Ingredients:
100g fennel leaves
100g Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
250ml extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
1) Simply place all ingredients into a food processor apart from the olive oil. Blend until smooth.

2) Pour the olive oil into the blender in a thin steam, blending until you have a smooth mixture.

Source: Pesto Recipes.

Ingredient List:
500g brioche or croissants, ripped into pieces
100g chopped pecans
100g melted butter
300ml full fat milk
200ml double cream
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
Dash of vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a large baking dish.

2) Place the bread into the baking dish, sprinkle with the pecans and the melted butter and leave to settle whilst you make the custard.

3) Whisk together the eggs with the sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth and fluffy. Combine the milk and the cream in a jug and gradually whisk the eggs into milk.

4) Once smooth, pour the custard over the bread and pecans and scrunch them together.

5) Put the baking dish into the oven and cook for 50 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Source: Bread Pudding Recipe.

Ingredients List:
250g ready-made shortcrust pastry or home-made
125g butter
100g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tbsp. plain flour
1 tbsp. brandy
3 dessert apples
5 tbsp. apricot jam

Directions:
1) Peel, core and thinly slice the apples.

2) Roll the pastry out to fit a 30cm fluted tart tin. Roll it over the pin and then unroll it over the tin. Press it into the bottom and sides and up the sides of the tin. Trim the excess but leave at least 2cm all around the edges and prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Put the tin in the oven to chill whilst you make the frangipane.

3) Preheat the oven to 200C and place a baking tray into the oven to heat up.

4) Cream together the butter and sugar until soft, light and fluffy. Add the egg, then the egg yolk, beating after each addition until fully combined. Stir in the brandy, then stir in the flour and ground almonds.

5) Spoon the frangipane into the chilled pastry and spread it so that it is even.

6) Arrange the apple slices over the frangipane in an overlapping spiral pattern, with one end of each apple slice being pushed into the filling.

7) Cook the tart for 15-20 minutes, until the frangipane begins to brown, and then turn the temperature down to 180C and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Leave to cool and then before serving, brush with the apricot jam.

Source: Apple Recipe.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup hot water
¼ teaspoon saffron
¼ cup olive oil
2 pounds rabbit, cut into 8 pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 cup cooked lima beans
1 cup green beans
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
6 cups chicken broth
4 tomatoes, diced
2 cups long-grain white rice
24 snails
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
1) Stir water and saffron together in a small bowl; set aside.

2) Heat oil in a very large skillet or shallow stockpot over medium-high; add rabbit and brown on all sides, about 6 minutes total. Add onion and cook until golden, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes. Add beans, garlic, and paprika; cook until fragrant, stirring, about 3 minutes.

3) Add broth, tomatoes, and rice; cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook 30 minutes. Add snails and cook, covered, an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Source: Paella Recipes.

Ingredients:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
¼ cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground chili powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup prepared relish (try any in our Relish recipe section)

Directions:
1) Combine chicken, lime juice, soy sauce, cumin, chili powder, and red pepper flakes in a bowl; cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

2) Preheat grill. Remove chicken from marinade, shaking off excess. Place on grill and cook until done, about 5 minutes per side. Serve immediately with favorite relish.

Source: Relish Recipe.

Directions:
1) Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on the flat side of each chestnut. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil; add chestnuts and cook 5 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, remove shells from chestnuts and inner brown skins. Return chestnuts to pot; cover with fresh water and bring to a boil Cook 30 minutes, until tender. Drain and chop chestnuts.

2) Preheat oven to 350°F.

3) Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, celery, thyme, savory, and rosemary; cook until softened, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a large mixing bowl; add breadcrumbs and reserved chestnuts and mix well. Set aside.

4) Wash turkey with cold water; pat dry. Place in a medium roasting pan; rub salt and pepper into cavities. Loosely spoon reserved stuffing mixture into cavities. Close skin with skewers or kitchen twine, and time drumsticks together.

5) Roast turkey 4 hours, placing a foil tent over the roasting pan during the last half of roasting time. Remove turkey from oven, place on serving platter, and let stand 20 minutes before carving.

If it was possible to heat the bathroom separately from the rest of the house, this would make a lot of sense in terms of your overall comfort. That’s because the bathroom is such a radically different space from any other part of your home. But though you can’t change the laws of physics regarding the heating of materials that simply don’t want to retain heat, you can work with your existing heating systems to create something much better. Let me walk you through some of the steps of how it can be done.

