Altameroy Blog

Halloween season is upon us and no Halloween party is complete without amazing cocktails. But it’s Halloween and if the party guests will be donning costumes, the cocktails should as well! Check out these easy Halloween cocktail recipes. They’re simple to whip up and serve and only require a few ingredients. These great recipes can be used for parties, small gatherings, Halloween party games, etc.

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Sunflower seeds contain large amounts of healthy fat acids and can be enjoyed fresh or used in bread and dishes. They are very popular in candy in deserts and many sunflower lovers make their own brine to spice up the taste of the sunflower seed. Creating your own brine is easy if you follow the simple steps outlined below. The first humans that enjoyed tasty sunflower seeds were the Native Americans. They even used them to cook and bake cakes; sunflower seeds were grounded into a nutritious flour that could be used for a wide range of dishes.

If you want to try making your own sunflower seed brine you should begin by washing the seeds. Place your sunflower seeds in a large bowl filled with cold water and stir them around until dirt accumulate at the bottom of the bowl and any dust particles float up to the surface.

If you prefer sunflower seeds without shells, you don’t have to make any brine. The brine is only a way to add taste to sunflowers without having to remove the shells. With shell-less sunflower seeds, you can simply add salt and spices directly to the sunflower seeds. If you coat the shell-less seeds with cooking spray or vegetable oil, salt and spices will stick better to the kernels. Sunflower oil is of course a good choice here.

The next step is to roast your sunflower seeds. This is not mandatory, but roasted seeds can be stored much longer than fresh ones. If you plan to eat your seeds soon, you can skip this stage. The easiest way of roasting sunflower seeds is to spread them out on a plate in a single layer. Heat to oven to approximately 275 degrees Celsius and place the plate in the oven. After roughly 10 minutes the seeds will be finished. It is important to keep an eye on the seeds since they can turn dark rapidly if left to long in the oven.

When you have let the sunflower seed cooled down they are ready to be immersed in seed brine. The brine described below is suitable for roasted sunflower seeds as well as non-roasted ones. This basic recipe will create moderately salted sunflower seeds and you can easily add your own spices to the brine to create your own favourite sunflower seeds.

Begin by filling a bowl with around 1 litre of water and 2 dl salt (any type of salt will do, you won’t need any special type of salt). Stir the mix gently until the salt has dissolved. Place the sunflower seeds in the brine and let them soak for at least 12 hours. Lift up the seeds from the salt brine and let them dry thoroughly. Proper drying is extra important if you plan to store your sunflower seeds. Once the seeds are dry, the can be eaten or stored. If you store your sunflower seeds in a dry place where the temperature is not too high, they will keep their nice taste for months.

Read more about Sunflower seeds and how to make your own Sunflower seed brine

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Onions, subtle or strong have played a key role in culinary
history. Here is a guide to cooking with onions.

Yellow storage onions:

Probably the most familiar of all onions, you see em all the
time at your local grocery store, sold in red net bags. These
are hot and make you cry. Good in any heated dish or where
subtlety is not an issue.

White storage onions:

Hot with a slightly cleaner flavor than yellow onions. Often
used in Mexican dishes. Sold in blue net bags or individually.

Spanish onions:

Larger, less hot, more sweet, incorrectly referred to as
Bermudas. Can substitute for sweet onions. Sold individually.

Red onions:

Sharp, sweet flavor. Raw, these can be added to any salad. When
cooked, they tend to lose some of their flavor. Sold
individually.

Boiling onions:

Small, about 2 inches in diameter, yellow or white storage
onions. Hot before cooking, they are best left whole. Good in
soups and stews. Sold in bulk.

Pearl onions:

These sweet onions, about 1 inch in diameter, are good marinated
or pickled. Boiling onions can be substituted for them. Sold by
the pint.

Green onions:

Young bulb onions picked before maturity. Good raw or cooked. A
great substitute for red or sweet onions. Sold in bulk.

Sweet onions:

Sold as Bermuda, Maui, Texas 1015, Vidalia, Sweet Imperial, Wall
Walla and other regional names. These onions are low in heat,
high in sweetness. The smaller ones tend to be hotter then the
larger ones. Excellant raw, delicate when cooked. Great for
making bloomen onions or onion rings. Avaiable individually.

Leeks:

Tend to be very hot, course and chewy. Cooked, they develope an
oniony flavor; sauteed, they become buttery in texture. You can
substitute a yellow storage onion, however it wont taste the
same. Sold indiviually.

