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In today’s society, we’re faced with all the turmoil of healthy living. Are we causing our own demise with all of the chemicals that are sprayed on, or used to grow our healthiest foods? Organic chicken and other foods, tell us that our bodies will appreciate the good that it does.

For one, organically grown chicken uses all natural products. No arsenic, herbicides, or pesticides.

You may be thinking, what do these things have to do with organic chicken? Well let’s look at the arsenic first. Arsenic is feed to most chickens in their feed. They use it to control intestinal parasites. Yes it can kill you in larger amounts, or can increase your risk of cancer. The arsenic is absorbed through inhalation as well as digestion.

Herbicides and pesticides also contain lots of harmful chemicals. These chemicals leave residue on whatever it is sprayed on and your chicken can pick it up through skin absorption.

Farmers who raise organic chicken use natural fertilizers like manure or compost to richen soil and plants. They also rely on certain insects, birds, mating disruptions, or traps to control pests and disease.When managing weeds, consider hand weeding, tilling, rotating crops, or mulching.

Another great benefit that you won’t find in organic chicken is antibiotics. Instead organic chicken farmers allow more outdoor access, rotation of grazing areas, balanced diet and clean housing to minimize any sickness.

You may not get much more nutritional value from organic chicken but, you will definitely feel better without all of the added chemicals that can “bog” your body down and increase your risk of cancer. It’s a much more cleaner product that also helps in reducing water consumption. Great way to go green.

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It was once a ritual usually performed by a man. He would put some salt where the bottom of the thumb met his wrist. After licking the salt, he would take a swig of tequila from a shot glass and then bite into a piece of lime. Ladies were not too fond of this and always drank their tequila mixed into a cocktail. Tequila is listed as a spirit and distilled from the sugar sap of the blue agave plant then fermenting it and producing a liquor with a distinctive taste. Tequila was sold exclusively in Mexico until the nineteen-nineties when sipping it became trendy in the Southwestern region of the United States. The price of tequila varies from the modest to the more expensive depending upon the quality of the producer. Now with the demands of authenticity, the premium brands are truly appreciated world-wide.

Traditionally, tequila has always been served in a two-ounce glass, or caballito at room temperature or enjoyed ice cold with some bottled lime juice added or just a squeeze of the lime itself. A famous glass company in Austria introduced a six and
three-fourth ounce glass for sipping tequila that fully allows the taste of it to be fully appreciated by the glass’s shape.

The distillers of tequila have to follow strict guidelines set by the Mexican government and be bottled at the distillery in the Tequila region of Mexico. There are two general categories and four types of tequila. Blanco, or silver is clear and transparent and has a stronger flavor. Oro, or Gold has added colorants and flavorings producing a caramel color with a mellow flavor. Reposado, or rested in oak casts from two months up to one year. It has a mellower taste that is gentler to the palate. Afiejo, or aged is a blanco, a clear tequila kept in white oak casts for more than a year. Reserve is a special
Afiejo, aged tequila kept in oak casts for up to eight years. It is priced much higher than the premium brands.

The drink recipes below are from www.itequila.org for more of an authentic taste.

A tequila sunrise is a great way to start a weekend morning while eating a breakfast taco and imagining the sun as it rises over Acapulco Bay. Note: For a non-alcoholic version, a favorite brand of sparkling mineral water is substituted.

Tequila Sunrise

2-oz of ice-cold tequila
4-oz orange juice
1-oz grenadine
Pour orange juice into a highball glass and then pour the
Ice-cold tequila slowly tilting the glass to get a layered effect.Trickle the grenadine on top to get a perfect sunrise .Garnish a cocktail stirrer with an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

A tequila sour mimics a whiskey sour using an Afeijo, or aged
tequila for a better taste.

Tequila Sour
1-1/2 oz. tequila
2-oz. lemon juice
1-tsp. sugar

Blend ingredients with crushed ice and strain into a sour glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

After a workday, happy hour is a way of winding down in the larger cities of Texas.Everyone heads to their favorite Mexican restaurant and orders either a blended frozen margarita or one that has been classically prepared in a cocktail shaker.

