Protecting Your Heart While Preserving the Harvest (HotM 18)

After worrying for years about a family history that involves prevalent heart disease, I finally bit the bullet recently and got a total work up of all of my important "numbers" - HDL, LDL, triglycerides (TC), TC/HDL, blood pressure, etc. - that would help me assess my "actual" cardiac risk. For those of you here in Hawaii on Oahu, The Windward Heart Center is offering a free cardiac risk assessment that I highly recommend taking advantage of. No matter where you live, and even if you don't have a major concern for heart disease right now, it's good to have a baseline for all those numbers so that if they do change over the years, you know by how much.

For instance, the last (and only) time I had my total cholesterol checked was three years ago, and it was considered "borderline." It's dropped a whopping 40 points!! Not only that, but my ratio of triglycerides to HDL (the *good* cholesterol) is below "average." According to the cardiologist there, all this together means that I've got less than a 1% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. Yay! That made my day (and prompted me to go immediately and buy myself a snickers ice cream bar to celebrate - one of my biggest weaknesses from the shop at work - everything in moderation, no?)! Keep in mind that this was a huge surprise - I have lost all but one grandparent to heart attacks when my parents were young; the last one has had a quadruple bypass and my father has a stint; and that's not including uncles and great aunts and uncles, many with major bypass surgeries or heart attacks themselves.

Now, I'm not convinced that doctors have figured out how to accurately diagnose the risk for heart disease (check out this book if you want to be intrigued, as it has a lot of interesting food for thought), but I can't deny that for whatever reason, my cholesterol has certainly dropped significantly. And since I don't exercise on any normal basis (still a constant struggle and goal for me), I can only attribute it to what I've been eating - and a lot of that has to do with all of you and the recipes that you've been creating and submitting on a monthly basis to our little brainchild and pet project, The Heart of the Matter (HotM).

So let's keep it going! The theme for September is Preserving the Harvest. We want your heart healthy recipes that stretch out the foods of the season to last you for the days to come. Do you dry apple slices, rub them with your special spice mix and keep them for afternoon snacks all winter long? Do you make low-sugar jams and jellies? Or do you prefer pickling and brining the goods from your garden? Do you make your mother's spaghetti sauce and keep it in the freezer for those cold winter days or make batches of uniquely flavored vinegars? How about turning extra chilies into chili pepper water?

However you do it, whatever your favorite way to do it is, help the rest of us come up with new and unique ways to make the bounty last by sharing your recipes. Remember the special challenge of HotM recipes - each recipe should follow hearty-healthy eating guidelines - you can find more information here, here and here. If you've never joined us, this is a great time to start! Post your recipe on your blog and send me the permalink at phillipslayden AT gmail DOT com (or if you would like to participate and you do not have a blog, email me your picture and your recipe and I'll post it for you with the round-up). All entries will be due Sunday, September 28, by midnight (Hawaii time), and I'll post the round-up a few days later on this blog, and on the HotM blog. Thanks ahead of time for participating and I hope we'll all continue on our way to a heart healthy future together!

Resources:
The Windward Heart Center
641 Kailua Road
Kailua, HI 96734
by appointment only - Tues. or Thurs.
808.261.2441

Picnics: the round-up

Picnics - it seemed like such a good idea earlier in the summer. It's been raining non-stop all over Britain, no real scope for picnics ... most of ours either called off or held uncomfortably in the car. We had one on a beach in Cornwall, involving a fire, sand - and rain. I think it's been the same all over, as entries were unusually thin on the ground ... the harvest-home theme for September seems like a much better idea.









Laurie at Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska was feeling as guilty as me about not blogging enough. She got back into the groove with this Three-Bean and Macaroni Salad with Green Olive Dressing ... and she didn't even like pasta salad or green olives until she tried what she'd made for her husband.










Jugalbandi's minty coleslaw with a vegan "mayo" doesn't need a picnic to be enjoyed ... and, anyway, leafy veg like cabbage have been doing really well in all this rain. Tofu, sesame, lemongrass - this is not your run-of-the-mill coleslaw, as you'd expect from Jugalbandi.










Katie at Thyme for Cooking made ratatouille for the picnic - because that's what you do in France. Good hot or cold, full of veg - the fresher the better. Since I started roasting vegetables, I haven't made a ratatouille, which is something I need to put right, as it's delicious. Katie consulted six recipes for this, every one of them different ... I think I'll follow her version.










Next up, Annarasa makes spinach parathas ... lovely robust picnic food, and warming on a rainy day. Annarasa's mum used to make them for her to take to school in her lunchbox.










Elizabeth at Blog from Our Kitchen made veggie burgers for meat eaters - no big lumps of veg, no tofu, optional bacon. Chickpeas, the recipe is based on falafel. She and her husband prefer them to regular hamburgers ... definitely worth a try, as I love falafel.









