Volume 106 l July 2019 l Check out our upcoming events!
Tips on How to Keep Your Furry Friends Healthy

Coming home and being welcomed with unconditional love and kisses from our pet brings incredible happiness to our day. Animals are wonderful companions and add so much joy and comfort to our lives. We want them to live long, healthy, happy lives as part of our family. They need a balanced diet, fresh clean water, a comfortable place to sleep, fresh air, exercise, and love, just like we do. In this article, I will explain what a healing diet for pets looks like, and give you some great guidelines for creating the best pet diet possible.

When I was growing up, it was common for us to give our pets the leftovers from our table. They got broccoli, carrots, potatoes, greens, turnips, etc. Our animals lived very long, healthy lives and thrived on our fresh food. It was not uncommon for our pets to live well into their 20’s. These days most pets are getting diabetes, cancer as young as 6 years old and I believe it is a direct result of their diet.

As large companies began making manufactured food, we started hearing, being told by advertising, or being advised by our veterinarian, that we shouldn’t feed our table scraps to our pets, because there was designated dog food and cat food specifically created to “maintain and promote health” in our pets. 
When people started feeding their pets the manufactured pet food, pet illness went up. Was cheap meat and filler in processed food making our pets ill?

I recommend avoiding foods containing corn or grains (especially genetically modified, and non-certified organic) for you or your pets. I also suggest avoiding foods manufactured in China. I see a similarity to humans and disease.About 50 years ago, people in the US and the world started eating more and more processed foods with additives, fillers, artificial colors, cheap or artificial sugars, genetically modified (GMO) ingredients, refined ingredients, etc. The rise in diabetes is 700% over the last 50 yearsand now 50% of the people in the US have a chronic disease. 

How to Make Marinades Work

Marinades serve two different functions: as a tenderizer and flavor enhancer. You probably already know that some tough cuts of meat benefit from the tenderizing effects of marination, but how does it work?

Marinade Tenderizing Science: The cooking process itself turns connective tissues into gelatin to varying degrees. Depending on the cut and type of meat, it may need a little assistance to bring it to a palatable range of tenderness. Certain plant and fungi enzymes and acids can break down muscle and connective proteins in meats.

As far back as pre-Columbian Mexico, cooks found that wrapping meats in papaya leaves before cooking made for more tender results. The active enzyme in the papaya leaves is papain, now refined from papayas and commercially available. The connective tissue that comes in direct contact with the protein-digesting enzymes gets broken down.

These tenderizing enzymes also reduce the capability of the meat to hold its juices, resulting in greater fluid loss and thus drier meat. Enzymes are heat activated at levels between 140 F and 175 F and deactivated at the boiling point, so it serves no purpose other than flavoring to let the meat sit in a marinade at room temperature. Refrigeration is recommended to avoid the growth of harmful bacteria. Let meat come to room temperature before cooking.

Plan Your Backyard BBQ Party: The Best Food to Grill and Sides to Serve

The BBQ is a great American tradition, where food is cooked outside, shared, and eaten in a most casual of fashions, whether a gathering in a backyard, a park, the beach—even a parking lot or a rooftop. Hot dogs and hamburgers may first come to mind, but there are so many other ingredients that are great on the grill and served to a crowd. From steaks to shrimp to shellfish—along with plenty of traditional side dishes—you have plenty to choose from for a successful cookout that will please friends and family.

Steaks: Because of their hefty price tag, steaks are not at every BBQ party, but people sure do get excited when they see cuts of beef sizzling on the grill. Before you can think about how to grill the steak, however, you need to be sure to buy the right type and best cut of meat.

Then you need to treat them right: Bring steaks to room temperature, give them a generous sprinkling of salt on both sides, set them on a hot grill, and once done, let them rest for at least 10 minutes for the juices to settle.

Burgers : When cooking burgers on the grill, the golden rule is to leave them alone. Don't flip them over and over, and definitely don't squash them with the spatula—when you press down on the meat, you're pressing out the juiciness. If you follow a few tips when grilling, you will end up with the perfect burger. Another tip is to ask your butcher to grind your meat (or do it yourself) for the freshest patty ever.

How to Keep Your Vegetables Fresh

Like most people, you probably shop for several days' worth of groceries at a time, which means you face the issue of making sure your fresh vegetables stay fresh for as long as possible.

