Otea Teas A New Kind Of Comfort

 if you're looking for a new tea to sip this winter look no further than Oteas. This brand has some unusual blends as well as comforting versions of what we all love. It's the perfect hot drink for sitting in a comfy chair and enjoying a warm cup/

The company is located in Revelstoke, British Columbia and has a healthy good for the planet pacific Northwest vibe about it. They have a variety of teas, both in bags and loose leaf with tea leaves coming from allover the world. There are  spicy chais' and  good for you  creamy matcha  teas , great for a relaxing sip. The company also sells accessories such as mgs, a glass tea pot and jars for storing the loose leaf. There are also  Stainless steel tea infuser and a wooden spoon for pouring in the leaves

I have so many favorites with this brand. One of my favorites is the chocolate chai  made with cacao bean peels and blackberry leaves.Their Organic Rejunvenate Tea is the perfect cup for waking up in the morning.It's made with organic ginger  lemon grass and yerba mate   . Another favorite and right for these hectic days is Serenitea, a tasty blend of lemongrass, orange peel and sunflower  and lime tree blossoms. the strawberries and cream is a delicious drink hot or cold.It's a mix of strawberry and apple pieces along with  hibiscus and rose hip peels. My night time tea is their Organic Sleepwell  with a mix of green rooibos tea , granulated ginger, organic peppermint and chamomile  to soothe and relax.

Discover Oteas Teas for a hot sip on a cold night. ANy flavor is perfect . Brew a cup, sit back and enjoy their  rich flavor

Holiday KItchen Hacks

 Christmas cooking and baking can be stressful. Home chefs and bakers may not have the time or the skill. Not to worry . There are hacks to use that can get anyone through this kitchen craziness.

First of all rethink that holiday roast. You don't have to cook an entire roast if there's only a few people. An easier version of roast turkey is turkey breast. It only takes about an hour or two to cook which means you don't have to wake up and start pepping it right away. A canned ham can do just fine if you don;t want to roast a fresh one.Another easy main course is rounds of filet mignon that can even be cooked up in the air fryer.Simplify sides as well. Frozen broccoli and green beans can be microwaved , chilled Christmas Eve and turned into tasty salads half an hour before the meal is served. Go for a simple vinaigrette instead of a fancy , more laborious dressing. Stovetop Stuffing is just as tasty as the more work intensive one where you have to tear bread and chop celery for. Instant mashed potatoes can be used and jazzed up with chopped garlic or minced scallions. Another easy side is microwaved sweet potatoes or yams. These only takes five minutes to cook per potato. Serve with melted butter.

What about those Christmas desserts? One super easy hack is going to your local bakery and buying a platter of cookies or a prettily decorated cake.  Some bakeries and stores such as Acme and Stop and Shop even sell in store  already baked and decorated Yule Logs or Buche de Noel. If you do feel like baking , remember there are Pillsbury Slice and Bakes. These are easy to prep and bake. Another plus is that you can go to their website and get decorating ideas.There is one where you can decorate cookies to look like Santa's bellies or Christmas ornaments. A yummy treat are sandwich cookies  with an easy buttercream filling.A two layer cake is always a lovely way to end a holiday meal. You can go with any of the Duncan Hines ones and canned icing. A tasty one is a butter cake with a rich cocoa frosting. What about a chocolate sheet cakes with mint icing? You can dust it with silver sanding sugar for a frosty snow effect. You could also bake cupcakes which are always a crowd pleaser and easy to bake and frost. Even easier is a trifle made with store bought pound cake, rum , fruit and Cool Whip. Layer and then pop overnight in the fridge.

Don;t stress over Christmas cooking and baking.There are some easy hacks to make everything a cinch. Try them for some relief in the kitchen.

Last Minute Kitchen Gifts

 Christmas is a week away and it's crunch time. Think anything kitchen , from cookbooks to gadgets. These are great presents that will keep on giving. They can be fun. They can be handy. They can be perfect.

A cookbook is always the most interesting gift to open.It not only gives recipes but the stories behind them as well as great tips. International cuisine ones are  also  travelogues with amazing pictures of the food, country and people. The New York Times Food section had an extensive list of them this past Wednesday.There are fourteen choices, from Mina Stone's Greek influenced Lemon,Love and Olive Oil  (Harper Collins) to Michael Twitty's  Rice  A Savor The South Cookbook 0 Noirth Carolina Press). There are cookbooks that revolve around baking like Cookies: The New Classics A Baking Book (Clarkson Potter) by Jesse Szewcyck and  Sheet Cake Easy One Pan Recipes For Every Day and Every Occasion  (Clarkson Potter) by Abigal Johnson Didge. There are cookbooks about Middle eastern sweets and Korean vegetarianism too,. If you do buy a cookbook, get extra little gifts that tie into the book. This can be a sushi mat or a pretty set of measuring cups and spoons. You could even arrange a fun basket full of the ingredients too.

