the great golden bird

This is one of my favorite times of the year, and has been for a long time.  I get to cook food and watch football all day.  If dishes would wash themselves it would be the perfect day.  I smoked turkey all this week for testing at work.  I am asked a lot during this time of year “how do you smoke a turkey, what settings do you use?”.   It was a question until just recently, that sort of bothered me.  As you know everyone likes a different amount of smoke flavor.  The process of smoking, naturally, cures the skin of the turkey making it rubbery to bite into.  I would tell people what I thought would be best, but deep down knew wasn’t quite perfect yet.  This is not OK in my world.  I love a crispy poultry skin, I demand a crispy poultry skin.  My father deep fries his turkey every year and so I have become custom to the great golden bird.

So my task was to get crispy skin, and smoky flavor.  What I found through lots of testing, was a few lessons to live by while cooking the great bird best water bottle.

1)      Do not use butter!  If you must use it make sure it’s clarified butter.  Don’t know what clarified butter is?  Simmer butter in a sauce pan and skim out the white frothy stuff.  (that’s the cream and water)  Water in the butter will steam and the steam with make rubber out of the skin.  What is left over is the oil that still has great flavor but lacks the stuff that steams and burns.

2)      Rinse and pat dry.  I’m sure you do this already, but if you don’t… Do it.  As before, the water will steam the skin and make rubber out of it.

3)      Please don’t stuff.  When your relatives yell at you, and they will, direct the hate mail to me.  But be happy that you are not making anyone sick.  The majority of food poising is from the stuffing.  Getting that up to 165F will dry the bird out and is unrealistic.  So more often than not, people will serve the stuffing at less than 165F and full of bad salmonella from the turkey cavity.

4)      Oil the skin on top and bottom.  By bottom I mean gently separate the skin from the breast and legs and use oil, or that clarified butter I was talking about, and season both sides of the skin hong kong hotel promotion.

5)      Smoke for only 30 min.  This is easy peasy in my FWE Smoker.  Longer smoke will give you more smokey flavor but rubber skin.  I use apple wood, if you like stronger smoke flavor, try hickory for 30 min Hong Kong Sightseeing.

6)      Cook by PROBE!  Don’t care what the clock says.  It is done when it is done.  I remember asking my chef once “Hey Chef, how long do I cook the roast?”  he looked at me like I asked what a fork was, and responded “Until it’s done”.  Buy a probe thermometer, (you’ll use it all the time and it’s not that expensive) probe the turkey on the inside of the leg close to the breast, and down into the thigh muscle.  Be careful not to touch bone or you will be measuring bone temp not flesh.  Cook it at 350F to 160F turkey temp.

7)      Shhhhh, let it rest.  Once you have reached 160F, take it out, cover it in foil and let it rest for 30min.  This is the most difficult process of all.  No one in my family believes in this, or cares about this.  It is a must.  Hide like I do, if you have to.  It makes a difference.

Immunophen

Yeah, I drank this stuff. And yeah, it tastes about as good as you would expect pine cone extract to taste.

But according to Immunophen’s website, pine cone extract offers some pretty impressive health benefits:

(Taken from the Immunophen Site airtight storage containers)

    Immunophen™ contains Ligna-Plex™ an all-natural botanical extract derived from organic Scotch pine cones designed to build and maintain a healthy immune system.
    Immunophen™ balances and boosts your immune system so your body can better defend itself against colds, flu, viruses and bacteria
    Pine cone extract has been documented in many scientific studies to have anti-viral, anti-tumour and anti-bacterial properties
    Immunophen™ is an advanced immune stimulant that contains Ligna-Plex™ a botanical pine cone extract shown by independent university research scientists to boost the immune system to fight illness and disease.
    100 mg of IMMUNOPHEN™ can be safely taken daily to help lower allergy symptoms and inflammation while improving your immune response to yeast, mold and much more hong kong hotel reservation…

When I first started taking it, my allergies actually got worse, but then I introduced it into my diet more slowly and I definitely noticed it helping my allergy symptoms! And you know what? I haven’t gotten sick since I started taking it. Granted, I tend to not get sick often when the weather is warmer, but still! For those of you who are interested in natural/holistic ways to reduce allergy symptoms or immune responses to yeast, Immunophen is definitely worth looking into wisdom dairy.
You can find out more about their product here: www.immunphen.com

I’ll try to post again soon with some other reviews/updates on my life. Hope you all have a beautiful weekend! :)

*this review was solely my opinion; I was not compensated for it

protein

     I am trying to write more posts about nutrition topics, and since almost every time that I mention to someone I eat vegan, the first thing they ask is, “How do you get protein?” (with the second question usually being something like, “so do you eat a lot of salad?”), I thought I would start with a protein post.

     For some reason, the American culture has an obsession with protein. And while protein is an essential nutrient that is needed for a healthy, functioning body, we don’t need the excessive amounts of it that many Americans consume. It is easy to get more than enough protein from a varied, plant-based diet—plus, vegetable sources of protein also contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals, as well as much less fat and saturated fat than animal proteins Nutrilite Hong Kong.

      The Institute of Medicine recommends that adults get between 0.36 g and .45 g of protein per pound of body weight per day. This sounds like a lot, but it is very easy to get this much protein if you’re eating an adequate amount of calories from a variety of sources. One serving of oatmeal had 6 g protein, a cup of broccoli has 4 g, a cup of lentils has 18 g of protein, and so on. Pretty much any food aside from fruits and fats (such as olive oil) are going to have protein in them.