Classic Margarita

2-oz. Tequila
1-oz Triple Sec
oz. Mexican lime juice

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice that might be in cubes, coarsely chopped, or finely crushed. Rim a glass with salt by rubbing the rim of a margarita or a martini glass with a slice of lime and then pressing the glass lightly on a plate filled with a fine salt.

For the home bartender, a frozen margarita is blended and then poured into frosty margarita or martini glasses that have been rinsed out with cold water and put into the freezer.

Frozen Margarita

Into a five cup blender:

4-cups of ice from a bag of commercial ice cubes
2-oz tequila
1-oz. Grand Marnier
1-oz Cointreau

2-oz. bottled lime juice
4-cups of a commercially prepared liquid margarita mix

Directions: Blend all of the ingredients then pour into a frosty
margarita or a martini glass and garnish with the lime slice that
has been twisted into an S shape.

The author grew up in Texas where drinking tequila or mixing it
into cocktails is a very common practice.

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Merlot wine is a rich, soft wine with the flavor of blackberries, beloved because it is seldom harsh and not as acidic as a Cabernet Sauvignon with which it is often blended. Merlot wine has the added advantage of being rich and supple but only moderately tannic and, therefore, wonderfully drinkable from early on.

The Merlot grape is larger and thinner skinned than the Cabernet grape. It has an opulent texture that goes admirably with h’ordeuves or as a dinner drink. Similar to the soft Algerian wines of the Pied Noirs, Merlot wine is used to round out and add complexity to Cabernets.

in today’s world, Merlot wine is a premium varietal in its own right. Merlot wine is a round sensual wine that does not need the same care in aging. So Merlot wine can be a splendidly pragmatic and commendable choice for many occasions.

Merlot wine is so popular due to the fact that it is softer, fruitier, and earlier-maturing than cabernet sauvignon, yet displays many of the same aromas and flavors - black cherry, currant, cedar, and green olive - along with mint, tobacco and tea-leaf tones.

The most critically acclaimed Merlot wines are dark, rich and strong. Aromas include scents of plums, black cherry, toffee, chocolate, violets, orange and tea.

Merlot Wine Tip:

Merlot wine is a good accompaniment to simply prepared beef and lamb dishes.

Wine Ratings - Wine ratings, wine and winery related information for the enjoyment of fine wines.

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When deciding to bake cookies, a lot of questions come to mind.
How to use baking powder. What is corn starch? What do I have to
do if I don’t find some ingredients? Etc. In this article I will
approach a few problems and give some easy answers and tips.

You decided to bake some cookies and at the last minutes a lot
of questions arise. Oven temperature, chewy or crispy cookies,
eggs size, and so forth. I tried in this short article to
address a few common problems and give a quick solution or an
explanation.

How to Make Chewy Cookies

The secret in making any cookie recipe into a soft and chewy
cookie is to use Butter flavored Crisco instead of butter. If
you want a crispy cookie use butter. Another trick to have
chewier cookies is to cut your baking time by about 2 minutes
(baked at the temperature stated on the recipe. Your cookies
should be baked through but not yet crispy. You can also reduce
your oven temperature by 25 degrees and bake for the time stated
on the recipe. Always bake one batch according to the recipe the
first time you try a new recipe and then make the adjustments
based on how it came out. Make a note of your changes and keep
your “customized” recipe for the next time.

Baking Soda or Baking Powder ? Baking powder is alkaline and
needs to be mixed with acidic ingredients in order to react.
Baking powder is baking soda with an added acidic ingredient,
usually cream of tartar. In cookies, baking soda tends to make
them spread out more and baking powder tends to make them rise
and become puffy or more cake-like. If your recipe calls for
baking soda, simply try to reduce it a bit.

