24 Places to Get Drunk On Your Food

By Maggie Gorman, Junior Writer

Aug 15, 2012 @ 5:24 PM

Anyone of legal drinking age can tell you that drinking and dining go hand-in-hand. But what you might not be aware of, and what some cooks and bakers might not want you to know, is that some of the best food is actually based on drinks — specifically, alcoholic beverages.

Click here for 24 Places to Get Drunk On Your Food

Bakers have long appreciated the sweeter side of liquor, while cooks love adding in alcohol for the complex flavor and texture it brings to dishes. It might feel odd to pour a can of beer in with your mac-and-cheese, but the flavor-enhancing qualities of liquor in food are well known and popular — beer bread is a hearty winter favorite, and mussels and clams served in broths of wine or champagne are commonplace. Booze is a special favorite in sweets, such as rum cake or grasshopper pie with crème de menthe.
In most cases, the majority of the alcohol content is burned off during the cooking or baking process, meaning you’ll reap the taste benefits but not the buzz. No-bake desserts or flambéed food, however, retains all or most of its alcohol, which means if you eat enough of it, you could actually get seriously sloshed.

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Slideshow: 24 Places to Get Drunk On Your Food

This is only cause for concern if you’re enjoying your spiked snack with a glass or two of wine or another cocktail. Eating solid food slows the alcohol absorption process, meaning you’re probably not at risk of going over the limit even if the food retains all of its alcohol content; but adding liquid alcohol into the equation could mean you get a bit more tipsy than intended.
If you’re really set on getting happy hour effects in food form, though, you could probably do it. For the next time you’re searching for a place to multi-task on imbibing and ingesting, we’ve listed here the top 24 boozy bakeries and liquor-laced eateries across the country.


Read more: http://www.thedailymeal.com/24-places-get-drunk-your-food#ixzz24o9Mldof

Thinking Outside the Box | Food For Thought | Slow Food International - Good, Clean and Fair food.

Thinking Outside the Box | Food For Thought | Slow Food International - Good, Clean and Fair food.

Thinking Outside the Box

Italy - 27 Aug 12

Food packaging represents an enormous source of the world’s waste, used once and tossed. But what potential exists to look beyond the standard cartons, plastics and excessive packaging that crowd supermarket shelves? Slow Food is opening the floor to suggestions with the first edition of the SlowPack Prize, held as part of Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre and open to the food producers who exhibit their products at the event.

The contest aims to encourage producers at the event to reflect on the impact that non-eco-friendly packaging has on the environment and on the flavor, aroma, and safety of their products, while awarding those who use effective environmentally friendly packaging.

Producers in the Slow Food network have long been thinking about innovative ecological packaging. Producers in Campania, Italy, for example, use a completely compostable net to hold their Neapolitan Papaccella peppers. The net is closed manually, without the addition of extra devices or materials, thereby keeping the number of components to a minimum.

Alnif cumin, produced in southeast Morocco, is normally sold at the local market in plastic bags closed with tape. Producers in the Slow Food Presidium, however, now use a low cost recycled card box, constructed without glue by the producers themselves. A stamp is used to manually imprint their label on the package.

In Kenya, the Bukusu community is packaging their Nzoia River reed salt in a simple, environmentally friendly and zero-cost way: two banana leaves from local trees are dried under hot ashes overnight, then folded into a bundle and closed with a fiber from the same leaves. These packages of salt are then sold on the local market, without the need for plastics or other materials.

Since 2008, the producers of Nubìa Red Garlic (Sicily, Italy) have been packaging their garlic using a new style of braid that holds together four heads of garlic and forms a loop at the top which can be used to hang up the garlic bunch. No plastic bags or nets, this approach uses nothing more than the garlic stalks, which are woven together while still flexible, before they dry completely.

The SlowPack Prize 2012 will consider issues such as recovering a traditional way of packaging and conservation; innovation and sustainability with reusable, recyclable and biodegradable materials derived from energy efficient processes; and labels that communicate the product’s characteristics such as the traceability of its ingredients, the history of the product or its uniqueness and indicating the correct way to reuse or dispose of the packaging.

Slow Food is looking forward to seeing what producers have in store. Winners of the 2012 SlowPack Prize will be announced during the Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre event, held October 25 – 29 in Turin, Italy.

Click to find out more.

White wine is a winner with burgers

August 27th, 2012

10:00 AM ET

White wine is a winner with burgers

Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.
I believe it was in elementary school math (or perhaps junior high school - this was a ways back) where they sat us down and taught us about sets. You remember sets. For instance, the set of men who are over 6'9" and the set of men who have under size six feet rarely intersect; if they do, you’ve got a guy who falls over a lot. This approach to understanding life is handy when it comes to hamburgers and wine.
Consider: there is the set of people who like hamburgers, which is large. There is also the set of people who only like white wine, which is also large (and includes but is not limited to several of my in-laws). The shaded area where those two overlap is the set of people who like hamburgers but only drink white wine, and for whom saying something like “Hamburgers go great with Cabernet” is about as useless as legs on a fish.

