Saturday, June 20, 2020

Strawberries or Blueberries? Pineberry or Pink Lemonade? Choose!

Life is full of difficult decisions. As if it isn't hard enough to choose between whether to grow strawberries or blueberries. There are these two exquisitely delicious variations of these fruits and you have to choose.


White Carolina Pineberry Plant VS 
Pink Lemonade Blueberry Plant.

Let's Discuss.


If you are a gardener and you like strawberries, then you might like to try planting the White Carolina Pineberry plant. It tastes like pineapple and strawberry TOGETHER! If you can imagine that. Sounds so exotic, doesn’t it? (Although some people describe it as weird.)

PROs:

  • Can a fruit which tastes like strawberry and pineapple be bad?
  • Great gift idea for gardeners
  • People might be impressed if they saw it in your garden
  • Can be dipped in chocolate like the red strawberry
  • Natural Medicine endorses it as a healthy food


CONs:

  • Uh? Any fruit claiming to be a strawberry “relative” should be RED.  (O.o)  What?  It's not red!!
  • Need to be a good gardener

* Learn more: Specialty Produce: Pineberries

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 

Do you like lemonade? I do. What I like about lemonade is that you can vary this drink recipe and make it even better adding another fruit. Do you like blueberries? Well then there is no reason why you wouldn’t love the Pink Lemonade Blueberry plant.

PROs:

  • For people who always wanted blueberries to be PINK
  • Has been suggested for people who are NOT gardeners
  • Great gift idea for gardeners and non-gardeners
  • People might be impressed if they saw them in your garden
  • Can still be used to make blueberry pancakes


CONs:

  • Any fruit claiming to be a blueberry “relative” should be BLUE.  (O.o)  What?  It's not blue!!

* Learn more: Specialty Produce: Pink Lemonade Blueberries
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 


♦  White Carolina Pineberry Plant




♦  Pink Lemonade Blueberry Plant






Do You Have a Favorite Summer Fruit and Do You Like Popsicles?

Don't you love when you're listening to the weather forecast and they announce when the first day of a season will begin? I do. 

Even though spring is my favorite season I get excited when they announce that summer will begin. Summertime means summer fruit! 

I love summer fruit. My favorite is nectarines. I also love popsicles and found some recipes for you to enjoy your summer fruit as a popsicle.

Cold and sweet. It’s the perfect treat for a hot summer’s day or night! Don’t you think so? **







https://foodways2017.tumblr.com/post/621302834049302528/nectarine-ice-pops-recipe-easy-summer-dessert

https://foodways2017.tumblr.com/post/621303239568179200/summer-fruit-popsicle-best-healthy-homemade

https://foodways2017.tumblr.com/post/621303239568179200/summer-fruit-popsicle-best-healthy-homemade

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Spices in Filipino Cuisine by Carlo Villamayor (Guest Post)

It's no secret that Filipino cuisine is one of the best in the world, but like any good food, it has to have its secrets. Few people have really mastered authentic Filipino food, not the washed-down fare you get in fast foods and diners, but real, home-made native dishes. Although most of us can whip up something when we need to, it can be hard to capture that distinct Filipino taste.

So what really goes into our food? How do you make your food taste truly Filipino? There's really no single answer because no one can define our food; we come from a hodgepodge of cultures, after all. But one thing that sets us apart from our Asian neighbors is our heavy use of spices. Whereas other cuisines prefer subtle hints of flavor, we like a big burst of it with every bite.

So that's the first rule: be generous with the spice. If you want your dish to fit in with other Filipino recipes, get to know the spices that go into them. Here are some of the most common. 





Ginger

Ginger is used in most of Asian cuisine, and Filipino food recipes. In the Philippines, it is most commonly used in soups and stews; dishes such as arroz caldo (rice porridge), and tinola (chicken stew) use garlic as their main spice. It goes particularly well with chicken and fish dishes, where it provides a nice contrast to the strong meat flavors. Ginger is used both for flavor and aroma, although the flesh of the root is not always eaten. Most people just crush the root and drop it into the dish, then take it out just before serving.

