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I am cashing in on my promise to you all. Remember I had promised to share that perfect dessert I got a chance to make in the pastry kitchen on my last trip to Dubai? Here it is - well a part of it. See the dessert was a trio, a trio of crème brûlée and this was just one of the flavors - lime.
I know I am a tease. You know I am a tease, so you should also know by now that my playful teasing games are really worth it in the end.
I promised you a exquisite dessert and I am delivering you one third of it. But as you can see this one third is a perfect whole dessert in it's own. I actually splashed out on a new kitchen appliance just for this series of crème brûlée - a new Chefflamme Food Torch!
A creamy and citrusy lime crème brûlée. It really does not get better than that. OK - it does - when you have three incredibly flavored crème brûlées to indulge in.
I decided to go with the lime crème brûlée first for many reasons. First being I am currently totally in love with lemony/limey flavored desserts. There is something refreshing about experiencing that tangy, tart yet sweet on your tongue. How can I describe it best? Let me try!
Tangy so that your face is just on the verge of scrunching up but the sweetness hinders that real scrunch yet the tartness makes your tongue pop into a burst of flavors literally making your mouth water.
Ever experience that when enjoying a citrus dessert or cake? If you have no idea what I am on about well now you have the perfect opportunity to try it out for yourself. This dessert is all what I described above and a little bit more. The smooth cream and the crack of the sugary caramel takes the experience up another level.
My second reason to go with the lime flavored crème brûlée was simply because Helen chose the Citrus theme for this month's Sugar High Friday. Like her my affinity for citrus flavored desserts and sweets runs right next to my chocolate craze. So, there was no way I was going to miss out on this one.
I love limes more than anything. They lend a wonderful aroma to any dish. I find the zest zestier and the juice more refreshing than lemons. On many occasions I will substitute limes with lemons.
Limes are the smallest of the citrus family and their flavor is stronger and more tart than lemons. Generally limes are either round or oval in shape and often have a bright green to dark green colored skin. Limes are picked when they are still green and before they completely mature. As they do mature you will notice they turn more yellowish. This color also indicates that they have lost their fresh tart flavor.
There are several varieties of limes available. Sweet or sour, oval or round, seeds or seedless - all have one thing in common, they are a powerhouse of vitamin C.
Limes are often used not only in sweet dishes but are commonly used to add a zest to savory dishes too. Limes can be used similarly to lemons, but as they are stronger in flavor, smaller amounts are required. Lime juice and zest enhances the flavors of fruits, vegetables and salads and add a fresh tart flavor to baked goods and desserts. Limes are also often used in several popular cocktails like mojitos or caipirinha.
You can already see what fun limes can be and how versatile they are. But did you know this:
- The high content of vitamin C in limes provides health related benefits.
- Lemons and limes were used back in the 18th century on British Navy ships to prevent and treat scurvy among the sailors.
- Limes are used as an ingredient in suntan products, cosmetics, perfumes and other beauty products.
- Lime juice is also used as a cleaning agent.
Limes are available throughout the year, their peak season however, is May through October. Key limes are not readily available as the Tahitian limes. They are often only found seasonally or in specialty markets.
Selecting and Storing
When shopping for limes select those that are bright green in color and have a shine to their skin. But be careful as often they have been coated with wax, which also gives them a shine. They should feel firm and heavy for their size, because heavy limes will produce the most juice. Select limes with thin skins and avoid the thicker skinned fruit, which is an indication of less flesh and juice.
Also avoid limes that are pale green and are showing signs of yellowing, which indicates the limes are getting close to being fully ripe. Fully ripe limes have lost their acidity and will be bland in flavor compared to bright green tart limes. Select those that are fairly smooth skinned, free of blemishes and do not have soft or hard spots. If the limes have small brown spots it does not indicate that there is a lose of juiciness or flavor. However, if the limes are mostly brown in color, that may be an indication of scald, which will cause the fruit to have a moldy flavor. Avoid limes with shriveled skin or that feel spongy, which is a sign of old fruit that will have lost a lot of its juiciness.
Limes perish the quickest from all of the citrus fruits. Therefore, it is important that they are stored properly. Fresh limes can be stored at room temperature for up to a week if kept out of the direct sunlight. If they are not going to be used within a week, place them in a plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator where they will stay fresh for 2 weeks. After this period, they may not be spoiled but they will begin to lose their tart flavor. If limes have been cut open, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.
If you have leftover fresh squeezed juice, you can store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Lime juice and zest can be stored for longer period of time by freezing them. Whole limes cannot be frozen.
To freeze lime zest, place the grated zest in an airtight freezer bag or container and store in the freezer.
My favorite tip: to freeze lime juice pour into ice cube trays until solid, then place in airtight freezer bags or containers and store in the freezer.
There are several varieties of limes some more readily available than others.
Key Limes - are often referred to as the true lime. It is smaller and rounder than the more common Persian limes and is yellowish green in color. Key limes have a more acidic flavor than the Tahitian varieties of limes. A well use for key limes is the popular key lime pie. Key limes are generally about the size of a golf ball or smaller. They are grown in Florida and are not always available, generally found in specialty markets and some supermarkets. They are also referred to as Mexican or West Indian limes.
Palestine Sweet Limes - are a sweet variety lime and have a yellow rind that contains aromatic oil. It lacks acidity and contains very few seeds. Although the flesh is very juicy it however, lacks in taste due to the absence of any acidity. This lime is popular in the Middle East and India.
Tahitian Bearss Lime - is a Tahitian lime that is slightly smaller but similar to the Tahitian Persian lime. It is greenish yellow when ripe but is harvested to be sold when it is still green because the acidity level is higher, which provides a better flavor. It is oval in shape and seedless. Tahitian limes have a fairly thin rind and their flesh is pale green and juicy.
Tahitian Persian Lime - is also a Tahitian variety lime that is slightly larger than Tahitian Bearss lime. When ripe it is greenish yellow in color but, just like the Bearss Lime, it is harvested to be sold when it is still green as the acidity level is higher, which provides better flavor. This variety is found most commonly in food stores.
For this crème brûlée use the freshest limes you can find. If you get your hands on Key limes use them for wonderful tart flavor. I used the zest of fresh organic Tahitian Persian Limes and was very pleased with the results.
The recipe I got from the pastry chef was for about a thousand! Not surprising - so I had to do a bit of math to reduce it to a portion of 4. Furthermore, when making desserts in a large kitchens some ingredients are very different to those available in normal supermarkets. I readjusted those ingredients and used fresh items available to most of us. I hope that when you try this dessert you too will be blown away like I was.
Printable version of recipe here.
50 ml fresh milk
300g heavy whipping cream
Zest of 2-3 organic limes
100g + 40g fine brown sugar
4 egg yolks
In a saucepan bring the milk, cream and lime zest to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to steep for about 20-30 minutes.
Whisk together the egg yolks with 100g fine brown sugar. Add a few tablespoons of the warm cream mixture to temper the eggs, whisking all along. Once the eggs have warmed to the same temperature, pour the cream mixture in a stead stream into the eggs. Set aside.
Heat the oven to 150 degrees C. Prepare your ramekin or crème brûlée forms by placing them in a larger ovenproof dish. Bring a tea kettle filled with water to a boil and pour into the ovenproof dish so that the water level just reaches about 3/4 of the forms.
You can either pour the cream-egg mixture straight into the forms with the lime zest or strain the liquid beforehand. This depends on your own personal taste. I prefer straining the liquid for extra smoothness.
Place the entire dish into the oven and bake for approx. 45 minutes. Take out and place in the refrigerator overnight. The overnight resting period was highly recommended by the pastry chef. I agree completely as I too learned that one achieves better results with the crème brûlée when it has had a resting period in the fridge.
Shortly before serving sprinkle 40g brown sugar over the cream and using a gas torch caramelize the sugar. If you do not have a gas torch then heat the grill of your oven and place the forms as close to the hot wires as you can. Keep a close eye on them and take them out as soon as the sugar melts and begins to caramelize. I recommend the gas torch and it gives the best results. Crème brûlées are served cold and by placing them in the oven causes the cream to heat up again.
Allow the sugar to turn hard and serve.
For more tips on how to make the perfect crème brûlée check out my Cooking School edition of Crème brûlées. You will not only find another crème brûlée variety but also detailed step by step instructions of how to make the perfect crème brûlée. Furthermore, there are plenty of useful tips for those who are venturing into brûléeing for the first time.
