Eat Smart in Sicily is a book to be enjoyed before you even get on the airplane to Sicily. Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce (a Siciliana) have provided in this 145 page book, a rich history of the island and its culinary influences, delving into the roots of the people who previously inhabited Sicily.

The book, Eat Smart in Sicily, is a part of a series of food culture books. Additional locations include India, France, Mexico and more. Visit their website to check out similar locations.

The authors provide a fascinating picture of how the Greeks, Romans, Germans and Arabs all left their mark on this unique island’s cuisine. They have provided extensive glossaries to help you order food in Italian and Sicilian, as well as information on how to shop in local markets and local cooking method in this exceptional book.

Restaurant guides are included too, to ensure each eating experience will be a culinary delight and not a tourist nightmare. There are also over 25 authentic Sicilian recipes to re-create which can serve as a reminder of your trip when you return home.

Eat Smart in Sicily has been exceptionally well crafted and written with a genuine, ‘from the heart’, love of the island, language and eating. This book will become the bible for everyone visiting Sicily who loves travel, good food, its ingredients and origins. Eat Smart in Sicily will upgrade any trip into a rich, unforgettable epicurean adventure.

This is a must have guide for those in Sicily and for those with a love of learning different cultures. I’m a big fan of food culture reads. This is a good one.

Eat Smart in Sicily
Written by: Joan Peterson and Marcella Croce
# Paperback: 160 pages
# Publisher: Ginkgo Press; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0977680118
# ISBN-13: 978-0977680115

What I love about this book:

• Unique insight on Sicily
• Great for food culture fans
• Easy read
• Recipe ideas for your own kitchen

Photos by nosheep and bradimarte

If you thought building a gingerbread house involved a plethora of unusual cake requisites and special gizmos How to Build a Gingerbread House, a book by Christina Banner, will demonstrate, with a few simple recipes, basic kitchen wares and ordinary, everyday ingredients how to create your own unique gingerbread house. It describes from beginning to end how this can be achieved and then suggests creative ways to decorate your completed house, including pathways, fences and chimneys.

Included in the book are easy to follow instructions using one basic house template which can be replicated to decorate eight gingerbread houses for you to enjoy creating. If you choose to use one of these designs or use the designs to develop your own ideas, How to Build a Gingerbread House will be a fun and creative experience with a finished house – that you have built yourself!

The writer, Christina Banner won the Grand Prize for the National Gingerbread House Competition in 2004 and has also won the Food Network’s Gingerbread Challenge. She now begins to share her secrets from basics to share from the starting block of the dough through to finishing off the house with the icing.

The book is also beautifully illustrated and has detailed, comprehensive instructions to help construct a dream gingerbread house. Banner’s book is a must for beginners and also an inspiration to aspiring cake decorators.

My favorites about this book:

The shared ideas for gingerbread houses that aren’t just for Christmas
The very thoughtful different candies to use and in what areas to make great effects
Bright photos to help you along
Complete step-by-step instructions

Photo by avanzero

How to Build a Gingerbread House – by Christina Banner

Perfect Paperback: 135 pages
Publisher: Penny Publishing; First edition (June 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981580602
ISBN-13: 978-0981580609

Lemongrass and green tea? Never thought those flavors would blend so well. Kusmi Tea has a green detox tea with a lemongrass twist.

Let me just say that I’ve been drinking green tea for a while. Those blends you get in the store that are pre-made? I can’t stand those really. I prefer the plain, picked from the field and dried properly dry tea. I’ve used powders before and crush tea leaves. The powders, I feel, are a bit stronger in flavor. Mixed with a little bit of honey, and it’s a soothing antioxidant.

Kusmi makes crushed green tea (among other flavors) but my favorite is the green tea and lemongrass flavors. They sent a few samples for me to try. Russian Black was a great blend as well. I’m still trying the different flavors. It’s hard to pick a favorite.

Kusmi teas from Paris not only offer a great taste but I love the gift tins and the quality. This is a tea that I can feel confident to give as a gift to someone else and feel proud to do so.

And to prove that point, I’ll be sending a sample tin of the Detox Tea from Kusmi for free to one of my lucky readers. Check your emails for a response from me. If you’ve commented, fanned, subscribed or followed, you may be contacted.

