Thank you to all who came to the 3rd Fishline Foodbank Annual Auction Fundraiser!

I am so proud to be a part of the Fishline family!

We raised about $10,000 for client services.

Yea, and a very good local organizer of the Poulsbo Lutheran Church Lutefisk Dinner and the Rotary Auction, Margene Smalaaden said that she will be a consultant for the Auction committee next year!

On November 22ed the day of the Auction.

In 2007 we had given out approximately $11,000 in client services which are emergency vouchers for gas, rent, medications etc.

In 2008 (this year) the amount was over $52,000.

Mind boggling.

My store is just down the stairs from the Foodbank and I run up there with Veggies all the time and it is heartbreaking to see people who are so hungry that they are sitting on the bench outside the door of the foodbank eating from a can. But I am at the same time exceedingly grateful to the community around us that donated "that can" so it could be eaten.

As the slogan says we are 'Neighbors helping Neighbors.

To donate to Poulsbos Fishline Foodbank click here.

Licorice information is it good or bad for you? Does Licorice help ADHD? My quest to know.

Yesterday someone told me that they prescribed licorice root for ADHD. Now I have never heard of this and I told her so. But she claims that licorice is relaxing and the use of it in the form of licorice root capsules or licorice root tea helped those with ADHD concentrate. So I am on a mission to see if I can find documentation on this anywhere or to debunk it. Why? I love licorice but I don't want it maligned with false claims. However if this is true then that is really good news!

I did find this page that talks about ADHD symptoms being cause by hypoglycemic crashes and using licorice as a natural sweetener.
http://www.treelite.com/members/handouts/ADD.pdf



In this post is a translated from Dutch Q&A from the Meenk.nl website about salty licorice and blood pressure. I post this because it corroborates what I have always said about salty licorice and blood pressure. It is NOT sodium Chloride it is Ammonium Chloride therefore it does NOT raise your blood pressure from the salt flavoring. However to much glycyrrhizin over 200g per day for long stretches of time can effect your blood pressure. That is allot of licorice!



Here is the translation



The most frequently asked questions about drop.


Can eating drop in blood pressure increase?

Many people think that the salt used in the drop in blood pressure increases. However, this is
not the case. In drop is not made use of sodium chloride (salt) what can increase blood pressure, but of Ammonium chloride (E510), also known as the blood pressure increases. However, this is salmiakzout said. Ammonium chloride is a kind of salt that is derived from hydrochloric acid and ammonia and as a highly concentrated flavor is used.


However, eating too much blood pressure drop effect, how can that be?
In the block drop, as the main ingredient in licorice is used, the substance Glycyrrhizin
for. This is a natural flavor that fifty times sweeter than sugar. Glycyrrhizin is a substance that automatically aborted by the body and excreted. Only by daily
Consumption of large amounts of licorice given the difficulty in the body break down and
Glycyrrhizin excrete the substance and can work in raising blood pressure. Assuming
A drop in average glycyrrhizinegehalte than can be about 200 grams per day drop without consume an increased risk to get blood pressure.


Is drop ADDICTION?


Still, it is not scientifically proved that drop is addictive. There are no components present in that drop may have an addictive effect. The term licorice addiction is often abused by excessive users to drop their unbridled lust candy to mask.



© Steven Foster
Introduction
This fact sheet provides basic information about licorice root—common names, uses, potential side effects, and resources for more information. Most licorice is grown in Greece, Turkey, and Asia. Licorice contains a compound called glycyrrhizin (or glycyrrhizic acid). Licorice has a long history of medicinal use in both Eastern and Western systems of medicine.
Common Names—licorice root, licorice, liquorice, sweet root, gan zao (Chinese licorice)
Latin Name—Glycyrrhiza glabra, Glycyrrhiza uralensis (Chinese licorice)


What It Is Used For


Licorice root has been used as a dietary supplement product that contains vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, enzymes, and/or other ingredients intended to supplement the diet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has special labeling requirements for dietary supplements. for stomach ulcers, bronchitis, and sore throat, as well as infections caused by viruses, such as hepatitis.

How It Is Used


Peeled licorice root is available in dried and powdered forms.
Licorice root is available as capsules, tablets, and liquid extracts.
Licorice can be found with glycyrrhizin removed; the product is called DGL (for "deglycyrrhizinated licorice").


