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Contents:

Highlighted Recipes this Month

Flavor With No Salt - Poultry Seasoning

Interesting and Fun Food Facts

Cooking Tips

Food Myth

Recipe of the Month - Red Wine Turkey Thighs

Pumpkin

Thanksgiving

This month and next month we have dedicat-ed the newsletter to Thanksgiving in my coun-try, Canada, and Melinda’s, the USA, respec-tively. Thanksgiving in North America has been a very important holiday for the last few hun-dred years.

Harvest time means the culmination of months of effort to grow and preserve food to be consumed during the winter months. It was more imperative to do this by fall in the earlier days before the international breadbasket be-came viable. Today, we can have just about any fresh fruit or vegetable appearing in our local grocery stores from rotating worldwide harvests.

As I pointed out last month, remember to include local sources when buying your food for your table. Go to local food markets…

Highlighted Recipes This Month (just fol-low the links):

Spicy Stir-Fried Mushroom Bruschetta

Butternut Squash Bisque

Garlic Pork Tenderloin

Mashed Sweet Potatoes made with Chick-en Broth

Deviled Beets

NO SALT ADDED

A NEWSLETTER ABOUT LOW SALT, LOW FAT, AND LOW SUGAR COOKING WEBSITE: nosaltaddedrecipes.com

Issue: October 2016

FLAVOR WITH NO SALT

Poultry Seasoning

By Melinda Critoph Neyer

Poultry seasoning is an blend of herbs and spices that is used mostly to season poultry. It may also be used as a seasoning for food such as poultry stuffings, salad dressings, casseroles, meat loaf, pork, veal, lamb, herbed

breads, tofu marinades, vegetable soups, and herb broth. The basic in-gredients for poultry seasoning are thyme, sage, marjoram, ground rose-mary, black pepper, and nutmeg. It is

the dried sage and thyme which give the blend an aromatic, woodsy flavor. Other ingredients that may be used are celery seed, celery salt, basil, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder,

and cayenne pepper.

The following is a recipe for mak-ing basic homemade poultry season-

ing.

2 teaspoons ground or rubbed sage

1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground thyme

1 teaspoon ground marjoram

3⁄4 teaspoon ground rosemary

1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1⁄2 teaspoon finely ground black pep-

per

If you use the same ingredients in a crushed form (except the nutmeg), and combine them with a little olive oil, you will have a good poultry rub.

D

Another name for chickens is Cackle-berries.

Chickens only have one ovary which contains a few thousand ova that turn into eggs one at a time.

Double yolks are the result of two ova being dropped at one time.

One chicken can lay as many as 2,000 to 4,000 eggs in her lifetime.

Cornish game hens are just 4 to 6 week old chickens weighing about 2 pounds.

Three buffalo wings contain up to 25 grams of fat.

Ground chicken and turkey can have a fat content as high as ground beef.

More Fun Facts

Apricot pits and apple seeds contain small amounts of cyanide.

Bacteria will not grow in honey.

Dieters miss fats more than sweets.

Fun Fowl Facts

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Cooking Tips

For easier and less messy mixing, use bigger and/or deeper bowls than necessary.

When choosing a pepper mill, select a model with a harden steel grinder.

Dark, heavy duty baking sheets con-duct heat well for faster, more even browning.

Crushing dried herbs between your fingers releases their flavors.

Do not store your olive oil near win-dows or bright lighting. It can be-come oxidized and lose some of the healthy elements.

If you're cooking for someone im-portant like your boss for the first time, never try a new recipe and a new ingredient at the same time.

There is a compound in olive oil that has the same pain-relieving effects as ibuprofen.

The leaves of celery are the most nutri-tious part of the plant.

Greeks and Romans considered the herb dill as a sign of wealth. They also thought it had medicinal properties.

Kiwifruit has an unusual amount of omega-3 oils for a fruit. It also has a high vitamin content.

Pringles once had to fight a lawsuit try-ing to disprove that they weren’t really potato chips.

Pound cake got its name from its origi-nal recipe, which called for a pound each of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour.

An average ear of corn has an even number of rows, usually 16.

Most wasabi consumed is not real wasa-bi, but colored horseradish.

One of the most popular pizza toppings in Brazil is green peas.

Ketchup was used as a medicine in the 1800s to treat diarrhea, among other things.

Interesting and Fun Food Facts

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FOOD MYTH

Recipe of the Month

Red Wine Turkey Thighs

This is a very simple way to cook turkey for any occasion or non-occasion. The spices in the recipe are mostly the same spices as in poultry seasoning and would be suitable for Thanksgiving or Christmas. While the turkey thighs are cooking in the slow cooker, dressing can be cooked in the oven and the red wine gravy from the turkey can be poured over both the dressing and mashed potatoes. I seem to remember a time in North America when turkey was only available during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now, turkey is usually available throughout the year. Turkey is low in fat and most of it is between the skin and the meat. Turkey is even lower in fat than chicken. Please follow the link: Red Wine Turkey Thighs

MYTH: “Organic” foods are safer than

non-organic or “conventional” foods.

TRUTH: “Organic” produce is no safer

than non-organic produce. The organic la-

bel refers to USDA standards, but ‘organic’

does not mean ‘all-natural’. All produce

likely contains small traces of pesticides,

regardless of the method. It is unavoidable

in order to ensure growth. Organic produce

may contain smaller amounts of pesticides

than non-organic, but all produce must not

exceed government safety thresholds.

