The Info Examiner

It’s no wonder that herbs are so widely valued as culinary additions. Their pungent fragrances and often beautiful appearance adds both orally and visually to any meal.

Moreover, the flavor of each herb is very unique, adding a particular character to each dish you cook up. Whether dried or fresh, herbs add a wonderful dimension to cooking.

Plainer dishes really benefit from the depth of flavor that herbs add. Combining several herbs in one dish impart extra sophistication for discerning palettes.

How you use herbs in your food is limited only by your creativity and experimental nature in the kitchen. Moreover, if you grow your own herbs you will never have to run to the market at the last minute because you’ve forgotten to buy dill or oregano.

You’ll have the freshest ingredients right at your disposal whenever you need them. Growing your own herbs is cheaper than buying them, and they taste so much better when they’re right off the plant.

Adding herbs to a dish while it is being cooked will result in the flavor becoming more deeply ingrained in the food. It’s the same principle as with herbal infusions: heat releases the character of the herb. If you want to really get the herbal aroma and taste into your meal, add the herb early on in the cooking process.

You can even create a bouquet garni by tying up a bunch of herbs into a piece of cheesecloth; drop it into soups and stews and remove the whole bundle from the pot when you’re about to serve. If you just want a hint of the flavor, on the other hand, sprinkle on fresh ground dried herbs or scatter chopped fresh herbs on after your cooking is done.

For example, you could add chopped chives to a baked potato, parsley to a plate of chicken and rice, or cayenne pepper to a dish or chili. Remember, though, that dried herbs are more concentrated and pungent than fresh herbs. If you choose to use dried herbs, use about a quarter less than you would if you were using fresh.

About the Author

If you’re interested in herbs and how they can revitalize your life, learn how to harness their power, and how to grow then in your own garden, check out my website http://www.amazing-secrets-of-herbs.com for more information.

The Damages (Asbestos related conditions) (Scotland) Act has been challenged by UK’s largest insurance companies, namely Aviva, Axa, RSA and Zurich Insurance. In a much-criticised move, the companies have asked for a judicial review of the Act at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The Act, which had come into affect recently after seeing overwhelming support in the Scottish Parliament and receiving the royal go-ahead, gives pleural plaques sufferers the right to claim compensation.

Attorneys at Thompsons Solicitors, who strongly oppose the challenge, were of the view that the pleural plaques victims are once again faced by uncertainties as a result of this action.

Ian McFall, the Head of Asbestos Policy at Thompsons Solicitors, came down harshly on the insurance companies, stating that their action shows that they are willing to adopt any conceivable method to deny compensation to the workers who have fallen victim to pleural plaques due to no fault of theirs. He said that the insurers are disregarding the fact that it was the negligent exposure to asbestos that caused this condition, and that the victims have a right to demand justice.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown had recently promised to make an announcement on the issue of compensation for pleural plaques sufferers in England and Wales after the Easter break. McFall urged that the scenario in Scotland should not delay or alter the government’s announcement about the plans for victims of asbestos exposure in England and Wales. Highlighting the fact that this was a political issue, he said that the government should act positively, and considering its moral responsibility, it should work towards a reversal of the House of Lords Decision in England and Wales too.

Pleural plaques sufferers also seem to have significant medical opinion on their side. The working conditions in certain industries expose the workers to continuous high levels of asbestos, which erodes the tissue lining their lungs, causing them to suffer from this painful and structurally irreversible disease. Besides, it also makes the victims more susceptible to malignant diseases like mesothelioma, which is a fatal type of cancer.

Contact the experts at Workplace Law Training to find out about their range of accredited nebosh training courses which can assist companies in training staff to be aware of the proper health and safety procedures for all kinds of workplace situations.

Ordering wine in a restaurant is not much different than buying it in a wine store. The main difference is that you have an audience. Yet ordering wine in a restaurant can be intimidating especially if the wine list is extensive.

Experiment or Homework
Keep in mind that even the experts will not be familiar with every selection on a wine list. If you are a novice and your are going on an important date, you should do a little homework to get some idea of what you might want to order. Unless you are feeling extremely adventurous, a restaurant is usually not the place to try something new since the mark up can range from 100 to 200%.

