Disappearing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

                                                               Ingredients
1/2 plus 6 tbs of soft butter
3/4 cups of light brown sugar
1/2 cups of granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1-1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of salt
3 cups of Quaker Oats
1 cup of Hershey chocolate chips 
 
                                                             Directions 

Heat oven to 350°F

. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.

 Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

 Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.

Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack.

 Cool completely. Store tightly covered

 

Shelby County Early Voting Numbers Hit the Hundred Thousand Mark

                      Shelby County Early Voting Numbers hit the Hundred Thousand Mark

            232,690. That’s how many voters to cast their ballots during early voting which ended on Nov. 1 when 22,825 people showed up to vote.

 One of the early voting locations was Anointed Temple COGIC on Riverdale in East Memphis.  
 “I hate I waited until the last minute to early vote but the line is well worth it. America just cannot afford to allow Romney to win this election,” said David Waller 45. “I have a 17-year-old daughter and I can’t now nor in the near future will I be able to pay for her college education.”    
Twenty-five percent of those polled said education and student loans were one of the reasons for their choice in president. Another popular reason for choosing President Barack Obama for a second term was women’s issues.
            It is no secret the Obama’s opponent Mitt Romney has some unpopular views on issues that affect women. One of them is the idea of making abortions illegal.

            “Somewhere I heard Romney saying that rape is not reason enough for an abortion. That it was in God’s plan, said Melissa Collins, 34. “I still cannot believe he could believe something like that. For rape to be such a traumatic experience and for him to think it was God’s intention is crazy.”

Fifty-five percent of the women questioned agreed with Collins in that Romney’s stance on women’s issues such as equality and “abortion would set us back as a nation,” Collins said.

            Younger voters said the economy and job prospects influenced their vote. The unemployment rate for Shelby County is about 8 percent which is high. Recent college graduate Michael Bradsaw,25, is worried he will stay a member of that 8% longer than anticipated which will not help him once his 6 month grace period to pay his student loans is over.
     “It has been four months since I graduated and I am jobless and living with my parents,” Bradshaw said. “This is not a life I look forward to but I guess it could be worse.”        

               The city of Memphis is Democratic but the state of Tennessee is Republican and it has been this was for a while. The overall total of 1,456,824 voters in Tennessee represents the second-highest early voting turnout in Tennessee history, having exceeded the 2004 November election by more than a quarter million votes.

Foods That Fight For Your Health

Jasmine Deener

11/25/12

P. Denney

In-depth News Story 

Foods Fighting For Your Health

By Jasmine Deener

1,638,910. That is about how many people were diagnosed with some form of cancer this year in the United States. 

577,190. That is the number of Americans that are expected to die from cancer this year, 2012.

 One of the things a doctor may suggest to a patient in this situation is a change in diet. Doris Ashworth, 80, Nakita Ashford, 39, and Janet Crawford, 57, were all given this advice when they were told they had cancer.

“He [her doctor] told me I had lung cancer and I had about six months to a year to live,” said Ashworth. “He also said I’d have to have surgery as well. It was like a death sentence but he also mentioned my diet needing to change.” She was also informed that her iron was low and needed to raise that as well.

Lean meats, broccoli, and fruits such as apricots are high in iron. A patient with an iron or any other vitamin deficiency can also take iron in a pill form if they are not fond of the foods they were recommended to eat.

“Along with the low iron my diet as a whole needed to be changed. One of the things I changed was my snacking habits,” said Ashworth. “I started making fruit salads instead of eating junk food. I would mix pineapples, strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, grapes and peaches. The food wasn’t organic or always fresh [caned] but it was a step in the right direction and it helped.”  

Nakita Ashford was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 4 years ago. She was getting a routine gynecological exam when she found out.

“My doctor went on and on about treatment options but I could here is her telling me I had cancer,” said Ashford.  “Then she [the doctor] started talking about my diet which I did not think was that bad. I was in denial. I lived a fast pace life and eat a lot of fast food meal which are high in fat and calories and not vitamins and minerals.”

 Ashford was a graduate student with a full time job at the time. She would frequent the University Center to get food which is filled with mini fast food stations. Fast food places like Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts have some foods that can total around 1,000 calories. That is almost half of the recommended calories for a day being consumed in one meal.