The first time I tasted the lime brûlée at the hotel my dad works at, it was an explosive experience. Once I got my hands on the recipe I could hardly wait to make it. At home I had to deviate slightly from the original recipe, but the results I got were equally exquisite. Creamy with just the right amount of zesty flavor. This is the perfect type of refreshing dessert after a summery barbeque. Now please do not say I do not keep my promises. The other two flavors will follow soon - I promise! LOL!
Sending this to Helen with all my hugs and best wishes for her birthday!
You might enjoy these zesty citrus creations too:
Lemon Meringue Pie | |
Lime Bars | |
Lime Kisses | |
Orange Cake |
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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Carbamazepine/Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors Interactions
This information is generalized and not intended as specific medical advice. Consult your healthcare professional before taking or discontinuing any drug or commencing any course of treatment.
Medical warning:
Very Serious. These medicines may interact and cause very harmful effects and are usually not taken together. Contact your healthcare professional (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) for more information.
How the interaction occurs:
Both of these medicines can increase the level of serotonin in your body.
What might happen:
High serotonin levels may cause changes in body temperature, blood pressure and behavior, leading to a medical condition called Serotonin Syndrome. Serotonin Syndrome may be life threatening.
What you should do about this interaction:
Make sure your healthcare professionals (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) know that you are taking these medicines together.If you experience muscle twitching, tremors, shivering or stiffness, fever, heavy sweating, heart palpitations, restlessness, confusion, agitation, trouble with coordination, or severe diarrhea contact your doctor right away.Your healthcare professionals may already be aware of this interaction and may be monitoring you for it. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first.
- 1.Ketter TA, Post RM, Parekh PI, Worthington K. Addition of monoamine oxidase inhibitors to carbamazepine: preliminary evidence of safety and antidepressant efficacy in treatment-resistant depression. J Clin Psychiatry 1995 Oct;56(10):471-5.
- 2.Tegretol (carbamazepine) US prescribing information. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation September, 2023.
- 3.Parnate (tranylcypromine sulfate) US prescribing information. GlaxoSmithKline January 4, 2018.
- 4.Emsam (selegline) US prescribing information. Somerset July, 2017.
- 5.Barklage NE, Jefferson JW, Margolis D. Do monoamine oxidase inhibitors alter carbamazepine blood levels?. J Clin Psychiatry 1992 Jul;53(7):258.
- 6.Lydiard RB, White D, Harvey B, Taylor A. Lack of pharmacokinetic interaction between tranylcypromine and carbamazepine. J Clin Psychopharmacol 1987 Oct;7(5):360.
- 7.Joffe RT, Post RM, Uhde TW. Lack of pharmacokinetic interaction of carbamazepine with tranylcypromine. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1985 Jul; 42(7):738.
- 8.Anonymous. From the Food and Drug Administration. JAMA 2000 Apr 5; 283(13):1679.
- 9.Ramsay RR, Dunford C, Gillman PK. Methylene blue and serotonin toxicity: inhibition of monoamine oxidase A (MAO A) confirms a theoretical prediction. Br J Pharmacol 2007 Nov;152(6):946-51.
- 10.Peter C, Hongwan D, Kupfer A, Lauterburg BH. Pharmacokinetics and organ distribution of intravenous and oral methylene blue. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 2000 Jun;56(3):247-50.
- 11.Boyer EW, Shannon M. The serotonin syndrome. N Engl J Med 2005 Mar 17; 352(11):1112-20.
- 12.Surmaitis RM, Nappe TM, Cook MD. Serotonin syndrome associated with therapeutic metaxalone in a patient with cirrhosis. Am J Emerg Med 2016 Feb;34(2):346.e5-6.
- 13.Skelaxin (metaxalone) US prescribing information. Pfizer Laboratories Div Pfizer Inc. January, 2024.
Selected from data included with permission and copyrighted by First Databank, Inc. This copyrighted material has been downloaded from a licensed data provider and is not for distribution, except as may be authorized by the applicable terms of use.
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Cameron Diaz arrived in Miami on Monday. Not sure why but... hopefully not to get in front of Alex Rodriguez. Her friend Leonardo DiCaprio is there too though and they've been known to hang out and, you know, do what they do, casually, without commitment, when there are no other options...
But would Gwyneth Paltrow approve?
The UK Sun reported yesterday that Cam has made G her "life coach" and a source tells the too often unreliable paper that:
"Gwyneth's sorted out everything from finances to hooking her up with her trainer. She has also forced (Cameron) to swear off sex for a year, saying men distract her focus."
If they had only stopped at the finances and the trainer and not included the bit about the swearing off of the sex for a year because then I'd find it more believable. My G would never tell Cam not to have sex. It's not the sex she has a problem with, it's WHO she's having sex with. G wants to control the partners but she'd never control the act. And besides, with a girl like Cam, sending her off to have sex is, sorry to say it, a way to get her out of the house for a few hours. So G can go back to baking.
As for dictating the other aspects of her life...
A few weeks ago Page Six noted that Cam was no longer working with stylist Rachel Zoe. Zoe has dressed Cam for a long time. The item was buried in pre-holiday traffic and barely picked up. At the time I remember thinking that that must have been a Gwyneth decision. Zoe doesn't seem like she'd be a Paltrow kind of girl. Did I just make you like Rachel Zoe?
Since then, Cam hasn't really had opportunity to show her post-Zoe carpet style. Am very much looking forward to this: Cameron Diaz by Gwyneth Paltrow.


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Examining the world in a state of flux, Russian artist, Anna Parkina, uses collage to critique current social, political and economic trends.
Anna Parkina's work defies categorisation; appropriating the human ephemera of modern day culture and society, she creates works that reflect the human experience and environment. A Russian contemporary artist who grew up in one "country" (under two very different ruling classes, that of the Soviet Union and Russia under Yeltsin), social agitation and revolution were part and parcel of her youth and thus of her development. When faced with her work one immediately recalls to mind the propaganda posters and art works of the Russian constructivists, film noir of the 1940s and 1950s, and Pop Art, with the collages of pop artists such as Richard Hamilton.
Parkina, whose first US solo museum show opened in February at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, culls together all of her life experiences and she sieves them through her hands to create a new image and piece of art. The exhibition, entitled Fallow Land, is part of SFMOMA's New Work series, a series devoted to exhibiting emerging, contemporary artists that has included artists such as Luc Tuymans, Doris Salcedo and Rachel Harrison. For John Zarobell, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, Parkina fits perfectly into this lineage of artists: "She is a fresh, creative voice who is commenting on contemporary life and the history of avant-garde Russian art at the same time – an original and compelling presence" – praise that is not without merit. Parkina has the innate ability to meld together various styles, influences and mediums in order to illustrate and encapsulate a new Russian society.
Parkina grew up primarily in the Soviet Union / Russia, though she studied abroad – at les Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, California – and currently resides in Moscow. Moscow was the "birthplace" as such, of Russian Constructivism; a movement founded in 1921 and one that included luminaries such as Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956), Alexei Gan (1889-1942) and Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953). Constructivism, at its most basic definition, was a movement that arose as a means to an end: the conventional, historical language of art was no longer sufficient as a means of expressing post-revolutionary society therefore a new language was required. In many ways, aside from the fact that she readily admits the impact of Constructivists like Rodchenko and Liubov Popova on her own work, Parkina exhibits the same ideological and political tendencies in her work that the Constructivists did. Her sculptures, paintings and performances operate as a conduit for her audience to use in order to comprehend a society and world that is in a constant state of flux. Zarobell argues that although she creates art work that enables and empowers her audience to understand their own place within the current world, her work is unlike the Constructivists in that "she does not produce didactic work with a specific message, but forces her viewers to reflect upon the subject matter of her collages and paintings."
Constructivists wanted to create art that functioned solely as a means of social and artistic expression, and not as a means of interpreting or representing reality. This didactic quality was thus a key element to their ideology and a means of differentiating themselves from other artists and movements. Alexei Gan, a member of the First Working Group of Constructivists, stated that "art" was no longer sufficient in representing the sentiments of a revolutionary society: "Art is dead! There is no room for it in the human work apparatus." This approach to art was antithetical to that of other artists and movements that existed in Russia at the time: movements such as Suprematism and its main proponent, Kasimir Malevich, whose artistic approach remained rooted in idealist tendencies.
