However, a serious home baker may find that the Oster lacks in certain features while its functionalities may suffice for a rookie. An interesting feature in the Oster is its other bake options. There are 8 in all; basic, whole wheat, 2 ExpressBake cycles, French, sweet, dough, and bake. Most average home bakers will be satisfied with the types of bread, cake and dough that can be made with the Oster breadmaker. You can also choose different crust options:light, medium or dark.

Yet another interesting featuer is the machine’s acoustic signal that lets you know when to add extra ingredients like fruit and nuts during the mixing stage of the cycle. After the baking stage, the machine has a 60 minute warmer option to keep your loaf warm. And yes, enjoy the manual that comes with delicious recipes for you to try out in the comforts of yr own home.

A scan through the reviews shows that while most people are generally satisfied with the baker, it has its own limitations which some people can live with, others finding it annoying.

Gathering from several reviews, I would probably say that the Oster bread machine is a good machine that you can purchase at a very good price. It has enough features to satisfy most home users and its ExpressBake feature really does make baking quick, easy and fun!

Via Goodmans

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Malaysian diet is notoriously renowned for it’s high fat content. All that coconut milk that’s used in curries is probably the major cause of obesity. However, things are changing in the South East Asian Muslim country. With more people getting fat, chefs are becoming health conscious.

The fattening coconut milk is used in most Malaysian foods. Along with that the clarified butter as well as sugarcane increase the fat and carbohydrate content in the Malaysian foods. People here eat a lot of meat as well. Lately, more and more folks are becoming health conscious and trying to change their diet. However, in a country where high fat diet is common it’s hard to change things around.

The good news is that local eateries are switching to healthier food groups. The transition from the high fat and high cholesterol diet to a more healthy, low carb, high protein diet has begun. In one Malaysian eatery called Purple Cane, tea has become an important ingredient in their food items.

According to the latest stats, more than two third Malaysians over 18 do not work out. People in this Muslim nation like eating high calorie food. The night markets, fast food meals, and 24 hour eateries are all recepies of obesity. Although a wave of change has started in Malaysian diners. Although, everyone is not giving up comfortable Malaysian diet.

Image credit:Pachd

Great art knows no bounds. It can create enchanting magic that leaves those who dwell under it intoxicated & wanting for more. While the magic of each stroke flowing from the brush of men like Da Vinci & Van Gough to Picasso leave us spellbound wanting to see more (& sometimes waiting to understand more), an art exhibition in Dresden, Germany, leaves you wanting for more regardless of your inclination towards art.

Hannes Broecker has found a brilliant & unique way to invite the elite for a drink, in the most artistic fashion possible. The art exhibition of Hannes contains glass hangings on the wall, which resemble the canvas of a painting & these glass hangings are containers that hold various varieties of cocktails which not only entice your sense of sight with a multitude of colors but also tantalize your tongue to taste them.

One can take a glass of the drink from the wall & this pretty much means that the only time the exhibition closes is when the elegant glass hangings that provide the refreshing art run dry. While it may not be open for all (& one can guess the reason for that), it surely must have already impressed many that walked in with both its uniqueness, in both its thought & its execution.

This is one piece of art that might just find its way in to your homes & while there is no such guarantee of it for now, many out there surely hope so. This is one piece of art that surely is going to floor you- one way or another! & if you ever were to get bored of the shade on the wall, you can always go for a different refill.

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The sweet cookies city that resembles the city of Shenyang has been made with 25,000 and more than 1,000 kilograms of cookies. With the tallest building being 2.5 meters high, the whole miniature city has been captured in a 5×5 meter area. Even if it a city you cannot help your mouth watering with the sweet and yummy city at the first glance.

Not to forget that the creator and architect cum chef of this yummy city has applied for a Guinness World Record. Whether it gets a place in the book of records isn’t known yet, but it definitely is the talk of the town now. Now, we have a aesthetically beautiful city that we can savour also.
Source: Spluch

It’s ironic. No other word is more apt than that. A girl had to sign up for welfare and cash in the food stamps at the grocery store in order to make both ends meet for her four siblings. The experience probably still haunts her. Years down the lane, this same girl is famous. And what do you think makes her famous? — Food.