Scallions:

The white bulb is mild, good cooked or raw. The chopped greens
add flavor, as well as color, to any recipe, use as a substitute
for chives. Available in bunches.

Shallots:

Like tender, delicate onions? These are great as a base for
sauces, excellent in omlets too. Great for braising and
roasting. Recommend you don’t eat’em raw. Generally sold by the
pound.

Well there you have it, “A Cooks Guide to Cooking With Onions”.
If you would like more information about onions and/or cooking
with onions, visit the following websites:

http://www.sweetonionsource.com A website for all things oniony.
Recipes for appetizers to desserts. Hosted by Oregan based Jan
Roberts-Dominguez, author of “The Onion Book”.

http://www.onions-usa.org National Onion Association,
headquarters in Greeley Colorado. I’ve lived in Colorado since
1991, just recently discovered that Colorado is one of the
nations top 10 onion producing states. Onions are grown in three
areas of Colorado, the Front Range, the Arkansas Valley (25
miles from where I live) and the Western Slope.

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Wine Tasting Component I: Look

The first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual.

1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than half;

2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find this too pretentious but there are good reasons for it:

а) by doing it this way you can actually observe the wine in it;

b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;

в) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature of the wine.

There’s a good saying by one of the greatest French wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell whether he/she is a connoisseur by the way they hold the glass.” Even though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still learn how to hold the wine glass.

3. Focus on the color intensity and the transparency of the liquid.

a) the color of the wine, and more specifically its nuances, are best observed on a white background.

b) the wine’s intensity is best judged by holding the glass without slanting it and looking at the liquid from above;

4. Next comes the swirling of the glass. This can also seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a full glass or a white top. But this movement is important since it prepares you for the next step in wine tasting - the Taste. The easiest way to swirl the glass is to place it on a table or other even surface, and to swirl your hand while holding the glass by the stem. Swirl hard and have the wine almost touch the rim of the glass. Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with irregular shapes on the inside of the glass. Some “experts” then read them with as much zeal as coffee-tellers. The truth is however, that they are just an indicator for the quality of the wine - the more alcohol a wine has, the more wine traces it forms.

What does the color of the wine tell us? The wine’s color tells us many things about its character.

First, the color shows the grape variety. Let’s take two popular varieties as examples - cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. Cabernet’s grapes are smaller, with a thicker and darker skin than those of pinot noir. As a result, the color of wines made from cabernet sauvignon is usually described as violet to dark while the color of wines made from pinot noir is associated with ruby.

Second, the color is influenced by the climatic conditions. A hot summer and dry fall result in ripe grapes, with a dark, intense color. A cold summer and rainy fall will produce undeveloped grapes with a lighter color.

Third, wine-making practices also have an influence on the color of wine. For red wine, the grapes are fermented with the skin. Since the coloring agents are in the grape skin, and not in the juice, the longer the process of maceration, i.e. the longer the skin stays with the juice, the darker the wine color will be.

Fourth, the process of wine aging also has an influence on the color of wine. The young red wines are rich in coloring agents and that makes their color denser and fuller. In the course of time chemical reactions take place in the bottle and a sediment is formed at the bottom. The wine’s color gets lighter and is often described as brick or amber.

Let’s go through an example: you pour yourself a glass of red wine and after carefully observing it, you notice a full granite color, good density, and not so good transparency. What conclusions can you draw?
Well, you can safely say that the wine is:

- from cabernet sauvignon grapes;

- from a Southern region;

- relatively young;

- from a good yield;

- that the wine-maker has gone for a good long maceration.

If you know the wine, compare what you know with what you see: maybe the wine has a very full color and the yield has been bad - this speaks of a good wine-making technique; or maybe the wine is too pale for its age - this speaks for undeveloped grape or poor wine-making technique.

Wine Tasting Component II: Smell

The second wine tasting component is smelling and inhaling the wine’s aroma.

Concentrate as much as you can and smell the wine, swirl the glass, and smell once again.

The stronger the aromas, the stronger the impression. Most of the wines, especially the more delicate and the older ones develop their aromas only after “being walked around” the glass.

There is no consensus as to the exact technique of whiffing. Some say do two or three quick whiffs, others prefer one single deep whiff.

The goal of whiffing is to inhale the aroma as deeply as possible so that it gets into contact with our sensory nerve and hence, with the part of the brain that is responsible for registering, storing, and deciphering sensations. The spot where that takes place is extremely sensitive: a cold or an allergy might completely block even the most intense aromas. With enough practice and concentration, you’ll learn how to extract the maximum from different aromas and how to interpret them.

