Although Rosemary can be a real benifit to enhancing the flavours of lamb or roast potatoes amonst many other things, there are some people who should avoid this herb.

Pregnancy:

I was both a chef  a waitress for many years and in only 1 restaurant that I ever waitressed in did the chef enquire as to wether the person who ordered the lamb shank was pregnant or not. I was impressed that he took this into consideration as it was news to me at the time, that rosemary ( can ) cause serious consequences if consumed during pregnancy. Since then I make sure that anyone who orders a dish with rosemary from me ( I have not waitressed or been a chef for several years now ) is informed of the risks if they are pregnant.

For more information about herbs to avoid during pregnancy visit http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/naturalherbsvitamins.html

Epilepsy:

I was also a support worker for a few years & in this job rosemary was highlighted again.  Some of the service users got aromatherapy massages as part of their weekly routine.  If the service user had epilepsy it was important that rosemary essential oil was never used on the person or even in the same room that they were in or likely to use in the next few hours. Rosemary can bring on seizures for those who have epilepsy.

For more information on complimentarty therapies and epilepsy visit http://www.epilepsynse.org.uk/pages/info/leaflets/complime.cfm

Unfortunately not fresh strawberries a lot of the time.

This example shows what is in a typical strawberry shake from burger king. ( source.. fast food nation.)

The ingredients are:

amyl acetate

amyl butyrate

amyl valerate

anethol

anisyl formate

benzyl acetate

benzyl isobutrate

butyric acid

cinnamyl isobutyrate

cinnamyl valerate

cognac essential oil

diacetyl

dipropyl ketone

ethyl acetate

ethyl amyl ketone

ethyl butyrate

ethyl cinnamate

athyl heptanoate

ethyl heptylate

ethyl lactate

ethyl ethylphenylglycidate

ethyl nitrate

ethyl propionate

ethyl valerate

eliotropin

hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone ( 10 percent solution in alcohol )

a-ionone

isobutyl anthranilate

isobutyl butyrate

lemon essential oil

maltol

4-methylacetophenone

methyl anthranilate

methyl benzoate

methyl cinnamate

methyl heptine carbonate

methyl naphthyl ketone

methyl salicylate

mint essential oil

neroli essential oil

nerolin

neryl isobutyrate

orris butter

phenethyl alcohol

rose

rum ether

y-undecalactone

vanillin

and finally …………. solvent

Imagine, you are sitting in a nice restaurant. The waiter/waitress asks if you would like water and gives you several options…fizzy, still, from the french alps, scottish highlands? and then if you want ice.  Do they have many ice cube trays in the freezer, labled with what type of spring water is frozen into cubes or other funky designs? Most likely these are made from the tap. I cannot remember who it was, but I heard a comedian once commenting on “water being bottled from natural springs” that had been running  over volcanic rock for hundreds of years, and when it gets put into a bottle it then gets a best before date…kind of ironic isn’t it.

Every day over 1 billion bottles or cans of coca-cola are comsumed, that equals 12,500 every second. Thats a lot of cola! They spend a whopping $2 billion a year promoting themselves with a healthy, wholesome image. Sponoring a range of sporting events such as the world cup and the olympic games. Remember the world cup 2002 & they were exposed for using child labour for stitching the “coca-cola footballs”. As if adding aspartame to their diet drinks wasn’t apauling enough coca-cola are responsible for a lot more when it comes down to sickening entire nations from the production & comsumption of their “oh so lovelly fizzy drinks. ” live on the coke side of life” NO THANKS.

It takes almost 3 litres of water to produce 1 litre of coke. Think of all the industrial cleaning involved,and they control aquifiers in communities around the globe. They give a very negative impact on farmers & communities where there is short enough rainfall for the peoples needs. Protesters in Varanasi in India peacefully marched to a coca-cola plant to demand it’s closure and were beaten & jailed by armed police in November 2004. The people of Varanasi in Utta Pradesh said that the companys activities were causing wells to dry & harvests to be poor. And that is alongside the fact that coca-cola plants produce a sludge like waste that contains toxic chemicals like cadmium and lead and levels of DDT 9 times higher than the EU limit. Yep, no wonder there are so many starving people in this world. Greedy, corporate suckers taking peoples livelyhoods & health with no shame.

Shame on them.

