Many professional athletes take every possible step to reach their optimum level of health and to maximize the intake of the proper vitamins and minerals that the body needs to operate at a high level day in and day out. However as people become more in tune with the improvements that a good diet can have on ones health dietitians and personal chef services become increasingly sought after. The increase in this focus on diet as an improvement on total health is three fold. It increases the human bodies ability to sustain energy over long periods of time, lowers the overall effects of stress on the body and allows faster recovery. Many times a diet can and will be personalized and changed and chef’s may be directed differently depending on the specific situations or goals that the person has in mind. Nutritionists and trained personal chef’s alike can be key in helping a person prepare the right food accordingly and keeping meals exciting.

For those who are fortunate enough to have the resource of both a nutritionist and a personal chef reaching your goal of optimum dietary health can be a breeze. The key is to first consult with a dietitian and lay out a plan for what you intend to achieve. A good dietitian may start by asking about any health issues that may be ailing the subject. In these cases they may recommend a diet that directly emphasizes enabling the immune system to do it’s job. In the case of professional athletes the diet many times will consist of high protein and low saturated fats. Personal chefs are often instructed to use sea fare such as octopus, salmon as well as nutrient rich green veggies such as broccoli, kale, and asparagus. This allows the body to appropriately process nutrients to increase muscle mass and brain response times. It has been suggested that high intake of these types of green veggies also helps the body and mind deal with stress in a positive way.

On the contrary to an athletes recommended meal a person with a specific ailment may receive a recommendation to have their personal chef focus on a specific group of vegetables such as beets, asparagus and high intake of water to resolve a kidney issue.

Once again many people are lucky enough to contract the services of both a dietitian and a personal chef. This can be a great way to attack symptoms of daily stress. Not only is it nice to have the opportunity to have someone cook for you on a daily basis, but it can also be a convenient way to ensure that your eating well and enjoying it. While this is always a stress relieving experience, the true value comes from appropriately feeding your body and mind. Many natural vegetables have stress blocking nutrients that increase the human bodies ability to fend off stress from positive ions that can break down the cells in the body. This can reduce muscle pain and allow the body to minimize the physical effects that outside stresses can have on the body. A well trained personal chef is able to properly prepare each part of a meal to optimize the positive effect that is intended by adding or removing specific foods from the diet.

As a strong believer in the positive effects of good diet and the ease that a nutritionist and personal chef can bring, it is highly recommended that you seek out the advice of the first before having a chef undertake the preparation for you. Should you be concerned about your health please seek out the assistance of your doctor prior to undertaking a plan to change your diet.

Jeff Heavey is a personal chef and food lover that owns and operates personal chef and catering services. His passion for unique items and the psychology behind a nations love for food drives him to consistently try new food items. He can be found here at http://www.sandiego-catering.net.

Hundreds of regular people all across the world are STARVING everyday!!

Starving for more time with friends and family…
Starving for value and a better quality of life…
Starving for a healthy alternative at the dinner table…
Starving for a new experience…

Here is the new experience that satisfies these cravings.

Introducing Chef 52: an online community marketplace, bringing together people who LOVE to cook, with people who LOVE to eat. From the hobbyist to the celebuchef, the pie lady to the accredited professional, chefs can create a profile, sell their services, accept payments, and grow their business based on community feedback.

Through delicious localvore style meals, private or group lessons and Chef 52 events, they’re getting families out of the drive-thru lines and back to the table where they can reclaim their foodie independence.

They’ll be launching privately in the coming weeks so please sign up to be first in line to test out all the neat tools and fun experiences during their closed beta. Just click on over to Chef 52 and enter your email address. It’s really simple: see below.

The initial testing group will be, comparatively, quite small but it will grow as they eliminate bugs and are happy with the applications stability. To be fair they will be inviting people in order, so those who have requested access to the beta first, will be first in. So sign up now! Once their testers (i.e., you) are happy, they will be opening the beta to the public. To be a part of this world changing application simply join us at Chef 52! And if you share your personal link with others and they sign up as your referral you could win $500 smackers. That’s a LOT of dough!

Thanks for your interest in Chef 52 – they’re in development and it is going to be delicious!

