Wednesday, February 23, 2011

This is for annie...

If she gets an interview as a raw baker (it is a thing look it up).

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The Mysterious World of Onions

Thanks so much to Sue - this is a real gem.

Subject: Onions

Very important subject.. especially for those who love to eat onions.

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people, there was a Doctor that
visited many farmers to see if he could help them combat this flu, as
many of the farmers and their families had contracted it and many had
died.

The doctor came upon this one farmer and, to his surprise, everyone in
his family was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was
doing that was different, the wife replied that she had placed an
unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, ( probably only two
rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could
have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She obliged
and when he tested it, he found that the onion was riddled with flu
virus. It had obviously absorbed the bacteria and therefore, kept the
family healthy.

I heard this story from my hairdresser: she said that several years ago,
many of her employees were coming down with the flu and also many of her
customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in
her shop and, to her surprise, none of her staff got sick (and no, she
is not in the onion business).

So the sensible answer would seem to be, buy some onions and place
them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two
in your office (under your desk or even a windowsill). Try it and see
what happens. We did it last year and none of us contracted the flu.

If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the
better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case.

Now there is a P.S. to this, for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who
regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with
this most interesting experience about onions:

"Thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmers story, but I
do remember that I contracted pneumonia and, needless to say, I was very
ill. I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion,
put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar,
placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion
would be black in the morning from the germs. Sure enough, it happened
just like that.. the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed
around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have
powerful antibacterial and antiseptic properties."

Here is another point:

LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS!

I have often used an onion which has been left in the fridge and
sometimes don't use a whole one at a time and so save the other half
for later.

Now with this information, I have changed my habits and buy smaller
onions!

I had the wonderful privilege of touring Mullins Food Products, makers
of mayonnaise.

Questions about food poisoning came up and I wanted to share what I'd
learned from a chemist.

The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed.

Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz.

During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about
mayonnaise.. people are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's
answer will surprise you, as he said that all commercially made Mayo is
completely safe. "It doesn't even have to be refrigerated - there's no
harm in refrigerating it, but it's not really necessary", he explained.
He said that the pH in mayonnaise is set at an environmental point
that bacteria could not survive in and he then talked about the
quintessential picnic, with the bowl of potato salad sitting on the
table and how everyone blames the mayonnaise when someone gets sick. Ed
says that when food poisoning is reported, the first thing the officials
look for is when the victim last ate onions and where those onions came
from (in the potato salad?). Ed says that it's not the mayonnaise (as
long as it's not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors, it's the
onions and/or the potatoes (ever seen a potato go black? Thought
so..).

He explained that onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially
uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced
onion and he says it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and
put it in your refrigerator. It's already contaminated enough just by
being cut open and exposed to the air for a while and can be a real
danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you have put in
your hotdogs and burgers at the vendors!).

Ed says that if you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy
you'll probably be OK, but if you slice that leftover onion and put it
on your sandwich, then you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and
the moist potato in a potato salad will attract and grow bacteria faster
than any commercial mayonnaise will take to even begin breaking down.

And another point: dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot
metabolize onions.

Please remember it is dangerous to cut onions to cook the next day.
They become highly poisonous even if just left overnight and create
toxic bacteria which may cause adverse stomach infections because of
excess bile secretions and even food poisoning.

Boooo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/arts/09jacques.html?src=me&ref=general

Brian Jacques, Writer of Redwall Series, Dies at 71

By MARGALIT FOX

He was a longshoreman and a long-haul trucker; a merchant mariner and a railway fireman; a boxer, a bus driver and a British bobby. But it wasn’t until he became a milkman that Brian Jacques found his métier.

Nearing midlife, Mr. Jacques (pronounced “Jakes”) took a job driving a milk truck in Liverpool, where he was born and lived to the end of his life. On his route was the Royal School for the Blind.

Invited in for a nice cup of tea one day, he volunteered to read to the students. Over time, he grew dissatisfied with the books available — too much adolescent angst, he later said — and vowed to write his own.

He wrote what he called “a proper story,” brimming with battle and gallantry. Titled “Redwall” and published in 1986, it became the first installment in what is now a best-selling 21-volume children’s fantasy series.

Mr. Jacques died on Saturday in Liverpool, at 71. The death was announced by his North American publisher, Penguin Young Readers Group. The Liverpool newspapers reported that he died after emergency heart surgery.

Set at the pastoral Redwall Abbey in the misty English past, the books are written for children 8 and up. They center on the triumph of good over evil — specifically the hard-won victories of the abbey’s resident mice, badgers and squirrels over the marauding rats, weasels and stoats that perennially threaten their peaceable kingdom.

There are quests and riddles; cunning treachery and chivalric derring-do; and, in a feature that became a hallmark of the entire series, groaning boards spread with sumptuous feasts, lovingly described.

Published in more than 20 countries, the Redwall books have sold more than 20 million copies and inspired an animated series, broadcast on PBS in 2001.

Later titles in the series include “Mossflower” (1988), “Martin the Warrior” (1993), “Doomwyte” (2008) and “The Sable Quean,” published last year.

A truck driver’s son, Brian Jacques was born on June 15, 1939, and reared by the Liverpool docks. At 10, after writing a fine short story about a bird and a crocodile, he was caned by his teacher, who thought it too good to have been the work of a child.

He left school at 15 to work as a merchant seaman, the first in a decades’-long series of blue-collar jobs.

Mr. Jacques’s other books include “The Redwall Cookbook” (2005), a collection of recipes for the dishes featured in the series; his unstinting descriptions of food, he often said, sprang from childhood memories of wartime rationing.

He wrote several non-Redwall books, including a series about the Flying Dutchman, the storied ghost ship.

Mr. Jacques’s survivors include his wife, Maureen; two sons, Marc and David; and a brother, Jim.

His 22nd Redwall book, “The Rogue Crew,” is scheduled to be published in May.

As successful as he became, Mr. Jacques could never quite countenance a life in which labor meant sitting in his garden, under an apple tree, with a typewriter.

“I have a working-class ethic,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “I get up in the morning, and I still feel guilty about being a famous author.”