Michelle The Accidental Scientist has recently moved to Hawaii, where she's had picnic weather. Her first Hawaiian picnic involved a kayak, a beach - and a three bean salad, with homemade granola bars to finish.










I made a yoghurt cake. I flavoured it with rosewater syrup. Now I'd probably flavour the syrup with citrus, as, although there are still roses in my garden, it feels like a taste you'd want in high summer, when you were pretending to yourself that there would be some sunshine, some meals outside.


Apologies all round for this being so late. Let me know if I've forgotten anyone. Preserving the harvest. Michelle at The Accidental Scientist is in charge. Sunday 28 September's the deadline. xxJoanna

July/August announcement: PICNICS

The theme for Heart of the Matter for July and August is PICNICS ... whether you're travelling, on the beach, in the garden, going for a walk, rambling up a mountain, going for a bicycle ride - you'll need something to eat, and we'd like to know what it is. Every kind of picnic, from the elaborately pleasurable to the purely functional: what heart-healthy foods do you take with you?

Here it's been raining, so not really picnic weather. But I did make a lovely yoghurt cake soaked in rosewater syrup, and we did manage to eat it outside in between the showers. Not quite a picnic, but the next best thing.

This yoghurt cake is simplicity itself, pretty robust, and infinitely adaptable: you could flavour the syrup with all kinds of other tastes - orange springs easily to mind. And if you're not taking it out and about, you could serve it as a pud with some lovely bright berries simmered in a little water or wine.




Yoghurt cake

200g self-raising flour
110g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
250g yoghurt
150ml sunflower oil
zest of a lemon

Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add everything else and stir with a wooden spoon. You really do not need to use a mixer for this. Pour into an oiled 20xm springform tin. Bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes. Leave for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Pierce all over and pour in rosewater syrup. Allow the cake to cool and the flavours to mingle before serving.

Rosewater syrup

275 ml water
175 sugar
juice of a lemon
2 tbsp rosewater

Measure everything except the rosewater into a small saucepan. Dissolve the sugar, then bring to the boil. Simmer for seven minutes, leave to cool, then add the rosewater.

As usual, I've been inspired by Diana Henry's piece in the Sunday Telegraph magazine. Her cake looked lovely, covered in rose petals.


We'd love to hear your heart-healthy picnic ideas ... the Heart of the Matter website is a great place for ideas for heart-healthy recipes (something I wish had existed when we were changing our diet on doctor's orders after my husband's heart attack), and it only exists because so many bloggers have taken the time to share their recipes.

The usual rules: If you’ve participated before, you already know the basics. If you haven’t, check here, here and here for ideas on what “heart-healthy” means, and we hope that you’ll join us! Again, we ask that this please be a single event entry (please don’t use your post for other events – that way we can keep things centred on healthy heart awareness). Just send your entry to joannacary AT ukonline DOT co DOT uk (could you use the title HotM, so they don't get lost) by midnight Monday 25th August (a Bank Holiday in the UK) , linking to my site, Joanna's Food (and to the HotM blog if you’d like) and I’ll post the round-up on the Thursday or Friday on both sites.

Related links

A fabulous spot for a picnic in the south of England
A travelling beef sandwich (mark two coming up later this month)
A place in our garden for a picnic

The theme for Heart of the Matter for July and August is PICNICS ... whether you're travelling, on the beach, in the garden, going for a walk, rambling up a mountain, going for a bicycle ride - you'll need something to eat, and we'd like to know what it is. Every kind of picnic, from the elaborately pleasurable to the purely functional: what heart-healthy foods do you take with you?

Here it's been raining, so not really picnic weather. But I did make a lovely yoghurt cake soaked in rosewater syrup, and we did manage to eat it outside in between the showers. Not quite a picnic, but the next best thing.

This yoghurt cake is simplicity itself, pretty robust, and infinitely adaptable: you could flavour the syrup with all kinds of other tastes - orange springs easily to mind. And if you're not taking it out and about, you could serve it as a pud with some lovely bright berries simmered in a little water or wine.




Yoghurt cake

200g self-raising flour
110g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
250g yoghurt
150ml sunflower oil
zest of a lemon

Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add everything else and stir with a wooden spoon. You really do not need to use a mixer for this. Pour into an oiled 20xm springform tin. Bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes. Leave for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Pierce all over and pour in rosewater syrup. Allow the cake to cool and the flavours to mingle before serving.

Rosewater syrup

275 ml water
175 sugar
juice of a lemon
2 tbsp rosewater

Measure everything except the rosewater into a small saucepan. Dissolve the sugar, then bring to the boil. Simmer for seven minutes, leave to cool, then add the rosewater.

