Impress dinner guests make lattes at home

With an espresso machine in your kitchen at home, you can make your own latte’s to enjoy for yourself - and to impress your dinner guests! Some people look at the price of a home espresso machine and change their minds, but if consider what you typically pay when you buy a latte at your local coffee shop, whether it is a mom & pop shop or a chain (like Dunkin’ Donuts), you’re spending anywhere from $2 to $4 for a latte! Your espresso machine will more than pay for itself in a short time of making your lattes from home. Having your own espresso machine means having the ability to make latte’s for much less than you spend on them when you go out. Plus you can enjoy them anytime - not just when you’re on the road. Also, lattes are a wonderful after dinner complement - particularly when you have guests over! Making a latte is all a part of the fun of having an espresso machine. While some people like to drink espresso shots right out of the machine, most people would prefer to make a latte or cappuccino to sit and enjoy with a good book, or good friends and conversation! The espresso machine will grind your espresso beans fresh for every cup, giving you the fresh taste latte lovers have come to recognize as an integral part of the latte. Depending on your particular brand of espresso machine, you’ll probably dispense about 7 grams of espresso into the handle. Once you’ve extracted the espresso shot into the provided espresso shot pot (usually stainless steel, with a pouring spout), you can start steaming your milk! The basic recipe is 1 to 2 ounces of espresso to 8 fluid ounces of milk. Put your milk into the frothing jug, and slide the entire container over the steam arm nozzle. Make sure you keep the nozzle as close to the bottom of the container as possible to avoid making a lot of foam out of your milk. Use a thermometer so you know when the milk reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Now you are ready to pour your steamed milk into the serving cup. A glass latte cup will look the best, and really impress your friends! Pour the steamed milk into the glass, using a spoon to hold back most of the foam that forms on the top of the milk. Once you’ve filled your cup with the milk, allow some of the foam to lie on the top for a “professional coffee shop latte” look. Your final step to preparing a latte at home is to take your espresso shot and pour it slowly down the inside of the latte serving glass. Some of the espresso will mix with the milk at the bottom of the glass and some will layer itself in between the milk and foam. You’ll have cloudy areas and several different shades of “latte brown”, making for a wonderful presentation that rivals that of the best coffee house. Only you won’t be paying $4 a cup, and you can make it and drink it in your pajamas if you want to! If you really want to make the presentation impressive, place your guests’ lattes on a cute little serving tray, with a decorative plate of fancy cookies. Biscotti’s are typically served with lattes, but you can be creative and serve anything you like. Maybe you could make some tiramisu using your espresso to make it from scratch for dessert, and enjoy slices of tiramisu with your homemade lattes! Your guests will want to come for dinner all the time once they experience your after dinner lattes.

Crab comforts

Crabs are among the most succulent and delicious seafood eaten today. Whole crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, alaskan crabs, stone crabs, and even other tiny crabs are served across the nation. Some like it with sauce, others are contented to steam it and pick the meat out. More adventurous people would include crabs in soups, salads, and even sandwiches. Crab cakes and crab fritters are also popular choices. Crabs are even included in pasta sauces and omelettes. But before making crab dishes it is necessary to get really good crabs and crab meat. It doesn't matter if you're going to prepare whole crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, alaskan crabs, stone crabs, or some tiny crab, they key here is freshness. It is better and advised that you get live crabs. Pick crabs that are lively or aggressive. Sick or dead crabs would only ruin your dish and could even be a cause of sickness. Also, crabs are sold by bushels. Insists to inspect or choose your own crabs before putting them in bushels. To ensure freshness, befriend your fish person and ask them to keep you informed when the next batch of crabs would be in. Fresh crabs taste juicier and more succulent than stale crabs. Now that you have your crabs, it is important to remember some guidelines in preparing them. You would not want to waste quality crabs by careless cooking, would you? It doesn't matter if you want to cook crabs, crab legs, crab cakes, alaskan crabs, stone crabs, or some tiny crab dish, cook your crabs as soon as you got them. I assure you they'll taste better than if cooked on a later time. For steaming, get a wide rack and steaming pot so you can steam the all crabs at once. This way, crabs are steamed evenly and you can prevent earlier steamed crabs from cooling. Make sure that your rack has enough height for your crabs to stay well above the steaming liquid, too short racks will give you boiled crabs instead of steamed. Another trick is to add beer to your boiling liquid, it will give your crabs outstanding flavor. Crab cakes are trickier. It is important to control your seasonings so as not to overpower the subtle flavor of the crab. Avoid over-frying or your crab cake will dry out. The color of stone crab claws and most crabs will change to a bright shade of orange when cooked. Do not overcook your crabs, as soon as they signal you with their color change, remove them from direct heat. When your crabs are cooked, keep your sauces or condiments to a minimum, after all, it is the crabs that should be the star of your meal. Call your friends and family to share your crab feast. But on the other hand, they'll taste so good you might want to enjoy them by yourself.

