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Lombardy – The Other Side of Italian Food

There are many different factors that merge to create the style of Italian food eaten in a particular region of Italy. A great example of this is the Lombardy region. The land here dictates what ingredients are used in the Italian food and hence what type of dishes will emerge.

The biggest feature of this region is the vast plains. These plains allow for an abundance of cattle and these cattle greatly affect the type of Italian food found in this area. For instance, while most people think of olive oil in conjunction with Italian food, in this region butter is much more popular. There is also a lot of cream used in the food here; again not something most people associate with Italian food. These distinct differences from the general ideas of Italian food are due to the abundance of cattle found in the region.

Cheese is a very important ingredient in the Italian food here. One important cheese is the robiola. This cheese is part of the Stracchino family and is a soft-ripened cheese that is distinctly Italian. It is made from a blend of cow, goat, and sheep’s milk. The proportions of the different milks are distinct to different areas of the region and so it is possible to taste several different samples of the cheese, each with its own distinct flavor. Grana padano is also a very important cheese to the region. This is a hard, grainy cheese made from cows milk and aged anywhere from eight to twenty-four months. This cheese is important in the history of Italian food. It was invented by monks who used ripened cheese as a method of preserving extra milk. By 1477 this cheese was one of the most famous cheeses in the world and it certainly hasn’t lost any luster with the passing years.

Another distinct feature of this area’s Italian food is the use of single pot dishes. These are dishes which take less work to create and are therefore more popular amongst the working class of the area. Polenta is very popular as is rice. There are many different risottos that are common in the area as well as rice based soups. A popular version of risotto here is flavored with saffron. Another dish that is immensely popular and has made the region famous is its traditional ravioli with pumpkin filling. While ravioli is popular with Italian food lovers most have never had it with pumpkin filling. It is also served with melted butter and is often followed by turkey traditionally stuffed with stewed meats or chicken. True to the picture of Italian food the area boasts yet another unique pasta dish, this one with a twist as well. It is a dish of buckwheat pasta with potatoes, Swiss chard, butter, and Bitto cheese.

Of course you can’t overlook the importance of desserts in the Italian food of Lombardy. The region boasts a few sweet dishes. They make a traditional Christmas bread made with yeast dough and dotted with candied citrus peel, raisins, and candied fruits. An even sweeter Italian food creation is torrone. This nougat confection is made from honey, sugar and egg white. It is then coated with crushed, toasted almonds. The last unique dish to the area is actually a condiment made of boiled fruits seasoned with mustard. This region really does expand a person’s view of Italian food.

Gluten Free Cooking

When it comes to cooking, there are many dietary restrictions that will be encountered along the way. One restriction that is gaining some degree of notoriety in recent years is the need for a gluten free diet. Gluten is a substance that is commonly found in flour products that a decent sized portion of the population has a negative reaction to in some form or another. For these people, gluten free isn’t a choice it is absolutely necessary.

Gluten free cooking does impose many restrictions and often makes it quite difficult to enjoy something the vast majority of us take for granted-dining out. The good news from those who require gluten free cooking is that more and more restaurants are beginning to acknowledge this condition and offer some selections that are gluten free. It takes time, just as it did with low carb craze for the demand for these products to make it worth the industries while to make adjustments in their way of preparing foods.

While on the one hand it is frustrating to not have the option of dining out, there is some challenge to finding new and tasty foods and combinations for cooking each and every night without falling into a rut of the same old foods that you know you can eat without worry. Consider cooking gluten free a challenge rather than a chore and you may find that the process is much more enjoyable. You might even find that you appreciate the meals you’ve worked hard to prepare even better because of the great sense of accomplishment.

There are many resources available for those who need to eat gluten free foods. There are even more and more ‘convenience’ or prepackaged foods that are designated for gluten free cooking. This means that those who once had no option but creating meals from scratch do now have the occasional shortcut available to them. We are even finding cookie and cake mixes that are now gluten free in order to enjoy some of the finer things in life for those who would have been completely deprived only a few short years ago.

