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COMING SOON………Jealous?

What an awesome conversation I had with Zena, owner of Zena SASS Everything Sauce. Believe or not but, I’m not the one to hold a conversation over the phone. But, for some reason my ear held on and I wanted to hear more.Her voice alone sounded as like it had angel wings moving through soft fluffy clouds. Kind of made me feel I was tucked in bed and I can see bright stars following her every moves.

Santa Cruz has an angel and her name is Zena. Although in her early career, she to experienced some trials and tribulations as the great Gods once did. Not only food she had her hand in. She has exceeded in graphic arts, interior design, skiing, dancing which she talked about for 10 minutes on the phone and a stint in business management. Maybe her name should have been the Warrior Princess. You know Lucy Lawless. I know she has the letter Z and the Warrior Princess is with a letter X, yes I get it!

A couple of years ago the Gods led her to make a comeback into the food world. Coming back with her which she has perfected overtime into her recipe is called SASS, the “Everything Sauce”. Sassy Almond Sesame Sauce to be exact. As you can see above she also developed other flavors as well. Sassy Peanut Sesame Sauce comes in regular and hot. Almond as well. Not to mention, she didn’t forget the diabetic community, all four sauces are
gluten free and low glycemic.

Take a look at my video while I give a detail look at the sauces.

What’s always all natural, forever handmade, and completely vegan? Malcolm. What is gourmet extra virgin olive oils by Tasty World. Correct for five hundred points!

Over the weekend I had so much fun with these oils. A few days earlier, I received 15 bottles such as; EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) w/ Basil, Orange, Garlic, White & black Truffles, Rosemary, and many more. This past weekend, I only used 2 of them.

The first EVOO bottle I used was infused with Garlic. Right away I knew what I was going to do. The plan is getting some family members involved in the process. We’re going to make pizza. Homemade pizza that is. Homemade pizza that is. The very first thing I did was have a tablespoon of the EVOO.  I opened the bottle for a quick smell. That smell made my eyebrow raised and created a little smirk with my lips. You can definitely tell the garlic his present but not overbearing. It’s rich, smooth, silky, and the shine is paramount.  At that time, I’m totally confident knowing how I’m going to utilize the oil.

I quickly asked myself. Why not use the oils on every pizza we’re making and go with coordinating Italian flavors. So I grabbed another bottle of EVOO with Basil this time. Incorporating the oils into the pizza dough and also topping when it’s done for an extra infused taste.  I did the same with the garlic earlier and having a tablespoon to taste. I absolutely love the aroma. I also brushed the crust with it to have that nice golden brown look.

According to Tasty World “say good bye to bad tasting supermarket oils”. I’m a true believer on what they are doing and you should be too. However Tasty World is experiencing some challenges ahead. To achieve a broader audience, they’re looking to improve their current machines and other equipment to provide their oils. To get a good look on what they’re trying to accomplish please visit them on KickStarter.

 

I’m a true believer that a good marinade comes in threes. It is also my job to get you to think the how I think. The best thing “Man ever made is marinade or sauce”. Period. Two lovely marketing representatives of  Teryaki World informed me they have the best teriyaki sauce. As soon she said that, I knew I had to have my hands on it.

This is no ordinary teriyaki sauce review. It is well beyond standard. This is how it went down. Let’s see, I believe I received the package Saturday morning  from Hawaii. Since I live in the northeast , New Yorkers were getting slammed by a snow storm. Lucky Hawaiians’ . From being snowed in I used what I had in the house. A little saying my mother used to say “pot luck is what we having”. Now that I’m grown that saying doesn’t bother me.

I opened my fridge. Surprisingly it’s stocked, but I don’t feel like prepping, cooking or even baking especially from shoveling all day. Finally I looked down and there was a glowing aura surrounding a bag of mix salad. I quickly began  to brain storm. I turned around to one of my counter tops. The package from Hawaii is glowing too. It’s go time.

I opened The All Natural Teriyaki Marinade bottle to taste. My eyes blinked several times and I’m completely surprised. It’s not salty. Literally I can take a shot of this. Again it’s not salty. Usually I stay away from teriyaki sauces like Kikkoman or Lowery’s, because of its high sodium content. I glanced on the back of the bottle. Clearly it states Non GMO. Above everything else, it has great balance between the ginger and garlic, not over powering, and the right proportion of sugar. Oh yeah, I forgot it’s gluten free. Here’s what I did:

CLICK COMPARE THE SODIUM CONTENT: KIKKOMAN TERIYAKI SAUCE, LOWERY’S TERIYAKI SAUCE, MAUI MAID

Ingredients

• 1 Bag of store-bought Spring Salad Mix
•  2 medium sized chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1/2 of medium sized onion, thinly sliced into halves
• 1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 of an navel orange, thinly sliced
• 1 cup of Maui Maid All Natural Teriyaki Sauce to marinate

Directions

Marinate Chicken w/ Maui Maid All Natural Teriyaki Sauce about 30- 1 hour before cooking

Pour about half of the Spring Salad mix into a bowl, set aside.

