Chicken Soup for The Winter

A bowl of chicken soup is the perfect representation of winter comfort. The problem is that this year winter has not reached half the places it should have.

On New Year’s Day, I was looking amazed at the new shoots in my garden and realizing that some plants that should have been reduced to bare branches a month before were, in fact, still keeping more than half their leaves; I was also hearing news about how the bears in the Picos the Europa, north of Spain, had not taken their usual winter nap because it was too warm. I was wondering if winter was going to come at all this year.

About the same time New York had its first dusting of snow and parts of North America did not have power because of heavy storms, winter finally reached South East England... but only for ten days. Admittedly, ten days so cold, damp and miserable that I had to run for the stock pot.

Healthy Eating

Hyssop, horseradish, wasabi

The healthiest way to season your food is by using natural herbs and spices, that’s why we are building our dossier and filling it with interesting bits and recipes about how to use each of them. This month we are deepening our knowledge about horseradish and wasabi –the strong Japanese version- and hyssop, a little known aromatic herb that can bring out splendid flavors in other herbs or add a slightly bitter and piquant touch to your recipe.

Seasonal Eating

Chicken Soup

A bowl of chicken noodle soup is the personification of winter comfort and there is no better soup that one based in your own homemade broth. Come on! It's not that difficult and you can prepare broth in large quantities and freeze part of it to have an easy and nourishing soup at the tip of your spoon.

Food Naturally Line

Recipe Competition

And the book goes to... Jennifer, from Australia. It is her recipe for barbecue horseradish sauce the one featured in the dossier.

This month the book will go to the best recipe with chocolate or cocoa as ingredients. As we are talking condiments and seasonings, extra points are added for recipes just like that, where cocoa or chocolate add flavor more than being the main ingredient. Get those truffle, chocolate chip cookie recipes, and astounding chocolate Swiss roll out of the kitchen draw and share them with us. Astonish the audience with your wonderful recipe for partridges with chocolate sauce. Remember, you can use the same list of ingredients as other recipe, but the instructions have to be in your own words.

Send your words by the last day of February 2007 using this form or by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and good luck! Being chocolate such a favorite with kids, a copy of the book Superfoods for Babies and Children is waiting for the best recipe. Finalists will feature in this newsletter and the web site. The winner will be notified by email, and we will request then the postal address to send the book. Have a look to what you can find in th book.

World Food & wine

Fabulous World Food and Wine

The first issue of Fabulous World Food and Wine is out and it will have all the news about food and wine adventures.

Your Questions and Suggestions

Food Naturally line answers your questions and also loves to receive your feedback. From now on we will not only answer your questions but also list, and give credit for, your suggestions.

Entertaining

Aphrodisiac Recipes

After the original plan to send a download of romantic music to accompany your Valentine's Day dinner fell through, we had planned to send use recipes for the coming Chinese New Year as bonus. The Chinese New year is exciting and exotic, but the aphrodisiac recipes Erin M. Phelan brings to us are much more the Valentine thing. I hope you truly enjoy this one.

This article was released only for subscribers and opened to all visitors on a later date.

Coming Next

Going on building our herbs dossier, we concentrate in lemon balm and the very similar lemon vervain. From the condiments department, chocolate.

If you are thinking to prepare for the following cookbook of the month, prepare recipes using... coffee; after chocolate, what else could we do but coffee? The book will be Fix it and Enjoy it.

For the eyes of the subscriber only

Vegetables cook in the oven with minimum fuss and top flavor. Baked or grilled vegetables seasoned with herbs can be served as side dishes, appetizers or light meal. Let's explore the world of baked potatoes and their fillings and see what else we can bake.