Chef Courses

Food

Beginning chef courses can be found at your local community college or vocational school, such as those offered by the West Valley Occupational Center (WVOC) in Woodland Hills, California. Centers like this offer short-term training in technical and vocational subjects. These courses often earn community college credit as well.

Be aware that attendance policies at community occupational centers can be quite strict, since there are always waiting lists. At WVOC, food-handling courses require a Tuberculosis (TB) Test to be passed first, partly due to the large number of immigrants in the region. Other areas of the U.S. and Canada, and elsewhere, may have similar requirements. At least, it is hoped that only healthy people are allowed to work in the food and catering industry, but that may be difficult to enforce.

More advanced chef courses are offered by cooking schools, well-known in their region, or even across borders. One example is the affiliation between the Canadian Personal Chef Alliance (CPCA) and Liaison College Downtown Toronto (Ontario), which offers several diploma programs and financial assistance. Graduating students receive a one-year membership in CPCA with all its benefits of expert advice, at no cost.

Chef Courses for Seasoned Professionals

It's possible to …

Coffee Of The Month Clubs

Drink

Coffee of the month clubs make an excellent business or personal gift. If you know a coffee lover and are looking for a unique gift, consider a subscription to a coffee club. Each month, your recipient will be given a different flavor of coffee delivered right to their door. Or if you choose, you can pick their favorite flavor and have that delivered each month.

Coffee of the month clubs are available in three, six, and twelve month memberships. Imagine, a whole year of gourmet coffee delivery! Who would not enjoy a new flavor of coffee each month, or look forward to the scheduled delivery of fresh coffee on a regular basis?

Treat Yourself to Coffee of the Month Clubs

You can also join coffee of the month clubs yourself. You do not have to give them away as a gift! Perhaps you enjoy sampling different coffees or just want to try something other than the supermarket brands. Treat yourself to the experience of high-quality coffee, delivered freshly each month. If you like it a lot, you can buy more than one pound each month.

Often, coffee clubs give you more than just the coffee. Sometimes they include subscriptions to …

info on teaching health to young kids

Herbs

   My philosophy of education is that students need to have fun while learning. Either by doing hand on projects or art projects while getting the students attention. Group work is also an important way to get students to learn. Anyway I can get a student to learn will make me happy. That is how I feel all teachers should be. It is my job to make sure that students learn in what ever way is possible.  I just hope that in my teaching I can make it fun for them. A fun teacher is a teacher that students remember. It is also the information that students can keep a hold of for a longer period of time. 

      When I am teaching I think having hands on projects will make sense. Students can feel, touch, and smell the concept I am trying to teach. One example would be if we were talking about environmental waste, I could have the students bring in paper and let it build up in the classroom. This will show students how quickly was can build up and cause problems. Then we could gather up the trash and take a tour of the …

Four Things to Look for when Choosing Quality Herbs

Herbs

Fresh herbs you have grown yourself or purchased fresh from a reputable local seller is always the best way to go. But what if you must purchase them from a lesser known source and you have to use dried herbs?

There really is no need for concern if your only option is the use of dried herbs. With a bit of detective work and taking the time to choose your herbs wisely, you can create wonderful, effective remedies for all of your herbal needs. Dried herbs can be used for making teas, tinctures, lotions, soaps, poultices, etc… Basically, any creation you can make with fresh herbs, you can also make with dried ones. In some instances, you may even find that you prefer dried herbs over fresh ones because their properties are more concentrated so it takes less of the herb to fulfill your recipe needs.

The most important thing to remember when looking for quality herbs is that they should look, smell and taste like they are fresh, even if they are dried. Their effectiveness when you use them will also determine their quality.

Here are four tips to help you find quality herbs wherever you look for them.…

Short Term Herb Storage: Preserving Fresh Produce in Salt, Oil or Water

Herbs

Certain delicate herbs, such as basil, chervil, chives and parsley, taste best when used fresh. They loose most of their flavor when dried.

Preserving Fresh Herbs

Gather the herbs into a bundle and wrap the bottom of the stems with a moist paper towel. Place the bundle into a resealable plastic bag and store the bag in the vegetable or fruit bin of your refrigerator. Herbs can be stored in this manner for between 2 and 5 days before they will start to wilt.

An alternative method for temporarily storing fresh herbs is to place them in a tall glass which has been filled with 2 to 3 inches of water. Place the herb-filled glass on a countertop in your kitchen making sure to keep it away from the heat of your oven. Change the glass of water every day or two to keep the herbs fresh. Fresh herbs may last for up to one week using this storage method.

Storing Fresh Herbs in Oil

A slightly more permanent way to store fresh herbs is to pack them into a glass jar that is filled with a good quality olive oil. Make sure the herbs you are going to use …

Is There Such a Thing as a Healthy Chicken Nugget?

Health

Here’s a nugget of not-so-surprising information: Chicken nuggets aren’t exactly healthy. The universal kiddie fave can be a quick fix for a harried drive-thru mom or dad, but the word “chicken” should sometimes be taken with a grain of salt.

