Vacuum Food Sealers Review
One of the top brands of vacuum food sealer is FoodSaver. Tilia (FoodSaver) requires ‘Channel Bags’. These are custom manufactured for Tilia by ‘Sorbent Systems’. They are multilayer bags specially formulated to hold a vacuum.
My Foodsaver is too old to even have a model number. It works as well as the day I bought it. It is heavier then an anvil, but it works as advertised and it has a vacuum port for accessories. The only ones I have are adapters to evacuate ‘Mason jars’. Food bacterias do not live in a high vacuum. I don’t use my ‘FoodSaver’ anymore. My FoodSaver will thoroughly crush an aluminum soda can.
Another brand of vacuum sealer is the Sinbo VS 280 from Sorbent Systems. It uses a vacuum system different then Tilia. It is a snorkel system. That is, it has a very flat retractable tube that inserts into the top of the bag allowing a seal to occur that will support evacuating the bag. It will evacuate and seal ‘Ziploks’ quite successfully. Howver ‘Ziploks’ are not strong enough nor are they designed to hold a vacuum. My VS280 will also crush an aluminum can, but possibly not quite as flat as the Foodsaver does. The difference is hard to tell. I have no idea what the vacuum is in mm Hg. I see no difference in longevity in the freezer.
You can get 6″ X 8″ and 8″ X 12″ bags from Sorbent Systems in quanties of 400 (200 each). These bags are at least as reliable as the Tilia bags and far cheaper. I don’t bother to wash them out and I use a lot of them. Like the Tilia bags, my typical method of reheating vacuumed, frozen food is to put a bag into a pot of water and boil it for a few minutes. Beware of allowing your machine to ingest fluids into the vacuum motor. My VS280 has gone belly up for that reason. (Damn demon rum). I will order a new one tomorrow. They are reasonably priced the last time I looked. I may query the company about getting mine repaired, but they don’t seem to have much support for this little machine.
My first sealer was a Tilia (FoodSaver) and the one I now own is a Black & Decker (B&D). Although they say you can use “most bags from other manufacturers”, I found the gallon-sized Tilia bags were 1/2 inch WIDER and not easily useable. Comparing the 2 machines, my overall vote would go to the Tilia (FoodSaver); it was faster and the bags seemed to stay sealed better. My B&D has problems with the larger bags of their own. They just don’t seal as well.
Victor Epand is an expert author for http://www.VacuumFoodSealer.info/ . Preserve and store foods at home using this proven vacuum packing method. Search through our selection of FoodSaver vacuum food sealers here: http://www.vacuumfoodsealer.info/category/appliances.html
Salads and Salad Dressings
Salads bring fruits and vegetables to the table crisp, cool, and color-bright. With greens, fresh vegetables, or gay fruit, they add a light touch. Or they may be the sturdy kind that feature such items as meat, potatoes, cheese, or beans.
Light salads are usually served in portions of about 1/2 cup. Heavier salads, often used as main dishes, may provide about 1 cup for each serving.
Start with good fruits and vegetables:
Selecting top-quality fruits and vegetables in market or garden is a good start toward a good salad. Crisply fresh food has eye and taste appeal, and the best nourishment, besides.
Watch for smooth, colorful skins on apples, plums, cucumbers, if they are to join the salad with jackets on.
Give salad foods the best kitchen care to avoid bruising and hold freshness. If prepared ahead of time, store salad ingredients without dressing in refrigerator. Keeping them cool saves nutrients.
What kind of dressing?
What shall it be-sweet or tart, thick or thin-for the salad dressing? The answer lies in your family’s taste.
Main-dish salads made with meat, fish, poultry, eggs, beans, cheese, or potatoes usually call for a mayonnaise-type or cooked salad dressing. But some of these more substantial salads are good with tart french dressing-salad oil combined with lemon juice or vinegar plus seasonings.
Tart french dressing is the most likely choice for vegetable salads and vegetable-fruit combinations. But some vegetable salads may well take a mayonnaise or cooked dressing.
Reserve the sweet clear french dressings for fruit salads. Mayonnaise made milder with whipped cream or thinned and sweetened with fruit juice is good for fruit salads too.