Chili

We're not as wild about spicy food as the Thais, but we do like a bit of bite in our food. Virtually every Filipino dish can be spiced up with chili peppers, from rich meat viands to everyday soups and noodles. Sauces like patis (fish sauce) and soy sauce are often mixed with crushed chili and used as dips or marinades. Bicol, a region in southeastern Luzon, is known for using chili peppers in most of its dishes. Perhaps the most popular is Bicol express, made with meat, bagoong (saut'ed shrimp paste), coconut milk, and chopped green chilies.

Garlic and onions

These two almost always go together, especially in meat and vegetable dishes. You may be more familiar with Taiwanese and Australian garlic, which have larger cloves and are easier to work with. But if you want a stronger, spicier flavor, go for native garlic. Philippine garlic comes in smaller bulbs, with cloves less than half the size of other types. This makes them hard to handle, but it's well worth the trouble.

Philippine onions are strong and pungent, making them a great source of flavor. Use native red onions for saut'ing and pickling, but use the white ones for salads and sandwiches. If you're making rice porridge, top it with chopped green onions for extra spice.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass has strong-smelling leaves and stalks commonly used in soups, teas and sauces. The leaf is slightly sweet with a hint of citrus, a perfect complement to gravy and other meat sauces. There are several ways to use lemongrass, but the most common method is cooking the fresh leaves (sometimes the entire stalk or bulb) with the food to release the flavor. If you're using the stalk, take only the soft inner part and chop it up before dropping it in. You can also use dried and powdered lemongrass, especially if you're in the city and fresh leaves are hard to find. 




Pandan

Pandan is mostly an aromatic ingredient, most commonly used with plain white rice. Just add a couple of leaves to your rice as it boils, and it comes out with a strong, inviting aroma. Some regions even weave it onto rice pots for an even stronger scent. You can do the same with rice cakes, puddings, and other Filipino desserts recipes.

Bay leaf

The strong, pungent taste of bay leaves makes them a perfect fit for Filipino cooking recipes. The leaf has a wide range of uses, from meat sauces and dips to main dishes like adobo, menudo and mechado. Dried bay leaves are traditionally used; fresh bay is seldom available in local markets. The leaf itself is not usually eaten; like ginger, you can take out the leaves once you're ready to serve. However, most people just leave them in and set them aside when eating.



About The Author:  
Carlo Villamayor is a devoted cook, he makes it his personal mission to spread the joy of one of his Filipino food recipes with food lovers the world over. Bon appetit!  (Source:  ArticleCity.com)




EES shares recipes, cooking tips
and all things foodie!

 




Friday, June 5, 2020

Practical Food Storage Tips to Avoid Waste

Countless consumer reports indicate that Americans waste a lot of food. Sadly, even during the coronavirus pandemic, food was wasted. In defense of the consumer Americans, there was a breakdown in the supply and delivery logistics. Fortunately, a few smart young folks got together with the farmers and fixed the problem. (Not-for-profit FarmLink.)

For many, the food gets wasted because they just don't know how to store the food properly. Like the typical mom, I always told my kids not to waste food. They don’t always listen and sometimes they throw away food that could have been given away. Ah well! They can never accuse me of not practicing what I preach. I do my best to store food properly so that it does not spoil or waste. Below are a few practical tips for food storage.



Do you have a particular food storage method you use a lot? (Freezing, canning, dehydration, etc.)



Content previously published on Virily.com




















Friday, May 29, 2020

Enjoy Your Fruit By Season and in a Salad

Not sure how many of my blog readers have ever eaten an American Thanksgiving meal. If you have then you know how heavy that meal is. Is it any wonder many people just want to go to sleep afterward? LOL.

I have been preparing Thanksgiving dinner ever since I got married. That was over 40 years ago. My kids say they have good memories of our holiday meals and I'm glad. There was one holiday in particular that one of my kids remembers because I made a fruit salad. Instead of a cake with icing or a pie, I wanted to make something sweet but not so heavy. When I went shopping that year there was some great fruit in the produce department. So I decided to put fruit salad on the Turkey Day menu.