Enter to Win Below:

Mandatory Entry:
Go To Chef 52 and sign up for their private beta! (Don’t forget to save your personal URL) One signup at Chef 52 entry per household please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Are you interested in starting a job as a Personal Chef? Would you like to discover more about the culinary industry, but don’t know where to start? Have you considered culinary school? All of these questions have led you here to this article on becoming a personal chef, where you can discover helpful suggestions to help you make a few vital decisions about your future career in the culinary industry.

Based upon in-depth research and some working experience from my wife I put together this helpful guide for people hoping to have a career in cooking. My desire is to help you to acquire your own Personal Chef objectives. Source

Choosing to become a Personal Chef is a very important decision it can mean starting a career in cooking or modifying careers altogether. For several aspiring personal chefs, they will be choosing a career path entirely different than what they have been trained and educated for. Your goal of becoming a Personal Chef will combine your interests in entrepreneurship, cooking, and total enjoyment in life into a more worthwhile and fun cooking career.

Even if you’re not focused on personal chef training, you can learn more concerning the culinary industry, cooking strategies and kitchen products.

To begin with, you need to make certain that you have the suitable and correct equipment. A personal chef should have good quality sharp knives. Don’t worry sharp knives actually help you steer clear of injury. I know it is counter intuitive however it is true. Dull knives tend to get stuck and cause uneven cutting that may lead to slippage and injury.

You also want to make a list of all the items that you need on a regular basis. This can vary from chef to chef as some will prefer food processors compared to hand blenders, etc. The trick to deciding on the best items is to watch what you use when you’re cooking in the kitchen. Then after a few weeks, you will have a good idea for how much you use different kitchen appliances, pans, or pots. Once you are done selecting your stuff you know what you will have for your portable pantry.

What is a portable pantry? Glad you asked this is usually a few buckets feel free to use Rubbermaid ones. You may store your pots and pans and other such items for convenient transportation to your cook dates. Typically, you might like to divide each bucket into a category, like wets, dry stuff and appliances. My wife used one big bucket for appliances, one medium bucket for wets and a small one for dry stuff.

OK. Now that you are good with your kitchen items you need to make sure you have a food safety class. There are many extended education institutions that will offer one. This is pretty much helpful as it will show you have done your due diligence and you might be amazed on how much you will learn. The majority of food safety is common sense but not all.

Finally, I recommend practice sessions. Find some friends that like your cooking and perform a cook date. I highly recommend that you move through the whole process. Interview them first and find out what they like and don’t like. Then use this information to create a proposed meal plan for the week. This allows you to practice mixing and matching your meals and sides. Eventually, once the meal plan has been created and your clients have approved it get started.

On the meal cook date, be sure you bring your pantry and get started by doing your shopping early so you have plenty of time to do your cooking. Plan on the right number of people and serving sizes. These are things that you need to have discussed when interviewing your clients. Once you are cooking you have got to look closely at time and also make certain that you do things in a correct order. This is why I recommend a few practice sessions. You don’t want to use up all your time or find out you made something too soon or late.

Becoming a Personal Chef can be a truly fulfilling career for many people, possibly even you. I hope to provide the training to assist you to reach your objectives!

Come beta with http://www.chef52.com

Being a personal chef in Hawaii I have had first hand experience working with both good and bad chefs. Many of my clients are world-wide travelers and have told me that they wished they had some insider tips to finding a reputable and trust worthy chef while on vacation. I have put together a list of 3 steps on how to find a personal chef that you can trust and full-fills all your service needs and expectations while on vacation.

The first tip is to not just randomly search online for a chef, but rather to visit the American Personal & Private Chef Association website. This association has a vigorous approval process which insures its chefs have professional training as well as an established business. The association has a good reputation and national database which covers every state in the USA. Go to the website and select the location you will be vacationing in to view the chefs that are affiliated with this organization. Make sure you contact chefs, which are on the island you will be visiting or live on. Next you will want to view a few chef’s websites and beginning the information gathering stage. Important things to look for on the website are credentials which qualify that individual to be your personal chef. Good credentials include affiliations with prestigious organizations and attending a reputable culinary school. A trained professional chef understands about food contamination and proper cooking techniques, which insure the food is fresh, and bacteria free. Make sure the website contains privacy policies, terms & conditions and a clearly defined cancellation policy, which protect your interests.

Next you will want to read some clients testimonials so you can get a first had glimmer of what your experience will be like. The testimonials should be clearly outlined with client names and give you a sense of security about the quality and service of the personal chef you are selecting. Look for video and written client testimonials from reputable organizations and persons, which will increase your sense of security with the chef you are hiring and insure your vacation is stress free.