Parkina's work is an interesting mix of the idealism of Malevich and the structuralist, technical approach of the Constructivists: she engages the viewer with the post-Revolutionary history of Russia as well as the new emerging history of Russia as a powerful economic and cultural country that exists on the international stage. The current state of the world is similar to that which existed in the 1920s and 1930s – uncertain and in a state of constant flux – and Parkina illustrates this element of social ambiguity in her work through the literal layering of different images and mediums. Collage is used as a visual metaphor to exhibit the various undercurrents of social, cultural and political change. The canvas is both literally and figuratively used to represent a new society, the topography of each layer and appropriated image signifying the various elements and intricacies of modern-day life.
Parkina appropriates popular icons and imagery and situates them within a new picture field, subsuming their meaning as an aesthetic image and subverting it into an entirely different idea. The repetitive use of the cut-out silhouette alludes to this new "idea", suggesting subterfuge and political intrigue, yet always remaining a representation of reality. Zarobell defines her work as political but not politically-motivated: "The political aspect of her art is to make us see the world's complexities and subtleties as events worthy of artistic treatment, and all the significance that goes along with that. She may be a spy, but from the empire of poetry."
This allusion to spies, mystery and subterfuge is evident in many of her works, and is both an inspiration from the environment that she grew up within as well as the influence of the cinematic tradition of film noir. It is not surprising, given that the term "Americanitis" was coined in 1922 by Lev Kuleshov, in reference to the Soviet Union's obsession with Hollywood films – specifically films based on detective stories. The silhouetted figure of a man in a trench coat and fedora in her 2008 work The Hollow, instantly calls to mind the generic character of the private eye / detective of film noir. In a still from the 1955 classic John Alton film, The Big Combo, this shadowy figure is situated in a back alley, facing another silhouetted figure, that of the femme fatale, showcasing the battle between protagonist and antagonist. This silhouetted figure becomes visual shorthand for our own subconscious fears and desires, and is a figure that appears again and again in her work. Its very presence creates a sense of anxiety and is, in many ways, a Hitchcockian visual motif for fear. Parkina outright declares the danger inherent to the silhouette, as with Untitled-5 (2010) which depicts a hand holding a knife, mimicking the iconic Psycho (1960) shower scene. The very fact that it is a silhouette, a void black space, suggests a lack of identifiable human characteristics and thus a lack of humanity.
Parkina utilises colour in two ways: as a vivid flat pigment applied to a surface to be perceived by the eye, and as a unit that exists within a structural framework. Malevich argued, in his 1919 essay Non-Objective Art and Suprematism, that "colour, in its turn, must pass out of the pictorial mix into an independent unity, a structure in which it would be at once individual in a collective environment and individually independent." The depicted "object" ceases to be of primary importance, with colour taking centre stage, mutating into a tangible object unto itself by the transformation of the space it occupies. Parkina's silhouettes are an exemplary example as through the negation of the space the object or figure should occupy, she formulates a new composition, based on the annulling of identifiable characteristics. The fedora thereby alludes to subterfuge and spies, yet we are not allowed to recognize a human face and hence any facet of a political or historical reality to align the fedora with a specific revolutionary element.
One hesitates to describe Parkina's work as driven by feminist theory or purpose, yet there is an element of desire manifest in her canvas-based work that is difficult to ignore. The act of "looking", of the gaze, is a primarily masochistic act; it is an act of ownership as by "looking" at something, one desires and then inevitably possesses that view. Parkina's figures tend to either have their heads turned away from the audience, or to be without human characteristics (e.g. silhouettes), and it is the exceptions to this generalization that are intriguing. Untitled (2009), depicts the female as aggressor, with the female head, vertically repeated on the canvas, turned towards the viewer's gaze, looking directly outwards, almost challenging its audience. The female protagonist, the femme fatale to the private eye / detective silhouetted figure, is an empowered individual, whereas the male antagonist is always a slightly indefinable, sometimes prying (e.g. the figure looking through a pair of binoculars in her 2009 work, Divergence in the Gorge), dark individual. It is the male that is the spectacle, which is on view, not the female figure, as was typical in art produced prior to the nineteenth century.
The historian, Thomas Richards, stated when discussing the Great Exhibition of 1851 in his text The Commodity Culture of Victorian England, that: "By encapsulating the past in the glossy shell of the present, the Exhibition both commemorated the past and annihilated it." Though referencing an exhibition which occurred over 150 years ago, this is an interesting statement to consider with regards to Parkina, as this dualism, of commemoration and simultaneous destruction, is evident in her work. She does not necessarily mix the art historical past with the present, but rather shrouds each within the other, using the medium (whatever it may be) as a tool to mask the destruction of the lingua franca of art history. Zarobell argues that Parkina is not aggressively attacking art history or contemporary society but instead sympathises with the regression that she sees occurring: "There is also a sympathy with the imagery she employs, almost a fascination." This fascination with contemporary society is employed through her use of specific visual imagery – cars, mobile phones et cetera – imagery that is identifiable and universal and depicted in a graphic style. Her work is thus redolent of that of the photomonteur Gustav Klutsis (1895-1938), who used photography and visual images culled from Soviet culture in the propaganda he produced for the Soviet state. Klutsis primarily designed agitational posters and billboards for mass consumption, though he is also known for the photo-collages he produced for consumption within his own private social sphere. Parkina's work, though philosophically and ideologically antithetical to the propaganda designed and produced by Klutsis, is similar to his in many ways. An important quality of graphic work is the ease of comprehension it provides for the viewer, and though Parkina's work is much more abstract than Klutsis', both exhibits this quality. Parkina's is presented as an onion: each layer needs to be pulled back and away from the surface to reveal a different form and meaning, whereas Klutsis's posters are much more literal. The meaning is clear-cut, and the work is as one views it: the layers are there purely to make the posters slightly more visually appealing.
Parkina's work is as much fantasy as it is a coded reality. Each piece is structured as a visual language to be read, deciphered and understood. Her development as an artist continues as she is quite young (at just 31), and though it has been contingent upon the environment and culture within which she has grown up and trained, it is this phantasmagoric space, a space riddled with uncertainty, that will lead to her success as a burgeoning artist.
New Work: Anna Parkina, ran at SFMOMA 26 February – 19 June 2011. www.sfmoma.org.
Niamh Coghlan


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Few things are as rare as a piece of rock that falls from outer space and crashes onto Earth.
Among the most prized of these meteorites are from Mars. Friday, scientists describe the latest one discovered: It's called Tissint, and this weekend you can buy a piece of it.
First, it's clear to experts that Tissint is extraordinary as well as extraterrestrial. It contains a unique story about Mars. Says meteoriticist Caroline Smith of the London Museum of Natural History: "Many people think that this meteorite may well be one of the most important meteorites that have actually fallen in the last century."
She's one of those people.
The museum owns the biggest piece of Tissint, and Smith is one of the scientists who described it in the journal Science on Friday.
Tissint's journey began as basaltic volcanic rock on the Martian surface. Smith says scientists can tell liquid washed over the rock and weathered it. It deposited elements from Martian soil inside cracks in the rock. Then an object — probably an asteroid — smacked into Mars and blasted the rock into space. In July 2011, it flamed through the Earth's atmosphere and smashed into the Moroccan desert.
Smith notes that while NASA's robot Curiosity is driving around Mars now, meteorite experts have the real thing.
"The thing is, no matter how fantastic the robotic missions are, it's still not the same as being able to actually analyze a piece of rock in a laboratory on Earth," she says. "So I think the big message here is that the meteorite is almost ground-truthing what we're actually seeing on Mars."
There are a few other Martian meteorites. But Tissint is special for several reasons. The impact that blew it off Mars melted part of its surface into smooth, black glass. That trapped bubbles of Martian atmosphere and elements inside, including cerium, an element scientists thought might be on Mars but weren't sure of. Also, its fragments were found quickly, so it hasn't been too contaminated by elements on Earth. It's also one of only five Martian meteorites that was observed hitting the Earth.
Scientists have just begun to tease out its story.
"Whenever I pick up a meteorite," says Smith, "I get excited. Each of those stones is a little time capsule and a little space probe to actually help us understand how our solar system formed."
But the piece in London is just one of many that broke off Tissint as it hurtled through Earth's atmosphere. Where they ended up is a story that begins in Morocco.