“My lifestyle could not be an excuse so I began to pack my lunch and snacks for work,” said Ashford. “I dedicated a cabinet in my desk to healthy snacks like fruit snacks, and an assortment of granola bars. I also added a Folic Acid supplement to my diet.”

 “Breast cancer runs in my family, so I guess I was more prepared than my friend Lauri when we found out I had breast cancer,” said Crawford.  “My doctor told me that before I could have surgery to remove the lumps in my breast I would have to lose weight.”

Benign tumors can be removed but only if the patient is in good health.

“While my friend [Crawford] was not real excited about going on a diet I got right on it,” said Lauri. “I showed her to make fresh oatmeal for breakfast. We bought oats and fresh fruit. Instead we would use Splenda which is a no calorie sweetener. We also eliminated pork and non-lean meats from her diet. One of her favorite meals was herb crusted salmon.”

While no doctor is going to tell you that a change in your diet will prevent or cure cancer, it does help with treatment. Healthy people are also diagnosed with these diseases. However eating healthy foods gives your body the tools it need to better help fight these infections.

 

Top Super Foods

1.       Yogurt

2.      Nuts

3.      Kiwi

4.      Eggs

5.      Beans

6.      Salmon

7.      Broccoli

8.     Sweet Potatoes

9.      Berries

10.  Avocadoes  

Statistical information obtained from the American Cancer Society web page

 

 

 

 

A Chocolate Cake For The Holidays

Following the link below will take you to my sound slide that shows you how to make a moist chocolate cake. https://umdrive.memphis.edu/jedeener/soundslide/index.html

H.A.P.I.E. Healing America by Promoting Intelligent Economics

Youtube Favorites.... Everything CHEESECAKE

These are just a few videos for making cheesecake that caught my eye on youtube.

Try These Holiday Favorites

Recipes to get you ready for Thanksgiving.

Paula's Pumpkin Rum Pie

I loooooooove Paula Deen!!!!! Ive been to her resturant and watched her show and I cant wait to make this pie recipie I'm sharing with you guys!!!!Im not a fan of Rum Cake or Rum Balls.
Let me know what you think.


Ingredients
1 (9-inch) pre-made pie shell
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
1/3 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
Pinch ground cloves
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup Praline Pecans, recipe follows

Praline Pecans:
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Partially bake the pie shell, according to the package directions.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the pumpkin puree, eggs, brown sugar, melted butter, 1 1/2 cups of the heavy cream, sour cream, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt, dark rum, and vanilla. Pour into the shell. Bake for 10 minutes, and then reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees F. Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to serve.
With the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whip the remaining cup of heavy cream on high speed until the cream starts to froth. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and whip on high until the cream stands in peaks. Either spoon or pipe the whipped cream around the edges of the pie and garnish with Praline Pecans.
Praline Pecans:
In a small skillet melt the butter and sugar over medium heat. Add the pecans, stirring until bubbly; about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour onto aluminum foil. When the pecans are cool, crumble into small pieces and sprinkle the topping on top of the whipped cream.

Labb, A Thai Dish

5 sprigs sliced cilantro

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1 sliced green onion Optional

1/4 tablespoon ground dried chili pepper

1/2 lbs ground pork

1-2 limes

1/4 thinly sliced shallots

3 sprigs spearmint Optional

1 tablespoon toasted rice 

 

Squeeze juice from 1/3 of the lime  on to the ground pork. Mix well and let it marinate for just a couple of minutes until you are ready to cook it.
Heat up a pan on high until it is very hot. Add two tablespoons of water and then immediately add your marinated pork and stir. The pork will stick to the pan at first, but then the juice will come out and the meat will loosen from the bottom. Keep stirring until the pork is well done. Traditionally, the pork is undercooked, but I do not recommend undercooking pork for health reasons.
Put the pork in a bowl a large mixing bowl that will hold all the ingredients. Add Fish sauce, green onion, shallot, cilantro, the rest of the lime juice, ground chili pepper and almost all of toasted rice into the bowl. Save some toasted rice to sprinkle on top for garnish. Mix well and taste. It should be a little bit hot. You should be able to taste tartness from the lime juice and the fish sauce. If you need to add more fish sauce or lime juice, don't be afraid. Getting the flavor balance right is a trial and error process.
Put the mixed ingredients in a serving bowl, garnish with spearmint and sprinkle the rest of toasted rice on top. Serve with vegetables like cabbage, green beans, lettuce and Thai basil.