For appetite appeal:
Chill ingredients before mixing-except for molded salads.
Provide tartness in the body of salad or dressing.
Use salad greens other than lettuce sometimes. Have you tried chicory, escarole, endive, kale, spinach, dandelion greens, romaine, watercress, and Chinese cabbage?
Sprinkle orange, lemon, lime, or pineapple juice on fruits that may turn dark-apples, peaches, and bananas, for instance.
For tossed green salads, tear greens in fairly large pieces or cut with scissors. Larger pieces give more body to the salad.
Prevent wilting and sogginess by drying the greens used in salads, draining canned foods well before adding to salad, using just enough salad dressing to moisten. For raw vegetable salads, add dressing at the last minute.
Fruit combinations
1. Sliced pineapple, apricot halves, sweet red cherries.
2. Watermelon balls, peach slices, orange slices.
3. Grapefruit sections, banana slices, berries or cherries.
4. Grapefruit sections, unpared apple slices.
5. Peach slices, pear slices, halves of red plums.
6. Pineapple wedges, banana slices, strawberries.
7. Cooked dried fruit, white cherries, red raspberries.
Fruit and vegetable combinations
1. Shredded raw carrots, diced apples, raisins.
2. Sliced or ground cranberries, diced celery and apples, orange sections.
3. Thin cucumber slices, pineapple cubes.
4. Avocado and grapefruit sections, tomato slices.
5. Shredded cabbage, orange sections, crushed pineapple.
Vegetable combinations
1. Grated carrots, diced celery, cucumber slices.
2. Spinach, endive, or lettuce, with tomato wedges.
3. Sliced raw cauliflower flowerets, chopped green pepper, celery, pimiento.
4. Shredded cabbage, cucumber cubes, slivers of celery.
5. Cubed cooked beets, thinly sliced celery, sweet onions.
6. Cooked whole-kernel corn and shredded snap beans, sweet pickles, onion rings.
This is an extract from Family Fare Food Management and Recipes http://shopping.directorygold.com/zen/descriptions/lf/FamilyFare.htm
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Tips On How To Vacuum Seal And Freeze Food In Jars
Do you reuse the bags? If so, is there an easy way of getting them clean & dry? I love the Food Saver, but am finding that if I freeze anything greasy (like stew for example) the bag is a major pain to get clean. If there is any trace of residue left the bag won’t seal properly. Any hints?
I put the food into a ziploc bag, then press the air out of it and put that bag into the freezer bag. I then seal it. Also, when you wash it, turn it inside out before putting it into the dishwasher.
Grease and plastic bags cling together, and it is just about impossible to get the grease completely cleaned off. When my FoodSaver bags got too messy from the content I threw them out….expensive, but just couldn’t deal with the mess of trying to get the bag clean.
I use the ball jars and jar sealing attachment when I freeze stews and chili’s. They are much cheaper than the plastic bags. I also have been buying bulk things like cashews and putting them in small sized jars and it works great!!! I can even put the jars in my musty basement and when I want some fresh sugar or non-frozen item they are really fresh. I have some “personal” sized snack jars that are very small and I use them for alot of things.
All standard canning jars (Ball and Kerr) can safely be placed in the freezer. Jars take up a lot of freezer space and are somewhat dangerous because they CAN and DO break easily. Cleaning glass out of a freezer would be about the last thing on my list of things to do…
Some people think that a better method for freezing soup (and many other foods) is to quick-freeze it in user-friendly amounts first. Use 1-cup plastic containers for soup so that you can use 1 for one serving (nice for lunch for one), or you can pull out more if you need more servings. After they are frozen you can pop them out of the plastic containers and stack them and seal them with my FoodSaver in a bag. They fit better in the freezer. You can do the same thing in inexpensive 1-quart plastic freezer containers if you need larger amounts than 1-serving sizes.
You should probably check the manufacturers instructions about vacuum-sealing soup before it’s frozen, or after; and whether that can/should be done in a jar. Call the toll-free number for more information.
