One of the first changes to my diet will be to add sweet potatoes to the weekly menu. Also, as I develop my repertoire, friends and relatives will be getting sweet potatoes as gifts! Have you been naughty or nice? Naughty, you get a bag of tubers. Healthy, but probably not on your list to Santa. If you have been nice you may get a box of handmade camotes, maybe even flavored with Poblano pepper.
Sweet potatoes were an important part of the diet in the United States for most of its history, especially in the Southeast. From the middle of the 20th century, however, they have become less popular. The average per capita consumption of sweet potatoes in the United States is only about 1.5-2 kg (4 lbs) per year, down from 13 kg (31 lb) in 1920. Southerner Kent Wrench writes: "The Sweet Potato became associated with hard times in the minds of our ancestors and when they became affluent enough to change their menu, the potato was served less often."
Sweet potato varieties with dark orange flesh have more beta carotene than those with light colored flesh and their increased cultivation is being encouraged in Africa where Vitamin A deficiency is a serious health problem. HarvestPlus, the International Potato Center, and African partners have successfully introduced "biofortified" sweet potatoes packed with vitamin A, giving children hope for a healthy future. This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin B6 and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin A and Vitamin C.
"Dulces" or sweets, are very popular in Mexico. The camote is a candy made of sweet potato and fruit flavoring. It is the signature goodie in Puebla. The candy shops on Candy Street, the nickname given to Avenue 6 Oriente in old town Puebla, must be seen to be believed. Bees, attracted to the sugar, buzz the windows, the candy counters and probably leave with you and your purchases; all part of the shopping experience! Though some Mexican Mercado have stalls specializing in sweets, more typically confections in the market area are sold from sidewalk vendors. Maybe a little table will be set up at a street corner, or perhaps a boy will be circulating with a tray of goodies strapped around his neck.
Sweet potatoes: Use them in soups, casseroles, puddings, baked goods, or as a substitute for white potatoes in your favorite recipes. They make a nice addition to stir-fries; cut them into thin sticks so that they will cook quickly. Also, get on my "list" and you may receive some very unique "dulces".
You may enjoy reading: The "Vice President of Cake" politely declined.
Also, may I recommend for your enjoyment: The Food Bank recently got a letter from a key vendor.
Whether they are made of pork, as is most often the case, or of beef, veal, buck, goat, chamois, venison, sheep, wild boar, or horse, cured meats (salumi in Italian) were born of a need to conserve meat for months after the slaughter of the animal. Salting, smoking, and air-drying are the three processes by which fresh meat is transformed into a long-keeping staple.
While all meats are salted, some are smoked, and others are simply air-dried. Italians have been making an amazing array of cured meats for thousands of years using both noble and humble parts of the animals they raise. The ancient Romans prized the spicy pork sausages crafted in the southern region of Basilicata (called Lucania then, and giving rise to sausages named Lucaniche still eaten today). And, fond of intensely tasty foods, they smoked or salted whole pig thighs, yielding savory Prosciutti not unlike those still made in mountain villages across Italy.
Two thousand years later, pork remains Italy's favorite meat for curing. Pigs are especially prevalent in areas where there is a notable cheesemaking tradition: after all, wherever there is cheese, there is excess whey, which, combined with bran and corn, becomes perfect feed for pigs.
The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics superhero created by Jack Kirby. The character first appears in the comic book Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966), the first of a three-issue arc fans and historians call "The Galactus Trilogy".
Originally a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La, in order to save his home-world from destruction by a fearsome cosmic entity known as Galactus, Norrin Radd made a bargain with the being, pledging himself to serve as his herald. Imbued in return with a tiny portion of Galactus' Power Cosmic, Radd acquired great powers and a silvery appearance. Galactus also created for Radd a surfboard-like craft — modeled after a childhood fantasy of his — on which he would travel at speeds beyond that of light. Known from then on as the Silver Surfer, Radd began to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels finally took him to Earth, the Surfer came face-to-face with the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes that helped him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return with everlasting exile there.
Stan Lee enjoyed the character and decided to feature him in his own individual title in 1968. John Buscema was penciller for the first 17 issues of the series, with Kirby returning for the eighteenth and final issue. The first seven issues, which included anthological "Tales of the Watcher" backup stories, were 72-page (with advertising), 25-cent "giants", as opposed to typical 36-page, 12-cent comics of the time. Thematically, the stories dealt with the Surfer's exile on Earth and the inhumanity of man as observed by this noble yet fallen hero. The Silver Surfer comic book series became known as one of Lee's most thoughtful and introspective works. Englehart writes that Buscema and Lee were "pouring their souls into the series".
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