(Family Features) If you and your loved ones yearn for new, stimulating experiences to feel connected to the outdoors, look no further than enjoying mealtime al fresco. Inspired by the Mediterranean tradition of “eating in the open air,” al fresco dining offers passionate home cooks a fresh way to enjoy their favorite recipes outside with friends and family.
Consider these two tried-and-true al fresco tips from television personality and culinary icon Rachael Ray the next time you enjoy dinner on the deck or lunch on the patio.
Gather the right tools: On those buggy days and nights during the warm season when you’re dining al fresco, grab a food mesh tent. Not only will it protect your food, but it also looks good and goes with a variety of table settings.
Plan the decor: When hosting friends and family, up your floral game by reaching into the garden and adding some fresh herbs – it’s aesthetically pleasing and smells delicious.
Ideal al fresco meals typically take advantage of in-season produce, offer easy preparation so you can focus on entertaining and are simple enough to eat outdoors. Skip complicated cooking steps and turn to a delicious option like Yellowfin Tuna and Artichoke Pasta, which can be served as an appetizer, side dish or on its own as a light main course.
This dish practically calls for ingredients like Genova Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil, which features cuts of wild-caught tuna, hand-filleted in just the right amount of olive oil. Savory, rich and flavorful with a perfect texture, the tuna elevates the dish with a uniquely rich and savory flavor stemming from Mediterranean inspiration.
To find more al fresco dining inspiration and recipe ideas, visit GenovaSeafood.com.
Yellowfin Tuna and Artichoke Pasta
Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray on behalf of Genova Tuna Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 40 minutes with fresh artichokes (25 minutes with canned) Servings: 4
Artichokes:
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Cold water
12 small, fresh artichokes or 2 cans artichoke hearts in water
1/2 cup white wine, chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 pound spaghetti or linguine
1 lemon, juice only
1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley, divided
1 small handful fresh mint, chopped, divided
1/4 cup toasted pistachios or pine nuts, chopped
To make artichokes: Preheat oven to 425 F.
Fill bowl with cold water and juice of one lemon.
If using fresh artichokes, trim tops of artichokes and tougher outer leaves. Using vegetable peeler or small paring knife, trim stems. Once prepped, cut fresh artichokes in half. If using canned artichokes, drain well and quarter lengthwise.
Place artichokes in lemon water.
Let soak 2-3 minutes, drain and pat dry with kitchen towel.
In casserole or baking dish, arrange artichokes and add juice of remaining lemon, quarter lemon and add lemon wedges to dish.
Add olive oil and salt and pepper, to taste.
Roast 25-30 minutes, or until tender.
To make pasta: Bring large pot of water to boil.
While water is coming to boil, place large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil and butter. Add garlic; red pepper, if desired; and salt, to taste, and swirl 1 minute. Add white wine or stock and let reduce by half.
When water comes to boil, salt water, add pasta and cook 1 minute less than directions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water before draining.
Add artichokes to large skillet with tuna with its oil and gently break up with back of wooden spoon or paddle.
Add lemon juice and reserved pasta water to skillet along with drained pasta, cheese and half the parsley, mint and pistachios. Toss to combine, top with remaining parsley, mint and pistachios and serve.
Rebecca Jo is a mother of four and is a creative soul from Phoenix, Arizona, who also enjoys new adventures. Rebecca Jo has a passion for the outdoors and indulges in activities like camping, fishing, hunting and riding roller coasters. She is married to Rod Washington
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Rebecca Jo is a mother of four and is a creative soul from Phoenix, Arizona, who also enjoys new adventures. Rebecca Jo has a passion for the outdoors and indulges in activities like camping, fishing, hunting and riding roller coasters. She is married to Rod Washington
(Family Features) Keep the heat out of your kitchen this summer with these grilled Chicken Skewers. Enjoy them on their own, pair with rice, serve as chicken tacos or toss in a salad for nearly endless, delicious possibilities. Visit Culinary.net to find more summer flavor inspiration.
In saucepan over medium heat, cook brown sugar, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, barbecue seasoning, honey and teriyaki sauce until well combined.
Cube chicken and place in large bowl. Pour sauce over chicken, saving some for basting. Marinate at least 1 hour.
Heat grill to medium heat.
Place marinated chicken cubes on skewers and arrange on baking sheet. Grill until chicken reaches 165 F internal temperature, 20-30 minutes. Baste with remaining sauce as needed. Serve over rice or use for chicken tacos.
Substitution: Use hot honey instead of regular honey to spice it up.
SOURCE:Culinary.net
(Family Features) A nutrition boost for your daily menus can go a long way for families focused on making healthy eating decisions. If you’re looking for an easy way to add nutrients to your meals, the ancient grain sorghum could be the solution you’ve been looking for.
Sorghum is non-GMO, gluten-free and a source of 13 essential nutrients. Sorghum can be enjoyed as whole and pearled grain, flour or popped like popcorn, making it a versatile ingredient you can incorporate into meal-planning. It’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Adding a new twist to mealtime can be a cinch. With sorghum, it’s easy to achieve flavorful meals that have protein, fiber and other nutrients. Simply use your stove, a slow cooker, rice cooker or oven to prepare sorghum and replace the grain in your favorite recipes. Or discover a new favorite like this Sorghum BLT Salad.
For a quick and healthy snack, grab a handful of Popped Sorghum and feel good about eating between meals. You can purchase popped sorghum or prepare it yourself using one of many simple methods. A delicious alternative to popcorn, popped sorghum is quickly becoming a favorite snack option.
To discover more recipe inspiration and find easy ways to add sorghum to your family’s favorite dishes, visit SorghumCheckoff.com.