I use the bags for meats, then I throw them out because the meats are raw and I just dont think I could clean them well enough to reuse. When I use the bags for cooked items or veggies, I will wash and re-use them until they get too short to use.
When you vacuum seal and freeze the chili in jars, how much space do you leave at the top of the jar for expansion? Fill them about 3/4 of the way. If you have the ones that narrow a little on the top (have a shoulder) I would leave like an inch or more from the top of the food to the shoulder of the jar. Hopefully that makes sense. I have never had any jars break yet and I freeze alot of soups, sauces and chili’s during the winter.
Victor Epand is an expert author for http://www.VacuumFoodSealer.info/ . Preserve and store foods at home using this proven vacuum packing method. Search through our selection of FoodSaver vacuum food sealers here: http://www.vacuumfoodsealer.info/category/appliances.html
The Medieval Restaurant Dining Experience
Whether you’re serving at a Medieval Times or other Middle-Ages themed eatery, catering at a Renaissance Faire, or find yourself playing “serving wench” at a King Arthur-themed wedding, understanding the Medieval dining experience will help you carry off this part-meal, part-show with style.
Many people’s ideas about how folk ate in the Middle Ages are built more out of myths and legends than actual history. Maybe these ideas came about by attending a poorly-executed ‘Medieval Banquet’ where gluttony ruled supreme, and table manners were derided. However, in the case of the late Middle Age English gentry, the opposite was true. Now, isn’t that reassuring?
Take into account that, although the existence of the American continents was known at this time, it was mainly regarded as “the big piece of land in the way when you try to find a western route to the Orient”. Foods native to the New World, such as potatoes, tomatoes, and corn, would not be discovered for nearly two hundred years. Keep the cuisine native to Europe, Asia, and Africa. And brace yourself for a huge disappointment: no chocolate! Chocolate didn’t come around until the discovery of the South American cacao tree.
Dealing with what they had, ladies of the land would vie with each other to lay out the most exotic fare. The further away the foodstuff came from, the more expensive it was. The table the lady set was a status symbol and a reflection of the richness of her husband.
Soups and stews were called ‘pottages’ (as in a ‘mess of pottage’) in those days; they would be served in a handled pottery bowl, and wine served in a glass. Venetian glass was much prized for this purpose, being hand-blown by artists of the craft.
Red wine was preferred, and the deeper and redder, the better. For a long time, darkness of the wine was seen as a sign of quality, and some unscrupulous dealers had been known to darken their product with beetroot juice. This led to strict rules being introduced, with dire penalties of a beheading for those caught, after a king or two became displeased with the practice.
A small dish for holding salt, called a salt-cellar, would be made of the finest material, for salt in those days cost more than saffron. Food was served in messes to cater for four people (the origin of the British Army term ‘mess hall’) and each individual took a small portion on to their ‘trencher’. A trencher was a deep slice of bread suitable to scoop out a bowl from, and the higher your status, the fresher your trencher.
The trencher was not usually eaten, but left, along with any uneaten food, for either the servants, alms for the poor or to be fed to the animals. But any cold meat and leftover fruit might be reserved for breakfast the following day.
The diner brought his own cutlery, which consisted of knife and spoon only, since the fork was not introduced until the 17th century. The spoon, according to the owner’s status, might be bone, horn or pewter. He might even have been born with ‘a silver spoon in his mouth’, as the saying goes. The knife could be the sheath knife that most men carried for dual function of fighting and dining, or it could be one especially made for the purpose.
There were books on etiquette at the table. Some of these rules still hold good today, carried down by tradition. In the Middle Ages, you ignored them at your social peril. Water, often scented with rose petals, was always provided for the diners to wash their hands before eating. Sometimes this was brought around again between courses. The rules were much like today; no talking with your mouth full, no loud talking, no elbows on the table, and no belching. Water being a somewhat hazardous beverage in these days before treatment plants, ale and wine were seen as the preferred beverage, even to small children, who would drink ‘new wine’ which was not fermented or apple cider.