The Wine List
Today, most restaurants have a wine list, but expect a myriad of shapes and sizes. Some establishments might simply offer just a house red or white, while others have a daily blackboard to outline their rotating selection. Most wine lists are presented as a printed menu, with the wines arranged by color; red, white, and rose and the region of country. Additionally, many establishments will number their wines on the list, which helps big-time if you do not know how to pronounce the wine. You can simply say, “I will have the number 8″.

Before you order, you are going to want to factor in what you are going to be eating. Unfortunately, not a lot of menus give advice on food pairing. If you need some help talk to the wine steward, or sommelier. They are there to help you make the best decision for your occasion, and a good one will not try to take you out of your price range.

Getting the Best Wine for Your Money
• Skip the house wine. Unless you are familiar with the house wine, don’t bother because they generally carry the highest mark up.
• Scan the wine list too quickly to get an idea on the average price of a bottle. Try to stay within this median price range where the mark ups tend to be average.
• Choose a wine from the same region as the restaurant’s food specialty. A good French restaurant, for instance, should have a solid selection of French wines.
• Ask the server for a recommendation. Just ask if they have any special values currently.
• If two or more at your table are going to have a few glasses of wine, it is cheaper to order by the bottle than the glass.

Corkage
Many restaurants will open and serve a bottle of wine brought by the patron. A quick call to the restaurant will confirm if this is possible, and if so, they will charge a corkage fee. They usually charge between $5 and $15 per bottle, although some restaurants will charge a lower fee if the wine brought is not on their wine list.

Contributor: Stuart Glasure [Designer, Fashion Artist and creator of the Zany Wearables Collection: http://www.ZanyGiftware.com. A wine enthusiast and publishing member of the wine source: http://www.WineDefinitions.com.]

About the Author

Nerello Glasure [Fashion Artist of Zany Wearables: http://www.zanygiftware.com and a Publishing Member of the Wine Resource: http://www.winedefinitions.com.]

A Model: The Elkhart Area Career Center

By Joe Rueff
President/Publisher, Eye2theWorld

Bill Gates is at it again! This time he’s taking on the American public high schools. But Bill isn’t alone. Educational Testing Service’s survey “Ready For The Real World?”, eminent business author Dan Pink (A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation), and many others have criticized our high school system as not being up to the task.

Why am I interested? Simple! I have been involved in education for more than 50 years. I have always looked to the future and how we needed to change to meet new demands society places upon us. I feel there is tremendous interest nationally for things to change, but we are holding on to old models, trying to put new wine into old casks, and finding it just won’t work. If you want more information about my background, go to our new website www.eye2theworld and read my biographical sketch.

Actually our high schools are up to the task for which they were designed. The only problem is that we’re not living in the 1940’s. Preparing students for the world of exploding telecommunications and globalization while dealing with students as if they were re-runs from Leave It to Beaver places us on the path to disaster.

As Susan Patrick, Director of the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, stated, what is needed is not educational reform, it’s educational transformation. Before we can expect major academic improvement the system needs an overhaul, not just tweaking around the edges. This is not a call for more testing, better teachers, more attentive students, or more money. Those concerns can be examined later. I am calling for structural change from the ground up, from how our buildings are organized, how teachers work with students and with each other, how our curricula are developed, and how we motivate those hyper-active M Generation students.

I want to suggest six steps that should be the starting point. Now I’m not naive enough to think that you’d take me at face value. I can hear the chants, “Where’s the evidence?” Well, I do have a model; one that comes from what for many years was the step-child of public education, namely vocational education, ’shop classes’ or ‘trade schools’ as we used to call them. These were school to which the less academically able students were shunted. Theirs was not a college bound curriculum!

