Kraft wants you to Grate-It-Fresh

Stop what you're doing. Kraft is about to revolutionize the cheese industry with - are you ready? - parmesan cheese that comes in a ready-to-grate block form.

Shocking, I know.

The product, called Kraft Grate-It-Fresh Natural Parmesan Cheese, was actually first introduced last year at the 2006 Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Supermarket Convention, and was available at some east coast distributors as of last November. Now, much to the chagrin of those who like their parmesan cheese to be fresh and not prepackaged, it is now nationally available.

The "natural" cheese block is packed inside a disposable, plastic grater that utilizes a "clockwise twisting motion [to keep] the cheese in place" until ready to use. Kraft is promoting it as the perfect way "to bring the restaurant experience home... without the hassle of pulling out your grater." It is aimed at those who are looking to shave off those three seconds it takes to get out your own grater (a kitchen gadget that is so inexpensive and so handy that even dorm-dwelling college students own them) and use it with a fresh chunk of parmesan.

Kate, the Accidental Hedonist, noted the same thing when she reviewed this product just after its initial introduction and was not a fan. Others, however, liked its convenience and child-friendly usability, so there appears to be a market for the product. In the long run, a cheese grater (nondisposable) will run you less than $10. You can buy the Grate-It-Fresh in a 7oz. size for $4.99 and you'll have to pay for that disposable grater every time - and you'll still have to have a regular cheese grater at home for other uses.

Giving up supermarkets for Lent

Aside from the fact that few farmers markets carry kitchen stapes like flour, sugar and various spices, we don't need to shop at supermarkets to eat - or to eat well, for that matter. To illustrate this point, a British woman - Katie Austin, 23 - is giving up supermarkets for Lent, a Christian tradition that usually involves making a personal sacrifice during the 40 days before Easter. The reason for her decision to abstain from supermarket shopping is that she "believes in supporting small retailers and local producers," although she says that she is currently "dependent on the big supermarket chains" and can spend up to £100 per week in them.

Flour and baking powder aside, the harder task might be trying to find non-food kitchen staples like plastic wrap and parchment paper without heading to the supermarket, but Austin, who is an avid cook, feels that she is up to the challenge.

Do you think that you could give up supermarkets entirely, even if just for a few weeks, or would you miss the convenience and variety offered by megamarts over small, local retailers?

More health benefits attributed to cocoa

Flavanols are the chemicals in chocolate, as well as in wine and teas, that are responsible for many of the nutritional bonuses that it offers, including improved circulation and general heart health. These antioxidants have also been shown to increase the flow of blood to the brain in research presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Increased blood flow to the brain has been associated with improved cognitive performance in healthy people, as it carries more oxygen to the brain than when high-flavanol cocoa is not eaten. Since one of the symptoms of dementia is a decrease in the flow of blood to the brain, scientists think that cocoa that is high in flavanols could be used to decrease the impact of the disease.

Unfortunately, many commercial chocolates are low in flavanols, so you probably won't experience any of the benefits demonstrated by this study if you eat an extra Snickers bar. The reason for this is that flavanols add a bitter taste to chocolate, which many manufacturers - especially of sweet milk chocolates - prefer to eliminate from their final products. An exception to this is CocoaVia, which is specifically infused with flavanols. CocoaVia aside, the highest concentration of flavanols is found in cocoa, meaning that dark chocolate is a better choice for your health than milk chocolate, but a cup of hot cocoa is going to be your best bet.

Chew gum for your health!

The average American chews nearly 2 pounds of gum each year. Most like the flavors or the mouth-freshening feel of mint gums, but there is far more to gum-chewing than what your taste buds experience. Scientists are continually finding new ways that gum can benefit us, from the alertness brought on by the simple activity of chewing to the potentially medically beneficial ingredients that can be added by gum manufacturers to turn it into the "delivery vehicle of the future".

Medical benefits from gum? You better believe it! Studies show that gum chewing is can help fight the development of cavities by stimulating the production of acid-neutralizing saliva. Xylitol, a common gum ingredient, has been shown to have more specific cavity-fighting properties, as well. It can also, as noted above, help to fight bad breath.

