Aubergine and Its Skeptical Introduction to Our Kitchen

By Lesley Jones 

Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Actually,neither. Botanically it's a berry. (Solanum melongena).

We'll call it a vegetable, as it's probably renowned for its addition to savoury dishes. One would think its origins are firmly rooted in the warm Mediterranean countries, but you would have to travel a lot further east.

Whilst it flourished in the hot Asian countries, and is thought to have originated in India, there are records that show it being cultivated in China around the fifth century.

We haven't always enjoyed this beautiful vegetable in Europe.

After the Moors introduced it to Spain and the Arab spice traders took it to Italy, Europe was a little more sceptical, mainly due to the fact that Aubergine is related to the "Nightshade family" which is renowned for its poison. It's no wonder that Venetians were afraid to eat them; in case they went mad, probably aided by the fact the Italian name for aubergine is "Melanzana" which is derived from the Latin name "mad apple".

Eventually in the 1500's aubergines were accepted by Mediterranean cooks, most likely due to the fact that the Jews fled from the south to the north of Italy taking their culinary skills including the aubergine with them and reintroduced it into Venetian cuisine.

Unfortunately, we in Britain would have to wait a few more years before we too could enjoy its delights, unless you were fortunate enough to travel to Europe in the 40's and 50's, which is very unlikely especially with a war going on.

Then following WW2 the post-war rationing began and Elizabeth David arrived on the scene with her cookery books, and her particularly caustic attacks on British food and the boring plain dishes we presented. She introduced Italian and French cooking into our homes, bringing a breath of fresh air into the kitchen, the aubergine came with her and has never left!  Here's my favourite Aubergine dish.

Stuffed Aubergine

Serves 2

Prep time 25 min

Cooking time 1 hour

Ingredients

* 1 medium aubergine, (eggplant) halved (top to bottom)

* 1/2 small red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped

* 1/2 small green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped

* 1/2 medium onion finely chopped

* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

* 1/2 (14oz) tin tomatoes (or 4 fresh tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped)

* 1 tbsp tomato puree

* 6 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

* Sliced mozzarella cheese

* Salt and black pepper

Method

* Cut the flesh out the aubergine leaving a lining inside the skin.

* Cut the flesh into cubes (soak in salted water for 30mins to remove any bitterness).

* In a large frying pan, fry the onions in olive oil until golden.

* Add the garlic and aubergine (you may need to add more oil as the aubergines really soak it up) and cook until the aubergine is golden.

* Stir in the peppers, tomatoes, puree, basil, salt and pepper to taste, then cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

* Place the aubergine skins into a lightly oiled baking dish and brush the insides of the skins with olive oil.

* Fill the two halves with the mixture and top with slices of mozzarella.

* Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350°F, 180°C, Gas mark 4 for 40 minutes.

Lesley Jones is just one half of the duo that makes CookingWithTheJoneses such a great place for finding delicious food recipes, and other 'foodie' information. She and her husband Barry, love cooking, and have been into creating amazing food for over 15 years.

If you have any 'foodie' questions, or would like to recommend a new recipe - visit http://www.CookingWithTheJoneses.com and let Lesley and Barry help you.

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Top Health Benefits of Honey

By Jeff K Andrews 

A completely natural sweetener, it dates back more than hundreds of years, yet the health benefits of honey are still not widely known even today. Healthier and more pure than artificial sweeteners or sugar, honey provides more than a taste for the sweet tooth; honey benefits your health and your body inside and out.

History of Honey

Records can not definitively state how long honey has existed. Some believe honey dates back farther than 20 millions years, but honey bee fossils cause reason to believe that date could extend to over 150 millions years. Cave paintings in Spain suggest that beekeeping began approximately around 7000 B.C. and Egyptian records from 2400 B.C. provide evidence of their culture keeping bees in hives.

The Egyptians used honey in more ways than one. As well as its common use as a sweetener, Egyptians gave honey as a gift to their gods and used it as a component of their embalming fluid. The Romans also gave honey to their gods and were known to cover physical wounds in honey to cure and promote natural healing. The Romans and Greeks both utilized honey as a form of cooking but around the turn of the seventeenth century, honey became primarily used as a sweetener.

