Category Archives: Uncategorized

How To Use StumbleUpon To Gain Traffic

I very well could have titled this post “How To Use StumbleUpon To Find Pictures Of Dogs In Sunglasses”. Don’t worry; I’ll teach you that, too. But I thought bloggers might gravitate towards this title more.

StumbleUpon is one of those “internet fads” like Facebook or Youtube that looks like it’s here to stay. In their own words, “StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites.” It’s free to join, easy to use, and—if you’re a blogger—can reveal your content to readers who might never have heard of you before.

How it works:

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Like I said, it’s free to join and create an account. Once you sign up and pick a username, you can find and follow friends using your email address book, Facebook friend list, AIM account, or Twitter following list.

“Stumbling” takes you from one random internet page to another, often one suggested by other users and the people on your friends list. You can specify which categories you’d like to stumble by picking certain channels, like photography, food/cooking, and television.

How to spread your content:

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If you have content on the internet you want to share, StumbleUpon can be a great tool to getting it out there. The trick though is that it needs to be submitted to be stumbled by others. By creating your own account, you can submit your content and get it on StumbleUpon for your friends and others to see. Adding a plugin(I suggest Share & Follow) makes this quick and easy and inserts icons in posts for you or anyone else to click and submit the content.

Connecting with StumbleUpon:

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You don’t need to have any connections on StumbleUpon, but if you know a lot of people with similar interests it can be a great way to explore the things they love that you might never have heard about. It’s easy to follow anyone; just go to their public profile and click “follow”, whom you can find using online address books like I said. If you have a website, you can install plugins and widgets to advertise your account(again, I suggest Share & Follow).

All about stumbling

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When you go into StumbleUpon and start stumbling, you’ll notice a toolbar at the top of the page. To recommend this to friends, click on the “I Like It” button. You can also share it on the web by clicking on any of the social tool icons. To move on, simply click the “Stumble” button which takes you to another random page.

This way you can access the best the web has to offer, like so:

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Any other questions? Feel free to friend me on StumbleUpon and I’ll friend back!

What A Meat-Eater Took Away From Oprah’s Vegan Episode

Michael Pollan, Kathy Freston and Oprah Winfrey

When I heard Tuesday’s episode of Oprah marketed as her “vegan experience”, I have to say as an occasional meat-eater I wasn’t drawn in; certainly it wouldn’t be as good as her camping trip with her “friend”, Gayle(remember that? That was a hoot!). But I was also interested to see what message she would be giving, especially with a panel of Veganist Kathy Freston, Food Activist Michael Pollon(who’s not a vegetarian), and a representative from a factory farm slaughterhouse(also not a vegetarian if you couldn’t draw that out).

Before I say what I agreed with and didn’t agree with of the show, I have to quantify my own diet by saying I’m something of a “flexitarian”. I eat vegan most of the time because that’s how I shop; dairy doesn’t agree with me and the only time I have eggs is in brownies(is this really a shocker?). While I don’t have plans to eat meat anytime soon, I’d never call myself a vegetarian since I’m sure I’ll eat meat at a holiday or in a restaurant soon enough. Also, I’m not fundamentally against it, which is probably the number one reason I’d say all of this comes from a “meat-eater”’s perspective.

Agree

 

“I don’t think you should be eating meat if you don’t want to see how it’s being produced”        –Michael Pollan

This, to me, was the best message from the show. No one ever sees how their food is made anymore; most people have been filtered out of the farming lifestyle over the past few hundred years. Having given a presentation on most of this at the 2010 Healthy Living Summit, I can’t say I was shocked at what was shown in the slaughterhouse.

Eat more veggies and you will be more in touch with your bodily functions than ever before(and you’ll like talking about it): The HARPO staff loved to talk about how much they pooped and farted; and who could blame them? One of the benefits of a plant-based diet is that your body works incredibly well at digesting food and you’ll never have to spend another morning struggling on the toilet. It’s a good life.

We should be more aware of what’s in our food: At one point, one of Oprah’s staffers took all the food with animal products out of her refrigerator. What was left was basically mustard and ketchup, and she had no idea that’s how she was eating. Another staffer admittedly ate “horrible” before going vegan, and lost 11 pounds just by eating nutritious food. If you actually know what’s in your food, vegan or not, you’re more likely to make a healthier and informed decision.