What the Science Says


A review of several clinical trials found that glycyrrhizin might reduce complications from hepatitis C in some patients. However, there is not enough evidence to confirm that glycyrrhizin has this effect.
There are not enough reliable data to determine whether licorice is effective for stomach ulcers.


Side Effects and Cautions


In large amounts, licorice containing glycyrrhizin can cause high blood pressure, salt and water retention, and low potassium levels, which could lead to heart problems. DGL products are thought to cause fewer side effects.


The safety of using licorice as a supplement for more than 4 to 6 weeks has not been thoroughly studied.


Taking licorice together with diuretics (water pills) or other medicines that reduce the body's potassium levels could cause dangerously low potassium levels.


People with heart disease or high blood pressure should be cautious about using licorice.
When taken in large amounts, licorice can affect the body's levels of a hormone called cortisol and related steroid drugs, such as prednisone.


Pregnant women should avoid using licorice as a supplement or consuming large amounts of licorice as food, as some research suggests it could increase the risk of preterm labor.


Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use.



Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care.



Sources


National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Hepatitis C and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: 2003 Update. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Web site. Accessed on July 12, 2007.
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra). In: Coates P, Blackman M, Cragg G, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of Dietary Supplements. New York, NY: Marcel Dekker; 2005:391–399.
Licorice. Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Web site. Accessed on July 12, 2007.
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.) and DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice). Natural Standard Database Web site. Accessed on July 12, 2007.
Licorice root. In: Blumenthal M, Goldberg A, Brinckman J, eds. Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs. Newton, MA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000:233–239.



For More Information


What's in the Bottle? An Introduction to Dietary Supplements
Herbal Supplements: Consider Safety, Too
NCCAM Clearinghouse
The NCCAM Clearinghouse provides information on CAM and NCCAM, including publications and searches of Federal databases of scientific and medical literature. The Clearinghouse does not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or referrals to practitioners.
Toll-free in the U.S.: 1-888-644-6226TTY (for deaf and hard-of-hearing callers): 1-866-464-3615Web site: nccam.nih.govE-mail:


info@nccam.nih.gov
CAM on PubMedWeb site: nccam.nih.gov/camonpubmed/
NIH Office of Dietary SupplementsWeb site: ods.od.nih.gov
NIH National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlusLicorice Root Listing: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-licorice.html



This publication is not copyrighted and is in the public domain. Duplication is encouraged.
NCCAM has provided this material for your information. It is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your primary health care provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider. The mention of any product, service, or therapy is not an endorsement by NCCAM.
NCCAM Publication No. D318Created June 2006Updated June 2008

Where can I find Anthony Bourdains favorite chef knives Global Knives?

Anthony Bourdain says:

"You need, for God's sake, a decent chef's knife. No con foisted on the general public is so atrocious, so wrongheaded, or so widely believed as the one that tells you you need a full set of specialized cutlery in various sizes. I wish sometimes I could go through the kitchens of amateur cooks everywhere just throwing knives out from their drawers - all those medium-size 'utility' knives, those useless serrated things you see advertised on TV, all that hard-to-sharpen stainless-steel garbage, those ineptly designed slicers - not one of the damn things could cut a tomato. Please believe me, here's all you will ever need in the knife department: ONE good chef's knife, as large as is comfortable for your hand. Brand name? Okay, most talented amateurs get a boner buying one of the old-school professional high-carbon stainless knives from Germany or Austria, like a Henkel or Wusthof, and those are fine knives, if heavy. High carbon makes them slightly easier to sharpe! n, and stainless keeps them from getting stained and corroded. They look awfully good in the knife case at the store, too, and you send the message to your guests when flashing a hundred-dollar hunk of Solingen steel that you take your cooking seriously. But do you really need something so heavy? So expensive? So difficult to maintain (which you probably won't)? Unless you are really and truly going to spend fifteen minutes every couple of days working that blade on an oiled carborundum stone, followed by careful honing on a diamond steel, I'd forgo the Germans.
Most of the professionals I know have for years been retiring their Wusthofs and replacing them with the lightweight, easy-to-sharpen and relatively inexpensive vanadium steel Global knives, a very good Japanese product which has - in addition to its many other fine qualities - the added attraction of looking really cool.
Global makes a lot of knives in different sizes, so what do you need? One chef's knife. This should cut just about anything you might work with, from a shallot to a watermelon, an onion to a sirloin strip. Like a pro, you should use the tip of the knife for the small stuff, and the area nearer the heel for the larger. This isn't difficult; buy a few rutabagas or onions - they're cheap - and practice on them. Nothing will set you apart from the herd quicker than the ability to handle a chef's knife properly. If you need instruction on how to handle a knife without lopping off a finger, I recommend Jacques Pepin's La Technique.
Okay, there are a couple of other knives you might find useful. I carry a flexible boning knife, also made by the fine folks at Global, because I fillet the occasional fish, and because with the same knife I can butcher whole tenderloins, bone out legs of lamb, French-cut racks of veal and trim meat. If your butcher is doing all the work for you you can probably live without one. A paring knife comes in handy once in a while, if you find yourself tourneing vegetables, fluting mushrooms and doing the kind of microsurgery that my old pal Dimitri used to excel at. But how often do you do that?
A genuinely useful blade, however, and one that is increasingly popular with my cronies in the field, is what's called an offset serrated knife . It's basically a serrated knife set into an ergonomic handle; it looks like a 'Z' that's been pulled out and elongated. This is a truly cool item which, once used, becomes indispensable. As the handle is not flush with the blade, but raised away from the cutting surface, you can use it not only for your traditional serrated blade needs - like slicing bread, thick-skinned tomatoes and so on - but on your full line of vegetables, spuds, meat and even fish. My sous-chef uses his for just about everything. F. Dick makes a good one for about twenty-five bucks. It's stainless steel, but since it's serrated it doesn't really matter; after a couple of years of use, if the teeth start to wear down, you just buy yourself another one. --"

Bread machine recipe for Swedish Braided Cardamom Bread.

Buy whole pod or ground cardamom here.

Bread Machine Swedish Bread
(KAFFE BULLA)
1 tablespoon Yeast
2 cups bread flour
1 egg
¼ cup milk
¼ cup water
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cardamon
¼ tsp salt
remove from bread machine
braid/rise 1hr brush w/ egg white + sugar
bake 350 20-25 min

Read more about Cardamom bread on NPR. Gernot Katzer has the Spice pages a great resource in the form of a dictionary of spice related info. Cardamom is the third most expensive spice in the world. I'll bet the other two are saffron and vanilla bean. Don't buy the bleached or white cardamon, because- well yuck who wants bleached spices? True cardamom is green. There is also a black variety of cardamom which has a smoky flavor with camphor notes.

In the Middle East cardamom is mixed with green coffee beans. I had a friend who was from Sudan and she put cardamom in her tea, which was very yummy and smelled heavenly!

There is a cardamom addict blog that is pretty interesting with cookbook reviews and recipes.

I just found a really cool site called recipe muncher that you should check out, the photos are really good!

Me And my award winning cheesehead scarecrow!

The hair and face are made of licorice. And there are 'rats' nibbling it all over. It's very cute :)

How do I make headcheese or where can I buy headcheese?

This is a 19 minute video on making headcheese. Or you can just buy headcheese from us made by Bavarian Meats in Seattle.


But what is headcheese? According to the dictionary it is sausage or jellied loaf made of chopped parts of the head meat and sometimes feet and tongue of a calf or pig. If you click on the photo it will take you to wiki headcheese. Just about every culture has a version of headcheese as means of using every valuable gram of protein available from an animal.
Over at http://www.cookadvice.com/ the definition is this Head Cheese

This is not a cheese, but a sausage made from the edible parts of a calf's or pig's head that are combined with a gelatinous meat broth. Ingredients include cheeks, snouts, underlips and sometimes brains, hearts, tongues, and feet. And the head cheese recipe is here.

Horn salt, Bakers Ammonia for light crispy airy cookies

Buy Hartshorn, Bakers Ammonia, Hirschhorn Salt Ammonium Carbonate, horn salt, short salt are all terms for a source of ammonia used in baking cookies or, as "salt of hartshorn," as smelling salts. Once the word meant , but ammonium carbonate was later used as a substitute, which also went by the name of "salt of hartshorn."
Norwegian cookies by SAETRE called GJENDE come in regular and chocolate covered. They are made with baker's ammonia which leaves these cookies with a distinct coconut taste- but with no coconut in the recipe!