Honey Production

So, how do bees produce honey? The process begins at the flower as the bee gathers the flower's nectar. The majority of nectar is water and a minority is complex sugars. Bees need to store and make the sugar usable, so the bees alter the nectar changing it into honey. To complete this task, a worker bee that has a full stomach of nectar flies to the hive to regurgitate the modified nectar for a hive bee. Then, the hive bee ingests the nectar to break down the sugars. Once the hive bee has completed that task, he regurgitates the nectar into a cell of the comb. The hive bees are responsible for beating their wings in order to evaporate any remaining water; once complete, the sugar converts to honey. In a lifetime, a worker bee produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey, but when bees in a colony work together, more than 200 pounds of honey are produced within one year.

Honeybees' hard work provides us with a healthy and beneficial food. All in all, it consists of 80% natural sugars, 18% water, and 2% vitamins, minerals, and pollen. Keep in mind, honey does not expire because it does not harbor bacteria, so you can keep it on your shelf for as long as necessary!

Health Benefits of Honey

It is nature's energy booster due to its carbohydrates; these carbohydrates provide energy, as well as strength. Athletes, in particular, benefit from honey due to its ability to create endurance and decrease fatigue. The glucose found in honey plays a role, also, as the body rapidly absorbs it to give immediate energy. On the other hand, the fructose in honey is absorbed at a slower rate to give sustained energy. As opposed to refined sugar, honey keeps the body's sugar levels somewhat constant, instead of spiking the blood sugar which causes an energy crash.

It is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and contains antioxidants to help boost the body's immunity. Raw honey has approximately 5,000 enzymes and numerous vitamins, amino acids, and minerals. Honey helps fight respiratory problems and has increased the quality of life in cancer patients.

Unlike refined white sugar, it contains no empty calories. Use honey in place of white sugar to reduce blood sugar spikes and to fill those empty calories with vitamins and minerals. In addition, honey has been noted to suppress appetite. One teaspoon of honey contains approximately 21 calories and is sweeter than sugar, which means you are able to use less for the same sweetening effect potentially promoting weight loss.

When applied topically, the properties of honey have the ability to heal wounds including burns and ulcers. The two sugars found in honey, fructose and glucose, attract water so that when honey is applied to a wound, honey absorbs the water into the wound. This action dries out the wound to inhibit and deter bacterial growth.

Top Ten Ways to Cook and Eat Honey

1.     Use in your hot tea as a healthy sweetener.

2.    Mix into your plain yogurt instead of buying a less healthy, pre-sweetened yogurt.

3.     Spread a slice of toast with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon to jumpstart your morning routine.

4.    Instead of sprinkling sugar over your cereal, drizzle it with honey.

5.    Substitute it for sugar in cookie, bread, and muffin recipes.

6.    Use it as a seasoning for meat. Apply honey to chicken or pork chops before cooking to give the meat a unique flavor.

7.     Create a dressing with olive oil, vinegar, and honey to use on top of salads.

8.    Drizzle it over vanilla ice cream for a decadent dessert.

9.    Add honey and lemon with hot water as a refreshing, soothing drink.

10. Eat it straight from the comb! Take a bite out of the comb and chew it like chewing gum. The more you chew, the more honey will come out of the honey comb. When all of the honey is out of the comb, spit out or swallow the wax; the wax is safe to eat and is non-toxic.

Take Caution

Although it is a healthy addition to any diet, certain individuals should take precautions. For instance, children under the age of one should not ingest honey; it contains spores that can cause a life-threatening and paralyzing disease called infant botulism.

Persons with pollen allergies should take caution when eating it; although, serious reactions are rare. Most honey sold in stores is filtered and pasteurized, which lowers the amount of pollen in the honey. If one does have a pollen allergy, eating it straight from the comb should be avoided, as it is in its natural form.

How to Choose Honey

To reap the full benefits, choose raw honey. The raw version has not been filtered or pasteurized, which means that it has not been striped of its powerful vitamins and minerals. To choose the highest quality and gain the full health benefits of honey, look for one that states, "100% Raw" and enjoy your path to nutritional sweetness!