Tell me about your favorite tea blend flavors. Earl Grey? Regular black? White teas? Green teas? Fruit teas? I even heard of a few dessert teas. Have a favorite?

Thank you Kusmi for sending me plenty of tea to taste and a bit to give away.

I’ve mentioned before that I absolutely love the Weight Watchers system. They encourage eating real food. They encourage eating in proper portions and they help with the science and math of losing weight. Losing weight, after all, has lots of calculation formulas. Since they make it simple, it becomes natural to look at ingredient labels and make decisions based on what you learn.

What I love most that it isn’t a diet. You can eat what you love, you just make better choices about what you eat.

Now they’ve created a new book called Eat! Move! Play! Weight Watcher’s new book actually has some great ideas about making the lifestyle change. Here’s some tips that I particularly love from the book’s section:

How to Make Healthier Choices

Instead of: Grabbing fast food or take-out when you’re rushed and don’t have time to cook dinner

Try: Picking up a rotisserie chicken and cooking frozen veggies you’ve been keeping on hand

Instead of: Indulging the munchies when your child is frustrated, upset, or otherwise out of sorts

Try: Suggesting that you go out and toss a ball or play croquet or badminton to blow off steam

Instead of: Letting bedtime arrive when it’s convenient for everyone or your kids are simply too exhausted to keep going

Try: Establishing a clear bedtime and introducing a consistent sleepytime routine with a bath, reading a story, or listening to calming music together

I really need to focus on the part about not just hopping out to dinner or to a fast food place because no one feels like cooking. You could just as easily go to your local deli and grab a cooked chicken and salad in just the same amount of time as grabbing a fast food dinner.

Here’s a sample recipe that I’ll share from the book.

Mexican Chicken Chili

Serves 10

Prep 30 minutes

Cook 1 hour 45 minutes

6 bone-in skinless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons canola oil

3 onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup chili powder

3 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in puree

1 (12-ounce) bottle beer or 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1.       Combine the chicken and enough water to cover in a large, heavy pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, cover the pot, and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked through, about 12 minutes. Drain the chicken, reserving the cooking liquid. Cool the chicken, remove and discard the bones, and coarsely shred the meat.

2.       Meanwhile, place the same pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, cocoa powder, oregano, and coriander and cook until the spices are fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, beer, salt, and 3 1/2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a simmer; reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

3.       Add the beans. Simmer, uncovered, until the chili thickens, about 30 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and simmer until heated through.
Per serving (1 1/2 cups): 239 Cal, 6 g Fat, 1 g Sat Fat, 0 g Trans Fat, 44 mg Chol, 488 mg Sod, 26 g Carb, 8 g Fib, 22 g Prot, 103 mg Calc.

Reprinted from the book Weight Watchers Eat! Move! Play! With permission from John Wiley & Sons Inc.

As the average American, you may already be well versed in the fact that fast food is pretty much bad for you, but it seems that many of the hottest ideas lately are getting worse and worse. Now you can have even worse fast food in the same amount of time, furthering the dangers of the obesity epidemic in the United States.

If you do want to try to stay somewhat healthy, here are a few of the nastiest fast food items to avoid:

• Pancake and Sausage on a Stick by Jimmy Dean: This is a serious fast food monstrosity since it doesn’t get any more lazy than trying to eat your breakfast on a stick! We all understand that pancakes and sausage may not be the best breakfast fare, but how can anyone resist when it comes on such a convenient tool like a stick?
• Double Down by KFC: This is an astonishing fast food invention that is an alleged bacon and cheese sandwich where the bun is made up of two pieces of fried chicken. Unbelievably, it seems that many people are probably going to be ordering this often, significantly increasing their risk for a heart attack!
• McDonald’s French Fries: As innocent as they seem, french fries from McDonald’s are possibly one of the worst fast food choices since they seem to be unable to decompose. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I want to be eating any type of food that can’t be digested by my body or won’t decompose after sitting on a shelf for an entire year. Simply shocking.

Hopefully these fast food horrors were a little bit of food for thought for all of the readers out there, so to speak. Maybe it would be a better idea to order a salad at the drive-thru or -gasp!- stay home and cook a healthy meal. You can do it…

For a great selection of all things coffee, check out Bethany North’s website at http://www.thecoffeebump.com.