The final step is asking for a quote. Once you have viewed all the website information and are satisfied with the reputation and style of the chef or chefs call them and ask them what locations they service as well as for an estimate of costs. This stage is important because depending on where you are staying the associated costs for labor may vary. For example, If you are staying in Honolulu, you want to make sure your chef services Honolulu. After receiving estimates and menu ideas select whichever chef fits of style of communication, budget, and required services.

If you follow these steps above you can feel confidant selecting the right chef even if you have never meet them face-to-face. The most important thing is to trust your gut and go with the chef that takes care of all the details. The chef you select should offer to contact your estate rental for a visit to make sure the kitchen is fully equipped and stocked with food before you arrive. Aloha and I hope you enjoy your stress free vacation!

Covert Affairs is a private chef company in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ryan Covert is both the owner and head chef of Covert Affairs, which caters to both locals and celebrities alike. His dynamic cooking style is a global celebration with a highlight on Asian-Pacific, Mediterranean, and Caribbean cuisines, making him the private chef Hawaii prefers. For a unique affair on the islands look no further than Covert Affairs Honolulu personal chef services. For a full list of private chef services, customer testimonials, client lists, menu options, to view his published recipes or to read his restaurant and wine blog visit him at – http://covertaffairs.com

So, you all have heard I am doing a cross country trip with my family for the month of December 12 – January 12th 2012. We’re ringing in the New Year in Austin, Texas – celebrating the Festival of Lights in Arlington and Great Falls, VA and Christmas in Washington DC! My husband’s birthday will fall somewhere between New York City (where we’re eating for a few days) and Chicago… In the meantime I am keeping copious food notes via Foodspotting when I have a brief moment of internet and/or clarity. Thus far, the 22nd of December, I realize I haven’t posted since 2 weeks before my trip began (and the crunch of getting ready to go!) So here’s my news and a link to get you on the journey, with me. You can also check out my twitter stream – I’m mControl and happy to be your guide this month!

Chef52 beta, is coming soon… to a tummy near you.

Gluten-free challah represents a bit of a ‘Holy Grail’ for #GF Jews. There’s no obvious substitute for tearing apart and sharing bread with your friends and family, and for many who are gluten intolerant, it becomes painfully obvious each Friday at sundown when they must hover for Shabbat prayers around a cutting board bearing a hot, delicious braided challah.

One writer stated, “The first time I had to sing the hamotzi over a rice cracker while everyone else ripped apart the bread, I cried.”

Edited to add: I was recently ‘schooled’ on my #GF flours – and spelt is a TYPE OF WHEAT!!! Leave it to the non-GF girlfriend to blow it! So it is NOT GF! Further… my Tom Sawyer Flour is made of RICE flour (I suppose that’s sort of an ancient grain) not spelt, at all. And while I could simply change all the text to reflect my new found information, I’d rather remain transparent and let you all know, I’ve learned from my mistakes! So while my friends won’t be crying over their rice buns they may be breaking their rice flour challah if they follow my recipe!

And I know there are a good many others who’d enjoy a yummy Challah or brioche that is GLUTEN FREE! There is such a deep and abiding cultural importance to baking bread, steeped in rich traditions for our family and we longed to find a bread we could share with every family member during the holiday. Challah is a very specific style and type of bread – and one I feared would not translate to ancient grains. But the more I speculated, the more excited I became at the concept. Hello? Ancient Grains. Ancient recipes. Duh. Spelt! BUT – :::screeching brakes sound::: what about that innate ‘rippability’ that only the best challah embodies? Would spelt flour give me that? I have Tom Sawyer’s GF flour that is made entirely with spelt! *edited above now that we have learned first our flour is not made from spelt but rice and second that SPELT is NOT Gluten Free

The result? My gluten-eating husband and our entire gluten-eating family here at home, have declared it ‘delicious’ and even used some for french toast the following morning. But the most important thing, the best part is: You can rip it apart with your hands! So my Celiac, #GF pals – don’t spend another Shabbat breaking rice buns apart! Here’s a recipe everyone can love and embrace for the approaching holiday season.

