Calgon ball tablets are different from the other water softening tablets in the sense that they feature anti limescale actives in high concentration which take only a few seconds to dissolve in the water and provide a measured dose. Likewise, a single cap of Calgon gel is a fast dissolving liquid which not only effectively neutralizes the lime scale but also flushes it away during the wash cycle.

Due to its popularity as a fleck water softener, it has enjoyed being the center line of many commercials and a particularly memorable advertisement featuring the Calgon water softener which ran uninterrupted for many years featured a Caucasian woman and a Chinese gentleman. Similarly, the commercials of Calgon softener all over Europe have been translated into almost every regional European language and its mention in the famous soap operas further stresses its popularity.

Calgon water softener is an excellent water purifier and softener. You can buy them on the net through online stores.

You can make herb vinegars for salad dressings, marinades, or soups.

Fresh herbs as garnishes dress up any dish making it look truly spectacular. Lay individual sprigs of rosemary over broiled lamb chops. Chop fresh parsley and sprinkle it over the top of your potato salad. The combinations are endless and the outcome delicious.

Fresh herbs will keep in the refrigerator for several days but then you must freeze them. They can be frozen by laying them a paper towel and putting them in a plastic bag. Once they are frozen only use them in cooking not as garnishes. A friend of mine washes them, puts them an ice cube tray, covers them with water and then freezes them. When she needs them for soup, stews or sauces she just drops a cube in.

My favorite herbs to grow are basil, oregano, lemon balm, parsley and mint. Mint is great but be careful, mint can over run your garden. A tip here would be to bury an empty coffee can and plant the mint in it. The can prevents the mint from “creeping” all through your garden.

I love to make herb butters. Take a half of a cup of softened butter and mix in about 4 tablespoons of a fresh herb. Lay out a piece of saran wrap, place the butter in the middle roll the saran wrap up to form a “log” out of the butter. Put in the refrigerator and anytime you need a pat of butter just cut it off the “log”. (Hints for “log” butter: potatoes, bread, steaks, noodles or any kind of sauce).

A fresh herb in any salad dressing really makes it sparkle. You can use any herb or a combination, be creative.

New Potatoes – Freshly harvested and marketed during the late winter or early spring, new potatoes are tiny to small potatoes of any variety. Their skin is tender and they do not need to be peeled. When cooked, they have a firm, waxy texture. New potatoes are best when used soon after harvest and prepared by boiling, steaming or roasting.

Tips for Buying Potatoes

When buying potatoes, choose ones that are firm, have smooth skins and are without any sprouts or blemishes. Avoid potatoes with wrinkled skins, sprouted eyes, cut surfaces, soft or dark spots, decayed areas (usually at the ends), or sunken spots.

If possible, purchase potatoes that are fairly clean but unwashed. Potatoes that have been washed will spoil quicker.

Avoid purchasing potatoes with a greenish tint or cast. This indicates that the potatoes have been exposed to light during storage, which can produce a bitter taste and may be toxic to some people.

Choose potatoes that have a heavy feel and are uniform in size and shape. They will cook in about the same time and will be easier to peel.

How to Store Potatoes

Store potatoes in a well-ventilated cool, dry, dark area such as a cool closet or dry basement (never under the kitchen sink).

When stored between 45F to 50F (7C to 10C), potatoes will keep for several weeks. If stored at room temperature or in a warm place, potatoes will remain at top quality for only about 1 week.
Do not store potatoes in the refrigerator. The starch will begin to change to sugar and alter the taste; the potatoes will also turn dark after cooking.

It is best not to store potatoes near onions.

Tips for Preparing Potatoes

To clean potatoes, soak briefly in cool water to loosen the dirt and make scrubbing easier. Scrub gently under running water with a vegetable brush or sponge; trim away any eyes or blemishes.

Always be certain to remove any sprouts or eyes when peeling potatoes and if a potato appears green under the skin, peel it deeply to remove the green part…that green portion could possibly make you sick.

To prevent potatoes from turning dark, cook immediately after peeling or cover with water and add a small amount of salt, lemon juice or vinegar.

When preparing French fries, soak cut potatoes in lightly salted chilled water for approximately 1 hour to remove some of the starch and produce crisper fries.

Potatoes and dishes with potatoes do not freeze well due to their tendency to become mushy when thawed and reheated. Partially cooked French fries, mashed potato patties and baked stuffed potatoes may be frozen.

