Our Children Are Starving Please Help

Yesterday I received an email from Share Our Strength. This organization which helps starving American children asked me if I could place their widget here on this blog. I decided to do more than that. This is the perfect moment to educate American foodies about the plight of so many children here in the richest country in the world. Our kids are starving.


Here are the plain facts. !2 million kids will go hungry tonight in the US. Poor nutrition will lead to all sorts of ills from the common cold to infections along with obesity and mental health problems. America's starving children are also prone to problems at school from aggression to absenteeism. They have impaired cognitive functioning along with the diminished incapacity to learn. Most live in the South but there are some in our major cities that need our help. A lot come from single parent households as well. If the parent loses his or her job, that's it.

What can you do to help?Host a bake sale. You can combine this with a garage sale to draw in more customers. Or you can try your local schools from high school down to day care. Get your religious organization involved too. You could also buy the Great American Bake Sale ebook or post a Chipin widget on your banner or blog.

This is America, land of good and healthy foods. It's a shame that 12 million of our children won't be eating any. Do what you can to stop this problem. Do so today.

To host a bake sale go to www.GreatAmericanBakeSale.org/vgabs

To buy the great American Bake Sale EBook http://StolenMomentsCooking.com/virtual-gabs

Post a Chipin widget www.greatAmericanBakeSale.org/bloggers.

Fun Foodie Gadgets

I love my Vidalia Chop Wizard. It's supposed to be for chopping onions and fruit but it"s also good at mincing hard boiled eggs for egg salad. it gets the egg pieces just right, small meaty bits that are what a good egg salad is all about. I'm not alone. other foodies go into raptures over other gadgets as well. These kitchen toys may look like fun but they're really a necessity. Besides they make the whole process fun and also time saving as well.

Another fun gadget are the Slurpee machines. these are great for the warm days just coming around . Pop in a few ice cubes and out comes ice chips ready to be drizzled with some kind of fruity syrup. These can also be used to make frosty margaritas as well. The Slurpee machine's cousin, the ice cream maker is another fun kitchen plaything. You can create all sorts of fantastic flavors as well as making your own fresh vanilla and chocolate ones.

Another fun gadget that foodies are now living are the salt grinders. Thanks to the increase in sea salt sales, these fun gadgets are in every kitchen. let's face it freshly ground salt tastes better than the plain iodized kind and it adds more crunch and texture than just the smaller grains. Pepper grinders are also big right now. There's nothing like the taste of freshly ground pepper in soups or even on roast beef or ham sandwiches. Like sea salt, it adds texture and a much needed zip you can't get with regular pepper.

OK , foodies, tell me what gadgets make your day. What do you like? Slicers? Melon ballers? Silicon bakeware (which really aren't gadgets). Let me know here.

An English Tea Food Elegance At Its’ Best

There’s nothing like a proper English tea. It has all the feel of a Merchant Ivory or Masterpiece Theater period piece. There’s something inherently elegant about sipping a fine Darjeeling or Earl Gray out of bone china. The sandwiches and sweets are perfect, delicate yet satisfying. It’s not hard to recreate one. Even for us Yank foodies who love fast food and messy dishes.

There are actually three kinds of tea to consider. The first is the cream tea. This is where tea scones and jam are only served. For a more substantial fare there is light tea which has sweets added to the menu and then there is the full tea which adds savories and a dessert (possibly a light trifle or small cakes). Savories usually mean small sandwiches , usually watercress or egg salad. Most English hotels serve the last , and cater to American tastes. The entire tea idea started during the Victorian era when Anna Maria Stanhope, Duchess of Bedford and one of Queen Victoria’s ladies in waiting felt a “sinking feeling around four in the afternoon. Borrowing from the Continental idea of having tea she arranged for the drink to be served with small sandwiches and cakes. This helped sustain her and her guests until the main meal which was probably served at seven or eight. Hence a British tradition was born.

Creating a full British tea is easy to do in this former colony. You can serve any kind of tea and have with it light sandwiches and scones. Supermarkets sell smaller loaves or what’s known as party loaves . These can be filled with cucumber, watercress, and cream cheese. You could put an American spin on them and use deviled ham or chicken as fillings too. Scones can be bought or made. The question is acquiring the clotted cream to go with them. Luckily it can be bought in any major city or on the Internet. As for having small cakes think cupcakes dusted with powdered sugar as opposed to being topped with a large mound of frosting.

An English tea is an elegant way of getting together with friends. It symbolizes timely elegance with delicate food. It's wonderful to indulge your foodie side while being civilized at the same time.

The Start of The Summer Party Season

Now that May is here, it's the start of the official summer party season. There are showers and weddings to plan for . Not to be left out are barbecues and graduation blow outs. What to serve? There's he question.

Small weddings and showers call for easy elegance. You may want to try the finger sandwich route . Here you can get creative with all sorts of yummy fillings such as deviled ham and chicken as well as with egg salad and cucumber. Add some watercress and cream cheese to bring an English tea vibe to it. To accompany these think small. Small dishes of pitted black and green olives or plates of grape tomatoes mingled with baby gherkins. To end it , think small again. Cupcake trees are better than an entire cake and then have plates of petit fours and butter cookies put on individual tables. Serve a champagne fruit punch foist followed by coffee and tea. This fare is light but still filling and perfect for a warm day.

For graduations and barbecues, think grilling. Nothing feeds a crowd like kabobs. They're simple to make, simple to cook and simple to eat. You can have steak chicken,veggie or shrimp ones to satisfy everyones' tastes. For sides think huge bowls of homemade potato, macaroni and pasta salads. These can be made the night before and easily chilled in the fridge. End with a store bought ice cream cake or easy to make pudding cream pies.