Gums available in Europe and Asia have ingredients like green tea extract, calcium and other nutritional supplements that would typically be found in a vitamin pill. Some children's gums already contain Vitamin-C, for instance. In addition to replacing vitamin pills and supplements, some doctors are considering gum as an alternative to pill-forms of prescription medicines because they would make medicine so easy to "take." Of course, the overall effectiveness of such a plan has not yet been thoroughly tested, although it is known that many substances are very easily absorbed through the gums, but because gum "can contain as many as 70 ingredients" it is certainly possible for thousands of different formulations to be put together.

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Tyler's Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Any Time, Cookbook of the Day

I have heard Tyler Florence compared to Jamie Oliver on more than one occasion and although the comparisons have involved everything from technique to looks, the two chefs just happen to fill very similar roles on TV as good looking guys with a "good food, good friends" type of philosophy. Of course, Tyler and Jamie ultimately went in different directions with the TV careers (with Tyler ending up on How to Boil Water, but Tyler's Ultimate: Brilliant Simple Food to Make Any Time is a step back towards his roots. The dishes in the book are simple and straightforward, but are certainly not too far into "quick fix" territory. They rely on quality ingredients and bright flavors, with both more exotic and more casual fare to choose from, and all are intended to be the types of recipes that you can turn to again and again. Some of the recipes include The Ultimate Barbecued Chicken; Almond Semifreddo with Spiced Honey Dried Fruit; Chicken Paillard with Blue Cheese, Pancetta, and Figs; and Coconut Shrimp with Basmati Rice and Apricots.

Food Porn: Cannelé Colossus

A good cannelé is one of the things that foodies will spend years seeking. Typically, it is a small pastry with a custardy center and slightly crisp/chewy, intensely caramelized crust. There are special molds available to achieve the proper, traditional shape, but having the molds alone doesn't give you the ability to produce a good cannelé, and so there are few bakeries (especially in the US) that carry the French delicacies. Once you know how to make them, however, it seems like it is possible to do so in a good metal pan of any shape. Melissa, from The Traveler's Lunchbox, has clearly take a page from the Pimp That Snack book with her utterly amazing Cannelé Colossus, which she made in a full-sized bundt pan. Her spectacular pastry took three hours to bake, in addition to a fairly long prep time, but it was worth every second.

It's not often that you hear a food blogger, though they are quite generous with praise, describe a dish in just one word: fantastic.

Another Cadbury recall: chocolate sold without nut-allergy warnings

Just over six months ago, Cadbury went through a major recall of some of their best selling products in the UK because the bars tested positive for traces of salmonella. In Canada, at about this time last year, the company had to recall some Cadbury Easter eggs because "pieces of hard plastic" were found in them. Now, the company is faced with yet another recall. This time, thousands of Easter eggs and chocolates were shipped out with no nut-allergy warning on the packaging, which puts those with such allergies at serious risk.

Since many of the chocolates have already been distributed, Cadbury is not only recalling them from stores, but chose to run ads in the newspapers to try to draw consumers' attention to the potential risk. A Cadbury spokesman could not give an estimate as to the exact number of products involved in the recall, but he speculated that the number of candies - primarily Easter-themed Cadbury Creme Eggs - would be in the thousands not the millions. The real danger for the company in this third recall comes from decreasing consumer confidence in their brand and whether the love of Creme Eggs (properly labeled ones) is enough to make consumers stay with them.

No cheese during kids' tv ?

Kid's television shows may be cheesy, but if one group has their way, the ads will be cheese-free from now on. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has requested that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ban cheese and cheese-related advertising from airing during children's TV programs. The Committee feels that cheese, as it is very high in fat, is "is not an acceptable food to be promoted to kids during the obesity epidemic." This means that cheese in any form - grilled cheese, string cheese, Laughing Cow cheese snacks and pizza, to name just a few - would be off limits.

Believe it or not, there is precedence to back up their request. The ban on junk food advertising during children's TV programs in the UK, which has been in place for several months now, includes cheese.

