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Well, it appears that Starbucks coffee now has the new Banana Coconut Frappachino and they are selling like hotcakes. I must recommend that you try one today and go down to your local Starbucks coffee shop and pick you up a Venti Banana Coconut Frappachino, as they are very good.

Some people are afraid to get the large size at Starbucks coffee because they are worried about the amount of fatness their body will get if a drink these large drinks. So, along with my taste test, which was very good and I wanna thank Starbucks for giving me my “Free Frappachino” today in trade for typing out this short summary.

Well you know I did ask them to tell me about the nutritional value and the number of calories, as I am watching what I eat, exercising regularly and playing it smart. It turns out that the Tall Banana Coconut Frappachino has only 310 calories and the Grande Size has 410 calories. The largest size, which Starbucks coffee calls the Venti has 600 calories and so today I must be go a little easier on the rest of my diet you see? The Banana Carmel Frappachino is almost identical on the calorie counts and it is very good too you see, I bought one of those the day before? Yummy.

Now then Starbucks coffee also has the light series banana coconut frappachinos too and the tall has 240, grande 310 and the Venti 460 calories respectively. Still I would rather have the regular then the light because I think it tastes better although some people like the light better and well that is better for them anyway. Consider all those in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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For some people, the storage and acquisition of wine is more than just a hobby, it is an art.

Wine connoisseurs all know that the proper storage of wine is important to its final flavor. Once it is already bottled, wine will still mature and gain body and flavor. Proper care should be taken when handling wine, or else its potential for greatness will go to waste. To keep their wine well preserved, the discriminating connoisseur will choose a proper wine rack.

How to Buy a Wine Rack

The Build
Wine racks can be made of so many different materials and styles. You should consider which material and style fits your needs and preference. You could have wood, glass, alloy, or metal racks. Some people try to choose materials that match their living rooms. There are a variety of styles of wine racks, find one that is convenient for you. The popular styles include counter top racks, diamond bins, cabinets and others.

The Essential Elements
A good wine rack will ensure that the following elements are strictly controlled. Light, humidity, temperature, stability. If you want to keep your wine well preserved and ready for ambush party, you need to make sure they are not exposed to light, moisture, extreme temperatures and shaking or vibration.

Cabinet wine racks are good at keeping wine bottles safe. They can emulate the conditions at a wine cellar best. These condition include moderate humidity, cool temperatures, and little light

We try to control the humidity so we can avoid getting the wine cork from accumulating moisture. This will lessen the chances that the wine will get contaminated or oxidized.

Keeping the correct humidity or appropriately moist environment will keep the wine cork damp, reducing the chances of contamination and/or oxidization. Warm conditions will accelerate wine aging. You have to keep this in mind when you consider which wine rack to choose.

Things to Remember

Don’t place wine cellars above or near refrigerators. Refrigerators generate heat and this heat could ruin your wine collection. Buying and installing a good wine rack would be useless if that happens.

Your rack has to be smooth enough that when the wine bottles are put and taken, they will not get scratched and damaged. Bottles and labels are also important parts of the overall value of wine.

A wine cellar is great but not necessary to store your wine in the correct environment. But since not everyone can afford a wine cellar or has space enough for one, you could opt for a wine rack instead. Wine racks function a lot like wine cellars, but they are smaller and are more accessible. They are also a lot cheaper and easier to install.

Believe it or not, ultraviolet light can affect and ruin wine. That’s the reason wine cellars are so dark and that’s why you have to keep your wine in a dark safe place. When you store your wine bottles, make sure they are stored sideways; this ensures that the wine is always in contact with the cork to keep it moist.

Once again we cannot express how important it is to maintain the right conditions for your wine to mature nicely. Your wine rack system has to maintain the right amount of humidity and temperature to keep your collection going. Bear in mind that wine is something you keep for a long time. Keep your wine racks pumping a temperature range of 55-60 F. Also make sure the humidity is in the 50% to 75% range. Adjust these settings according to the needs of your wine.

Start Planning for Your Wine Rack Now!

Well, now you have pretty much gotten everything in order. When a party comes crashing through, you can whip out the grade A wine and celebrate to your hearts content. Pour out the good times to the tune of the compliments and admiration your friends will throw your way all because of your fine wine rack.