Potato Yields

Three medium potatoes equals approximately 1 pound, which will yield:

* 2 cups French fried potatoes

* 2 cups mashed potatoes

* 2-1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes

* 3 cups peeled and sliced potatoes

* 2 cups potato salad

* 2-1/2 cups shredded potatoes

Non-stick cookware is a blessing when cooking and reheating sticky kinds of food. This coated surface also means you will need less oil or fat while frying on it. But you have to be careful while using and washing non-stick cookware. Avoid scratches on the surface or it’ll lose its properties. Use only wooden, plastic, or coated utensils when cooking. Wash in hot soapy water but never in a dishwasher.

Cast iron is comparatively inexpensive, conducts heat evenly and once heated, keeps it for a long time. Such cookware is good for deep-frying and slow cooking. The main problem is that it rusts, stains and becomes pitted when exposed to air, moisture and certain foods. Do not wash cast-iron cookware in soapy water, instead try wiping clean with a paper towel. To prevent rusting, remove any excess moisture from the surface and coat with oil before storing.

Aluminum cookware is quite cheap compared to other materials. It’s very lightweight yet strong. It is a good conductor of heat and does not easily distort when exposed to high temperatures. The obvious drawback is its reaction to acidic and alkaline foods leading to corrosion and spoiling the taste of the food cooked. That’s why it is often coated with stainless steel or anodized coating to protect the food. It doesn’t require any special care, usual washing in a soapy water is enough. However, if the surface has anodized coating, you better avoid washing the cookware in a dishwasher and be careful not to scratch the finish.

These fats have been found to raise blood levels of LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol. That means a significantly increased risk of heart disease.


Partially hydrogenated vegetable fats are present in about 40 percent of the food on grocery store shelves. Cookies, crackers, and microwave popcorn are big sources of trans fats, as are other processed foods such as margarines, butter-type spreads and cooking or baking shortenings, salad dressings, cakes, donuts, snack chips, chocolate candy, some breakfast cereals, French fries and other fried snack foods. As of January 2006, manufacturers are required to list trans fats as part of the nutritional information box on all food labels.

The new regulation doesn’t apply yet to foods people buy in restaurants and other away-from-home eateries. However, food-service operators-including the big fast-food chains-know that they share the responsibility for providing good food that can be part of a healthy diet.

Most of the 925,000 restaurants in the U.S. have fryers, and those fryers use almost 18,000 tons of fat each year, much of it partially hydrogenated fat and oils. These restaurants are looking at ways to reduce trans fats in their menu items without cutting out taste, and that includes finding alternatives to partial hydrogenates.

One alternative gaining interest is an oil called low-linolenic soybean oil, made from a specially bred soybean. It was developed specifically to replace partially hydrogenated oils and can be used alone or in blends with other vegetable oils that have low or no trans fats to decrease or even eliminate trans fats in the foods fried in it.

To protect your health when you choose foods to enjoy at home, read the nutrition information panel and the ingredient label on packaged foods. And when you dine out, ask what sort of oil the restaurant is using. In both cases, you want to avoid partially hydrogenated oils and tropical oils (which contain high levels of unhealthy saturated fats). When you see “low-linolenic soybean oil,” you know you’ll be eating healthy.

1. Prepare the hashbrowns according to the package directions.
2. Fry the breakfast sausage.
3. Scramble the eggs with the milk and salt and pepper.
4. Mix the hashbrowns, sausage, and eggs in a large bowl.
5. Mix the cheeses.

6. On a square of parchment paper, place one tortilla.
7. Place several tablespoons of hashbrown, sausage, and egg mixture onto the tortilla in a line, slightly off center. Amount used will depend on the size of your tortilla, but don’t stuff too full.
8. Add a Tablespoon of salsa thinly along the top of the egg mixture. Sprinkle cheese on top of all.
9. Fold the ends gently in, then fold over one side and roll up.
10. Roll up in wax paper, place into ziplock bag, and repeat with next tortilla.
11. Place the tortillas into the freezer.
12. When ready to eat, place tortilla into microwave on high for ninety seconds. Add 1 minute for each additional tortilla.

You will also need a filet board, preferable one with a strong clamp to hold the trout’s head firmly. If you can’t find a board with a clamp, get a pair of gloves textured for gripping.


You will need a bucket or pan of salted water to put fresh trout filets in.

To begin the process of cutting off the filets, you need to secure the trout so it doesn’t slip around. If using a board with a clamp, firmly clamp the trout’s head to the board. If using gloves, grip the trout’s head firmly. Next, take your knife and cut beneath the gills to the backbone. Now turn the knife and cut down the backbone but stop before you cut through the skin at the tail. All of this cutting will be between the ribcage and the flesh. You are basically cutting off the entire side of the trout. Next, flip the filet over with the skin side down. Cut between the meat and the skin. The process is the same for the other side of the trout. After you have cut both filets off of the trout, cut off any of the ribcage that may have been cut off with the filet. This is about all you need to do as far as deboning trout when filleting them. It is okay to cut into the ribcage, but don’t cut too deep and cut the guts. Remember, these fish have not been gutted!