Have the sports fan who is a tailgater and has almost everything for his team?

I’ve found just the thing to give as a gift for a tailgater, or to buy for yourself if you love to cook out and have your own favorite sports team. Grill Toppers recently sent one my way for me to try out.
Grill Topper is a great device that lets you sear your favorite team logo into your steaks, hamburgers and more.

How ingenious! This is actually something fun, and I swear every single tailgater will want one of these. They are always trying to find the thing that will one up the party next door. Here’s the solution. Branded meat.

This has got to be a best seller among sports fans in the near future if it isn’t already. Easy to use, and reasonably priced, meat can now be branded and displayed. Ultimate fans will have to have this item.

It is pretty easy to use. Just sit atop your grill, and once it is heated, you can sear your meat on the topper. It makes the mark for you, and it seems to work perfectly ever time. There’s a video on how it works and more information at the website.

If only they would make these for high schools, for more teams. I also like that they have some additional more generic symbols, like the fleur de lis. Looking forward to seeing additional logos on these grill toppers.

Recently the Cajun, the kids and I recently went to a crawfish boil here in Lafayette, LA.

I can hear your thoughts right now, “A crawfish what?”

Think picnic, think really big pot of boiled crawfish. Think over 150 pounds of crawfish were cooked and eaten in one day (by about 20 some odd people).

Our host was a great chef of crawfish. He loved his spicy, so I had burning lips for most of the day. It was great, though. He threw in lots of hot sauce, spice, whole potatoes, corn, garlic, onions and other ingredients. Letting them boil for about 20 minutes or so, dumping in the crawfish and letting them cook for another 20 minutes and presto.

Next weekend is Festival International. So expect more pictures from me about the event as it is going on.

So do your friends and family have any local traditional cooking experiences? Friendly barbecues or cook outs?

Soirée.

What a lovely word, and kind of sounds like what it does.

Ever open a bottle, and let the wine sit and air out?

Ever open a bottle and wish that the wine would air faster, as you’d love to take a sip. With a wine decanter, it may be possible.

Well, Soirée can help.

This is actually pretty gadgety for the wine lover. If you love the flavor of wine that’s been exposed to air, getting the full flavor of the experience, you’ll want to use this device.

Once attached to the bottle, you can tip it, pour it out and it’ll swirl into the ‘bubble’. This, I’m assuming, lets the wine be more exposed to air, spreading it out a bit to expose the particles to oxygen. Then it gets pours into your wine glass.

I shared this with a friend of mine, who happened to have a couple of bottles of wine to try it out on. His comments were the gadget was interesting and would be a great gift for the true wine connoisseur.

The only addition I would love to see with this gift would be a holder. As it is made of glass, I’d love to see it come with a stand or container of some kind, for when it isn’t in a bottle.

I’d like to say thank you to Soirée for sending it along. It’s actually a very elegant gift. And for the price, around $20, it’d make a nice gift even for someone who just likes wine on occasion. The price is reasonable and the device is very easy to use. I am wanting to take a sample of this down the street to our own recently opened wine shop to see if they’d want to look at it.

So, favorite wine selections anyone?

Are you a pro griller? Maybe you’ve developed a technique and flavor that impresses a lot of your friends.  This summer, perhaps you will want to have that perfect party that everyone raves about. Barbecue parties are a wonderful chance to get together with friends and do some cooking together, sharing food and good times.

How do you get organized and make a plan?  Maybe you love the sound of your Lynx grill firing up and haven’t thought of the details on how to put it all together. I once was at a cook out and the host had forgotten all about napkins! Barbecue without napkins? So there are ways to be prepared and keep your parties perfect.