For more great wine rack info and advice check out: www.rack-hq.com

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Do you get lumps in your white sauce?

When making white sauce (béchamel) or any sauce that requires slow cooking to thicken try using an egg whisk instead of a spoon to stir and you can increase the temperature (not too much though) to speed the process up and you wont get any lumps in it.

Turn your open barbeque into a gourmet oven.

Want to try a new barbeque recipe that requires a hood on the barbeque which you may not have. Try using a wok lid or any domed lid. This works very well indeed. Great for roasted meats when camping out.

Never buy frozen pastry again.

Do you hate making short pastry. Use a kitchen whiz instead of the usual hand method. Use slightly less liquid than may be asked for in the recipe. Just run the whiz until all the pastry forms into a rough shaped ball. If it wont form into a ball you may need just a touch more liquid. The type of liquid liquid depends on what recipe you use for your pastry.

Do your scones look and feel more like rock cakes ?

Make your scones in a kitchen whiz. Many people just can’t make scones no matter what. Usually the problem is too much handling. Using the whiz eliminates this problem.

Also try and make your scones as though people or the family are sitting at the table waiting. In other words the less time you take means less handling. The mixture should be quite moist not dry after you add the milk.

Turn onto a well floured board and draw the four into the pastry a few times with the tips of your fingers.. This should only take you about 5-8 seconds. Gently pat into shape and cut into whatever shaped scones you want - round or square -whatever.

Scones seem to come out best when cooked in what is variously described as a rising oven. In other words turn your oven on not too long before you start to mix your scones and when they are put in the oven it still has not quite reached the required temperature.

I learnt this way of making scones when I was used to crew on a yacht when I was younger and the guys would want morning tea and see if they could cajole me into making some. Hence my reference to having a waiting audience. The oven was only a very small bench top gas oven and I would turn it on to its maximum temperature and then throw the flour butter and milk together. They were most impressed and I was most surprised at the result. I was not at all sure of my expertise in scone making as my mother could never make scones - hers were the ones that came out like bullets.

I did later convert my mother into making scones in the kitchen whiz when she was around 65 and she was amazed that she finally learnt to make a scone that was edible.
I might add that scones became a regular morning tea item

Are your curries chewy?

Do you have trouble working out if a casserole or curry is cooked. When the oil (fat) rises the dish is cooked. All meat dish casseroles have some fat content and when this is released the meat is cooked. You will see on top of the meat some small pools of oil or fat. These are usually only small amounts and it is these small amounts that add to the flavour of the dish..

Are you missing the magic ingredient?

Have you ever cooked a curry or casserole and the flavour just needs a little something and you cant quite work out exactly what is needed. Maybe it seems as though the flavours don’t quite go together. It is a small intangible ingredient that is lacking.
Try a very small amount of sugar and you will be surprised how it seems to blend and mellow the flavours into a more harmonious combination. The flavours will cease to fight against each other.

Whoops have you ever slipped with the salt pot when cooking?
Have you ever added just a touch too much salt to a recipe. Never add sugar to correct this try a squeeze of lemon juice.

I hate washing roasting pans.

Do you like to have roasted potatoes occasionally but hate washing up the pan afterwards. Here is a simple easy method and it uses less fat. Cut each potato with the skin on, in half so that you have the largest cut area. Add a little margarine and spread it on the cut side of the potato. Then sprinkle with salt and pepper if you want.

Place the buttered potatoes buttered side down on a sheet of aluminium foil wrap. Fold the foil and seal. Add to a preheated hot oven 200 degrees centigrade and cook for approx half an hour. When cooked unwrap and gently peel the foil off the potatoes and serve. Throw the foil in the garbage and voila - lovely scrisp roasted potatoes and no mess.

Beth Black is webmaster for Keyword Articles a resource that lists groups of keyword targeted articles. http://www.keyword-articles.info

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We’re jamming……strawberry jamming.

Musings on small farm living.

