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An interesting aspect of Scottish cuisine that many would not anticipate is its close ties to French cuisine. These ties only became established during the times of the Auld Alliance, namely with the chef entourage of Mary, Queen of Scots. With the chefs came their own cooking styles and ingredients. This was further emphasized by the French military men who came with the Auld Alliance.

I am lucky enough to live about 5 miles from the Culinary Institute of America. They have 4 restaurants and a bakery open to the public; The Escoffier Room(French cuisine), The American Bounty(American fare), St. Andrews Café( a casual mix) , Risorante Caterina de' Medici (Italian cuisine) and the Apple Pie Bakery.

It today’s world, it’s difficult to not be preoccupied or even a little obsessed with our health and body. There’s more pressure on people today than ever before to take care of themselves by eating right and exercising. For years, the food pyramid has told us the amount of servings we’re supposed to consume of the different food groups each day. In addition to labeling everyone’s favorite group as “use sparingly,” we’re supposed to ingest 2 to 4 servings of fruits, 3 to 5 servings of vegetables, 6 to11 servings of grains and more. This is fine if you’re living in the suburbs in 1950.

Andalusia’s Moorish influence, as seen in the architecture and the much enjoyed tiled patios in villas, where you can enjoy your meals started in the year 711. The Moors crossed the straight of Gibraltar from Northern Africa and brought with them their culture, customs, religion and foods. The Moors brought saffron to Spanish cuisine and we thank them for this. The Moors played an important role in shaping Spain from almost eight centuries but by the 11th century the influence started to wane as Christianity and Catholisms increased in domination.

I am sure that Food TV Canada will rerun this episode later but for now you can get the recipes on FoodTV.ca or Michael Smith web site. If you know the name of the recipes you are looking for, I suggest you visit Michael Smith web site. The FoodTV.ca search engine does not filter by chef or TV show.

Since tis the time that most people start rethinking their finances with upcoming taxes, you'll pretty soon see that cooking for yourself rather than eating out all the time is a key part of getting your budget under control. But what if you’re a self proclaimed "non-chef" or have a long -hour job? Then what? . Running a bed and breakfast, almost 100% of our meals are cooked from scratch, by me. This did not happen overnight, that’s for sure.

But i's also time to talk turkey or rather sweet potatoes These have always been one of my favorite side dishes for the Thanksgiving feast. The possibilities are endless.

These are delicious recipes, which happen to be gluten free, dairy free, wheat free, gfcf, and berry free. Most recipes are also free of the other top allergens (peanut, nut, egg, fish, shellfish, soy, corn), or can easily be adapted to be safe for those allergens.

Okay, so you watch Food TV and you see these chefs chopping onions like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. Well, it is quite easy once you learn the steps. Here is a quick photo how-to on chopping onions.

In 1910, Americans were eating 210 pounds of wheat flour every year. The commercial bread-slicing machine was invented in 1912 by Otto Rohwedder, and unveiled in 1928. The 1930s saw the United States pursue a diet enrichment program to begin fortifying breads with vitamins and minerals after their discovery in the late 1920s. In 1941, calcium was added to help prevent rickets, observed in many female recruits to the military. In 1956, it became the law to enrich all refined breads. By 1971 consumption of white bread had dropped to around 110 pounds per year, but by 1997 (possibly due in part to the low fat, high carbohydrate craze and the food pyramid) consumption was up to 150 pounds ? still 60 pounds shy of the fit, trim Americans at the turn of the century.

My three daughters were born and raised in the state of Connecticut and are now in High School and College.The lifelong friends my husband and I have made here. "Real" Italian cuisine is beyond words in the state, being raised in Indiana, I had no idea what I had been missing until a move here.

My colleague talked about new season of American Idol. He said that he downloaded from the web and watched it with his friend over the weekend. We don’t get much TV things from the US since we haven’t signed up for cable or satellite. I miss Travel Channel, Bravo, Food TV, and of course Oprah. Oh well…

I am lucky. I managed to buy Meyer lemons right before the price was going to hit the ceiling! In fact I think that it already happened in view of what I witnessed last Friday at the grocery store. Combien ? (How much?) “Did I read the price tag right?”, I thought when I walked by the basket full of delicious looking Meyer lemons. Of course, with the weather going bananas and killing the Californian lemon crops, I should not be surprised at all.

There is a lot of attention paid in the Atkins diet plan towards food and cooking. It’s true that your food choices on the diet are of utmost importance. But a lot of people make the mistake of ignoring exercise. The newly released Atkins food pyramid shows the importance of exercise. It shows an increase in food options with increased activity. Exercise is important on the Atkins diet, and important for everyone’s overall health.

This is the last cake from cake decorating class and we were learning basket weaving. The basket weaving is a easy and simple technique but time consuming. We were supposed to learn to tip other types of flowers before this session so we could fill in the “basket” with different flowers but schedule changed. Therefore it’s roses and sweet pea flowers again on the top.

Speaking of food, I have to say I am finally starting to learn to appreciate German food. Oddly enough there is a good smattering of German heritage in my mother’s family and at least according to my mom they ate typical German food as children. But my mother quite disliked it and set out to teach herself North American cooking when she moved out. She owned practically every Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from about 1960 to 1980 and had a collection of thousands of recipies, none of which contained cabbage or sausages. Dan’s family, on the other hand, has kept in touch with ther German cooking heritage and Dan has been slowly winning me over.

Well, I have gotten better and my latest tool to help me is something interesting. It’s called a pressure cooker and I know my Mom and a couple of the “older” generation have some experience with it around here. While it may have been used before, I was probably to young to care. Now I have one, and the concept of pressure cooking was intriguing and mind-boggling at the same time.

Today, I can’t function without at least two cups in the morning. Good news for me came with a release of Meth Coffee, which launched a hyper-caffeinated blend.

There are three basic steps in coffee preparation: 1) roasting the beans, 2) grinding the beans, and 3) brewing the coffee. I expect that I'll always depend on coffee stores to take care of the first step, although some intrepid coffee nuts even roast their beans at home.

Based on Italian recipes that are centuries old, Melt Café’s selection of gelato and sorbetto is decoratively displayed in glass cases and helps draw in customers again and again. Melt Café also offers coffee, smoothies, Italian sodas, and pastries — providing not just a treat for everyone, but also an opportunity for multiple revenue streams for store owners.