A Hint of Thai and a Pinch of Soul

A Hint of Thai and a Pinch of Soul

By JasmineDeener

                Twenty-two year-old Lia Pugh has a mother who is Thai and a father who is African American. Just like her heritage, the food she loves is very blended.  But Pugh still has her favorites.

                “Although I am biracial, I identify more with being an African-American woman, from the music to the food,” Pugh said. “I love soul food.”

When Lia’s family has time for family dinners, her  father, William Pugh, 42, is the one in the kitchen. He typically cooks soul food.  Collard greens, hot water corn bread, candied yams, baked chicken and sweet potato pie is a typical menu. But when Lia’s mother, Deena Daranai, 41, is cooking, she normally makes something on the order of beef ribs and fried rice. Some form of rice is served in all Asian meals. 

Daranai came to Memphis when she was 4 years old and does not remember much about her home land.

“I do not speak the language," she said. "I wanted to give my girls a piece of their heritage and I did that thru food. I’ve also allowed my children to embrace the part of them that is African American. My husband cooks the food he grew up eating, as do I." 

"We are our own melting pot.”

The Thailand culture does not have many holidays so Lia’s family, celebrates American holidays with Thai foods. Thanksgiving is one of the holidays this family uses to blend their cultures. 

“We normally have fried rice with egg rolls, curry chicken, and a spicy papaya salad,” Lia said. “And every other Thanksgiving my uncle, Gerapond come to visit.”

                Gerapond Daranai is a chief in Orlando, Florida and when he visits his family he always brings something interesting and different to eat. Last Thanksgiving he brought octopus. He marinated the octopus overnight in lime juice, basil, olive oil and chili sauce. He let the octopus marinate overnight and grilled the octopus in the morning. Lia, her siblings and her father did not try the grilled octopus but her mother did.  

“It was not nasty, it was different,” Daranai said with a laugh. “I think no one else ate it because it looked like a headless octopus. We have had calamari but calamari does not look like that.”

                The grilled calamari was not a hit at the Pugh home but there is a traditional Thai dish that they all love.Its called Laab.

                Laab is a simple spicy dish and Daranai makes during different holidays like this:

Ground beef is marinated in lime juice overnight, however any meat can be used in place of it. Then the ground beef mixture is cooked in a skillet until well done. After draining the beef, it is mixed with cilantro, fish sauce, shallots, green onions, ground chili powder, olive oil, and more lime juice. Serve the mixture over rice.

How to Make Rice Krispie Treats

Try This Easy Recipe, Baked Chicken

Ingredients

• whole chicken
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 cupbasil
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 2 tbs Greek seasoning
• 2 tbs onion powder
• 2 tbs garlic powder

Recipe

1. Thoroughly clean chicken and remove all the parts inside liver, gizzard etc...
2. Heavily season the chicken on both sides but go easy on the salt because salt is a partial ingredient in all the other seasonings.
3. Place chicken in a class dish, and cover with aluminum foil
4. At this point you can either allow it to marinate for an hour or two or cook
5. If cooking, place in a 350 degree oven for an hour. 
6. Serve and enjoy 

Cafe Du Monde Beignets With a Twist

Ingredients: 

• Cafe Du Monde beignet mix 
• 7 oz of water
• large bowl
• cooking spray
• oil 
• large skillet

**** the recipe is on the back of the box**** 
the mix can be purchased at any grocery store, however mine was purchased at the restaurant itself in New Orleans

1. In the bowl mix two cups of beignet mix and water.
2. Roll the dough mixture onto a flat surface using flour to keep it from sticking
3. Cut dough into 2 1/4 squares. this recipe makes about 2 dozen beignets
4. Put a liberal amount of oil into the skillet and let it reach about 375 degrees.
5. Add beignets and allow to keep on both sides until golden brown
6. Take them out and let drain on paper towel
7. While they are hot, pour a liberal amount of powered sugar or any other topping on the beignets
8. SERVE AND EAT!!!