So why am I standing at the kitchen counter, blurry eyed at 9 o’clock at night, sorting and chopping organic strawberries, when I should be tucked up on the sofa falling asleep over the latest Katie Fforde? ( I also have several highbrow novels and some very interesting and challenging metaphysical reading lined up, but Katie Fforde wins out after a normal day with three children, four dogs, three cats all needing various forms of attention). Well, leaving the city for the country life and a bit of land, you decide to grow something, ‘cos otherwise you’re just a city slicker pretending to be a country person - like “all the others are tourists but I’m a cultured visitor ” mentality. Anyway, so twelve strawberry plants, four years on have now become a commercial (sort of) organic growing business and, two months of the year, my evenings are spent making jam. The best strawberries get sold straight, no probs, but there are half as much again that are rejected due to no fault of their own, a peck mark, slight deformity or whatnot, and what am I going to do with them.

The trouble is living on a farm somehow brings out all the traditional frugal qualities of our ancestors - waste not want not - everything must be preserved, frozen, used profitably or else why did you put so much effort into growing them in the first place. So you can’t lob 3 kilos of seconds into the bin, put it out for the rubbish collectors and forget about it. For a start there are no rubbish collectors, it’ll sit there reproachfully until composted, attracting fruit flies, or else the chickens will get drunk on fermenting fruit……… so yummy delicious strawberry jam is the result.

So chopping strawberries, brain disengaged, do I think how lucky to be surrounded by so much luscious, decadent, fragrant fruit, or that I could never get excited about them again? Are the chickens going to start laying strawberry flavoured eggs soon from all the rejected rejects, and if so should I start making strawberry souffl©? Looking at the chakra pages on http://www.aflowergallery.com where a red flower is the first chakra, is the strawberry the first fruit chakra? And if so what are all the others….orange - oranges, easy….yellow - lemons or bananas….green - apples ….we’re doing good…..now it gets harder….blue…hmmm..clich© blueberries (definitely not Smurf blue but still blue)….indigo..are damsons indigo? Or mulberries (my fingers and the children’s clothes usually turn more of a burgundy colour after harvesting them)…what about violet…I’m getting stuck now and rambling madly off the subject, what was it?

Strawberries and chakras, which leads to health - what did Margaret Roberts say strawberries were good for…skin…well my two year old daughter used to help pick strawberries last year, until two weeks into the season she came out in a massive skin rash due to excessive overindulgence causing an allergic sensitivity, so I won’t be rubbing strawberries into her skin. Rich in antioxidants, killing viruses, lowering blood pressure, helping fight cancer - sounds like a miracle fruit to me. I think I need to be more respectful of them, after all, who can complain of evenings spent in such worthwhile company.

Copyright Kit Heathcock

Sometime flower photographer, keen observer of the resonances of life and fulltime mother. Born in the UK but now living on a farm in the southern hemisphere. Contributor to the creation and maintenance of www.aflowergallery.com one of the homes of chakra flower art.

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That does it! I bet you can get even the most reticent; conservative of palates to at least try chilli con carne when they know that it has been made with that most favoured of “treats” that is chocolate. It worked on mine. There was something incredibly rewarding that made me feel all nice and warm and homely when our cousins and my kids all sat down to a big family meal of chilli with cheese, garlic bread, and all the trimmings (guacamole, sour cream etc.….) a nice change to a Sunday roast lunch we thought.

We made it the night before - even better - NO cooking on the day itself, so more time left to simply chat, be together and enjoy a relaxed Sunday afternoon. There were 10 of us so it makes a lot! Simply brown the meat, onions and garlic then simmer in passata or tins of chopped tomatoes with a little bit of meat stock we always use (Touch of Taste ) because we love Nigella, who always recommends it. Then add the tinned red kidney beans, the hallowed chocolate and some dried chillies watching your quantities depending how hot you like it or can get away with. Simmer for a couple of hours. Then either wait for it to cool down and refrigerate overnight or keep in a very cool place. Re-heat in the morning and voila the most gorgeous chilli. Add side bowls of grated cheese (don’t know why but this does go really well together) sour cream and mashed avocado, lemon juice and finely chopped pepper, onion or mild chilli!

Emily Gordon founder of http://www.cafedesenfants.co.uk.

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