As usual, I've been inspired by Diana Henry's piece in the Sunday Telegraph magazine. Her cake looked lovely, covered in rose petals.


We'd love to hear your heart-healthy picnic ideas ... the Heart of the Matter website is a great place for ideas for heart-healthy recipes (something I wish had existed when we were changing our diet on doctor's orders after my husband's heart attack), and it only exists because so many bloggers have taken the time to share their recipes.

The usual rules: If you’ve participated before, you already know the basics. If you haven’t, check here, here and here for ideas on what “heart-healthy” means, and we hope that you’ll join us! Again, we ask that this please be a single event entry (please don’t use your post for other events – that way we can keep things centred on healthy heart awareness). Just send your entry to joannacary AT ukonline DOT co DOT uk (could you use the title HotM, so they don't get lost) by midnight Monday 25th August (a Bank Holiday in the UK) , linking to my site, Joanna's Food (and to the HotM blog if you’d like) and I’ll post the round-up on the Thursday or Friday on both sites.

Related links

A fabulous spot for a picnic in the south of England
A travelling beef sandwich (mark two coming up later this month)
A place in our garden for a picnic

The Heart of the Matter, The Heart Healthy Salad Roundup

Now it is time for the roundup of last month's The Heart of the Matter, the theme was Heart Healthy Salads and I am delighted to say that I have received a whole bunch of delicious and inspiring salads for us to try out! I don't have much appetite right now as it is very hot and humid here right now but going through the entries this morning has created a certain appetite I have to say. I think you will feel the same at the end of this roundup!

The first entry I got was from The Blushing Hostess who sent in a delicious Fresh Field Pea and Brown Rice Salad with Chile Pasilla Vinaigrette to be eaten on a well mown lawn! Or what do you say Cathrine? (If you read her post you will understand what I am alluding to)


Next out is Kevin from Closet Cooking who has prepared a very attractive Teriyaki Salmon and Asparagus, Spinach Salad that he guarantees never ends up as a leftover!


Sweet Arfi from HomeMadeS sent in a Mixed Green Leaves with Shaved Beetroots, Apples, Walnut and Blue Cheese, both crunchy and tasty!


Then Ann of Redacted Recipes, one of our habituees here on HotM, sent me an entry for a mouthwatering Grilled Lamb Salad that just makes me even more hungry!


Here we have a Thai inspired Avocado and Mango Salad made by Ricki of Diet, Dessert and Dogs that is so lovely and healthy too!


This time we have an Italian food blogger among us, Rori from Ma Che Ti Sei Mangiato who even has translated her post into English for those of you who don't know Italian. Her entry is a The Day After Farro and Barley Salad that must be perfect on a hot day!


A beautiful Chicken, Cherry Tomato, Spinach and Raisin Couscous Salad, that is what Michelle from the Greedy Gourmet has prepared for the HotM this month!



An ahhh and ohh salad made of bell peppers and herbs tempts us all the way from Leafy Cooking where my friend LaBelga has mixed this delight!


Chris from Mele Cotte has sent me her delicious Spinach, Strawberries, Mandarin oranges, Walnuts, Honey roasted turkey and Blue cheese Salad. Go and check out her incredible cake decorations too!



A winter salad is good to have and Joahanna from the Green Gourmet Giraffe has made a real tasty Cauliflower and Sesame Salad for us!


One of my HotM partners, ever so busy but ever so delightful Michelle of The Accidental Scientist has finsihed her teaching just in time to send me this tasty Grilled Sweet Potato Salad!


And last and slightly reluctant, I forced Tanna of My Kitchen In Half Cups to participate with her Texas Carrot Salad. She insists on calling it Ilva style but I honestly think it is pure Tanna style, check it out and decide for yourselves!



Oh, I forgot my own entries, I made a Lentil and Potato Salad with Tomato and Oregano Dressing,



a Pasta Salad with Carrots, Onion, Capers and Pine Nuts



and finally a Fruit Salad with Chili Pepper and Lime Honey!

Thanks a lot to all the participants who make this event a success, without you it wouldn't exist! And if I have forgotten someone or something, please tell me!

