and thinkers. population can freely display their knitting work in the town to show the unique communal art, tourists can come here to feel the freedom and self-released smoothly.

Mazomanie, Wis.
The town's total population of Mazomanie is only 1,485 and 24 miles far away Madison. Small town has attracted many artists with its historic cities and cheap real estate. You wouldn't feel stuffy even you shop around at here for a whole day. Passengers can sense a rare relaxed and pleasant by buying unique souvenirs or renting a bike for a romantic bicycle travel.

Four astonishing Small Towns in the United States

Facts About Bread

Bread is one of the oldest ready foods, dating back to the Neolithic era, in one form or another, has been one of the requisite forms of food for man from earliest times. It is one of the few things in the world that has remained as an prominent part of our lives throughout history.

It is a staple food ready by baking dough of flour and water. Bread that has stiffened or dried past its prime is said to be stale. Kept at low temperatures, for example, in a refrigerator, will build mold increase more gently than bread kept at room temperature. When it is kept in warm, moist environments is prone to the increase of mold. It can be served at any temperature ranging from room temperature to hot.

Cuisine

It can be dunked or dipped into a liquid (such as beef gravy, olive oil, or sardine pâté), topped with discrete spreads, both sweet and savory, or serve as the enclosure for the ubiquitous sandwich with any amount of meats, cheeses, vegetables or condiments inside

Facts About Bread

Bread made with bakers yeast is not sour because of the absence of the lactobacillus. Bread improvers are frequently used in the output of market breads to cut the time that it takes to rise, and to heighten the texture and volume. It is also a staple part of a wholesome eating pattern as it is low in fat and one of the best sources of fibre, both leavened and unleavened, is mentioned in the Bible many times.

Facts About Bread

The History Of Italian Food

While some of the most beloved dishes connected with the Italian culture consist of a tempting slice of pizza and a heaping plate of pasta, there is much more to the world of Italian cooking. Throughout the many regions in Italy, the distinctive cuisine of the Italians shines through in a wide-range of eating habits, styles of cooking, and selection of local ingredients. The changing of the times has also influenced Italian food, as the meals served in the pre-Roman era possess both similarities and differences in the cuisine of today.

The culinary history of Italy established a prestige more than 2,000 years ago, which includes an paramount movement during the Roman Empire. Culturally, food making ready was quite important in the past where flashes of point have been captured in the only surviving cookbook (Apicius), which dates back to the first century Bc.

Cuisine

The spread of Italian food diversity began after the fall of the Roman Empire when individual city states began to uphold detach identities and traditions. Each region began to display its own unique way of cooking, right down to the formation of a meatball to the characteristic cheeses and wine produced in a locale. The north advanced Tuscan beef, while black truffles were very beloved in Marches. Provolone and mozzarella cheeses advanced in the south, as well as a host of spellbinding citrus fruits.

Diverse types of bread, variations in pasta, and varying food making ready techniques also differed agreeing to region. The southern regions of Italy embrace hard-boiled spaghetti, while the north often prefers a soft egg noodle. Milan is known for their risotto, while Bologna has a deep history concerning tortellini, and Naples is paramount for their pizzas.

Over the years, Italian cuisine has greatly evolved in part because of a wealth of outside influences that have added to its characteristic flavor and appeal. In the beginning, ancient Greek cookery became an integrated part of Italian cuisine. Eventually, a wealth of imports found their way into the kitchens of early Italians, who sent Roman ships to get a collection of important foods, including wheat, wine, exotic ingredients, and fine spices from nearby the world. Some ships even traveled to faraway locations, such as China, to bring back edible resources that catapulted the depth and collection of Italian cooking styles.

Coastal regions are known for their developments in appetizing fish and seafood dishes. For example, the island of Sardinia supplies a more original and easy style of cuisine, which often incorporated delicacies, connected with the sea. Swordfish, lobster, anchovies, sardines, and other Mediterranean treats relate Italian cooking of the area. In Sicily (another island region), a great deal of the cooking drew heavily from North African influences. An Arab influence also affected cuisine on the island and within the rest of the south, especially with the introduction of varied spices and sweets, such as the Sicilian ice cream cake called cassata.

As for one of the most beloved Italian dishes, while the history books often state that pasta was a product of the Chinese brought back by Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, it was de facto a rediscovery of a food item eaten during Etruscan and Roman times. It is believed that the first pasta in Italy was made similar to the noodles of today - from the same durum wheat - which was cooked in ovens instead of boiled in water.

Today, the differences in Italian cooking still show through in the distinctions in the middle of the north and the south. Each region still carries their own traditions in cooking that reflects deep history and culture with a never ending provide of main courses, appetizers, and desserts that continuously tempts the taste buds.

The History Of Italian Food

Beef Bourguignon

Beef Bourguignon is an splendid dish which should not be undertaken by a green chef. If you are not relatively new to the kitchen, do a hunt on Julia Child's recipe, and be ready to work hard at bringing it to fruition.

Literally, Beef Bourguignon translates to beef burgundy. Originally, the beef simmered in wine notion was used to soften tough cuts of meat. Therefore, when manufacture the former beef bourguignon recipe, the most leading thing to keep in mind is that this dish needs cheap, tough meat. It will be cooking for hours, and good meat will collapse under the pressure. This is an incredibly appetizing dish, ordinarily served over mashed potatoes. It is also extremely labor-intensive, but this formula takes some of the work out of it.