Elkhart, IN is blessed with a wonderful facility, the Elkhart Area Career Center (EACC) that demonstrates how excellence can be generated year after year if the facilities, courses, staffs, and community are committed and work together. About 1200 students from 12 of the region’s school districts spend half-day sessions for two years in one of 22 specialized programs. EACC’s students represent a cross section of student bodies. Many enter with straight A’s. About 55 percent go on to further education after high school graduation. See the EACC’s website www.elkhart.k12.in.us/eacc

The following steps can provide the foundation to build upon for academically oriented schools as well as technical high schools. Isn’t it ironic that the area of secondary school education which for decades was thought to be the dumping ground for “failing students” can now be an example for educational transformation?

STEP ONE: Buildings designed for integrated problem centered programs. Ever walked down the hallway of a typical high school? How are the classes organized? All the Language Arts classes are together, usually on the same hall. It’s similar for social studies, foreign languages, science, math, business and the arts. The Career Center, on the other hand, organizes its space into six program cluster areas: Business Technology, Graphics & Media, Manufacturing & Engineering, Service Industry, Transportation, and Construction..

Why not organize high schools into academic cluster areas, each cluster containing space for each academic specialty? Teams of language arts, science, math, and social studies teachers would work together to provide guidance from their respective specialties as students tackle problems Visual and performing arts teachers could be available to provide broader dimensions. The world doesn’t divide tasks into special departments. Solving problems takes integration of ideas from each discipline. Let the students work on “real world” problems, not be placed in unreal world environments.

STEP TWO: Criterion referenced curriculum development. Organize the curriculum around sequenced mastery criteria. Each Career Center program follows a series of criteria that students complete in sequence. When the course is completed the list of mastered skills goes with the students and becomes a part of their portfolios. Much of the time students work in teams, some formal and some informal. If the regular high school academic programs were organized around problem solving, each instructor could provide similar sets of criteria. Student records would show what they have mastered in each discipline. At the end of the course the records would follow the students to the next grade. At graduation the lists would determine each student’s level of mastery in each area, such as Language Arts, Math, etc. These could be available as parts of college or employment applications.

STEP THREE: Dual credit and certification opportunities. At the Career Center students have an opportunity in the majority of programs to receive both high school and college credit. In some cases a semester or more for college can be gained… Special certification programs from Cisco, Microsoft, General Motors, Ford and other companies also are available in technical courses.

Students need specific goals toward which to work. These incentives go a long way. In the Construction program, for example, students build a new house literally from the ground up. At the end of the year it is sold and the funds further support the Construction program. Academic programs need similar incentives. Some schools place emphasis on Advanced Placement courses. However, these have been criticized because of their narrow focus.

STEP FOUR: Internships. Students at the Career Center not only work on ‘real world’ projects in class, but many have intern possibilities during their second year. Why should such valuable special experiences be limited to special schools? Can’t internships be set up for students in academic programs as well? One of the big mistakes we have made is to separate students into so-called college bound or career bound offerings. Should college prep students should keep their noses buried in books. There’s no reason why students in traditional programs should not have opportunities to utilize what they have learned inside schools by making contributions outside their school environments.

STEP FIVE: Community input. One of the greatest keys to the Career Center’s success is its involving community personnel on advisory committees. Each of the 22 programs has its own advisory committee and there’s an over all advisory committee as well. These people, representing the various technical fields, are valuable links to the larger community. Curricula receive direct input from those actively working in the community. Why can’t there be similar committees in traditional schools? Again, such links would help students directly by demonstrating how what is learned in classes has value in the larger community, and committee members can be supporters for the schools to the rest of the community as well.

STEP SIX: Multiple student incentives. In each program there should be opportunities for students to participate in competitions leading to state and national recognition. The Career Center has been outstanding each year when many students achieve success at state and even national levels. Similar programs should be available and highly recognized in every high school across the country. Here is the list from the 2004-05 school year:

• State Award for Overall Excellence: 1 state winner
• Skills USA State Medalists: 7 gold medals (students went to
Kansas City for the national
Contest June 19-24, all expenses
paid)
6 silver medals
6 bronze medals
• ARTiculate: 2 state winners (2nd and 3rd place)
• Regional Scholastic Art Awards: 1 American vision Award (5 pc.
Portfolio)
3 gold keys
1 silver key
9 honorable mention
• National Scholastic Art Awards 1 student (received at Carnegie Hall)
• Lincoln Art Welding: 6 awards
• Automotive Youth Educational Systems 10 senior interns
6 junior interns
• State Ford AAA Student Auto Skills 3rd place team