Meteorite scientist Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane at Hassan II Casablanca University had heard news of the fireball that lit up the sky in the summer of 2011. Last January she traveled 700 miles from Casablanca, over the Sahara, to find the "strewn field" — where pieces spread across the sand. She was not the first one there. "The first thing that I see is hundreds of people in the middle of nowhere. And this is something that I will never forget."
Men, women and children were camped out, hunting for the pieces. Meteorites are often found in North Africa — unusual rocks stand out in the desert — and they bring a good price.
People brought pieces to her to identify. "On the first view of the first sample, it's clear that it's a Martian meteorite," she says. Professional dealers scooped up most of the pieces. Aoudjehane bought some small pieces for her university in Casablanca, where laboratory tests confirmed what she'd recognized on sight — Martian rock. She's a co-author on the paper in Science.
About the time Aoudjehane was collecting pieces, a meteorite collector and dealer in New York City named Darryl Pitt got a tip about fragments of Mars for sale. Pitt, who is curator of the Macovich Collection of meteorites, got money from a group of investors. A Moroccan dealer sold him a piece, dispatching his au pair to fly with it to New York City. "Immediately after she clears customs, she reaches into her purse and gives me a packet and I'm looking around and looking at the cameras and thinking, 'Oh my golly, this is going to be a problem.' " Not that it was illegal; the transaction just made it look suspicious.
Pitt bought or brokered the sale of more pieces, including the one that went to the London's Natural History Museum. "It's important to make the material available to scientists and researchers first and foremost," he says. Collectors like Pitt have the time and means to cultivate contacts in places like Morocco, where the trade has flourished, especially among the Berber nomads. "Several of these fellows that I know have become rich. A couple own hotels now. They're no longer trekking the desert. ... it's been really fantastic."
The museum's Caroline Smith agrees that collectors and scientists do help each other — the collectors to find meteorites, the scientists to analyze them. "I would be not telling the truth if I said there was no tension with anything where large amounts of money is involved," she says. "But I would like to stress that, you know, on the whole relationships are very good, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement in many cases." The trade does push up prices, sometimes beyond what scientists can afford. But Smith says sometimes collectors sell them to museums at a discount.
On Sunday, a piece of Tissint will be offered at a meteorite auction in Manhattan. It's billed as the biggest ever, and Pitt helped Heritage Auctions arrange it. There are pieces from the moon and from the asteroid belt. But Pitt says the Martian meteorites are the stars because they are so rare. All told on Earth, he says, "You're talking like about 300 pounds of material. That's it. Mars is among the rarest substances on Earth."
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Remarks to the 2014 OSCE Japan Conference on Sharing Experiences and Lessons Learned between the OSCE and Asian Partners for Cooperation in Order to Create a Safer, More Interconnected and Fairer World in the Face of Emerging Challenges
Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for your kind introduction. It's a pleasure to be here today. I'd also like to thank our Japanese hosts for their very gracious arrangements for this important conference. I am here on behalf of U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the U.S. Helsinki Commission. The Helsinki Commission is unique in that the U.S. is the only OSCE participating State to create a distinct governmental agency to monitor member state compliance with OSCE commitments.
One of the key priorities for our Commission is promoting good governance and combatting corruption, and we were pleased to see the tremendous progress achieved in this area in 2012 with the adoption of the Declaration on Strengthening Good Governance and Combatting Corruption, Money-Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism at the Dublin Ministerial. The Good Governance Declaration is comprehensive, laying out a strategy for the OSCE to combat corruption, strengthen civil society development and enforce accountability measures in the public and private sectors.
The declaration has given some new tools to the Economic and Environmental Coordinator's office, which plays a critical role in strengthening stability and security in the OSCE region. And last year, the OSCE worked to promote sustainable energy solutions, advocate transparency and accountability, and to build capacity at all levels of society – government, private sector, and its citizens. These achievements represent a foundation for further enhancing the 2nd Dimension.
The U.S. and the EU have recently enacted laws that address the problem of transparency and accountability in the resource sector. In the United States, these laws were authored by the Chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, Senator Ben Cardin. The laws require companies to publicly report payments they make to governments for oil, gas and mining extraction. The concept is that by injecting transparency into a traditionally opaque business environment, the ability of citizens to better understand the money flows allows them to then hold their governments accountable.
The laws are meant to innovate the way business is done in this extremely important sector by breaking the cycle of instability and poverty in countries suffering from what is often called the "resource curse". This innovation can help ensure that energy supplies are not disrupted, it gives citizens a tool to fight corruption, and it levels the playing field for companies.
Now that the U.S. and the European Union are implementing these transparency rules, other markets with large resource extraction companies such as Australia and Canada are exploring similar requirements. And we expect that as these rules come online we will see other stock exchanges around the world follow suit.
Corruption and lack of transparency in the extractive industries can fuel instability and even conflict, so it's not hard to see why this type of transparency is catching on. The news is full of headlines on instability created by resource competition or corruption. And resource rich countries are consistently rated as some of the most difficult places to do business. In almost every case you can trace the root cause to the intractable corruption in that country.
These transparency laws are the game changers that will help tilt the balance of power away from corrupt leaders. Transparency and accountability are going to make the job of extractive companies easier. They will work on a level playing field, they will work with more stable governments, and they will operate in more stable communities.
And the OSCE has a role to play here as well. With the acknowledgment of the importance of combatting corruption in the Good Governance Declaration, the OSCE's Economic and Environmental Dimension can serve as a valuable platform for increasing stability and security on energy related issues and, in particular, highlighting the link between security, energy, and the environment. As we look toward the Basel Ministerial and the Helsinki+40 process, we must build upon this work and examine how the 2nd Dimension can be further strengthened to advance solutions that build good governance.
One of the ways that we can do this is to more actively engage civil society in the 2nd Dimension. We need to welcome multi-stakeholder groups, business groups and civil society leaders to the Economic and Environmental Forum and the Economic and Environmental Implementation meeting in order to generate greater awareness of good governance initiatives, develop new projects, and assess the effectiveness of participating States in implementing these commitments.
Let me close with a comment on Ukraine. I was there two weeks ago to observe the election. Despite the daily reports of violence, what we saw in the conduct of the election makes me hopeful that the newly elected government will be able to move the country forward. But what is painfully clear is that the corruption surrounding Ukraine's energy sector was a key factor in fueling the protests that eventually led to the downfall of the government. Ukraine is not a big oil and gas producer itself, but it plays a major role as a transit country between Russia and Western Europe. Ukraine has started work on its candidacy for EITI but still has a long way to go so we are encouraging the new government to place a priority on getting that in place.
The broader lesson from Ukraine is that secret deals lead to corruption. Corruption leads to economic stagnation. Economic stagnation leads to political instability. Political instability leads to violence and human rights abuses, and even opportunistic violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
This is why we need to innovate the way we do business. This is why we need to focus on transparency and good governance. And this is why we need to empower civil society and media to hold their governments accountable. These are all areas where the OSCE has expertise and where the Asian Partners can provide assistance and experience.
Thank you.


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I've been cooking for as long as I can remember and in certain periods of my life I did not have much time to spend in the kitchen – I needed delicious yet quick meals for weeknights.
On my days as a single lady I used to make lots of pasta – both my dad and my sister are crazy for it and dinner would be on the table in less than half an hour.
Recently I've been trying my hand at Asian recipes and some of them are absolutely delicious – and equally fast. This chicken teriyaki is a great example: it has instantly become a favorite of my husband's – a.k.a. "the picky eater" – and it took me moments to put it together.
Let me tell you something: if my husband liked it, picky people everywhere will probably like it, too. :D
Chicken teriyaki
slightly adapted from the wonderful Nigella Kitchen
2 tablespoons sake
¼ cup mirin (sweet Japanese Rice wine)
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
4 spring onions, white part only, sliced
splash of sesame oil
800g (1¾ pounds) chicken thigh fillets (no skin or bones), cut into bite-sized pieces
½ tablespoon neutral vegetable oil
freshly ground black pepper
handful of parsley leaves, chopped
rice, to serve
In a bowl large enough to hold all the chicken pieces, mix together the sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, spring onions and sesame oil. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat each one of them in the sauce. Leave for 15-20 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan (with a lid) and, using a perforated spoon, transfer the chicken pieces to the pan and sauté until they look cooked on the outside.
Pour the marinade over the chicken, bring to a boil, then cover and turn down the heat, cooking for 5-10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thick.