Cuisine

Easy Beef Bourguignon

Given the fast-paced life most of us sense today, a good formula that takes as dinky time as possible is worth its weight in gold. You do not have to reduce potential when you cut corners on time, though. This appetizing formula will prove that point.

What You Need:

5 pounds top sirloin steak, cubed (order it pre-cut at the butcher counter for supplementary time savings) 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 Vidalia onion - chopped 2-3 cups red wine 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 10 3/4 oz condensed golden mushroom soup 1/2 cup beef broth 1/2 cup parsley, chopped rough 1 bay leaf 1/2 tbsp chopped lemon thyme 1 minced garlic clove dash of salt & pepper 4 tbsp butter, same estimate flour (for a roux) 5 lb thick sliced bacon, cut very fine 2 lb very small onions, prepared ½ lb champignon mushrooms, sliced

A Dutch oven

How To Make It:

Place the meat in a large non-metal bowl or pan. Cover it with the herbs, onion, garlic, and seasonings. Add the wine and stir thoroughly before covering. Refrigerate overnight. Fish the meat out, salvage the remaining contents of the bowl.

Heat the oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and add the meat in batches, so the meat is only one level deep. Brown the meat on all sides.

The remaining contents of the bowl can either be strained or not. It comes down to personal choice, really. Add it to the meat. In a cut off pan, create a roux by melting four tbsp butter and adding 4 tbsp flour. Add it to the pan, this will make the sauce of the dish exhibit a much denser consistency. Cook covered for two hours.

About an hour into the above cooking time, start preparing the bacon, onions, and mushrooms. Fry and remove the bacon, then fry the onions, remove them, then the mushrooms. remove the beef from the heat.

Personal taste dictates what you will serve the beef dish over. Some prefer noodles, others insist on mashed potatoes. Cover the base with the beef bourguignon, and then cover that with a mixture of the bacon, onions, and mushrooms.

Beef Bourguignon

History of Baking

Baking has been many cultures' beloved technique for creating snacks, desserts, and accompaniments to meals for many years. Now, it is very well-known as the formula for creating sweets and all sorts of wondrous mouthwatering pastries. In antique history, the first evidence of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked it in water, and mixed everything together, mashing it into a kind of broth-like paste. Then, the paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, this paste was roasted on hot embers, which made bread-making easier, as it could now be made anytime fire was created. Around 2500 B.C., records show that the Egyptians already had bread, and may have absolutely learned the process from the Babylonians. The Greek Aristophanes, Around 400 B.C., also recorded information that showed that tortes with patterns and honey flans existed in Greek cuisine. Dispyrus was also created by the Greeks Around that time and widely popular; was a donut-like bread made from flour and honey and shaped in a ring; soaked in wine, it was eaten when hot.

In the Roman Empire, baking flourished widely. In about 300 B.C., the pastry cook became an occupation for Romans (known as the pastillarium). This became a very highly respected profession because pastries were thought about decadent, and Romans loved festivity and celebration. Thus, pastries were often cooked especially for large banquets, and any pastry cook who could manufacture new types of tasty treats, unseen at any other banquet, was highly prized. Around 1 A.D., there were more than three hundred pastry chefs in Rome alone, and Cato wrote about how they created all sorts of diverse foods, and flourished because of those foods. Cato speaks of an huge number of breads; included amongst these are the libum (sacrificial cakes made with flour), placenta (groats and cress), spira (our contemporary day flour pretzels), scibilata (tortes), savaillum (sweet cake), and globus apherica (fritters). A great selection of these, with many different variations, different ingredients, and discrete patterns, were often found at banquets and dining halls. To bake bread, the Romans used an oven with its own chimney and had grain mills to grind grain into flour.

Cuisine

Eventually, because of Rome, the art of baking became widely known throughout Europe, and finally spread to the eastern parts of Asia. Bakers often baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets-children loved their goods. In fact, this scene was so coarse that Rembrandt visible a work that depicted a pastry chef selling pancakes in the streets of Germany, and young children surrounding him, clamoring to get a sample. In London, pastry chef sold their goods in handcarts, which were very convenient shops on wheels. This way, they advanced a system of "delivery" baked goods to people's households, and the query for baked goods increased greatly as a result. Finally, in Paris, the first open-air café of baked goods was developed, and baking became an established art throughout the entire world.

History of Baking

Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are good for you for a whole of reasons. First they are high in protein which makes them a excellent substitute for meat. They also consist of an excellent whole of omega-6 fatty acids, dietary fiber, and valuable vitamins and minerals.

Cuisine
It is wonderful to note that the sunflower follows the sun as it travels nearby the earth; in the morning it faces east to where the sun rises, and then follows the sun westward into sunset. This could be why it is said to be the most cheerful flower in the world; it absorbs the sun and transforms the sunshine into vitamin D. Vitamin D has been shown to lift the moods and even fight against depression.

So why not add these tasty seeds to your daily diet? You can add them into your trail mix, salads, stir-fries, and baking. Sunflower seeds can also be sprouted which is another wholesome way to consume them.
Lightly salted and toasted seeds are great by themselves, and as a matter of fact, they are a great substitute for chips, especially when you buy them unhulled. Unhulling the seeds is a great way to keep oneself occupied, and will keep one from overeating. Substituting sunflower seeds for chips or other unhealthy snacks can help to wean one off those foods, suppress the food cravings, and help to loose weight because one is not inviting all those unhealthy calories. (one is too busy unhulling them things.)
You can buy them raw, hulled or unhulled, as well as toasted and flavored, hulled or unhulled.
Sunflower Seeds