Being a chef includes much more than just proper attire and good culinary skills. Particularly, a head chef must be able to wield a kitchen knife with expertise, and face all the various problems that might arise in a kitchen.

A chef must include mitts or gloves in the attire, as dealing with hot dishes would be a part of the job in course of work. A chef must also be well versed in removing all those stains and splatters that would be found on the work clothes. Also, the temperature of certain items must be perfect, and the chef must be able to keep track of this by using chef thermometers. Be it a soufflé or a hot pie right from the oven, a correct temperature setting is very essential for that perfect taste.

Knives play a very important role in a chef’s life. The appropriate knife must be used to cut either vegetables or meat or even to carve vegetables for a good salad spread. A seven-course meal would require the chef to produce a spread good enough to rival the competitors. Each dish prepared would be perfect only when the ingredients are perfect. A good chef would be able to wield the knife with ease and must be innovative while producing a salad or a side dish that requires intricate carving or cutting, such as fish.

Chefs must be familiar with the different kinds of electric appliances, stoves, pans and dishes that need to be used for cooking. Also, it is essential for the chef to be familiar with proper dinner etiquette to provide the items in the correct dishes to avoid any mishaps while the waiter is serving the same.

Saucepans, stockpots and other various dishes to be used must be clean, and the head chef must ensure these are being used in a proper and exact manner. While providing the guests with desserts like fondue or brownies and ice cream with hot chocolate fudge, it is very important to provide the dish at the right temperature.

A chef is responsible for the cooking supplies in the kitchen. It would be bad practice to refuse a customer a dish in the menu due to a lack of ingredients. All the dishes in that days’ menu must be available and ready to serve.

The chef has the main role in making the customer happy with the meal. Although the restaurant’s ambience and service do play a part, the majority of its success depends on the quality of the food. Of course, this proportionately depends on the chefs and the cooks in the kitchen. Although they form an invisible part of the workforce, chefs and cooks actually play a major role in building the restaurant’s reputation. Good food is always an enticement in bringing the customer back.

e-chefhat.com Chef Hats provides detailed information about chef hats, chef hat history, and more. Chef Hats is affiliated with i-steak.com Sirloin Steak.

Steakhouse is the best place to enjoy your evening and eat your favorite dish. It gives immense pleasure to those who are really fond of eating steak. In fact, steakhouse appetizer is the right place for all those who love delicious foods and want to get the taste of different foods. It’s an appealing place to dine out or can party out with your friends and relatives. The ambiance and the entire looks of the steakhouse is the first attraction that attracts a lot of people. The guests are attracted by the entire look of the steakhouse. The lighting system has to be ultimate so it creates an awesome environment and everybody comes in enjoying mood to celebrate the evening. A soft light creates a pleasing environment and visitors are so much spelled by the ambiance that they want to spend more and more time.

Apart from all this, the furniture has to be quite comfortable and classy in looks and the design. The latest and modern look of the restaurant is very much liked by most of the visitors. In the steakhouse, the quality of the service should be kept at high priority so that a large number of people can come and get satisfied with the service. The manager has to ensure that the visitors get the best service and in this way the restaurant gets much publicity through the visitors. The waiters should behave well and should be obedient enough to handle the various people. It’s a common perception that a steakhouse has specialization in particular food stuff but this is not true because there are cocktails and wines for the drink lovers and many food items. It gives immense pleasure to those who love to dine along with the drink. markjosephsteakhouse.com/location.html Steakhouse appetizers New York is the best place to enjoy your evening and to dine out.

You can opt for a party option if the steakhouse has this facility. You can party along with your close friends and relatives and can take full enjoyment of this awesome place. There are various types of food stuffs available in the restaurant. A steakhouse appetizer is the first and foremost things that a visitor orders in the restaurant. It is light food stuff that increases your eager for the main course and also maintains your appetite for the food. You can enjoy with the appetizer during the early hours of dinning and can get the complete pleasure of the food items. Sometimes the steakhouse also have some of their specialty in the food. You can look into the menu card for the kind of food you want to enjoy.