There are many common foods that are beneficial for health. For more on the health benefits of red-wine [http://thehealthbenefitsof.com/health-benefits-of-red-wine/] or how pomegranate benefits [http://thehealthbenefitsof.com/health-benefits-of-pomegranate/] your diet visit thehealthbenefitsof.com.

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History of the Mediterranean Diet

By Ray Darken 

  Eating Well for Good Health

Introduction
In recent years, a growing number of men and women in different countries around the world have become increasingly concerned about their health. Because of the fact that many people have become more concerned about their overall health, these men and women have paid closer attention to what they eat on a regular basis. In the final analysis, these men and women are making dietary decisions designed to improve their general health and wellbeing.
As people have become more conscious of their health and diet, a considerable number of these same men and women have become interested in the Mediterranean diet regimen. If you are, in fact, a person who appreciates the interrelationship between diet and health, you may have a definite interest in the history of the Mediterranean diet regimen.
Before you can appropriately understand what the Mediterranean diet is all about, you need to appreciate that it is more of a concept than a specific dining routine. In reality, there is no such thing as a Mediterranean diet common to all of the countries in the Mediterranean region of the world. Rather, the "Mediterranean diet" consists of those food items that people who live in the various nations in the region consume in common.
The Origins of the Mediterranean Diet
The concept of the Mediterranean diet is derived from the eating habits and patterns of the people who populate the countries of Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco. As aresult, the Mediterranean diet actually includes a tremendous array of delectable food. In point of fact, if a person elects to adopt the concept of the Mediterranean dining scheme, or if a person elects to follow a Mediterranean diet regimen, he or she will have the ability to enjoy a remarkable assortment of scrumptious fare.

The diet of the peoples that have populated the regions around the Mediterranean Sea actually have remained nearly completely unchanged for well over one thousand years. The history of the region is replete with examples of men and women living longer than similarly situated people who consumed alternate diets. Through the centuries, the people of the Mediterranean Sea region have enjoyed longer lives that people in other parts of the world at the same historical epoch.
At the heart of the Mediterranean diet are foods and beverages that are indigenous to the geographic landmass surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. In short, the development of the Mediterranean dieting and dining pattern initially developed by providence. The people of the region naturally and understandably ate those foods and drank those beverages that readily were available in and around their homes.
The Historical Elements of the Mediterranean Diet Scheme
As mentioned previously, over the centuries, the diet of the peoples of the Mediterranean Sea region has remained essentially unchanged. The Mediterranean diet consists of the bountiful consumption of a number of healthy food items including:
* Fresh fruit
* Fresh vegetables
* Low fat nuts
* Whole grains
* Monounsaturated fat
In a similar vein, the Mediterranean diet utilized by people for generation after generation excludes or limits certain food items that have been deemed harmful in recent scientific studies. These less than desirable food items include:
* Saturated fats
* Red and fatty meat
* Rich dairy products
* Fatty fish
The Historical Effects of the Mediterranean Diet Scheme
As has been alluded to earlier in this article on the history of the Mediterranean diet regimen, the people who inhabit the region have a demonstrably lower rate of heart disease and related ailments that oftentimes have a direct dietary connection. With the advent of scientific studies that have correlated the incidence of health problems with a poor diet, the positive effects of the Mediterranean diet have become self evident.
Research over the course of the past two decades has conclusively demonstrated that the men and women who populate the Mediterranean region are afflicted with heart disease and similar ailments far less often than people in other regions of the world. The experts who have conducted these studies have concluded that there is a strong likelihood that the diet scheme that is common in the Mediterranean region is responsible for maintaining the good health of the people who live in that corner of the globe throughout the past one thousand years.
Conclusion: The Expansive Use of the Historical Mediterranean Diet Scheme
During the past twenty years, a significant number of people in different countries around the world have turned their attention towards finding healthy diet regimens that are low in saturated fat and that include bountiful servings of fresh fruits and vegetable. Consequently, the Mediterranean diet has caught the eye of innumerable people who want to include healthy eating into their overall course of prudent living. In short, the Mediterranean diet encompasses foods and beverages that, when consumed in moderation, can work to lessen the threat of some serious diseases and can aid in creating the necessary foundation for a long, hearty lifetime.