Do You Want Genetically Modified Salmon on Your Plate?

from Fooducate by Editorial Staff

It appears that the first genetically modified animal fish will soon be approved for human consumption. A federal advisory committee, reporting to the FDA, posed no objections to allowing genetically engineered “super salmon” into our food supply.

What exactly it this fish?

We’re talking about farmed salmon, fish that is bred and grown in huge pools of water far away from the cold waters of either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Farmed salmon has been sold for ages in supermarkets and served in restaurants. In most cases, when you order salmon, you’re getting farm raised. It’s cheaper, doesn’t taste as good, and is also of lower caliber nutritional quality. It still contains many nutrients, but as good as the farm feed is, it can’t compete with wild salmon’s natural feeding habitat.

What the genetic modification has done is make the farmed salmon grow at twice the speed as a normal salmon, this by a very cool trick (if you’re into science, you have to admire the ingenuity). Turns out salmon grows only in warm weather, this by the presence of a certain growth hormone. Scientists were able to manipulate the gene that regulates the turning on/off of the growth hormone , and leave it permanently on, letting the salmon grow year round instead of just 6 months.

Very novel indeed, and most of the research done to show that there are no health issues seem to be just fine.(Most, not all, please note).

So the question is – would you like to eat some?

Pros:

Ease the strain on wild salmon populations by providing more farmed salmon

Hopefully lower prices than today

Salmon is very high in omega-3 and other nutrients, the GM version remains the same

Salmon is a tasty fish that kids love too

Cons:

Long term health effects unknown

Risk of escaped salmon intermingling with wild populations and creating unknown

For some folks reading this blog, the answer is clearcut – no to GMO. For others it may be a clear yes. Many may be sitting on the fence trying to figure this one out. What we would like to see is a clear label at the fishmonger and in supermarkets, telling us if the salmon we are buying is wild, farmed, or GM farmed.

If history is precedent, that won’t happen in the US (have you seen a label denoting GM soy? GM corn? Most of the corn and soy in the US today is genetically modified).

And that’s a shame. Consumers have the right to know what they’re getting and choose not to participate in long term science experiments.

Betty Crocker Fall Baking: The backstory

from bakerella.com by bakerella

Many of you may have seen the cover of the Betty Crocker magazine I posted several days ago. You know… the one with these Pumpkin Cake Pops on the front cover. Yeah, pretty crazy stuff. I was so overwhelmed when I first saw it. Completely overwhelmed. I knew they were going to feature some of my recipes, but I never expected they would really pick one to be on the cover. It was all very exciting and it still is. Anyway, I thought I would share with you how it came about.

Several months ago, I was asked by the nice folks at General Mills if I would be interested in submitting some recipes for one of their baking magazines. My first response was internal laughter. Are you sure? Me? I’m not anybody.

But it turns out they didn’t think so.

So I submitted several fall baking recipes for consideration and they liked them. Liked em enough to print them. Months later I found myself on a flight to Minnesota to visit the Betty Crocker Taste Kitchens. It was a short but, jam-packed trip.

I arrived in Minnesota and headed straight for the test kitchens where I was greeted with goodies and smiles. I arrived just in time to take part in their daily taste panel. Every day, several people get together and taste recipes and give their feedback.

Kristen takes notes on everything. Every comment anyone says, good or bad, and then they go back and re-evaluate if necessary.

And they do this every day. Every. Day.

Luckily the day I was there was filled with sweets. Cupcakes and cookies and cakes. I know. It was tough. Really tough.

Look familiar?

I can’t tell you enough how nice everyone was. I didn’t want to leave.

After we finished the tasting panel, Diane (above me) took me down to the photography studio to check in on things because the next day I was going to hang out there and decorate cake pops.

When I walked in, everyone was working hard making my recipes look pretty for the photos. Food stylists rock.

It was so amazing to see this all come together. From the kitchen to the camera. Amazing.

Look. Cake balls ready and waiting for me.

Their computer setup is incredible. The recipe cards for the magazine are already laid out and when they take a photo, it is immediately displayed with the recipe. The photographer can position the photo right on the spot… or take another one and know instantly if it will work with the layout or if they want to change something.

Then, they have a huge monitor on the wall that allows them to view the entire book at one time.

This makes it very easy to see the flow of the book while it is still in progress.

Here’s a page with photo placeholders from my website. Part of the reason I came to the headquarters was to have pictures taken for the featurette. They are replaced in the actual magazine with images shot from the trip.

All super efficient.

So, after saying hi to everyone, several of us went out to dinner.

Grace, Michelle, Andi, Diane, Naomi, Chris, Me, Cherryl and Sue. I had a great time.

And after dinner, I went to my hotel room and crashed. Hard.

The next morning I was greeted by these two.