Make Chilled Dough for Better Results

Make sure the dough is chilled and the baking sheets are cool
before putting them in the oven. Otherwise the fat in the
cookies will melt too soon, resulting in flat cookies regardless
of the leavener you are using. Note that vegetable shortening
(e.g. Crisco) melts a higher temperature than butter. You can
try then to substitute half the butter with Crisco.

Beware of nutritional information

You might one day read a recipe that has, for example, 2 sticks
of margarine or butter. The nutritional information will read
‘0′ cholesterol. Why so? It is because the nutritional for
recipes are calculated using the first ingredient when two
ingredients are given. For example, when it says “margarine or
butter”, the nutritional are calculated using margarine. If
butter were listed first, it would be calculated using butter.

Dark or Shiny Pan?

Remember the darker the finish on the pan, the faster the sheet
will heat and the longer it will hold the heat. The shinier the
pan you use, the longer it will take to heat up. Dark absorbs
heat, so your bottoms will be done more quickly then the tops or
centers. By the time your tops and centers are baked, your
bottoms will be crispy if not downright burnt. Shiny reflects
heat and your cookies will bake more evenly.

How many trays in the oven?

Don’t try to crowd too many cookie sheets into your oven at
once.. Your best results will be one tray at a time on the
middle rack of the oven with plenty of room for the warm air to
circulate around the tray. Don’t keep opening your oven to peek.
Every time you do that, you loose warmth and your oven will have
to struggle to maintain the correct temperature.

The tips and answers that you just have read will give you a
better reason to start cooking your own cookies at home. You
will find all possible recipes in the various articles that are
n the author’s website. Before baking your cookies check the
website for new recipes and ideas.

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Seafood contains essential oils that are an important part of your diet. Oils provide the source of energy we need and they are also great flavor enhancers. More importantly, they are a source of significant fatty acids.

Seafood oils are unique and have great nutritional benefits to our body. This oil contains the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, specifically the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Our body only produces small amounts of these important fatty acids; therefore we need to rely on other sources for this essential nourishment. Seafood is one of the best sources of these nutrients. In fact, oils are the second biggest components in most seafood.

Eating seafood just once or twice a week can provide good health benefits. Eating fresh seafood is a great way to obtain your required dose of these essential oils. Oils extracted from seafood are also available as nutritional supplements.

Oils derived from seafood help prevent some of the most deadly diseases today, including Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, arteriosclerosis, bipolar disorder, bronchitis, cancer, heart diseases and more.

The omega-3 oils decrease the risk of heart diseases, high blood pressure and rheumatoid arthritis. They are also beneficial to infants’ brain and eye development.

The oils in seafood can also prevent osteoporosis. This is because the oils improve calcium absorption in our bones and can prevent the bones from becoming brittle.

According to recent findings, Omega-3 also helps improve people’s immune functions, thereby reducing infections.

Seafood oils are known to have properties that lower blood pressure, benefiting especially those suffering from hypertension.

Another kind of oil found in seafood is the omega-6 fatty acid. This is important for growth and plays an important role in people’s health and well-being.

Eating a seafood diet can also help you reduce weight. For years, seafood has been part of many weight loss programs. This is because, unlike diet pills, seafood is natural and has beneficial properties to people.

However, fish can rot quickly. Therefore, you should cook it the day you buy it. Here are some tips for preparing seafood:

* If you do not plan to cook the fresh seafood the day you buy it, you should store it for no longer than two days at very cold temperatures.

* If you are going to thaw the fish, keep it in the refrigerator or thaw it under cold water. Do not leave it to thaw on your kitchen counter. This is because the nutritional value of the seafood may diminish.

* You can prepare many delicious seafood dishes from great seafood recipes. You can fry or grill seafood. You can combine it with fruits and vegetables to make it even more delicious. You can marinate it and further enhance its flavor and get rid of its unique smell.

* Some people do not want to eat seafood for fear of choking on the tiny bones. In this case you can request the fish store to help you remove these fish bones.