Ingredients:

♦♦ 2 and ¼ cups warm water
♦♦ 1/3 cup organic honey
♦♦ Tablespoon Dry Active Yeast
♦♦ 3 organic eggs, whisked
♦♦ 1 organic egg, whisked (for brushing)
♦♦ ¼ tsp Kosher salt
♦♦ A little over ¼ cup extra virgin coconut oil (We like Tropical Traditions)
♦♦ 7 ½ cups organic GF flour (We like Tom’s)

Directions:
In mixing bowl (we use our Kitchenaid stand mixer), mix warm water, yeast and honey together and set aside. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam. Mix 3 eggs, salt and oil into the yeast.

Stir in the flour. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth.
Lightly grease a large bowl with butter or oil. Add the dough and turn to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours or until the dough has doubled in size. (Longer if the weather is cooler, less time if it is warmer.)

Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl with a fork or whisk.

Punch down the dough. Divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each into a 12-inch rope. Place 3 ropes side-by-side on a greased baking sheet. Begin to braid in the middle of the ropes and braid to one end. Turn the baking sheet around and braid from the middle to the other end. Repeat with the remaining ropes. Brush the loaves with the egg. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the loaves are doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown. Remove the loaves from the baking sheets and let cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Serve. (This recipe can make up to 4 loaves)

Parents, from generations, have been telling their kids to have a healthy breakfast. Medical Science has now confirmed it that children who eat healthy breakfast show better progress in education and sports in comparison to those who do not. Healthy children, in other words, have a habit of eating nutritious breakfast food. In this one of my many breakfast articles, I would try to explain why breakfast is important for children health.

Quick Fix

Unlike most other meals that we prepare, making breakfast does not ask for a lot of time, and a high level of expertise. It is a portable meal. Your child can grab a healthy bit on his way to school. Believe it or not, but breakfast is definitely the most FLEXIBLE meal of the day.

Nutritional Aspect

Often, due to our busy schedules, we fail to include high fiber food in our meals. This, however, is not the case with breakfast. Fiber intake, we all know, is essential for combating cholesterol in our bodies. Studies have now revealed that children who consume breakfast have higher fiber intake than those who skip breakfast. More than 30% of whole grain consumption can be ascribed to healthy breakfast!

We miss on many vital micronutrients by eating processed food items. Again, healthy breakfast facilitates higher intake of essential micronutrients, thus helping us meet the recommended nutrient intakes.

The Anti-Cholesterol Meal

As mentioned earlier, nutritious breakfast includes whole grains that are high in fiber and low in fat. This helps in watching cholesterol increase in our body.

Improve Cognitive Performance

Evidence is there to support the fact that eating breakfast may have a positive effect on the cognitive performance. The academic performance of children has shown considerable progress after including breakfast in the daily routine.

Goodbye Obesity

A nutritious breakfast may pave way to achieving a lower body mass index or BMI. And a lower BMI certainly facilitates weight loss. With child obesity on the rise, a nutritious breakfast might be the answer.

Healthy Breakfast = Healthy Children

The equation is not that difficult to understand, isn’t it? Food makes the body. In other words, we become what we eat. While junk food, rich in trans-fat and calories, can have a disastrous effect on our mental as well as physical health, a nutritious diet plan can save us from various ailments.

How to find out whether your child is not having a proper breakfast?

Irritability, poor academic performance, late-day sugar craving, tiredness, and lack of concentration are some of the signs that you should look for. Children spend long hours at school. They study, play, think and enjoy there. For all this, they need a lot of energy. If the first meal of the day does not provide them with the right nutrients, they might not be able to cope up with studies. Certainly, donuts and hamburgers won’t give your child consistent energy.

You can learn about breakfast by using phrases such as breakfast how, nutritious breakfast learning, child’s nutritious breakfast and child’s breakfast in your online search. What should an ideal breakfast comprise of? What is the best breakfast food?Stay posted to read the detailed answer.

The Author, Shashank S., brings over 6 years of e-learning and online tutoring experience. Having a deep understanding of pedagogy and child psychology, the writer has developed numerous strategies to improve e-learning and online tutoring for Grades K-12 and higher through various techniques that question the conventional ways of instructing. website: http://www.brainquotient.com

We devour our food first with senses other than taste before we actually try a dish. So I’m fair certain I don’t have to tell you how important it is to take great food photos, particularly if you are writing a foodie blog. I know I eat first with my eyes and it’s much harder to get me all hot and bothered over a dish if an unappetizing photo sits next to it. Just like in a restaurant – if the dish presented looks incredible you begin salivating before lifting your fork – you want to photograph it to remember its perfection and when you look back at that photo on your iPhone, you hope the lighting is able to show your friends just how good the dish actually was.

