Shawna Coronado's Blog, page 17

Mint Muddle Southside Cocktail

Muddling herbs is truly the secret for adding freshness to your cooking or cocktails. A muddler is a tool you use in bartending to smush herbs and other ingredients together. I’ve found it perfect for releasing scent and taste in all cooking. I have several muddlers, but if you do not have a muddler, just use the flat of a spoon to do your smashing.

How to Muddle Herbs

It’s easy – throw some herbs in a container
Push down on the herbs with a muddler or back of a spoon, while simultaneously twisting
Use the herbs immediately while freshly muddled in order to capture the most flavor

Check out the video above on a watchable version of muddling and mixing – or click this LINK if you are receiving this blog post via email. (Photo credit of Charles and Crafthouse bottle by Crafthouse® Cocktails.)

Want a quick, easy solution for some yummy holiday season cocktails? Try the Crafthouse® Cocktails Southside mix created by Charles Joly as seen in the video (and right) – it’s delicious with a mint muddle and tastes like you worked a whole lot more than you did to entertain your friends with some fancy-pants cocktails. Charles is a professional bartender and champion mixologist with a closet full of awards and a brilliant mind for putting together fresh ingredients.

His combination of citrus, gin, and mint is perfect for the Southside cocktail, which is rumored to have originated on the South Side of Chicago. According to legend, Al Capone ran a gin that was not as smooth as others and needed to be sweetened in order to taste better and the Southside was born. Add even more of the fresh herb for a fantastically minty mint muddle.

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Baked Salmon Recipe for Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is filled with the traditional, right? Mostly that’s a good thing, but some years it can get boring – turkey, sometimes ham, always the same. Why not change it up and try a different dish for Turkey Thursday and give your palate a change? During a recent visit I had to the Cellar Cat restaurant in the Wine Country of Albany, Oregon, the Cellar Cat team a dish which is healthy, low fat, with no grains and no dairy (top photo). Salmon is filled with healthy Omega fats and tastes delicious. I was inspired by their beautiful food to use salmon in more meals.

Baked Salmon Recipe   Print This is a delicious baked salmon recipe with honey and fresh ingredients. Author: Shawna Coronado at www.shawnacoronado.com Recipe type: Dinner Cuisine: Fish Serves: 6 Ingredients 6 - 6 oz Salmon filets 4 Tablespoons olive oil 4 Garlic cloves, crushed 4 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 2 Tablespoons honey 2 Tablespoons lime juice Salt and Pepper Instructions Prepare marinade by combining olive oil, garlic, basil, honey, lime juice, and salt and pepper. Place salmon fillets in a baking dish and pour the marinade over the fish. Marinate for several hours in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Drizzle olive oil over baking sheet, placing salmon on top of oil. Add a bit of the marinade. Cover baking sheet with foil. Place in oven. Immediately reduce heat to 325 degrees F. Bake until the middle part is done to a temperature of approximately 110 to 145 degrees when tested with a meat thermometer. Check at 15 minutes, then every 5 minutes thereafter until done. Pull salmon out of oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. 3.4.3177

Below is a salmon nutritional chart from Dr. Josh Axe. It shows you how much amazing nutrition is in every bite of this yummy fish. Because this food is very high in Omega-3’s, it makes it particularly effective in fighting disease. Changing up Thanksgiving dinner – which is sometimes an unhealthy experience due to all the over-eating – might be just what the fall doctor ordered because it represents a healthier choice than ham or beef. Turkey is lower in fat, but if you are tired of the same old-same old salmon might represent a positive change.

Next time you travel to Albany, Oregon, be sure to check out Cellar Cat, which is a delightful little cat-themed restaurant based on a vineyard’s very important security guard – the cat (below). Surrounded by beautiful brick walls, cat themed art, and Cellar Rats (wine makers), the venue is warm and filled with delicious. Get to Cellar Cat soon to check out their fanciful cocktails, tasty wine, and baked salmon yumminess.

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Holiday Gift Idea Homemade Hot Sauce Kit

There is something wonderful about making a gift for our friends and loved ones. About taking the time to do a nurturing act with your hands that connects your hands to the hearts of others. One of my goals this year has been to make a memorable gift for the holiday that might do just that. I am not much of a seamstress or craft maker, but I love food, so I narrowed it down to a homemade food gift. Gardeners Supply has a great gift pre-made kit idea – a Gardener’s Pantry™ Homemade Hot Sauce Kit – I wanted to try hot sauce making and it turned out to be easy to put together (see finished sauce at top).

