The Globe and Mail in 60 seconds: Pesto potatoes to burger hunts (DiceFood.com)

July 31, 2008 | By glarr00 In Secret Recipes |

The Globe and Mail in 60 seconds: Pesto potatoes to burger hunts

Recipe: Pesto for New Potatoes.
A restaurant review full of great food, sharing with friendly neighbors, and wacky outside entertainment at Two Chefs and a Table.
Some Jersey cow, cheesy goodness with L’Hercule de Charlevoix.
Anthony Bourdain they’re not! Canadian Olympians have their own chefs and caterers along for the ride, rather than diving into Chinese cuisine at the next Olympics.
It’s mighty convenient, but there are some things to think about when ordering wine by the glass.
Restaurant Review: The Bread Bar — not bread, but “very nearly the best Indian food I’ve encountered in Canada” according to reviewer Chris Nuttall-Smith.
A chat with Raymond Blanc.
Recipe: Watermelon panzanella.
The woes of finding a good burger.

Claim Jumper Cheese Ravioli Parmigiana The Claim Jumper line of frozen foods was extended recently to include this new Cheese Ravioli Parmigiana.

The company was gracious enough to send me a sample inside of a package of dry ice. No sooner did it arrive that I popped it into the microwave and heated that baby up. (It arrived at 11:30am, my time for lunch).

What probably helped score points with me is that the microwave instructions are pretty simple. Just poke the plastic cover with your fork, and nuke for about 6 minutes.

Not like some other brands where you have to lift the plastic half-way, then nuke for 3 minutes, then open up the package of sauce, pour, remove the plastic cover, and nuke for another 3 minutes, then turn half-way, nuke some more… That’s too much work.

I’m a big fan of frozen italian food. For some reason, I eat more frozen italian food than italian food made on the spot. So, I kinda have some credibility on this.

This stuff actually does taste good. And not because the company sent me a free sample for review either (well that always helps). But I did find the sauce to be quite delish, on the tangy side, and the raviolis to be quite cheesy. Junk foodies might want to take note that this stuff does come with a fair amount of cheese on top. But I’d advise throwing some extra grated mozzarella on there.

It also has some of those spiral curly-q pasta noodles in there too.

This box contains 17oz of saucy cheesy pasta goodness, and it wasn’t quite enough for quench my lunch appetite. I think taking it up to 25oz might be closer to what you’d get from visiting a Claim Jumper restaurant and ordering the same thing.

The box says this 17oz contains 2 servings. That just doesn’t seem right.

Junk foodies and 24-hour bloggers might do well keeping their freezers stocked with this new offering Claim Jumper. It’s easy to make, and goes down really well. It also tastes pretty good too.

You should be able to find these in most grocery stores.

Visit Claim Jumper Retail to learn more about their frozen foods…

http://www.claimjumperretail.com
Source: www.junkfoodblog.com

Hormones to blame for sugar-cravings, study finds

Filed under: Science, Sugar, Health & Medical

As someone with an insatiable sweet tooth, I was fascinated when I found out that hormones in our body affect how we perceive and crave sweetness. They do this according to our body’s nutritional needs. Since I have a pretty bad sweet tooth, does this mean my body needs more of it? Not exactly. A recent article in The Economist explains that scientists have done the first step; they’ve isolated hormones that affect our palate’s sensitivity to sugar.

The reason why this study is so important is because it may lead doctors and nutritionists to find a solution for ways of reducing the desire for sugar-heavy foods, and thus reduce calorie-intake. Yuzo Ninomiya, a neuroscientist at Kyushu University in Japan, researched the effects of leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite and metabolism. His results show that when leptin levels are low, we are more sensitive to sugar, which means something tastes sweeter than when our leptin levels are low. The level of the hormone increases over the day. This might explain why we tend to eat lots of sugar in the morning (’cause it tastes so good!).

So, it seems, if scientists can figure out how to raise leptin levels (or at least keep them steady) throughout the day, then all of us sweet-tooth types might have a chance at eating less cake!

In a world full of sweets, it’s not easy to avoid them. What are some ways you control your sugar intake?

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