In fact, organic food is no more nutri-

tious than non-organic food. Research from

the past 50 years of scientific articles on

these foods finds that there is no significant

difference in their nutritional content or

safety.

Not only does organic food provide no

nutritional benefit vs conventional

foods, organic production methods produce

significantly lower yields. Organic tech-

niques require more inputs to produce less

food then conventional methods.

Fruits and vegetables are the founda-tion for a healthy diet. They contain many ingredients required by the body to maintain functionality and fight disease. These foods deliver the components essential to keep up the mechanisms necessary to sustain a healthy body. Fruits and vegetables contain no added salt, fats, or sugar. Plus, most of them contain natural versions and low amounts of these substances.

Some of the most important elements the body requires are Vitamin C, Vitamin A, fiber, and potassium. One or more of these fight cancer, high blood pressure, heart dis-ease, diabetes, obesity, and osteoporosis. In addition, they help to build tough connective tissue, boost energy, and enhance the skin. The following are lists of many of the foods that contain these items.

Power Packed foods – High Vitamin C/High Vita-min A/High Fiber

Asparagus Dark Leafy Greens Broccoli Green Bell Peppers

Brussels Sprouts Red Bell Peppers

Cabbage Strawberries

Fruits and Vegetables

No Added Salt, Fats or Sugar

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Pumpkin, the scariest vegetable of all time, is a renown squash. Pumpkin-related seeds da-ting between 7000 and 5500 BC were found in Mexico. Pumpkins are widely grown for commercial use, both in food and recreation. However, the best commercially canned "pumpkin" is not pumpkin but Delicious, Bos-ton Marrow, a similar squash. The flesh of this variety of squash is much richer and more nu-tritious than that of pumpkin. "Giant pump-kins" are a large squash that can exceed 2,000 pounds. The variety arose from the large squash of Chile after 1500 A.D through the efforts of botanical societies and enthusiast farmers.

October is definitely the month for pump-kins in Canada since both Thanksgiving and Halloween occur within this month. Associa-tion of pumpkins with harvest time and pump-kin pie at Canadian and American Thanksgiv-ing reinforce its iconic role. The carved pump-kin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. In 1900, an article on Thanks-giving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities to encourage kids and families to join together to make their own jack-o'-lanterns. The practice of carving pumpkins for Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack". The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immi-grants to North America used the native pump-kin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than

Pumpkin By Melinda Critoph Neyer

turnips. Not until 1837, does jack-o'-lantern appear as a term for a carved vegeta-ble lantern, and the carved pumpkin lantern association with Halloween is recorded in 1866. Things like wicked looking carved pumpkins were meant to scare away evil spirits associated with the time of the Hal-loween season. Starbucks turned this associa-tion into marketing with its pumpkin spice latte, introduced in 2003. This has led to a notable trend in pumpkin and spice flavored food products in North America. This is de-spite the fact that North Americans rarely buy whole pumpkins to eat other than when carving jack-o'-lanterns.

One of the ways individuals can effi-ciently control the amount of salt, fat, and sugar in their diet is to make homemade ver-sions of the processed foods they love and use on a regular basis.

Substitutions for salad dressings, brown sug-ar, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce, are just some of the recipes we have included in our website. Although these substitutions may not taste exactly the same as their pro-cessed counterparts, we feel that you will enjoy trying them. Just follow the link to the list of substitutions we have come up with. Please send us how they worked for you and any suggestions or additions you may have.

LINK

Cooking Tips-Fats

When frying foods, Panko bread

crumbs absorb less oil than flour.

After skimming the fat off of gravy, put

in a few ice cubes. The additional fat

Substitutions

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We are always happy to hear from you. Also, we would like to know if any of you have favorite low salt/sugar or no salt/sugar added recipes or cooking tips that you would be willing to share with the rest of us. Please e-mail them at the e-mail link below.

E-mail Link

Mark Critoph and Melinda Critoph Neyer

For access to all prior newsletters, click the link below:

Archived Newsletters

Canadian Thanksgiving has been an annual national holiday since 1879…only 12 years after confederation (Canada becoming a country). Thanksgiving was mostly celebrated on the 3rd Monday in October until 1957 when it moved to the 2nd Monday in October. In the early years, Canadian Thanksgiving had more of a religious significance.

Like the American Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving has become a day when families get together and celebrate with food and drink. Family members will come from far and wide to eat turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes with gra-vy, cranberries, and other harvested fruits and vegetables. Since there is no tradition of gift giv-ing, there is no possibility to disappoint any-one…food has a more predictable outcome of success.

Most Canadian Thanksgivings were spent with my mother-in-law and my wife. My mother-in-law introduced me to cornstarch as a thickener for gravy and my wife introduced me to rutabagas. I made the turkey and fixings for my women folk who only ate white meat, leav-ing me with my favorite, dark meat. Both have now past and the void has been filled by my in-laws who have Thanksgiving at their cottage on a lake that my wife and I helped build. They make the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. The rest of the family members (including me) happily provide sides and appe-tizers to make the occasion memorable. It is one of the high lights of my year.

Canadian Thanksgiving By Mark Critoph