Produce: The Roots of Good Health

by: Chris Robertson

Even if we roll our eyes when we hear it, "Eat your veggies" is a maxim that we'd be well advised to heed. Our mothers and grandmothers instinctively knew that fresh fruit and vegetables were good for us, and science has reinforced the value of fresh produce in keeping our bodies in peak condition. Nevertheless, we often skimp on eating root vegetables, either because they seem boring or we don't know how to best prepare them. These nutrition-packed powerhouses are worth a second look, though. Here's an overview that will hopefully inspire you to reach for the roots when you're in the produce section of your grocery store.

Captivating Carrots

Oh, the ubiquitous carrot. Baby carrots are peeled, washed, and sealed in plastic bags for a no-fuss, no-muss snack. But carrots aren't given credit for their variety or versatility. For example, not all carrots are orange. The next time you want to experiment, be on the lookout for white, yellow, red, and even purple carrots. They can be used in recipes, or to add vibrant color to your plates.

Speaking of recipes, carrots can be more than an afterthought for a salad or to enrich and add flavor to broths. Carrots give breads, muffins, and cakes a wonderful moistness, texture, and flavor, and cold carrot soup can be a refreshing taste treat on a hot summer day. Throw grated carrots, cream cheese, and grated onion into a food processor and spread on toast points for a delicious appetizer. Step into the future with a carrot mousse or flashback to the past with pickled carrots. Let your imagination fly and you'll rediscover these colorful treasures.

Radical Rutabagas and Tasty Turnips

Although the Finns and Swedes cook rutabagas with aplomb, the rutabaga and turnip aren't in most Americans repertoires when it comes to cooking vegetables. Sure, turnip greens are a staple of the delicious cuisine of the South, but what to do with the root?

Rutabagas are actually a cross between turnips and cabbages, although they are most often used like a turnip in cooking. Either rutabagas or turnips can be cooked and added to mashed potatoes to enhance their flavor and nutrition. Try turnip custard, or combine apples and rutabagas for a delicious baked casserole. Use rutabagas in a spice cake or bread, or make a seasoned puree and serve it with a meat dish.

Hearty Jicama

Like the carrot, the jicama is often relegated to the salad bar. But this sweet, starchy, and refreshing root vegetable is a wonderful addition to stir-fry or potato salad. Much of jicama's appeal is its unique crunchy texture, so grate it, cube it, or julienne it to add zazz to cold dishes. Toss jalapeno with vinegar, cilantro, and jalapeno, and then place grilled shrimp over a bed of jicama. Delectable!

Other Nutrition-Packed Roots

When visiting the fresh produce section of your grocery store, don't overlook other roots that have taken a back seat to other fresh fruit and vegetables. Beets, parsnips, and radishes also offer culinary delights, so embrace their versatility and their ability to get you excited about eating your veggies!

Cappuccino: Basic Information

by: Kaafae Blanda

Cappuccino is a cup of coffee with fresh milk and milk foam bubbles burst on the top of cup. The milk foam bubbles burst acts as the insulator and keep the heat of the coffee for a longer time. The color of Cappuccino is dark brown. Normally, the cappuccino is served in the porcelain cup. It is better than the glass or paper cup. Cappuccino is a name that from the color of the robe of priest in Roman Catholic called “Capuchin”. It always drinks in the morning with breakfast. And now, cappuccino is modified to serve by the chain stores and the other manufacturing.

Type of Cappuccino

Base on the mixture ratios of the cappuccino

1. Traditional Cappuccino

It is the espresso with the hot foam milk on the top. The Thick of foam milk is about 1 cm.

2. Cappuccino Chiaro (Light Cappuccino or Wet Cappuccino)

There is more milk ratio than the normal cappuccino.

3. Cappuccino Scuro (Dark Cappuccino or Dry Cappuccino)

There is less milk ratio than the normal cappuccino.

How to make a cup of cappuccino

Compositions

1. Roasted bean = 8-10 grams
2. Fresh milk = 4-6 ounces
3. Coffee cup = 6 ounces
4. Chocolate or cinnamon powder
5. Sugar

Method

The important point in making the cappuccino is the milk with foam bubbles. The skilled barista who has acquired some level of expertise in the preparation of coffee should be pay attention while creating the milk foam bubble burst in each type if cappuccino.