Despite a high fat content, cheese should not be made a villain. Cheese is high in protein, vitamins, and minerals like calcium, phosphorus and zinc. Eating cheese can also help prevent tooth decay - and let's not forget that there are plenty of low and reduced fat cheeses out there, including cream cheese, cottage cheese and sliced sandwich cheeses. The FTC is under no obligation to honor the PCRM's request, so we will just have to wait and see how things turn out.

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Food Porn: Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale

As I said yesterday in my post about the ham and cheese pasta bake, there are few things more comforting than a baked pasta dish. This Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale is a nice illustration of this point, although it doesn't quite use pasta, substituting polenta for the more traditional noodles. It also shows that you don't need cheese to have satisfying comfort food because the dish, made by Susan from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, is completely dairy-free. The dish is made by first making the polenta, spreading it into a thin layer on a baking sheet and leaving it to set up in the fridge. Once it is firm, it can be easily sliced into noodle-like layers. The filling is made with garlic, kale, mushrooms, marinara sauce and "cheese" sauce, which uses ingredients like tofu, cashew butter and soy milk, as well as a number of spices and some corn starch, to add a creamy mouthfeel to the filling. If you're not vegan and don't want to go through the trouble, adding a bit of ricotta in place of the "cheese" sauce would make this a lovely vegetarian dinner.

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Valentines and kisses from Jacques Torres

Still looking for some chocolaty Valentine's Day gift ideas? Why not try some kisses? We're not talking about Hershey's Kisses, although they are offering plenty of Valentine's themed candies, including Chocolate Truffle-filled kisses and Cherry Cordial Creme kisses. We're talking about upmarket kisses from Jacques Torres.

This Valentine's Day, Jacques Torres is offering a lot of sweet treats for lovers. In his stores, the offerings will include Jolie Kiss Chocolate Boxes (pictured) which are hollow kisses in dark, milk and white chocolate filled with chocolate X's, O's, hearts and mini kisses. He will also have Champagne Kiss Truffles, which are made with Taittinger Rosé champagne and chocolate ganache, then topped with a pink lip graphic. For those doing their shopping online, the Champagne Kiss truffles can also be purchased here.

Other, non-kiss treats include heart-shaped boxes filled with romance bonbons and other lovely truffles, three types of body butters - Love Tonic, Caramel Body Butter, and Raspberry Body Paint - to share with your significant other, and a huge basket called the Sweetheart collection for those who can't narrow down their options.

Seduction and Spice: 130 Recipes for Romance, Cookbook of the Day

Seduction and Spice: 130 Recipes for Romance, like Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook is a book about aphrodisiacs and using the kitchen to inspire passion outside of it. Speaking of outsides, the first thing that you'll notice about this book is that it is bound in a velvety, ultra-suede material. And the photos inside make you want to run your eyes over them again and again, just as you might want to stroke the cover a time or two when no one is watching. The text is a little graphic, however, and while most romantic cookbooks rely on insinuations and suggestions, author Rudolf Sodamin comes right out and describes various vegetables in terms of the curves of women's bodies and makes note of any phallic references that he sees. While that might be a little off-putting to some (perhaps many) chefs who don't want to think of their carrots and avocados in such graphic terms, if you can make it through to the recipes, you should be alright. You can't go too far wrong with Grilled Fig Salad with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto; Banana Pistachio Strudel with Rum Raisin Sauce; and Peach Crepes with Honey Sauce among the other delightful options, right?

V-Day Happy Hour: The Gaijin

The Gaijin is a beautiful, sexy cocktail that incorporates raspberry and peach into a not-too-sweet, yet fruity, drink that is ideal for Valentine's Day. The word gaijin means foreigner in Japanese and can refer to the concept of something foreign in more than one situation. In the case of this cocktail, it refers to the presence of nigori sake, a cloudy unfiltered type of sake that gives what would otherwise be a straightforward flavored martini an unusual flavor and an exotic look.

It could be served before dinner, but we like our Valentine's day cocktails with dessert, so feel free to try this with something fruity, like a bowl of berries and whipped cream.

The recipe is after the jump.

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Epicurean Masters of the World II

Down payment on a house, or dinner for one? Oh the dilemmas we face. The Epicurean Masters of the World II was held in Thailand this past week, culminating in a grand finale so extravagant that not one, not two, but six three-star Michelin Chefs contributed their talents to the 10-course meal. The cost per person was 1,000,000 Thai Baht which, according to today's exchange rate, is close to $30,000 USD.