It is true that “fingers were made before forks”, and eating with the hands was tolerated – but only to the same relative degree it is today! But, one inflexible rule which still stands today with modern Muslims, is that food was taken from the common serving vessel with the right hand only. The reason is identical to the Muslim rule; the left hand was used for, to put it delicately, personal sanitary purposes!
The main course may have consisted of an extravagant dish, such as a great pie consisting of several layers of different meats – a simple roast would have been considered too plain. Bread and cheeses either imported or domestic may also have been served. Desserts were usually milk-based dishes, sloppy and extremely bad for your teeth, but sometimes at the close of a meal, or between courses, appetizers or canapes might be brought out.
These could be sweet or savory. Surviving recipes mention meat balls shaped like hedgehogs, or decorated to look like miniature pieces of fruit, or some form of dumpling. Other finger foods were ‘douchettes’ which might be sweet, similar to a modern custard tart, or made with eggs and bacon, like a miniature ‘pocket’ quiche. Another popular finger food was a mushroom pie, shaped like a miniature Cornish pasty.
If a tourney or hunting party was planned, the lady might instruct her cook to prepare finger foods. These were to serve out to any friends or acquaintances who might drop by her tent and, once more, the main objective was not to feed visitors, but to impress them with their extravagance.
So, the more imported food she could offer, and the further afield it came from, the better. The much-vaunted spices of the orient were indeed considered precious in Medieval Europe; a mere sack of spices might be so valuable that you had to be careful traveling with them, lest you be robbed!
The final course in each case was, again, designed to impress with a big finish. There would be much anticipation waiting for the kitchen to bring out its final surprise. Maybe a great baked pudding shaped like a swan, a creamy confection of whipped cream and fruit served in a dish shaped like a boat, or fruit tarts baked in alchemical symbol shapes. The final desert was the kitchen staff’s chance to shine, and it was even customary for the guests to stand and applaud at this final presentation.
Now that you have a better grasp of this time, by all means apply the knowledge at your next Medieval-themed banquet. Nothing upsets a true Renaissance devotee more than seeing the common ignorance of history that is rampant in modern events. If you see your staff repeating some mistake, correct them on it. Further sources of information may be found through the Society for Creative Anachronism, commonly known as the SCA.
Freelance writer for over eleven years.
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Stopping Trouble In Texas Before It Starts — Getting Four Prediseases Under Control
It may just sound like a broken record, but there’s a lot of truth to the saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Especially when it comes to preventing diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and obesity. Yet there are far too few individuals in Dallas, Houston and elsewhere in Texas who take that well-worn advice to heart. Unfortunately, too many individuals are eventually diagnosed with one or more of these life-threatening conditions.
Health experts have identified four “prediseases” in which blood sugar or blood pressure is a little high, bones are beginning to thin or the scale keeps creeping up. And the experts have issued recommendations for treatment, even labeling the conditions as diseases in their own right, as with prediabetes, osteopenia, obesity and prehypertension.
Thankfully, identifying prediseases and tackling them before they become full-blown conditions is the best way to protect your long-term health. Here’s what you need to know about these four prediseases.
Prediabetes
A shocking 54 million American adults have blood glucose that’s higher than normal, but not high enough to be diabetes, putting them at greater risk for developing type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
How to Identify: A fasting blood glucose of 100 to 125 or a blood glucose of 140 to 199 two hours after drinking a special sugar solution means you have prediabetes. Chances are, your blood glucose was measured the last time you had a medical checkup. Ask your doctor if you need a “post-prandial” test.
Exercise and diet lowered the risk of diabetes by 58% versus 31% with a drug.
How to Prevent Progression: Getting type-2 diabetes is not inevitable for those with prediabetes. Losing weight and getting active are key to preventing that.
The Diabetes Prevention Program, a clinical trial of 3,230 overweight people with prediabetes, pitted weight loss (via exercise and diet) against the diabetes drug metformin to see if either could prevent or delay the onset of type-2 diabetes. Exercise and diet won by a long shot, lowering the risk of diabetes by 58%, versus 31% with metformin. The lifestyle changes worked especially well in people over age 60, reducing their risk of diabetes by 71%.
