Welcome to your Morning Cuppa for February 1st, 2008

Today is National National Baked Alaska Day

Who would have thought that there would be a day attributed to a dish that lies to you with its very name.  Go figure.
Today in Food History:
(sorry for the lack of quips today, folks.  I’m still feeling a bit under the weather, so it’s just the news, for News sake today.)

1939 State Assemblyman Seeder introduced a bill to the Maine Legislature to make it illegal to use tomatoes in clam chowder.

1953 James Lewis Kraft died. Founder of Kraft Co. a wholesale cheese distributor and producer. In 1916 he patented pasteurized process cheese, a low cost cheese that would not spoil. Not a great hit with the public, but the U.S. army purchased over 6 million tins of it during WW I. During the depression, it became popular because of its low cost.

1960 Four ‘colored’ students from the Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina sat down at the lunch counter in Woolworth’s and ordered coffee. They were refused service, but made history.

1982 Wolfgang Puck and his wife & partner, Barbara Lazaroff, opened their restaurant ‘Spago’ in Los Angeles

1982 A cow in Cuba, named Ubre Blanca, set a world record when it produced 28 gallons of milk in one day, which is about 4 times an average cow’s daily output. Ubre Blanca later set the record for total output during a 305 day lactation period of 6,405 gallons.

Today in food history information is gathered by FoodReference.com . Check out their food trivia quizzes and more!

(Commentary following the facts is my own doing…  don’t blame FoodReference!)

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Ingredients: 3 Ozs cream cheese softened 1/2 Cup unsweetened shredded Coconut 1-2 Tablespoons of Heavy Cream 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract 4-5 Packets of Splenda 12 Macadamia nuts For chocolate coating 2-Low Carb Dark Chocolate bars 1-Tablespoon of Heavy Cream How to Prepare: Using tin foil, make a little tray approx the size of 3 x 6 and give it a light coating of [...]

In recent times, Australia has become a culinary tourism destination par excellence. It has a growing stable of celebrity chefs, dedicated foodies and passionate producers along with committed marketers and promoters of the food industry. From this position Australian celebrity chefs, Vic Cherikoff and I have hosted events, food festivals, corporate events, trade shows, cooking classes, celebrity chef appearances and Australian Government functions right around the world in hotels, resorts, restaurants and cruise ships.

Australia is known for its wines, olive oil, seafood, lamb, beef, yabbies and cheeses – clean and green produce of all sorts. Yet there is a secret even Australians themselves are only just discovering: We have the beginnings of an authentic Australian cuisine, one based on the rare, unique and distinctive ingredients indigenous to our country and now being worked into a national fusion food style and even tailored with regional specialties.

This emerging cuisine is modern in style and sophisticated in both, the level of food service and also the nature of the produce. The challenge since the industry was started back in the early 1980s by Vic Cherikoff with his commercialisation of a selection of wild species, has been to re-develop the raw produce into chef-friendly seasonings, mixes, sauces, syrups, preserves, extracts, juices and more. However, it remains the domain of celebrity chefs to disseminate the knowledge of to what the ingredients most compare, what peculiarities they have in use and the wide range of possible applications they have.

Whatever type of event you are planning we are available to introduce the modern trend of the newest foods from the oldest living culture on the planet.

• Food Festivals
• Hotel Food Promotions
• Trade show promotions
• Gala Dinners
• Corporate Events
• Guest Chefs
• Austrade Food Events
• Product Launch

If you recognise the benefits and value which we can bring to your event, then please contact us for more information to assist you in achieving your planned outcomes for your event.

Benjamin Christie's Australian Food, BBQ Recipes and Australian Recipes feature bush tucker ingredients like lemon myrtle and wattleseed. Check out recipes like shrimp on the barbie, anzac biscuits, lamingtons and banana bread. 

Food Service professionals will be interested in his chef blog as well as articles on menu planning, food photography, cooking kangaroo, menu engineering and food costing.

Pancake Day 2008 is approaching fast.

Be sure to get your pancake recipes ready ahead of time. It gets quite busy around here on Pancake Day.

We will host the Carnival of the Recipes with a theme of Pancake Recipes here beginning on February 3, 2008.

Submit your favorite pancake recipes for inclusion in the Pancake Recipes Carnival of the Recipes by sending them to recipe.carnival (at) gmail.com prior to noon CST on Saturday February 2, 2008.

If you have no place to post your pancake recipe submission, they can be submitted as a comment to be added to the Pancake Recipes Blog or sent to the e-mail address below along with permission to post them to the Pancake Recipes Blog and to World Famous Recipes.

You can also submit using this form:

Carnival of the Recipes Submission Form


Pancake Day 2008

The Pancake Day 2007 recipes Carnival was here:

and another previous Pancake Recipe Themed Carnival of the Recipes was held in May at

Pancake Recipes

Below are a couple of articles published recently about the Pancake Day Pancake Recipes Carnival of the Recipes.

From East Valley Living - Your Guide to Phoenix Arizona
Pancake Recipes Blog Celebrates Pancake Day


Scottsdale Arizona Based Pancake Recipes Blog Celebrates Pancake Day

Pancake Day is coming soon. People from around the world celebrate and eat pancakes on Pancake Day. Many restaurant chains even declare the day to be "International Pancake Day" and give free pancakes to patrons on that day. An International Pancake Day Race has been held between Liberal Kansas and Olney, Buckinghamshire, UK since 1950.