I know tons of blog writers feel that they don’t have the time or perhaps even, the proper resources to accomplish beautiful food or product photographs, but I’m telling you that if I can do it, so can you. And I learn something new every single day that helps my pictures get better and better! I hope you’ll agree and share your tips with us in the comments!

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is how pretty your pictures can turn out with very minimal equipment. Sure, if you are a pro photographer – say, a member of the foodarazzi – expensive cameras, various lenses, tons of different lighting set ups, faked food and stylists at their fingertips. Plus, it’s really easy to get sucked into buying more equipment that you really do not need to ‘get the shot’. So here’s a few tips that have really enhanced my skills and have allowed me to grow as a shooter. Your camera sees things a little differently than your eye does, so you want to learn to see what your camera sees then just add your love.

1. Know Thy Camera – This may seem like a totally obvious thing, but besides loads of practice, its really the best piece of advice. The capabilities of your camera are probably greater than you realize and let’s be real – the manual that comes with your camera is likely useless unless you want to repair it. I work with a Digital Canon Rebel – one of their first, she’s about 10 years old now and still takes some of the finest shots I have ever seen, and we have all manner of other options from film to point and shoots but the manual that came with her, totally useless and confusing. Buy a book all about your camera – preferably one written by someone who actually uses your camera.

2. Proper Lighting – Loads of professionals will wax poetic about natural daylight, particularly those magical light hours of dawn and dusk. If you are shooting during the day somewhere with plenty of natural light, you’re in luck. Don’t ever shoot directly into your light; it will wash out the photos, making them look ‘hot’ – not in a good way. Instead, manipulate the light to get rid of any reflections with a white card to bounce light and a black card to help block light.

I know we don’t all live in Maui with natural light that is abundant, and frankly, even here shooting dinner or cocktail party food at sunset is tough. Some folks create their own white boxes out of cardboard and a desk light, which can work wonders. I love this photography lighting tent and have a couple of those lights your dad or hubby uses in the garage to side light. But my new favorite toy is this really cool tabletop light by Lowell. It has a really nice soft, day type light and makes it possible to take great food or product shots whenever you have the desire.
You’ve got to light strategically to enhance both the texture and shapes of your product. It really makes a big difference where the light is coming from. Is it your kitchen window or the hood over your stove?

*Tip
The best photographs are achieved with lights that are coming from three directions: From the right, from the left and behind the item you are photographing. In other words, light at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock controls the light and the back light “scrapes” the surface of the food for enhanced texture and shape. Another important point: do not place the light too high from the food. – Katherine Martinelli, noted Food Photographer

Lighting really makes or breaks the photo (see above). Sure, you can take it into Photoshop and try to correct blemishes and other aspects like contrast or saturation but if you start by shooting with a properly lit environment your photos are likely to not need as much in the way of editing -plus they’ll look scrumptious when it comes time to publish!

3. Always have a Tripod – My new favorite tripod is the very reasonably priced GorillaPod Hybrid . Using a tripod will completely change your photos, they will have more clarity and be sharper, which is a very nice thing when you are shooting food. Or kids and dogs.

4. Food Styling and Props – The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten is to always follow the K.I.S.S. principle. “Keep It Super Simple” and as ‘styling’ my photos becomes more and more important to me, this is often where I get caught up. I used to just take photos of the subject, (food, product or otherwise), without anything in the background, whether it was a green screen or a blank white wall – but I’ve found that a little bit of something else often makes for a more interesting shot. Like my tiny rosemary plant that I keep over the sink makes a nice but simple prop to style a plate with. But nothing more. Because you don’t want more going on in the photo than what you intend the eye to focus on – your pretty food. Keep it simple. People who style food for the big magazines have bunches of props on hand that the average food writer doesn’t. But honestly, what more do we really need beyond a dish towel or two, a few different plates and bowls, kitchen bits, utensils or a placemat or three. At the end of the day, my favorite is to use herbs, or fruits or vegetables that are actually a part of the dish. Similarly, I would shoot my kids outdoors playing around if I wanted to show them in a natural environment.

