Titer or high levels of the rheumatoid factor may
indicate that the patient suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis

Ones family history cant always give you an idea whether or not you are bound to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a health problem wherein the immune system thinks that the normal tissues are antibodies that are invading the body. Joint tissues and tissues around organs can inflame when the patient is suffering [...]

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or-may-indicate-that-the-patient-suffers-from-severe-rheumatoid-arthritis

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Tracy Anderson Is Pregnant: Heres Hoping Her
Strict Approach Gets A Metamorphosis

Tracy Anderson's strict crazy training and diet advice sculpts some of Hollywood's hottest (and thinnest) bods: Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Richie are among her top celebrity clients, and her "metamorphosis" program is known for transforming body types. Which is why we're so curious how the 37-year-old former dancer will handle her pregnancy, announced earlier this week. We hope her own body's transformation over the next few months will teach her to take a more holistic approach to diet and fitness. More »

Post from: Blisstree

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ach-gets-a-metamorphosis-127/

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Freezer Crock Pot Cooking

In today?s hectic world, many of us are trying to find time to cook nutritious meals at home. We all know processed foods are bad for us, and that restaurant food can be less than healthy, too. This has lead to many creative approaches to home cooking, including freezer meals and cooking with a crock   Read More...

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http://blog.gourmandia.com/2012/01/13/freezer-crock-pot-cooking/

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An Apple (or Two) a Day

Fall and Winter around here usually means that apples and apple products begin making their appearance in rather staggering amounts. Call it an attempt at frugal living, call it a sad stab at balancing out the rich foods of the holidays, but whatever the reason we always seem to have way more apples at the brink of "overripe" than we can handle at the end of the season. This ends in one of three ways - impromptu dried apple rings, apple sauce, or it's kissing cousin apple butter. All three found their way into the household this year, and thanks to the holiday yearnings for apple butter-pumpkin pie and a round of colds that left us slurping warmed applesauce for comfort most of the bounty was used by year's end.
Just before Christmas, when we were all more than sated with appley fare, my stepdad came home with a holiday gift from his office: a giant, one gallon jug of organic apple cider. For those of you who don't know what this glorious drink is, it's basically unsweetened, unfiltered, pressed apple juice. When you buy it in the stores, chances are it's pasteurized, but it still has a definite shelf life. After force-feeding it to friends and family and drinking ourselves to the point of bursting, we still had a decent amount left over - and given my Scottish (read: cheap!) nature I didn't want to see it poured down the drain. Cider is one of those things that I only ever get to consume in the Fall, when we go apple picking, so it's fairly close to my heart. I wanted to embrace and promote the rich, warming flavour of the beverage in whatever I did with it, and was glad to find so many others felt the same way. I picked a couple that sounded interesting and went to town. One of them I was fairly confident I could make grand substitutions to and still pull it off without much issue... but the second (which also served to use up the dregs of heavy cream) pretty much scared the bejeezus out of me.

The original recipe for this loaf from Gourmet's October 1991 magazine only called for apple cider to be included, along with pumpkin, walnuts and orange zest. But I had no pumpkin (since I made some other goodies with those leftovers - will share soon!) and was loath to buy yet another can of it. I did have the perfect amount of apple butter though... and some 12 grain flour and golden raisins to use up. You can see where this is going!
Grainy Apple Raisin BreadServes 101 cup apple ciderjuice and zest of 1 orange3 tbsp ground flaxseed1 cup apple butter1/4 cup canola oil1 egg1 tsp vanilla1 tbsp honey1/2 cup dark brown sugar1/2 cup 12-grain hot cereal1/2 cup 12-grain flour1 cup all purpose flour1 tsp pumpkin pie spice1/2 tsp sea salt1 1/2 tsp baking powder1/4 tsp baking soda1 cup golden raisins, soaked in hot water and drained

1. In a saucepan, reduce the apple cider until only 1/4 cup is left. Let cool.
2. Preheat oven to 350F, grease a large 9x5" loaf pan.
3. Heat the orange juice and pour into a large bowl. Whisk in the zest and flaxseed. Let sit 2-3 minutes.
4. Mix in the apple butter, oil, egg, vanilla, honey, brown sugar and apple cider reduction.
5. Stir in the cereal, flours, spice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until just combined.
6. Fold in the raisins.
7. Cover pan with foil and bake 45 minutes, then remove foil and bake a further 1/2 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan before turning out.

