Day: January 2, 2020

Featured Post, Let's Eat, Wining & Dining

Homemade Chicken Soup and Matzo Balls – A Decade’s Old Winter Staple

Cooking Corner By Judy Eichner Homemade Chicken Soup and Matzo Balls – A Decade’s Old Winter Staple Whether or not the claim that homemade chicken soup is a cure-all, also known as Jewish penicillin, its use is widespread in many cultures around the world.  Doctors have differing opinions, but most of the parent’s I know swear it’s so.  Try making the soup using the following recipe and see if it makes you feel better the next time you have a cold or an upper respiratory infection. Chicken Soup 1 whole chicken, or 3 chicken breasts (6 pieces) 4 large celery ribs 4-6 large carrots 2 large onions salt and pepper to taste Put all the ingredients in a large soup pot. Use enough water to just about cover the ingredients. Bring to a rolling boil and then lower the flame to medium and cook for about 45 minutes to an hour. Remove the vegetables and put in a food processor or blender.  Process until the mixture is thick and the vegetable pieces are not distinguishable from one another. Remove the chicken from the pot and cut into bite sized pieces. Add the veggies and the chicken to the pot and slowly cook covered for about 1 to 1 ½ hours. If it looks like a good part of the liquid has evaporated, add a container of clear chicken broth, preferably organic. Serve with either matzo balls (recipe to follow) or very fine egg noodles. Matzo Balls In a large bowl, put: 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil 4 large eggs, slightly beaten 2 teaspoons of salt, if desired 4 tablespoons of chicken soup or water 1 cup of matzo meal Blend the vegetable oil, eggs, matzo meal and salt together. Add soup stock or water and mix until mixture is uniform….

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Beauty & Health, From the Trainer

Get A “Leg Up” In the New Decade!

By Ryan Unverzagt Get A “Leg Up” In the New Decade! Welcome to 2020 and a brand new decade! Hard to believe that I have been penning this column for well over 10 years! Each New Year brings exciting opportunities for all of us, especially in the world of fitness. A few words of advice for sticking with your resolutions: Keep at it, even if you stumble at times. Don’t expect to be perfect. Try to establish a regular routine by getting support from family and friends. Exercising with someone is more fun anyway, so let’s hold each other accountable. With that said, my objective is to provide you with safe, effective exercises that can help you reach your training goals. This month’s exercise is the Leg Press (also called the Hip Sled). It strengthens all the muscles of the legs and hips, particularly the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteus maximus. The leg press is safer than a free-weight squat and can provide much needed back support too. This is a plate-loaded machine meaning that you slide on the weight plates before getting started. Most machines should have a back support that adjusts to different angles. The highest setting provides the most back support. Once you have adjusted the back support to a comfortable angle, sit down into the seat and place your feet about shoulder-width apart on the foot-plate. Notice how the foot-plate has two different angles as well. I placed my feet towards the top, but you can move them lower to make the quadriceps work harder during the exercise. The last adjustment is the safety stops. These prevent the weight from crashing down on you in case your muscles fatigue before finishing your reps. Some machines may not have these, but you want to set them so you…

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Caribbean Connection, From the Bay to the Blue Ridge

The 20 Best Caribbean Beach Bars to Visit in 2020!

Lani Gering w/Caribbean Journal Staff The 20 Best Caribbean Beach Bars to Visit in 2020! I signed up for the Caribbean Journal newsletter quite some time ago since we try to spend as much time as we can on our favorite islands of St. John and Jost Van Dyke but lately the treks have been far and few between. When I got the info about the top 20 beach bars to visit in 2020 and saw our very favorite place, the Soggy Dollar and the new kid on the block (or the water in this case) the Lime Out featured, I had to pass on the info to you all. With the help of the staff at the Journal we give you the following: There’s a very effective way to test the quality of a Caribbean beach bar – whether you can spend the entire day there. Because best Caribbean beach bars are more than bars — they’re destinations, the sorts of places where you can arrive early in the day and leave your watch behind. They’re places that can turn a simple stretch of sand into a pilgrimage spot. And that’s true of the bars on our list of the best Caribbean beach bars for 2020, a diverse collection of beach hotspots, castaway-style shacks and old-school beach bars from across the Caribbean region. In other words, this is one very good way to plan your Caribbean travel for next year. So what are you waiting for? Le Petibonum, Martinique Martinique’s legendary beach bar just keeps getting better. The Le Carbet bar that turned northwest Martinique into one of the region’s coolest beach destinations continues to innovate, from a standalone rum bar to a full-fledged pizzeria and even a rum shop. This is the essence of why we come to the Caribbean,…

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History, History Column

‘Remember the Laidies’

By ©2019 Sarah Becker ‘Remember the Laidies’ In 1920 the United States, as per the 18th Amendment, prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors;” the U.S. Supreme Court concluded the United States Steel Corporation was not an illegal monopoly, and the Virginia General Assembly voted not to ratify the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment.  Yet Virginia’s Equal Suffrage League [ESL]—“most likely the largest State Association in the South”—claimed 32,000 members. “In 1901 the Virginia General Assembly authorized a convention to draft a new constitution that would, among other things, restrict the vote to white men,” the Library of Virginia explained.  The State constitution remained mostly in effect until 1971.     Also in 1920: The Red Scare took root, and five members of the New York legislature were expelled for being members of the Socialist party.  The Socialist Party nominated labor leader Eugene V. Debs for president; women comprised one-fifth of the nation’s work force, and outgoing two-term President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us dare to do our duty as we understand it,” Wilson then said.  Duty, as defined by The American Heritage dictionary:  “moral or legal obligation; responsibility.” Is it not the duty of the 2020 Virginia House of Delegates, the Virginia General Assembly to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment [ERA]?  Harry F. Byrd Sr.’s conservative Virginia did not ratify the 1919 Woman’s Suffrage Amendment, Amendment 19 until 1952. Women obtained the right to vote only 100 years ago; a contested right unanimously upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on February 27, 1922.  Newspaper woman, Mrs. Dolly P. Shepperson was “the first [Alexandria] woman to pay her poll taxes [$1.50] and vote.”  Still Virginia waits for ratification of the Equal Rights…

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