5. Getting into the Edit. Most photos, (definitely the ones from professionals, just so you know), require a bit of retouching, but you don’t need to take classes in Photoshop to do the same. I do use Adobe Photoshop CS5 when I need to or I can do a quick edit in iPhoto on my MAC but I’ve been told that there is a program for all you Windows and PC people out there called PhotoScape that is totally free and has enough options to let you create some yummy photos. Mess around with the different edit tools like the balance of brightness and contrast, saturation and color temperature and see what results you get and prefer. There are also a load of tutorials online to help you.

I hope this brief overview has helped! What’s the most valuable photography lesson you’ve learned? Let us know in the comments section!

I have a book from the ‘For Dummies’ series that I find very helpful you could check out:

And The Winner Is… Karrieann Warr!!! Congratulations!! MommySalad, Johnson Beesley, Garlic Gold, Tropical Traditions, (read about their coconut water vinegar), method, Lenox and Scarborough Lane are super duper proud to bring you the Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway! Mommy Salad is giving away a signed copy of Gabe Berman’s book Live Like A Fruit Fly! This is a true, ‘pass it on’ sort of book. One worth reading time and again and one I love to share with others. Read what Deepak Chopra had to say about Gabe’s book below!

Do you know anyone who has had cancer? If not, you’re lucky, definitely in a minority. There are so many people out there living with it, or who have had it and survived. And a boatload more who didn’t. And while I know many people who have had their brushes with cancer, and they all have their stories, a few more than I’d like stick out in my mind like pink push-pins on a wall map. These people and their stories have altered my life in a forever kind of way.

What’s my point?

Look, I’m not trying to depress you with the whole fight against cancer. No, I’m trying to make everyone understand that I’m doing what I can to help with the problem. Love first, that’s the best I have to offer… but I’m also participating in fund-raisers to help search for cures and this is one way I can stay connected and actually make a difference. Take a moment and light a candle with us here.

Money?

Yes, I said “fund raisers.” Money. Cancer is an invading force, and its entire army fights for free. Unfortunately the doctors, nurses, research scientists, hospitals, equipment, and medicine that fight on our side of the war are not free, not by a long shot. So please, won’t you do whatever you can to honor the TaTa’s? Give when and where you can, money, love, your time… it all makes a difference!

How You Can Help!

National Breast Cancer Foundation
At NBCF they dedicate themselves to providing help for today and hope for tomorrow. Their free mammograms for women in need promote early breast cancer detection, while their educational programs provide answers to anyone whose life is touched by breast disease. You can also make a difference through individual breast cancer donations, corporate sponsorships, fundraising for breast cancer, or volunteering for breast cancer. Every effort counts!
NBCF is a non-profit organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and a prestigious 4-star rating from Charity Navigator.

Susan G. Komen Foundation
Join Susan G. Komen for the Cure in the Search for the Cure™ by supporting our mission to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all, and energize science to find the cures.
Thank you for your support in the fight against breast cancer.

One of our lucky readers will win the following prizes, from your girlfriends here at MommySalad, and a few local sponsors:

Bits about Live Like A Fruit Fly!

“In Live Like a Fruit Fly, Gabe Berman shares his recipe for living a more joyful,worthwhile, and abundant life in every way. A witty, entertaining, and insightful read.” ~Deepak Chopra

In his newly released book, native New Yorker Gabe Berman shares his engaging perspective about following our passions, staying present, and practicing active appreciation. Filled with insightful musings, humor, and stories everyone can relate to, Live Like a Fruit Fly will help you awaken to the joy and meaning available in every moment.

An interview with Gabe Berman (from Chopra.com)
Why should we live like a fruit fly?
Gabe: Fruit flies usually die of old age within ten days of being born. Seizing the day is their
only option. Likewise, your tomorrows aren’t guaranteed either. You may have your
whole life ahead of you, but as you grow older, it seems as though less and less time
elapses between birthdays. If you haven’t felt this yet, you will.

Q: What prompted you to write the book?
Gabe: After college, I jumped from one sales job to another. Towards the end of my tenure of
trying to coax people into buying things they weren’t interested in, I hung up the phone
after a making a sales call and thought, “My life is too short for this. I can’t waste it. I
need to live like a fruit fly.”

Q: Your writing style is unusual for the self-help genre. It’s more conversational
and less dogmatic. Is there a reason for this?
Gabe: I’ve plowed through many books in the self-help, new age and eastern philosophy
sections and I don’t relate to writers who preach to me so I vowed not to do the same.
My goal was to sound like a trustworthy friend.