For those folks, the appropriate advice is more the following: hamburgers can also go great with a substantial white wine that nevertheless has good acidity, since you need something to cut through the fat. Chardonnay has the substance; grow the grapes in a cool climate - for instance, Oregon, the far coast of Sonoma, or western Australia - and you’ll get the requisite acidity, too. A little oak doesn’t hurt either, as it goes well with the smoky char from the grill. Here are a few good options:

2010 Cline Cool Climate Chardonnay ($12)
The Sonoma Coast’s facility for producing crisp whites is on display in this green-apple-accented white.

2010 Errazuriz Estate Chardonnay Casablanca Valley ($14)
Like the far coast of Sonoma, Chile’s Casablanca Valley is right on the edge of the Pacific—the cooling ocean winds help produce lively yet full-bodied Chardonnays like this one.

2010 Witness Tree Willamette Valley Chardonnay ($15)
The 2010 vintage was a cool one for Oregon, which gives this focused white additional intensity.

2010 Chehalem Willamette Valley INOX Chardonnay ($17)
Winemaker Harry Peterson-Nedry skips the oak on this layered, pear-accented Chardonnay (“inox” is a French term for stainless steel, a reference to the steel tanks in which the wine was aged).

2011 Vasse Felix Estate Chardonnay ($20)
A citrus-zesty, complex wine from one of the top producers in western Australia’s Margaret River region, well worth the higher price.
More from Food & Wine
Best Burgers in the U.S.
America's Best Bars
America’s Most Over-the-Top Burgers
Best Wines for Summer
Summer Grilling Recipes

More injuries over holidays

By Astha Gupta First published: December 18th, 2011

The risk of drowning and injury skyrockets over Christmas. Astha Gupta explains how to stay safe.

It is the best time of the year – family gatherings, the exchange of presents, delicious treats. Unfortunately, for emergency room doctors it's also one of the busiest.


According to the Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit at Monash University, there were at least 221 presentations to emergency departments in Victoria for Christmas-related injuries over the five-year period from 2006 to 2010, including cases that were subsequently admitted to hospital. The highest number of cases occurred in children up to four years and adults aged 35 to 39.


A spokesperson for St George Hospital in NSW adds, "Our emergency department usually experiences an increase in presentations of up to 40 per cent during the Christmas and New Year period."


To compound the problem, most people don't know first aid. According to research by St John (NSW), while the majority of the population said that knowing first aid was important, only eight per cent had a current first-aid certificate.


St John recommends people buy and regularly restock a first-aid kit, and store it in a safe, cool place out of reach of children.


Here are ways to stay safe.

 

How to avoid pool injuries

More than 40 per cent of drowning cases occur during the summer months. If you're hosting a pool party at your home and have a large number of children present, make sure you have a designated parent to watch over the kids.


"Don't have children supervising other children," Penelope Little, a paramedic from the Ambulance Service of NSW, says. "Make sure you have a pool fence and an up-to-date CPR chart near the pool. Keep the door to the pool locked and keep a special eye on children who are non-swimmers."


But it's not only the young children at risk. Peter Achatz, a first-aid training officer with St John, warns of the dangers of mixing alcohol and water activities. "People get a false sense of security after drinking and take unusual risks such as diving in shallow water, which can result in head, neck and spinal injuries," Achatz says.

 

How to avoid sprains and breaks

Christmas Day often starts quietly for ambulance staff, Little says, but as the afternoon wears on, the service gets plenty of calls related to injuries to children. Accidents due to skateboards, scooters, rollerblades and push bikes are common. "Buying a helmet and knee pads with the present is a must, not an option," Little adds.

 

How to avoid holiday falls

The ambulance service gets many calls from rural properties over the Christmas season, reporting horse-riding falls or quad-biking accidents.


"Normally it's for a young city-based child who's gone to visit relatives or is on holidays and isn't familiar with horses or quad bikes and has a nasty fall. While kids might be enthusiastic to try activities on a farm, supervise them closely," Little says. "Writing down the address and details of your holiday accommodation and keeping it with the telephone can hurry things up in an emergency," she adds.

 

How to avoid burns

People should be on their guards around flames, be it an open fire, in the kitchen or at barbecues. "Many times bonfires go wrong," Little says, "mostly because correct procedures aren't followed or alcohol was involved."


Burns can be treated with cool running water for 20 minutes. "Taking a person to the shower or a flowing hose is great for burns," Achatz says.

 

How to avoid cuts

Be careful while handling scissors and knives when opening presents or carving the turkey. Use proper tools for assembling toys rather than a knife.


"Don't rush when opening the presents," Little says. "Have a screwdriver ready for toys that are screwed into packaging, and clear up the packaging and wrapping paper as you go along."


by bodyandsoul.com.au.

My Top Holiday Foods!