Tara and Joe. I loved them both immediately. So much fun. Tara did my hair and makeup for the photos and Joe photographed me making cake pops for the day. It was a real treat.

Hey Joe – I really like this one.

This is what I saw all day. I would rather be where he’s standing.

And these are some of the pics he took. I asked him to take most of the pics as action shots … close up… so I wouldn’t be in the photo :)

Tapping.

And more tapping…

and styrofoaming. That’s a new word. You can have it.

Here you can see how they can test photos for the cover right on the fly.

Cute … But these pumpkins definitely need faces.

Luckily I brought my handy dandy edible ink pen.

Yes, faces for sure.

Faces = fun!

After adding the appropriate amount of spooky sweet expression, I played food stylist for a few minutes and arranged the pops for the photo.

Then I chomped on one and Carol came in with the big guns and performed minor surgery to make it perfect.

Here’s Chuck. He was the photographer for the all the magazine food photos that day.

Chuck is great. Super cool.

He took the photo and then I practically ran out the door to make my flight home. It was a whirlwind.

When I went out the front of the building, I actually had to stop the tears. I’m kind of a sap and cry easily.

Everyone was so nice. Like nicer than nice. I really hated leaving. The trip was way too short, but full of fun, excitement, emotions and memories I will cherish. Thank you everyone at General Mills that made is so special. Oh… and thanks for putting my pops on the cover. Way cool.

P.S. Have no idea what I’m talking about? Here’s the final cover if you want to look for it through September.

The Switch (2010) Movie premier screening by Advertlets !

Here comes the most unexpected humerous entertainment ever conceived!

Hilarious no?

Join me for the film then! I got tickets to giveaway!

Here have been the details:
Venue : Cathay Cineplex e@Curve
Time : 8.30PM
Date : 6 October, Wednesday
Hall : 10 (100 seats)

Bloggers contingency set free ticket and/or esteem at the date, time as well as venue settled in the message. Failure to do so will outcome to the ticket and/or esteem to be forfeited.

Here have been the T&Cs:
Join our Advertlets Facebook Fan Page , LIKE the page as well as give the shoutout upon our wall which you would wish to watch The Switch with us. We will award you with ONE (1) pair of tickets to join us upon the 6th of Oct 2010 @ eCurve.

This time, you would adore to listen to your opinion of the film so a film review is appreciated!

Name your blog post : The Switch Preview Screening with Advertlets.
- Your entrance contingency couple to this blog post as well as have this image (ABOVE) enclosed in your post.
- Send your post URL to jason.ong@advertlets.com after youve finished your film review blog post.

-Ticket seating preference have been theme to initial come initial offer basis.
-By participating, bloggers agree to be firm by all the Terms as well as Conditions. All judges decisions have been final as well as binding.

Maximizing Your Consultation With Your GP. Yook Tho Yin, Tim Pan Kor Kor, PJ.

(random thoughts)

Wooden Clothes Peg used to mark the dishes during Yook Tho Yin

For most people, GPs fool around the unequivocally critical purpose in their lives, from diagnosing usual maladies that start them to picking up some-more life melancholy conditions that need further investigations as good as care from the tertiary centre. They customarily act as the friend as good as the confidante, being arcane to most problems that burden their patients.

Interior of Delicious Cafe during Dua Residency

Unfortunately, most of the time, GPs have been customarily unequivocally busy as good as conference time is customarily limited. In Western Medical Practice, history receiving or the description of symptoms by the studious is the unequivocally critical partial of the consultation. A Western Trained Doctor cannot plead it what is wrong with the studious by only receiving the pulse, the fantasy most appropriate left to B class TVB teledramas. If we lived in an preferred world, the GP should outlay during least thirty minutes per consult, as good as outlay the little time receiving your history as good as examining we as good as ultimately describing the diagnosis or advising we upon further review similar to red blood tests or imaging that competence be beneficial in the diagnosis.

Delicious Cafe

Below have been the little thoughts upon how to maximize your conference in that limited amount of time, in the Malaysian context.

Delicious! Cafe

1. Time your visits when possible.

Mornings have been customarily not the good time to revisit your GP. Clinics have been customarily swarming with people who have been fasting overnight to do red blood tests, ladies who drop by after their sunrise practice or marketing as good as the office workers who wish the Medical Chit to exempt them from work. Your conference with the GP will be some-more brisk due to the overwhelming amount of patients watchful outside. Most GPs do not practice appointments as good as in this reduction than preferred situation, try not to revisit in the mornings unless of course it is an emergency.

Glutinous Rice Balls with Peanuts from Tim Pan Kor Kor, SS2

Evenings have been the bad time too. Parents who have finished operative will move their ill kid to the alloy as good as perplexing to get the deliberate after central hospital hours is the bad thought too, because the alloy would have been as good sleepy from the prolonged day. The most appropriate times have been customarily from 3PM to 5PM.

