Gino's Pizzeria

As a treat for myself after a good week in school I go to Gino's Pizzeria of North Bellmore to have slices of Sicilian Pizza or Meatballs and Spaghetti. They have a menu that has food that is out of this world and most of the reviews on the internet back up my claims. Whether you order a Meatball Hero, Pizza or anything else you should enjoy it. Besides having the usual types of pizza, Gino's has an extensive menu of traditional and heart healthy meals. Their menu has a symbol to tell you it a meal is considered healthy. Gino's food is prepared freshly and is well worth the visit. This Gino's is part of a chain including 4 others. I was pleasantly...

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Bio(food)fuel: Is it good or bad?

Many of us have been introduced to alternative fuels as well as  alternative sources of energy with the hopes of reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. Alternative sources of energy range from solar energy, windmills, watermills, nuclear energy, etc; while alternative fuels range from biodiesel/ biofuel, electricity, vegetable oil, etc. What we're concerned of now is the production of biofuels such as ethanol and whether or not such fuel production is ultimately great for our society or if our choice in producing biofuel will result in some sort of economical downfall. To begin with, ethanol provides further purpose in crop production, so in turn a portion of crops and cropland is diverted from only focusing on human consumption but also on fuel production. This results in higher price...

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Posted in: Biofuel,Ken

Uniformed Grinding

I will be extending the information regarding the art of coffee in the technique of grinding. This technique, to put it bluntly, is not for those who are not willing to invest a good amount of money for a great cup of coffee. Why? The usual, homestyle method of grinding uses a multiple purpose grinder that utilizes blades. As the blades rotate, the coffee beans are cut apart. But this results in uneven grinding with large to fine particles. Furthermore, the longer the grinding process takes, the more heat that's generated which may result in burned beans.  As an alternative, we have burr grinders. Instead of blades, beans are crushed by...

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Posted in: Coffee,Food,Ken

Boston: Cafeteria Capers

For some kids, school lunch is as part of the day as having leaf on a tree. City schools for the most part (at least here in New York) are required to serve school lunches. Sure they might not be the most edible thing you've ever seen on the end of your fork, but it kept you going throughout the day (unless you skipped lunched in lieu of "other activities"). If you go to a Boston city school, you might want to follow this practice. Recently, it has been discovered that some of Boston's city schools have been serving something that many would find repulsive: expired food. Many items were found to be either past the expiration date or the best-if-used-by date. Imagine your kid or a little kid you know going to school, then during lunch are forced to unwittingly drink a spoiled carton of milk....

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Posted in: Food,Herb,School Lunch

Eat This Not That

I recently picked up a copy of "Eat This Not That", a series of nutrition books by David Zinczenko, editor of Men's Health magazine. There a several books in this series. The copy I looked through was mainly for those interested in buying the healthier versions of common prepared foods. For instance, I liked Rice A Roni but found out that between the sodium and transfat levels I could cut them by substituting Lipton Knorr's rice sides versions. This seemed to be an easy trade and as I found out, a delicious one too. This book was held my attention and even though I didn't expect to look at it for a long time, I pretty much read the whole thing....

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Posted in: Dinner,Food,Guides,Kyle

Beware of the Bottle Return Law

I return bottles religiously. My mother thinks I'm a tad obsessive but it usually puts an extra  few dollars in my wallet that have come in handy. Unfortunately while cleaning up my room last week I found several old scrips that I never cashed in. I mentally totalled them up and they came to a good chunk of change. That was enough to try to cash them in. I went to the supermarket the scrips came from and was told they would only cash $12.00 per day. Okay, I cashed the first amount in. When I went back the next day I was now told that the scrips had to less than 24 hours old and in addition to the $12.00. The store did...

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Posted in: Food,Kyle,Laws,News

Friday night dinner

We used to go to dinner at the drop of a hat, especially at the end of a workweek. It took a job crisis to make my parents rethink their priorities and start to make meals at home more frequently. But, there does come a time when going out to eat is a necessity. That was last Friday. My Dad loves Houlihan's and we had no hesitation to go there. The food is good, prices reasonable and usually we take food home to have another lunch or dinner. It was also the day after St. Patrick's Day and we predicted that since the place was probably hopping the night before, it would be empty that day. We were correct. Anyway, we got there and saw the manager...