A steakhouse appetizers have varieties of food options that one can order according to his taste and choice. The menu card is full of all the dinning options that the restaurant has. Generally, a steakhouse is famous for beef, lobster rand fish products and people come here to enjoy it. There are two methods of preparing the beef products, one is half cooked and other is full cooked. It is said that half cooked is tastier than the full cooked beef products. The full cooked is little drier compared to the half cooked item. The beef dishes are made from the flesh of cows or buffalo. Along with this, you can also ask for the sea food that brings mouth watering taste.Well, from a visitor’s point, everything in the steakhouse has to be perfect after all you are going to spend your money on it. Every guest is really looking for the value for money from steakhouse appetizer.

Neil Folley holds a Masters Degree in Hotel Management. He loves good food and arranging private parties. He is working for Markjosephsteakhouse. To book for Sunday Parties and enjoy tasteful food at Steakhouse appetizers New York visit markjosephsteakhouse.com/ www.markjosephsteakhouse.com

Wines are produced by allowing grapes to ferment. Vintage wines are prime quality wines that have a particular flavor owing to the process of making mother using grapes that were all grown in a particular year. Over the years this term has come to denote wine that is old and very valuable for its unique taste.

You need to choose the right vintage for celebrating an important occasion to bring out the nature of the celebration. How do you choose vintage? You can choose them based on the brand names as wines from certain wine houses are of a finer quality than others and you can choose them according to the years of making. The older the wine is the better the taste and quality.

Here’s a look at the top ten vintages.

• St. Julien/Pauillac – Choose bottles from the years 1990, 1996 and 2000.

• St. Emilion – Choose bottles from the years 1990, 1998 and 2000.

• Châteauneuf du Pape - Choose bottles from the years 1998 and 2000 wines.

• California North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon - Choose bottles from the year 2001

• White Burgundy – Choose bottles from the year 1996

• Champagne – Choose bottles from the year 1978

• Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf du Pape – Choose bottles from the year 1978

• Washington’s Cabernet Sauvignon – Choose bottles from the year 1987

• Spain, Rioja - Choose bottles from the year 1989

• Italy: Tuscany – Choose bottles from the year 1985

One interesting aspect of all vintage wines is that they have a small quality of americandreamwine.com/ wine in them, which does not belong to the year stated in the win label. This is allowed by laws as such. For example the wine produced by countries belonging to the European Union, include 85% of wine produced in the vintage year and the remainder is wine produced in some other year. If you want a vintage that has more of vintage wine quantity than wine produced in the same year, you need to look for wine from countries, which have mostly vintage year wine in the bottle for example, Russia.

Ronald Lewis is a Oenologist with ten years of experience in his field.

Tips for choosing the best home-made wine ingredients:

Fruits must be ripe, but not over-ripe. A few shriveled grapes or black currants are unlikely to harm a brew. In the case of larger fruits such as plums, the doubtful ones should be taken out.

The choice of roots (beetroot, parsnips, etc.) for wine-making purposes should not be dismissed so readily. The best, (or even the only) roots suitable for wine-making are those that are old and shriveled. Parsnips that have been stored throughout the winter or left in the soil are at their best for our purpose in March, as are old potatoes purchased in June when the new ones are coming in. They are ideal if they are well shriveled and/or sprouting. (Be sure to break off the roots before using them.)

These old roots contain less starch than the fresher ones, and we do not want starch in wines because it slows down the clearing process. Besides this, when old roots are used, they flavor the wine less, and it is not in the least bit earthy.

It is a mistake to believe that using additional ingredients, (such as less water, or more sugar/yeast), than is indicated in the recipes, will produce a more potent wine. The strength of wine is decided by the volume of alcohol in which the yeast can live and continue to do its work, and not on the quantity of any ingredients. Too much sugar makes the wine far too sweet. More yeast makes no difference at all, simply because it cannot make more alcohol than it can live in. Age makes very little difference to the alcohol content of wines. Too many ingredients will produce a liquid of too high a specific gravity and a liquid containing too many solids per part of water, (in other words a liquid which is too thick) and this will take a very long time to clear.

Because of this, you should never use more ingredients than the recipe indicates.

About Straining:

Fine muslin is best for straining mixtures produced when making root wines. Tie one piece on the tub - allowing sufficient sag - and place a second piece over this.

This top piece containing the solids can be lifted off without letting them fall into the brew. Jelly bags or similar things made of suitable material are needed for fruit juices, as will be seen in the recipes.