First rule of thumb about working with peppers is to cover your hands with gloves to protect your skin from the pepper oils. My advice – DO NOT LEAN OVER THE HOT PEPPER SAUCE PAN WHILE IT IS COOKING (I learned that lesson the hard way ::laughing::). Open up the Gardener’s Pantry™ Homemade Hot Sauce Kit and read the instructions thoroughly. Included in the kit are guajillo, chipotle, and arbol peppers as well as other spices, vinegar, gloves, and more (above). You need to sterilize the glass bottles, pick the stems off the peppers, grind the peppers up in your blender and start adding your favorite ingredients. Special thanks to the Homer Laughlin China Co. for providing the delightful white Fiestaware dishes I used in this post.

One of the things I like about this kit is that while the hot sauce mix has ingredient suggestions, there are no specific ingredient ratios. Beyond the included ingredients, you get to add your own spices and flavorings. It is recommended that you add 20-30% of an acid like vinegar or lemon in order to enhance the flavor and preserve the sauce. Suggested on the instruction sheet is to add fresh or canned tomatoes and other vegetables. I was out of tomato sauce, but I did have enchilada sauce along with some extra garlic and salt (below). Heat it over the stove and fill your bottles with the special funnel included, then age for two weeks. From start to finish it took me less than an hour to make and bottle up the ingredients. This made a spicy enchilada hot sauce that is pretty darned delicious and a great gift filled with love for my friends and family.

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Connect with Nature for Wellness

Modern studies reveal that nature heals through stress reduction. On many of my #TakeaDayNow adventures I have been exploring my connection to nature – studying how it makes me feel and if it reduces my osteoarthritis pain in a measurable way. One such adventure happened at Biltmore Estate where I decided to do a mountainside Off Road Segway Tour in order to see nature from a new angle.

With visions of my eminent death from falling off the side of a mountain, I took a segway class (see below), then jumped into the fun of roaming over hill and dale with the guide. My cohorts were very conservative and moving rather cautiously. Not me — I zoomed next to the guide, swerving and racing up and down mountains! Wind whipped over my face, the views of mountain and prairie were beautiful, and it was super fun. Obviously, there are no mountainside photos in this blog post because I was holding on for dear life at the time, but see the shots of the French Broad River and Lagoon below when we stopped for a break. It was invigorating and a breath of amazing fresh air to be outside in nature in a unique way. Adventures in nature are important.

How Exposure to Nature Helps Us –

Reduces blood pressure
Increases cognitive thinking
Reduces stress and anxiety levels
Depression relief
Improved pain tolerance

Walking in nature is probably the preferred method for connecting for wellness, however gardening and other outdoor activities like the segway tour are great ways to feel better. Try touching nature every day to see how it effects your pain levels and overall health.

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Stocking Stuffers for the Gardener

One of the things I do throughout the year is gradually collect my stocking stuffers for holiday gift giving. With the holidays quickly approaching you need these stocking stuffers for the gardener in your life – BioMarker Plant Markers. Brought to you from the CobraHead people, they are eco-friendly due to their composition of recycled plastics and corn cob fiber and very easy to use – all you have to do is put them in the ground when you plant.

Use the plant markers as surveying stakes for laying out seed and plant spacing or for their obvious use of identifying plants in the garden. There are three colors available: light stone, terracotta, or dark green. I used the plant markers all over the test garden this season, but especially loved them in my elevated bed gardens. Each shipment of markers includes 1.625″ x 2.5″ weatherproof labels. I wrote on them with a grease pencil (included), but you can also print the markers out on a laser printer. Peel them off and they last all season – mine did not smear or come off the entire season. I pulled my markers out a few weeks ago and will reuse them again next season. Searching for stocking stuffers for the gardener? BioMarkers are a cool product that fits easily in a stocking or can be shipped across the country.

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Paleo Cauliflower Egg Cup Breakfast Recipe

Cauliflower Egg Cup Breakfast Recipe   Print Prep time 10 mins Cook time 30 mins Total time 40 mins   Delicious recipe featuring califlower and eggs for breakfast. Author: Shawna Coronado at www.shawnacoronado.com Cuisine: Breakfast Serves: 6 to 8 portions Ingredients 3 to 4 cups finely chopped cooked cauliflower 6 to 9 large eggs Olive oil 2 Tablespoons Herbs de Provence (or your favorite French herbs finely chopped) Salt Instructions Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, and grease muffin tins of pan. Prepare the cauliflower by steaming until soft Place even portions of the pre-cooked cauliflower in cups or muffin tins, being sure to grease tins first Drizzle olive oil over cauliflower Bake for 20 minutes Remove from oven, and crack an egg gently over each cup Top each cup with a pinch of herbs and salt Bake another 6-12 minutes or until cooked to your favored doneness Let cool and serve. 3.4.3177

Cauliflower is my favorite vegetable. I like it raw and cooked a plethora of ways. One of my absolute favorites is too roll it into a breakfast cup with an egg to make a delightfully warming winter breakfast. While visiting California this year I discovered an amazing dish at Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island near San Diego (bottom). The Sheerwater breakfast buffet is world famous and I fell in love with the little Cauliflower Egg Cups they served while I was there. Yummy and superbly easy to prepare – I prefer the egg lightly done so that the yolk is still runny and functions as a bit of a sauce.