If you have forced hot air, the challenge is perhaps the greatest of all. Hot air rises, as we all know, and when it’s piped into the bathroom, it wants to rise instantly to the ceiling rather than hang around toward the cold tile floor where you’re standing. The goal with forced air heat, then, is to bring the heat in low so that the vent is either directly in the floor or fairly close to it. This will help warm some of the surfaces the hot air hits along the way, such as the floor, and even the bathtub or shower, if the vent is positioned well. Some of the nicest heat installations I’ve seen, in fact, include heat registers that are near the toilet. The heated air actually warms the porcelain of the toilet, which makes sitting down a much less shocking experience. Repositioning the registers in this way is easy to do during a whole-bathroom makeover. It can also be done, however, during a simpler renovation that may involve just a small amount of retiring or wall repair.

If your home has a boiler, you most likely have hot water heat, which also has some drawbacks in terms of heating a bathroom. Still, this can be reconfigured with an eye, or, I should say, a foot, toward maximum comfort. Many older houses and apartments with hot water heat contain bathrooms with old-fashioned cast-iron radiators. The problem with big radiators, however, is that they are slow to heat up, and take up a ton of space in the bathroom. This can be a problem especially in a small bathroom, where you’re literally fighting for every square inch. Instead, it makes sense when remodeling to remove these big radiators and retrofit a hot water baseboard heater in the bathroom, which is much smaller and more streamlined. And it won’t cost you anything in terms of comfort, either, because it will still offer the same amount of heating capacity, or even more. One caution: If you live in an apartment building, make sure you get management approval before proceeding.

Don’t settle for just any baseboard heat, however. With hot water heat, you typically have two choices when it comes to baseboard heaters. One type is called a fin-tube element, which is essentially a 3/4-inch hot water copper pipe decorated with small metal fins, then wrapped in a steel enclosure. The fins cause the hot water pipe to “lose” heat into the room. For anyone who has studied prehistoric creatures with their children, as I have, this is the same principle that governs the way the plates on the

Stegosaurus are believed to have radiated heat to keep the animal cool and absorbed heat to keep it warm. When the heating element is turned on, the room heats up quickly, but it cools down just as quickly when the heat clicks off, because nothing stores the heat at all. The dinosaur angle is an apt one when it comes to metal fin tubes, because you can do much better than this fossil in the bathroom, and the answer lies in cast iron.

Clunky as they are, one of the advantages of the old cast-iron radiators is that even though they do take a little bit of time to heat up, once they are warmed up and the boiler shut down, they stay warm for a long time afterward. If you’re frying bacon in a cast-iron pan, you know the pan stays hot long after you’ve turned the flame off. In radiators, cast iron offers this same advantage. You don’t have to add old-fashioned heaters in your bathroom, however. Instead, you can add smaller baseboard versions of these, which contain cast-iron elements that literally become a reservoir of heat. These baseboard heaters can be painted to blend into the room, and the only way you would know they’re there is because of the even temperature within the room.

Although cast-iron baseboard heat makes a great solution for keeping a bathroom comfortable, it does come at a small cost. Metal fin tubes would probably cost you between $6 to $10 a running foot, but cast-iron baseboards will probably cost you $25 to $35 per foot. If you were outfitting the entire house in cast-iron baseboard heaters you might balk at the price difference, but keep in mind the small scale of most bathrooms. At the most, the cost difference for a 4-foot section of a baseboard radiator would be about $100. It’s a great little extra, and one that you’ll remember every time you step into the bathroom on a cold morning.

It’s small details such as these that make a huge difference in the way a bathroom works, without breaking the budget.

Kitchen Herb Garden

Love the smell of fresh basil or crushed mint? Well, think about growing your own herb garden. You may encounter an issue that is common in today’s condos and homes and that is a shortage of space.  So it is best to get a container herb garden to compensate for this. This small mobile herb garden is a better option than growing them on a regular piece of land. Not only is it more convenient to shade your herbs from harsh climates, insects and general changes in the weather, it also helps you to take advantage of the benefits of your herbs throughout the entire year.

However, looking after your container herb garden can be a tedious task since you will need to allocate sufficient time to care for the herbs and make sure that they get all the sunlight they require as well as ensure that the water content in the soil is maintained properly.

One of the advantages of having your own potted garden is that the more common herbs grow fast and don’t need fancy pots. You can use old coffee cans, chipped mugs and dishes to grow rosemary, basil and coriander, while old terracotta pots or even simple clay pots work great for thyme, sage, lavender and oregano.

However, one of the critical aspects to be aware of when you are first starting out is that you should always buy good quality, organic seeds. This is important as the quality and growth of your herbs depend upon the quality of the seeds. Check for the expiration or packing date and avoid any seed that shows discoloration or dampness.

