• Get the recipe for sweet potato chips.
• Don’t like salt? Make this sweet potato cheesecake and other sweet potato desserts.
• What’s the difference between a sweet potato and a yam?
• Here’s sweet potato nutrition information, and how to add more to your meal plan.

Photo of North Fork sweet potato chips by Elton Lin | THE NIBBLE.

This quick read can tell you if you should
seriously consider a culinary career.

Many people consider careers as a chef de cuisine, pastry chef or caterer. But what’s the reality versus the dream?

Some insights come from Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Industry, in a new book, Love What You Do: Building A Career In The Culinary Industry.

This quick-read is as easy as sitting through a talk by Ms. Hamilton, as she discusses the costs, training and other requirements of preparing for a culinary career. (Note to Food Network enthusiasts: Don’t expect to become a highly paid celebrity chef or a TV star. You’ll be working long days at an average annual salary of $40,700 (less to start: the national average salary in the first four years of employment is $33,700).

Ms. Cann covers the practical side: how much you need to live on while you attend school, full-time versus part-time, tuition, career paths, how to get hired and what to expect in your first year.

It’s a very interesting read for people who love food and want a peek behind the scenes; and, as a paperback, a great gift for anyone thinking of a culinary career.

The creamy cocktail was often served as a nightcap.

It’s dangerously good—like a spiked milkshake.

 
BRANDY ALEXANDER HISTORY

According to the Classic Cocktail Club of Milan, Italy, the Brandy Alexander was created in 1922 in London, “at the time of” the wedding of Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood to Henry, Viscount Lascelles (later, 6th Earl of Harewood).

So why is it called Alexander? It’s a variation of an earlier, gin-based cocktail called the Alexander.

Who was that Alexander? No one related to royalty, and an New Yorker to boot.

According to Liquor.com, one of the earliest known printed recipes for the Alexander dates to 1916. The cocktail is believed to have originated at Rector’s (est. 1899), a seafood restaurant in the New York theater district.

The bartender there, one Troy Alexander, created the eponymous concoction in order to serve a white drink at a dinner celebrating Phoebe Snow.

Of course, in 1916 the singer Phoebe Snow (1950-2011) was not around. This Phoebe was a fictitious advertising character Phoebe Snow, a railroad traveler who wore a snow-white dress. She graced an advertising campaign for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.

The railroad was trumpeting that it powered its locomotives with anthracite, a clean-burning variety of coal—that would not in any way shed coal dust on that white dress.
 
 
RECIPE: BRANDY ALEXANDER

Ingredients Per Drink

[2] Add a nutmeg rim, or mix nutmeg with sugar. Use a grater or Microplane to hand-grate nutmeg (photo © Taste Of Home).

1. Fill a shaker halfway with ice cubes.

2. Add brandy, creme de cacao and half-and-half; shake well.

3. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with grated nutmeg. Or, rim the glass with a mixture of nutmeg and sugar.
 
 
TURN A BRANDY ALEXANDER INTO DESSERT

Add a scoop of chocolate or vanilla ice cream and serve in a globe wine goblet or other alternative to a martini glass.

________________

*The original Alexander recipe would have used white crème de cacao, for a snow white drink.
 

This barbecue pork loin saves many calories
with a sugar-free blackberry sauce. Here’s
the recipe. Photo courtesy The J.M.
Smucker Company.

Everyone brings his or her best low-calorie dish, along with copies of the recipe to share and, if it’s a buffet, an index card to set in front of the dish, with the name of the dish and the cook, the ingredients and, if possible, calories per saving.

For more party fun, everyone can rank their top three dishes, and winners can be named.

The prizes?

Something low-calorie, of course! Or something no-calorie, like fancy brands of mineral water.

It’s a great party idea: Less cooking for you and the opportunity to try lots of new low-calorie recipes with your friends—who will be very thankful for all the new recipes they’ll be taking home.

• Enjoy an omelet for breakfast or lunch. Or how about Portabella Eggs Benedict: The portabella substitutes for the English muffin. No bread, no carbs.
• Make the perfect hard-boiled egg.
• Check out all the different types of eggs in our Egg Glossary. It’s egg-citing!
• Learn your egg nutrition.

Eggs are an inexpensive and delicious source of nutrition. Think of how to integrate them into your menus—such as this mushroom and smoked salmon frittata. You can substitute sausage or other favorite meat, or make it all vegetarian.

These are real chicken eggs—no retouching.
They come from different breeds of heritage
hens. Photo by Hudson Bedell | IST.