About Sugar & Yeast:

You should always use white sugar, and make certain that all the sugar is dissolved before adding anything (like wheat or raisins) to the brew. If all the sugar is not dissolved, the yeast might not ferment properly & some of the sugar could settle in the form of syrup and be left in the lees when they are thrown away. As a result of this, the wine could turn out quite sharp. With a lot of other ingredients in the brew, it is quite impossible to tell whether all the sugar is dissolved or not.

Baker’s yeast is all we need during this stage. This can be purchased at your local bakery. Yeast is added at the rate of one ounce per 1, 2 or 3 gallons.

Do not add the yeast too early…as a temperature well below boiling point will destroy the yeast organism and fermentation will not take place.

James Wilson owns & operates e-homewinemaking.com e-homewinemaking.com, a site providing wine-making tips, tricks and techniques. If you’re interested in making your own wine, visit e-homewinemaking.com e-homewinemaking.com today and sign up for the FREE wine-making mini-course!

Most of us are aware of the benefits of a balanced diet and healthy eating. But being aware of the benefits is only half of the solution. You also need to know how to choose the foods that will be best for your health. Depending on your daily routine, you may or may not eat at home most of the time.

Start your day with a healthy and well balanced breakfast. Studies have shown that people who don’t eat a full breakfast tend to seek carbohydrate snacks all throughout the day, and are more prone to gaining weight.

Eating at home usually involves more meal preparation time, this is important because preparing a good meal takes a lot more time than simply eating some junk food. If you can afford to prepare your meals at home, this can dramatically increase the quality of your meals, not only can you choose exactly what you eat, but you can choose how it is prepared and pick out the quality of the items yourself.

Any meal you eat, whether at home or while out should consist of all the basic food groups, balancing proteins, starches, greens and vegetables is a key factor to a healthy diet. Your body needs all the different food groups in order to function properly, by balancing your meals you are ensuring your health and the quality of your life.

Choosing the food you eat based simply on the label at the supermarket is not always the best choice. Sure, a low fat or diet version of a favorite snack, treat or dessert may be a better option than the regular version, but is it the best option. Look for healthier alternatives for snacking in between meals, low fat cereal bars and natural products, fruit and juice. It is not so much the amount you eat but rather what you eat that makes the difference.

Avoiding fatty foods and food with high quantities of sugar is also very important. Choose baked food instead of fried food, and adopt this healthier alternative when cooking at home as well.

When away from home and eating out, look for healthy alternatives. Fast food offers speedy advantages but often has no real nutritional value. Stuffing yourself with useless calories will fill you up momentarily, but you will soon find you are hungry again, and this can often lead to a vicious cycle, leading to high levels of junk Lakm.net/ food intake per day. Choose full meals whenever possible; look for whole wheat and organic products whenever you can. If you are on the run and need to eat as quickly as possible, look for the healthier alternatives to hotdogs and burgers. Try natural sandwiches made on the spot, there are many natural fast foods that can be just as quick as the conventional ones, while providing much better quality to your diet.

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Ok, let’s clear something up right from the start. Just because you’re a Diabetic it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the foods everybody else eats. You just need to be a little more selective that’s all.

There’s a common believe that being a Diabetic means you shouldn’t consume any sugar. It most cases this simply isn’t true and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t treat yourself every once and a while. Having said that, you should obviously seek medical advice regarding your diet and the severity of your Diabetes before drastically changing the foods you consume.

If you suffer with Type 2 Diabetes then fundamentally your weight and lifestyle play a huge part in being able to treat your condition. You’ve probably been told already to start shedding the pounds by following a low fat, low sugar diet and of course to exercise more regularly. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the similar foods namely the desserts or snacks we all enjoy occasionally.

Take a look at these delicious Diabetic recipes below:

DIABETIC COOKIES

1/2 c. Sugar Twin
1 stick margarine
1 egg
1 c. applesauce
1 c. All-Bran
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 3/4 c. flour

Mix well and drop by teaspoon on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees
For 10 minutes.

DIABETIC FUDGE CAKE

1 sq. unsweetened chocolate
1/3 c. butter
2 tbsp. artificial liquid sweetener
2 tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. cake flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. walnuts

Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan over low heat. Remove from
heat. Add sweetener, vanilla and eggs. Stir until well blended. Add
flour, salt, soda and mix well. Fold in chopped nuts and then pour into
a lightly floured and greased 9 inch square pan. Level batter and bake
at 325 degrees 20-25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled.