If the hospital is additional complicated as good as we find that there have been alternative unused problems that competence need attention, try asking the Doctor if it will be improved for we to come back for an additional visit.

Red Beans as good as Soya from Tim Pan Kor Kor

2. Be Properly Attired.

Just the little usual sense. If we have the rash upon your thighs, do not wear prolonged tights unless we wish to uncover of your undergarments too. It would be most appropriate to wear lax fitting clothes, generally if we have been awaiting an ultrasound scan or the little alternative procedures to be preformed. The time outlayed upon undoing clasps as! good as buttons should be improved outlayed during describing your symptoms as good as getting utilitarian recommendation from your doctor.

Pickled Chili from Yook Tho Yin

Gentlemen should avoid wearing singlets. The tactile kick from the soppy as good as hairy bush underneath the armpits whilst the Doctor attempts to take your BP will not endear we to him. Unless it is an emergency, try to be clean. Doctors have been after all only human, as good as will conclude any effort to have the deliberate as pleasant as possible. I am certain any ethical Doctor will tolerate anybody who smells similar to rotting fish if it is an emergency. Turning up with your hand lonesome in douse as good as withdrawal the route of physique odour that requires 3 cans of air freshener to censor the smell is only solid silly if we have been only during the hospital to collect up your unchanging anti hypertensives. The Nurse would have to outlay time wiping off the douse marks upon the chair as good as table, time that could be used to see the next patient.

Sang Meen from YTY

3. Children as good as Clinics.

Try to leave we children who have been not ill during home as good as do not move them along with we to the clinic. Clinics have been filled with ill people as good as Germs. It is probable for them to get infected as well. Children have been of course hyperactive if they have been good (sometimes even if they have been sick).

If Mummy is sick, please leave the children during home. Uncle Doctor will be unequivocally really distracted if Little Johnny treats the RM120,000 ultrasound appurtenance similar to the PS 3 as good as Little Lisa jumps up as good as down the weighing scale similar to the trampoline whilst Mummy is! being e xamined. It will be made worse if Daddy is discussing the stock marketplace with his broker in the background. It will be the natural reaction of the Doctor to hurry upon the consultation. The examination room is customarily not unequivocally kid accessible as good as filled with electrical hazards as good as sharp instruments.

Preparation for the ill kid for the conference starts during home. There have been most kid care books that teached techniques of scheming the kid for the revisit to the Dr. Try to keep the kid comfortable, as good as move along his or her favourite toy. Again, fuss giveaway wardrobe that have been lax as good as gentle will have it simpler for them to be examined. For comparison children who have been fretful of clinics, try personification "doctor" with them during home with the fondle stethescope to familiarize them with the rote of physical examination.

Salted Fish as good as Pork from YTY

4. Be concise as good as accurate about your symptoms.

Terms similar to rashness means opposite things to opposite people. It could mean feeling similar to blacking out, feeling similar to the room is spinning for feeling the little form of imbalance, all of that competence have opposite causes. If we have had the symptoms before, plead it the Doctor because we have been particularly disturbed about the current episode. Is it some-more severe, or does it come with alternative symptoms as well.

Avoid vague terms similar to "uncomfortable". Use the denunciation that we have been unequivocally conversant with to avoid confusion.

Take note of any prior allergic reactions to remedy as good as demand upon getting the name of the medicine from the clinic. Jot down the names of any remedy that we have been receiving or have taken over the past day prior to the conference to avoid any undesirable interactions with the remed! y that t he alloy is prescribing for you. A unequivocally engaging regard to note is that the little people can recollect all the tip 3 prize winners for Magnum for the past month, but have been incompetent to stop what remedy they have been allergic to.

Fish Head Curry from YTY

5. Ask

If we have been in doubt, ask. A good Doctor customarily will let we know because he thinks that your symptoms as good as signs fits in with the sold diagnosis. Make the Doctor plead the diagnosis devise with we in detail, as good as ask for probable complications that competence arise from both the disease as good as the treatment. But of course, ask intelligently. For instance, do not ask questions similar to where do bacterias come from, as good as in the routine give your alloy the stroke.

Ginger Chicken

This blog post is mainly for entertainment value. Please deliberate your professional healing practitioner for correct advice.

One evening saw us catching up upon Chinese food from the small pappy as good as mom corner in DU. Yok Tho Yin serves Chinese food that is most appropriate described as hearty as good as affordable or boring as good as predictable, depending upon how we see it. The price was certainly reasonable, the meal for 4 price us reduction than RM100. The star of the night would be the Salted Egg Yolks Fried with Bitter Gourd, that was the lovely tribute to the customarily depressed as good as forbidding Bitter Gourd. It was lifted out of it's ennui by the bright fever phony yolks that provided an engaging flaky as good as powdery saltiness to this pleasing combination.