Now that you know how to filet trout, you also know how to filet fish in general. It is the same no matter what kind of fish it is.

All the trout are now filleted and you are ready to cook them. So, how do you like them cooked, batter fried, baked, broiled or grilled? Personally, I like grilled best. If you are going to grill them, don’t forget to invite me over. I’ll bring the corn on the cob.

There was a stumbling block, however, which was the endless list of spices, seasonings and flavourings in the front of the book. I didn’t know where to start – I’d heard of quite a lot of them, having watched a few TV programmes on Indian cooking but, “help” I thought, “buying that many all at once is going to cost a fortune”. If you’re thinking the same, don’t panic. Check in your store cupboard. You probably already have some of the items you will need. For example, look for black peppercorns, bay leaves, chilli powder (if you’re already a fan of chilli con carne), ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon if you bake cakes or apple pies. Maybe you’ll find mustard seeds if you do your own pickling and sesame seeds if you make rolls or cook Chinese food. That only leaves a few basic ingredients which appear in a lot of Indian recipes – cumin, coriander, turmeric and cardamom. Often you need ground cumin and coriander but if you buy the whole spices, you can grind them as necessary (and they keep longer that way too).

The other thing I did was to choose a fairly simple recipe to start with and I just bought the spices I needed for that. The next time I want to cook an Indian meal, I chose another recipe with similar ingredients so I had to just buy a couple more things. Soon enough I built up a whole store cupboard of the things I needed and it didn’t have had such a drastic effect on my wallet.

Then there was no stopping me – I even know some recipes by heart now and you can do the same if you want to.

You don’t need special equipment for Indian cookery, although I wouldn’t be without my electric coffee grinder (to grind spices) and it’s nice (but not necessary) to have the traditional dishes to serve your meal in. Other than that, you need a bit of patience and it’s fun to cook with a friend so that you can share the chopping and grinding or have someone read the recipe out to you step by step so you don’t go wrong in the middle.

When does a fruit or vegetable (or any baked item) furnish us with the most nutrition? The experts feel that food grown in one’s own environment will usually contain the most nutrition. Freshly harvested food provides the maximum nutritional value. After a fruit or vegetable has been sitting for several days, or transported around the world, the value of the vitamins and minerals diminishes.

The best means of ‘cooking’ fruits and vegetables for their health value is to eat them raw in salads or as snacks. As soon as heat is applied, a good quantity of the nutrition is destroyed. A good cook can prepare a beautiful plate with the natural colors of freshly picked fruits and vegetables.

Genetically engineered food has infiltrated the growing of almost all crops. This procedure didn’t exist until the last decade, and it remains highly controversial as the long range effect on humans has never been tested.

Briefly described, this procedure consists of infecting a healthy seed or grain with various bacteria or insects to lengthen its shelf life, to make it look ‘pretty’ for the consumer long after the nutritional value has dissolved. This not only has a negative effect on one’s health, but leaves the cook with a less than delicious product to serve.

It is also important to note that people who have bad lifestyle habits are the usual targets of having incredibly high cholesterol levels. Smoking and drinking are the common vices that people, not only those who are suffering from high cholesterol levels, should eliminate once and for all from their systems.

2. cooking With No Cholesterol In Mind

- When buying cereals or microwavable pre-packed foods like t.v. dinners look at the labels on the side of the box to ensure that you are not going to take in excess calories and fat
- Being aware of what you take in is the first step in lowering high cholesterol
- Avoid restauraunts and fast food places that offer all you can eat meals or incredibly enormous meals
- The serving size listed on the packaging is sometimes misleading – a serving size is not always the total size of the package, it is often one-half or even less

3. Know How To Read Food Labels

Food labels are divided into two parts – the top half deals with aspects of food you should limit, such as total fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates and protein. The bottom is a summary of those you need, such as vitamins, iron, etc.

It is actually quite hard to understand what most food labels mean, in a way they are quite deceiving. You may think that you are eating healthy when in reality you are unknowingly taking in cholesterol, fat and calories in reduced levels. Here are a list of some of the claims that we can often find on our food’s packaging according to the Food and Drugs Authority –

- Calorie-free –

This product has fewer calories per serving (around 5 calories less) than the leading brand. It does not mean the product contains no calories.

- Low-sodium –

This product contains less than 140mg of salt per food serving.