Amount Per Serving Calories: 296.8Total Fat: 7.4 gCholesterol: 18.5 mgSodium: 20.0 mg Total Carbs: 58.1 g Dietary Fiber: 4.9 gProtein: 4.8 gThen came the project I both looked forward to and dreaded the most - caramels. It's no secret that the thought of boiling sugar ranks up in the top tier of my greatest fears (along with hot oil and moving bug legs), but as Carla puts it, it was one of those things "on the list".

 Granted, these (now) perfectly formed, chewy squares of appley deliciousness almost didn't happen in my kitchen. I first ran out of heavy cream. I did have premium coconut milk and some coconut cream powder, though, which I prayed would make up the difference being high in fat. Some brown sugar entered the pot too, more out of habit than anything else, and after reading some of the comments on Kate's apple cider caramel post I added some sea salt and maple syrup to the mixture too. I know - I've never made candy of any sort before, why am I getting all substitution-y on it first time around? Simply because I'm like that. I'm totally incapable of following directions as written or spoken. At school I was always the kid that asked what if and why. 
Everything was looking good and hunky-dory gooey, I had my greased and parchmented pan all set, a brand new candy thermometer at hand and my mom's trusty old wooden spoon standing by. Then, in an attempt to keep the mess to a minimum, I transferred my glass candy thermometer into a cup of warm liquid and was rewarded with a shattered tube. Thankfully, the glass shards were in the water, not the caramel or the kitchen floor. But with no other high-temp thermometers around and a pot of boiling fat and sugar on the stove I had to do something. So I pulled out my mom's old Joy of Cooking and quickly read up on the "ice water tests" for candymaking, then got to work dipping and testing until I was seeing something that resembled the 248 degree "firm ball" stage called for on Kate's recipe. I poured the heavenly-scented mixture into it's pan and waited for it to firm up.
And waited. And waited. And stuck it in the fridge. And waited.  Needless to say, the "firm ball" test was a lie.  But Google to the rescue - I found out that the pan was not a wasted exercise, since I could simply re-boil it to the right temperature, provided I could tell the right temperature! A 10 minute trip to the store and $7 later I had a digital instant-read thermometer and a renewed sense of confidence. It took forever to get to 248 degrees, but while I waited I had the chance to take a look at the original recipe. Well, it didn't call for 248 degrees, or "firm ball" stage - it stated a full 250. It may sound like a minute difference, but it does make a difference. I was paranoid and let it creep to 252, since that's what my mom's book said "hard ball" was and had a caramel recipe with that temperature.  
But it worked! I did stick the finished pan in the fridge overnight before cutting the squares, because even the most perfect cream caramels are chewy and sticky at room temperature. Greasing the heavy-duty chef knife and the bench scraper I eventually used for the squares helped a ton too! So lessons learned: the importance of a GOOD candy thermometer, the confidence to make something totally new, different and (admittedly) dangerous, and that even with boiling sugar you can throw some pages of the rulebook out the window!

Apple Cider Creme Caramels
Recipe adapted from the blog "Our Best Bites" who in turn modified it from America?s Dairy Farmers.
Makes 64 pieces
2 1/2 cups fresh apple cider (I used Filsinger's)
2 (1 cm wide) slices fresh gingerroot
2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk (pick the highest fat concentration you can find, I used Thai Kitchen)
2 tsp apple pie spice (or cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup unsalted, cultured butter, cubed (you can use regular unsalted if that's what you have)

1. Combine apple cider and ginger slices in a pot and boil until the liquid has been reduced to 1/3 cup. Remove ginger, discarding (or eat it if you want...) and set aside to cool.
2. Line a 9" square pan with well greased parchment paper, leaving 2" overhang on all sides, and set aside.
3. In a cup or bowl, combine coconut milk, spice, salt and reduced cider and set aside.
4. In a large, heavy bottomed pot, mix heavy cream, water, sugars, corn syrup and maple syrup.
5. Place over medium heat and cook, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves.
6. Insert a candy thermometer and continue to cook, stirring occasionally and brushing down sides of the pot with water, until the syrup reaches 235F.
7. Remove from the heat, and slowly whisk in the spiced cream mixture.
8. Return to low heat and add the cubed butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is homogenous.
9. Re-insert the candy thermometer and increase the heat to medium.
10. Cook, stirring almost constantly, until the temperature measures 252F.
11. Pour the caramel immediately into the lined pan, and cool at room temperature at least 4 hours. Place in the refrigerator a further 2 hours, until firm.
12. Unmould and cut into 64 squares, wrapping each in heavy duty wax paper (I used wax paper on the inside and foil on the outside so they'd stay closed.
13. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks, or in the fridge for 1 month.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 41.7 
Total Fat: 1.4 g
Cholesterol: 2.8 mg
Sodium: 24.3 mg
Total Carbs: 8.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.0 g
Protein: 0.1 g

