Celery Root-Potato Pancakes with Green Apple Sour Cream

Here at @1800, we love our pancakes! To celebrate, we’re sharing this recipe for these fantastic potato pancakes from FoodandWine.com. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

2 small baking potatoes (about 3/4 pound total), peeled
1 small onion
1 medium celery root (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled
2 large eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Vegetable oil, for frying
2 Granny Smith apples, 1 cored and thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup sour cream

 

Line 2 wire racks with paper towels. Using the large holes of a box grater or the shredding disk of a food processor, grate the potatoes and onion. Working over a small bowl, squeeze the liquid out of the potato and onion and transfer the grated vegetables to a medium bowl. Let the liquid stand for 1 minute, then pour it off, leaving the potato starch at the bottom. Scrape the starch into the potato shreds. Grate the celery root and add it to the potatoes along with the eggs, flour and salt.

In each of 2 large nonstick skillets, heat 1/4 inch of oil until shimmering. For each pancake, add a scant 1/4 cup of the batter to a skillet and flatten slightly; you should be able to fit 8 pancakes in each skillet. Cook the pancakes over moderately high heat until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to the prepared wire racks to drain.

Meanwhile, grate the whole apple and squeeze until dry; transfer it to a small bowl. Stir in the sour cream. Spoon the apple sour cream onto the pancakes, garnish with the apple slices and serve.

Get Your Daily Dose of Vitamin D

Vitamin D may have an important role in many aspects of human health. It is said to help protect against osteoporosis, high blood pressure, cancer and several autoimmune diseases. Since the majority of our vitamin D absorption comes from the sun, it can be especially difficult to receive the recommended about over the winter months.

Help prevent vitamin D deficiency with these tips from health.msn.com.

Fatty fish

Fatty fish can be a good source of vitamin D. Common options include salmon, trout, mackerel, tuna, and eel.

A 3-ounce sockeye salmon fillet contains about 450 international units (IUs) of vitamin D a good portion of the 600 IUs that is the Institute of Medicine’s recommended dietary allowance (800 IUs if you’re over 70). And you get a bonus heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids!

Canned tuna fish

Fresh fish aren’t the only way to boost your vitamin D intake; you can get vitamin D from a can, too. Canned tuna fish and canned sardines both contain vitamin D, and are usually less expensive than fresh fish.

Plus, a longer shelf life makes the canned products easy to stock up on and use at your leisure. Canned light tuna has the most vitamin D—about 150 IUs per 4 ounces—while canned albacore tuna has about 50 IUs per 4 ounces, and canned sardines have a little more than 40 IUs per two sardines.

Certain mushrooms

Just like humans, mushrooms have the capacity to produce vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet light.

Mushrooms, however, are usually grown in the dark and don’t contain the vitamin. Specific brands, however, are grown in ultraviolet light to spur vitamin D production.

Check to see if vitamin D–rich mushrooms, like Dole’s Portobello Mushrooms, are available at a store near you. They’re perfect for vegetarians looking for plant-based foods that contain the vitamin. Dole’s Portobello’s will give you 400 IUs of vitamin D per 3-ounce serving (about 1 cup of diced mushrooms).

Fortified milk

Almost all types of cow’s milk in theU.S.are fortified with vitamin D, but ice cream and cheese are not.

In general, an 8-ounce glass of milk contains at least 100 IUs of vitamin D, and a 6-ounce serving of yogurt contains 80 IUs, but the amount can be higher (or lower) depending on how much is added.

Some soy and rice milks are fortified with about the same amount, but check the label since not all contain vitamin D.

Some types of orange juice

Not a dairy fan? No problem. You can get vitamin D from fortified orange juice.

One 8-ounce glass of fortified juice usually has around 100 IUs of vitamin D, but the amount varies from brand to brand. Not all brands are fortified, so check the label.

Two fortified brands, Florida Natural Orange Juice and Minute Maid Kids+ Orange Juice, contain 100 IUs per 8-ounce serving.

Supplements

Vitamin D supplements can help you get your proper daily dose, and as Dr. Honig points out, you don’t run into the issue of skin cancer as you might with UV rays. “And it’s not like calcium,” he says. “You don’t have to split up your vitamin D dose; you can take it all at one time.”

Too much vitamin D can be toxic, however. The IOM sets the upper limit at 4,000 IUs for people aged 9 and older. That includes all sources food, sun, and supplements.