What to drink on the zone diet

: The Zone Diet is founded on the idea of eating a balanced ratio of carbohydrate, protein and fat. By eating in the ratio of 40/30/30, meaning 40 percent carbohydrate and 30 percent each of protein and fat, the idea is that your metabolism is impacted to run at its most efficient level. The diet also emphasizes getting the right amounts of fruit, vegetables and lean sources of protein. The right combination of foods results in an increased metabolism and weight loss. Designing meals that meet these requirements can be tricky, but the program offers a range of ideas.

You can also purchase cookbooks with recipes intended for the followers of the diet as well. But some people still wonder what they are allowed to drink when following the diet. You can still drink juice and either low fat or skim milk, as long as you count the calories and grams of protein, fat and carbohydrates. But since our bodies are made mostly of water, water is the recommended drink. The health benefits of drinking enough water cannot be underestimated. Water helps to flush toxins out of the body, it keeps the cells and metabolism supplies with the water needed to work properly and it quenches thirst better than any other fluid you can ingest.

The Zone Diet guidelines require that followers drink at least sixty-four ounces (or eight cups) of fluid every day. If you are one of the many people who simply don't like the taste of water, there are other options for you. You can add a squeeze of lemon, lime or orange to your water to give it a little bit of extra flavor. Or, you can purchase bottled waters that have a slightly fruity flavoring to them so that they taste more like a seltzer than plain water. Pour them in a glass full of ice for a refreshing beverage. It's important, however, to read the labels, even for water. Since the Zone Diet guidelines require you to limit sugar and carbohydrates, you don't want to take in sugar unknowingly.

Carry a bottle of water with you wherever you go and refill it whenever it gets empty. Soon enough you can change your habit of drinking soda, tea or juice, especially when you see the good results in your weight loss efforts. If you are a coffee or tea drinker, you will need to make some changes as well. The Zone Diet guidelines instruct you to eliminate caffeine from your diet.

This change can be difficult and cause withdrawal symptoms like headaches. It might be a good idea to gradually start eliminating caffeine from your diet in the weeks before you begin following the Zone Diet guidelines. Decaffeinated coffee or tea will let you still enjoy the taste of coffee or tea without the caffeine.

The same is true of sodas. Regular sodas should be completely eliminated. They simply have too much sugar. Diet sodas come in enough different flavors that you should be able to find one that you like. However, you do need to switch to decaffeinated versions in order to improve your chances of success on the program.

Alcohol is one other beverage that will have to be limited or eliminated. There have been some studies that have shown that moderate alcohol consumption can actually have some positive effects on your health, particularly your heart. If you are currently drinking alcohol as part of a program to protect your cardiovascular health, you shouldn't stop without discussing it with a health professional first.

However, the Zone Diet doesn't require that you totally eliminate all alcohol from your routine, just that you limit it to occasional use. There's no reason that you can't continue to enjoy an alcoholic beverage from time to time. Just keep in mind that the more beverages that you replace with water, the more good you are doing for your body and the faster you are likely to see weight loss success.