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Bint Al Sahn

Bint Al Sahn (?Daughter of the Dish?) is a traditional Yemeni dessert consisting of light, flaky dough topped with sesame seeds and honey. Yemenis make this golden dessert in all sizes some making an unbelievable amount of layers. I ranged this recipe down to fit my small family using a smaller pan and only 16 layers. Traditionally a special pan is used and actually makes the process much easier. The pan looks like a large cake pan. I would think using a dough machine to make really thin layers would be idea but I myself have never worked with one and I make my bread the old fashioned hand with my hands and a rolling pin. Typically the topping is golden which is a result of the egg wash however I used the last of my eggs for the bread so I was not able to get the golden topping.

After I made this dessert my husband walked in and knew what it was right away and was surprised that I had made it. His best friend growing up was Yemeni and he said the maid made it for them quite often. He grabbed some kiri cheese to have with his and I told him he had to make every dish into a Saudi dish lol. Saudis love bread, honey and kiri. And I think this sweet dish will easily be loved by everyone you share it with.

3 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar

topping:
honey
black sesame seeds
egg yolk, beaten

1. In a small bowl add yeast, water and sugar. Allow to sit for 5 minutes until frothy. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl add flour, salt, yeast mixture, eggs, mix well. Add 1/4 cup of butter and knead well until a dough consistency is formed. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

2. Pre-heat oven to 400F. Divide the dough into 16 small golf ball sized balls. Grease the bottom and sides of a cake pan. Roll each dough so thin you can see through it and a size that will spread into the pan your using (10-12 cm). Place dough into pan, stretching the side carefully. Brush each layer with remaining butter until finished. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

3. Bake for about 20 minutes until cake is golden, Drizzle honey all over the top of the cake and serve.




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http://www.yasalamcooking.com/2012/01/bint-al-sahn.html

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Organic, Free Range, Grass-Fed: Food Labels, And
What They Really Mean

You're used to decoding double-speak in your life (like when your boss says your big idea is "interesting" and "has potential"), but when you're standing in the grocery store, staring at various labels like "grass-fed" and "organic," it can much more difficult to read between the lines. Which of these healthy-seeming, possibly-sustainable claims are regulated and meaningful--and which are bogus advertising lingo, meant to draw in well-meaning consumers like you? More »

Post from: Blisstree

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http://blisstree.com/eat/food-labels-which-are-meaningless-724/

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Finest Time for it to Purchase a Fresh Motor
vehicle

By finding out plumbing service to acquire a fresh vehicle, you are able to end up saving a lot of cash, and you will also enjoy a number of presents plus added benefits that you will donrrrt you have known with regards to from almost every other time period. Car or truck selling prices fluctuate [...]

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http://oishiioishii.net/japanese-culture/finest-time-for-it-to-purchase-a-fresh-m
otor-vehicle

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Canned pineapple face off: Del Monte versus Dole

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Bathtub Gin Recipe

There are gin lovers and there are vodka lovers. My husband and I happen to tilt toward gin, though we keep a 1.75 liter bottle of vodka around for good measure. We didn?t think that the two would cross paths. But this past week, we put the vodka to use to make bathtub gin. The pale yellow result is what you see above. My husband read an LA Times story by Greg Easter on using his family's Prohibition Era-bathtub gin recipe. Easter actually used his concoction to doctor up moderately priced gin. The result was supposed to be more "natural tasting gin." We were so intrigued by the idea of using vodka and white wine to create a gin-like spirit that we had to try...

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ecipe.html

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Coffee Bluff Pictures Completes Principal
Photography on VERSAILLES '73: AMERICAN RUNWAY REVOLUTION

ATLANTA , Jan. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Coffee Bluff Pictures has completed principal photography on " VERSAILLES '73: AMERICAN RUNWAY REVOLUTION," a documentary about the legendary 1973 fashion …

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rincipal-photography-on-versailles-73-american-runway-revolution-2/

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