ChefDawn

This article was written by David Bjerklie of TIME Magazine and it has been sent all over the internet.  I thought you might find this interesting.  Thank you David Bjerklie for such an interesting perspective on fruits and vegetables.

You are what you eat, so eat well.

A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today's investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called "The Doctrine of Signatures" was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater.

Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.


A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.


A Walnut looks like a littl e brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Eve n the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.


Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.


Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.


Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and fun ction of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).


Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as  well to overcome male sterility.


Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.


Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Grapefruits,  Oranges , and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.


Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

"The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life."

Cooking Party For Kids

 

For my daughter's 9th birthday (see second picture from the left), I gave her a cooking party.  The kids made their own dough and pizzas and got to decorate and take home their very own cakes!!!!  We had 17 girls, a rather large girlie fest!!!!  The kids had such a fun time.  You can do parties just like this for your kids.  Or you can hire specialists who can come and put on this type of party for your child.  Kids just love to cook and introducing them to cooking at a young age will benefit them their whole life long!

Ideas For The Next Series Needed!

Good evening everyone!  First of all, if you want to get information about my next series, please sign up on the right of my site where it says "Join The Fun".  ----->

Next --  I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!

I have so many ideas for my next series but I want to meet YOUR needs.  So - simply reply or respond to this post with your ideas.  The series will be four weeks, about one hour per week.  Do you want to see a menu around a certain item (avocado menu, oranges menu, shrimp menu, vegetarian menu) or maybe around a certain type of food (Mexican, Italian, Asian, Vegan) or maybe a category (pie, soups, casseroles) or maybe a style of cooking (bbq, braising, crock pot).  ANYTHING that you love to do and want to learn more or everything that you have always wanted to learn but didn't know how.  BRING ON THE IDEAS!!!!!

I'm excited and anxious - I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Chicken Stock

If you have ever made or tasted homemade chicken stock, you will know what I am talking about.  Homemade stock is mildly sweet, delicately scented with chicken flavor and wonderful.  To make stock, I put a few washed and cut up chickens (no giblets) in a large pot with peppercorns, pasley, bay leaves, celery, carrots and onions.  I cook it on low for a hour or two or until the chicken is fork tender.  I strain out all the stuff and let the stock cool before putting it in the fridge.  The next day, I scrape the fat layer of the top and either use or freeze the stock.  The broth that you buy in the market is flavorless and salty.  I use it in a pinch, when I 'm out of the homemade stuff but usually I just make a ton of the stock at home and freeze it for a few months until I use that batch up and make a new one.  The other day I was craving lemon chicken soup.  I made the stock, used the chicken for chicken salad and made the soup, which we enjoyed for a few days after.  I'll get you the lemon soup recipe if you email me.

Salad Bar Night

Tonight my kids made a salad bar.  So much fun.  They love to chop the veggies and choose their own toppings for their salad.  They also put out chicken and roasted almonds, which are behind the lazy susan.  Hope you had a fun dinner too!

Peppercorn Facts

Did you know that there are four types of peppercorns? 
Actually there are only three.  The black peppercorns
come from the Tellicherry, Sarawak, Malabar and
Vietnamese plants and vary in degrees of heat and
flavor intensity.  White peppercorns originate from
the same plants as the black variety but are vine
ripened longer and the black shell is removed before
drying.  Green peppercorns are young berries and are
not as sharp and complex as their black and white
counterparts.  Finally, the pink peppercorns are not
actually peppercorns at all but berries from a entirely
different tree.  They tend to be mild and soft and are
used in peppercorn blends.  Which ever peppercorns you
use, grinding pepper fresh enhances the taste of any dish.
Pepper that is ground in the factory generally loses its
flavor fast and sometimes tastes like dust in your food.

Why Some Recipes Do Not Work

I can tell you that over the 25 years that I have been cooking and baking, there have been numerous recipes I've prepared that have turned out awful! However, over the years, I have developed a sense that helps me to look at a recipe and just know whether or not it will work. I can construct a recipe in my head and know how it will look and taste before my whisk starts spinning. For those of you who have not developed this sense yet, here are seven reasons that recipes do not work.

1. One of the most common errors in recipes are mistakes in the measurements of ingredients. Perhaps you only need 1/2 teaspoon of salt instead of the 1 1/2 teaspoons requested or maybe 1 ounce of butter instead of 1 cup, but misprints often occur and there is very little way that you would know.

2. Inaccurate ingredient descriptions occur frequently in recipes. I have seen recipes ask for "sugar", not telling the cook whether they need brown or white. Sometimes recipes do not specify if you are to use dry or fresh herbs.

3. In recipes that are passed down from generation to generation, often ingredients are used that are simply not available today, or not used in that manner. The best example of this is pork fat or lard. Lard was used heavily in baking during the early part of this century. Now, because of health reasons, we do not bake with animal fat. However, many recipes were never converted and are obsolete.

4. Several years ago, I tried one of Emeril's recipes which called for pure cane syrup. This item is used primarily in the south and should not be confused with corn syrup. Cane syrup is not widely available here in Southern California and at the time I did not have access to the internet to check what an appropriate substitute was. This happens for many regionally based and specialty products. Substituting products that are not available to you can produce disastrous results if you do not know what you are doing.

5. If a recipe was written by a chef who lives in a different climate or altitude, the recipe may not work. For example, the special sourdough bread that is made in San Francisco can not be duplicated anywhere else than in San Francisco. The spores and bacteria that grow when the starter is developing is unique to that area of the country. Should that dough be taken to Chicago, for example, the end product would taste drastically different than the bread of S.F.

6. Stories and recipes that are passed from person to person sometimes get distorted and details change. My grandmother has some recipes in her head. When I ask her for the recipes, she rattles off the ingredients and instructions without looking at a recipe card or book. She has prepared these recipes so many times that she doesn't need to "look". However, it is so automatic for her that she misses some of the key steps or elements that make her dishes so terrific. I guess this is how stories get changed the more they are told.

7. The final reason some recipes do not work is because they just don't! There are recipes out there that are just bad recipes.

And do not assume that because a recipe did not work, that it is your fault. There are so many reasons that recipes do not work, user error is just one.