So what do you get for that kind of money? First of all, anonymity. It is a closely guarded secret who actually attended the gala, so don't ask me who went. You also get what they call "A culinary extravaganza never before seen in Thailand and rarely experienced anywhere in the world." Looking at the menu though, it's clear the adventure doesn't just begin and end with food. It is as much a celebration of fine wines and champagne as anything.

My favorite quote about the evening comes from this article. In response to the price tag attached to the event, one of the participating French chefs, Antoine Westermann, stated: "It's crazy," Westermann said. ''The fact that one meal could be this expensive," he shrugged. "After this, nothing can shock me."

I've included a copy of the menu after the jump so you can see what each chef prepared, as well as which wine accompanied each course.

Continue reading Epicurean Masters of the World II

Ham and Cheese Pasta Bake

On nights when you don't really feel like cooking, pasta is always an easy fallback. Now that people seem to be less terrified of having a few carbs in their diets, pasta is slowly returning to its position as a pantry staple. It only takes a few minutes to cook and you can make an infinite number of sauces, from 5-minute light tomato sauces to rich, slow-cooked ones. If you have an extra few minutes in your evening, it doesn't take too much more work to turn a regular bowl of pasta into a comforting baked pasta dish, with an oozy topping of cheese than gets browned and ever so slightly crusty on top. Just about any baked pasta dish is a welcome meal on a cold winter day.

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Coca-Cola plans to buy Fuze Beverages

I'm rarely tempted by what the local convenience store has to offer in the way of soft drinks and fad juices, but during a late night pit-stop I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I had just read about Coca-Cola's plans to buy Fuze Beverages, and though I had seen the drinks before, I had never tried one. Being a coconut fanatic, I was pretty thrilled to see one called Banana Colada. I really expected it to be a mess of artificial, chemical-like flavors, but was truly surprised to find out it was delicious.

According to the label there is only 5% real juice (no big surprise there) but they do boast a high content of calcium and vitamins. The best part of course is that the drink is fat free, and an 8oz serving only has 90 calories. If you know of another beverage that tastes like a pina colada with those stats, let me know.

The Banana Colada belongs to their "Refresh" line of drinks, which also comes in Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Guava, and Peach Mango flavors. In addition, they sell three other lines of drinks. In case you're not familiar with them, they include:

Vitalize - more like a sports drink, high in electrolytes and antioxidants
Slenderize - 2 grams of carbs, approx. 10 calories per 8 oz serving
Tea - a selection of green, white, and oolong chilled teas

Details on the acquisition of Fuze haven't yet been released, but they do state that Fuze would operate as a stand-alone entity of Coca-Cola Co. if the deal does go through as planned.

Whole Foods in Maine to stock live lobsters

More than six months ago, Whole Foods decided to ban the sale of live lobsters and soft shelled crabs in their stores because they determined that the practice was inhumane. The sea creatures, in Whole Foods' study, were not "treated with respect and compassion" on their journey from sea to market and until that issue could be resolved, no lobsters were to be put into the sale tanks in the fish department.

Since the ban was enacted, the natural foods store has not found any companies that meet its standards for the human treatment of lobsters. Until now, that is. Whole Foods is opening their first market in Maine next week and the Portland store will be stocking live lobsters. They have contracted with the Little Bay Lobster Co., a New Hampshire-based company, which will keep lobsters in private compartments for transport after catching them to reduce their stress.

Stocking live lobsters doesn't mean that they will be selling live lobsters, though. In the stores, an employee will use a "110-volt shock [to kill them and] to spare them the agony of being boiled alive in a pot of water."

Maine's lobster fishermen aren't thrilled with this plan. First, they are offended that a company that so heavily promotes its support for local farmers and fishermen would choose an out-of-state company when there are so many local ones to choose from. Second, the fishermen say that "they tell us we're doing everything wrong, obviously it doesn't sit very well with us," noting that using "a lobster electric chair" to kill the lobster sounds like a gimmick that won't impress consumers. Especially not in a state that loves its lobsters.