That memory got me thinking about fruit salads and whether or not there were specific recipes for every season of the year. I managed to find fruit salad recipes for winter, spring, summer, and fall. The Thanksgiving holiday occurs during the fall season and it was no surprise that there are quite a few fall fruit salad recipes.
If you like fruit (and who doesn't?), you'll probably love these fruit salad recipes. There is a delightful winter fruit salad, loaded with the best fruits of Autumn and Winter; and dressed with honey; a spring salad recipe is super sweet, hydrating and nourishing; and a summer salad made with fresh summer fruits mixed together with crunchy peanuts and a dressing made of Thai herbs and fish sauce. Enjoy!















More Wonderful Fruit Salad Recipes


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Perfect Gift for the High School Graduate Who is Off to College - A Cookbook!

A Cookbook? For a college student? Am I nuts?

No. No I am not. During my freshman year or first year at university, I was fortunate because I had a meal plan. As long as I got to the cafeteria before closing time, I didn't starve! But for my remaining 3 years at the university, I lived in an on-campus apartment and my roommates (friends I made when I was just a freshman who lived in the apartments) loved to cook!! The Chinese-Jamaican guy who lived in the apartment above ours always had good smelling coming out of his kitchen! His specialty was curry chicken. 

But before I get too far down memory lane and forget why I am writing this post, let me get back on track. The purpose of this post is to recommend a cookbook for a student you know who is heading off to college, already in college, getting ready to graduate from college. In fact, this cookbook is great for anybody!!!







Thursday, May 21, 2020

How to Cook Everything (Emphasis on the Greens)

Mark Bittman, is one of America's best-known, most widely respected food writers. Happy to suggest two cookbooks written by him. One for those who want to learn how to cook and the other for those who have a goal to eat healthy with an emphasis on consuming green leafy vegetables (that would be moi!).



How to Cook Everything The Basics:All You Need to Make Great Food -- With 1,000 Photos
This book offers a collection of delicious recipes, from fried eggs to steamed mussels, along with practical tips and helpful photos. Learn fundamental techniques and variation ideas for modifying or customizing recipes. Available in Hardcover and Kindle edition.
This cookbook has been recommended by some as "the new kitchen bible".

Leafy Greens: An A-to-Z Guide to 30 Types of Greens Plus More Than 120 Delicious Recipes is one of Bittman's books which is sure to delight both vegans and non-vegans. From arugula to kale to wakame (a sea vegetable), Bittman offers 120+ healthy recipes to make it easy to go green. Delicious anti-oxidant-packed recipes for salads, soups, stews, stir-fries, etc. Also, nutritional information, advice on buying and cooking greens, and which greens make good substitutes for one another.
* * *
Cooking Basics ~ How to Cook Everything - Emphasis on the Greens


Related Links of Interest
♦ Green Leafy Vegetables: On a Roll With Escarole
♦ Healthy Eating Tips: Eat Your Greens! Drink Your Carrots!
♦ YAPAS (Yet Another Post About Spinach)
♦ Health and Wellness: Where to Find Advice on Healthy Eating and More!


Source: Webnuggetz.com

Friday, April 24, 2020

Round Up! Most Popular Foodie Friday Posts

My "Foodie Friday" posts have been discontinued because work efforts are being concentrated now on My Foodie Luv, a Medium publication, where I can collaborate with other food bloggers and writers, publish original content, and republish some of my content from this blog, Food Ways. This project (along with my other work-at-home projects) is time-consuming. But even though I have discontinued the Foodie Friday post series, there were certain posts that blog visitors and subscribers enjoyed. Below is a recap of the Top 5.  Thank you for your continued support.
















Thursday, April 23, 2020

"Baumkuchen", tasty and historic German cake | Recipes via Foodal

The ingredients for this scrumptious guilty pleasure include apricot jam, dark and white chocolate. Plus it's traditionally served at Christmas.  But you pick any holiday or special event or just treat yourself!