Talk to your doctor before choosing a dosage.

Egg yolks

Eggs are a convenient way to get vitamin D. They’re popular in many breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert recipes.

Since the vitamin D in an egg comes from its yolk, it’s important to use the whole egg not just the whites. One yolk will give you about 40 IUs, but don’t try to get your daily vitamin D just from eggs.

One egg contains about 200 milligrams of cholesterol, and the American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 300 milligrams a day for heart health.

Fortified cereal

If you’re a vitamin D seeker looking for a crunch, look no further than fortified cereals. Choose a low-calorie fortified cereal like Multi Grain Cheerios to get part of your daily fill of vitamin D. You can pair it with fortified milk and a glass of fortified OJ too.

A 1-cup (29 gram) serving of Multi Grain Cheerios with one-half cup of fortified milk is 90 IUs; add in an 8-ounce glass of fortified orange juice, and your total is close to 200 IUs.

Beef liver

Although it might not be the most appealing source, a 3.5-ounce serving of cooked beef liver contains about 50 IUs of vitamin D and several other nutrients. You’ll also be getting vitamin A, iron, and protein.

However, beef liver is also high in cholesterol, so you might want to choose an oily fish instead.

Cod liver oil

While its name might suggest a less-than-savory flavor, cod liver oil is often flavored with mint or citrus, or comes in capsule form.

One tablespoon contains about 1,300 IUs of vitamin D, which is more than twice the recommended dietary allowance of 600 IUs per day.

That amount doesn’t exceed the maximum upper-level intake of 4,000 IUs for people over 8 years old, but it exceeds the daily maximum for infants (1,000 IUs).

Balsamic Onion Marmalade

Looking to add a little pizzazz to your crostini, steak or sandwich? Try this recipe for Balsamic Onion Marmalade, brought to you by Wayne Anderson, @1800’s Fine Dining Chef.

Ingredients:

1 Tbl. Oil
4 Onions, Julienne Cut (8 Cups)
Salt and Pepper
1/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in onions, salt and pepper. Caramelize onions about 20 minutes, stirring until golden in color. Add in sugar. Reduce heat and cook until onions appear dry (about 10 minutes). Add balsamic vinegar. Reduce heat to low and cook until thick and syrup like (about 45 minutes).

Best Ever Caramel Apple Crisp

In the mood for a delicious classic? Try this recipe for Caramel Apple Crisp, brought to you by @1800′s Culinary Team Member Alicia Thompson.

Ingredients

Apple Filling:

• 5 large Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup water

Crumble:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 cup butter, softened

Caramel Sauce:

• 1 (14 ounce) package individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
• 1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 F (175 degree C).
• In a medium size bowl, toss apples with sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice, and water; spread evenly into an 8×8 inch pan. In another bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, oats, and butter; spoon mixture evenly over apples.
• In a heavy sauce pan over low heat, melt the caramels with the evaporated milk. Heat, stirring frequently, until mixture has a smooth consistency. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top of the crumble.
• Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes (apple mixture will bubble and topping will be golden brown).

Be prepared to take on winter roads

Winter storms can be difficult to predict; harsh weather, including hail, sleet, snow, ice, fog, high winds and heavy rain can happen suddenly and make driving difficult.

While this winter storm season has been relatively mild, it is too early to disregard Old Man Winter. Use these tips from the National Safety Council to help prepare yourself for when a winter storm hits.

Weather
At any temperature—20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero or 90 degrees Fahrenheit above—weather affects road and driving conditions and can pose serious problems.

It is important to listen to forecasts on radio, TV, cable weather channel, or forecasts in the daily papers.

Your Car
Prepare your car for winter. Start with a checkup that includes:

• Checking the ignition, brakes, wiring, hoses and fan belts

• Changing and adjusting the spark plugs

• Checking the air, fuel and emission filters, and the PCV valve

• Inspecting the distributor

• Checking the battery

• Checking the tires for air, sidewall wear and tread depth

• Checking antifreeze level and the freeze line

Your car should have a tune-up (check the owner’s manual for the recommended interval) to ensure better gas mileage, quicker starts and faster response on pick-up and passing power.