And not all vegetables are alike, which means there's no single best way to store them all. Fresh greens like lettuce can't be handled the same way as root vegetables like potatoes or carrots. Additionally, certain practices, like peeling or washing, can lengthen or shorten their life, depending on various factors. Storing certain vegetables together can also affect how long they last. Here's everything you need to know to store your vegetables for maximum freshness.

Cool, Dry, Dark Place: Some veggies stay fresh longest in a cool or room-temperature location, away from moisture, heat and light. In some cases this might be a kitchen cupboard (not situated directly next to your oven), or it might mean a dedicated pantry. The ideal temperature for your pantry is between 50 and 70 F (although 50 to 60 F is better).By the way, the reason for keeping your pantry dark is that if these veggies are exposed to light, they think they're outside and will start to sprout.

Veggies to store in your pantry include:
  • Onions
  • Shallots
  • Garlic
  • Hard squash like winter, acorn, spaghetti and butternut
  • All types of potatoes (including yams and sweet potatoes)
  • Rutabagas

These items will keep for at least a week in your pantry, and even longer, like a month or longer, if the temperature remains between 50 and 60 F.

And unless you practice meticulous climate control in your home all year long, that means veggies stored in your pantry will generally last longer in the cooler months than when it's hot.

Chef Sammy's Tips for Cooking Perfect Salmon Every Time

Stretch, Don't Roll: If you want to make homemade pizza, the first step is—of course—to make the dough.It's easy to get carried away thinking about toppings and so on, but more than anything else, when you're eating pizza, it's the crust you're tasting. And not just tasting. Biting into. Chewing. The crust of a pizza is literally its foundation, but it is also its essence.

For all its complexity, pizza dough is built on a remarkably simple formula. Classic Neapolitan pizza is made with only flour, water, salt, and yeast. And while different flours have different properties depending on whether they're made from winter wheat, summer wheat, and other variables, it's the yeast that gives the dough its flavor—primarily through the process of fermentation that takes place while the dough is undergoing its rise.

Of course, every recipe is different. And if you're following a recipe, it's a good idea to actually follow the recipe. That means when a recipe says to let the dough rest for a certain amount of time, give it the full time, even though it might seem like nothing is happening. The reality is that everything—from the elasticity of the dough to its crunch, its chewiness, and particularly, how yeasty it tastes—is being determined during this resting time.

So before we get to our actual five tips, here's a bonus one: If a pizza dough recipe says to let the dough rest 8 to 24 hours (or overnight), plan to use the high end of whatever that range is.

How to Make New York-Style Pizza Dough
Know Your Flours: Having just resolved to follow the recipe as written, you might not feel like you need to know the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour. After all, you're just going to use whatever the recipe calls for, right? Right. But it's also useful to know a little bit about the difference to help you choose a recipe that will produce the kind of crust you want.

Chef Sammy's Essential Tips for Making Pizza Dough at Home

Stretch, Don't Roll: If you want to make homemade pizza, the first step is—of course—to make the dough.It's easy to get carried away thinking about toppings and so on, but more than anything else, when you're eating pizza, it's the crust you're tasting. And not just tasting. Biting into. Chewing. The crust of a pizza is literally its foundation, but it is also its essence.

For all its complexity, pizza dough is built on a remarkably simple formula. Classic Neapolitan pizza is made with only flour, water, salt, and yeast. And while different flours have different properties depending on whether they're made from winter wheat, summer wheat, and other variables, it's the yeast that gives the dough its flavor—primarily through the process of fermentation that takes place while the dough is undergoing its rise.

Of course, every recipe is different. And if you're following a recipe, it's a good idea to actually follow the recipe. That means when a recipe says to let the dough rest for a certain amount of time, give it the full time, even though it might seem like nothing is happening. The reality is that everything—from the elasticity of the dough to its crunch, its chewiness, and particularly, how yeasty it tastes—is being determined during this resting time.

So before we get to our actual five tips, here's a bonus one: If a pizza dough recipe says to let the dough rest 8 to 24 hours (or overnight), plan to use the high end of whatever that range is.

How to Make New York-Style Pizza Dough
Know Your Flours: Having just resolved to follow the recipe as written, you might not feel like you need to know the difference between bread flour and all-purpose flour. After all, you're just going to use whatever the recipe calls for, right? Right. But it's also useful to know a little bit about the difference to help you choose a recipe that will produce the kind of crust you want.

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