FACTS ON MUSHROOMS

To many, mushrooms are mouthwatering, and as only about a handful cannot be eaten, most can be enjoyed in hundreds of different recipes. In North America, the general public does not seem overly familiar with the different types of wild and garden mushrooms that are available. The following article discusses various kinds of mushrooms and celebrates their culinary properties.
 
With the wide variety of produce today’s public is able to enjoy, most of us are likely to come across mushrooms in various guises—cultivated, wild, fresh, dried and preserved in jars. Stores are the easiest place to find mushrooms these days, but if you are keen to gather your mushrooms in the wild, be sure to have an expert guide who can identify them. Some mushrooms can make people seriously ill and some can be fatal when ingested so extreme caution should be practiced. When purchasing your mushrooms from a grocery store, be sure that they are firm and sufficiently moist; if they have a woodsy or wilderness smell, it implies freshness.
 
Once home, clean your mushroom with a moist paper towel; mushrooms are absorbent so avoid washing them under running water. Remove any soft spots or dirt you come across. Fresh mushrooms can be stored in a paper bag in your refrigerator. If possible, they should be cooked immediately, but you can leave them refrigerated for about three days. Fresh mushrooms should never be frozen without cooking them freezing. When using dried mushrooms you should first soak them in water, wine, milk, soup broth, etc…depending on your recipe.
 
When cooking with mushrooms, these delectable fungi can be used across the board—appetizers, sauces, soups, salads, and entrees. They add texture and taste to the simplest dishes and they also have great ambition as they are used in the most sophisticated recipes around the world. The subsequent text discusses individual types of popular wild and cultivated mushrooms used most frequently in today’s kitchens.
 
Only a few varieties of mushrooms have been successfully cultivated but Agaricus mushrooms are one such type. They are sometimes referred to as meadow mushrooms. This thick and flavorful mushroom is an all-around great choice for most recipes.
 
Cultivated Enoki mushrooms sport little white caps on thin stems. When you want to add some crunch to your recipe, they are a good choice, but they are frequently used to garnish.
 
Portobello mushrooms can easily replace meat, as they are so big and hearty. They can be grilled much the same as if you were grilling a hamburger patty. It is sometimes cut up for soups and sauces too.
 
Shiitake mushrooms are also cultivated and readily available in Oriental groceries. They are used in many vegetarian dishes as well as Oriental cuisine.
 
There are many wild mushrooms that are beloved cooks and diners alike. For a sweet and fruity tasting mushroom, try the Black Trumpet variety. Chanterelles are similar but have a specific apricot-like scent.
 
King Bolete or porcini mushrooms provide great richness to soups, stews and various meaty dishes. Likewise, Chicken-of-the-Woods mushrooms can be used in much the same way but they tend to require longer cooking times so consider them for your crock-pot stews.
 
Morels and Truffles are the aristocrats of the mushroom world. Morels have a deep earthy taste that goes well with a glass of Chardonnay. They require extra cleaning to get into all their crevices, but it is a labor of love. Truffles have historically been thought to have aphrodisiacal qualities. The pungent flavor of these culinary gems make them unique and while many other mushrooms can be interchanged in recipes, truffles are a tough act to follow when it comes to substitutions.
 
Whether you’re fixing pizza or chicken Marsala, mushrooms are as basic to the chef’s repertoire of ingredients as salt and pepper. Consider them for your next meal.

FOOD CURES FOR BAD BREATH

 
One of the main causes of bad breath is the food we eat. This is great because it means that we can control our breath odor to a large extent. If we can create bad breath with food, it means we can also prevent bad breath with food. There are certain foods we can consume that actually fight bad breath.
 
Nutrition and Bad Breath

Before discussing specific foods to eat to cure bad breath, we must discuss proper nutrition. Nutrition is not only healthy for your heart, lungs, muscles, and brain. It is also good for your breath. The healthier you eat, the healthier and more efficient your digestive functions. Some bad breath comes from deep within your stomach. If your digestive system is working correctly, you can rid of that particular bad breath cause. Yogurt: The Bad Breath Cure
Most bad breath is caused by bacteria residing on the back of your tongue. Eating live-culture yogurt can actually solve the odor problem. Although, some bacteria creates bad breath, others work to balance it. Yogurt contains a bacteria called acidophilus. This works to restore the intestinal bacteria.