Living with Diabetes doesn’t have to rule your life and especially what you eat. You obviously need to watch what you consume and monitor your condition carefully. However, there are still plenty of fantastic recipes available that everybody can enjoy.

Go on, why not treat yourself today!

For more fantastic diabetic recipes including

Coffee - THE Drink of Choice

Did you know coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world. How did coffee get this ranking? What country first figured out coffee was safe for consumption? When was the first drink of coffee prepared? Where did the first coffee shop come in being?
There are many questions about the starting point of drinking coffee. It has been so long ago no one really knows all the facts. But, one thing is for sure, coffee is the most consumed beverage on the planet.

The Beginning of Coffee

It looks as if the first trace came out of Abyssinia and was also sporadically in the vicinity of the Red Sea around seven hundred AD. Along with these people, other Africans of the same period also have a history of using the coffee berry pulp for more than one occasion like rituals and even for health.

Coffee began to get more attention when the Arabs began cultivating it in their peninsulas around eleven hundred AD. It is speculated that trade ships brought the coffee their way. The Arabs started making a drink that became quite popular called gahwa— meaning to prevent sleep. Roasting and boiling the bean was how they made this drink. It became so popular among the Arabs that they made it their signature Arabian wine and it was used a lot during rituals.

After the coffee bean was found to be a great wine and a medicine, someone discovered in Arabia that you could also make a different dark, delicious drink out of the beans, this happened somewhere around twelve hundred AD. After that it didn’t take long and everyone in Arabia was drinking coffee. Everywhere these people traveled the coffee went with them. It made its way around to India, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and was then cultivated to a great extent in Yemen around fourteen hundred AD.

Other countries would have gladly welcomed these beans if only the Arabs had let them. The Arabs killed the seed-germ making sure no one else could grow the coffee if taken elsewhere. Heavily guarding their plants, Yemen is where the main source of coffee stayed for several hundred years. Even with their efforts, the beans were eventually smuggled out by pilgrims and travelers.

Coffee Shops Appear

Around 1475 the first coffee shop opens in Constantinople called Kiv Han two years after coffee was introduced to Turkey, in 1554 two coffee houses open there. People came pouring in to socialize, listen to music, play games and of course drink coffee. Some often called these places in Turkey the “school of the wise”, because you could learn so much by just visiting the coffee house and listening to conversations.
In the sixteen hundreds coffee enters Europe through the port of Venice. The Turkish warriors also brought the drink to Balkans, Spain, and North Africa. Not too much later the first coffee house opens in Italy.

There were plenty of people also trying to ban coffee. Such as Khair Beg a governor of Mecca who was executed and Grand Vizir of the Ottoman Empire who successfully closed down many coffee houses in Turkey. Thankfully not everyone thought this way.

Coffee Tips Arrive

In the early sixteen hundreds coffee is presented to the New World by man named John Smith. Later in that century, the first coffee house opens in England. Coffee houses or “penny universities” charged a penny for admission and for a cup of coffee. The word “TIPS” (for service) has it’s origin from an English coffee house.

Early in the 17th century, Edward Lloyd’s coffee house opens in England. The Dutch became the first to commercially transport coffee. The first Parisian café opens in 1713 and King Louis XIV is presented with a lovely coffee tree. Sugar is first used as an addition to coffee in his court.

The America’s Have Coffee

Coffee plants were introduced in the Americas for development. By close to the end of the seventeen hundreds, 1,920 million plants are grown on the island.

Evidently the eighteen hundreds were spent trying to find better methods to make coffee.

The Coffee “Brew” in the 20th Century

New methods to help brewing coffee start popping up everywhere. The first commercial espresso machine is developed in Italy. Melitta Bentz makes a filter using blotting paper. Dr. Ernest Lily manufactures the first automatic espresso machine. The Nestle Company invents Nescafe instant coffee. Achilles Gaggia perfects the espresso machine.
Hills Bros. begins packing roasted coffee in vacuum tins eventually ending local roasting shops and coffee mills. A Japanese-American chemist named Satori Kato from Chicago invents the first soluble “instant” coffee.

German coffee importer Ludwig Roselius turns some ruined coffee beans over to researchers, who perfected the process of removing caffeine from the beans without destroying the flavor. He sells it under the name Sanka. Sanka is introduced in the United States in 1923.