Completely peel orange, then cut into half, then into slices. Same w/ onion, set aside.

Cook chicken on stove top or on grill until done and tender.

Combine orange and onion slice together w/ Spring Salad mix and top w/ Chicken.

Top w/ Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic vinegar.

Optional: you can also top w/ parsley or sesame seeds.

Blender smoothies are easy smoothies – you just put all ingredients in a blender, push a button to process, and pour to enjoy. It’s so simple, so efficient and so nutritious that all people should make it a daily habit.

The kitchen blender is a tool that is more often than not overlooked; in reality, a blender is a high powered tool. Not only does it make smoothies, but it can process other foods as well, like pureeing baby foods or making desserts or preparing soups recipes or making juices of some fruits. In relation to smoothies, the normal kitchen blender is a versatile tool that transforms fresh fruit into something easily digestible and drinkable with just the slightest touch or flick of a button.

A FEW BLENDERS TO CONSIDER, LOOK BELOW!

A stainless steel blender body (or carafe) maintains the temperature of the liquid so this is perfect for making smoothies. However, a glass carafe albeit heavy, will be able to resist scratches better. The top of your blender should have a spout and a top that can be opened at least partially to add more ingredients while blending. These should be at the top of your list when considering a blender for smoothie use.

To make smoothies, you should also take into account the ingredients you will be using. Most smoothies use either fruits (most common ones are bananas, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes or raspberries) or vegetables (even broccoli, cauliflower florets and spinach are used) with its liquid form either as is or as a combination of water, juice, yogurt or milk. Mothers usually use blender smoothies to “lure” their children into drinking vegetable smoothies, sometimes without the children knowing that they are actually ingesting nutritious leafy greens.

Blender smoothies works for dieters too, and even body builders. Protein can work their way into the system via smoothies – nothing that a little whey or protein powder won’t do. Some healthy conscious people drink smoothies with either artificial sweeteners or honey instead of the usual  table sugar. For people who are having difficulty in eating, smoothies are also a good way to get them to eat something nutritious.

Aside from the right equipment, having a smoothie recipe book is also a good way to explore the many kinds of healthy smoothies that are out there. For this purpose, I recommend something like “Sensational Smoothies: Drink Your Way To Health Deliciously”. Most recipe books these days are classified according to the health goals that they intend to achieve, such as for dieting, for an energy boost, or for meal replacements. They make it really easy for us to have a variety of recipes to achieve our own goals.

All in all, smoothies are easy to make and good for you. So start a daily smoothie habit today!

If you are on the look out for amazing diet smoothie recipes, do check out “Sensational Smoothies: Drink Your Way To Health Deliciously”. This amazing ebook contains over 180 smoothie recipes designed to keep you fit and happy. The recipes featured are kitchen tested and have been certified to taste as good as they are healthy. To view a list of recipes click the bold link.

Ladies and gentlemen I have the hottest pieces of chocolate in my hands. No literally. These hand crafted artisan chocolates are produced by Lenny Award winners for best sweets, Renee Rohrbach and Chef Ricky Sanders owners of The Madison Chocolatier.

A couple of days ago Renee introduced herself and her hot product to the hottest food review online, Food Nation NY. So, I guess you can call it a match made in hell. In our first initial conversation, she actually gave me the option to select several pieces. I quickly rubbed my hands in an up and down motion like some villain in a cartoon or something. I’m thinking to myself, this is going to be hard. She replied as a heads up “please allow 5-7 days, because they’re made to order.” I had chosen the Zinger Truffles, Brazilian Wedding Grapes, and the Sweet Burn Butter Toffee.

First we have the Zinger Truffles. To be completely honest, I love how Chef Sanders thinks. He takes Szechuan peppercorns and blends it perfectly with an unknown tea. Now, I have a pretty good palette, but I couldn’t lay a finger on this one. Maybe we can ask him later. The dark chocolate outside just hugs the inside giving you unforgettable sensations in your mouth.

Secondly, I experienced The Brazilian Wedding Grapes (see above). OMG! It’s so good when it touches your lips. Frank the Tank in the movie Old School remember? As you can see above, Chef Sanders uses green grapes and I can see why, for its tartness obviously. It complemented well with creamy caramel. Mimicking a candy apple almost. The outer shell is dark chocolate which is the final element that brings all the flavors together. Killer Combination right here!