Stir in with freshly ground black pepper and the parsley. Serve immediately with rice.
Serves 4-6 – I halved the recipe above and Joao and I ate every little bit of it. :)
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Chicken teriyaki
40 comments:
- Trini Altea said...
Mmmmmmmmm muy rico.
- April 23, 2011
- Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...
My husband is not a picky eater, but he loves all things Asian, and would adore this chicken.
- April 23, 2011
- pam said...
I made this too! It was very good!
- April 23, 2011
- Dan said...
1 3/4 oz chicken for 4-6 people? Was that a typo? Should that be pounds?
- April 23, 2011
- pigpigscorner said...
Looks delicious!
- April 24, 2011
- Jeannie said...
That looks great with the fluffy rice on the side! Yummy!
- April 24, 2011
- Carol @ There's Always Thyme to Cook said...
Looks fantastic!
- April 24, 2011
- Maria said...
My partner (who is half-Jap) adores this dish! Yours looks wonderfully brown and delicious!
- April 25, 2011
- Andrea said...
When I was single I used to cook all kinds of pasta for myself. That was, and still is, my favorite weekday food. Since I'm living with my boyfriend I started to cook more meat. He's a carnivore so I had no choice. :)
I love Asian food and I love Nigella so I'm definitely going to try this recipe. Thank you for shearing. :) - April 25, 2011
- Aleida said...
I'm SO glad you posted this recipe! I've been wanting to learn how to make this but have always been too afraid to try. It sounds pretty easy so I guess all of my worrying has been in vain!
- April 26, 2011
Can I use chicken tenderloins?
- January 16, 2012
Can I leave out the sake and mirin? Is there something else that I can use in place of these ingredients? Thanks, Shiree
- February 10, 2012
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hi Shiree,
if you take out those ingredients it will no longer be teriyaki sauce. - February 10, 2012
Patricia, Do these ingredients contain alcohol? If so does it cook off? Thanks, Shiree
- February 11, 2012
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Yes, sake is a kind of booze. I cannot guarantee the alcohol cooks off entirely.
- February 14, 2012
I'm savoring this dish right now! Delicious! :)
The sake cooks off well enough, in my opinion, but I love wine, beer etc on the food, so... But I think it does (cook off).
I absolutely looove the taste and smell of the sesame oil! It's all over my house, delightful. ;)
Thanks for sharing!
PS: mine didn't get that brown though... Wondering what happened. Maybe I should have cooked it even longer?
Cheers! - March 12, 2012
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, Bruna!
I'm so glad to hear that! As for the browning, did you use chicken thighs?
Thanks for your feedback! - March 16, 2012
I love chicken teriyaki and this was delish! I didn't have sake or rice wine on hand so I subbed some rice vinegar and white cooking wine and it was still great. My sauce did not really thicken up to my liking so I added in a touch of corn starch. Thanks for the recipe!
- April 11, 2012
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Konjo, I'm so glad the recipe worked out for you! Good to know it works with different ingredients, too. Thank YOU for letting me know how it went!
- April 13, 2012
My son is EXTREMELY picky - typically hates any food that has a sauce (no kidding!) but he loved this and asked for seconds. SO much better than any store bought Teriyaki sauce. Thank you for this recipe!
- October 28, 2012
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, there!
I'm so glad to hear your picky son liked the dish! Thank YOU for letting me know how it turned out! - October 29, 2012
Not sure what I did wrong but it was disgusting! Chicken was dry and sauce never thickened.
- February 03, 2013
- stacymick said...
the flavor was good, but the sauce never thickened. :(
- February 07, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Oh, Stacy, I'm sorry to hear that - did you use the same ingredients?
- February 08, 2013
- Heather Klintworth said...
I have made this many, many times now and it's one of our favorite dishes. My sauce also never thickens, but I just add some corn starch until I get the consistency that I want. I also use dried ginger since we rarely have any fresh on hand. I have made it with both chicken breast meat and chicken thighs and the thighs and while both are good, the thighs definitely give you a better texture. It is so good!
- April 19, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, Heather! I am so glad to know the recipe worked for you! Thank you for letting me know!
- April 22, 2013
I just wanted to say that I've used this recipe many times and it's always worked out really well. The flavor is wonderful and the I've never had any problems with the sauce thickening. Thank you for a great recipe.
- June 30, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Ashley, how sweet of you to stop by to let me know that! Wonderful news!
xx - July 01, 2013
Making this dish now. Crossing my fingers that it turns out.
- November 15, 2013
It turned out great. Thanks for thr recipe. I will def make it again!
- November 15, 2013
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, there! That is excellent news - thank YOU for letting me know how it turned out.
- November 18, 2013
I just made this and it turned out great - tastes better than local Chinese available in this area. I do believe the ppl substituting other ingredients for the mirin & Sake are not getting the sauce to thicken. These would be key to the taste & thickening - worth the investment in my opinion.
- January 26, 2014
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, there,
I'm so glad to hear the recipe worked for you! Thank you for letting me know and for your thoughts about the thickening issue the others faced. - January 27, 2014
Uncover the chicken while cooking, this will help the sauce to reduce and thus thicken.
- February 25, 2014
- East2West said...
Can this be made in the slow cooker?
- March 30, 2014
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hi there, I have no idea.
- March 31, 2014
- CHANDRA said...
My sauce did not really thicken up or get the lovely brown color in the picture...I have to say it looked pretty ugly...not sure where I went wrong...but the taste was still very good!
- June 27, 2014
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Hey, Chandra,
I'm sorry to hear the sauce didnot thicken, I really can't tell you why that happened. :( - June 30, 2014
Thanks Patricia, I made this last night and it was a great success. I used the whole sauce quantity (including all your ingredients) for a smaller portion of chicken thighs but it reduced down to a lovely, very dark, sticky goo as I left it uncovered throughout and cooked it a little longer. I also let it marinade for at least 40 minutes as I took a phone call and got distracted! My husband said it was restaurant quality so I'll definitely make it again.
- September 23, 2015
- Patricia Scarpin said...
Dear Sarah, I am so glad to hear that! Thank YOU for letting me know how the chicken turned out! xx
- September 28, 2015


text:
Naturally Grown: An alternative label to organic
SCHAGHTICOKE, N.Y. (AP) — Justine and Brian Denison say they adhere to all the growing practices required for organic certification, yet if they label their beans and tomatoes "organic" at the farmer's market, they could face federal charges and $20,000 or more in fines.
Because the Denisons chose not to seek organic certification by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Denison Farm, which has been under organic management for more than 20 years, is banned from using that term. So they and hundreds of other small direct-marketing farms across the country have adopted an alternative label: Certified Naturally Grown.
Started by a group of organic farmers in New York's mid-Hudson Valley as a backlash against federal takeover of the organic program in 2002, Certified Naturally Grown has expanded over the past decade to include more than 700 farms in 47 states, executive director Alice Varon said.
"Certified Naturally Grown is tailored for direct-market farmers producing food without any synthetic chemicals specifically for their local communities," Varon said. "It's a particular niche of the agricultural world. It's not in direct competition with the national organic program."
Many small farmers previously certified organic by an independent organization have declined to participate in the federal program. They voice a variety of objections: extensive record-keeping requirements; fees that can amount to 6 percent of a small farm's gross sales; and philosophical objections to joining a monolithic government-run program that also certifies huge operations that ship produce across the country.
"We have noticed over time that more and more farmers — often, younger farmers — who appear to be following organic practices don't bother to get certified," said Jack Kittredge, co-owner of a certified organic farm in Barre, Mass., and editor of "The Natural Farmer," journal of the Northeast Organic Farming Association. "My major concern is that sometimes, unless you're certified you're not even aware of some of the problems," such as calling livestock organic even though the animals eat feed containing genetically modified crops.
Atina Diffley, an organic farming consultant and author in Farmington, Minn., said alternative labels create confusion for customers. She said there are only about 13,000 USDA certified organic farms out of 2.2 million farms, and more organic farms are needed to bolster the movement's impact on national farm policy. "When farms have an alternative certification, they're not counted," she said.
Sam Jones, spokesman for USDA's organic certification program, said the agency doesn't comment on guidelines other than its own and doesn't take a position on whether alternative labels cause confusion. But he noted that growers are required by law to get federal certification if they want to sell their product as organic. Jones said USDA has a new program called "Sound and Sensible," aimed at reducing paperwork and other burdensome aspects of certification.