There is a free booklet report on coca-cola and it’s conduct on the “war on want” website. This will also go into coca-colas conduct in Guatemala and mentions, threats, arrests, kidnaps, shootings and torture.A bit of light reading. But the adverts for this wholesome, happy drink that shares the love around the world still work. I am feeling a little uptight now… To read more about coca-cola here are a couple of webistes:

www.killercoke.org

www.cokewatch.org

www.indiaresource.org

On Thursday me & a good friend ,went to check out the food at the Yum Yum Hong Kong Diner in Edinburgh. I had walked past this place a few weeks ago and it looked very authentic, so I picked up a menu & called my mate Jason. I explained to him that this was not going to be your average UK chinese food experience as they had deep fried pigs intestines on the menu. We agreed a day to check out this cuisene and used it also as an excuse to dress up. Me in oriental silks and Jay, well he is always exceptionally well dressed. I also said that I would probably  have something on the menu that was not too hard core, but Jay reconed he would go straight to the most outlandlish thing he could find. When we got there I decided to do the same.

We went for:

Duck egg & pork congee::

The most edible of our choices, a soup with the consistency of wallpaper paste ,and with rice being the ingredient to give it the thick glupiness. It was really nice at first & the smell was enticing. I was unsure at the blackish green ( vegetable ) on my spoon, I guessed it was a type of aubergine and as soon as I put it in my mouth I realised it was a quarter of a duck egg. Of course! Thumbs up for the congee.

Parsnip cake:

I thought that this would be the easiest thing to eat, but to the contary it was not at all. This was cubes of steamed or boiled turnip which seemed to have been fried in pig fat & possibly marinated  as the pig fat taste was very intense. I ate a half cube and I don’t think Jay even ate that much. The piece of duck egg at the side of the plate did get eaten of course, but was put there to photograph the colour of it.

Deep fried stuffed pigs intestine:

The waitress was fantastic to us from the minute that we walked in. Very helpful indeed. She pointed to pictures of the items that we asked about, and the picture of the stuffed pigs intestine looked better than I had imagined, so I eagerly tried it when it arrived on the table to the shock of my rapidly kicking in gagg reflex. I had to decant it from my mouth to a nearby napkin. It wasn’t until we had finnished that I found that the stuffing was prawn.I had guessed chicken. I love prawns but did not detect a hint of what the stuffing was as the intestine was so overpowering. I had more congee and then tried again to eat more intestine, I still had to decant it, but less rapidly than the first time. I had not dipped the second piece and then dipped my fingernail into the dipping sauce to see how it tasted and was a stronger piggy flavour than the intestine itself. I wrapped 2 pieces into a napkin to give to my dog. It got yogi’s approval.

Salt and chilli duck tongue:

Again I thought that this would be interesting and easy enough to eat. Oh, how wrong could I be. The plate arrived with a pile of possibly 60 duck tongues with a crunchy coating. I picked one out with my fingers and put it in my mouth, not very much taste ( except the lingering pig!)  salt & chilli. But it was hard. It seems that the tongue itself was pretty small and it was the beak that I was trying to eat. Jay was surprised as he had eaten a few yet he had not come accross any beaks. Well, he was swallowing them whole and then continued to eat but extracting the beak before swallowing. I don’t know yet how he got on in the toilet the next day but I am glad I did not swallow any beaks myself. I should have left some stripped beaks at the side of the plate for the photo.

The service was great, portions large, prices cheap & atmosphere like a mini Hong Kong holiday as the huge tv was showing some Hong Kong soap opera and clientelle prodominantly Chinese. This restaurant is on West Regent Street in Edinburgh. It only seats 20 people & closes at 8pm every night. There is no alcohol licence and you cannot take your own bottle. The drinks are sodas and a large selection of teas. Jay’s tea was honey and it made his expression change when he tasted it more than any of the food did. Mine was almond and honey. All the teas come cold in a sealed plastic cup.

The night did serve its purpose. We planned to get dressed up and have some food ,culture shock and we got it. My brother now wants to go when he comes to visit. I think I will have sweet and sour king prawns with noodles next time, my usual chinese favorite. I think this will be a safer way to a full belly but I am sure that it will be unlike any sweet and sour king prawn that I have ever ordered from a take away.

I would recomend this eatery to anyone who wants some true Hog Kong food. My dog would also recommend the cuisene.

I just looked this one up as a friend of mine asked me earlier where she could by some from & what they looked like. I said I would try and get some for her but I had some at home if they were for something she needed them for now. And as for my description, I said they looked a bit like small guineapig jobbies!

Caraway is very similar to the carrot plant & the same goes for the seeds. They look similar but caraway has a stronger taste similar to anise. Just one carraway seed can give out quite a flavour in your mouth & are most commonly used in bread ( I have my jar in the kitchen for my honey & caraway wholemeal ) but they are also used in stews and as a flavouring in liquors.

Back to what they look like, caraway seeds although they are called seeds, are actually achenes, which is actually a fruit containing a single seed.

Here is wikipedias explaination of an achene:

encyclopedia

Achenes on a dandelion, also known as dandelion clocks.

A microscopic view of a dandelion clock showing the pericarp and the achenes.

