As apple harvesting season continues in “Upstate” NY, the fragrant and enticing smell of apples seems to be everywhere, including at area Farmers Markets.

Years ago, having found a recipe for an “apple chutney” in the then local print newspaper, we modified it ever so slightly and it turned out to be an easy to prepare and delightful accompaniment to many a dinner meal on cooler evenings.

The original of the Harvest Apple Chutney recipe turns out to be found on the Kikkoman website and makes closer to 4 & 1/2 cups of cooked product.

(Apple orchard image courtesy of gabriel77 at rgbstock.com)

This apple chutney recipe can be prepared either via the “hot pack method” as mentioned on the original Kikkoman recipe website; or because it is a higher acidity mixture in terms of having a lower pH, via the traditional boiling water bath “full canning method,” depending upon how long and where you plan to store the resulting product.

Read the rest of this entry >

No Comments

Do you remember hearing or reading about the First Ever White House Kids State Dinner (actually a luncheon) served on August 20, 2012?

A blog post of that date focused on the event since we feel the entire Let’s Move campaign being supported by First Lady, Michelle Obama, is such a great idea!

The entire Healthy Lunchtime Challenge culminating in that White House Kids State Dinner event was a collaborative effort involving a number of partners.

It involved a wide range of staff, including from the Let’s Move campaign, the White House, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, and Epicurious Magazine.

(Image of organic curly kale courtesy of Ayla87 over at rgbstock.com)

The “appetizer” for the actual White House luncheon event was a super simple Kale Chips recipe originally submitted by one of the 54 winning junior chefs, Samuel Wohabe, age 9, from the state of New York.

Kale Chips could prove to be a great anytime snack, so since this is back-to-school time and cooler weather is either in your area or might be coming to it, we thought this would be a great time to mention about various kale chip recipes that can be found all over the world wide web.

Read the rest of this entry >

2 Comments

It seems that the age old problems of “Junk Science” are once again surfacing all over in various media outlets.

There will always be some spokesperson, some celebrity, some media sensation, some salesman / saleswoman, some talk show host, etc., trying to convince the public that there is a “new” and “magic” way to suddenly deal with some health aspect of their life by just buying one more product here, there or anywhere.

As always, this site only provides infotainment and we urge you to contact your own health care provider(s) when it comes to matters pertaining to your own individual health and that of your family members.

Since we believe in your right of choice, we’ll share the “10 Red Flags of Junk Science” so that you can decide for yourself what makes sense for you and members of your own family.

(Image of Red Flag courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net).

Read the rest of this entry >

2 Comments

A pulled pork sandwich on a homemade roll is a favorite of the webmaster’s husband and a great alternative to outdoor BBQing. (Photo of BBQ’d Pulled Pork on a Homemade Bun courtesy of & © 2012 GH (Webmaster)/Sensory Nutrition/US12).

Since around the country it is some stage of “back to school” time and folks are extra busy, we thought we would mention it as the pork is cooked in a slow cooker at the same time that the dough is rising for the rolls, all while you can be busy doing something else.

I went to visit the webmaster last month and she met the car I was traveling in about 1 & 3/4 hrs from where she lives and I got into her car at a convenient rest stop transfer point. When we arrived at her house, the pork was conveniently getting done in the slow cooker.  Since I offered to help her finish prepare the supper meal for her family, she put me to work grinding up some extra white whole wheat flour as she was running low on ground flour, but had plenty of nice, dry whole white wheat kernels in storage.

In this blog post we’ll start with how she makes the homemade sandwich rolls. If you use a counter-top oven to bake the rolls off in, you don’t need to create a lot of heat indoors in Summertime if it is still warm where you are.  If evenings cool down now for you, then you might not mind baking these rolls off in a regular oven.

Preparing the sandwich rolls from scratch means YOU control what ingredients go into them.  Since the webmaster is always busy with her family, she doesn’t have any time to to waste. She likes time spent in the kitchen to be satisfying and the results of her efforts to be well worth eating.

By modifying a recipe she found on Allrecipes.com for honey whole wheat bread, she came up with her own approach to sandwich roll making that she says anyone with a stand kitchen mixer can do lickety-split!

Read the rest of this entry >

No Comments