Recipe courtesy of United Sorghum Checkoff Program
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4-6
Dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
salt, to taste
Salad:
1 pound bacon
3 cups cooked whole-grain sorghum
1 head romaine lettuce, rinsed, dried and shredded
1-2 cups mixed greens, torn into 1-inch pieces
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
4 green onions, thinly sliced
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
Parmesan or goat cheese (optional)
To make dressing: Blend mayonnaise, milk, garlic powder and pepper until smooth and creamy. Season with salt, to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To make salad: In large, deep skillet over medium-high heat, fry bacon. Turn frequently until evenly browned. Drain on paper towel and crumble.
In large bowl, combine sorghum, lettuce, mixed greens, tomatoes, parsley, green onions and bacon. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and toss with dressing. Top with Parmesan or goat cheese, if desired, and serve.
‘I’ll have a coke – no, not Coca-Cola, Sprite.’
Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesValerie M. Fridland, University of Nevada, Reno
With burgers sizzling and classic rock thumping, many Americans revel in summer cookouts – at least until that wayward cousin asks for a “pop” in soda country, or even worse, a “coke” when they actually want a Sprite.
Few American linguistic debates have bubbled quite as long and effervescently as the one over whether a generic soft drink should be called a soda, pop or coke.
The word you use generally boils down to where you’re from: Midwesterners enjoy a good pop, while soda is tops in the North and far West. Southerners, long the cultural mavericks, don’t bat an eyelash asking for coke – lowercase – before homing in on exactly the type they want: Perhaps a root beer or a Coke, uppercase.
As a linguist who studies American dialects, I’m less interested in this regional divide and far more fascinated by the unexpected history behind how a fizzy “health” drink from the early 1800s spawned the modern soft drink’s many names and iterations.
Bubbles, anyone?
Foods and drinks with wellness benefits might seem like a modern phenomenon, but the urge to create drinks with medicinal properties inspired what might be called a soda revolution in the 1800s.
An 1878 engraving of a soda fountain.Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
The process of carbonating water was first discovered in the late 1700s. By the early 1800s, this carbonated water had become popular as a health drink and was often referred to as “soda water.” The word “soda” likely came from “sodium,” since these drinks often contained salts, which were then believed to have healing properties.
Given its alleged curative effects for health issues such as indigestion, pharmacists sold soda water at soda fountains, innovative devices that created carbonated water to be sold by the glass. A chemistry professor, Benjamin Stillman, set up the first such device in a drugstore in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1806. Its eventual success inspired a boom of soda fountains in drugstores and health spas.
By the mid-1800s, pharmacists were creating unique root-, fruit- and herb-infused concoctions, such as sassafras-based root beer, at their soda fountains, often marketing them as cures for everything from fatigue to foul moods.
These flavored, sweetened versions gave rise to the linking of the word “soda” with a sweetened carbonated beverage, as opposed to simple, carbonated water.
Seltzer – today’s popular term for such sparkling water – was around, too. But it was used only for the naturally carbonated mineral water from the German town Nieder-Selters. Unlike Perrier, sourced similarly from a specific spring in France, seltzer made the leap to becoming a generic term for fizzy water.
Many late-19th-century and early 20th-century drugstores contained soda fountains – a nod to the original belief that the sugary, bubbly drink possessed medicinal qualities.Hall of Electrical History Foundation/Corbis via Getty Images
Regional naming patterns
So how did “soda” come to be called so many different things in different places?
It all stems from a mix of economic enterprise and linguistic ingenuity.
The popularity of “soda” in the Northeast likely reflects the soda fountain’s longer history in the region. Since a lot of Americans living in the Northeast migrated to California in the mid-to-late 1800s, the name likely traveled west with them.
As for the Midwestern preference for “pop” – well, the earliest American use of the term to refer to a sparkling beverage appeared in the 1840s in the name of a flavored version called “ginger pop.” Such ginger-flavored pop, though, was around in Britain by 1816, since a Newcastle songbook is where you can first see it used in text. The “pop” seems to be onomatopoeic for the noise made when the cork was released from the bottle before drinking.
A jingle for Faygo touts the company’s ‘red pop.’
Linguists don’t fully know why “pop” became so popular in the Midwest. But one theory links it to a Michigan bottling company, Feigenson Brothers Bottling Works – today known as Faygo Beverages – that used “pop” in the name of the sodas they marketed and sold. Another theory suggests that because bottles were more common in the region, soda drinkers were more likely to hear the “pop” sound than in the Northeast, where soda fountains reigned.
As for using coke generically, the first Coca-Cola was served in 1886 by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta and the founder of the company. In the 1900s, the Coca-Cola company tried to stamp out the use of “Coke” for “Coca-Cola.” But that ship had already sailed. Since Coca-Cola originated and was overwhelmingly popular in the South, its generic use grew out of the fact that people almost always asked for “Coke.”
No alcohol means not ‘hard’ but ‘soft.’Nostalgic Collections/eBay
As with Jell-O, Kleenex, Band-Aids and seltzer, it became a generic term.
What’s soft about it?
Speaking of soft drinks, what’s up with that term?
It was originally used to distinguish all nonalcoholic drinks from “hard drinks,” or beverages containing spirits.
Interestingly, the original Coca-Cola formula included wine – resembling a type of alcoholic “health” drink popular overseas, Vin Mariani. But Pemberton went on to develop a “soft” version a few years later to be sold as a medicinal drink.
Due to the growing popularity of soda water concoctions, eventually “soft drink” came to mean only such sweetened carbonated beverages, a linguistic testament to America’s enduring love affair with sugar and bubbles.
With the average American guzzling almost 40 gallons per year, you can call it whatever you what. Just don’t call it healthy.Valerie M. Fridland, Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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