Below is the recipe – make half of it the night before when you have holiday guests then pop the cups in the oven with eggs in the morning and serve as a special treat this season. Anti-inflammatory, no dairy, no grain, no sugar, and ALL GOOD!

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Benefits of Plant Based Food

When I was first diagnosed with osteoarthritis last season I changed my eating habits to be anti-inflammatory in nature – high protein, high vegetable content, no grain, no dairy, low sugar, and a strong does of healthy fats. I eat eggs, fish, chicken, and a bit of pork and I try to go meatless – all plant based food – on my lunches 3 to 4 times per week. Within a few days of being on the diet my pain level eased by half and now that I have been on the diet for more than a year, my pain levels are down by 75 to 80%. I feel good and you can feel good too.

No Grain Protein List

Eating no grains in my diet means no soy, so tofu and other items that are soy-based will not work for me as a protein solution. Instead, I try to eat vegetables and plant based food that has a higher protein content and many of these things you can grow in your own garden. Below is a list –

beans
peas
lentils
nuts
seeds
spinach
kale
artichokes
asparagus

Traveling as much as I do means I often have to bring my own food along for the journey because restaurants commonly use corn and soy oil in much of their cooking, but on a recent trip to Los Angeles I ate at Real Food Daily , a restaurant that features plant-based organic foods and I didn’t have to bring a thing. I had a sit-down with the inspirational proprietor of the restaurant, Ann Gentry (above). As a television chef and author of three cookbooks including The Real Food Daily Cookbook, Ann has exceptional insight into eating a plant-based diet.

Benefits of a Plant Based Diet

According to Ann’s cookbook, “Western medicine now stresses eating a more plant-based diet to get the essential vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that are found abundantly–and in some cases exclusively–in the plant kingdom that surrounds us.” Which means, of course, that a strong benefit to eating a plant-based diet is that you get more cancer, heart disease, and disease fighting components from fresh food, not just by taking vitamin pills as a nutritional supplement. Beyond the basic nutritional benefits, it makes sense to eat more plant-based food and less meat for other health reasons such as high blood pressure control, preventing diabetes, and weight loss.

While I was at the Los Angeles restaurant, the Culinary Director, Chef Tara Punzone, prepared some amazing meat-free, dairy-free, grain-free, sugar-free dishes for me; Jack Fruit Street Tacos with kale wraps (top), Red Head Juice [which is beet, carrot, celery and apple] (below), and Rainbow Bowl Salad (bottom). Each bite was more delicious than the one before. When people learn of my diet and ask me, “What DO you eat anyways?” I want to tell them ALL THE FOODS that Ann and Tara cook. Ann has three amazing cookbooks out if you would like to cook some of this deliciousness for yourself. Go to this LINK to find them.

Being mindful of your health means being mindful of what you consume. Eating more plant-based meals means you are helping the environment, helping animals, and also helping yourself to wellness.

*Special thanks to the Visit California team that helped me with a rental car for my #takeadaynow trip so that I was able to come visit Ann Gentry and the Real Food Daily California team. #landscaping #gardening #discoverla #visitcalifornia

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How To Plant a Bulb with a Drill

Right now across the United States it is the season to plant bulbs and I have a solution to make it easier to do if you have a health condition that might prevent you from digging as heavily such as carpal tunnel syndrome or arthritis – drill a hole for your bulbs! The Bulb Bopper® found at Gardeners.com is a bulb auguring attachment for a corded variable speed drill, 3.0 amp or larger for heavy soil or a cordless variable speed drill, 24 amp or larger for lighter soil (see above). Below is a chart from Longfield Gardens for your reference that let’s you know how deeply you need to plant bulbs. As a general reference, plant bulbs 2 to 2½ times deeper than the width of the specific bulb.

When planting bulbs the last several seasons I have ended up with very sore wrists and back. Using the Bulb Bopper® was very easy – simply attach the tool onto a drill, then drill straight down into the ground, pull out the soil, knock it out with the dirt-knockout-stick, toss in a bulb, cover it back up. Do that about 300 times for all those daffodils and tulips. What I discovered is that this drill method makes my hands and wrists far less strained — it really works to lessen the pain levels on my back as well.