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Posted in: Dinner,Food,Kyle

Subway trumps McDonalds

Subway left McDonald's behind..... In recent weeks, it has been found that Subway restaurants have globally more established locations than McDonald's, the former reigning king of the fast food world. 2002 marked the beginning of Subway's ascend over the Golden Arch Empire when it had more stores than McDonald's in the U.S. Lo and behold, less than a decade later, it has once again triumphed over the burger mogul as Subway is reported to have 33,749 stores world wide; nearly 1,000 more stores than McDonalds' 32,737. Despite Subway's continuing success over McDonald's, the latter still claims a significant lead in revenue than Subway. That...

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Posted in: Herb,McDonalds,Subway

Vacuum Brewing

Photograph by Kadluba I'll be taking a different route and instead of introducing you to the method(s) of coffee grinding, I will be introducing another method of coffee brewing. What you see here is a vacuum brewer and takes the infusion process to a different, and very much unique level. Through this method, you may experience the cleanest, purest cup of coffee and I'll show you how through the steps required to utilize it. Primarily, we have to know how it works. Vacuum brewers utilizes a process of suction -- the result of expanding/ contracting gases and in this case, the gas is water vapor. With it comes four parts, two glass containers,...

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Posted in: Coffee,Coffeemaker,Ken,Vacuum Brewer

A Coffee Fieldtrip

On the main counter top of my kitchen sits a Keurig coffee machine and an accompanying coffee carousel. My mother's mission seems to be to keep the carousel full of coffee, tea, hot cocoa and now iced tea "Kcups". For a while it looked like the only places to purchase K cups were online distributors, Keurig  and eBay. I was always finding packages of K cups on my deck and I became a K cup taste tester. Recently, my mother was given a place to actually test and buy Kcups. It's called Filterfresh Distributors and is located a few blocks from Farmingdale State on Smith Street. We decided to take a field trip to see this place and actually...

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Posted in: Coffee,Coffeemaker,Keurig,Kyle

Cartooned packages wins kids over in taste

We'll feed your kids cardboard Image from USATODAY.com In a recent study done at the University of Pennsylvania, they have found that packaging featuring popular cartoon characters affect kids' tastes. In the study, the kids were given a sample from different types of cereals, one set with cartoon characters on it and another set without. The researchers also told the kids which cereals they were eating. Surprisingly, the researchers found that the kids who sampled the cereals from the boxes which featured cartoon characters generally scored their samples higher than those who ate the same cereal, but featured boxes without cartoon characters.     ...

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Posted in: Health,Herb,Kids

New Food Recall

Peanut Butter Recall- Possibility of Salmonella in Skippy Peanut Butter.- Time Healthland There could be Salmonella bacteria in select dated products of Skippy Peanut Butter 16.3 ounce jars. More recalls of foods because of limited government oversite of food processing plants. The recall is because of stool in the peanut butter that may be caused by pigeons living around peanut butter processing plants. A way to prevent contamination of peanut butter is to have a detailed plan to prevent water from entering the inside of the machines the peanut butter is processed in. The water in the peanut butter will only spread the Salmonella. A way to...

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Posted in: Kyle,Peanut Butter,Recall

The French Press

Photograph By mhaithaca Now here's a fine method of brewing if you insist on or are curious about the taste of bolder and much more flavorful coffee. In short, you'll find out that it's similar to the process in brewing tea. So what is it? A french press has a container, a metal filter attached to a rod that protrudes past the container's lid, and the lid itself. So now the entire brewing method starts with the grinding, the steeping, and the careful observation of time. In this method, grinds must be slightly coarser than coffee grounds bought from the supermarket. This is due to the pores of the filter being significantly larger than...

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Posted in: Coffee,French Press,Ken

Coffee and its intricacy

Photograph by Jon Sullivan: We are all aware of how coffee is usually brewed in your average household. There's either the instant mix method or the drip style method. Either way, people tend to only be familiar with these two when in reality, there is much more to it than what the majority know and can appreciate. In short, coffee is an art and it can not be explained in such short time, therefor I will be covering the topic of coffee throughout several posts. Initially, its intricacy starts with what type of coffee beans are used. There are two main types: Arabica and Robusta. Arabica offers a much more flavorful experience, a fuller...

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Posted in: Coffee,Ken