Yes, we are talking about Sandra Lee. She is the stunning blonde who cooks up a storm in the kitchen. The star of the Food Network’s “Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra”, author of a number of recipe-books including Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade recipes for Gathering, Valentine, Slow Cooker and a host of others.

In a recent interview with “The Insider”, Sandra spilled the binge about her indulgence on the food front. She mentioned that she’d just fry up a pound of bacon and gorge. No wonder her weight soon touched 160 pounds.

Well, that’s a dark foody secret form the cooking guru.

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Source: The Insider Online

Once you open up the wrap though, things are pretty tasty inside. The best way to have these kind of sprouts is by trying them with buttery, nutty white cannellini beans. The beans when warmed in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper taste pretty good along with the Brussels sprouts.

How do you make the Brussels sprouts meal? Here’s the ingredients: 2 pounds of fresh Brussels Sprouts, 6 cloves of smashed garlic, 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, 1 cup vegetable broth, olive oil, table butter, Shredded Parmesan Cheese, pine nuts, and 4 strips of bacon. (I used vegetarian bacon. If you use regular bacon, you could cook it first and fry the Brussels sprouts in the fat for a richer flavor.) The detailed procedure of cooking can be found in this site.

The ordinary version of Sprouts are not that tasty at all. They are just like dry leaves.However, Brussels sprouts are a different breed. The bowl of sprouts are meant to be served hot.

Image Credits: Fatfreevegan, Typepad

Ingredients:

¾ cup white sugar
¼-cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
¾ cup pumpkin puree
¼-cup water
1 ½ whole-wheat pastry flour
¾-teaspoon baking powder
½-teaspoon baking soda
¼-teaspoon ground cloves
1-teaspoon cinnamon
¼-teaspoon salt
¼-teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, oil, eggs in a large bowl. Add pumpkin puree and water. Now add all the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture in greased muffin tins until they are 2/3 full with the batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes and your whole-wheat pumpkin chocolate chip muffins are ready to be devoured.

Source:slashfood
Picture:guy sports

Wondering what to make for dinner tonight! Is it? I often feel butterflies in my stomach when I have to plan meal for my family. It is quite strenuous to plan and make a meal for working women, where daily chores as well as office work have no escapism.

I have found a way out to this menu planning and making phobia. The easiest way out that I could think of was ready-to-cook meals. They are easy to make, easy to store and ready to eat whenever you want to, all you have to do it heat it and its done!

A little bit of planning and smart shopping can make your family dining a memorable experience. Plan with was to process and store food recipes for the coming week on the weekends to avoid any last minute hassles. To suggest a few would be ready-made sides from grocer, baggies salads, clean and chopped veggies. Plan deserts like frozen fruits which can be pureed and served as granite with a scoop of low fat ice-cream. These meals can be stored for up to three days in the refrigerator once cooked and kept frozen for over three months. So, it is quite a good deal unlike the perishable commodities. No hassles for gathering ingredients, cleaning, processing, and cooking them. It’s a great getaway from all the inconvenience.

Plan main courses and deserts to satiate ones taste buds, also consider the ease with which it would be made.
You can try this recipe for vegetable-bean chili with whole-wheat couscous which takes just 45 minutes to make (so don’t be intimidated by a never ending ingredient list). It can be prepared up to three days ahead, or frozen up to three months.

The chili is bound to stimulate your adventurous taste buds and would satiate both the vegetarians and meat-eaters. If you prepare the chili ahead of time, wait to make the couscous until you are ready to serve it. The couscous takes just 5 minutes and involves nothing more than boiling water.

Vegetable-bean Chili with Whole-wheat Couscous
Start to finish: 45 minutes (25 minutes active)

Servings: 8

INGREDIENTS:
11/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
11/2 cups (about 1 medium) chopped onions
1 cup (about 2 stalks) chopped celery
3/4 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded, cut in a large dice
1/4 cup seeded and minced jalapenos (about 3 medium)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
21/2 tablespoons chili powder
11/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Two 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
141/2-ounce can dice tomatoes with juice
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cornmeal
Two 10-ounce boxes whole-wheat couscous
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice

1. In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium. Add onions, celery and green beans. Cook while stirring occasionally for 5 minutes and add the red peppers, jalapenos, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, oregano, and black pepper. Cook until the peppers begin to soften and the spices are fragrant, about 4 minutes.

