Blog

February 2014

Celebrating Chocolate

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

The great Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus christened the cacao tree…food of the gods…and boy, was he right!

Agave, Oy Vey!

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

To agave or not to agave; that is the question. It seems that everything today creates scandal and confusion…our food, our politics, our neighborhoods, how we exercise and now even our sweeteners, natural and otherwise.

A relative newcomer to the culinary world (but not the world) is agave nectar, processed from the agave cactus. It became quite popular with the raw foods community because it is processed at low heat, but in reality, about 30 degrees higher than most raw foodists would allow.

Where Does Your Food Come From?

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

It’s all the rage. Eating organically produced foods, supporting farm markets, CSA’s and eating locally have become as common in our language of food as food itself.

We are all concerned with making a lighter footprint; leaving the world a little better, a little cleaner for our being here. We want to consume fewer resources; create less waste.

The FDA Says Walnuts Are Illegal Drugs?

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

I am an avid reader of the magazine Life Extension. I find their articles compelling, no-nonsense and their research impeccable.

In one of their issues, I read an article that made my skin crawl, my hair stand on end and my rage boil over like a too-long simmering stew.

Wait til you hear this one!

The Scoop On Wheatgrass

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

Wheatgrass is one of the most intensely concentrated nutrients. And while it has a very strong taste, very grassy, like drinking the lawn…(kidding…) it can be a healthful addition to one’s diet.

Seeds of Life

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

As the earth thaws and the change in the air we know as spring embraces our winter-weary bodies, I am acutely aware of the rebirth of all life. We emerge, pale faces turned toward the warmth of the sun, feeling fresh and ready for a new world. We dig our hands in the cool, moist soil and begin the process of life that will bloom as our gardens.

The Deadly Nightshades…Or Are They?

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

I grew up in a big, culinarily inspiring Italian family. We cooked, ate, made and drank wine, cooked, ate, tended vegetable gardens, fought, cooked and ate. But I learned everything I know about nourishment from hanging out with these kitchen wizards. If only they knew how well they practiced macrobiotic ideals, they would laugh…and then cook and eat!

Ya Gotta Love How Special Our Special Interest Groups Are…

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

I have been away, working in Italy for about a month, so I have spent a few days catching up on email and other office stuff that has built up while I was gone. I tell you this because I might be a little behind the times on this rant, but I don’t think it makes it less valid.

I opened email this morning to find an e-newsletter from my friend Kris Carr of ‘Crazy Sexy’ fame. A lovely, warm and funny woman, Kris is rarely political, so it really got my attention when I saw her write in her newsletter that she was “motivated to get political.”

Napoli and Pizza

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

My mother’s family came to America in search of a better life. The youngest of seventeen children (yes, you read right, seventeen!), my grandmother talked often of their life in a small village outside the city of Naples in southern Italy. She talked about day-to-day things, the stuff of life in a small town. She loved America, but there was a part of her that longed for the simple life she had known in her homeland.

Brown Rice and Arsenic…Here We Go Again

Submitted by Christina on February 10, 2014 - 4:32pm

Just when I think things are returning to some form of normalcy, there is more panic around food…some for good cause and some, as Jon Stewart says, not so much.

This article is about the latter.

Here we are again discussing arsenic in brown rice and while I am weary of having this same discussion every few years, I am also committed to health and to the health of my readers and viewers and do not take their concerns lightly.

Here is what my latest research has shown me.