Author Archives: laudalino
 I am running out to the market and wanted to get this up before it was not Saturday. I had all intentions of writing out a decent post, detailing how and what we are doing at this point for our Ten in 10 Healthy Challenge …. time got away from me. Next week I will go into greater detail! Overall we were good this week. We ate well and even introduced some lean proteins into our eat only veggie diet that we have been following. I did not get a chance to run – the weather was horrible and I could not bring myself to run in the rain – we did not make it to yoga, it was too wet and cold out, we could not get out of the comfy bed. This week we are going to try harder with our goals of adding more work outs and some yoga to our game plan. We did add another recipe to our Healthy Superbowl Recipes series, baked kale chips! They are not only good to serve at your Superbowl party but they are good to have laying around for snacking at home or the office!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| This is an electrifying cocktail that will surely tease your taste-buds and tantalize your senses!
Justin of Marx Foods contacted us right before we left for Boston, wondering if we would be up for trying out a couple of their products, in particular black garlic and the mysterious Szechuan (Sechuan) Buttons. We are always up for trying something new out and especially something we have never heard of, such as the Szechuan Button. Now, I did not know much about them but once I started investigating, my interest was peeked, especially when the package they came in said, “eat at your own risk”. A bit about the Szechuan Button (taken from the Marx Food site) – “they are an unusual food in that their primary use is not nutrition or flavor but rather to impart a sensation to food and drink. They possess a slightly bitter, herby flavor that isn’t unusual, but a few seconds after consuming them something very interesting begins to happen in your mouth! Eating a few tiny petals from a Szechuan button will lead to a tingling sensation, almost like mild voltage or bubbles from an effervescent beverage popping on the tongue. It is similar to (but much more intense than) the tingling imparted by Szechuan peppercorns, which is how this flower gets its Chinese name, despite originally being from Africa. Part of the secret of this effect may be that these flowers contain a natural painkiller sometimes used to numb toothache (hence their other nickname: toothache plant). It is not unpleasant, but surprising, and sharing just a small pinch with friends will cause a look of confused wonder.” I had a few ideas but the first that came to mind was to make a fun cocktail. Being the holidays I knew a bottle of bubbly would be involved. As well I had some Pomegranate Simple Syrup that I wanted to use, mostly for color, but also for a bit of tartness. I gently floated the Szechuan Button petals on the top of the cocktail and with every sip, a few of the delicate petals flowed into your mouth – let’s say there was definitely a party happening in your mouth! Not only did you get the sweet champagne bubbles on the tip of your tongue but there was an electrifying zippy feeling from the petals. A very fun cocktail to serve to the unexpected as they will be wowed! Would I use them again – definitely! I am already thinking of other recipes to use them in! Recipe: Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail with Szechuan Buttons1 tablespoon pomegranate simple syrup 1 glass of champagne 1/2 teaspoon szechuan button petals Pour the simple syrup into a champagne glass. Lightly drizzle the champagne into the glass, do not disturb the simple syrup and do not stir. Sprinkle the petals over the top. Serve. Drink. Has been extended until December 31, 2009 – Please contribute to this amazing cause! What is Menu for Hope? Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising campaign which was started by Pim of Chez Pim and it takes place each December. Pim has been collaborating with food bloggers from around the world for the past fives year, after the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, and looking for a way to help, Menu for Hope was born.
Here is a bit more information that is from Pim’s site. Each December, food bloggers from all over the world join the campaign by offering a delectable array of food-related prizes for the Menu for Hope raffle. Anyone – and that means you too – can buy raffle tickets to bid on these prizes. For every $10 donated, you earn one virtual raffle ticket to bid on a prize of their choice. At the end of the two-week campaign, the raffle tickets are drawn and the results announced on Chez Pim.
This year, we are supporting a new initiative at the WFP called Purchase for Progress (P4P). P4P enables smallholder and low-income farmers to supply food to WFP’s global operation. P4P helps farmers improves farming practices and puts more cash directly into their pockets in return for their crops. This will also help buoy local economy by creating jobs and income locally. We food bloggers understand the importance of buying locally and supporting our local farms, P4P helps do the same for farmers in low income countries around the world. More on P4P at http://www.wfp.org/purchase-progress.
Donors can make an online (tax deductible) donation with a credit card. FirstGiving collects and processes the payments and, at the end of the campaign, transfers the donations in one lump sum to the WFP. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved. The bloggers never touch the money. The WFP don’t waste overheads on processing mini-donations, the majority of which were between $10-$50, that’s a whole lot of tenners to make up $90K. Firstgiving does all the work and collects a small fee, which include the credit card processing charges. Last year, FirstGiving gave back 1% of the total amount raised in lieu of a discount on their processing fee.
We are very excited to be part of Menu for Hope 6 this year. As well we are very excited to be offering you a very seductive food item to bid on. One of our favorite vendors, is Celine of Gourmet Attitude. We had the honor of being introduced to Celine through Pim at the Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival this year. We love Celine, not only is she very kind, but she has one of the best jobs in the world, she is THE truffle goddess and distributes her truffles to the creme de la creme of restaurants in the US, think “French Laundry, Alinea, Daniel, Manresa, and others”. We have been so lucky to have her spoiling us rotten all year with truffles. She has been kind enough to donate this wonderful gift set to Chez Us to help raise money for Menu for Hope 6. Here are a few ways we use her truffles: Recipe 1 & Recipe 2 & Recipe 3 & Recipe 4 This bid item includes 3 – 40 ml of: truffle honey, balsamic truffle vinegar and truffle oil. If you have not tried truffles, this is a great introductory into your next obsession. If you have tried them and are in love, well, these are just a few of our favorite products she offers. The prize code for this gift will be UW15. *we can only ship this gift to the USA. To Donate and Enter the Menu for Hope Raffle Here’s what you need to do: 1. Choose a bid item or bid items of your choice from our Menu for Hope main bid item list. 2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation. 3. Please specify which bid item you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per bid item, and please use the bid item code. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 – 2xEU01, 3xEU02. 4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match. 5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone. Check back on Chez Pim on Monday, January 18 for the results of the raffle. Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!”
|
All text, video, and photos are copyright@ 2007 – 2012 by Chez US, Chez Denise et Laudalino, Denise Woodward, and Laudalino Ferreira.|ProPhoto Custom Blog by NetRivet Blogs