Finally I recommend getting a glass of milk for this one. This is the evil one out of the three, The Sweet Burn Butter Toffee. Why is it the evil one you might ask. Two words. Ghost Pepper. Don’t worry this treat has a cavalry. Bacon baby, and the toffee and chocolate serves as the relief. Every bit of flavor simply competes in your mouth. If you love spice, I’ll tell youthe Ghost Pepper wins every time.

Hey guys Malcolm here, and do I have a treat for you. This killer concoction hails from the Thunderhead Gardens of Western Montana. And get this. These guys raise all kinds of goodies from; Chile and jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes, herbs and various types of fruit.

What if these guys got creative and made a sauce using ingredients grown from their own farm (light comes on). Adding key elements like garlic, apple cider, brown sugar, roasted chipotle peppers and fresh raspberry juice. Not to mention using mesquite wood for a smokiness taste. Guess what? They did, and they call it Thunderhead Raspberry Chipotle Sauce.

So I have this Holy bottle in my hands. I’m looking up into the heavens. I asked myself, what can I make that can hold up to a protein that I may choose?  A couple months back, I did an article with Fischer & Wieser’s sauce. My creative juices then went with scallops on a bed of spring lettuce with a touch of roasted peanuts. It’s crazy because some strange voice spoke to me sounding like Emeril Lagasse “let’s kick it up a notch”. Okay! So here’s what I did. Real simple:

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of Thunderhead Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 12 medium scallops
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 slices prosciutto
• 2 cups arugula
• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Directions

The diet of our ancestors is completely different from what we are so accustomed to these days. With the advancement of technology, the types of foods we consume are dragged along. A trip to the grocery store will shock you with aisles and aisles of processed food items and animal products. You will not have a hard time finding fast food when eating out as practically every corner of the street has one.

Even fad diets are partly to blame, for introducing a whole new eating habit, such as high-protein diets. In the recent years, consumption of animal products and refined food items has increased, as more and more people leave out the daily supply of fruits and vegetables in their diet.

It comes as no surprise why, these days, many are suffering from different types of allergies, bone diseases, heart problems and many others. Some health experts link these diseases to the type of foods we eat. There are certain types of food that disrupts a certain balance in our body that, during such instance, health problems arise. If only we could modify our eating habits, it’s not unlikely that prevention of diseases and restoration of health is achieved.

The Importance of Alkaline

Our bodies need to maintain a healthy and steady alkaline to acid ratio, which is signified by the pH level of our body. The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, and anything lower than 7 is considered acidic. Processed food items, meat and meat products, sweets, and some beverages and condiments generally produce excessive amounts of acidity in the body.

Acidosis, abnormally high acidity level in the blood and other tissues of the body, is the one thing that several different diseases have one thing in common. And many health experts believe that acidosis is responsible for a lot of fatal diseases that many people are afflicted with these days.

Alkaline, on the other hand, naturally occurs in the body to neutralize excess acidity in the body, which is its main role. However, alkaline also becomes depleted at times – especially when there’s too much acid it needs to get rid of, and we do not consume foods that replenish our body’s alkalinity.

Maintaining a Healthy pH Level

As mentioned earlier, acidosis leads to many health-related problems. Dangerous levels of acid get to circulate in our body and break into tissues and organs when not properly neutralized. To prevent this, one must see to it that a healthy pH balance in the body is maintained. And to offset the excessive amounts of acid is to increase your body’s alkalinity.

Determining whether or not your pH levels are prevalently alkaline may be done with easy-to-use pH level strips which you can purchase in drug stores or medical supplies stores. There are pH level strips meant for testing using your saliva, and there are those for using your urine.

Basically, a saliva pH level strip will determine how much acid your body is producing; normally it’s between 6.5 and 7.5 throughout the day. While a urine pH level strip will tell how well you excrete excess amounts of acid; you should get between 6.0 and 6.5 in the morning and between 6.5 and 7.0 at night.

The Dangers of Excessive Acid

If you constantly experience exhaustion, headaches and having frequent colds and flu, then that could be it – you have high acid levels in your body. But the ill effects of acidosis in the body don’t stop there; you might be surprised at the wide-ranging types of diseases you could get with dangerous levels of acid in your body.

Depression, hyperacidity, ulcer, skin dryness, acne and obesity are some of those linked to excessive acid levels in the body. Then there are those that are more serious such as joint diseases, osteoporosis, bronchitis, frequent infections and heart diseases.

Even if you begin to take medications for these illnesses, the symptoms may be masked, but they will still continue to affect your health as you are not attacking them from their roots. No matter what medications you take – pills, anti-inflammatory and the like – your body will only become more acidic because of these medications.

Alkaline Diet Approach

To get to the roots of these health problems, the body’s pH level must be brought back to normal. There are alkaline foods that can help replenish the depleted alkaline levels in the body while neutralizing excess amounts of acid. Through an alkaline diet, sufficient amounts of alkaline are re-introduced into the body, thus bringing back the pH level to predominantly alkaline.