Desser! ts durin g Tim Pan Kor Kor was reflected by their crowd that would normal around twenty-three years old. Full of hopes as good as unrealized dreams. Dish cafe is already good known as good as is the gentle place to have the civil review amidst the pleasing interior. Food will be tried as good as tested favourites that is not unequivocally my crater of tea.

Yook Tho Yin
31, Jalan SS21/37
Damansara Utama
Petaling Jaya

Tim Pan Kor Kor
No 36, Jalan SS2/63
47000 Petalin Jaya

Delicious
Dua Residency
Jalan Tun Razak
Kuala Lumpur.

Green Chile Enchiladas

If you were to ask me what my favorite food was in the whole world, I would most likely respond, enchiladas. And not the exotic, wonderfully complex authentic enchiladas from Mexico, but the cheesy casserole American version my mom made for us growing up. Just smelling the tortillas being lightly fried (to soften them so they roll up easily), and my tummy will leap for joy knowing that enchiladas will be ready shortly.

This is the scent of my childhood, my mom in the kitchen, the family around the table. We always make enough for leftovers because as my father will happily tell you, there is nothing better than my mom's enchiladas, re-heated for breakfast.

My tomatillo plants are still producing, as is the Anaheim green chile plant, so I decided to do a green chile salsa verde version of my mom's enchiladas. Note that this recipe can be much easier to prepare than what I've shown here. If this weren't tomatillo season, and if I had only half an hour to prepare a meal for the family, I would use prepared tomatillo salsa, instead of roasting my own, and prepared canned chiles too if I didn't have fresh chiles or time to roast them. Then it's just a matter of frying the tortillas in a little oil, rolling them up with cheese and chiles, assembling them in a casserole, covering with sauce and cooking until the cheese melts. (Speaking of which, I used half a pound of Jack cheese, which is on the light side. My mother would typically use a pound.)

Green Chile Enchiladas Recipe

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You can easily substitute prepared canned tomatillo salsa verde for the tomatillo sauce (you'll need two cups), and canned whole Anaheim green chiles for the chiles (remove the seeds and stems if still in the chiles).

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos
• 3 cloves garlic, still in their peels
• 2 jalapenos
• Salt

• 3-4 large Anaheim chiles
• 12 corn tortillas
• Canola or grapeseed oil
• 1/2 pound to a pound Monterey Jack cheese, grated (quantity depends on how cheesy you want the enchiladas to be)

• Sour cream
• Cilantro

Method

1 Prepare the tomatillo sauce. Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Rinse off the tomatillos. Cut them in half and place them cut-side down on a roasting pan lined with aluminum foil. Place the garlic and jalapeños on the pan with the tomatillos. Broil on the top rack on the oven for 5-7 minutes until the tomatillos are lightly charred. Remove from the oven and let cool to touch. Remove garlic from the garlic skins, discard the skins. Cut open the jalapeños and remove and discard the seeds and the stems. Place tomatillos, cooked garlic, the jalapeños, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a blender, pulse until well puréed. Set aside. (You can make several days in advance and store in the refrigerator.)

2 Prepare the Anaheim chiles. If you have a stove-top gas burner, you can roast the chiles directly over the flame of the burner (see How to roast chile peppers over a gas flame), otherwise use a broiler and broil the chiles in a roasting pan, turning them until they are blackened all over. Place the blackened chiles in a small brown paper bag. Close the bag and let sit for at least 5 minutes. Then remove the chiles from the bag and peel off and discard the blackened skin. Slice open the chiles and remove and discard the seed pod, any seeds (they're hot!) and the stems. Slice the chiles into strips.

3 Cook the tortillas. Heat a couple tablespoons of canola or grapeseed oil in a frying pan (cast iron works well) on medium high heat. Once the oil is hot, add a corn tortilla to the pan. The tortilla should sizzle as it hits the pan. Turn it over and let it cook until little pockets of air start to bubble up in the tortilla. Then use a metal spatula to remove the tortilla from the pan, shaking off any excess oil, to a plate lined with paper towels. Continue to the tortillas this way, adding more oil as needed, separating the tortillas that are cooling with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread a little of the tomatillo sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 casserole pan. One by one, place a little grated cheese and a strip or two of green chiles in the center of the tortillas, roll them up, and place them in the casserole. Once you have filled the casserole with the rolled tortillas, spread the remaining tomatillo sauce over them, and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. 5 Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F, until cheese is melted Serve with sour cream (thinned with some water) drizzled over, and some chopped fresh cilantro. Also good with it is thinly sliced iceberg lettuce that has been sprinkled with cider or white vinegar and salt. Makes for excellent leftovers, will keep in the refrigerator for days.

Serves 4-6.