The vivid connoisseurs love to concoct different aromas. “Dark chocolate!” says one. “No, that’s more like pepper,” claims another. “Tea leaves, tobacco, and mushrooms,” adds third. Are they joking??
Probably we don’t quite realize it but nowadays we are exposed to so many different smells that we find it difficult to find words to describe all the complex aromas that a glass of wine can offer.

Like color, a wine’s aroma can tell us a lot about its character, origin, and its history. Since our sense of taste is limited to only 4 categories (sweet, sour, bitter, and salt), the wine’s aroma is the most informative part of our sensory experience. So take your time, sit back and contemplate the aroma! Like the perfume of a loved one or the smell of freshly baked bread, a wine’s aroma can evoke memories of times and places that we cherish.

Wine Tasting Component III: Taste

This is the best part of wine-tasting. You might be enchanted by wine’s sparkling color or mesmerized by its aroma but it’s actually drinking the wine that the whole thing is about.

Maybe you are thinking that drinking is the easiest part - after all we start drinking from a glass from a very young age and we keep practicing for a lifetime. However, there’s a real difference between just swallowing liquid and conscious tasting. Here, just like in all good things in life, the difference is in the right technique. The appropriate technique can make sure we get the best out of the whole experience.

1. Still under the influence of the aromas you’ve inhaled in step II, take a sip of the wine. Don’t make it too big or too small. You need just enough to walk the wine in your mouth and not have to swallow it just yet. Let wine uncover its secrets. For reference, you may keep good wine in your mouth for 10 - 15 seconds, sometimes even more.

2. Walk the wine very well in your mouth, ensuring it touches each part of it. This is important because our tongue, palate, the inside of the mouth and our throat each detect different aspects of the wine.

For many years, it was believed that the tongue has different areas each of which is sensitive to a particular taste - sweet for the tip of the tongue, sour for the sides, bitter for the back and salty for the whole tongue. Today we know that all the tastes can be felt with the whole tongue, only there’s a “blind” spot in the middle of it which is not sensitive to any taste.

Another important step in wine tasting is being able to tell one’s impressions of the wine. “Astringent”, “elegant”, “fruity”, “flat”, “young” are only a few words of the wine vocabulary you’ll need to amass.

http://www.wines-resource.com

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Full article on this Charlotte Restaurant at Charlottecritic.com
Charlotte restaurant reviews

Davincis Pizza makes new york style pizza in authentic brick
ovens. This is one of the new stores to open in the brand new
Shoppes at Davis Lake in Charlotte. DaVincis owner is from New
York, and has opened pizzerias all over th country. he is not
new to the business and the food is authenitc Italian from New
York. Italian is openly spoken by almost every employee in this
father/son establishment, as the cook is from Sicily as well.
The pizza defies all problems with getting true New York style
Pizza, and also breaks the boxes with its incredible size.

I witness one cutomer receiving his small pizza asking if he had
received the wrong order, since it appeared to be a large to him
and to me looking on. The large I ordered on 3 occasions now had
to have the edges folded to fit in the extra arge box it is
packed in.

The pizza itself is excellent thin style pie. The crust is
slightly crisp and folds perfectly. My guests for pizza
commented on how “thats perfect new yourk style” when he saw how
it folded and eats perfectly. The dough is absolutley how I
remeber it from my 20+ years in New York as well.

This location is pretty new and does not have too much decor
yet. They sadly lack televisions and music to make it an
afternoon hangout, but the outside courtyard makes it great for
summer nights.

The location also doesnt offer delivery, and the owner tells me
he doesnt plan to. The goal is a sit down simple place with
excellent food and authentic service. I have been 3 times now
and must say it is the best Pizza NC has to offer for the hungry
shopper looking for New York Style Pie.

If you want simple, authentic, brick oven pizza you get so many
other places I highly recommend you stop into DaVincis Pizza
Charlotte at the Shoppes at Davis lake and get one of their
double large pies to sit in the courtyard and stuff yourself.

So if you are looking for the ,best Charlotte Italian
Restaurants , or just a place to get ,pizza in Charlotte ,
the new location of Divincis at the Shoppes of Davis lake is
offering a new New York flavor for University City in Charlotte.

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With all of the hustle and bustle of the season, the chaos of our schedules sometimes spills over into the rest of our lives. Anyone who has ever been distracted in the kitchen knows that almost anything can happen and often with disastrous results. When your life catches up to you and one of your meals goes wrong, don’t despair something can be done to help!