So how do you incorporate an alkaline diet into your eating habits? First, you can start by cutting down your intake of processed foods. These type of foods contain chemicals that only increase the acidity of your body ones they’re digested. Second, steer clear of meat and meat products, dairies and alcohol. Third, load up on fresh fruits and vegetables, as they naturally are high in alkalinity.

Even acidic fruits like oranges and lemons become alkaline after they have been digested and absorbed by the body. As a general rule, 75% of your daily food consumption should consist of alkalizing foods. The more alkaline foods we provide our bodies with, the more efficient the neutralization of excess acids will be.

Discover how you can kick start alkaline diet at Emma Deangela’s site CLICK HERE!!

You may want to ask yourself this; Where to buy sea salt caramels or just finding a caramel candy store online. Well this past Valentine’s weekend a little package from Colbert, Washington arrived at my door step. I thought, maybe it’s a secret admirer of some sort, but better it was Divine Caramel Creations. I opened the shipping box and I quickly glanced at an angel holding a basket of treats. I also thought I got everything out of the shipping box but another treat was waiting. Beneath the red wrapping paper was their newest creation, Caramel Apple stack.

Where do I start? I’m writing this article and sampling their Vanilla Sea Salt Caramel. The first thing I thought of is a small glass of milk. Yeah right. I will have a bad afternoon if you know what I mean. So that thought quickly vanished. As soon as I knew it I had another. The first one I tried I put the whole thing in my mouth. That’s way I like to eat candy. Unlike most caramels it doesn’t get stuck in your teeth. That’s a good thing. As the caramel starts to melt away, the sea salt arrives to compete with the sweetness of the caramel. My first swallow was paramount. I actually tasted the vanilla in the back of my tongue to ease conflict between the saltiness and sweetness. I wanted this to happen again, and that is why I had another.

Even though I have Huckleberry, Cinnamon Apple Cranberry, and Expresso Sea Salt caramels in my possession, I have to try this Apple Stack. I mean look at it. As you can see, that nice layer of creamy caramel covering dried apple rings. Mind you Ellie, the founder of DCC and her staff picks, peels, slices and dehydrates apples from orchards surrounding her business.

So I opened the candy wrapper and the apple tart aroma cruises out. You know its tart when your glands starts to react. I tried to tear myself a piece without the pecans falling off. Speaking of the pecans, it’s a great canvas for texture in my opinion. As mentioned above the apples are dehydrated and they’re kind of stacked against each other. That itself creates another element of surprises on your palate. Then finally the caramel starts to melt away but then again it acts like a bonding agent to hold everything together. Ellie is pure genius in my book.

Today is a good day, I get to experience a gourmet coffee cake from Christine Welch’s The Coffeecake Connection Company. I guess my excitement all started with the packaging. It’s nicely done in a coffee brown color box and bow tied with various brown colors. I opened the box and the nicest aroma of cinnamon swiftly moves across my nose. What great joy knowing I’m going to enjoy today’s breakfast accompanied with a cup of Joe.

Okay here’s the skinny. I think I’m the first person to try their newest creation. Can we say gluten free? Christine indicated to me they’re looking at March for its release to the public. Anyway from that aroma alone it’s clear I’m sampling their Cinnamon Swirl Cake A Lette coffeecake. Again it’s gluten free.  I asked myself this;  if the cake is beautiful as the actual cover, I can only imagine how the cake stacks up. Speaking of stack, it’s not. One layered, obviously. As I cut me a couple of slices…sorry diet. I’ve noticed inside darken cinnamon and brown sugar swirls, but there’s definitely some other spices I just can’t put my finger on.

How to care for your cake? This is something Christine and The Connection’s strongly believes in. Here are few things to you should consider. First off, when baked they use the freshest ingredients. No nuts just in case you’re wondering. Absolutely no artificial colors, no flavoring, and no preservatives. So when the time comes and you want save a slice, haven’t it frozen is truly an option. You can freeze your cake up to 6 months without losing its freshness. If you’re like me, devouring it within 3 – 5 days is recommended.

Okay moving on. Let’s say you want to heat it up. Here’s my theory, skip nuking it altogether. You have to care for this like a lady. Remember that part in Wedding Crashers. I know what Jeremy is talking about. Place the cake on a cooking sheet into the oven and heat give or take between 170-285 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

By me writing this article, I finished the cake and half of the coffee pot is gone. So whatever I wrote about the movie Wedding Crashers is out the door. Ha! With Valentine’s, Easter, and Mother’s Day approaching this here and along with Apple Caramel Cinnamon, Eggnog, multiple fruit cakes and their Signature cake are great gifts. Here’s how….