Finally, through the generous gifts from Basil S. Turner, one of the Career Centers original benefactors, and others in the community, there is an endowed scholarship foundation currently worth around $400,000. Each year it awards 12 scholarships to deserving students to further their education in technical institutes or colleges and universities. The program is a chapter in the Dollars for Scholars program (www.scholarshipamerica.org/).

In summary, here is a description of the mission of the Career Center and its relationship to traditional academic programs. There is no separation between college bound and career bound students. After all, the goal of any good educational program is to challenge the students to perform at their highest level and to provide the tools so that their goals are achievable. I suggest the Career Center’s statement here should be replicated for every high school in America.

At the Elkhart Area Career Center we have certified math and English instructors working with the career and technical educational instructors. We provide all students with the occupational, academic and higher-order thinking skills needed to function effectively in a technologically advanced society, a globally competitive marketplace and an information-based economy.

By integrating mathematics and English academics within career and technical education skills, we enhance student learning by providing a real-life, hands-on opportunity to practice the use of their academic and vocational skills. The basic academic and problem-solving skills are taught simultaneously so that they are mutually reinforced. Students learn how to recognize the academic strategies to solve real-life problems and the skills get reinforced through hands-on applications.

The course outcomes are aligned with Indiana State educational standards. Integration of academic and career preparation standards make possible a career pathway connecting education to the world of work.

For more information about exemplary educational programs for all ages and to be challenged by new ideas about learning, visit our web site www.eye2theworld.net.

Joseph Rueff, President of Eye2theWorld, an eductional n-f-p whose mission is helping persons of all ages gain the basis for success in the rapidly changing global society through life long education.

Intelius, an information commerce company founded by Naveen Jain, sponsored the SMART Girls and GOOD Guys programs of the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue. The event saw more than 200 youth participants gather for an afternoon of programs South Bellevue Community Center last March 20, 2009.

The program, implemented nationally, has ties with the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue’s “Be Great” campaign. Both activities focused on empowering the youth to become more self-confident and responsible. Participants in the Intelius-supported activity were children and teens aged five to 16 years. The activity helped open the eyes of the country’s younger generation to the truth that making positive choices and monitoring one’s health are important factors for achieving success.

Children and teens who participated in the SMART Girls and GOOD Guys event came from different housing sites and associate schools. The activity ushered in the celebration of the National Boys & Girls Club Week.

The information commerce company, through the leadership of Jain and his wife Anu, actively participates in several corporate philanthropic missions. In fact, one of the incentives given to Intelius employees is a paid leave when they go out of the office to serve a specific charity for an agreed period.

Intellius, a 5-year supporter of the program, believes that the “Be Great” program has a huge positive impact on the American youth. Through Intellius Vice President of Community Relations Anu Jain, the company has pledged to continue sponsoring the program and strengthening their relationship with the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue.

“Be Great” and Boys & Girls Club of Bellevue have been giving hope to many young people for over 100 years now. With clubs spread throughout the country and in various US military bases around the world, the Boys & Girls Club has successfully helped thousands of youths develop their potentials as productive citizens.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Property Index online service is only a fairly young agency, they were incorporated only in March 2007, they have advanced to expert status very quickly. On closer scrutiny, they are a pretty cool agency and focus on offering guidance to any person who is designing to sell, buy, rent, etc. property across the world. They promise to lend you a hand to pinpoint squarely what’s called for very swiftly and, obviously, painlessly.

Real property can be purchased just about anywhere nowadays, probably the really elite area being estate available for sale in Portugal. It should really be easy as falling off a log to write a list of the fantastic properties on the market in Portugal, one rationale for wanting properties here being the houses and apartments available for sale and the phenomenal possibility of spending your life amongst such a strenuous people.