We should support our farmers(and hint: you don’t do this by buying from large industries): This is something that Michael Pollan said which sort of got swept under the rug immediately after, but it’s a good point. Farming is a career, and a dying one at that. If you don’t support your local farmer(for meat or for vegetables) then they’re at risk of going out of business, and there are many many reasons why our food production shouldn’t be in the hands of a few big companies. 

Disagree

 

The idea that veganism exists at Whole Foods only: Whenever they went shopping or showed groceries in this episode, it was from Whole Foods. You don’t have to shop at Whole Foods to get vegan groceries; most grocery stores have tons of vegan options to choose from. And the farmers’ market is an excellent place to get vegetables in season. Since Whole Foods has the nickname “Whole Paycheck”, I’m afraid this could give the wrong impression that vegan = costly.

You won’t shed pounds like you’re on The Biggest Loser simply because you don’t eat animal products: Oprah staffers lost a combined total of 444 pounds in a week on a vegan diet. Woh! Who knew cutting out animal products can help you lose weight? Well, I don’t agree that it can, at least not that alone. What’s more likely is that these people weren’t eating healthy food to begin with(one of them was a self-proclaimed “fast food addict”). I think it’s entirely possible to live healthy on a diet including meat.

“Fake food” is the answer: There was a lot of product placement in this. It was like Friends, American Idol, and The Truman Show combined. And most of it wasn’t from the United States Sweet Potato Board or Broccoli Farmers Of America but rather Kashi, Earth Balance, Daiya, and every sort of fake meat imaginable. The problem this creates is twofold: there’s no appeal in going vegan if all the food you’re going to eat is compared to non-vegan alternatives; and a lot of these are overly-processed, which in turn is probably more harmful to your body than meat itself if you base your diet around them.

Conclusion

 

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I could wrap up this entire post into one 7-worded statement:

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants

What? That’s taken? Shoot. Well then I’ve got nothing original. Oh wait, yes I do:

Love the ingredients, not the food

That’s the tagline I gave this blog when I made it 3 months ago. It’s on all my business cards, so you know it’s legit. It means know what you’re eating, preferably by cooking your own real food with real ingredients. And it’s only 6 words, so technically I’m more succinct and better than Pollan. Where’s my book deal?

Did you watch the show? What were your opinions on it or any of this?

Raw Vegan Hazelnut Cream Cheese

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At one point in my life I had a love affair with Panera Bread. Haven’t we all? I remember when I was writing my thesis working in the same Panera Bread for at least 4 hours and taking advantage of the free refills. Well, not being able to eat wheat put a huge wedge in our relationship. I pine for their cinnamon crunch bagels to be back in my life.

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Another favorite of mine was their reduced-fat hazelnut cream cheese. It’s tart, nutty, and sweet, and a perfect pairing for that cinnamon bagel I was talking about. I decided to try and make my own without dairy. At first I didn’t love the flavor, but by the next day everything tasted ten times better. It reminds me of the filling for my raw cheesecake recipe. And who wouldn’t love cheesecake filling on a bagel? This is slightly healthy for you, but more importantly completely delicious.

Raw Vegan Hazelnut Cream Cheese

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for 4 hours
  • 1/3 cup hazelnuts
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons agave nectar
  • 1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 heaping Tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1-2 Tablespoons coconut milk or other non-dairy milk

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Soak the cashews if you haven’t already done so and drain off the water. Add the first 4 ingredients in a food processor or high-powered blender and blend until it’s smooth and homogenous. Next add in the nutritional yeast and cinnamon and process again, slowly adding in the coconut milk until it reaches a cream cheese-like consistency.

Store in a refrigerator for up to a week.

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Like I said, this tasted much better the next day. The consistency was perfect for me—thick but easily scooped and spread. It tastes nutty, spicy, and has a nice tang from the lemon juice that balances with the nutritional yeast to taste like real cream cheese.

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An aside on the bagels I use: I never buy gluten-free bread. There are so many other foods that are naturally gluten-free that I just don’t bother looking for replacements. But I really wanted photos to do this recipe justice and when I went to Trader Joe’s to buy regular wheat bagels I found these Udi’s gluten-free bagels for $4.50—“cheap” compared to other stores. I have to admit these were spot on in flavor and texture to regular bagels. I wouldn’t buy them regularly simply because I’m not used to having bread in my diet anymore, but if anyone’s looking for a gluten-free bread replacement I’d recommend these.

Four Humor’s Sake

Today I’m making my first of 2 trips back to Providence. Because of that, I’ll probably only be eating Larabars in the car and Whole Foods hot bar on the road for lunch. Instead I’d thought I’d (try to) humor you with some little known facts about me.