How could you not want a piece of this cake?? 💟


NOTE:  This content was previously published at a site that shut down because the owner passed away.  The link provided is to a copy of the archived content.  The source for the original content is a wonderful food blog named Foodal.com.  They share marvelous recipes.  Their cake recipes are divine!








Sunday, April 19, 2020

Top 10 Tweets for First Quarter of 2020

Food Ways Presented by Everyday Exotic Spices has a companion Twitter account which was started in 2015. As of April 2020, the account has about 500. The results of my examination of the Twitter analytics data indicate that even though the follower count is low, people who view my posts stream really like the tweets. 

For the first quarter of 2020 (January, February, and March) the Tweets earned 65.4K impressions. That may not sound impressive to Twitter influencers who have millions of followers. But impresses me. At least there are some people out there who like the EES tweets. Apparently, people really like avocados. LOL.

Below are the top 10 tweets for the first 3 months of 2020. If you are not already a follower of @EverydaySpices, you are invited to become one.




TWEET (1)


TWEET (2)


TWEET (3)


TWEET (4)


TWEET (5)


TWEET (6)


TWEET (7)


TWEET (8)


TWEET (9)


TWEET (10)


Sunday, April 12, 2020

Sri Lanka Ethnic Cuisine by Melisa Marzett (Guest Post)

Sri Lanka national cuisine is based on plant products:  rice, corn, peas, lentils, and other beans.  Also, all sorts of flour made out of pulse crops and vegetables are an integral part of the local cuisine.

Spice shop in Kandy Market, Sri Lanka By McKay Savage [CC BY 2.0],

Rice is the basis of many of the national dishes in Sri Lanka. It is spiced with curry, seasoning and other local ingredients here, with seafood and fruits, coconut flakes and vegetables.  The combinations, at first sight, are unbelievable!


Traditionally, the food is prepared in either handmade crockery-ware or metallic crockery over an open fire. There are a lot of seasoning and sauces in traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, which is why it is practically impossible to define its unique taste. Curry is the most popular seasoning. But there is also, a hot sauce antiaris made of fruits with seasonings, red hot sauce masala, miti kiri dry coconut milk, cut thin mix of onion and salt, dry fish, red pepper and lemon lunumiris, a ginger hand in syrup and other exotic seasonings are common.


The Ceylonese (Sri Lankans in Singapore) consume a huge number of fruits and greens. They make salads out of different fresh vegetables and fruits or just some greens using traditional tomatoes, pepper, onion, bamboo runoffs and a various exotic assortment, including some special tree leaves, banana palm flower, and algae. Meat is not consumed much due to the cows to being considered holy animals. Instead, they eat a lot of and a variety of seafood.


Sri Lanka courses:

  • Roti, which is a rice cake, a daily course in Sri Lanka
  • Appa, which is rice-flour and coconut milk pancakes. They look like typical pancakes but whiter and more transparent.
  • Indi appa, which is rice pasta made of rice flour of course.
  • Pitta, which is boiled steamed rice-coconut mix in bamboo handle.
  • Kiribath, which is pink rice, boiled in coconut milk.


Tea is the main drink in Sri Lanka. But fruit juice and coconut milk are preferred drinks as well. As for the local alcohol, it is better for a traveler not to become familiar with it. Alcoholic beverages are available but there is basically no purification procedure for making the local alcohol so most Europeans or westerners may not appreciate the taste. As for the local Lion beer, it is brewed in accordance with classic recipes. It is not expensive and some who drink it say it's very delicious.


About the author: Melisa Marzett whose current activity is writing for Pure writing company always welcome a new writing challenge. She is passionate about writing, which is why what comes out is interesting to read.










Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Food and Drink History Lesson : English Tea (Guest Post)

Tea in England

Author: AnutaVasil


The English primarily drank coffee and wine as their staple drink, and tea was unknown in England till as late as 1662. In 1662 Charles II married Catherine of Braganza of Portugal, and it was his new bride who brought with her a preference of tea. She served tea instead of wine, ale and spirit. Tea soon acquired the status of royal drink and a social nicety for the rich.