Here are just a few of the food fixes you can use to repair your food disasters and save your meal.

Marian and John Bear, authors of How to Repair Food, have an easy way to fix burned rice. Turn off the burner, place the heel of a loaf of bread on top of the rice, cover the pot and wait for five minutes or so. The bread will absorb most of the rice’s burned aroma. Then carefully remove the rice, leaving the burnt rice on the bottom of the pot.

Making real whipped cream for your holiday dinner but it just won’t whip? Do not despair, it can be repaired. First, chill the cream, bowl and beaters well. Set the bowl of cream into a bowl of ice while you are whipping. Add the white of an egg. Chill and then whip. If the cream still does not stiffen, gradually whip in 3 or 4 drops of lemon juice. If you need to whip your cream ahead of time, add a touch of unflavoured gelatin (1/4 teaspoon per cup) to keep it from separating.

Are your mashed potatoes looking more like mush potatoes? If your potatoes are a little overcooked don’t add the milk, instead use dry powdered milk for the fluffiest mashed potatoes.

Too much salt? For salty soups or stews add one thinly sliced potato per litre while simmering. Remove the cooked potatoes once they have absorbed the salt and turned opaque. You could also add a teaspoon each of cider vinegar and sugar. Gradually add cider vinegar and sugar in 1/2 teaspoon increments. First add 1/2 teaspoon sugar, taste and add 1/2 teaspoon vinegar if necessary. Repeat if required.

Burned your gravy? Stir in a spoonful of peanut butter to smooth out the flavour.

When you are about to serve dinner and realize your hands smell like garlic or onion just rinse them under cold water while rubbing with a large stainless steel spoon.

Hope these tips help keep your kitchen disaster free! For a guaranteed success this holiday season try this No-Fuss Roast Turkey & Fixings recipe:

No-Fuss Roast Turkey and Fixings

• 1 PERDUE® Fresh Whole Tom Turkey (10-16 pounds)
• Salt and ground pepper to taste
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 small bunch fresh celery leaves (tops)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
• 2 packages (about 3/4 ounce each) turkey gravy mix
• 2 packages (6 ounces each) turkey stuffing mix
• 1 large apple, cored and diced
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Remove giblets and reserve for another use. Rinse turkey inside with cold water; drain and pat dry.

Rub inside and out with salt and pepper. Place onion and celery in neck and body cavities. Secure drumsticks with lock provided; fold neck skin back and under body and twist wing tips back to hold skin in place. (Securing legs and wings against body helps turkey cook evenly.)

Place turkey in uncovered roasting pan; brush with melted butter and tent loosely with foil. Roast 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours, until a meat thermometer inserted in thigh registers 180 F; baste occasionally. Remove foil tent during last hour of roasting.

Transfer turkey to serving platter; cover lightly with foil and let rest 15 to 20 minutes before carving.

Remove and discard thermometer and drumstick lock; reserve any pan juices for gravy.

While turkey is roasting, in small saucepan, prepare gravy following package directions.

Pour juices from the roasting pan into large, heatproof measuring cup or small bowl. Skim off clear drippings with a large spoon and discard. Stir 1/2 cup reserved juices into gravy in saucepan; heat until smooth and thickened.

Prepare stuffing mix following package directions, adding diced apple, walnuts and raisins.

TIP: To give no-fuss convenience products such as gravy mix and packaged dressings a homemade touch, add juices from the turkey to the gravy, and extras like fruit and nuts to the dressing.

Ready In: 225 minutes

Makes 8 to 10 Servings

About the Author

Chris WebAdmin is Owner and WebAdmin of The 1001Recipes2Send.com
Recipes Database. Become a member to recieve the weekly
newsletter alert: http://www.1001Recipes2Send.com
Download FREE eBooks at: http://www.1001Recipes2Send.com/Free

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I have recently decided that bagels, everyone’s office treat,
are evil.

Yes, evil I said, pure and down right Evil. Its right up there
with the 7 deadly sins - even might include some of them.
Definately Lust and Gluttony. Maybe even Lying, if you are on a
diet.

I would like to know who decided to create something that is
pure carbohydrate with a whole bunch of fat thrown in for good
measure. And then, we are not allowed to eat it plain, we must
slather it with either butter or cream cheese just to make it
edible. And Americans wonder why they are obese! We even have
flavored cream cheeses now to go on flavored bagels. Strawberry
cream cheese on honey wheat bagels, garden vegetable cream
cheese on sesame seed bagels, salmon cream cheese on everything
bagels, and the list goes on and on… The creations are endless
and mind-boggling.