Last year, the American Journal of Medicine published a study titled “The Autopsy of Chicken Nuggets Reads ‘Chicken Little'” which revealed that the nuggets from some fast food chains contained less than fifty percent of actual chicken meat. While white-meat chicken is a good source of lean protein, the unnamed nugget recipes contained a mixture of chicken parts (and cartilage, bone, fat and blood vessels) doused in chemical laden batter. Sound appetizing?

Is There Such a Thing as a Healthy Chicken Nugget?

ABC news recently posted a listing of some of the ingredients for the chicken nuggets and tenders from four of the top fast food chains. McDonald’s famous Chicken McNuggets contain autolyzed yeast extract, sodium phosphates and hydrogenated soybean oil with the controversial preservative TBHQ, and Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets boast similar ingredients. The tenders and nuggets at KFC and Burger King also contain maltodextrin, which is often used as a sweetener.

While the fast food chains stand by …

Homemade Herbal Teas and Infusions: The Do-It-Yourself Way to Health

Herbs

The idea of throwing out that store-bought box of tea bags maybe daunting, but this guide offers all the information needed to prepare fresh, healthy natural teas in the kitchen. Edible plants can be found everywhere, from the spice cabinet to the grocery store to the back yard.

However, anybody planning to consume plants should be armed with a field guide to edible flora and the assurance that no pesticides or chemical fertilizers have come in contact with the plants at any time. No part of a plant should be consumed without a thorough knowledge of the effects, and every consumer should be aware that one part of a plant maybe edible while another part is toxic (for example, honey-suckle blossoms can be eaten, but the berries should not be).

Benefits of Homemade Herbal Teas: What’s the Difference?

Store-bought teas are lacking much of the essential vitamins and minerals that can be found in infusions made with fresh herbs. Homemade teas made with larger pieces of leaves and petals can provide 90 percent of the valuable oils that offer great assistance to the immune system. These teas are great for detoxification, digestion, and relaxation!

With even a small knowledge of …

Healthy Living for the Mind

Health

The human race has come a long way since our hunter gatherer days. Gone are the times when the majority of our energy and resources were focused on just trying to survive. In the modern industrialized world, we have far more stability in our food supply, health care, and safety. In the past, we relied heavily on physical prowess to prosper and move toward the future, in modern times though the physical has become less important now it our minds that take center stage in our endeavors to continue as a species, and much like our bodies, our minds also need proper nourishment and exercise for us to overcome the trials of the modern age. It is becoming more important to understand how to keep our minds strong and healthy as well as our bodies. Through the course of this article I will discuss some of the methods suggested by scientists and medical professionals that will help to keep the mind healthy and working at its maximum capabilities.

Mental Nutrition

The human brain is a highly specialized bio chemical system designed to process and record information from various external stimuli. To do this requires a wide variety of neurotransmitters produced …

Chlorella: Your Ticket to a Mercury Free Body | Jash Botanicals

Herbs

The Age of Toxicity

Heavy metals aren’t music to anyone’s ears. Frequent headaches, dizziness, brain fog, and nausea are just a few of the symptoms that tell us that mercury and other neurotoxic heavy metals are increasingly evident in our air, food, water, and even the medicines we take, causing many members of the medical community to call the 21st Century “The Age of Toxicity”.

These deadly substances kill neurons in our brains and throughout our nervous systems, progressively wreaking havoc with our delicate biological processes. However, one “super hero” in the wings may just be mercury’s kryptonite. It’s a little green algae called chlorella.

Peculiarly, as medicine advances, we find that it’s often wisest to reach back into the past to find natural alternative remedies that work with our bodies, instead of beating our bodies into submission with synthetic pharmaceuticals. Although chlorella was first identified in the late 19th century, this tiny algae has been around since the beginning of time.

What is Chlorella?

Through its 2.5 billion year existence, chlorella has generated specific detoxifying proteins and peptides that combat every existing toxic metal. A single-celled plant, chlorella’s fibrous, indigestible outer shell (the cell wall must be broken before

…

Japanese Tea Ceremony: Matcha Tea

Herbs

The Japanese Tea Ceremony can be practiced both at a tea house and in the host’s home should they have a chashitsu which is a special room designed specifically with the intentions of hosting traditional tea ceremonies.

Every single ceremony is treated as an experience that is uniquely special as it will never be repeated in the same way ever again even with the same group of people.

Due to the part it plays as a representative of Japanese culture, Japanese tea ceremony lessons can also be attended by interested visitors to Japan as well as for native Japanese people who wish to learn more about their culture.

Equipment Used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony

Since the Japanese tea ceremony can best be described as being an elaborate affair, there are several specialised pieces of equipment used by the host in order to prepare the matcha tea for their guests.

The four most important pieces of equipment are the chawan which is the tea bowl, the chasen which is the tea whisk, the chashaku which is the tea scoop and the hishaku which is the water ladle made of bamboo.

Part of the tea ceremony is spent with the host …