The official Pancake Day is always 41 days prior to Easter Sunday. The origin of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day has to do with using up milk and eggs that would otherwise spoil because these items were not eaten during Lent. Pancake day falls on February 5th, 2008 this year but one restaurant chain has decided to move their "National Pancake Day" and their free pancakes offer to February 12 in order to not have to compete with the Super Tuesday primary process.Pancakes for Pancake Day encourages community to submit favorite Pancake Recipes.

In celebration of the real Pancake Day, Carnival of the Recipes is featuring a Pancake Recipe theme and will be presented at the Scottsdale Arizona based Pancake Recipes Blog and at World Famous Recipes Pancake Recipe page. The Pancakes Carnival of the Recipes will go live on Sunday February 3, 2008 and will be syndicated across the entire Carnival of the Recipes network as well as by many other food, cooking and recipes related sites. The RSS Feed for syndicating the Pancake Recipes Blog is available at http://feeds.feedburner.com/PancakeRecipes

Submit your favorite pancake recipes for inclusion in the Pancake Recipes Carnival of the Recipes by sending them to recipe.carnival (at) gmail.com prior to noon CST on Saturday February 2, 2008. If you have no place to post your pancake recipe submission, they can be submitted as a comment to be added to the Pancake Recipes Blog or sent to the e-mail address above along with permission to post them to the Pancake Recipes Blog.

From AZCentral.com - The Arizona Republic

Pancake Recipes for Pancake Day

Pancakes for Pancake Day

Submit your favorite Pancake Recipe

Scottsdale Arizona Based Pancake Recipes Blog Celebrates the Real Pancake Day.

Pancake Day is coming soon. Lots of people around the world eat pancakes on Pancake Day and Scottsdale Arizona is no exception. Some restaurant chains even declare the day to be "International Pancake Day" and give free pancakes to patrons on that day. An International Pancake Day Race with pancake flipping housewives racing for the best time has been held between Liberal Kansas and Olney, Buckinghamshire, UK since 1950.

The official Pancake Day is always 41 days prior to Easter Sunday. The origin of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day has to do with using up milk and eggs that would otherwise spoil because these items were not eaten during Lent. The Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day falls on February 5th, 2008 this year. One US based restaurant chain has decided to move their "National Pancake Day" and their free pancakes offer to February 12 in order to not have to compete with the Super Tuesday primary process.

In celebration of the real Pancake Dayon February 5, 2008, the Carnival of the Recipes is going to have a Pancake Recipe theme and will be presented at the Scottsdale Arizona based Pancake Recipe Blog and at the World Famous Recipes Pancake Recipes page. The Pancakes Carnival of the Recipes will go live on Sunday February 3, 2008 and will be syndicated across the entire Carnival of the Recipes network as well as by many other food, cooking and recipes related sites. The RSS Feed for syndicating the Pancake Recipes Blog is available at Pancake Recipes and the RSS Feed for syndicating the World Famous Recipes Food and Cooking Weblog is available at Famous Recipes

Tempura Batter: 1/2 c flour 1/2 c water 1/4 c cornstarch 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 2 tsp dark soy sauce 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda Combine with a whisk and coat vegetables then deep fry in hot oil when golden brown remove and drain on paper towel  serve hot. Vegetable that can be used for frying: sweet potato slices celery sticks carrot sticks zucchini slices mushrooms parsnip slices green [...]

CHOCOLATE CHIP PANCAKES

Dry mix extra can be stored in a sealed jar for up to 6 months:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons and 3/4 teaspoon white sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoons salt

Mix the dry mix together.

1-1/3 Cups Dry Mix
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, combine milk, egg, and vegetable oil. Whisk in 1-1/3 cups
prepared Dry Pancake Mix until moistened but still lumpy. Heat a lightly
oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter
onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Corn Chowder Recipe
Pancake Recipes

SALSA CHICKEN (crockpot)

Put 8 chicken thighs in crockpot with one 8oz. jar of salsa. Cook about 8 hours. Add no water !! Remove the meat from bones and return to broth. Serve in warm flour tortillas with cheese, sour cream, etc. This is also good served on rice.

Chicken and Rice Recipes
Pancake Recipes

I wrote a homemade powerbar recipe for my last book, and it's one of those recipes I never get tired of. Wayne and I spent a few days in Big Sur last week so I made a batch with a few twists. The Big Sur version is packed with lots of toasted nuts and coconut. The crisped rice is flecked with a sizable dose of ground espresso beans. It has been a while since I've shared any video, so I thought I'd share some of the footage from our trip, along with a show-and-tell of how the powerbars come together. The written recipe instructions are still down below.

Video: slightly larger version

Let me know if you have ideas for other twists on this recipe - I was thinking toasted walnuts, cocoa powder (to turn them chocolate flavored), and even more espresso than I used in this version. Sam did a beautiful version here (with a lovely photo).

Continue reading Video: Big Sur Power Bars...

LC reader Cindi Kruth wrote: "These cupcakes are simple and, as the recipe says, they are indeed bouncy and chocolaty.... The icing, with its rich caramel and bourbon flavors, makes these innocent-looking little cakes deceptively lush and satisfying."