Remember that seafood is not only delicious; it can also provide wonderful benefits to your health.

If you want to learn more about Seafood visit scrumptious-seafood.info. Susan also writes at home-and-family-hub.info.

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The best possible water to use for infusing tea is well water. But here are the alternatives for us city folk:

Tips for a pure brew:

* Tea leaves love spring water, so use it if you have it available. This is my first choice because it is the next best thing to well water.

* Use purified or filtered water. Don’t use water directly from your tap unless you live in an area where tap water is drinkable. Your tap water may be absolutely fine for other things like boiling pasta or steaming veggies, but could have contaminants that will make your tea taste funny. The easiest solution for most people is a Brita pitcher with a built-in filter. They are widely available.

* Run tap water for 30 seconds before putting into your kettle (assuming your filter is attached to your faucet). This oxygenates water that has been sitting in your pipes.

* Distilled water does not make good tea. It does not have its minerals and can make a flat-tasting pot of tea.

Use the best water you can in your teapot and you are halfway to a divine infusion.

Temperature, Quantity, Timing

Just as important as water quality is water temperature, amount of tea, and timing your steep.

I recommend beginning with the rule of thumb for your type of tea and start experimenting from there.

When I began, I had no idea idea how to brew and I over steeped green tea many times. (I pour undrinkable tea into my potted geraniums. They love it and it doesn’t go to waste.)

Your green or white tea will get bitter fast when it meets too-hot water. This is one of my pet peeves in establishments using scalding water for their tea service. Use a candy or meat thermometer to measure the temperature (at least in the beginning).

Green/white tea
* 160 - 175 F (70 - 80 C)
* Steep for 1-3 minutes

Oolong tea
* 180 - 190 F (82 - 88 C)
* Steep for 3-5 minutes

Black tea

* 212F (but don’t let it boil too long) (100 C)
* Steep for 3-5 minutes

The quantity of tea you put in your teapot will make a difference. In general, I put approximately 1 teaspoon and a slight bit more per cup of water in a Yixing Teapot or my grandmother’s tiny Brown Betty. (Both are clay pots, one unglazed and one glazed.)

More tea equals a stronger brew. A stronger brew may be desirable when cooking with tea, making iced tea, or it may just be your preference. Longer steeping equals bitter green or white tea. Black tea can handle longer steeping. It’s up to you!

copyright 2006 Terry Calamito

TO USE THIS ARTICLE KEEP RESOURCE BOX AND LIVE LINK INTACT. Tea Educator and Healthy Lifestyle Advocate Terry Calamito publishes the fr*ee online mini-course “Start Sipping.” If you’re a tea lover or just want to increase your knowledge about tea’s health benefits and maybe slow down a little to have a cup, subscribe for free at http://www.switchtotea.com

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The colored candy sticks cookie recipe is a perfect one to bake
with the children. A little bit of white chocolate and colored
sugar will make the “fun factor” go off the scale!

Ingredients
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter,
softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking
powder
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2
cups all-purpose flour
Assorted food coloring

Dipping Chocolate:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1
tablespoon shortening

Topping:
Colored sugars or decorative candies

Hardware
Large bowl
Medium bowl
1-quart
saucepan
Cookie sheets
Cookie press with star shape

Waxed paper
Mixer

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Step 2:
In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on
medium-high speed for 30 seconds.
Step 3: Add
granulated sugar and baking powder and beat until combined.

Step 4: Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.
Step
5: Gradually beat in flour, finish mixing with spoon if
needed.
Step 6: Divide dough in half, and add food
coloring to each half to result in two different colors of
dough.
Step 7: Pack both colors side by side into
cookie press with star shaped plate. Press 5-inch long sticks
out 1-inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Step
8: Bake 10 minutes or until edges are firm but not brown.
Let cookies stand for 1 minute before transferring to cooling
surface.
Step 9: In a 1-quart saucepan melt white
chocolate chips and shortening over low heat, stirring
constantly.
Step 10: Dip end of each cookie into
melted chocolate letting excess drip off. Sprinkle with colored
sugar and place on waxed paper to set.