***This can also be found on the beignet mix box***
   

Do You Like Spicy Food??? Cajun Crawfish Boil

Ingredients:
At least 5 lbs of crawfish
4 ears of corn
8 small red potatoes 
1 package of shrimp, shell on, 
1 box of seafood boil
3 tbs of cayenne pepper
6 cloves of garlic
2 cups of basil  
1/4 cup of salt
5 bay leaves
2 shallots
1/2 cup of fresh parsley

***all ingredients can be purchased at walmart***


Directions
1. fill a large pot half way with water, place all herbs and spices inside, place lid on top and wait for it to boil
2. After water has come to a rolling boil, add the crawfish.
3 After 10 minutes, add potatoes
4. After 10 minutes turn off heat and add the corn that has the husk removed and been cut in two, add the shrimp.
5 Let stand for about 15 minutes and all on the shrimp have turned pink. When the food is standing, it allows all of the food to soak up the flavors, however if you leave it to long the shrimp will over cook and become soft.
6. SERVE AND EAT   

One Of My FavoritesFried Pies (Peach or Apple)

What you will need:
1. Pillsbury pie shells
2. fruit-peach or apple (2 large cans or 5 peaches)
3. sugar crystals
4. 1 stick butter   
5. 2 tbs  vanilla
6.2  eggs 
7. flour 
8.2 cups sugar

** for the sake of understanding the recipe, I'm going to use peaches**

Recipe I

• Take 2 cans of peaches and put them in a sauce pan along with 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Stir at low heat. Add 1 stick or 1/2 cups of butter and 1 tbsp of vanilla.
• After the mixture comes to a boil remove from heat and allow it to cool.
• Flour a hard surface and unroll pie shells. With a pizza cutter of knife, cut pie shells into fourths
• Place about 2 spool fulls of fruit on the pie shell and fold over the pie shell.
• Make an egg wash by separating the egg whites from the yolk. Take the yolk and add 2tbps of water. Dip a fork in the egg wash and them use to fork to mash the corners of the pie shell together.
• Once you have done this will all the pie shell fourths brush eggs wash over each fried pie, then sprinkle sugar crystals on top.
• Place in a 350 degree oven for 15minutes or until golden brown
• Let cool for 5 minutes and serve

How to set up the perfect grill.

One of the most important things about grilling/bar-b-q is having a good smoke on the grill for the food. Here is my way of achieving just that.
1. After properly cleaning the grill place the charcoal on the middle of the rack in the shape of a pyramid(pic below)
2.Place wood chips and wood chunks which can be purchased at the same location as the charcoal, in a bucket of water and let sit. This creates the smoke.
3. Pour a generous amount of lighter fluid on the charcoal and allow to sit.
4. Ignite the charcoal using a rolled up newspaper and allow to flame.
5. After about 10 minutes place the wood chunks that were soaking in the water on top of the charcoal with the most flames. This is the most important part. Placing the wet wood on top of the flame creates the smoke. The smoke is what will flavor whatever it is that in being cooked on the grill. It is important to remember that you DO NOT WANT THE CHARCOAL AND WOOD TO FLAME. The flame will cause your food to burn on the outside and be under cooked on the inside.

      When its time to place the food on the grill, place it on the outermost side of the racks. This allows your food to cook slowly, and your foods such as ribs will be tinder and juicy and full of flavor. When you have to open your grill top the oxygen in the air may cause flames, don't panic, throw the soaking wood chips on the flame and quickly close the lid. Check you coals to make sure no flame has formed. Below are some pictures that may help you.
ENJOY- KitchenAidDiaries

       
                                         charcoal pyramid

                                      apple wood chips and chunks

                                                 placement of the food(those are spare ribs and hot dogs)
                       

A sample of the author

Hey guys, it's J.Elizabeth here and I LOVE cooking and food. From the smells, to the textures to the taste I love everything food has to offer.With this blog I will be sharing my favorite recipes as well as ,helpful kitchen tips.  Enjoy!!

Live well. Eat well.
J.Elizabeth