1. Location, location… The space where you host your party is very important. You want a clean environment. If there’s grass space, make sure it’s trimmed well and looks good. Seating is super important. Depending on the number of your guests, you should have just as many places to sit, and they should all be comfortable. Expecting guests to stand for hours is simply unkind.
2. Upgrade your grill if you wish. If you’re looking to upgrade your grill with a Twin Eagles grill or similar brands, remember that barbecue grills are like anything else. You should get what you absolutely love and can work with well. If you buy a cheaper model, you may only find all the flaws in your barbecue and never fully enjoy it. So get the one you’ll most enjoy. Save money for a few months if you need to get the one you want.
3. Cook with your grill. Become very familiar with your barbecue grill. Hopefully, you didn’t wait to get the grill you really love, maybe you have the one you like already. Once you have it, use it, and not just at the party. Turn it on and cook a few dinners on your grill. Get to know how to roast a potato or bake a dessert right on the grill. Impressing your friends with how well you cook on your grill comes with experience. Follow some recipes and experiment.
4. Count on your friends. Or rather, count how many friends are coming and imagine they each brought one to two other people with them. Have a handful of extra steaks and chicken breasts on hand. They don’t have to go to waste. Because that brings us to number five…
5. Buy take out containers. Give your friends and family a little extra barbecue love with something they can easily take food home in without having to return a dish to you. Simple takeout boxes can be purchased ahead of time.
6. Themes are alright. Don’t be afraid of sounding a little corny with your theme, because a theme can set the mood for a fun night and it easily gets people in the mood before they come if they know there is a theme.
7. Use time wisely. Do your prep work before the party begins. If beef needs to marinate for an hour, do it before the guests arrive. Guests arrive to a barbecue having not eaten for a little while, and they will quickly get hungry. Fire up that barbecue grill and get cracking.
8. Get the main meal finished quickly. People can linger around and chat and digest their food after they’ve eaten, but you don’t want hungry guests. A short time between prep and finish from when your guests arrive is the key to a successful party.
9. Ensure protection. Don’t be afraid of insisting you’re the only chef for this meal. Protect your guests from raw meat and burnt fingers. Entreat your guests to relax and enjoy themselves and that you are at their service for the evening.
10. Have a clear ending time. Plan a last activity of the night. Guests may linger for several hours after the food has gone, and some may be unsure of a graceful exit. Do the work for them by announcing ahead of time when the party will be over and use a “last moment” activity to indicate this. It may be handing out party favors, the take out boxes, etc.  It gives guests a graceful way to say goodbye without feeling guilty of leaving so soon or staying late.

Photo by chidsey.

Weight Watchers has come out with many delicious flavors over the years. I love the strawberry banana yogurt and sweet baked goods. Nearly guiltless treats are great to have on hand when you need a snack and you don’t want to add too many calories to your diet.
They’ve just added a couple more great flavors to their list. I’ve been able to sample a few, thanks to Weight Watchers. Here’s a look at a couple new yogurt and frozen treat items that might be of interest.

Weight Watchers Apple Pie Ala Mode Yogurt

This had an excellent apple and cinnamon flavor blend, with the mild tang of yogurt that you come to expect from Weight Watchers. Very smooth, very delicious. I think the Ala Mode is that vanilla flavor so it’s more like ice cream with bits of apple flavor throughout.

Weight Watchers Blueberry Pie Yogurt

Now, I should say that unless it’s blueberry muffins or pancakes, I normally stay away from blueberry products because too many blueberries at a time ruins the flavor for me. This was better than normal blueberry yogurt, in my opinion. The blueberry was there but toned down. It’s not replacing my love of strawberry banana yogurt, but it’s a good flavor.

Weight Watchers Strawberry Smoothie

60 calories, 1 gram of fat,  less than 1 gram of fiber

This is my favorite out of the entire group that I’ve tried. Strawberry yogurt on a stick, really, but it’s great. It’s soft when I’m ready to eat it. Kind of melts quickly so you have to eat fast.

I like the softness though. And the bits of strawberry throughout it is a real winner for me. Most certainly a frozen strawberry smoothie. I like the extremely low calories, and for your point counters, only 1 point for this bar. And it’s a good sized bar, too.

Last but not least, another ice cream delight:

Weight Watchers Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bar

80 calories 4.5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fiber

I love chocolate, and this is a good dark chocolate. The raspberry was very flavorful, almost too much for me but others may like raspberry more than I do. I like that it has more fiber. Love the fiber.

Here’s the new news from Weight Watchers. Guess who has joined the team?

Jennifer Hudson! What a great person to be joining Weight Watchers and showing support.

By the way, following Weight Watchers yet? You should be. They share very healthy recipes and news, which I love.