Bakers' Ammonia is a leavening ingredient called for in many old world recipes, especially those from Scandinavia. It is also called "hartshorn" literally the ground horn of a hart's (male deer's) antlers.


Unlike baking powder or soda, Bakers' Ammonia (ammonium carbonate) leaves no unpleasant alkaline off-flavor in baked goods. It is used for cookies, crackers and cream puff-type pastries, items which are small, thin or porous. It is not used for cakes or other large items because the ammonia gas cannot evaporate from these items. You will notice an odor of ammonia while baking, but this will quickly dissipate and the baked product will not have an odor or taste of ammonia.

Because Bakers' Ammonia has a tendency to evaporate when exposed to air, it should be stored in a jar with a tight cover. It will not spoil, but will "disappear" if not stored properly.

Hartshorn German Christmas Cookies

ingredients
2 c Sugar
1⁄2 t Salt
1 1⁄8 c -Shortening
2 Eggs
1 c Milk
1 T Hartshorn
1⁄2 c Boiling water
2 t vanilla
flour to stiffen
1 oz Anise seeds

1. Mix sugar, salt, shortening, eggs,and milk.

2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the Hartshorn in the boiling water. Make sure it is completely dissolved.

3. Add vanilla and anise seeds to the sugar mixture.

4. Add hartshorn mixture to sugar mixture.

5. Add enough flour to the sugar mixture to stiffen and not to be sticky. It may require 4-5 pounds!

6. Roll out dough on floured surface, and cut with cookie cutters.

7. Bake immediately after mixing in a moderate oven (325-350F) for 10-15 minutes.

This entire recipe will make between 180-220 cookies. One half the recipe is suggested (up to 100 cookies)



Dream Cookie



Delicate, light cookies that melt in your mouth

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. Vanilla Sugar

1 tsp. Bakers' Ammonia

1 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar

48 almond halves, blanched or unblanched


Preheat oven to 275 F. Prepare baking sheet(s) by greasing or by lining with Kitchen Parchment. Thoroughly combine the flour, Vanilla Sugar and Bakers' Ammonia. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light. Add the dry ingredients. Blend well. Form the dough into 48 small balls. Press down lightly on prepared baking sheet. Press an almond half on top of each. Be sure to keep cookies small. Yield: 4 dozen 2" cookies.

More Seattle food experience 2008 featuring two Seattle Innovative Chefs from Serafina and Crush

This wild boar sausage from Serafina was seriously good. It must be that they added grapes (what kind?) because the red wine flavor really came through and was an excellent partner with the boar. The sausages were made in house (easily they claim) and that intrigued me to take a look at their menu and indeed there was a rabbit sausage.

Serafina Salsicce di Coniglio
House made rabbit sausage roasted and served with pancetta-pine nut farro, braised Savoy cabbage and a Cascade huckleberry-red wine sauce. This sounds so yummy!

This is the apples with Smoked bacon powder which was just kind of a weird bacon smoked cornstarch (I think). It gave me many great Top Chef Memories of our beloved smoke crazed Chef Richard Blais.



The pork belly was Very Very Good! As a James Beard Nominee and a Food and Wine top 10 Chef pick, Chef Jason Wilson led me willingly into the land of pork belly and I'm glad he did!

Hopefully another bloggers photo turned out and you can see it. It was about the size of a postage stamp and about a 3/4" thick. The Bourbon Cider Glaze was a demi- glaze I would guess as it was quite thick and it had an incredible deep golden sheen to it. The flavor combo as you can imagine really complemented the velvety fatty texture of the pork belly. Definitely a treat!

You can learn how to make demi-glaze here.

Your best Asian Pork Belly recipe and Chowhound discussion

www.Foodbuzz.com is an amazing organization that I am happier to be associated with more and more as each day passes. It is really nice to have found a community that shows that foodies are bound by similar life outlooks no matter what part of the globe the are in. The eat local, eat fresh movement is very evident globally. Thanks foodbuzz for sending me to this event!

What is Shawarma, how can I make it and what is the recipe?

How to make Shawarma video on You tube. The Dutch spice blend for Shorma is made by VERSTEGEN.

Although it is often compared to gyros because it is sliced off of the same style of tall rotating cooking cylinder, shawarma seems to be chunks of different meats not the blended meat puree that the gyros I have had are made with.