Anyone loves a gadget. They're so much fun to receive and try out,An air fryer is a definite must give for any home chef. They can cook up anything from chicken nuggets to even cinnamon rolls. They will definitely be much appreciated and will be used for months to come. Another fun and necessary gift is an immersion blender. These can easily whip up smoothies but they're also great for creaming and blending soups and sauces. They're also very easy to handle as well as to clean. Bakers will appreciate fun baking gifts like cookie presses. A plus is that they're easily attainable. Everyone from Target to Walmart has them.Throw in a variety pack of sprinkles for decorating. For those non-bakers who still want a holiday treat think about giving a gingerbread kit. These are fun and also perfect for the budget. Five Below is selling them for around five dollars. Target and Walgreens also have them for as low as $2.99. There are also have sleds and trains too that already come with icing and candies to decorate.

Yes, Christmas is coming. There's no need to go frantic over what to give any home chef or baker. The list is endless , from cookbooks and gadgets to gingerbread house kits. Have fun picking out the right gift.

How To Starve Cancer The Perfect Gift of A Book

 Talking about any dreaded disease is not fun, especially during the holidays. yet what if you could stop a host of diseases just by giving a gift of one very important book. You can. Jane McClelland's part how to , part memoir How To Starve Cancer (Agenor Books 2021) is the book to give this Christmas along with being a book that should be in every home library.

Ms. McClelland herself is a powerhouse , able to starve her own Stage 4 cervical cancer that metastasized to her  one lung. if she had gone the traditional route of chemo and radiation she would have been dead after six weeks of the initial diagnosis. She fought back. The first three hundred and eight pages are dedicated to her life with the disease. Despite it she married a brilliant and cute man and created her own line of all natural bath products with an appearance on the British version of Shark Tank, Dragon's Den.  She never gave up her beloved sailing  which took her to the South Coast of England and her beloved isle of Guernsey. She did not give up on her boat racing or being a mom . She had two sons through surrogacy (the eldest even had a talking role on the international hit Call The Midwife!!!). what is amazing about Ms. McClelland is that she will not give up on herself while battling the snooty patriarchal attitude of the NHS. It's not as kind as it's portrayed as on movies and TV. She had to dig and research, even acting as a guinea pig for treatments established medicine scoffed at.

The second part of the book is geared to how to kill cancer and reboot the immune system.  The book ends with the description of the Ferroptopsis Protocol which is using iron to starve and kill cancer. There are no recipes in the book to help the diet along. Ms. McClelland a licensed  Chartered physiotherapiust, in the UK,only gives suggestions about what to eat and what to avoid. Hopefully there will be a future book of recipes that families can use. Glucose which definitely feeds cancer cells is off the table. If you think you can replace those sweet treats with fruit, think again. She nixes grapes and pineapple, fruits that are pure sugar. Berries such as strawberries and antioxidant rich blueberries are allowed and encouraged but only in small quantities. Even veggies like asparagus are  off the table along with any grain products like bread and white rice. Opt for whole wheat loaves and brown rice instead. She also recommends being on a mostly  pescatarian diet , rich in Omega 3. Think salmon dishes. Also drink a lot of green tea and bottled water. There are also supplements that help in starving and killing cancer. She is a huge believer in intermittent fasting which is a big boost to eradicating the disease. 

How To Starve Cancer is a must give book. It can help with nor only snuffing out cancer but also lower diabetes and heart disease. It is a gift that keeps on giving.

A Holiday Treat Buneulos

 If you're tired of baking Christmas cookies then think about frying up buneulos. These are a great alternative to them along with being  for body. and different . Best of all they are delicious, perfect on Christmas morning with a coffee and tea.

Christina Morales ,a regular contributor to the New York Food section  wrote about these tasty treats in yesterday's issue. They are a Mexican,  Latin American and Spanish Caribbean sweet originating in Spain. Many countries have their own version  and also different names.  Originally Spain's  first created the,mSephardic Jews during the Arab invasion. The use of anise in the original recipe is a telltale sign.  They may have born in Turkey and the recipe carried from there with the Sephardim tribes.There are different versions of buneulos made with slightly different ingredients. Cubans use the widely available root vegetable yucca which gives the fried buneulo a puffy  doughnut look. The shapes are different too., Some home bakers make figure eights . Some fry them in disc form so they look like Native American flatbreads. Syrup is uslaly drizzled on them and again that varies. The Mexicans usually make one that has piloncillo or Mexican brown sugar, clove and anise, Columbians  turn them into balls and fill them with cheese for a savory sweet treat. Cubans steep them in a syrup flavored with citrusl,anise and cinnamon

The Times give two recipes for them. One is  the Cuban with the anise syrup. The batter is a mix of succulewnts such as yucca but also boniato or sweet potato, malanga, taro and name  (pronounced nom -may a cross between a potato and sweet potato) Flour is also added for body a sis pumpkin, winter squash or calabazas. The way to prepare them is like preparing gnocchi, with the starches being hsnd mixed with the flour and three eggs. Squares are formed and then deep fried in a skillet full of bubbling hot canola oil.The syrup is an easy mix of granulated sugar, star anise, cinnamon, lime and lime peel.It's cooked over a low heat for fifteen to twenty minutes. You could also try the Mexican ones that are more cookie like  with just flour, eggs, baking powder and melted unsalted butter. The syrup is again a simple cooked mix of piloncillo (bought at a Mexican grocery) along with guavas, cinnamon, orange peel and anise seeds.

