PRESERVE YOUR HERBS BY FREEZING THEM

Do you use your freezer to preserve herbs, vegetables, or fruit? The freezer can be a powerful, overlooked method of preserving. Pesto, strawberry puree, tomato soup — stash them away now for colder times! One of my favorite ingredients, a handful of fresh herbs from the garden, is one of the simplest things to preserve in the freezer, and I just learned a new, better way to freeze herbs: In oil! Preserving herbs in oil reduces some of the browning and freezer burn that herbs can get in the freezer. It's also a great way to have herbs ready immediately for winter stews, roasts, soups, and potato dishes. These dishes usually call for oil to start with, and so you can take a cube of frozen oil, herbs inside, out of the freezer and use this as the base of your dish. Cook the onions and garlic in this herb-infused oil and let the taste of herbs spread through your whole dish. Given this use, the oil-and-freezer method of preservation works best with the tougher hard herbs such as rosemary, sage, thyme, and oregano. These are all herbs that would probably be cooked when added to a dish. Soft herbs such as mint, basil, lemon verbena, and dill are usually added raw to a dish, and they don't respond as well to this kind of preserving. Their fresh taste is changed in the freezer, and honestly, I don't usually choose to freeze these delicate sorts of herbs at all, with the exception of homemade basil pesto. Some folks do freeze soft herbs in bags without any water or oil, which essentially preserves them by drying them out. I don't prefer the taste of dried mint and other herbs, so I just never do this.

How To Keep Herbs Fresh - Tips to Care for Herbs and Prolong Their Potency

Food flavor is intensified and improved with fresh herbs. But did you know that unless you plan to use the entire bunch in one dish, the freshness diminishes if they’re not stored and cared for properly? After a few days, little remains of the freshness and rich smell of these herbs, as you see your money slowly wilting away. Here are a few effective methods to help prolong the life of your herbs. Cheer up your kitchen with an herb bouquet Fresh herbs should be treated exactly like a precious flower bouquet. When you’ve used what you need, trim the ends and place the remaining bunch in a jar full of cold water. Just like you would with flowers, cut the stalks every few days to help with water absorption. For best results, herbs such as cilantro and parsley stay fresh longer in cold water, covered with a plastic bag and kept in the refrigerator door—the warmest spot in the refrigerator. Basil and mint bouquets make beautiful kitchen decorations and can be kept at room temperature on your windowsill. Wrap them up If you lack space in your kitchen, wrap the herbs in a damp paper towel, place them in a re-sealable plastic bag and store them in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer. If you’re using a gallon-size bag, store several different herbs wrapped separately in one bag to avoid waste. Continue to monitor the paper towel’s dampness by simply replacing with a new damp towel or misting the one in use. Be careful when storing thyme and rosemary. Don’t use too much moisture on these woodsy herbs because it can cause them to grow mold. If you want to avoid the use of plastic bags and paper towels, a clean kitchen towel works as well. Keep it moist, wrap it around your herbs and place it in the crisper drawer. Remember that the smaller the leaf and thinner the stalk, the more care and monitoring the herb needs. By checking on your herbs two to three times a week, you’ll be prolonging the life of your herbs while at the same time saving some money.

Blanquéate los dientes con salvia, una hierba de múltiples usos

Imagen via Enriqueta Lemoine Se dice que la salvia tiene propiedades bactericidas, cicatrizantes, antisépticas, antiespasmódicas, antidiarreicas, anti vomitivas, carminativas, antiinflamatorias, relajantes, diuréticas, antisépticas y anti sudoríficas. Sigue leyendo para que veas algunos de sus usos: Como incienso. Si enciendes un buen bouquet de ramas y hojas de salvia secas, es perfecto para purificar el ambiente, según la costumbre de los primeros pobladores de Norteamérica. Como blanqueador de dientes. Masticar hojas de salvia fresca no sólo refrescará tu aliento y fortificará tus encías, si frotas las hojas en tus dientes, te beneficiarás de su efecto blanqueador. Contra los trastornos femeninos. La salvia contiene estrógeno y por lo mismo es indicada para los trastornos menstruales y hasta para los calorones y sofocos propios de la menopausia. Como digestivo. Después de una comida abundante, haz una infusión de hojas de salvia y manzanilla en una taza de agua hirviendo. Deja reposar 20 minutos y tómala como un té. Contra la amigdalitis. Prepara una infusión hirviendo dos litros de agua con 20 hojas de salvia y una onza de manzanilla. Deja reposar por media hora y haz gárgaras tres veces al día. Contra el dolor de garganta. Prepara una infusión hirviendo un litro de agua con 10 hojas de salvia. Deja reposar 15 minutos y agrega cuatro cucharadas de sal marina gruesa. Haz gárgaras tres veces al día.

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THE NEW ERA FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

AS THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MAKES HIS WAY TO THE CAPITOL FOR HIS INAUGURATION INTO OFFICE FOR A SECOND TERM WE CAN´T STOP TO THINK THAT THIS IS JUST THE RIGHT DAY FOR THIS TO HAPPEN. ITS MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY AND THE DREAM HAS BECOME AN AMERICAN STORY! GOD BLESS AMERICA. GOD BLESS THE PRESIDENT, BARAK OBAMA AND GOD BLESS OUR FIRST LADY AND THE TWO FIRST DAUGHTERS. HISTORY CONTINUES!

THE HISTORY OF EARTH DAY

Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. The height of hippie and flower-child culture in the United States, 1970 brought the death of Jimi Hendrix, the last Beatles album, and Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. Protest was the order of the day, but saving the planet was not the cause. War raged in Vietnam, and students nationwide increasingly opposed it. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health. Earth Day 1970 capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center. The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. As a result, on the 22nd of April, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. "It was a gamble," Gaylord recalled, "but it worked." As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It also prompted President Bill Clinton to award Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1995) -- the highest honor given to civilians in the United States -- for his role as Earth Day founder. As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. With 5,000 environmental groups in a record 184 countries reaching out to hundreds of millions of people, Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. It used the Internet to organize activists, but also featured a talking drum chain that traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, and hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Earth Day 2000 sent world leaders the loud and clear message that citizens around the world wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy. Much like 1970, Earth Day 2010 came at a time of great challenge for the environmental community. Climate change deniers, well-funded oil lobbyists, reticent politicians, a disinterested public, and a divided environmental community all contributed to a strong narrative that overshadowed the cause of progress and change. In spite of the challenge, for its 40th anniversary, Earth Day Network reestablished Earth Day as a powerful focal point around which people could demonstrate their commitment. Earth Day Network brought 225,000 people to the National Mall for a Climate Rally, amassed 40 million environmental service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green®, launched an international, 1-million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members. The fight for a clean environment continues in a climate of increasing urgency, as the ravages of climate change become more manifest every day. We invite you to be a part of Earth Day and help write many more victories and successes into our history. Discover energy you didn't even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grassroots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come.

Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain

Evidence builds that meditation strengthens the brain