However, tea's acceptance by British masses was quite slow. It was in late 1700 that tea's popularity picked up. As tea came from British colonies, it came to be viewed as a national drink, with patriotic sentiments attached to it. Another reason which contributed to its popularity was the ease of its preparation technique. While coffee grounds could be brewed only once, and reusing the same ground yielded a much inferior flavour, tea leaves could be brewed several times without any significant drop in the quality of liquor. As tea was a high class drink and hence expensive, the British masses bought second hand, brewed leaves and brewed them longer to compensate. Tea was thus gradually finding place in British everyday life.

Soon, tea began to be sold in London coffee houses. Tea was heavily advertised as a medicinal drink which helped maintain health and beauty. The coffee house owners charged heavily for a cup of tea, as much as 6-10 pounds per cup. The government soon imposed various taxes, regulations and restrictions on sale of tea, with a view to cash in on the growing tea trend. This even led to tea being smuggled into England. Finally the taxes were waived off to stop this illegal smuggling.

Tea, meanwhile, continued to grow in popularity. Around 1800, there developed an "Afternoon tea" culture, wherein rich ladies invited their friends for a cup of tea in the afternoon. They also served pastries, sandwiches or some snack along with it. It was accompanied by social graces, refined conversation, sweet gossip and polished etiquette. Yet another popular tea trend was serving tea in tea gardens. Pleasure gardens like Vauxhall or Ranelagh Gardens provided lush lawns for public to stroll and enjoy a hot cup of tea. The working class, however, took a break from work in the evening, and relaxed with tea.

The most well liked and sought after teas were English breakfast tea and Earl Grey. English breakfast tea, as its name, was consumed mostly in the morning as its strong caffeine helped shake off sleepiness and start the morning energetically. It blended sumptuously with milk and sugar, and could be enjoyed anytime of the day. The Earl Grey provided a classic blend of fine black tea with bergamot essence. It was considered more sophisticated a tea.

In 1875, Thomas Lipton aggressively advertised tea. He replaced the coffee gardens in Ceylon with tea plantations, and opened his first tea shop. By the end of 19th century, he had almost set up his Tea Empire and laid the foundations of modern tea trade. The Indian and Ceylon blends, Brooke Bond and Lipton found a firm place in British everyday life. Tea had finally "arrived" in England.


About the Content Provider
History of Tea and Tea Shops

Article made available for republication via: articlesbase.com

***
BLOG PUBLISHER'S COMMENTS:   Hope you enjoyed this article.  Do you also enjoy tea?  Before you leave this please click the link to visit.





http://shantiriiessence-blog.tumblr.com/post/12471507737

Monday, February 17, 2020

Food Blog Spotlight: Pork Lo Mein - Make Takeout at Home | The Desert Cook (Reblog)

Food blogger Candy Dorsey publishes her own blog and also food-related Wizzley pages (see widget below). Reblogging / sharing the link to her post about pork lo mein. It's a Chinese takeout dish for you to make at home.  Not only is the dish delicious and easy to make but did you know that for the Chinese people, noodles are a “symbol of longevity”?


Pork Lo Mein - Make Takeout at Home |
The Desert Cook




♦ ♦ ♦ 

For those who celebrate, Chinese New Year, Candy also has a recipe for Chinese New Year Balls, which I'm sharing as well.  The new year celebrations for 2020 have come and gone, but every year is a new year!  Chinese New Year for 2021 will be February 12.  Mark your calendars.

Always wishing you peace, prosperity, good health and a long and wonderful life!



Chinese New Year Balls


Chinese New Year Balls

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 2 tsp. baking powder dash of salt Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl stir together all wet ingredients. Add to flour mixture all at once and stir just till moistened. Heat about 2" of cooking oil in a deep pot.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Candy's Recipes on Wizzley!





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