Necessary Equipment
An emergency situation on the road can arise at any time and you must be prepared. Following the tune-up, a full tank of gas, and fresh anti-freeze, your trunk should carry:

• A properly inflated spare tire, wheel wrench and tripod-type jack

• A shovel

• Jumper cables

• Tow and tire chains

• A bag of salt or cat litter

• Tool kit

Essential Supplies
Be prepared with a “survival kit” that should always remain in the car. Replenish after use. Essential supplies include:

• Working flashlight and extra batteries

• Reflective triangles and brightly colored cloth

• Compass

• First aid kit

• Exterior windshield cleaner

• Ice scraper and snow brush

• Wooden stick matches in a waterproof container

• Scissors and string/cord

• Non-perishable, high energy foods like unsalted canned nuts, dried fruits, and hard candy

In addition, if you are driving long distances under cold, snowy, and icy conditions, you should also carry supplies to keep you warm, such as heavy woolen mittens, socks, a cap, and blankets.

If You Become Stranded

• Do not leave your car unless you know exactly where you are, how far it is to possible help, and are certain you will improve your situation

• To attract attention, light two flares and place one at each end of the car a safe distance away. Hang a brightly colored cloth from your antenna.

• If you are sure the car’s exhaust pipe is not blocked, run the engine and heater for about 10 minutes every hour or so depending upon the amount of gas in the tank

• To protect yourself from frostbite and hypothermia use the woolen items and blankets to keep warm

• Keep at least one window open slightly. Heavy snow and ice can seal a car shut.

• Eat a hard candy to keep your mouth moist

German Chocolate Cake

To celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day, we bring you this delicious recipe for German Chocolate Cake – a favorite of Chef Wayne Anderson.

Ingredients:

4 ounces German sweet chocolate - chopped
1/2 cup water
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

　

Directions:

Line three greased 9 inch round baking pans with waxed paper. Grease waxed paper and set aside. In small saucepan, melt chocolate with water over low heat; cool

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 4 egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in melted chocolate and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl and with clean beaters, beat the 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold a fourth of the egg whites into the creamed mixture; fold in remaining whites.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Frosting:

1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup butter
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small sauce pan, heat sugar, milk, cornstarch, butter and egg yolks over medium-low heat until mixture is thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla extract. Cool until thick enough to spread.

Celebrate National Mentoring Month!

January is National Mentoring Month. To celebrate, here is a list of 10 things to do in January:

1. Become a mentor in your community.

2. Learn more about mentoring.

3. Partner with a mentoring organization. 

4. Join “I Am a Mentor” Day.

5. Think about the mentors in your life and post a tribute to them online.

6. Read the latest research and find resources on mentoring.

7. Serve your community on Martin Luther King Day of Service by deciding to become a mentor.

8. Make a donation to a mentoring organization in your community.

9. Go to YouTube on Thank Your Mentor Day™ (January 26) and make the National
    Mentoring Month videos the most popular of the day.

10. Explore ways to help children succeed academically through mentoring.

 
Invest in the Future. Mentor a Child. 

http://www.nationalmentoringmonth.org/

A Recipe For French Toast

Why not start the weekend off right by making French toast for your Saturday breakfast? @1800′s Culinary Team Member, David Hayes, brings you a tasty twist on this traditional dish.

 

French Toast  serves 4       

Ingredients:

• 2   Eggs
• ½ cup Coconut Milk
• ¼ cup Milk
• ½ tsp  Bourbon Vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp  Fresh ground Nutmeg
• 12 Slices of bread, left out the night before
• Canola oil or pan spray as needed
• Ground Cinnamon for dusting

Directions:

In a bowl, blend the eggs, coconut milk, milk, vanilla, and nutmeg with an immersion blender; if you don’t have one a whisk will work just fine.

Heat a pan over medium heat, dip each piece of bread into the milk and egg mixture, let the bread soak in some of the mixture and then let it rest on a plate for a few seconds before putting it into the pan.  Before you add the first batch of toasts, oil or spray the pan to prevent sticking.  Place the rested slices of bread in the hot pan, and dust the back of the toast with cinnamon, when the first side has become golden brown, flip over and brown the other side.  Remove and repeat until all the bread is used.  To hold the pieces of French toast while the rest cook you can have you oven heated to 200 degrees and hold them on a baking pan.