This is one of the most favored areas nowadays, and with the lovely landscape and agreeable sunshine surrounding you round the clock, how can you go wrong… Real property in Portugal is steeped in history, this area of the world has always been home to various nations.

Only 25 years ago you’d find just a trickle of English looking for properties in Portugal. Ask any person who has chosen to move to Portugal and they’ll be sure to substantiate this. Many people would tend to see it as a transient craze and others tend to see it as a near to an addiction. Shoppers who are intent on moving over here may range from young working couples who are looking for a challenge to the retired planning to chill out.

Do bear in mind, though, that there might well be hitches when acquiring properties overseas; expectably there’ll be a hundred actions be it when brainstorming, calling in or buying and completing. If you only miss only a single procedure that is liable to kick up sizable hitches plus, of course, most importantly, a financial hammering.

As everybody will assume with this sought after location, properties might well be very costly in this area and that is basically a consequence of the increasing buyer demand. Despite this the homebuyer is spoiled in a destination determined by happy terrain and surroundings. It can boast most everything just about anyone might really want, and then some.

PropertyIndex.com make it easy to find property in Portugal, whether you are looking for a villa or an apartment, they can help you find the right property.

Have you ever sat around a pot of hot oil with a fork in your hand and a plate of raw meat in front of you? Reading this article may give you the urge to do just that.

Hot Oil Fondue or Fondue Bourguignon consists of cooking meat in a pot of hot oil that sits directly on the table. Several choices of dipping sauces are usually available as well. Like cheese fondue, oil fondue is a great choice to serve for an intimate dinner or for a few friends. Fondue allows the host to be present at the dinning table and to enjoy the company of the guests instead of running back and forth to the kitchen.

The key to enjoying oil fondue is preparation. Lean cuts of meat such as beef tenderloin, pork cutlets or boneless chicken breast can be cut into bite sized pieces in advance and stored in the fridge. Just be sure to give the raw chicken it’s own plate to avoid any kind of salmonella contamination.

At least three dipping sauces should be prepared for hot oil fondue. If you’re really ambitious, choose up to 5 dipping sauces to go along with several types of meat. For example if cooking chicken pieces, then you could choose teriyaki sauce, satay sauce, spicy buffalo sauce or sweet and sour sauce. You may want to give each guest their own set of sauces if you are worried about double dipping.

Peanut oil, grape seed oil or clarified butter are used because they have a high smoke point. That means that they can withstand a high temperature without igniting. Depending on the size of your fondue pot, you will probably need about a quart or two.

Traditionally oil fondues have been prepared in metal fondue pots. A ceramic pot should be avoided because it could crack under high temperatures. The oil needs to be heated to 325-350 degrees. If your fondue pot is the kind with a candle then you’re out of luck. You’ll need a heating element in order to maintain a constant temperature. Today’s Electric fondue pots are more versatile than the old metal pots and can be used to cook cheese, oil, broth & dessert fondues. The electric fondue pots will include a temperature dial that makes it easy to maintain the proper temperature. Just dial it in and leave it. The newest fondue pots are also dishwasher safe, so cleanup is a breeze.

Basic Hot Oil Fondue (Fondue Bourguignon)
Fill 2/3 of fondue pot with Peanut Oil (or Grape seed Oil or Clarified Butter)
Heat oil to 325-350 degrees

Safety Tips:
Do not use a ceramic or stoneware pot
Let food cool before eating
Never move a fondue pot filled with hot oil

To Dip:
Lean Cuts of Meat - bite sized pieces (beef tenderloin, pork cutlets, chicken breast, etc)
Vegetables - Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers, etc.

Dipping Sauces:
Sweet & Sour Sauce, Thai Peanut Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce

If you’ve already tried cheese and chocolate, then you’re ready for the next step in fondue. Hot Oil fondue is a delicious way to spend an evening with friends or family.

About the Author: Anthony Tripodi is the webmaster of GoFondue.com - The Home of Fondue. For more information about fondue including recipes, ideas and equipment, visit http://www.gofondue.com

Source: www.isnare.com