This week I'd like to discuss my fav Top Holiday Foods, that is! I believe in the "Power of Food" and while we may overeat during this holiday season, I think we can have it all with my top ten foods, that is enjoy and maintain our weight too. One concrete step we can take this season and beyond, is to eat foods that offer us the most overall benefit to accomplish our goals (notice, we're talking about what we can add to our diet, not take away!). So, here's a list of "My Top Ten" favorite foods for the holidays and year round, which are healthy, contribute to disease prevention, aid our weight management efforts, and are delicious especially if we prepare with some creativity of course! So, I hope you'll choose to make them your top too!

Here goes just a quick look at my top holiday foods

Yogurt: As close to a #1 food as it gets, my motto is " A Yogurt a Day". A light food loaded with nutrients such as high quality bone building calcium, high quality protein, vital B vitamins with healthy immune boosting bacteria known as probiotics (the kind that line our gastrointestinal tract). A great food, snack or snack topping; it's portable and easy to find. Studies indicate that those of us who have diets high in low fat dairy products have an easier time staying trim! I love my yogurt for a quick breakfast to start the day or on the run; just add fresh blueberries, non fat Greek yogurt, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup skim milk, chopped ice and blend.Of course, non fat yogurt makes a great foundation for healthy dips and sauces for our holiday parties.

Salmon: Higher in fat than our other fishes, but with the Omega-3 fatty acids that are essential to our skin, brain, heart and arteries to name a few. What more can we ask for in a tasty fatty food? Serve it poached for a great holiday appetizer, with a great dill yogurt based sauce on the side!

Lobster Most of know that shellfish is low in total fat, lower in calories than meat, but that it is also high in dietary cholesterol. Well, lobster, king of the crustaceans has just about the lowest amount of cholesterol of all the shellfish. Lobster has about 50 mg of cholesterol per 3 ounce serving, and at about 100 calories, we've got a high protein low fat source to add to our holiday appetizers. Of course, this doesn't include drawn butter! Sorry... ever feel so light on your feet after a porterhouse?

Legumes: I Label these beans as a "Powerhouse Food" in one of my tips. Legumes are a powerful energy food with vitamins, minerals, iron, B vitamins, and fiber along with an almost equal proportion of quality protein included in the list of meat alternatives. Legumes also contain a high proportion of soluble and insoluble fiber, disease fighting phytochemicals and when we add them to our tomato based salsas with toasted sliced tortillas on the side, we've got another great finger food for our party.

Tomato: The tomato's claim to fame is its high content of Lycopene, a disease fighting phytochemical known especially to be helpful in the fight against prostate cancer. And since the tomato is so popular, versatile, widely available, tasty raw or cooked, I rate it a "Superstar Food". Start with a spicy Bloody Mary for the holiday raising the metabolism a bit, along with it as a filling drink (a great natural appetite suppressant when arriving at a restaurant) with a lobster cocktail and enjoy the holiday without extra calories (High blood pressure? Watch the sodium in canned tomato juice though).

Avocado One of my favorite fats, the avocado is a healthy fat made up of monounsaturated fatty acids. Good for our heart, and for our body as a whole, it can satisfy our brain's fat satiety center, lessening cravings and creating a feeling of fullness. Great news is that when we add 1/4 of a small Haas avocado to a pre-entree salad, we're taking in less calories than a tablespoon of salad dressing. Slice it up and add it to a tomato salad as a holiday buffet dish with 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, and we have great taste, and good health!

Asparagus: A newer addition to my list based upon some new research, asparagus just may help relieve a hangover (good for holiday parties?). A study reported in the Journal of Food Science, reported that the amino acids (main antioxidant made up of amino's is glutathione) and minerals in asparagus may ease hangovers and protect liver cells from the toxins in alcohol, which are metabolized by the liver! I love my asparagus grilled with a drizzle of olive oil added to my holiday salads. And yes, I know all about the odors when we visit the restroom, but rest assure, it's the very sulfur compounds being excreted that are part of the phytochemicals that make asparagus so healthy!

So there it is, just some of the foods to add to our shopping list that make "My Top Holiday Foods" to eat more often this season and beyond, which might be easier to do than what too many of us focus on, not eating all those "bad" tasty foods.

Want help with your exercise and weight goals? Contact us for information on the new "10-week Personalized Get- in- Shape" Programs by emailing me or go http://www.junefit.com/serviceshp.htm Offered also are "Personal Exercise Only" Programs smartly designed to strengthen, condition, increase flexibility, and more with Ed Irace! Services provided in NYC, and nationally through Skype web service, email and phone when appropriate.

Here's to healthy and fun eating this holiday season!

June M Lay M.S.
Enjoying my tips? Get a head start thinking about a New Year weight loss goal with my book. Here's the link to Amazon, http://www.amazon.com:80/Its-Not-Diet-Creative-Eating/dp/1432743597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259605985&sr=1-1

Junefit is included in Google's top ranked women's health resources, scroll midway http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women's_Health/Resources/

June is Lifestyle Columnist at www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/index.shtml

copyright 2011, junefit. All rights reserved.

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