Changes are being made and resources are being shared through the Internet that help not only adults that require special gluten free cooking and diets but also support for the parents of children who must have gluten free diets. Cooking for children in the best of circumstances is often difficult. It is even more difficult when there are excessive dietary restrictions that often eliminate the possibility of our children enjoying childhood favorites. That is why it is so important to seek out the many resources and recipes that are available for gluten free cooking.

If you require a gluten free diet and have no idea where to start or what you should be cooking you should check out the many websites and blogs online that address the issues and needs that are faced by those requiring gluten restrictions. You will probably be amazed at the wealth of information that is available. Also, if you have a Trader Joes or Whole Foods store in your area, most of them either offer or will order gluten free products for your cooking needs.

Gluten free cooking does not have to be the chore many of us think it must be and all gluten free food doesn’t taste like cardboard. Take the time to get to know the wonderful gluten free recipes that abound and incorporate them one at a time into your cooking repertoire. You will be amazed at how wonderful you feel as well as how great the food tastes.

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How To Run A Cake Decorating Business From Your Home

How To Run A Cake Decorating Business From Your Home

There is nothing like working from home. It is cheaper because you don’t need to commute or buy a special wardrobe to go out into the public. You can also use a home office as a tax write off. Here are some ideas to help you start and succeed in a home based cake decorating business.

– Find a Unique Way to Sell Your Cakes – Think about why people should come to you for their cakes instead of going to a bakery. Do your cakes taste better, are they more beautiful, do you offer a unique style, or do you provide better service (drop off cakes on the special day)? You may want to offer all of these things to get the customers coming to you. Once they see the beautiful work you do, they will tell everyone they know and you will be able to get more business.

– Use Press Releases: You should send a press release to local and nearby news papers every time you participate in nonprofit or community events in your town. You should also send a press release if you have anything happen with your business. When you do, be sure to mention everything that makes your business unique. This will be a bit of advertisement along with the announcement.

– Advertise in newspapers and shoppers: Make sure to advertise your business. You should take out a larger ad the month of May for graduation, in May and June for weddings, or when a big event is going to take place. Place ads in the high school paper, or if you have a college nearby, you can advertise in any paper they may have and on the bulletin board. Before you do think about what discounts or specials you can offer for these events. Make sure you specify that all orders need to be in by a certain date, this could prompt buyers to take action and order from you.

– A Business Website: You should create a website for your cake decorating business. Make the site informative and easy to navigate. Show samples of your cake decorating skills, and mention how unique your business is, if you are flexible, and what type of cake decorating you do. You may or may not want to put prices on your website, sometimes it is better to have them call you and you can quote them a price, according to their needs. When you advertise, make sure you include your web address in your advertising.

– Look for Distributors: One way to expand your business is to find other businesses who are willing to advertise your cake decorating business. Coffee shops and restaurants will probably be your best bet. This will give your business more exposure and save you from having to open a store of your own. In exchange for this service they would receive a commission on each order you receive from their establishment.

– Barter with local party and event planners: You can strike up a bargain with local planners to show your portfolio to their customers. In exchange you can recommend them to your customers. Get included in their list of vendors, and they may have you making and decorating all of their cakes.

– Offer Free Products for fund raisers, church activities, local events and festivals. Get involved in fundraising for local charities, school, church, and business events. By offering a free cake for these events, you will be gaining a great deal of advertising exposure. Make up brochures and hand them out when you are in attendance.

– Real Estate Offering: Contact local Realtors and offer a special on housewarming cakes for their clients. Realtors often give a gift to clients when they sell a home. When you make cakes for these occasions, make sure to place the cake in a beautiful cake box imprinted with your business name, address, phone, and web address. You can also include a discount coupon if they order a cake within a certain time frame.

– Referrals: Tell everyone you come into contact with about your business. Carry business cards with all of your information on it. Give them 2 or 3 cards and ask them to pass them along to others who might be interested in using your talents. You should also ask customers for referrals. Offer them a discount on their next cake if they can drum up new business for you.