And then we come to the issue of the shape. It is round - with a
hole! What is the deal with the hole?? Its just missing bagel,
so you don’t even get all the bagel the size promises. And do
you realize that with a hole in the middle of your bagel, the
cream cheese falls out? Even if you are real careful to get it
only on the edges, it still squirms out the middle. Also, to
expound further on the shape - you have no choice but to cut the
bagel in half to eat it. Then you have to eat TWO cream cheese
slathered peices of extremely dense bread, and you cant just
take half, because that is not PC in the office workplace. No
one else wants just half a bagel…

And why do we have to toast them? So they won’t be rubbery! Who
came up with this idea. You have to find a bagel you want (which
can be some different kind of difficult than ever before
experienced) and then cut it in half - then toast it! America,
do you realize we have special toasters just for bagels??!? then
you have to yank the hot bagel out of the too-tiny toaster slot
and slather fat all over it.

Ok, I know, there are lots of things in God’s beautiful world
that are super fatty. But they aren’t hand delivered to your
office meeting every Friday morning to sit on a platter in the
middle of the table and look as delectable as water to a man
stranded in the middle of the desert (at least that is not a
sin). I should probably liken this more to a 17 year old
sneaking into the strip club for the first time.

There is no way to resist this temptation. Not only is it a
beatiful sight, amazing taste, and you get to watch all your
friends doing it, but it has this mouth watering aroma to draw
you to it and forget your senses. The plate of bagels has an
unfair advantage over my Atkins diet and even over my own
pitiful willpower. Then, if you deny, you get treated like you
just turned down a beer at a frat party. “C’mon man, take one,
it won’t hurt you. Why are you on a diet anyways, you are too
skinny as it is. Healthy? You want to stay healthy? Again, one
won’t hurt you. C’mon, have a little cream cheese - its
Pineapple flavored…”

So finally, I pick it up. Cut it in half. Toast it. Yank it out
of the too small toaster. Cover it in cream cheese. Place it on
my paper plate. Let the digestion process begin!

Lord, I love bagels…

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(ARA) - After a busy day at school, the first thing kids want when they walk in the door is something to eat. Sometimes, they can’t even wait that long — kids who ride the bus need a healthy, packable snack they can stash in their backpacks and carpooling parents need a portable snack kids can eat enroute.

Filling the bill for a healthy, tasty and easy-to-pack snack is a tall order. Lots of snacks appeal to kids, but aren’t healthy. Or they’re healthy, but hard to take along. One easy alternative is pretzels. The good news is pretzels aren’t just fun to eat, they’re also low fat and relatively low in calories.

Now, Snyder’s of Hanover has made pretzels an even better choice. In the past year, they’ve reformulated their pretzels to replace partially hydrogenated soybean oil with Canola oil.

“Our research and development efforts are dedicated to providing products that satisfy our customers’ desires for both good taste and healthier snack alternatives. In fact, most of our pretzel products have been trans fat free since 2002,” says Claude O’Connor, vice president of marketing and sales at Snyder’s of Hanover. “We support the FDA’s new regulations that will better inform consumers about the ingredients of the foods they enjoy.”

Pretzels have been a popular snack choice for ages. They were invented around 610 A.D. in Southern France or Northern Italy. Historians believe the pretzel made its way to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Local lore has it that the hard pretzel was invented when a baker’s apprentice fell asleep while baking soft pretzels. When he awoke, the fire in the hearth had died down and he figured the pretzels hadn’t been baked long enough. He fired up the furnace again, baking them twice as long as normal. When the master baker discovered this, he was outraged at the “ruined” pretzels — until he ate one out of curiosity. He discovered they were crisp, crunchy and delicious. He was also pleased to discover that the new hard pretzels retained their freshness much longer.

Today, the center of pretzel history in America still resides in Pennsylvania, where the first commercial bakery was founded in 1861. Pretzels have come a long way since that sleepy apprentice’s time. They come in all shapes and sizes, flavored and unflavored, salted and unsalted. Synders of Hanover offers dozens of pretzel varieties to suit all tastes.

Parents will appreciate the company’s new Lunch Packs, which contain eight 1.5-ounce packages of either Pretzel Snaps or Sticks. These convenient packages make it easy to include them in your child’s lunch, or to simply toss in his backpack for an afternoon snack. They’re also easy to stash in your glove compartment for any time the munchies strike.

