Even experienced home cooks are not necessarily well-trained cooks. Many people have been doing it “the hard way” since they first picked up the wrong knife—and held it incorrectly.

Are you an experienced cook? Can you articulate the difference between baked chicken and roast chicken? Do you know why you should trade in that American-style rolling pin (with handles) for a French style (no handles)?

There are many “ahas” that will enlighten those who enjoy cooking. It’s easy to end up with better knife skills after reading the book.

Are you a fledgling cook? This book is as good as taking cooking classes—and better than some of the classes we’ve taken, because there’s more detail.

We are now an even more competent cook!
Photo courtesy Amazon.com.

Some recipes do contain valuable tips. For example: When making a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato, insert the tomato slice between two cheese slices. This both helps to keep the bread from taking in moisture from the tomato, and helps the cheese melt more evenly since the slices are closer to the heat source.

We never thought of that! But now, thanks to Ms. Braun Costello, we’ll be making a better grilled cheese sandwich.

Buy a copy for your favorite graduate or anyone would enjoy learning some new tricks.

The size of grapes, camu-camu are vitamin
C-laden superfruits. Photo courtesy
Acai-Natural-Pain-Free-Health.com.

Camu is the grape-size fruit of a small, shrub-like tree that grows in the swampy basins and flood plains of the Amazon rainforest. As ethnobiologists comb the world for fruits, vegetables, flowers and fauna that may have medical benefits, they’ve discovered that camu contains massive amounts of ascorbic acid—vitamin C.

Forget orange juice: No other fruit comes close to having as much vitamin C. It can comprise up to 2% of the weight of the fruit, or about 500,000 ppm. The next closest fruit, from the acerola shrub, contains 16,000-72,000 ppm. And the much larger-size oranges? Just 500-4000 ppm.

Camu also contains a host of minerals and amino acids that aid in vitamin C absorption. The flavor is between that of a sour berry and a tart citrus fruit. It is balanced by adding a little sweetener— just as with açaí. Because of the tartness, it is not eaten by the indigenous tribes on whose land it grows.

Per ethnobiologist Mark Plotkin in his book Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest, camu is not just another superfruit to intrigue knowledgeable folks of the first-world. It can also help to preserve the South American rainforest.

While the rainforest is being cut down to provide a living for the locals—to raise cattle and crops—a forest stand (a natural grove in the forest) of camu-camu is worth twice the amount to be gained from razing the forest and replacing it with cattle. Dr. Plotkin believes that the growing interest in camu holds economic promise for the local economy.

Dr. James Duke, former chief botanist for the USDA and an expert New World tropical botanist, has studied the fruit and lists a number of possible benefits in his section of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service website. He compared hundreds of fruits and herbs for their effectiveness against various health conditions (also see his website, GreenPharmacy.com).

Consumption of camu-camu for its high concentration of vitamin C is highly effective with asthma, atherosclerosis, cataracts, colds, depression, edema, gingivitis, glaucoma, hepatitis, infertility, migraines, osteoarthritis and Parkinson’s Disease. (For treatment of conditions, consult with your healthcare provider.)

Now that you know camu-camu, you can see if it’s how you prefer to consume your vitamin C. You can buy camu powder online from Navitas Naturals, which also has camu recipes—Camu Berry Lemonade, Strawberry Pomegranate Margarita (based on ginger tea, not tequila) and more.

Find more of our favorite fruits in our Fruits & Nuts Section.

Make “dessert pasta” for your favorite pasta lovers. We have a delicious selection of dessert pasta recipes.

After looking at our selection of dessert pasta, reader Katelyn Cronin submitted her own, easy-to-make idea.

> National Dessert Day is October 14th.

> National Pasta Day is October 17th.
 
 
RECIPE: VANILLA SHELLS, AN EASY DESSERT PASTA RECIPE

Katelyn makes this recipe with small shells, but you can try one jumbo shell per person, stuffed with ice cream.

You can choose a flavor other than vanilla, but make it a good pairing with the pasta. Banana, Butter Pecan, Chocolate, Dulce de Leche, Peanut Butter, Rum Raisin, and Salted Caramel sound good to us.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COOK the shells with sugar, vanilla extract, and optional rum or brandy extract.

2. Drain; cool as desired. If the shells are warm, the ice cream will melt into them more readily.

3. SERVE in a festive dish, a sundae dish, or a wine goblet with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Garnish as desired.

[1] More uses for pasta: in a pasta dessert (photo by Nicolas Raymond | SXC).

[2] Top the shells with vanilla ice cream (photo © Graeter’s).

Dee Dee’s Gourmet Cheese Straws are
great with a beer. Photo by Hannah
Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• Spicy cheese straws from Dee Dee’s Gourmet, in a reusable gift tin

• Lucero artisan olive oil, made by a grandfather, father and son team in California

• Beautiful heirloom beans from California’s Rancho Gordo, for dads who like to cook

• Porto Mangiare Meatball Mix, for dads who cook a little bit—it makes delicious beef or turkey meatballs (there’s a gluten-free version, too)

And more!

See the tasty choices.

Today’s iced teas include herbal varieties
like this hibiscus Superflower Tea
from RepublicOfTea.com.

While iced tea is not traditional in that stronghold of tea-drinkers, China, it has gained popularity over the past 30 years thanks to canned and bottled tea.

Many Americans enjoy sweetener in their tea, but “sweetened tea” is different from “sweet tea,” a Southern tradition. It is brewed strong, and served presugared (and heavily sugared) and served hot or iced (there are a brands of bottled tea that specialize in “sweet tea”).

There’s an iced tea maker from West Bend that has a “sweetness chamber” for sugar, so the sugar can be brewed right into the tea! The tea brews into a pitcher, ready to cool down with ice (or, you can drink it hot).

Some sources cite that iced tea was invented, or at least popularized, at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis by Richard Blechynden, a tea plantation owner. The story goes that no one wanted his hot tea due to the heat; so he found ice and created iced tea—an instant hit. Given the historic record, however, this story is apocryphal.

Check out our Gourmet Tea Section for our favorite bottled teas and recipes, including lavender iced tea and tea cocktails.

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