It’s almost the 12th night of Christmas! I came upon an old tradition that I just found fascinating and thought share-worthy.
To Make a Twelfth-Night Cake:
Put two pounds of butter in a warm pan and work it to a cream with your hand: then put in two pounds of loaf sugar sifted; a large nutmeg grated; and of cinnamon ground, allspice ground, ginger, mace and coriander each a quarter ounce. Now break in eighteen eggs by one and one, meantime beating it for twenty minutes or above; stir in a gill of brandy; then add two pounds of sifted flour, and work it a little. Next put in currants four pounds, chopped almonds half a pound; citron the like; and orange and lemon peel cut small half a pound. Put in one bean and one pea in separate places, bake it in a slow oven for four hours, and ice it or decorate it as you will.
—Elizabeth Raffald,
The Experienced English Housekeeper, 1769
We had a great cake made, in which was put a bean for the King, a pease for the Queen, a clove for the Knave, a forked stick for the Cuckold, a rag for the Slut. —Henry Teonge, 1676
Share on Facebook
January 7th, 2010
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
January 4: National Spaghetti Day!
Jazz up your spaghetti while still keeping it healthy and enjoy the day that celebrates spaghetti!
See also: Pleasing Pasta
Share on Facebook
January 4th, 2010
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
Cheese is extremely popular due to its variety of tastes and textures.
Some cheeses like feta and mozzarella are mostly used in salads or on pizzas. Other cheeses, both hard and soft are perfect for cheese boards where their flavours can be truly appreciated.
Cheeses contain valuable amounts of protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals but some cheeses, particularly hard ones, are high in saturated fat.
Cheeses fall into two categories – hard and unripened. Hard cheeses are generally matured for many months and their flavours develop over this time. Examples of hard cheeses are cheddar, parmesan, goat’s cheese, haloumi, feta and mozzarella.
Unripened cheeses are young and immature and they have a light, mild taste. Examples are ricotta, cottage, fromage frais, quark and cream cheese.
Enjoy cheese but be aware of the fat content and the amount you consume.
See also: Cheese Food Facts, Freezing Cheese
Share on Facebook
January 3rd, 2010
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
It’s Oatmeal Muffin Day! Not exactly what we usually make at Christmas time but nonetheless, it’s the national day for oatmeal muffins!
See also: Low Fat Mighty Muffins, Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins, Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins (Healthy Grain Recipe), Orange-Oatmeal Muffins (Wheat Free Recipe)
Share on Facebook
December 19th, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
It’s that time of year when you break out your Christmas recipes and get into the kitchen to start your holiday baking. There are the typical ingredients that go into most recipes – flour, sugar, butter, milk, etc.
Then, most of us enjoy topping our Christmas goodies with colorful sprinkles and candies that make them festive.
If you are considering leaving the sprinkles or icing off your holiday cookies because you’ve heard that the food colors can make your kids hyper, don’t let this myth keep you and your kids from enjoying the holidays!
The majority of scientific research has found no link between food colors and hyperactivity in children. The only exception may be children who have a confirmed food allergy. In fact, a new study of Irish children and teens published in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants found that the amounts and combinations of food colors given to the children would hardly ever occur in the real world.
Whether it’s the food coloring you add to the cookie dough or the colorful candies and frosting you sprinkle and drizzle on top, food colors add bright and appealing hues to what would otherwise be a pretty boring cookie. Since research shows that they are safe and do not cause hyperactivity, keep the spirit of the Christmas holidays!
Source: IFIC
Share on Facebook
December 18th, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
We echo the sentiments so aptly expressed in the write-up quoted below:
Sadly, this year some Americans have little to be thankful for, other than the simple pleasure of enjoying their holiday meals in peace. But meat-hating animal rights activists and nutrition purists see Thanksgiving as the perfect time to launch new scare campaigns….
So what’s a well-informed chef to do? Cook it all. Serve it all. Enjoy it all. Leave the fear mongering to activists who have little to be thankful for other than the freedom to be a joyless pest.
Source : Absolve Yourself of Holiday Food Guilt
It seems no matter where you go, what you wish to do, who and/or what you wish to celebrate or with whom you choose to celebrate, live with etc., someone out there is whining and griping that it’s wrong – and trying to bend you to their will.