Get ready for the season ahead. May not only brings flowers but also promises of big get togethers that require a lot of planning and prepping. Be ready for these with easy dishes and desserts.

Lemonade That Warm Weather Friend

Thanks to global warming we're having unbearably hot days even in April and now mid May. How to cool down when the rest of the world is sizzling? BY drinking that old standby lemonade. This is a lovely throwback to Colonial days when ladies used to sip the freshly made stuff on their verandas. The idea is still appealing even though there are very few real ladies and few verandas left nowadays too.

Lemonade , it turns out, was not just favored by our founding mothers but by the medieval Egyptians as well. In fact bottles of it were imported from Cairo and sent to Europe aboard trading vessels. The recipe hasn't changed much. Freshly squeezed lemon, sugar (or honey and water). Th French first coined limonade in the mid 1600's. The French make a fizzy version of it today (imagine a tangy lemon soda) while the Americans Canadian and Indians make the water based version. The English like their carbonated (wouldn't this be considered lemon soda??. Any kind is good as long as it's served up in a tall glass with a lot of ice.

What's the best recipe for lemonade? I prefer using fresh lemons and spring water. The reconstituted lemon juice is good enough to work with if you don't want any rinds and mess to clean up afterwards. Just be careful with how much you use because it can be very tart. As for sweetening, boil up a simple sugar syrup . This flavors the drink and leaves a nice , pure sweetness to balance the lemons. You can add a sprig of fresh mint to individual servings as well.

Don't fret if you can'tt take the heat. Make yourself a big pitcher of lemonade and chill out. Enjoy the tangy cool sweetness of this summery treat.

Best Lemonade Recipe Ever
(by Jo, taken from allrecipes.com

1 3/4 cups white sugar
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups lemon juice



DIRECTIONS
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to boil and stir to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled.
Remove seeds from lemon juice, but leave pulp. In pitcher, stir together chilled syrup, lemon juice and remaining 7 cups water. Serve in tall glasses with straws.

Add mint sprigs to pitcher or individual servings if you want.

What Ever Happened To The Old Fashioned Candy Store?

In yesterday's New York Times' Food Section, there was a small mention of a candy store that feature homemade sweets. The article got me to thinking. Why aren't there more old fashioned candy stores around? What has happened to them?

When I was growing up there was Helen Elliot where you could buy hand dipped chocolate pretzels and fudge. There still is Hannah Krause which still has hand dipped strawberries and truffles but it's about the only true old fashioned store left. If you want hand dipped or home made sweets in New Jersey you have to head down to the Jersey shore. There you can buy molasses paddles , those slabs of molasses candy dipped in milk chocolate and put on top of a lollipop stick. James Candy , famous in Altantic City still has haystacks, thouse glorious mounds of milk or dark chocolate riddled with toasted coconut. Any Jersey boardwalk will serve every kind of fresh made caramel to ready dipped candy apples.

New York City has some good individual chcolate shops. There's the famous Li-Lac CHocolates located on Hudson in Greenwich Village. They have been around for eighty years or more and offer a fine assortment of chcocolates. there are even small chocolate pops for kiddies. However it's great if you live in the neighborhood or are visiting the Village. There should be more Li-Lacs in other parts of the country where old time candy goodness can be enjoyed.


There are chain candy stores, like Rocky Mounty Chocolate Factory if you want a similar taste. Their products are good The caramel and candy apples are always made the day of purchase. the chocolates are fresh as well andare appealing. Yet , one, they are expensive, and two they are a chain. The apples are five dollars a shot which makes them a once in a rare moment treat and the chcocolates are not that creative. Don't get me wrong. Rocky Mountain's are tasty but they lack the creativity an indiviual chocolatier would bring to the mix. Still the store fills a need.

Foodies ,let us know if there are any old fashioned candy stores in your area. We just might stop in and visit. it would be worth the trek, believe me.

Can't Escape Cantaloupe's Goodness

Melons are wonderful, especially cantaloupes. Their sweet taste is almost too heavenly and sinful. Yet they're the perfect snack and breakfast for dieters thanks to each melon having only fifty calories. They're also the perfect cooler for a hot day and treat after a hard day's work. Best of all they 're easy to eat and don't leave half the mess other fruits d0.

Cantaloupes are one of the world's oldest fruits, first being cultivated 2500 years ago in India and Asia. They arrived in ancient Rome around the time of Christ and became a staple of their diet.The fruit were named for the Cantaloupe Gardens, one of the Papal estates around Vatican City. What we have in America is not that, , it's the musk melon. Here in the states they're grown year round on farms in California, Arizona and Texas. When looking for a ripe one , look for one that has a pale cream or yellow color and no stem. If there are stems that means these have been picked prematurely and are unripened.

What I love about cantaloupe is that they're only fifty calories and no fat. They're the perfect light breakfast and great snack for summer. There's nothing like sitting outside on a hot summer night with a plate of chilled cantaloupe slices. The taste is candy sweet but light. The flesh is firm yet yielding. To be honest I've been scattering the seeds in my garden , hoping one or two vines will sprout up. (although this can be dangerous. Like any melon, cantaloupe plants can take over an entire lawn and choke out other plants). I would love to grown my own melons and just the idea of picking fresh cantaloupe is very appealing.

Cantaloupe is one of summer's must have. It's refreshing sweet and light. It's the perfect refreshment after a hot, sticky day.Best of all eat as many as you want and you won;t gain a pound!!!