2. Stir in chickpeas, kidney beans, tomatoes and their juice, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally. Stir in cornmeal and simmer 1 minute longer.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the couscous according to package directions. When the couscous is ready, stir the cilantro and lime juice into the chili. Serve the chili over the couscous.

Nutrition information per serving:
499 calories;
5 g fat (1 g saturated);
2 mg cholesterol;
95 g carbohydrate;
18 g protein;
18 g fiber;
862 mg sodium.

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It is actually a kind of vacuum chamber that you can put the marinade into. The part to be marinated can be put up in the basket that has been placed above. After this, one can seal the system which makes it vacuum. Then all you need to do is hit a button which will mix the food into the marinade also releasing vacuum, which will in turn let the food suck all the juices. I don’t at all understand the concept but anyways, the system costs $3800.

Source: Scifi

What makes you eat more and what puts you off when you dine out? Is it the decor, lighting, music, ambiance, aroma or the service? Would it make a difference if the food came from a vending machine or if it was wrapped appealingly? Restaurants can give better service if they knew what ticks the clients and what puts them off.

‘Restaurant of the future’ at the Dutch university of Wageningen will soon have answers to these questions. This place is not the dining restaurant you normally visit. There are unobtrusive cameras placed all over the place which tracks every move of yours, from the way you walk-in to the way, you order and eat your meals.

This new facility boasts of glass walls, marble counter tops and bamboo flooring. The self–service tills allow diners to scan their lunch and the trays are weighed by a set of scales built into the floor. The researchers sitting in the control room can direct the cameras in the ceiling and zoom in on the plates of the individual diners watching what they order, how they eat and how much of food they throw away.

The ambiance is experimented every day by varying the noise, smells, furniture and food packaging. The color of the lighting is changed to check if it affects the diners. For example, the findings have depicted that blue lighting put most diners off and chairs with pink cushions are always occupied.

The facility has been developed at the cost of 3 million euros in partnership with Sodexho Alliance. Anyone who is interested in starting a restaurant can make use of this facility by creating the ambiance they wish to have before hand in this facility and gauge its effect on diners before implementing it practically.

If you are interested in dining at this place, you have to sign a consent form agreeing to be watched. Anyone interested?

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Can something as simple as a carrot be overpriced to an extent that it becomes a rich man’s luxury? Baby Organic Parisienne carrots, being marketed by M&S are all set to hit the British market at a whopping price of £4.83 per kilo, which is almost four times the price charged for supermarket organic carrots, which retail for just £1.11 per kilo.

These fancy looking carrots, which are expected to be a superhit with kids are more than seven times the cost of ordinary supermarket loose carrots, which sell at just 64p per kilo. The producers of this incarnation attribute high prices to its particularly sweet taste and ultra thin peel, which needn’t be taken off. Because of the strong flavor, these carrots are well eaten raw or as carrot fries, with dips or sliced into innovative shapes.

Marks & Spencer, which is exclusively marketing these organic carrots, believes that the fun shape of these 50p-sized carrots will definitely appeal kids.

The sale of Organic carrots has soared up by almost 10per cent this year and it has now become the biggest selling organic vegetable. Parisienne Carrots, which are being grown in the UK are believed to be having countless health benefits. M&S spokesperson attributed the high price to short supply and brief availability in an year.

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Ingredients:

(Serves 3)

600 g lobster medallions
100 ml lobster oil
½ teaspoon Gunpowder green tea ground to dust
Lots Salt & pepper
½ teaspoon Lime zest
½ teaspoon Lime juice

Sauce
½ cup Cream
½ teaspoon Whole Gun powder leaves
Pinch Salt & pepper
½ teaspoon Tarragon
½ teaspoon Lime zest

Method:

1. Season lobster medallions on both sides with salt & pepper & ground tea, dowse with lobster oil, zest and lemon juice & bar-be-cue on hot heat 3 minutes on one side turn and 3 minutes on the other side and rest.
Take off heat and rest.

