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If your kitchen shelves look anything like ours, there is plenty of olive oil sitting around. It’s wonderful to cook with, drizzle on our salads and vegetables, and condition your hair with. The question is…are you also using it to clean, polish, and restore your wood furniture? If you aren’t using it for that, you should really try it. Here’s how it works: You mix together half a cup of olive oil and half a cup of white vinegar. You can leave it in a bowl and just dip a soft cloth into it, or you can put it in...

Our word of the day is…satiation, meaning “satisfaction.” In the world of food, one of the ways we achieve satiation, is by eating fats. Fats help us feel full after a meal, and stay feeling full, since they take longer to break down in our bodies than, say, salad. Think roasted turkey and stuffing. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Meatloaf and gravy. Satiation sounds delicious, doesn’t it? But, satiation aside, fats can work against us just as much as they can work for us. It all depends whether we’re eating good fats or bad fats. What’s the Difference? The simplest...

When you choose your foods, what are your choice-making criteria? If you’re like most people you use some balance of knowledge and cravings—part “I should,” and part “I want”—to make your decisions. Fads, the trending thoughts of the moment, are typically not a good way to make major life decisions. Just witness the ill-effects from popular ideas like 17-inch corseted waists, never bathing, and more recently, low-rise skinny jeans. Dreadful! No, if we’re going to make decisions based on current fads, we should research them carefully to make sure they’re smart. In recent years, coconut oil has risen dramatically in...

We all know how wonderful both dark and white Balsamic Vinegar tastes – wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was good for you as well so you had more excuses to eat it? From dressings to marinades. From a radicchio, smoked mozzarella, prosciutto salad to lamb chops with onions. From figs and mascarpone to marinated cod with grapefruit, Balsamic Vinegar is everywhere with its rich, explosive taste. Good news, food lovers, Balsamic Vinegar is indeed good for you in a number of ways. So get yourself a good bottle and drizzle it, dredge it, soak it, and enjoy it! It...

Back in 2007, author Tom Mueller wrote an article for The New Yorker called Slippery Business that detailed the shocking adulteration and mis-marketing of olive oil going on in the worldwide market. That article grew into his 2011 book entitled Extra Virginity, which provided even more detail of the corruption in the olive oil market and broke the scandal open to the world. It’s tempting to spend time bemoaning how crooked today’s market is, but in truth, today’s market isn’t anything new. Olive oil has been a staple in many cultures since about 6,500 B.C., and anti-fraud and quality assurance...