Weight loss was the main factor that reduced risk, which dropped 16% for every two pounds lost. Additionally, being physically active for at least 2 and a half hours a week reduced the risk of diabetes by 44%, even if weight loss was minimal.
Prehypertension
About one-third of Americans have prehypertension, which increases the risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) and doubles the risk of heart disease. According to the Atherosclerosis Risk in
Communities study, prehypertension especially increases the odds of heart disease among African-Americans, obese people and those with diabetes.
How to Identify: You have prehypertension when your systolic blood pressure (the top number) is 120 to 139, or your diastolic (the bottom number) is 80 to 89.
How to Prevent Progression: Strategies for controlling prehypertension are similar to those for treating high blood pressure. Weight loss is a priority, as each two-pound loss lowers blood pressure by about one point. Follow a diet moderate in fat (30% of calories), low in sodium (no more than 2,300 milligrams a day) and rich in fruits and vegetables (eight to 10 servings a day) and low-fat dairy (three servings a day), aka the DASH diet. Regular physical activity also helps.
Osteopenia
Approximately 34 million Americans over age 50 have the precondition called osteopenia, putting them at risk for osteoporosis. Although women are at greater risk, this predisease also affects men. Osteopenia has no symptoms, but, as bones get thinner, the risk of fracture increases. Without a bone density test, a broken hip may be your first clue that osteopenia has progressed to osteoporosis.
How to Identify: Bone density that is lower than normal, but not low enough to be considered osteoporosis, is called osteopenia. It is best diagnosed with a bone mineral density test that uses dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).
How to Prevent Progression: Eat a diet rich in bone-building nutrients and take a multivitamin plus a calcium supplement with vitamin D (for a total of 1,200 to 1,500 milligrams a day of calcium and 800 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D). Be sure to engage in weight-bearing exercise like walking to maintain strong bones, plus resistance exercise with rubber bands or machines, as well as stretching exercises like yoga or tai chi to improve balance.
Calcium is important for bone mass and vitamin D is crucial to help absorb calcium. Smoking and excess alcohol are off limits since they can reduce bone mass and increase the risk of fractures.
Overweight
Not only is being overweight the forerunner to obesity, a known risk factor for many diseases, just being 5% to 10% overweight also increases your risk of chronic disease, making overweight a predisease of sorts. In a recent study of middle-aged adults by the National Institutes of Health, being overweight was shown to have increased the risk of developing diabetes, gallstones, high blood pressure, heart disease, colon cancer and stroke. The risk rose in proportion to the degree of overweight.
It’s not surprising when research suggests being overweight may affect the risk of dying. In a recent study of 186,000 healthy nonsmokers, being overweight at age 50 increased the risk of death by 20% to 40%; obesity doubled or tripled it.
The risk of disease is affected not only by body weight but also by the location of body fat. Abdominal fat (apple-shaped body) poses a greater health risk than fat in the hips and thighs (pear-shaped).
How to Identify: According to the National Institutes of Health study, someone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25 is considered overweight. To calculate BMI yourself: 1) take your weight in pounds, 2) divide that by your height in inches squared (your height multiplied by itself), 3) multiply that number by 703.
Example for someone who is 5 feet 5 inches tall (65 inches) and 140 pounds: 140/4225 = 0.033 x 703 = 23 BMI.
How to Prevent Progression: The most effective defense is lifestyle change. Diseases that worsen with excess weight will improve with weight loss. To lose weight, control your portion sizes while eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes. To be more effective losing weight, increase your physical activity to 60 to 90 minutes most days of the week.
Though the specific advice varies a bit from one condition to another, dietary changes and regular physical activity are the most effective strategies for treating all of these pre-diseases. That includes a nutritious diet that’s moderate in fat, low in sugar and sodium and contains adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, lean protein and whole grains. If you are overweight, reduce the number of calories you take in every day.
Becoming active and staying active are essential to weight control. And if your doctor prescribes medication, it should complement, not take the place of, your lifestyle changes. Remember, it’s better to take preventive action now, so you won’t have to pay with your health later.
Pat Carpenter writes for Precedent Insurance Company. Precedent puts a new spin on health insurance. Learn more at http://www.precedent.com