Makes 36 cookies.

Important: Feel free to republish this article on your
website. However, you are not allowed to modify any part of its
content and all links should be kept active.

For more great tasting no bake and fancy cookie recipes visit
http://kicked-up-cookie-recipes.com/no-bake-and-fancy-cookie-reci
pes.html

For some great Christmas cookie recipes visit
http://kicked-up-cookie-recipes.com/christmas-cookie-recipes.html

For cookie baking tips and a wide selection of recipes visit
http://kicked-up-cookie-recipes.com/

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The consumption and collection of wine has been growing over the last few years. While more and more money has been going into wine as investment or for future consumption, questions about the wine’s history are asked. So the question often arises when it comes time to understand the provenance of a wine: How has this wine been stored?

This question is important, as it can mean the difference between euphoria and depression in the wine drinker. The glory of opening a beautiful bottle of perfectly stored wine, or the agony and letdown of opening poorly stored wine. That poorly stored wine that upon opening is nothing more than vinegar.

So what are the issues of how to properly store wine? The issues are: Temperature, humidity, lighting, cleanliness of the storage unit or facility, vibration, and the angle of the bottle in storage.

Temperature is relatively simple. The ideal temperature is between 50 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The lower the temperature, the more the aging process can be retarded in the wine. Fluctuations in temperature, as long as they are not drastic, are ok, though not completely ideal. One does not have to worry that because the wine was stored at 63 degrees versus 56 degrees does not affect the provenance of the wine. As long as the fluctuations in temperature occur slowly, it is fine. However, the higher the temperature is in the storage facility, the wine can age more quickly.

The recommended humidity of a wine storage facility is 70 percent, though it is fine to be 10-15% above or below that level. Humidity of the cellar is important to the wine for a couple of reasons: the cork and the labels. If there is too much humidity (over 80% for example) the labels are susceptible to rot and mold, which can affect the value of the wine. If it is too dry (below 50%), the corks can dry out, which can cause the cork to shrink, increasing the likelihood of air coming in contact with the wine, which would begin an oxidation process, and ruin the wine.

Making sure that the wine is stored at a horizontal angle is important, as the cork will not dry out if the wine is in contact with the cork. Otherwise, the cork drying out can cause air to come into contact with the wine prematurely.
Light can have an affect on the wine as well. Light will prematurely age a wine, cause it to be ruined. Florescent lighting can cause the most damage, and too much light can “turn” the wine.

Vibration can be another issue. The sediment in the wine can be affected, and can cause damage to the wine. So keeping the wine in a “vibration-free” environment is very important. Often times, the term “bottle shock” is used for wines that have been excessively jostled during the shipping process. Even in drinking a wine that has been shipped or brought from the store is often well served by waiting a few days to weeks before opening, allowing the sediment in the wine to “settle down”.

Another factor to point to is how clean where the wine is being stored. Poorly ventilated, dirty, grimy facilities can have very negative affects. The label can get very dirty and will negatively affect the resale value of the wine, and poor ventilation can affect the taste of the wine, giving a musty component that is certainly a negative attribute!

All in all, the storage and care of wine is very important to the investment quality of the wine, as well as the potential enjoyment to the drinker down the road. There may be little else as disappointing in the wine world as opening a poorly stored wine that has turned to vinegar. However, when storage conditions have been appropriately kept, and the wine has been well cared for, the aging process happens the right way, and the beauty of that wine can be savored as it was intended to be when it was acquired in the first place.

Robert E. Enslein, Jr., is Managing Member of Brix Wine Vault, LLC, a wine storage company based in New York City. Brix is a professional quality wine storage facility that serves individuals, retailers, restaurants as well as wholesale customers. Learn more at http://www.brixwinevault.com

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