Q: Which authors have influenced you the most?
Gabe: On the spiritual side, there’s Neale Donald Walsch, Deepak Chopra, and U.S. Anderson.
I’ve also made plenty of room for J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and Hunter S.
Thompson. But it was a book I read as a kid that made me want to be a writer –The Spy
in the Ointment by Donald E. Westlake. In this spy novel, the main character speaks to
the reader in parenthesis as if he’s talking to the camera in a movie. My book is similar
but I’ve made myself the main character and all I do is talk to the camera.

Q: You sporadically quote others throughout your book. Can you pinpoint the one
that means the most to you?
Gabe: I used a quote from Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankl. I believe life boils
down to the choices you make and I couldn’t have said it better than this, “We who lived
in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting
others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but
they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the
last of all human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one’s own way.”

Q: Although you mock yourself for doing so, you make a few references to the Star
Wars movies. Care to comment on this?
Gabe: I grew up with Star Wars and thanks to the prequels, my young nephews are doing so as well.
As with Harry Potter, I believe people are so attracted to these stories because it shows how
one unassuming person can make such a difference. Luke Skywalker was just a farm
boy with a bad haircut who ends up saving the universe from evil. What’s there not to
love?

Q: You mention the events of 9/11 in the beginning of the book. It’s a significant
day for everyone but what does it mean to you?
Gabe: If 9/11 doesn’t show you how unpredictable life is, nothing will. All the planning and
all the worrying ended up meaning nothing for those people caught in the buildings that
day. We need to worry less and live more. We need to live for today.

Q: Do you have advice for aspiring writers?
Gabe: It’s the same advice I’d give to anyone who’s aspiring to do anything bold. You must
kick the first door open to have other doors open for you. It’s rare that the first door
opens without a bit of force. People are always telling me that they’d like to write a
book. But how many of them have actually started writing? Almost none. You need to
start writing if you want to be a writer. You need to start juggling if you want to be a
clown in the circus. It seems as if the Universe doesn’t budge from your desire alone.
It needs to see some action.

Q: Are you working on a new book?
Gabe: Yes, you can see it unfold at blog.livelikeafruitfly.com. Back Up

Tropical Traditions – Coconut Water Vinegar – A Truly Unique Vinegar!

Tropical Traditions Organic Coconut Water Vinegar is truly unique and is the first of its kind in the US market! Most vinegars are clear because they are distilled and originally made from white sugar. Our Organic Coconut Water Vinegar is not distilled, but raw. It contains the mother of vinegar. In the Philippines most all commercial vinegars are distilled, and the “coconut vinegars” are not made from the nutrient-packed coconut water from inside the coconut, but from the sap of the coconut tree which is used to make lambanog, an alcoholic drink similar to vodka. These “coconut vinegars” are by-products of the lambanog industry. To make these products, one must harvest the sap of the coconut tree from the coconut flower bud, which would normally become a fruit-bearing coconut. Hence, trees dedicated to harvesting the sap for lambanog and the more common coconut vinegar will never produce coconuts. Tropical Traditions does NOT support coconut products that prevent coconut trees from bearing fruit (this would include “coconut sugar” harvested from the flowering bud of the coconut tree.) Coconut trees in the Philippines have been on the decline for decades, and the coconut oil from coconuts is also now valued as a fuel source in bio-diesel production, resulting in less coconut oil availability as a food source each year. Vinegar made from coconut water, however, does not sacrifice coconuts or coconut oil in its production, as it is collected from mature coconuts which are used to make coconut oil, and the same trees can continue producing coconuts year after year.

Tropical Traditions is the first company to make a truly organic product from the water of organic coconuts which is raw and fermented with fair-trade organic Muscabado whole cane sugar. This is one of the most nutrient-packed and healthiest vinegars you will find anywhere in the world!