We just don’t feel this is the way people should treat people. So do enjoy your holidays GUILT FREE – ignore the likes of PETA and CSPI (center for science in the public interest) – they don’t have your interests at heart, they only have their SPECIAL interests at heart (you know, the one’s that fill their wallets to over-flowing and rob us of our hard earned dollars…)
And by the way… God bless us, every one.
Share on Facebook
November 30th, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
Not too long ago, a report came out (American Journal of Medicine) that a woman over dosed on fluoride from drinking too much tea. Is this something all tea lovers should be concerned about?
Tea is good for your health in that it contains naturally occurring phenols. The floride in tea is good for your bones and teeth. The incident of the over dose of simply a case of too much of a good thing.
The woman drank two gallons of double-strength iced tea a day; in essence, four gallons of regular strength tea. Because tea is rich in fluoride, and she drank that much for years, she over dosed on the mineral, damaging her bones.
Researchers did follow up this case by analyzing the fluoride content of several brand of instant iced tea and found they contain 0.18 to 1.17 milligrams of fluoride per six ounces when mixed with distilled water (tea made with fluoridated water provides more). That exceeds the maximum fluoride allowed in drinking water by the Environmental Protection Agency as well as what the Food and Drug Administration permits in bottled water.
And what about hot tea? Ounce for ounce, hot tea contains about the same amount as iced. Remember that fluoride in small amounts benefits your teeth as well as your bones by making them more dense – i.e. stronger. But like many other things, too much will have cause damage and make your bones brittle.
The amount of fluoride needed per day, according to experts, is about 1.0 milligram to 3.8 milligrams – on the higher end of that range if you’re male. So, a couple of cups of tea daily shouldn’t harm you at all. It would take about 10 milligrams of fluoride per day for 10 years to lead to the condition the woman who over dosed had, which was skeletal fluorosis.
Share on Facebook
November 25th, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
1. In Anyang, central China’s Henan province, a man named “Qu” tried to evade the law after he was deemed “wanted” for stealing electric bicycles.
Qu holed himself up in a motel while friends supplied him with meals and snacks while he did nothing for a month but eat, sleep and watch TV. His goal was to grow so fat that if the police saw him they wouldn’t recognize him.
He managed to pull it off once, too but someone eventually snitched him out for a 2nd time and he was arrested.
Source: Thief pigs out to dodge justice
2. Next we have Mr. Edward Ates, a Florida man who claimed he was too fat to have pulled off the crime he was accused of, which was killing his son-in-law.
What strikes us as particularly sad about this one is the following comment:
“”Jurors may be open to this in a society that talks about the infirmities that that obesity causes.”
There’s the result of this fat-fanaticism, which gov’t and special interests just won’t butt out of (remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your pocket book and how many more taxes they can diddle you out of).
3. Lastly, we have Richard Cooey, who argued that he was too fat to execute, claiming it would be “cruel and unusual punishment”.
I guess there’s a better way to be executed?
Source: Too fat to kill? Fla. man uses weight as a defense
Share on Facebook
November 23rd, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts |
no comments
Researchers examining Egyptian mummies discovered that our predecessors 3,500 years ago also suffered from hardened arteries, and they didn’t eat fast food. As The Wall Street Journal reports:
[Researchers] were able to identify the hearts, arteries or both in 16 of the mummies, nine of whom had deposits of calcification…
“Not only do we have atherosclerosis [artery hardening] now, it was prevalent as long as 3,500 years ago,” said Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist and imaging specialist at University of California, Irvine, who was principal investigator of the study. “It is part of the human condition.”
One of the researchers noted, heart disease “is as old as the pyramids.”
So why in the world are our tax dollars funding people to pick on every type of food available to us when it’s quite clear that it isn’t fast food, or meat or any type of modern convenience causing heart disease – it’s nothing more than being human. So, consider telling your local lawmakers you want gov’t OUT of the food business.
Share on Facebook
November 19th, 2009
Posted by
fitnfree |
Food Facts, To Your Health! |
no comments