Ryan Voilland, co-owner of the certified organic Red Fire Farm in Granby, Mass., said the certification fees and paperwork aren't a big burden. He grows 100 acres of produce and has gross sales of about $2 million, and pays $2,000 a year for certification, of which $750 is returned in a federal rebate program. The premium price for organic produce far outweighs the fee, he said.
But farmers who opt for labels like Certified Naturally Grown and The Farmer's Pledge, sponsored by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, say there's room for all the labels; some farms even boast several alternative labels in addition to USDA organic.
"The Farmer's Pledge is a better program for direct-sales farmers like me, who find the national organic program too burdensome," said Mark Dunau, who farms five acres in the Delaware County town of Hancock.
About 130 farmers in New York and Connecticut have signed The Farmers Pledge, a commitment to a broad set of farming principles that address labor issues, organic production practices, community values and marketing.
Farmers who participate in Certified Naturally Grown rely on peer inspection by other farmers to ensure they follow organic practices, such as avoiding synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and using cover crops and rotation for healthy soil. While critics say peer review rather than USDA-certified inspectors could lead to cutting corners, Varon said that's unlikely.
"It's a different mindset that people bring to Certified Naturally Grown," Varon said. "They believe in farming in harmony with nature as an expression of their values. It's not something they do to get a premium in the marketplace."
Denison agrees. She and her husband operated a conventional farm in Maine before they bought the 164-acre farm in Schaghticoke, 20 miles northeast of Albany, in 2005. They switched to organic farming because they and their two daughters had developed illnesses they believed were caused by exposure to agricultural chemicals.
"We were one sick family," Denison said. "We were close to 50 when we bought this farm, but we were ready to change course and make a commitment to Certified Naturally Grown."


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"New York girls are wearing the same look as Paris girls!"
I took a second look and noticed bare legs.You don't see bare legs often in Paris.
grace mentioned in the comments. I saw them exactly one time with these lace-up heels...(Not my photo) but from the Spring shows-
Here lace-ups are shown with black leggings.And in H & M's Paris windows woolly leggings. Go inside and try to find those woolly leggings. I dare you. I couldn't. On the street you see.A ton of BLACK leggings/tights/with feet and without but black.
I couldn't find those either.
The French are conservative and stick to their grey, beige and black.
No complaints here unless you're planning on bringing them home on the plane - pack them in a protective box.


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Much like the sportswear collection, Kenneth Cole New York swimwear attracts a wide spectrum of consumers in both age and attitude.
KCNY swim is designed for a contemporary woman who invests in sleek, body conscious shapes with wearable coverage. The collection is inspired by elements of polished glamour from past decades and femininity is at the forefront.
The collection exemplifies a modern way to wear the latest trends, softly infusing constructivist prints and strategic touches of defined details.


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We pulled up on to the gravel path of the deserted gas station and as I stepped out of the car, stretching after the long ride, the pebbles crunched under my shoes. It was dark. The only light coming from an old, dusty lamp above illuminated a shanty looking shed with a bedraggled sign above it. The moth bouncing off the lamp, wings fluttering in haste, caught my attention for a minute.
I took a few steps then turned around as if to make sure they were still there before I ventured into the dark. Soeren looked peaceful, eyes shut, safe in his make believe dream-world. Safe from the harsh truth of reality. Tom was staring out of the window, his usual sturdy and proud posture drooped, his silhouette looking meek and tired. With a heavy heart I walked towards the shed. The door creaked loudly as I opened it and the bells above announced my arrival to who ever had the graveyard shift. It was a makeshift looking shop offering the usual ware a gas station shop would offer.
A chair scraped against the wooden floor in a room behind the counter and as the person shuffled and heaved into the room I quickly tried to pull myself together and put on the brightest smile I could muster.
I walked out of the shed again, clutching the brown manila envelop tightly against my chest. Getting back into the car I waved it towards Tom with a slight smile on my face, feeling relieved we had managed to get this far. Just a few more minutes, a few more meters and we could finally rest, finally begin to repair some of the damage. Tom punched the address into the navigation system and as it calculated the route, I tried to make out the faint outlines in the horizon. But my eyes were heavy and my shoulders were feeling the weight of the past few months. All I wanted to do was sleep - endlessly sleep.
Soeren stirred a little in the backseat "Are we there yet?" Both Tom and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We laughed loudly. Before Soeren came into the world Tom and I would discuss that if we ever had kids the first thing we had to teach them was not to say "Are we there yet?". We love road trips and have spent many great vacations traveling the roads of Europe, from Spain to Greece, from Italy to Denmark. Both of us even re-discovered the West Coast on our first vacation to the US together. It was vital to us that our child be just the kind of travel fanatic we were and enjoy each element of the journey true to the German saying "Der Weg ist das Ziel" - the journey is the destination!
It was good to laugh. We hadn't for a long time.
It was a feeling of anxiety and excitement that encased me as I opened the door to the cottage. My senses were playing crazy. I inhaled the salty air, my cheeks tingled as the gentle breeze caressed them and each time I heard the splashing of water against the shores my heart skipped just a little more. Inside, it was slightly musty and the air was stuffy. As Tom began bringing the suitcases inside, I opened the brown wooden shutters, worn from years of use. The distinctive smell of paint wafting into my nostrils told me they had been recently re-painted. I did not have time to really register what was beyond the windows, just my senses telling me there was plenty to discover come morning. I quickly made up the bed for Soeren in his temporary room for the next 14 days, while Tom undressed him. Eyes half shut, I think he hardly registered anything. With Soeren in bed I made up our beds and simply collapsed on it. Staring at the white wooden ceiling, the monotone sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks beckoned me into a doze.
Jerked out of it by the sound of the T.V. I forced myself up, my body begging me to snuggle deeper into the mattress, and followed the babbling into the living room. Tom held a glass of wine in his hand and pointed to one on the table with the other. "We're here!" he announced.
Yes we were. We had left everything behind just as it was and fled. Taken only a few belongings, packed the car and drove away. The boxes still packed cluttered the house but that was not an issue anymore. Ten hours later we were here. We had run away. We are not the type to run away - but we did this time. We had to.
The next morning I was awakened early by the unusual sounds. It took me a moment to focus and remember I was in a new bed with new surroundings. Then I remembered - the waves, the salty air, and quietly got out of bed tiptoeing into the kitchen. The house was still and as the first rays of light danced their way into the conservatory I gasped at the view beyond it. Grabbing the blanket from the armchair I walked out barefooted into the garden, green from the summers warmth and moist from the morning dew.
Not a single ripple broke the mirror-like surface of the fjord. The orange sky reflected off the liquid mirror with such clarity I felt as if I was in two heavens. The water itself was a kaleidoscope of colors, blue, purple and orange. Walking through the iron gates, I twitched as I felt the hard pebbles under my feet. But I walked on and as my toes dipped into the cool water I felt some of the turmoil inside me wash away.
I do not know how long I stood there in my pajamas, looking into the horizon and standing with my feet in the waters of this Danish fjord, but soon I felt Tom's presence next to me. He offered me a big hot mug of a caramel-y, smoky cup of brown goodness. I looked up to him and smiled.
"We're going to be OK!" he said and took me into his arms cradling my head on his muscular chest - I thought "My net - always catches me when I fall!"
Yes we were going to be OK and this was the first step towards the healing process. We rejoice with the good times and become stronger with the bad times. This was going to make us stronger. Stronger to unpack the boxes we left behind and pick up where we left off.
The two weeks were spent mostly laughing - the remedy to heal every wound, some crying and a lot of love. The three of us enjoyed picnics by the fjord, bike tours, sailing, island hopping, visits to museums and good food. Each day we felt stronger and better. It would take time to bounce back again, I knew that but I also knew we would manage it.
Sweet crumbles have been on my mind lately. As the Farmer's Market fill up with delicious fruits my choice for this particular creation fell on sweet mangoes and tangy rhubarb. The topping combines the nutty flavors of pistachios and earthy aromas of the buckwheat flour with an added highlight of crushed Amaretti biscuits. I spice it up with a touch of ginger and cinnamon for the extra warmth.