For a cool and refreshing healthy beverage, mix one to two teaspoons of Organic Coconut Water Vinegar to 8 oz. of water. Back Up

You know, I’ve never really considered myself much of a pack rat, (I’m sure my husband would disagree – just not out-loud). I don’t generally have an issue getting rid of things that sit around or are of no more use to me – except in my kitchen, or as it relates to my kitchen. I had more issues of Bon Appetit than your average domestic goddess, they dated back to the 80s. I know, right? Then there was my shoe boxes stuffed with family recipes. The kind you write down on the back of an electric bill or the ones your mother lovingly transcribed onto one of those adorable recipe cards with the little hand drawn pies in the corners and gave you when you got married. This is one of those recipes. I’ve made it a handful of times, the last being more than 10 years ago. But one thing I am absolutely certain of is that I remember it being one of the best cheesecakes I have ever eaten and clearly my children feel the same. It is at the request of my older son A., who is turning 27 today, that I’ve made it again.

And frankly, I’m not really even a cheesecake sort of person, But this one is worth it. And rest assured, I went to town on a slice of it, mumbling through each bite “mmmsooo yum good, this is very very good” as if I wasn’t the one who baked it. It’s so intense, so perfectly sweetened, so deliciously accented with nutty goodness, it may have even made a cheesecake person out of me. Thanks Mom.

This wonderful recipe will no longer be relegated to the shoe box of recipes, it is now logged into my recipe file, on my computer, under ‘Long Loved Desserts’, alongside my Lavender Lemon Cake and Red Velvet Goat Cheese Cupcakes which we make all the time. So, without further adieu, here is our version of the world’s best cheese cake ever made – I give you the ‘Drunken Irish Cheesecake’! Bon Appetit and Happy Birthday A. I love you.

Ingredients

Crust:

♦♦ 5 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces
♦♦ 5 whole chocolate cookies, (like Oreos with no filling, we use Newman’s Own)
♦♦ 1 1/2 cup pecans (or mac nuts)
♦♦ 1/4 cup organic sugar
♦♦ 6 T. unsalted organic butter

Filling:

♦♦ 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
♦♦ 3/4 cup organic sugar
♦♦ 4 large farm fresh eggs
♦♦ 1/3 cup Irish Cream liqueur (We’ve also used Kahlua and only chocolate crust for an Aztecian spin!)
♦♦ 2 T. organic flour
♦♦ 1 vanilla bean
♦♦ 1/2 t. vanilla extract
♦♦ 6 ounces imported white chocolate (such as Toblerone or Lindt)

Topping:

♦♦ 1 1/2 cups organic sour cream
♦♦ 1/8 cup organic powdered sugar (we make our own in the vita-mix) *We used about 1 t. of honey this time!)
♦♦ 2 ounces, give or take, imported white chocolate, grated
♦♦ 2 dozen pecan halves (pick out the pretty ones for the garnish!)

Preparation

For Crust:

Preheat oven to 475. lightly butter 9″ – 10″ inch spring-form pan. Finely grind graham crackers, cookies and pecans and sugar in processor ( you can use any mix you want, either all chocolate crumbs or all graham). Add butter and blend, using on/off turns. (You can do this by hand if you want to grind the dry stuff in the vitamix and then pour it into a bowl, slowly dribble the butter around and mix with your hands until it is ready to press in the pan.) Press crumbs onto bottom and 2 inches up sides of prepared pan. Refrigerate 20 minutes. (I like to pop it in the freezer to make sure it is good and set while I prep the filling.)

Filling:

Using mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Cut and scrape the vanilla bean into a medium bowl, whisk in eggs, baileys and additional vanilla until just blended. Beat egg mixture into cream cheese mixture. Finely chop white chocolate in processor. Add to cream cheese mixture. Put spring-form pan with crust in a shallow baking pan (to catch drips). Pour filling into crust, (spring-form pan will be completely full) and baking in baking pan in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes or until puffed. *Please watch your cake because some ovens will top-brown very quickly and if yours does too fast, turn the oven down as soon as you catch it. Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking until cake is mostly firm (center will still be slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken), about one hour more.

Topping:

Mix sour cream and powdered sugar in small bowl. Spread topping onto cooled cake. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 6 hours. (We prepare this 1 whole day ahead to give it time to really set and all the flavors a chance to combine – if you are going to leave it in the fridge a whole day before you eat it – don’t put the topping on until about 2 or 3 hours before you are ready to eat it!)

Sprinkle the grated white chocolate, liberally, over surface of the cake. Place pecans around edge and serve in a circle or facing the center. This is easiest to cut with a sharp hot knife or a piece of un-waxed dental floss works good too!

Final images will be posted tonight (HST October 17th, 2011), of the ‘Main Event’ cake and Birthday Bash!