George Constant Washington an English chemist living in Guatemala, is interested in a powdery condensation forming on the spout of his silver coffee flask. After checking into it, he creates the first mass-produced instant coffee which is his brand name called Red E Coffee.

Prohibition goes into effect in United States. Coffee sales suddenly increase.
Brazil asked Nestle to help find a solution to their coffee surpluses so the Nestle Company comes up with freeze-dried coffee. Nestle also made Nescafe and introduced it to Switzerland.

Other Interesting Coffee Tidbits

Today the US imports 70 percent of the world’s coffee crop.
During W.W.II, American soldiers were issued instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits.

In Italy, Achilles Gaggia perfects his espresso machine. The name Cappuccino comes from the resemblance of its color to the robes of the monks of the Capuchin order.

One week before Woodstock, the Manson family murders coffee heiress Abigail Folger as she visits with her friend Sharon Tate in the home of filmmaker Roman Polanski.

Starbuck’s Hits the Coffee World

Starbucks opens its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place public market in 1971. This creates madness over fresh-roasted whole bean coffee.
Coffee finally becomes the world’s most popular beverage. More than 450 billion cups are sold each year by 1995.

The Current Coffee Trends

Now in the 21st century we have many different styles, grinds, and flavors of coffee. We have really come a long way even with our coffee making machines. There’s no sign of coffee consumption decreasing. Researchers are even finding many health benefits to drinking coffee. Drink and enjoy!

Hilda Maria is the mother of five great children. She understands the need for a great cup of
ic-coffee-makers.com/index.html coffee in a flash and enjoys using a
ic-coffee-makers.com/coffee_makers.html coffee maker and fresh green
ic-coffee-makers.com/coffee_beans.html coffee beans to get it.

Noni fruit has gained worldwide notoriety in recent years for its health benefits, but also as a result of how those benefits have been exaggerated. Noni fruit is packed with nutrients – some well known, others more mysterious – that can help you to live a healthier, longer life. Several animal studies have shown that noni fruit can help to reduce tumors, enhance the immune system, and relieve pain.

Scientists in both the public and private sectors have widely demonstrated that the health benefits of noni fruit, while often wildly exaggerated, are not to be dismissed.

Noni fruit comes from the noni tree. When ripe, a noni fruit is about the size and color of the inside of a pear. It contains many seeds and has a distinctive, pungent odor. It is soft and dripping with juice.

The tree grows up to 30 feet tall in a large variety of habitats: volcanic terrains, lava-strewn coasts, clearings, and limestone crops. Its resiliency has allowed it to spread from its native Southeast Asia to neighboring India and the Pacific Islands, and as far as New Zealand, Australia, and South America. Its leaves are large, dark green, shiny, and deeply veined. Its small white flowers give rise to fruit that is bright green when young, and yellow or white when ripe.

Over 2,000 years ago, the inhabitants of what is now known as the Polynesian Islands domesticated the noni tree. They used all parts of the tree as food, medicine, and dye. It is said to treat many maladies, including constipation, diarrhea, skin inflammation, infection, mouth sores, fever, contusions, and sprains. Many other cultures have used noni fruit as well. For example, the Chinese have used it for the digestive system, kidneys, heart, and liver.

Today, noni fruit is available in a wide variety of formats, including juices, powders, capsules, even soaps and shampoos. Used in conjunction with modern medicine, the noni fruit can be a valuable health supplement.

i-nonijuice.com Noni Juice Info provides comprehensive information on Noni fruit drinks, juice, capsules, preparation, benefits, and history. Noni Juice Info is affiliated with original-content.net Original Content Web.

If you are a serious steak lover, you must have visited lots of steakhouses in your city. If you happen to visit so many steakhouses, you must have by now realized that each steakhouse has its own specialty. Unless you are very stern about the type of steak that you eat, you will not be able to find out these differences. Steakhouse is the best place for steak lovers to indulge themselves. There are several steakhouses in all cities of the United States where you can go and coddle, and give a free reign to your taste buds while eating the kind of steak that you love most.