Using the Bulb Bopper® works great for medium to small bulbs, but makes for a very tight squeeze for large bulbs like the allium. It does, however, give you an advantage even with the larger bulbs because it “starts the hole” (much like you pre-drill holes in studs to start the hole for a larger screw). A couple times I had to double-drill — meaning I had to drill once, pull all the soil out, then drill again a little deeper to get to the correct depth. Soil that is very heavy is harder to drill through, so having not-too-wet and not-too-dry conditions can make it a simpler task. Overall I rate the Bulb Bopper® as a smart tool for planting bulbs and see it as an advantage for most gardeners.

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Halloween Broken Pot Container Fairy Garden

This year I met a wonderful woman at the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago; Denise English from Eco Personal Garden. She is a new garden product vendor who loved the broken pot container fairy garden trend but was challenged trying to create a broken pot container garden design herself. It can be really difficult because the pots rarely break just where you would like them to. Denise had an idea for the garden world – make it easier to build an adorable broken pot container garden.  Using a molding process, Denise and her team create plastic, food-safe, broken pot garden containers that are 20″ tall and come in three different colors. Since creating them she’s received a lot of interest and has started to build her business and social media following (here’s a link to the new Eco Personal Garden Pinterest page).

How to Create a Halloween Broken Pot Container Garden

Drainage holes are in the containers, however, if you want a few extra drainage holes you will need to drill them yourself with a drill and drill-bit
Place potting soil in the bottom of each pocket within the garden container
Add plants, putting the tall plants in back and the groundcovers in front. I used plants which will do well through the colder fall season — Grasses; Ornamental edibles – Dinosaur Kale and Swiss Chard; Groundcovers – Brass Buttons ‘Platt’s Black’, Creeping Jenny, Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’, and Sedum.
Focal point works best in the front bottom pocket – I wanted trick-or-treaters to be the focus with what looked like a little path moving up to the witches house
Water in well and wait for the adorable front door visitors to fall in love with the Halloween container garden.

One of my favorite resources for fairy supplies is Planters Palette in Winfield, Illinois. Feel free to reach out to them via their website and order up some adorable fairy accessories like these ghosts, goblins, and Halloween houses or go in person if you live in the Chicago area. Special thanks to the team at Planters Palette for allowing me to create this artistic Halloween container garden with their accessories. Halloween broken pot container gardens are a creative way to do gardening up right this fall and Denise is so passionate about her new product line. I love the creative containers and hope you will check them out at Denise’s new online store – LINK HERE.

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No Dairy No Grain Travel Breakfast Tips

I wake up early, pull open the curtains, and face a captivating image; a mountain view straight out of a fairy-tale. Smoky Mountain fog blankets the mountains in Asheville, North Carolina and I can see for miles from my room at The Inn on Biltmore Estate (below). Breakfast is always the first thing on my mind in the morning and has become increasingly difficult to eat on the road in anti-inflammatory form. How do you consume a dairy-free, grain-free, sugar-free breakfast when the only choices available to you on most hotel buffets are cereal, toast, and pastries? I make my way down to The Dining Room in anticipation of the buffet and I am pleasantly surprised by the choices – the buffet alone has fixins for salmon and bagels. By taking off the bagel I make a breakfast of salmon, shredded hard boiled eggs, onions, capers, and tomatoes (above) which is high in protein, low in fat, and all delicious.

When considering breakfast, whether at home or while traveling, I think we Americans have to get out of the mindset that cereals and dairy are the only choices for breakfast. Muffins, pastries, or waffles with syrup is not a healthy breakfast – it’s pretty much the same sugar level as eating slice of cake. Why not look at a menu or a buffet table when you are out and about having breakfast and reconsider the possibilities. Below is a quick list of items I have found at hotels on both menus and buffets all around the world which are no dairy and no grain and of course, still taste yummy and fill the tummy.

No Dairy – No Grain Things to Eat at a Hotel Breakfast

Hard boiled, soft-boiled, fried, and scrambled eggs
Omelets with no cheese
Salmon or tuna (ask the waitress for items from the lunch menu if necessary)
Sausage and bacon
Apples, berries, and fresh fruit
Dried fruit and nuts
Tomatoes, onions, vegetables, and herbs

Next time you are considering a travel breakfast, consider ALL the possibilities with what you see on the menu or on a buffet table. Do not be afraid to ask waitstaff for something else they can access easily from the lunch or dinner menu. When I eat a no grain, no dairy diet and walk daily I have reduced my pain levels from my osteoarthritis down by more than 80%. Sticking with my diet while I travel on my speaking tours has kept me feeling energetic and able to do far more than I could crippled with pain. Assembling a breakfast that supports my diet might be challenging, but is more than possible. When traveling, my advice is to ask your waitstaff for assistance and if the waiter or waitress does not know an answer, ask for a manager. By and large, restaurants are still built to serve and want to keep you as a customer.

 

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