Serve with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and pure maple syrup

A tasty variation is to use zucchini or banana bread instead of regular bread

Wise up on Wi-Fi

If you’ve been in a coffee shop, hotel, airport, library or fast-food restaurant lately, you’ve probably noticed signs advertising Wi-Fi. These days, we can blissfully stay connected using a smartphone, laptop or tablet. Though Wi-Fi has a lot of advantages, using this technology comes with privacy and security risks.

Help protect yourself from online identity theft. Follow these tips from onguardonline.gov the next time you find yourself sitting right smack-dab in the middle of a public wireless network.

How Encryption Works

If you send email, share digital photos and videos, use social networks, or bank online, you’re sending personal information over the internet. The information you share is stored on a server – a powerful computer that collects and delivers content. Many websites, such as banking sites, use encryption to protect your information as it travels from your computer to their server.

Encryption is the key to keeping your personal information secure online. Encryption scrambles the information you send over the internet into a code so that it’s not accessible to others. When using wireless networks, it’s best to send personal information only if it’s encrypted – either by an encrypted website or a secure Wi-Fi network. An encrypted website protects only the information you send to and from that site. A secure wireless network encrypts all the information you send using that network.

How to Tell If a Website is Encrypted

To determine if a website is encrypted, look for https at the beginning of the web address (the “s” is for secure). Some websites use encryption only on the sign-in page, but if any part of your session isn’t encrypted, your entire account could be vulnerable. Look for https on every page you visit, not just when you sign in.

Don’t Assume a Wi-Fi Hotspot is Secure

Most Wi-Fi hotspots don’t encrypt the information you send over the internet and are not secure.

If you use an unsecured network to log in to an unencrypted site – or a site that uses encryption only on the sign-in page – other users on the network can see what you see and what you send. They could hijack your session and log in as you. New hacking tools – available for free online – make this easy, even for users with limited technical know-how. Your personal information, private documents, contacts, family photos, and even your login credentials could be up for grabs.

An imposter could use your account to impersonate you and scam people you care about. In addition, a hacker could test your username and password to try to gain access to other websites – including sites that store your financial information.

Protect Yourself When Using Public Wi-Fi

So what can you do to protect your information? Here are a few tips:

• When using a Wi-Fi hotspot, only log in or send personal information to websites that you know are fully encrypted. To be secure, your entire visit to each site should be encrypted – from the time you log in to the site until you log out. If you think you’re logged in to an encrypted site but find yourself on an unencrypted page, log out right away.
• Don’t stay permanently signed in to accounts. When you’ve finished using an account, log out.
• Do not use the same password on different websites. It could give someone who gains access to one of your accounts access to many of your accounts.
• Many web browsers alert users who try to visit fraudulent websites or download malicious programs. Pay attention to these warnings, and keep your browser and security software up-to-date.
• If you regularly access online accounts through Wi-Fi hotspots, use a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs encrypt traffic between your computer and the internet, even on unsecured networks. You can obtain a personal VPN account from a VPN service provider. In addition, some organizations create VPNs to provide secure, remote access for their employees.
• Some Wi-Fi networks use encryption: WEP and WPA are the most common. WPA2 is the strongest. WPA encryption protects your information against common hacking programs. WEP may not. If you aren’t certain that you are on a WPA network, use the same precautions as on an unsecured network.

Installing browser add-ons or plug-ins can help, too. For example, Force-TLS and HTTPS-Everywhere are free Firefox add-ons that force the browser to use encryption on popular websites that usually aren’t encrypted. They don’t protect you on all websites – look for https in the URL to know a site is secure.

Preventing Water Damage: Outside

If you think water damage in your home only happens when it rains, you’ve probably never experienced a slow, chronic leak in a water pipe. Water damage can occur through any number of mishaps, including when pipes freeze and burst in cold temperatures, when a dishwasher hose goes bad or when a backyard pool springs a leak that leads straight into your basement. While you don’t have complete control of when water mishaps may strike, preventative measures can help you avoid them.

Outside

Walk around your property and look for any warning signs of current water damage or damage that could occur in the future.

• Clean out clogged gutters, eaves or downspouts.

• Repair or replace damaged or deteriorating roofing materials, soffits, trim, siding or flashing.

• Consider insulating pipes that are exposed to cold-weather elements, to protect against bursting.

• Inspect reasons for unusual wear or tear around doors and windows. Also repair or replace exterior doors that are cracked. Replace weather stripping that is worn or damaged.