Four TV Shows I Watch:

Ok, let’s get real: If you know me, you know I watch a ton of TV. The national average is around 150 hours a month; I’m pretty sure I can knock that out in a week. What can I say? I’m an overachiever. So let’s make this one fourteen.

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Four Things I’m Passionate About:

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  • Award Shows
  • Celebrity Romances
  • Brownies
  • Cooking without having to clean up afterwards

Four Words/Phrases I Use Too Much:

  • “Amazing.” Some days I ask myself if I know any other adjectives at all.
  • “WTF”
  • “Oh Really?” I have a deep love for sarcasm, but you probably haven’t realized that.
  • “How easy is that?” Oh wait, that’s Ina Garten. I get me and her confused all the time.

Four Things I’ve Learned In the Past:

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  • Blood stains are really hard to get out of white socks.
  • If you go into Target for paper towels, you’ll also come out with a new shirt and season 1 of Modern Family.
  • If Ricky just let Lucy be in his show, each episode would have been approximately 5 minutes long.
  • Sweet and sour sauce makes anything better.

Four Things I’m Looking Forward To:

Four Things I’ve Loved This Winter:

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Four People I Want to Complete This Survey:

Did you learn anything new? More importantly, do you want to play along? Go ahead and tell me 4 things that you love lately.

We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

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That silken tofu does not work as an egg substitution in these brownies. You know what does work after you’ve decided all you want is a pan of delicious brownies? Eggs.

That writing a resume is ridiculously depressing, especially once you realize that knowing all the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s Speak Now CD isn’t a “skill set”

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That the people at Coconut Bliss not only make terrific vegan ice cream, but amazing hoodies, too.

That dessert hummus will be huge in 2012. Just wait.

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That Taza chocolate is seriously the best there is. And no, the people at Taza have not endorsed this blog nor have I ever had any contact with them(but if anybody knows somebody who knows somebody whose cousin’s roommate has connections, my email is Evan@thewannabechef.net).

That spending Christmas gift cards on I Love Lucy season 5 is a much wiser investment than anything else you could have bought.

Homemade Bacon Salt®

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Let me tell you about a little seasoning called Bacon Salt®. What is it? Well, it’s name pretty much says it all: It’s salt infused with bacon that adds a smoky brininess to dishes. When I saw a recipe for Bacon Salt® in the new issue of Food Network Magazine, I about jumped off the couch to make it. I know the holidays are over, but if you made this for your friends they would be delighted, and only slightly question your sanity.

Homemade Bacon Salt®

Ingredients:

  • 6 slices of bacon
  • 1/2 cup coarse sea salt
  • <3/4 teaspoon ground peppercorn

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Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Lay your bacon out in single strips over a cookie rack and put that in a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the bacon is crisp and starting to blacken(It should look overcooked rather than how you’d normally eat bacon).

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Once the bacon has cooled, use a paper towel to press out any excess oil.

Transfer the bacon to a food processor and process until there are only small chunks and a paste begins to form. Add in the sea salt and ground pepper(note: whole peppercorns will not break up in the food processor) and continue to process until the salt breaks up into smaller pieces and mixes with the bacon. Transfer to an airtight jar and keep in the refrigerator when not using.

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Understandably, this isn’t for everyone. It’s not for vegetarians and it’s not kosher. But if you’re a carnivore, this is for you. Add it to baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, seared steak—anything savory that needs a kiss of salt. Bacon truly does make it better.

Change Is Good

December 29th 010

$41.98

No, I didn’t hit the jackpot on the penny slots. This is the spare change I acquired over 3 1/2 months. Every day, after going to the store or to a coffee shop, I would throw the coins in my pocket in a bucket, knowing that overtime it’d grow.

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After separating and counting it, I had $41.98 in change(and that’s not including about $10 in quarters I used for laundry from time to time). Now, on the one hand, that’s not enough to retire with. But that’s $41.98 that I never expected to have, and didn’t even know that I had until I counted it out.

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Change, both the literal and metaphorical kind, is good. We all need change from time to time. Starting this blog 2 1/2 months ago felt like a huge change, and I want to keep continuing to change things for the better. If you stand still for too long, your feet will get stuck in the mud.