A Look At Ice Wine

Although there are several types of wine that you buy, one of the most unheard of is ice wine. Ice wine is a very rare form of wine, a wine that is produced under certain types of weather conditions. Ice wine is mainly produced in the Pacific Northwest region, where the weather conditions are right for the wine.

As ironic as it is, ice wine is produced in very small quantities. With the wine requiring only the fines of quality and a lack of availability, the product is extremely rare indeed. Truth be told, there are only a lucky few who are actually able to purchase the wine. Ice wine, due to the scarce amount, can be extremely expensive and out of the price range for a majority of us.

Much like the beauty of owning a diamond, ice wine is something that many of us hope and dream to experience at some point in our lives. Although the materials are rare, the weather conditions are even more crucial to producing this wine. Once the right weather conditions arrive, the wine maker prepares to produce this extremely rare and priceless wine.

The basic requirements needed to produce ice wine are fully ripened grapes and a temperature of around 5 degrees C. The temperature needs to stay that way for several days, so that the wine maker can complete the process of making the wine. Grapes that are frozen during these extremely cold temperatures are hand plucked at night by the wine maker and his assistants.

To produce a bottle of ice wine, full vine grapes may be required. Once the grapes have been collected, they are gently pressed, in order to collect the running juice only. The temperature creates the frozen water crystals, which are fermented along with sugars and the particles that are found in the free running juices. Through this process, the wonderful and rare ice wine is created.

If you have been looking to try ice wine, finding it may be very difficult. As you probably already know, most alcohol and wine stores dont sell this rare wine. Finding it online is very hard to do as well, unless you catch it at the right time. Even then, if you are able to find it, it can easily cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single bottle.

The best way to experience ice wine is to find the right wine maker in the Pacific Northwest region. Even though bottles go extremely fast once they have been made, you may be able to catch a wine maker with some on hand. Be prepared to spend a hefty amount though. Although it can cost a lot and be extremely hard to find – the taste of ice wine makes it well worth the effort.

Coffee Makers in the Workplace

Many people have a coffee maker at work. This is a great idea because it lets employees and managers alike have something in common and lets everyone have a short break from work while they refresh their coffee mugs. Coffee makers are used in office buildings, manufacturing plants, and almost every type of business there is from fast food to convenience stores. The office coffee maker is a place everyone can go and chit chat for a few minutes similar to a water cooler.

The usual office coffee maker is of the automatic drip variety and makes about 12 cups at a time. The funny thing is, 12 cups from a coffee maker means about 5 ounces per cup. Nobody drinks that little so you might as well assume one pot will serve 6 people. For a busy workplace you may need a larger coffee maker to accommodate everyone and might even decide to use a coffee vending machine. If this is owned and operated by the company, they may lower the prices so they don’t make much profit. This will be made up with employee morale and productivity so it evens out.

Many people feel better and more alert after drinking coffee so naturally, a coffee maker in the workplace helps everyone. The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant and should help them feel that way. If your employee is alert, there is less chance of incomplete work and injuries as they should be paying more attention to the job at hand.

The type of coffee maker for the workplace will need to be discussed among all the coffee drinkers and if a fancy one is needed, everyone should help pay for it. A normal coffee maker costs between 10 to 40 dollars but fancy ones can be 60-90 dollars depending on the features. These higher priced coffee makers usually come with a foamer, grinder, or some other special feature that would cause the price to be so high. You may want to just get two cheaper ones as there is always someone who wants decaffeinated coffee and doesn’t like to mix the two types of coffee in one pot.

If you work in a large manufacturing plant or industrial building, chances are you will have to walk a long way to get a cup of coffee. Many of these workplaces use strategically placed break rooms that will have an assortment of vending machines. One of those may be a coffee vending machine or there might be a coffee maker on the counter for employees in your area to use. Make sure you have someone clean it before you clock out or management may take it away. I have seen this happen before.

With espresso and cappuccino becoming very popular, you might have one of these machines in your workplace. They cater to certain people usually but many come with a normal coffee pot on one side. This can help balance out two distinct tastes and make more employees happy.