Vegetarian Means Vegan, Right?

Actually vegetarians tend to differ from what Vegans consider themselves to be. The exact reasons for why, evade me at the moment.

I eat plenty of vegetables but also enjoy eggs so I think this means I may be a vegetarian but I am not a vegan because eggs are not on their menu. I need to watch my calories and weight.

Veganism, if I may, seems to be more like a religion than just a healthy eating regime. I think the term is applied to not only eggs but even to wearing things that may have once been alive, like leather.

I have no feelings on this one way or another and think our life choices are just that, our life choices.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Understanding the Joy of Cooking

By Alice Sy

The joy of cooking lies in every individual. It doesn't matter if you love to cook or you love to eat, it is still considered one and the same with each playing a vital part in the Culinary Arts. In order for cooking to become enjoyable, someone has to love eating its finished results; otherwise what would be the purpose of cooking?

Before fire was discovered by man, human beings used to eat their food raw and fresh from a catch. Over time, they have learned which food can be eaten raw without any undesired effects to the body. Aside from seafood, they have learned that fruits, vegetables and insects can be eaten raw.

Cooking also involves different techniques that range from simple food preparation to exquisite decoration in pastries, table settings, and special occasions. More and more people today find the joy of cooking, whether be it a profession or a hobby.

If you think that was creative, just imagine how creative man got upon the arrival of pottery. The joy of cooking became even more sophisticated. Different pots were made to cater to different types of cooking. Man also discovered that food cooked in several different ways, tasted differently too.

When fire was discovered, the joy of cooking began to fill the hearts of man. The change in flavor and texture once food was exposed to fire changed and it changed in an even better way, sparking man's interest. Man either cooked the food directly over the fire or chose to wrap and steam his food over hot embers.

Humans first roasted or toasted their food directly from the fire. This was before they invented pottery, around 7,000 and 12,000 years ago. They also wrapped and steamed their food over embers. With the development of pottery, cooking became sophisticated. The methods of cooking, like boiling, stewing, frying, and baking, were soon realized. Later, it successfully evolved to what is now modern cooking.

Since it was discovered, cooking has evolved into two known types: cuisine bourgeois, also known as home cooking and haute cuisine. Whatever the type of cooking you choose, it is sure to burn the fire inside men which very much explains the very famous adage.

Everybody loves to eat food, however, cooking it in different ways made eating food a much more memorable experience. It is this appreciation that man needs to feel in order to understand the joy of cooking.

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American Dream is Real for Foodie and Her Spanish Olive Oil

By Michelle Allen

With one suitcase between them, 11 year old Miriam and her parents caught the last flight out of Cuba on October 19, 1962, during the height of the Cuban missile crisis.

"As Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami, we were on a flight from Havana. Everything was fear-driven."

Miriam's brother who had left Cuba six months earlier, met them in Miami.

"We were refugees," she said. "We had to start over."

But they were refugees with marketable skills. It took some time for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba to find work. But her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States.

Life in Miami was different -- radiation drills, fallout shelters, a different language and a new way of life. Miriam was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.

Miriam was shaped into the person she is today by these experiences.

Miriam Vigoa didn't foresee making a Spanish olive oil splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.

She was already busy running a business she purchased in 1983, Cypress Lighting -- -- maintaining and investing in real estate and helping run a coffee shop, Cafe Latte she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.

Sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the Spanish olive oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash, made Miriam Happy

After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and Spanish olive oil into Splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.

The Splash is still hand-blended but is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs.

Linebaugh and Vigoa decided to hire extra employees to run the cafe on Fridays and close it Saturday through Monday.

Hauling a trailer full of Splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product is how they spend their weekends now.

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Let Chicken Breast Recipes Be Your Healthy Choice

By Chef Paolo Sorelli

Chicken breast recipes can be a generous staple for many dieters. You can adapt this low fat low calorie lean meat for any chicken recipe whether that recipe calls for chicken breast or a whole chicken. There are many ways to use chicken breasts in recipes that you are not able to accomplish as easily while using other chicken parts.