An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are “monocarpellate” (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not open at maturity). Achenes contain a single seed that nearly fills the pericarp, but does not adhere to it. In many species, what we think of as the “seed” is actually an achene, a fruit containing the seed.

[edit] Examples

Typical achenes are the fruits of buttercup, buckwheat, and dandelion. It is sometimes spelled “akene”, and occasionally called “achenium” or “achenocarp.”

The most familiar achenes are those of the strawberry, where the “seeds” are the achenes (technically the ‘botanical’ fruits), while what is eaten as the (’culinary’) fruit is a so-called accessory fruit.

Fruits of sedges are sometimes considered achenes because they have a one-locule compound ovary. By the same definition, the common fruit type in the Family Asteraceae is also usually considered achene (some term the asteraceous achene cypsela, however). A sunflower “seed” in the husk is not really a seed, but an achene. The white-gray husks are the walls of the fruit.

Medicinal uses for caraway:

Caraway seed oil  can be used as a treatment for colic. It can also be used to help with digestion.

My friend went to give my dog a treat the other night and asked if it was o.k to give her a fruit shortcake biscuit.

Nope, not that, it has raisins that dogs can’t digest, have you got any cheese?

Craig opened the fridge and offered parmesan?

Have you got any cheddar?

I’ve got this nice ham, she’ll like ham.

Not that though it’s formed.

It’s ham.

It’s formed, if I won’t eat it I won’t give it to my dog.

Now Craig does think that I am a little extreme at times with my feelings towards food, but he was also very dissapointed that the ham was formed. He saw the ham in the shop and as it looked like just plain unadulterated ham he bought it not noticing that it was clearly labeled ” from formed cuts of meat”. He decided then that he didn’t want it either.

Many people I meet think that I am vegetarian & then learn that I will eat meat & also things that some may find a bit repulsive, I will try pretty much anything as long as I know where it’s been, and if it’s from a good source and undoctored that usually good enough. I dispise the hidden chemical additives that is sneeked into our food for monetary gain  & corporate monopoly and it is not restricted to human food. Although some bought dog food actually contains less disturbing ingredients than is allowed to be labeled “fit for human consumption”. Read Fast Food Nation if you really want to know what is legally allowed to be put into burgers, sausages, nuggets etc and you may think dog food pie to be a more tempting option.

Well rant almost over with,

Here is a recipe for treats I make for my dog, which any dog that has tried just loved. It’s also the stuff that my brother ate after the pub unaware that I had made it for the dog.

Liver cake:

1 lb lambs liver   chopped

2 cloves of garlic  chopped

2 eggs

4 oz  plain flour

Stick all ingredients into a bowl and blitz it with a mixer. Scrape into a loaf tin ( no need to grease ) and bake 180 % until firm. Cutinto chunks when it has cooled. I put the batch in the freezer and take out a couple of days worth at a time.

I have just seen this article about how criminals who eat processed foods, with a high salt content, can leave  more of a mark on their identity than the healthy criminal.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915210509.htm

I first tried dandelion coffee a couple of years ago as I was wanting to detox from caffine for a while. My friend had some dandelion coffee which she offered me to try. I rushed to the health food shop the next day to get myself some as I liked it so much. With regular coffee I take milk, but when I drink dandelion coffee I much prefer it black. It has a deep, earthy taste which to me has a hint of liquorice to the taste. The bitterness of the dandelion stimulates the liver, bile flow and digestion.

I have not yet tried to make my own, but I do intend to dig up the roots of dandelions sometime when I see a large area covered in dandelions and to dry them out & roast them and make some of my own. Yet annother thing to add to my things to do list to expand upon my homemade kitchen larder.

I can’t remember where I first saw this idea. Probably from a magazine but, I have been using this facepack recipe for years.

What you need is……

1 small tub of natural yoghurt

1 ripe banana

1 tablesppon of honey

What to do is…….

Decant the yoghurt into a bowl, mash the banana and add that to the bowl. Finally add about a tablesppon of honey and mix it up. Then smear it all over your face, mind not to get it into your eyes but if you accidently lick some….bonus…as it is rather yummy. Leave it on for 10-20 minutes. Wash off with warm water and relish in the fact that your face feels as smooth as a babys bottom. Any left overs can be put in the fridge for 2nd application a day or 2 later.

I remember making this face pack when I stayed at my dad’s a few years ago. My brother asked me ( after he had been on a heavy drinking session the night before ) What was that stuff in the fridge last night? What stuff, I replied , and he said “that weird cake”. I told him that it was a liver cake that I had cooked for treats for my dog and then realised that he had eaten some when he got home with the munchies. He said the pudding was quite nice though. “Bill you muppet, you ate my dogs liver cake and my facepack” was my reply. I didn’t mind at all though. It was pretty funny at the time & still makes me smile whenever I make a facepack.