All about Shawarma

Recipe for Lamb Shawarma from Wiki

Ingredients
1.5 kg leg of lamb or other tender cut
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamon
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup lemon
1/4 cup of vinegar

Procedure
Cut the lamb into large 4cm chunks.
Combine the nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, garlic cloves, black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon, and vinegar to a small mixing bowl and pour over meat.
Marinade for 2 hours or more.
Chop up 2 onions. Grill the onions with some garlic for few minutes.
Then drain meat, pat meat dry and grill till golden brown.
Serve with pita bread, tomato, fresh onion, tabbouleh, tzatziki, lettuce and chili sauce.

Here is a lovely blog post from Chow Times about Abdul's Shawarma restaurant in Vancouver, B.C. The photos make be want to jump into the car and go to Vancouver on a shawarma run!

Octopus from Etta's slam dunks the Seattle Food and Wine Experience 2008

Etta's is a great Tom Douglas operation and they had another hit with this interesting take on Bruschetta. Flash seared saffron braised squid was the topping. Lying upon chunk of Spanish chorizo nestled on a garlic chick pea puree and salsa Verde made with preserved lemon, harissa oil, poached garlic (takes the bite out) and piquillo peppers .

Honestly I could taste every single flavor in this dish at a different moment in time. I wouldn't have thought to put squid and chickpeas together but upon doing a search I see that it is actually a tapas combination found fairly often. It was really really good.

The kids working the booth were both knowledgeable and friendly, another trademark of a Tom Douglas restaurant.

BBC's Squid, Chick Pea, Chorizo salad

Timesonline.com Squid, Chorizo, Chickpea stew

Harissa recipe

The only sadness that I have about the Food and Wine Experience is that when I was there on Sunday The Farm Kitchen wasn't.

At www.Foodbuzz.com you can find other foodbuzz corespondents reflections on this event as well as my own. To foodbuzz, I thank you again for giving me the joy of sitting down in a (makeshift) room filled with every kind of Kitchen aid mixer and attachment known to man. I'm still dreaming about them and I have owned one for years!

The Seattle Food Experience 2008 review part one Port Ludlow resort rocks a New Bedford Scallop!

This is a pan of pure bliss. Filled with tender New Bedford Bay Scallops being poached in a Buttery Madagascar Vanilla bean beurre blanc sauce.

Foodbuzz sent me to cover this event and the irony of getting a 'food buzz' is evident just looking around at all the people practically frothing at the mouth being so near other foodies. It's delicious!

Michael Ruhlman gives great tips and hints on making a beurre blanc sauce on his site. And as an added bonus you can learn 'cheats' from a reply post by culinary hero Bourdain in the comments section. Cool beans!

This is the end result. The scallop was tender and creamy and the little dots of the Madagascar vanilla beans gave it a heavenly flavor and intoxicating scent. It was resting on a bed or organic sauteed baby spinach and watercress. This was hands down the best menu sample at the event.

The Resort at Port Ludlow is definitely on my list of places to eat because if they serve an excellent scallop on the road (a daring feat!) then I can only imaging how good the meal would be from their kitchen.

• The Port Ludlow Resort



• The full Fireside Restaurant Menu



• The Seattle Food and Wine Experience 2008
  

Apparently the New Bedford Scallop is very highly regarded, a poster over at the Biggest Menu shows one from the French Laundry it was certainly the best scallop I've ever had!

Claudio Corallo Chocolate and Cacao was used to make this feathery dark chocolate mousse. It had delightful bits of dark chocolate that melted in slippery buttery goodness. This little sample cup was small but its flavors were balanced so well that it was enough.

This is the cacau powder they used in the mousse. It was mighty fine mousse. I tasted one of the whole roasted beans and it was good too, much better than the roasted nibs I've tried in the past.

This was much better in my opinion than the featured dessert Alaska Silk Pie. That was a trio of tangerine, key lime and passion fruit or something. It certainly wasn't bad, it was good in fact but I wouldn't call it the best dessert I ever had like the Deen boys did on their road show.

I think I'm going to look into carrying the Claudio Corallo Chocolate and Cacao.

Disclaimer:
I took these pictures with my camera phone and the lighting at Qwest Field had a blue tinge.