Other than this, the location of the herb garden is of vital importance. Sunlight, shade and temperature vary for different herbs so before planning your herb garden, find out the kind of exposure the herb will need. Some plants like basil require dry air and warm soil while these are sensitive to cold weather so, if you are planting basil indoors, keep it near the window so it gets adequate sunshine.

Container herb gardens flourish well when the soil is rich in nutrients. Make a good mix of clay, sand and soil so that the moisture content is high without being wet all the time. Clay chips are an excellent alternative to damp, lumpy soil as they are able to retain the water for a longer time.

Each herb requires a different moisture level, so check online or look in a reference book for details regarding the moisture content of each herb that you intend to plant. Once your seeds are planted, keep them moist since the proper way of watering these small containers is essential. Root rot is a common ill that develops from over watering, but for the most part, herbs require dryer soil for optimum growth. Some planning and due diligence can enable you to have a flourishing container herb garden that you can enjoy for a long time.

Bell Peppers

Making a garden salad for lunch? Don’t forget to add some bell peppers. Not only do bell peppers add color – especially the red ones – but they really boost the nutritional value of a salad. What are the health benefits of bell peppers?

Health Benefits of Bell Peppers: Red or Green?

Both red and green bell peppers are nutritious, but if you don’t know which one to use, choose the red ones. Red bell peppers are a good source of lycopene, a carotenoid that’s not found in green peppers. Lycopenes are the same bright red carotenes that give processed tomatoes their nutritional punch. Plus, some studies show that lycopenes help to lower the risk of heart disease and prostate cancer – although its benefits against prostate cancer have recently been called into question. The lycopene found in red peppers has the most powerful antioxidant activity of any member of the carotenoid family including carrots.

Health Benefits of Bell Peppers: They’re Good for Your Heart

Lycopene rich red peppers are a particularly good choice for heart health; but green peppers keep you out of the cardiologist’s office too because they’re a good source of cholesterol lowering soluble fiber. Bell peppers also contain B6 and folate to help lower homocysteine levels. High homocysteine levels have been associated with a higher risk of heart disease. Bell peppers are also an excellent source of the powerful antioxidant vitamins A and C which help to wipe out free radicals that oxidize cholesterol and lead to heart disease. There’s 162 milligrams of blood pressure lowering potassium in a cup of bell peppers – another positive for heart health.

Health Benefits of Bell Peppers: They’re Good for Your Eyes

Red bell peppers are an especially good choice for protecting vision. They’re an excellent source of lutein, a carotenoid that helps to lower the risk of macular degeneration of the eyes – the most common cause of age-related visual loss. Eating bell peppers may also reduce the risk of developing cataracts due to their high levels of beta-carotene and vitamin C.

Health Benefits of Bell Peppers: They’re an Excellent Source of Vitamin C

Bell peppers are a surprisingly good source of vitamin C with 175 mg. in a single cup. Studies have shown that a diet rich in vitamin C may lower the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and reduce inflammation in those who already have it. Vitamin C is also important for a healthy immune system and for building strong collagen to better support skin and joints. Oranges aren’t the only good source of vitamin C!

Other Benefits of Bell Peppers

Because red bell peppers are such a good source of carotenoids, they may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Plus, they’re so low in calories you can eat them to your heart’s content. One word of warning. Red bell peppers are often heavily sprayed with pesticides, so buy them organic when you can.

Cooking Peppers

Know you know all about the benefits of bell peppers, you’ll surely want to be getting more of them in your diet. Try the pepper recipes collection for some inspirational recipes for bell peppers.

Why Do You Want A Massage?

Most people seek massage therapy simply because they feel like their body is becoming run down, or they are stressed and need a way to relaxed. Whilst this may seem like pure indulgence, it also brings a number of benefits that can last a number of days and weeks after the massage itself.

The Physical Benefits of Massage

Throughout the massage, your therapist will work on individual muscles to help work out any tension. This will help your body to relax, certain soreness in your muscles will go away, and you will feel as though your body can move more freely.

Some of the known physical benefits of massage include:

• An increased range of motion in the joints, as shown in a recent study of dancers who performed better after massage.
• A decrease in fatigue related to illness, and a healthier immune system due to the fact that white blood cells are increased through massage.
• Lower back pain can be greatly reduced through massage, as well as a number of other aches and pains in the body.
• Massage can also aid in the body’s recovery after surgery.

The Emotional Benefits of Massage

Relieving the tension in your muscles is not just a physical release, it can also be an emotional one. Massage therapy is often combined with other treatments, such as heat and aromatherapy, that help people to relax. Most people find that they are less stressed during the period following their massage, and that it helps them to forget about their worries.