Cure Bad Breath By Adding Fiber
Fiber in a diet helps to move food through the stomach and digestive tract quickly. It actually grabs food as it travels. This is also why adding fiber to your diet can help you lose weight. Meat, as opposed to fiber, does not quickly move through the digestive tract. As a matter of fact, it sticks around in your stomach decaying for days. This is how meat is digested. This means, you can still have bad breath from a meal 3 day earlier. To get rid of this meat in your stomach, add fiber to your diet. The fiber will help move the meat through your system and get rid of bad breath.

Add Vitamin C to Rid of Bad Breath

Gum disease is one of the leading causes of bad breath. However, vitamin C has been shown to fight the disease. This means that foods such as oranges, lemons, or Vitamin C supplements can lower the cases of bad breath.

Bad breath can be a humiliating condition. It may cause social problems, love problems, or career problems. Don’t just let your bad breath rule your life. Take active steps to reduce the problem. Before moving on to more invasive treatments, try simple food remedies to get rid of your bad breath.

INTERESTING FACTS FROM LITERATURE

 
From the first epic to modern-day classics, the literary landscape is filled with authors and works that have inspired people throughout time. The following offerings are facts and trivia about writers and literature.
 

• The Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh (the world’s first epic) was recorded in 1200 B.C.
• Sophocles, the Greek Playwright, of Oedipus Rex fame is believed to have been born in the year 496 B.C.
• The Roman poet Ovid wrote Ars Amatoria in c. 2 B.C.
• Chinese poet Li Po was born in the year 701.
• The first German ballad is called “Ludwigslied” and dates from 881.
• “Beowulf” was written in Old English around the year 1000.
• Dating from c. 1140, The Song of Roland or La Chanson de Roland, is the oldest literary work of the French.
• Dante, of Divine Comedy fame, was exiled from Florence in 1302.
• The year 1304 saw the birth of the Italian poet Petrarch.
• The tales of Robin Hood began to appear in English literature around the year 1375.
• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were printed in 1477.
• English poet Sir Thomas Wyatt also served as an ambassador for King Henry VIII.
• The first roofed Parisian theatre dates from 1548 and was named Hotel de Bourgogne.
• William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were both born in the year 1564.
• English poet John Donne was the grandson of English playwright John Heywood.
• John Milton was born in Cheapside, London, England in 1608.
• French writer Moliere was the son of an interior decorator. Moliere was born in 1622.
• William Blake, born in 1757, was educated by his mother at home. His father was a hosier.
• Born in 1771, Sir Walter Scott suffered from polio as a young child that left him partially lame for the rest of his life.
• Charles Dickens began working at the age of twelve in a boot blacking factory.
• Born in 1804, George Sand was a distant relative of French king Louis XVI.
• 1805 witnessed the birth of Hans Christian Andersen in Odense, Denmark. One of his most famous tales is “The Little Mermaid.”
• In 1806, Napoleon’s Army invaded Weimar and actually occupied Goethe’s house where he was living with his mistress and their son.
• Considered the father of modern Russian literature, Aleksandr Pushkin was killed in a duel with his wife’s lover in 1837.
• Like his mother and brother, English poet John Keats died from tuberculosis.
• The son of a surgeon, Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854.
• American author Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876. He was the son of an astrology “professor.”
• Herman Melville dedicated his novel Moby Dick to his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter.
• Evelyn Waugh, Nathanael West and George Orwell were each born in 1903.
• Born in Calcutta, India, Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.
• George Bernard Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.
• Although he lived most of his life in England, the poet T.S. Eliot was actually born in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Robert Frost’s Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1931.
• In 1959, the U.S. postmaster banned Lady Chatterley’s Lover from the U.S. mail for reasons of obscenity.
• Many sources consider Agatha Christie (author of sixty-six mysteries) the bestselling author of all time.
• Acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood wrote Surfacing in 1972.
• Contemporary mystery writer Anne Perry is also a convicted murderer from a notorious crime committed in 1954 in a New Zealand park when she was a teenager.
• 1988 saw Toni Morrison win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel Beloved.