Chocolate, Food of the Gods (and you too)

by Olivia Maria Braida - As a botanical artist, traveler and lover of the taste of chocolate, my talent and taste buds come together when I work on a series of paintings that illustrate the chocolate tree, its flower and especially its pod (the part that produces the bean that results in chocolate). I respond to the complexity of the plant, its vibrant colors and challenging textural values. In terms of eating chocolate, my...

Going Kosher

By Herb Gardener - According to the Mintel market research company, Americans spent $12.8 billion on kosher food in 2008, up 64% since 2003. The majority of shoppers surveyed claimed perceptions of kosher-certified food as offering safety, health and quality as justification for their purchase, not religious observance. Kosher food was sold at the Super Bowl last year, emblematic of how mainstream kosher has become. But what...

Vegetarian’s Best Food Holiday

By Marsha Fottler - Surprise, the most food-friendly holiday of the year for vegetarians is Thanksgiving. Think about it; if you ignore the big bird on the table everything else there is a sumptuous melange of fruit and vegetables from mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing (sometimes two kinds), bean, corn, broccoli casseroles, cranberry sauce, pumpkin or squash soup, roasted chestnuts, homemade biscuits, you name it, it’s a huge...

WELL BEING: The Skinny on Cocktail Calories

By Chef Judi Gallagher. Maybe it’s TVs Mad Men or the fact that vodka and gin makers are turning out fabulous fruit-infused liquor, but cocktail hour is back and you don’t have to be left out just because you’re dieting. And you don’t have to run four miles to burn off a mixed drink or two if you stock the bar with new, lighter sipping mixes that are minus the sugar (but not the flavor) of traditional happy hour. It...

WELLBEING: Breaking The Diet Cycle

By Anna Dantoni. Dr. Michelle May, who is an established and popular author, public speaker, teacher of wellness workshops and a formerly overweight person, is brilliantly positioned as the right authority to pen the book Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat and so she has. May is clear at the outset that is not a diet book, it’s a strategy on how to confront and then vanquish a familiar cycle of eating, repenting, and...

WELL BEING: Our Best-Ever Diet Tips

By Marsha Fottler, Editor. Several years ago while doing an interview with a famous fashion designer who is petite, thin, always traveling and thus a potential victim to bad food, I asked about her dieting secret. She surprised me by saying, “Eat only what is delicious.” “If it’s not the best potato chip in the world or the most flavorful piece of steak or the most wonderful granola bar I simply don’t bother with...