June is the Heart Healthy Salad Month

It's time to announce the theme for this month's The Heart of the Matter; we (me, Joanna and Michelle) have tried to choose a theme that is inspiring for both hemispheres, something that we all make all year round even though we might make it more during the summer because it feels right when it is hot. But then I think a lot of us make them when it is cold just to get some comfort out of it because salads are just so versatile to fill about every need all year round. I might make a light one in summer and a more substantial one in the autumn because my needs are different depending on the climate. So yes, I want you to make heart healthy salads this months, one/complete meal ones, side dish ones, dessert ones, whatever you come up with as long as they are heart healthy (i.e. in short low fat, possibly no animal fat, lean meat, less sugar and less salt). Let the produce of the season inspire you and create/cook up (well do you really cook salads? sounds funny! maybe I should say compose...) a salad that you want to share with us! Send me the perma link to your blog post (or if you don't have a blog but would like to participate anyway, tell me and we can arrange to post it on the HotM blog for you!) to luculliandelights AT gmail DOT com with HotM as the subject. I would like to have your entries not later than the 29th of June. Add a link to my blog and tell your readers that you are participating in the HotM, in this way they too have the chance to participate if they want to! As always we ask that this please be a single event entry (please don’t use your post for other events so that way we can keep things centred on healthy heart awareness) If you want to know more about what heart healthy means, check here, here and here. I am looking forward to see what you come up with!

HotM 15: Herbal Essence (Round-up)

Here's the round-up for Heart of the Matter 15: Herbal Essence - heart-healthy dishes that include herbs as a main ingredient! There were lots of inspiring entries from all over the world that blessed my inbox this month, including several new participants and many of you that have joined us every month to help keep this great event going! I hope you all find something to last you through the season - be it winter or summer in your neck of the woods - and we'll see you next month when Ilva hosts!

Without further adieu:

Labelga at Leafy Cooking offered her recipe for Tabouleh with Quinoa and Fresh Herbs. It looks like it's simply bursting with fresh, herbal flavor!

In her inaugural HotM entry, Another Outspoken Female from Melbourne, Australia, shared her recipe for Whole Kingfish with Turmeric and Ginger on her blog, Confessions from a Food Nazi. She's got tips for taking the plunge at baking a whole fish (something I've always wanted to try) using fresh turmeric and ginger - what a great resource!


Bee and Jai, often offering new and unusual ingredients on their blog Jugalbandi, shared their recipe for a beautiful Tarragon-scented Upma with Tomatoes, Olives and Lotus Seeds. As an added bonus, they even offer recipe for Mango Coconut Chutney to go with it!

It's great to have something new to do with green beans (I always end up blanching them) and Laurie, from her blog Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska, has just the things with her recipe for Braised Green Beans (Fasolakia) with Lemon.


My co-cost Joanna, from Joanna's Food, made a lovely Lavender Syrup. That would make a positively wonderful housewarming gift, but it looks so good it might be hard to give it away!

Ali and Jon from Things We Ate For Dinner shared their recipe for a Pineapple-Basil Granita. Considering that I live in Hawaii and am surrounded by pineapples (and am lucky to have a patch of basil) I think that this recipe is going to grace our table this summer!


At Fun and Food, a vegetarian Tofu and Basil Thai Soup fit the bill for a heart-healthy herbal dish. There's even a recipe for home-made green curry paste included! Yum!

From South Africa, Cook Sister sent in her recipe for an amazing looking Garlicky Roasted Aubergine Dip. I bet there will be a great summer BBQ where I could show off this recipe!
The lovely Victoria at Oooh!Cake shared a fabulous sounding recipe for Not-Just-For-Breakfast Fish Cakes! I've never had fish for breakfast, but I think I'm going to have to change that!

Tasty Palettes offered up her beautiful and healthy Melon Salad with Mint and Buddha's Hand. I can't believe I had never heard of Buddha's hand citron before, but you can bet I'll be reading up on her blog at the rest of her recipes for it to learn more!
Katie, at Thyme for Cooking, shared her Creamy Herb Dressing with Yogurt and a delicious salad combination to eat it on. Now, who doesn't need a heart-healthy version of a creamy salad dressing to add to their repertoire? (I do! I do!) Check out her lovely herb pictures too...

My co-host and prolific blogger, Ilva from Lucullian Delights in Italy, shared two entries for this month's theme - the first was her aptly named (and very cute!) Herby Eggplant Cream/Soup:
Ilva's second entry was her innovative take on a heart-healthy and vegan Strawberry Smoothie with Mint and Oats. I never would have thought of that!

I think we finally picked a theme that the amazing Tanna just couldn't ignore! She's been unable to participate in HotM for quite some time, but the herbs called her in! (wink and hugs to you dear Tanna!) Check out Tanna's blog, My Kitchen In Half Cups for her take on a summery Panzanella.

Kopiaste, to Greek Hospitality shared her recipe for one of my favorite foods - white anchovies! She tells us how to marinate them and make them even more delicious in her first entry for HotM, Marinated Anchovies (Gavaros Marinatos).

Lastly, my own entry for...oh my gosh! I've been so busy I forgot to post it! Will have to do that...I made a cooling Rosemary Limeade. Have to get that up tomorrow as it is getting late here! Thanks everyone for participating and we'll see you next month! (It's up now!)