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Your mission(Should you accept it): Make at least one change in 2011, starting with collecting your change for the entire year. Grab a bucket and each day toss your coins in it. Here are some ideas what to do with that money at the end of the year:

  • Use it for a date night
  • Put the money towards buying Christmas gifts
  • Donate it to your favorite charity
  • Buy a Starbucks gift card for yourself
  • Pre-order the new season of Doctor Who on iTunes because you know it’s going to be terrific(Just me? OK, nevermind)
  • Use it for gas money on a road trip
  • Buy that _____ you’ve had your eye on all year
  • Whatever else you can think of

Who’s ready for some change in 2011?

 

The Wannabe Marathon Runner

Today’s post isn’t a recipe or about food. It’s about stubbornness ambition.

Besides cooking, my other favorite pastime would without question be singing loudly at my television during The Sing Off. Oh, and I also like running. Like, really like running. So much so that I signed up for a marathon in October.

SunTrust National Marathon

I originally had planned to run the Providence Marathon in May. But the stars just aligned for me to run the National Marathon in Washington DC. Two other Providence bloggers, Becky and Lauren, also plan to run it so we can share long training runs. It’s also 3 days before my birthday which would let me fulfill a dream of running a marathon before I’m twenty something. Everything was going so smooth.…

But, as with all things in life, there’s been a catch.

December 18th 010

A month ago, I started feeling pain in my shin. I tried ignoring it, hoping it would go away, and even ran twice on it. I couldn’t ignore it when it hurt to walk, so I stopped running completely but I still hobbled around the kitchen and even kept walking the 2.5 mile round trip to Whole Foods. After a few weeks, I could walk and use the elliptical machine without any pain. But a month out and I still couldn’t run.

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So I saw my doctor, who just happens to be a sports doctor, too. He looked at it for 5 minutes at most and knew exactly what I had: Medial tibial stress syndrome and peroneal tendon strain. Like everything else in medicine, its bark is worse than its bite. He told me to rest while I’m at home, ice and stretch daily. Within 2 weeks I can probably start fast walking and running soon after that.

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So what am I doing now?(yes, I know I have a slight obsession with bright orange) I’m working a way to squeeze marathon training into 8 weeks. I can hear my grandmother’s voice in the back of my head: “Your grandfather was a stubborn Pollack” and so am I. I’m determined to cross that finish line after 26.2 miles of strain and effort on March 26th. I’ll know if I have to say nay, but for right now I remain optimistic. I’m hoping their won’t be a “wannabe” in my title much longer.

Why You Need A Food Scale

There are 2 types of chefs. There’s the cook, who makes savory dishes adding “a dash of this” and “a sprinkle of that” and when you ask them how long it takes to cook, they say “until done”; then there’s the baker, who has an arsenal of measuring tools, a perfectly calibrated oven, and can memorize long lists of ingredients and directions. I am entirely a baker.

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Not surprisingly, one of my favorite kitchen helpers is this handy food scale. I hardly ever use it for savory cooking, but since the majority of what I do falls under baking, it gets a lot of use. It’s crucial for making things like cookies or brownies to get just the right proportion of ingredients.

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There’s an old adage that says no two cups of sugar are the same, meaning if you use a measuring cup, you’ll get inconsistent results. To test that, I weighed what I thought would be a cup of sugar, or 192 grams.

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It weighed in at 156 grams, or almost 1/4 cup less than what I needed. That’s a big difference when you think about who it will affect the taste and texture of whatever you’re baking. A food scale doesn’t have to be expensive, either. Just look for one that measures grams and ounces and has a tare function. They’re about $20 at any Target.

What kind of cook are you?

I Am Thankful For…

The great thing about the holiday season is that it makes you joyful. For me, this makes me stop and be mindful of all the good in my life, from big things to small. Here’s my list of what I am thankful for:

I am thankful for the 12 wonderful years I got to spend with my dog, Montana, before he passed away last Thursday. Since then there’s been a lot of sadness and tears and pain, but I wouldn’t trade it away for all the good times I had because of him.

I am thankful for a house full of family, because isn’t that what the holidays are about?

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I am thankful for Taza chocolate, which is burning a hole in my wallet since they started selling it at my local bookstore. This stuff is so good. And grieving calls for good chocolate.

I am thankful for the chance to see my favorite comedian, Kathy Griffin, live at Foxwoods last Friday night. For the record, she was very insulting and very hysterical.

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I am thankful for brownies. All of them. The end.

I am thankful for season 1 of I Love Lucy, which I bought last Christmas with a Target gift card. Maybe this year I’ll get season 2?

I am thankful for every occasion I get to sit down and have an excellent home-cooked meal, because I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have that often.

What are you thankful for this year?