Rhubarb Mango Pistachio and Amaretti Crumbles
Printable version of recipe here
For the fruit
45og rhubarb, cut into 1 cm pieces
2 mangoes, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon muscovado sugar
small piece ginger, finely gratedFor the topping
170g buckwheat flour
handful of Amaretti biscuits, coarsely crushed
85g cold butter, cubes
85g muscovado sugar
85g pistachios, roughly chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of fleur de sel
- Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly butter 6 individual ramekin bowls.
- Make the topping first by putting all the ingredients into a large bowl and using your fingertips rub the butter into the dry ingredients to form a few small chunks of mixture very resembling coarse breadcrumbs. Place this mixture in the freezer while you prepare the fruit.
- Put the rhubarb slices in a saucepan with the sugar and 4 tbsp water. Cook over a gentle heat for 2-3 minutes until the rhubarb just begins to become slightly tender but is still crunchy. It will cook further in the oven. Remove from the heat and stir in the mangoes and stem ginger. Spoon the mixture into the ramekin forms.
- Take the crumble topping from the freezer and with your fingertips sprinkle the topping over the forms. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and the fruit is hot and bubbling.
- Serve warm with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
An explosive burst of flavors - the mangoes, rhubarb paired with the ginger offers the perfect combination of sweet, tangy and warmth. The crumbly and crunchy topping adds a new texture and set of flavors giving it body. We enjoyed this warm with scoops of bourbon vanilla ice cream, feet up and reminiscing about our travels and road trips - laughing, joking and positively healed!
You might like these warming dessert ideas from WFLH:
Baked Vanilla Infused Peach Risotto | Clafoutis - Gooseberry Red Current & Blueberry | Clafoutis - Raspberry and Nectarine |
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2010 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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Statement by the European Commission, ECB and IMF on the First Review Mission to Cyprus
Staff teams from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Nicosia during July 17-31 for the first quarterly review of Cyprus's economic program, which is supported by financial assistance from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the IMF. The program's objectives are to restore financial sector stability, strengthen public finance sustainability, and adopt structural reforms so as to support long-run growth, while protecting the welfare of the population.
Our overall assessment is that Cyprus's program is on track. All the fiscal targets have been met as a result of significant fiscal consolidation measures underway and prudent budget execution. The authorities have taken decisive steps to stabilize the financial sector and have already been gradually relaxing deposit restrictions and capital controls. While the authorities have started to implement the program with determination, risks remain substantial. Continued full and timely policy implementation is essential for the success of the program.
The short-run economic outlook remains difficult and subject to considerable uncertainty. Recent indicators support the program's projections of a contraction in output of about 13 percent cumulatively during 2013-14. Encouragingly, confidence indicators have improved somewhat from the lows hit in April. But the labor market has weakened more than anticipated, and unemployment has continued to rise. Growth is expected to recover modestly starting in 2015, driven by non-financial services.
Financial sector policies have been geared toward restoring confidence in the banking system. The authorities have taken difficult but necessary steps to fully recapitalize Bank of Cyprus, thus allowing it to exit resolution and return to normal operations. Aiming at supporting economic activity while ensuring financial sector stability, they are developing a milestone-based roadmap for the gradual removal of capital controls and administrative restrictions in an orderly and predictable way. The authorities have also set out a clear agenda to restructure and recapitalize other financial institutions, including the cooperative credit sector, before the end of the year, using program resources where necessary, and without involving depositors. Banking sector regulation and supervision is also being strengthened, including the integration of the supervision of the cooperative credit sector into the Central Bank of Cyprus. The authorities have developed an action plan to strengthen the implementation of the AML framework.
On fiscal policy, the ambitious package of measures already implemented and a prudent execution of spending are yielding results, with the primary fiscal deficit in the first half of the year better than the program target for the same period. Over the longer run, the government's fiscal policy remains anchored in achieving a primary fiscal surplus of 4 percent of GDP by 2018, needed to place public debt on a firmly downward path.
Major structural reforms are being designed to modernize fiscal institutions. To improve efficiency, revenue administration will be substantially overhauled, including by integrating the internal revenue and the value added tax services departments. At the same time the authorities will take measures to fight tax evasion and boost revenue collection, which can also help during the current downturn. The authorities are also embarking on a fundamental reform of the social welfare system to provide better protection of vulnerable groups. The core of the reform is the introduction, by mid-2014, of a guaranteed minimum income (GMI) scheme together with the elimination of duplicate benefits. The GMI will provide assistance to those who do not have sufficient income to cover basic needs, thus effectively expanding the coverage of public assistance, while remaining within the budgetary envelope.
Next steps: Approval of the conclusion of this review is expected to be considered by the Eurogroup and the Executive Board of the IMF in September. Approval would pave the way for the disbursement of €1.5 billion by the ESM, and about €86 million by the IMF.
European Central Bank
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Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to be a safe and effective alternative treatment for pain and injury.
Chiropractors perform 95 percent of all adjustments in the world to correct the subluxations, or misalignments, of the vertebrae in the spine. Chiropractic adjustments are performed by applying gentle, yet firm pressure to a bone. The goal of any adjustment is to restore the bone to its natural, or original, position. The important thing to remember is the act the adjustment frees—not forces—a vertebra to allow it to find its natural position. This is accomplished by the body's innate intelligence.
Chiropractic adjustments are performed to treat a wide variety of conditions, including (but not limited to):
Adjustments can be performed while sitting, standing, or lying down. Some adjustments involve special instruments or tables.
Some common adjustment techniques include:
Chiropractors take many factors—including size, weight, and muscle structure—into consideration when deciding on which adjustment to make. Sometimes, ice, electrical stimulation, or massage therapy (including traction massage) are used prior to a spinal manipulation in order to relax the muscles.
In some cases, it may necessary to perform an adjustment while you are sedated.
Spinal manipulation under anesthesia, which is considered a very safe procedure, is usually reserved for patients with conditions such as chronic neck, back, and joint pain, muscle spasm, shortened muscles, and fibrous adhesions.
Another form of adjustment called craniosacral therapy, or "CST," involves exerting very mild pressure to the body's craniosacral system, which is comprised of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the brain and spinal cord. This includes cranium—which is composed of the skull, face and mouth, and the "sacrum," or tailbone.
CST has been shown to provide relief from chronic neck and back pain, scoliosis, brain and spinal cord injuries, migraines, chronic fatigue, nervous system disorders, jaw joint problems, and stress disorders. (Conditions such as aneurysm and intracranial hemorrhage prohibit this kind of therapy.)
Adjustments almost always do not involve any pain or discomfort. The important thing for a patient to keep in mind is to remain relaxed, because stiffening up may impede the adjustment process. Popping sounds are sometimes heard during adjustments; these are usually pockets of air being released behind a joint or other bony structure.
Adjustments can leave you with a greater sense of well-being, calm, and most importantly, on the road to a life without pain. Following an adjustment, some patients experience mild aching or soreness in their spinal joints or muscles, which can usually be relieved by an ice or heat pack.
Adjustments have been shown to:


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U.S. Prepares To Redefine Mission In Afghanistan
American commanders in Afghanistan are preparing for a major shift in their mission this year.
U.S. troops are expected to move away from their lead role in combat operations in most areas. Instead, they'll advise Afghan forces to take the lead in both operations and security duties throughout much of Afghanistan.
Both the Army and the Marine Corps are setting up training teams to advise and assist Afghan army and police units. Officials tell NPR that as many as 2,000 handpicked, non-commissioned officers and junior officers in the Army will be sent to Afghanistan as part of this effort beginning in May.
Those Army teams will begin training next month at Ft. Polk, Louisiana in preparation for their new roles. Marine officials say that some of their training teams already are starting to work in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province.
"By this summer, we want the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) in our area to completely plan and execute operations," said one Army officer familiar with the training teams plan. "We have to continue to take the leap of faith or they'll never be truly independent."
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, has said that American forces must go from their current role, where the troops are partners with Afghan forces, to more of an advisory role, and allow Afghan forces to take over certain parts of the country.
One major area for the training teams will be in the south and southwestern part of the country, around Kandahar and Helmand Province, which have seen security gains over the past two years.
A Looming Deadline
Part of the new shift in focus is driven by the calendar. Afghan forces are scheduled to take the lead in their own security by the end of 2014. American commanders say they must start making that transition now, while there are still sizeable numbers of US troops on the ground to ease the way.
"The sense is (the Afghan forces) should be able to fail now," said another Army officer working on the training team effort, "rather than wait until 2014 when they fail and there's no time to help them or train them."