     I keep stressing that you need to eat a varied diet because most vegetarian protein sources are what are called incomplete proteins, meaning they lack one or more of the essential amino acids that your body cannot make or modify on its own and must get from your diet. As long as you eat proteins from different sources throughout the day, however, you will be able to fulfill your body’s needs Dream beauty pro hard sell .

     While animal proteins are complete protein sources, they have been linked to certain diseases such as heart disease (due mainly to the high fat–especially saturated fat–content of some meats). If you are a meat eater, try to stick to (sustainable!) poultry and fish, which tend to be leaner, and limit consumption of beef and pork, which coincidentally are more environmentally impacting. Avoid processed meats (things like lunch meat that have additives, such as nitrites/nitrates, and preservatives in them) like the plague. Dairy is scary, but we’ll save that for another post.

     I know I already gave you all a challenge in this week’s yoga’s post, but maybe you could show a little Ahimsa to the animals too and try to cut out meats and other non-vegan proteins one day this week; put beans in your chili, tempeh in your stir fry, and eat an extra serving of veggies. The more you try it out, the more you might find you like switching up your diet a little reenex!

Cinnamon Rolls

My dad loves cinnamon rolls. Last December he had to take a business trip to Europe, and he said his favorite part was eating cinnamon rolls in this Danish bakery. That is how much he loves them travel newsletter.

So every time I come home I like to make him these pumpkin cinnamon rolls (veganized from this recipe)–which my dad says might even be better than the cinnamon rolls in Denmar CPC.

Yes, that’s right. My vegan recipe–with healthy flax and whole wheat flour–better than an actual Danish pastry. Granted, he might be saying that to be nice, but they do disappear very quickly when I make them baby product.

yummy

I need to start off this rant by saying how much I love Trader Joe’s. If you have never been there, you seriously need to drop what you are doing immediately and journey to the closest one.

Everything (and I mean everything) I have ever bought from there has been absolutely delish. Pesto, pumpkin ravioli, coffee, dried fruit, balsamic glaze, these super yummy sesame honey almonds. All of it. Delicious. The latter is a snack I often find myself daydreaming about. That is why I was probably the most excited person in Orlando, maybe even in Florida, when they announced last week that they are coming to Winter Park in 2014! I may as well rent space in the back and move in loan calculator.

Anyways…..back in April, I received an Easter basket (yes, the bunny still brings me things) of all Trader Joe’s goodies. Needless to say, it was the best basket ever. Just to highlight my favorite items: all natural jelly beans, black bean quinoa chips, fleur de sel caramels and raw maple infused cane sugar.

Now that last item I had a few ways that I wanted to use it up. In my coffee for sure, but I also wanted to use it in something baked (obviously). Thus all leading up to my ultimate decision to make these veg-friendly morsels. Not too sweet, just the perfect amount of peanuttiness and still satisfies my sweet craving without all the post-eating guilt Virtual Office Hong Kong.

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
(this is half of a normal amount, if you want the full 30 or so cookies, just double)

1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour Business Centre in Hong Kong
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons maple sugar

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the melted coconut oil with the peanut butter. Slowly add in the vanilla, sugar and applesauce. Lastly, combine the wet ingredients with the dry, in small increments, until it all comes together. Scoop up the dough and bake for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

perfect summer dinner

Is anyone else in as much shock as I am that summer time is coming to a close?! I mean us Floridians wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell, weather-wise, cause it is still hot as ever here. When it is brutally hot here and you can break a sweat walking to your mailbox, it is practically a routine of mine to wish with every fiber in my being that it would be winter so we could finally cool down. Then, as soon as the temperature drops below 70, I find myself wishing it were summer. Go figure wisdom dairy.

This is a great lunch/dinner to beat the heat with. So I know this isn’t a dessert, but it still qualifies as yummy eats. I was craving some watermelon the other day so I picked one up at the store. Excitedly, I ran home to cut this baby open and lo and behold, it was mushy, overripe and disgusting. I couldn’t bring myself to throw the entire thing away and be completely wasteful, so I decided to make the perfect summer dinner: watermelon gazpacho. You could literally make this blindfolded with as many or as little ingredients as you’d like. Again, gotta love recipes that you can toss into a blender and boom. done.


2 cups cubed watermelon
1/2 cup hothouse cucumber
1/2 medium sized onion wisdom dairy
1 stalk celery, including leaves
1 tablespoon basil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
olive oil wisdom dairy
salt & pep

Almond Thumbprint Cookies

It was hard enough not eating all of them before even leaving the house. And thankfully everyone else shared my feelings as well. They were definitely a crowd pleaser. 2 containers frozen chopped spinach, thawed 3 cups cubed stuffing mix 1 medium sized onion 4 eggs reenex
1 stick melted butter 1/4 cup parmesan cheese salt and pepper reenex
In a small bowl, beat the four eggs together. Separately, combine the stuffing, cheese, chopped onion and butter. Before adding in the spinach, be sure it is COMPLETELY drained of water. If you don’t, you will have water-y stuffing and no one wants that, trust me. Be sure the melted butter isn’t pipping hot when you add in the eggs or you will also have scrambled eggs. Once everything is evenly combined, roll into equally sized balls (roughly meatball sized). I used one of my favorite kitchen tools (aka the cookie scooper) to make sure they were all relatively the same size. These cook up nicely in a 350 degree oven for about 22 – 24 minutes reenex.