1. Use one by tree of coffee volume in a cup.
2. Heat the fresh milk with 60 grade Celsius or lower.
3. Make the fine milk foam bubbles burst in suitable volume.
4. Add one by tree cup of warm milk in the cup.
5. Use a tea spoon for take the milk foam bubbles burst on the top of coffee until the edge of cup.
6. Before serve, sprinkle the top with chocolate or cinnamon powder.

Ice Cappuccino (Cappuccino “Freddo”)

The method is similar to hot cappuccino. Ice cappuccino is cappuccino that serves with ice. The ice has to fine to small molecule. The glass volume should be 8-12 ounces and cylinder shape. Put cappuccino in fine ice and add the milk foam bubbles burst on the top about one of three from the edge of the glass. Before serve, coffee maker ought to wait a moment for cooled glass of cappuccino. And do not forget to put a stick in the glass. The drinkers should drink all in one time because if the ice melt, the taste/flavor will change.

How to drink Cappuccino

1. Never stir Cappuccino with spoon.

2. Normally, no need to add sugar because the Cappuccino is pretty sweet already. But if you want sweeter, add sugar a tea spoon and stir with gentle. Never use syrup as sweetener in Cappuccino because milk and syrup will incompatibility.

3. Smell the flavor of Chocolate or cinnamon powder before drinking.

4. After drinking, the foamed milk will stick at the bottom of the cup. If no foamed milk stick means the method of making coffee is not good enough.

Drug Detox Demand May Be Reduced By New Computer Program

by: Rod MacTaggart
Most of the 500 Metro Detroit doctors who recently evaluated a new online prescription drug program say it improves patient safety and quality of care by reducing the number of pharmacy errors, patient allergies and harmful drug interactions that can occur as a result of hand-written prescriptions. This is good news for the thousands of victims of prescription drug problems who end up needing drug detox.

The majority of drug-related trips to emergency rooms and detox centers – not to mention sudden deaths and trips to the morgue – are caused by problems with prescription drugs. Hospitals, ERs and detox centers in recent years are seeing more dependencies, addictions, overdoses and life-threatening drug interactions as a result of prescription drugs than more traditional illicit street drugs like heroin, cocaine in its many forms, and perhaps methamphetamine.

Most drug detox facilities now provide specialized medical drug detox services for a host of different prescription drugs. And although detox centers help people with problems caused by legitimate prescriptions, many of the most commonly abused prescription drugs have found their way into the illicit street drug pipeline. And virtually all of the popular prescription drugs now found in schoolyards, night clubs and on the streets require drug detox to safely get off them.

The new prescription drug program, called ePrescription, is used by doctors right in their offices to access online information about a prescription drug, including generic alternatives, potentially harmful drug interactions, and potential allergic reactions. Patients already taking other prescription drugs often don’t remember what they’re taking or forget to tell the doctor about them – or the doctor doesn’t ask. But because the program lists all the patient’s medications, it helps avoid the serious side effects or even dependencies that lead to drug detox when the wrong drugs are combined. And because the doctor uses the computer to print out new prescriptions, it helps prevent patients from getting the wrong drug or wrong dosage just because a pharmacist couldn’t read the doctor’s handwriting.

In the two years that doctors have tested the program, 3.3 million prescriptions were written, and nearly a third of them – one million prescriptions – were identified as offering potentially harmful drug interactions, and another 100,000 prescriptions were spotted as being potentially allergic. In all, 423,000 prescriptions were corrected – changes that, if not corrected, might have caused injuries and even deaths. For drugs with a high potential for dependency such as narcotic painkillers and many antidepressants and antipsychotics, keeping track of the prescriptions with the computer surely helped prevent trips to drug detox.

The power of the new program to improve patient health and prevent prescription drug misadventure was lauded by most of the doctors testing it. They said it alerted them to potential problems they wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, and they liked how the program let them check other medicines patients were taking. Mixing prescriptions is always an area of risk that can precipitate dependency or addiction and lead to the need for drug detox or to complications and even death.

Detroit’s new online prescription drug computer program appears to be helping get that city’s prescription drug error and abuse situation under control, and should help save a lot of people from needing a drug detox program.