2. Boil cream with the whole tea, add salt and pepper and boil for 5 minutes.

3. Serve two medallions per person on a plate with a trickle of cream sauce and some chopped tarragon and lime zest for garnish.

For all those who love salads here is a news to feast on. Reports have it that, a southern Spanish town has tossed what the officials call the World’s Biggest Salad on Saturday.

The salad is said to involve 6,700 kilograms of lettuce, tomatoes, onions, peppers and olives.

The preparation of the salad took three hours with 20 cooks working on it to mix all the ingredients needed to make the salad.

The salad was made in a town of Pulpi in the province of Almeria considered to be one of Spain’s main fruit and vegetable growing area.

Reports have it that this salad will be distributed to all the restaurants in Pulpi who will in turn serve their customers for free.

People of the town surely have a big reason to feast outside in numerous restaurants across the town.

A Guinness Book of World Records judge made his presence felt at the venue where this one of a kind salad was tossed. He confirmed that this is the World’s Biggest salad ever tossed and had set a new record all together.

With the world always setting some extravagant record or the other, this unique record will take some spices from cooks across the world to break. Only time can tell if this record will be broken by any other town in the world.

Since France is considered a paradise for chefs, considering the availability of different kind of experimental cuisines, will a town in this part of the world eye at the record?.

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This Italian dessert is light, fluffy, exotic looking and above all, easy to make. The meringue forms the base of this soft and ready-to-melt-in-the-mouth cake, and is a great dish on a formal coffee table spread.

Though it is easy to make, the baking time is a little longer than the other baked desserts, but who’s complaining, because this treat is worth the effort.

Serves 8
Preheat the oven at the lowest setting.

For the Meringue:
5 egg whites
5 oz. powdered sugar
5 oz. granulated sugar
pinch of salt
butter

Combine the two sugars and beat half of it together with the salt and egg whites. Whip, then add the remaining sugar.

Cover the well-buttered bottom and sides of a 9″ cake pan with the egg white mass and bake on low for 2 hours or until the meringue is dry and golden at the tips.

For the filling :
5 egg yolks
4.5 oz. sugar
7 T. lemon juice
Grated rind of 2 lemons
3.5 oz. butter
25 cl whipping cream

To decorate:
25 cl whipping cream
2 T. powdered sugar
Assorted fruit

For the filling, combine the yolks and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and whisk for one minute. Add the sugar and lemon peel, then whisk another minute. Heat the mixture over a low flame until somewhat thick.

Remove from the flame and add butter.

Blend well and place in refrigerator for 30 min. Whip the 25 cl of chilled whipping cream and fold it into the chilled lemon filling. Spoon the mixture lightly into the meringue shell.

Top with the remaining whipping cream, beaten into soft peaks with 2 T. powdered sugar and bits of fruit or berries.
Serve immediately.

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Ever given a thought that washing the veggies and fruits bought from the market with water would make them perfectly clean? Sorry to say but the latest tests prove that merely using water as cleansing agent does not leave them all clean.

Some people use vinegar and some even use soap. But are these techniques as effective as they should be? Keeping the same in mind a group of bimonthly American cooking magazine Cook’s Illustrated decided and conducted a small test.

In the test, they washed fruit with just one of the following solutions:

1. Antibacterial soap (not okay as food safety experts maintain that soap isn’t something one should eat)

2. One part vinegar and three parts water

3. Scrubbing with a brush
4. Plain water

After washing the fruit they rubbed a sterilized cotton swab outside the fruit. The leftover grime accumulated on the swabs was then placed in Petri dishes and kept at 80F for many days.

The result obtained show that the best solution is of water and vinegar as it helped getting rid off 98 percent of the germs. The second best option is to use a scrubbing brush as it removed a tiny bit more than just water alone.

To get the same level of cleanliness at your home all one has to do is spray the fruit with sufficient amount of vinegar and then rinse it under the tap. The cold water helps in washing away the residual flavor from the vinegar, and finishes the cleaning process.

Now I leave it up to you to decide that you continue using the traditional way of cleaning fruits and vegetables with plain water or switch over to a vinegar solution.

Source:Allwomenstalk