Chicken breast recipes that include pounding out the chicken breast and stuffing it are especially good, and you can make an elegant meal very easily. Easier than many chicken recipes, chicken rolls can be very pretty and elegant on a plate. Cutting a pocket into the side of the chicken breast and stuffing it is another way you can use this technique.

Other great chicken breast recipes include chicken with cornbread stuffing, chicken Florentine and chicken cordon bleu. You can make all these recipes into roll-up logs and then slice them for a beautiful presentation. You can serve a complete meal by adding a baked potato or some rice whether you decide to use the pocket recipe for baking your chicken breast and cornbread stuffing. On the other hand, you may want to make use a chicken breast recipe for rolls that may include ham and Swiss cheese or even cream cheese and spinach.

Chicken breasts with sauces are another tasty idea. You can make buffalo chicken breast by adding some Tabasco and blue cheese crumbles. Chicken breasts go well with various types of sauces. For instance, you can dip your chicken in honey Dijon cream sauce, tequila lime sauce or Italian pesto, butter garlic sauces or even Mango chutney. You can enhance your chicken breast recipes with the use of sauces to create unique and flavorful chicken recipes.

The primary thing to remember about chicken breast recipes is that you want to keep the chicken breast moist. If you overcook them, they become dry, and sauces or other ingredients that have moisture will keep the moisture in the chicken breasts. Many chicken breast recipes turn out dry because of this one mistake.

Chicken breasts can be baked or grilled. The are popular sliced, grilled and used as toppings on Caesar salads, fillings in fajitas and breaded, fried and served with dipping sauces. There are so many chicken breast recipes that your options are only limited by your imagination or the size of your chicken breast recipes book.

You can make some great sandwiches with them. You may want to add ham, bacon, lettuce and tomato for an enjoyable club sandwich. You can serve them in cubes or whole. Include some pasta or rice, cream of mushroom soup and cheese and then top with crackers or potato chips to make a meal the whole family will enjoy.

You can prepare many tasty chicken breast recipes while dieting that is low in calories. The Atkins diet allows you to have chicken breast sauted in real butter and cream, you may even choose to season with dill, rosemary, lemon pepper, garlic, celery salt, honey and Dijon mustard. You can enjoy different chicken breast recipes every night that are low in carbohydrates and calories. Chicken recipes are versatile and chicken breast recipes provide a wide assortment of flavors and variety.

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How Much Do We Really Know About The Art Of Barbecuing?

By Todd Schuyler

Every year, people gear up their grills, stock up on their favorites meat and prepare for many mouth-watering barbecues. But how much do we really know about the art of barbecuing? Do you want to wow your friends at the next neighbourhood barbecue! This list will provide you with all the details you need.

1) Whole pigs were cooked and eaten in the southern states at feasts before the Civil War at pig-pickins.

2) The meat was exposed to smoke and low heat in order to prevent bacteria and enzymes from growing.

3) In Australia, a barbecue is commonly referred to as a barbie. The famous statement Ill slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you, which appeared in Australian tourism advertisements, is often used to refer to the country.

4) Today, the method most commonly used is in fact broiling not actual barbecuing: cooking at 475-700*F in much less time than barbecuing.

5) According to the Barbecue Industry Association, half of all marshmallows eaten in the U.S. have been toasted over a grill.

6) For an simple way to check how much propane you have left in the tank, bring your bathroom scale outside and weigh it.

7) The origin of the word barbecue is unclear. Some folks believe it might have came from the American-Indian word barbacoa for a wood on which foods were cooked.

8) To add a smokey flavour to your gas-grill-cooked foods inside the house, use liquid smoke. It is a condensation of actual smoke, this product can be easily added to your barbecue marinades.

9) Briskets are anextremely hard cut of meat. It is taken from a cows chest. They take one to two hours per pound to barbecue. Thats an average 12 hours on the grill for a 8-pound piece!

10) Several cities claim to be the barbecue capitals of the world. Kansas City, Missouri, Lexington, and North Carolina are just a few that make these claims.

Now youre set to impress your family and friends! Do you want even more barbecuing tips. Competition barbeque secrets are revealed here!

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