Everyday Food's Sandy Gluck hosted a special broadcast with Doctor Radio's Samantha Heller. The broadcast was called "A Taste of Good Health" -- Sandy and Sam explored the world of healthy and tasty food with doctors, chefs, greenmarket gurus and more! For the complete list of topics and guests, click here.
Sandy also shared recipes she worked on and created for Martha Stewart Living. Below are the recipes she talked about on air.
This month's installment of Whole Living's "Crafting with Dudes" series presented a real challenge: could Marketing Manager Rob Banning (left) and Morning Living engineer Steve Gonzalez (right) recycle their old t-shirts into something new, useful, and aesthetically pleasing? With help from Generation-T author Megan Nicolay (center), they succeeded by making a braided belt, a throw pillow, and an decorated shirt.
Megan wore a shirt of her own design she calls "Back in Action."
Steve made this no-sew pillow by cutting a large square from an oversized shirt, slicing the edges into strips, then tying up the strips to seal the sides. The stuffing is...t-shirt scraps!
Steve also created this rockin' Bob Ross-bedecked shirt with no sewing at all. He simply cut out the design from a too-tight old tee and attached it to a new black shirt using fabric glue. Megan deemed the results pro-quality!
This sassy cowl neck halter only requires an oversized t-shirt, a pair of scissors, a measuring tape, a needle and thread, and very minimal sewing skills. I transformed my Sirius logo shirt in 15 minutes flat: took measurements, made just three cuts in the fabric, then sewed up two small sections with a running stitch.
If you want to try one of Megan's projects yourself, here are her instructions for creating a funky halter top with barely any sewing required.
We've had a lot of tasty cupcakes on Morning Living but I think Patty Rothman's win the prize for most creative. Her Chicago shop called "More" sells treats in flavors like salted caramel, sour cherry foie gras, and mojito that look good enough to display in a gallery.
This one is bacon maple!
If you can't make it to the shop, you could order a batch online, or even better, get baking! After the jump, get Patty's recipe for savory-sweet Peach BBQ cupcakes.
Today Morning Living's producer Jennifer and engineer Steve put on their boxing gloves and duked it out in a very back-to-school debate: Which class is more important? Home Economics or Shop? What do you think? Vote in the poll below and read their arguments!
Home Ec Is Where my Heart Is
Jennifer Sendrow, producer for "Morning Living" and "Whole Living"
Since it’s Back-to-School week, here’s a history lesson: Home Economics classes come from a social movement in the late 19th century that aimed to elevate domestic work to valued professional status and apply modern science to perfect its methods. True to those progressive roots, today’s Home Ec classes are designed to produce men and women equally able to do the everyday work of cooking, sewing, and laundry as well as performing basic first aid and creating a household budget. Teaching practical skills and enlightened attitudes about gender roles is what Home Ec is all about. Shop is about…simulating factory work?
Many parents are willing and able to teach domestic skills to their children, but there are a great many that can’t, don’t, or only think to teach such skills to daughters. While people usually get by just fine without learning to sew or becoming experts in stain removal (after all, they can just go to marthastewart.com!), learning to cook is not just a useful skill, it could save your life. It is no coincidence that as Americans started dining out more often and relying on pre-packaged foods that our childhood obesity rates have tripled to match the current adult rate of 1 in 5, triggering an unprecedented health crisis. Doctors, nutritionists, and seasonal eating advocates like Martha Stewart all agree on a cure: make food yourself, and make it fresh. You could learn to cook by watching Martha, but a formal class in the formative years would surely be a great help.
Home Ec is not just a class, it’s a movement. It empowers you to become a creator, not just a consumer. It encourages you to be thrifty and resourceful, a self-sufficient person with no need to hire housecleaners, tailors, and repairmen for every household task. We all have to keep house and get food on the table, but most of us are perfectly happy to leave wood crafting to skilled artisans (or maybe to Ikea). It’s time to close up Shop, and go Home Ec!
You can't top shop!
Steve Gonzalez, engineer for "Morning Living" and "Whole Living"
Shop Class, or classified today as Industrial Arts, expose children to the basics of home repair, manual craftsmanship and machine safety. Offering them something we all need: life skills! Skills that come in handy as a homeowner and propel students into careers such as plumbing, engineering, and architecture.
These programs offer students a window into something other than algebra and single-file rows of desk all day long. With the evolution of technology “Shop” classes no longer just teach how to change oil or hammer out a dent, students use computer diagnostic equipment to fix cars, and learn the green technologies of hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells. Today’s classes incorporate a range of abilities widely promoted as “21st-century skills”, involving technology, communication and collaboration. Courses range from ornamental horticulture and graphic arts to welding and even old-fashioned auto shop. These types of programs reach out to students that may have lost their way in traditional classes.
Shop class not only provides children with skills for their personal lives, but aims to give students job training, exposure to new technologies, and windows into different careers. If your oven or sewing machine breaks, you won’t know how to fix it. Who will? Someone who took shop! And the “blue collar” industry -- which includes careers as an electrician and plumber as well as a police officer and fireman -- are in demand. These careers are shown as really a good, viable option with good benefits.
We can’t afford to leave any students unprepared. Without showing younger generations how to work with their hands, we are creating a generation that is incapable of doing anything for themselves. You would be amazed at how many kids are challenged by problem-solving and figuring things out for themselves. Can they figure out how to reach the next level in a video game? Absolutely! But ask them to change a tire or fix a bike chain and their response is to get a new bike. While shop class can make a better more well rounded individual, it can also be a path to a well-paid profession.