The number of U.S. forces is slated to drop from about 90,000 today to around 68,000 by September. Today, most military operations are led by U.S. soldiers and Marines with Afghan forces playing a subordinate role.
"A 'combined patrol' would be U.S. forces going out with one vehicle of ANA (Afghan National Army) in the rear," said the Army officer. "Drawdown is coming so we must put these guys out front."
American officers in Afghanistan acknowledge that the abilities of the Afghan forces are at best "spotty" and it will be some time before they are able to stand on their own without U.S. help.
NPR reporters have been on patrols with U.S. Marines and Afghan forces. In some cases the Marines planned and led the patrols – even to the point of talking with villagers through an interpreter, while the Afghan forces stood and watched.
U.S. Will Advise, But Not Lead
The U.S. training teams – with up to 30 members-- will be placed throughout Afghan army and police headquarters, officials say.
While some of the teams will be in headquarters, others will go on missions, though Afghans will be leading those operations.
The teams will include U.S. personnel with a variety of skills: bomb disposal, intelligence, logistics, medical evacuation and fire support, such as calling in artillery or airstrikes.
That all makes sense to retired Lt. Gen. Dave Barno. He's a former commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. And last month he co-authored a paper calling for such an advisory effort, called "The Next Fight, Time For A Change Of Mission In Afghanistan."
"I think it's very significant," said Barno. "The American commanders out there recognize that the long-term success is going to have to be achieved by Afghan forces not by American forces with Afghan forces off to the side. So that's going to really be a change of outlook and a change of approach for us."
In his paper, Barno said that Afghan units are "largely untested – and are perhaps far from ready."
"We have not put any serious, high-priority focus on the advisory effort," Barno said in an interview. "We've had so many American infantry battalions there that the counterinsurgency mission can be done by the Americans with just a few Afghans accompanying them."
There have been some U.S. military advisers with Afghan forces, said Barno. And when that happens, "their professionalism and confidence goes up and they can be pretty effective in the field."
The Iraq Model
One officer likened the plan to the teams used in Iraq to train Iraqi army and police units.
"This is a very smart move at this particular time," said retired Lt. Gen. Jim Dubik, who commanded the U.S. training effort in Iraq. "What it meant in Iraq is that coalition forces could participate less as the directors and more as the assistors. I think these teams will put us in a position to do that in Afghanistan — of course much later than most of us would have preferred, but at least we're doing it now."
Dubik said he met with Afghan defense and interior officials last fall and they are in favor of the teams. Still, Dubik said it was clear that the Afghans are not yet ready to take over the entire security effort.
"There'll be the Afghans leading in many portions of the country where their capability allows them to lead," said Dubik. "But in some of the areas (coalition) forces will still retain the lead."
One particular area where the U.S. will remain in the forefront is the mountainous eastern part of the country, hard up against the Pakistan border. Insurgents, especially members of the Haqqani network, are able to slip across the porous border, attacking U.S. and Afghan forces, and in some cases attacking Kabul itself.


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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
A hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday included tears, cheers and a recording of bursts of gunfire. It was all part of a new push by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, a ban that expired nearly a decade ago.
NPR's David Welna was there.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: It was California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein who 20 years ago fought for and won a decade-long ban on assault-style rifles and high capacity ammunition magazines. Congress was in no mood to renew the law when it lapsed in 2004. But Feinstein is now leading a drive to restore that ban, seizing on public outrage over the December gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. Feinstein said yesterday Congress was wrong not to have renewed the assault weapons ban.
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Since the ban expired, over 350 people have been killed with assault weapons, over 450 have been wounded. And the weapons are even more lethal today than they were in 2004.
WELNA: To illustrate how easy it is now to add a simple device to a semi-automatic rifle that turns it into a virtual machine gun, Feinstein showed a video at the judiciary panel hearing she chaired.
FEINSTEIN: You see this bump fire slide working as it mimics a fully automatic weapon.
WELNA: At the witness table, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the U.S. Conference of Mayors he heads fully endorses Feinstein's bill banning assault weapons once again.
MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER: No one has ever been able to explain why a civilian should have a military-style assault weapon for anything other than the military or law enforcement. I've never heard a legitimate explanation.
WELNA: That prompted a question from South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, who declared himself the proud owner of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Mayor, what percentage of violent deaths involving a firearm in your city are a result of handguns versus rifles, do you know?
WELNA: For Nutter, that was beside the point.
NUTTER: Handgun, rifle, shotgun, dead is dead.
GRAHAM: Well...
NUTTER: And that's what's being experienced in our cities all across America.
GRAHAM: I couldn't agree with you more. But the reason we have hearings like this is to try to paint the picture for America of the problem we're trying to solve.
NUTTER: Right.
GRAHAM: And I don't know what percentage of deaths are caused by rifles in Philadelphia, but I know nationally it's 2.5 percent.
WELNA: Graham's effort to downplay the deaths caused by rifles did not sit well with another witness. Newtown, Connecticut emergency room director William Begg said some may say the overall number of deaths from assault weapons is relatively small.
DR. WILLIAM BEGG: But you know what? Please don't tell that to the people of Tucson, or Aurora, or Columbine or Virginia Tech. And don't tell that to the people of Newtown.
WELNA: Sitting next to Begg at the witness table was Neil Heslin, the father of a six-year-old boy shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary.
NEIL HESLIN: I'm Jesse Lewis's dad. Jesse was brutally murdered...
HESLIN: ...Sandy Hook school on December 14th, 20 minutes after I dropped him off.
WELNA: Heslin implored the senators seated before him to ban the kinds of weapons and high capacity magazines used to murder his only child. But Iowa's Chuck Grassley, who's the panel's top Republican, raised concerns about the constitutionality of such a ban. What's more, he said, there's no evidence the last assault weapons ban worked.
SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY: When something has been tried and found not to work, we should try different approaches rather than reenacting that which hasn't done the job.
WELNA: Grassley added that while Congress will legislate on guns, it will likely be on issues such as gun trafficking and mental health.
As the hearing ended, Feinstein seemed to acknowledge her bill's slim odds.
FEINSTEIN: With a little bit of help from the people of America, we might even be able to pass that. It's an uphill job all the way.
WELNA: David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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The New York City-based company said all employees were notified of the closures Monday. A representative for Crumbs could not immediately say how many workers were affected or how many stores it had remaining on its last day. "Regrettably Crumbs has been forced to cease operations and is immediately attending to the dislocation of its employees while it evaluates its limited remaining options," the company said in an emailed statement. That will include filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.
A press release from its website in March listed 65 locations in 12 states and Washington, D.C. The website had not been updated with notification of the closures late Monday.
Crumbs was founded in 2003 and went public in 2011, selling giant cupcakes in flavors including Cookie Dough and Girl Scouts Thin Mints. More recently, however, it had been suffering from a steep decline in sales. For the three months ending March 31, Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. reported a loss of $3.8 million, steeper than the loss of $2 million from the same period a year ago.
The company had warned in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this past May that it "may be forced to curtail or cease its activities" if its operations didn't generate enough cash flow.
As of the end of last year, Crumbs listed about 165 full-time employees and about 655 part-time hourly employees working in its stores.


text: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Think of this like valet parking for your car. Students in New York City have valet parking for their phones. Cell phones are banned in New York schools, but students cannot bear to be without them on the subway ride to school and back. So entrepreneurs have been parking trucks near the schools. And there you can leave your phone for a dollar a day - or about $180 per year. The minute school is out students can go back to texting or being baffled by those new Apple maps. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Date(s) - 21/11/2021
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Have fun (re-)discovering Hastings, spotting things you've never noticed before, with two quirky treasure hunt style heritage walks – a safe, fun and affordable way to get some fresh air with your household, whilst staying close to home.
Curious About Hastings visits not just the obvious places, but some unusual ones too, with hidden treasures to discover. Suitable for all ages, the walks take 1-2 hours each and are wheelchair and buggy friendly. Each 16 page booklet contains two walks, a brief history of Hastings, a detailed map with two walking routes marked on, and a series of directions and clues (Hints as to where to find the answer, and the answers can be found towards the end of the booklet). You'll also find ideas for things to see on the way, pictures to identify & some interesting snippets about the people & events that have shaped Hastings.
Visit The Curious About Hastings Website then buy in printed booklet format (we post to you) or instant download format (you print at home, or download to your mobile (devices), then explore with your household.