It may not always be possible for you to cook steak in your house and relish eating it. So eating out in steakhouses with your family and friends can be a very good option for you. If you plan to make this eating arrangement with your loved ones really special there are certain things that you will have to take care of. First of all you will have to find out a steakhouse that specializes in making the kind of steak that you love to eat. Steaks are cooked in different ways and if you do not find the type of steak that you want, you will surely be disappointed.

So once you have found the steakhouse that specializes in making steak in exactly the way that you like to eat, all you need to do is book seats in the steakhouse well in advance. I am sure you will not relish the prospect of taking out your entire family to the steakhouse on a weekend only to be told that the steakhouse is full. This can be really frustrating, so make all preparations beforehand so that you do not have to encounter any last minute hassles and spoil your mood during the weekend.

If you happen to be the owner of steakhouse, it will pay you to remember that simply cooking and serving great steak will not make your steakhouse a big hit among people who love out eating in steakhouses. There are many more things to it than this and you must take care of all these aspects. The look and feel of the steakhouse is also very important in drawing customers to steakhouse and transforming them to regular customers. Make sure that the décor and other aspects of the interiors of the steakhouse are very appealing. All these with the combination of good steak are bound to draw customers to your steakhouse.

Equally important is the food court of your steakhouse. Make sure that your steakhouse serves to customers are cooked in exactly the way your customer loves to eat it. After all, serving them with what they love to eat will surely make your steakhouse a big hit among all people who love to eat steak. Make sure that all the staff working in your steakhouse are well mannered and make the customers feel very comfortable. Also make a note to provide prompt service to customers and if you provide them with all these they are sure to come back again and again to your steakhouse and enjoy their eating out session in your steakhouse.

Neil Folley holds a Masters Degree in Hotel Management.He loves good food and arranging private parties.He is working for Markjosephsteakhouse.To book for Sunday Parties and enjoy tasteful food and catering at markjosephsteakhouse.com/catering.html Steakhouse visit markjosephsteakhouse.com/ markjosephsteakhouse.com

Turkey Gyros

2 tablespoons of water
1 pound of ground turkey
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
½ teaspoon of dried oregano leaves
½ teaspoon of ground cumin
2 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons of canola or olive oil
1 small onion, chopped (about ¼ cup)

2 cups of shredded lettuce
4 pita breads (6-inch diameter)
1 tablespoon of snipped fresh mint or
1 teaspoon of dried mint leaves
½ cup of plain yogurt
1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped (about ¾ cup)
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon of sugar

Mix ground turkey, lemon juice, water, cumin, salt, pepper, oregano, onion and garlic. Shape into 4 thin patties. Cook the patties in canola or olive oil over medium heat, turning frequently until done, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Split each bread with a knife halfway around the edge. Separate to form a pocket. Place patty in each pocket. Top with lettuce. Mix snipped mint, sugar and yogurt. Stir in the cucumber. Spoon onto lettuce. Top with tomato.

Wild Rice Soup

1 medium carrot, coarsely shredded
2 medium stalks of celery, sliced
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (about ½ cup)
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon of pepper 1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of water 1½ cups of cooked wild rice
1 cup of half-and-half
1 can (16 ounces) of chicken broth
¼ cup of snipped parsley
1/3 cup of toasted slivered almonds

How to Cook Wild Rice: Wash 1 cup of wild rice by placing in wire strainer. Run cold water though it, lifting rice with fingers to clean thoroughly. In a 3-quart saucepan, heat 2½ cups of water, the rice and 1 teaspoon of salt, if desired, to boiling stirring once or twice. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer until tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cook the rice for about 30 minutes. Add ¼ cup of water, if the rice seems to be sticking to the saucepan. Remove rice from the saucepan and set aside.

Stir and cook the carrot, celery, green pepper and onion in butter in 3-quart saucepan until the celery is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in pepper, flour and salt. Stir in chicken broth, water and wild rice. Heat till boiling. Then reduce heat.

Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Stir in the almonds, parsley and half-and-half. Heat just until hot (do not boil).

About Wild Rice: Wild rice is the seed of grass that grows in the marshes. It has a distinctive, nutlike flavor and is dark green and brown in color. Because it can more expensive than other rice like white rice or brown rice, it is sometimes combined with white rice or brown rice to save on cost. One cup of uncooked wild rice equals to about three cups of cooked rice. Wild rice is considered a grain. Some other grains include bulgur, barley, kasha and cracked wheat.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to recipe-guides.com/ Recipes