It's back to school and time to start thinking about those lunches that need to be made. It can be a challenge but if you think of dinner's leftovers as cash in the bank, you're almost there. And they don't have to be ho-hum sandwiches either! Jazz up some leftover roast chicken with a spicy mayo, pack a sandwich with last night's grilled vegetables and some cheese, turn that one last piece of sauteed fish into a po-boy…you get the idea.
Inspired by our back-to-school week theme here at Martha Stewart Living Radio and the back-to-basics theme of this month's issue of "Everyday Food" mag, I put together a sandwich from last night's chicken (what could be more basic?), roasted red peppers, and a dolled up mayo. Love those leftovers, and you will too!
Sandy's Back to School Sandwich
Makes 2 sandwiches
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons mayo
1 tablespoon ketchup
Chipotle tabasco or chipotle chile powder, to taste
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
4 slices multi-grain bread
Crisp romaine lettuce leaves, torn
1 small roasted red bell pepper, cut into wide strips
2 small chicken thighs, roasted, skin and bone discarded, sliced (1 to 1 1/2 cups total)
Directions:
1. In a small bowl stir together the mayo, ketchup, chipotle sauce to taste, and lemon juice. Spread the mixture onto one side of each slice of bread. Top with lettuce, red pepper, and chicken and close.
Who didn't like going back to school? I loved picking out colorful Lisa Frank school supplies and deciding on a stylish first-day-of-school outfit! In honor of back to school week on Martha Stewart Living Radio, my colleagues and I decided to share our funniest, funkiest and most fabulous class photos! Can you guess which photo is me?
Looking to swap out some granulated sugar in your cooking and baking for a healthier choice? Yesterday I talked about liquid sweetener -- what they taste like, how they're made, and how to use them. From agave nectar (sometimes called syrup) to molasses, there are so many options out there: how do you know which to choose? Agave nectar, in both light and dark, has a mild, clean flavor and is less sweet than sugar. Added bonus, it has a low glycemic index, meaning the sugar is absorbed slowly into the blood stream, so no sugar rush. Barley malt syrup, deep in color and buttery and caramel tasting also has a low glycemic index.
Yesterday I also brought in 5 sweeteners and had Monty (producer) and Shavon (engineer) taste test them. Agave nectar was hands down the favorite! Second choice was maple syrup, a grade B was super maple-y, yet delicate (grading has nothing to do with quality, just the color and flavor). Between the buckwheat and raspberry, which are two types of honey, buckwheat won. Lastly, there was molasses which both Shavon and Monty thought was tangy and tasted like medicine.
They tasted the sweeteners with Ginger Gold apple slices and feta cheese.
If you're looking to use liquid sweeteners in cooking, it's easy enough to do with maybe a little adjustment. Baking is another story as it involves a bit of chemistry. Sugar in baking works not only as a sweetener, it also gives volume, tenderness, and helps with coloring. Go slowly when swapping some in for the sugar. Here are some not so hard and fast rules:
Agave Nectar: for each cup of white sugar use 2/3 cup agave and reduce liquids in the recipe by 1/4 to 1/3 cup. The same is true of barley malt syrup although its flavor is more pronounced.
Rice syrup: can be used cup for cup but the liquid needs to be reduced and its less sweet than sugar.
Honey: use 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon for each cup of sugar and reduce the liquid by 2 tablespoons.
Maple syrup: use 3/4 cup for each cup of sugar and reduce the liquid by 3 tablespoons.
Molasses: with its tangy flavor is the primary sweetener in gingerbread and baked beans, but its flavor is very strong and can be overpowering if used in place of sugar.
With any of the liquid sweeteners, go slowly, replace a little at a time and see how you like the results. Let me know how they turn out.
September is just around the corner which means new changes and turning over a new leaf, right? If you've struggled with eating healthy or need some guidance on eating foods that taste delish and are actually good for you, then tune in to "A Taste of Good Health." Everyday Food's Sandy Gluck will be teaming up with Doctor Radio's nutritionist Samantha Heller to talk with notable chefs and other food experts about shopping at your local greenmarket, planning entertaining menus that are budget friendly and doctor approved and more!
"A Taste of Good Health" airs on Friday, 8/28 at 12 pm EST -- tune in on Martha Stewart Living Radio or Doctor Radio! We'll be broadcasting live from both channels!
Nothing is more refreshing than a sparkly cocktail! Today Allen Katz tops some cocktails with a splash of champagne to brighten up even the hottest of late-summer nights.
MARKET WATCH
1 dried Clove
1 ½ oz Barsol Pisco
1 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
¾ oz Pressed Fuji Apple Juice
In a mixing glass, muddle clove, add remaining ingredients and shake vigorously over ice. Strain into a collins glass filled with fresh ice and top with chilled champagne. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.
RANGE ROVER
1 oz Zubrowka Bison Vodka
1 oz Pressed Fuji Apple Juice
Shake ingredients over ice and strain into a fluted glass. Top with chilled champagne and garnish with an apple slice.
Get two more sparkling cocktails recipes after the jump:
This week's Fruit and Vegetable Challenge includes recipes for enjoying your produce hot or cold. Sam Lipp joined us from Eleven Madison Park for Betsey's birthday, and was so intrigued by her fruit and vegetable quest that he decided to craft some new cocktails to pair with these delicious dishes.
We hope you'll enjoy this week's delicious dishes, along with Sam's creative cocktails.
For new listeners: If you're interested in making your meals a little healthier by using more fruits and vegetables, then you might want to sign up for our Fruit and Vegetable Challenge. The goal of the program is to incorporate more produce into your busy schedule. If you want more info on the challenge, read our first post about it.
Don't forget: Keep track of the amount of servings you are eating throughout the week. Simply email us -- everydayfoodradio@yahoo.com on Thursday night with the fruits and vegetables you've consumed and the number of servings per day.
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