Look for Sydner’s pretzels at your local supermarket. For complete nutritional information and a list of products, visit www.snydersofhanover.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

About the author:

Courtesy of ARA Content

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About 850 A.D it is said that a lone shepherd and his flock
came across a strange and mysterious plant growing upon a
secluded and forgotten hillside. Before he could stop them
some of his herd had began to gnaw away at this unusual
berry. After about fifteen minutes or so the herder started
to notice that his sheep were behaving in an odd manner. Not
only were they unusually alert but they also appeared to be
extremely hyperactive. Now being a little weary and
extremely tired the shepherd decided to try the berries and
see if the end results would be the same for him as they had
been for his flock. To his pleasant surprise the shepherd
began to feel wide awake and he too became very alert. After
a few hours had passed along came a wandering monk who,
after being informed of the plants amazing qualities
proceeded to scold the poor shepherd and lecture him on his
foolish indulgence. After he had finished telling the
shepherd just what a sinner he had been the monk set upon
his journey but not before he had added a little something
to his backpack and supplies.

When the monk reached his monastery his fellow holy men also
decided to try this new and enchanting beverage. Soon the
endless hours of prayer no longer seemed so wearisome, in
fact they became easy to endure with the help of this
exciting new drink. Coffee, had now well and truly arrived
and the news began to spread! Its widespread consumption
first commenced in the wilds of the Ethiopian outlands
before then moving on to the heart of Arabia . Here it was
to be held as a holy delicacy but was eventually to be
unlawfully exported by a trader by the name of Baba Budan.
In no time at all word of its qualities began to spread and
coffee was to evolve into one of the most valued drinks ever
known to the human civilisation. Its hard to believe that
each year we consume a staggering four billion cups and
there are many among us who would not contemplate starting
their day without it.

Although coffee is usually thought of as a sleep suppressant
there are many who think that it also has many health
benefits. It is said that folk who suffer from the complaint
of asthma and drink coffee have an average of at least 25%
less symptoms due to a substance in the coffee named
theophylline. This is known to be a bronchodilator which
helps those who suffer with the disease to breathe a little
more easily. Drinking coffee on a daily basis is also
thought to help lower your chances of developing colon
cancer. This is also by a figure in the region of about
twenty five percent.

Its curious that the vast majority of folk have no idea of
the different tastes and delights that this king of all
drinks has to offer us. One of the swiftest growing trends
of the last few years has to be the rising popularity of
buying coffee via the internet. Never before have we been
able to so easily get hold of such a large and voluptuous
variety of blends, tastes and tantalising aromas from all
over the world. With the aid of the wonderful web, trekking
around the local neighbourhood to try and find some new
exciting coffee blends has became a thing of the past.
Sitting at home I can now search out an almost infinite
variety of coffees from all over the world and order them
at the click of a mouse. I tend to place numerous orders
via the web and I always make a point of recording blend,
country, and from exactly whom I purchased.

Now you know the history of this magical bean I hope that if
in the days to come you are thinking of visiting your local
coffee shop you recall the information you have read on this
website and make the most of this wonderful drink. Go on and
try some new varieties. Not only will you impress your
friends, your tastebuds will be thrilled as well.

Latte or Cappuccino?

Valerie Shapero is the owner of
Fuzzy Coffee, Inc. which is a premier source of information about coffee. For more
information, go to: http://fuzzycoffee.com

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Potatoes what an amazing food. When you’re homesick what do you
think of mashed potatoes? When you order a burger what do you
order to go with it French fried potatoes. Finally when you go
out for a hearty juicy steak what comes along side, a baked
potato.

Herb silhouette potato chips are a grown up version of the
traditional potato chip. These paper thin potato chips are an
attractive gourmet way to serve potatoes. You will be able to
see a silhouette of your favorite herb inside each potato chip.

Potatoes, one per person

Fresh herbs of choice

Peel and slice very thin the potatoes. (Yukon Gold is always a
good choice of potato.) Grease a baking sheet and lay a single
layer of chips on the cookie sheet. Lay one sprig of herb on
each chip and lay a second chip on top of the herb. Press down
to flatten the herb.

Generously spray a sheet of parchment paper with non-stick
cooking spray. Cover the potatoes with the parchment paper and
lay a second cookie sheet on top. This will way down the chips.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or cool the
potatoes on paper towels.

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