Buneulos are a different kind of holiday treat. Make them for Christmas for a nice ending. They are simple to make and just as easy to eat.

The Rich Vegan Legacy Of Africa

Many of america's foods come from  West Africa from yams to rice. What many don;t know is that the area also has a rich vegetarian history that can be easily incorporated into our diets. The dishes are not just good for you. They are also delicious too , with many interesting spices  to liven up the veggies.

Yewande Komolafe ,a  recipe developer  and regular contributor to the New York Times Food section wrote about this bountiful cuisine. Ms. Komolafe herself is from Lagos, Nigeria where there is a wealth of meat free recipes. She is not new to the idea of a plant based diet as is the chefs she interviews. Also a plus is West African cooks are passionate about adaptations to their recipes. Many will balk at a new method of cooking a dish however replacing meat with plant based ingredients will provide new paths to familiar pathways. Afia Amoako ,a Canadian grad student, believes that there is no standard recipe, only standard methods for layering and building flavor. Mushrooms can easily be subbed in for chicken or beef. Chef Fatmata Binta explores the plant based recipes of her F ulani tribe , based in Ghana for her project The Fulani Kitchen. Many ingredients can be foraged along with being easily transported. The foods also have to be non perishable and preserved, usually sun dried.One chef, Salimatu Amabebe feels a connection to his father and grandparents by cooking a plant based Nigerian diet.

There are also recipes that any chef can make for the holidays and beyond. One is the very interesting roasted mushrooms in a sauce called Ata Din Din. This is roasting a host of mushrooms , from shiitake to oysters with thyme on a sheet pan. At the same time the Ata Din Din sauce is created, a fiery blend of  red  pepper ginger and habanero chiles topped with a pickle of onions, salt and vinegar.  For another blood warming dish try the moin moin or steamed filled bean cakes from Nigeria.It's a mix of  dried honey beans or black eyed peas cooked with habanero peppers along with red peppers and red onions, Mushrooms or the Ata Din Din can be used as the stuffing. They're formed by filling rolled cone shaped banana leaves. Dessert is coconut lemongrass tapioca with caramelized citrus. It's made with small pearl tapioca and ginger along witht eh lemongrass  and topped with caramelized citrus slices such as blood oranges, grapefruits and tangerines. Lemongrass infused coconut milk is then ladled onto this.

West Africa has a rich culinary history. It's made even richer with plant based recipes. There may be no meat but there is a  lot of flavor.

Is Peach Melba The One

Peach Melba is an elegant dessert first made at London's Savoy Hotel by the great chef Auguste Escoffier in 1892 for the Australian opera singer Nellie Melba. It;s a lovely blend of a raspberry coulis with peaches and vanilla ice cream.

I decided to give it a try today in my search for the perfect holiday dessert. 

It starts with twelve ounces of raspberries. I used Driscoll's fresh ones but you could use the frozen ones instead.

Then there was the sugar factor. Most recipes call for a cup of refined granulated sugar. I didn't like this idea so I added a more natural source  - a quarter cup of lite maple syrup (you could also add honey too , especially the ones made from lavender or wild flowers).

I liked Stop & Shop's Lite maple syrup but again you can add any of your choosing. A quick squeeze of lemon is also needed.

I used about five tablespoons of water too. I first cooked it on the stove.

The gas went off and I then had to use the microwave which I was reluctant to use. There's this Internet rumor that raspberries spark when heated in one. I put mine in for two minutes and crossed my fingers that they would come out OK They did.

It was then blitzing them with my immersion blender. The coulis should have been strained through a muslin cloth but I like it with a thicker, seedier mouth feel.

The dish itself is just scoops of vanilla ice cream arranged with peaches (usually fresh but canned work during this time of year) The raspberry coulis is drizzled over it.

It's a very summery tasting dessert and ti does have a fun,fruity flavor. I may make this for the holiday. I did try the coulis with chocolate syrup and the soy vanilla ice cream a second time and that was phenomenal. Chocolate and raspberry work so well together. that that may be the Christmas dessert.

I stored the coulis in a jar kept chilled in the fridge. It can also be stirred in plain yogurts along in oatmeal. You can make a fruity, pulpy soda with it too.

Peach Melba may be the perfect Christmas dessert.It is an easy elegance that is also delicious. Try it for a tasty end to a holiday meal.