Blogcritics Category: Tastes: Recipe

How to Make Strawberry Banana Smoothies

Sara Christine — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 23:24:41 EDT

Strawberry banana smoothies are great for an afternoon snack or at parties. Find out how to make them here.
Many students new to college are learning for the first time how to take care of themselves. What seem to be simple tasks, such as doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, and cooking, may be hard for students who have never been instructed in those areas before. For me cleaning was never an issue. Cooking, on the other hand, did not come easy. I...

TasteTV: Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

TasteTV — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:20:12 EDT

Chocolate. Strawberries. What's not to love?
TasteTV presents Chef Melissa, of "2 for 10", and her recipe for romantic, chocolate-covered strawberries. Inexpensive, yet powerfully effective on any date.

TasteTV is a leading multi-platform culinary, wine, fashion and lifestyle food network. Poplular TasteTV programs include Chocolate...

Interview with Entertaining Guru and Author Patricia Mendez

Dorothy Thompson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:56:25 EDT

"Hosting casual entertaining is a gift that you give to others."
Patricia Mendez has catered and coordinated special events in the Los Angeles area since the early 1990’s. Her experience also includes coordinating a Mothers of Preschoolers community group for three years and working with women of all ages as a Director of Women’s Ministries for eight years. She met many “new nesters” who...

Product Review: Matusalem Gran Reserva 15-Year-Old Rum

El Bicho — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:10:39 EDT

I was impressed by the beverage and can recommend it to fellow rum drinkers.
At the 8th Annual San Francisco World Spirits Competition Matusalem Gran Reserva Rum won the title “Best Rum” and was proclaimed a Double Gold Medal Winner. Although I didn’t get to participate in the selection process, I understand why it did so well because I was impressed by the beverage and can recommend it to fellow rum...

TasteTV: Show Me The Curry Producers Make Indian-Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

TasteTV — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:36:11 EDT

A flavorful and hearty recipe that is completely vegetarian and can be made vegan also.
The producers of Show Me the Curry show us how to make Indian-Chinese hot and sour soup. This flavorful and hearty recipe is completely vegetarian and can be made vegan, also.South Asian Cuisine, just like the country and culture, is very old. There are a thousand ways to make a simple Mung Daal. Show Me the Curry's goal is to provide you with a...

The Joy of Cast Iron

Tom Bux — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:09:16 EDT

You'll enjoy and grow to love this classic, proven cooking method - starting with this recipe for pineapple upside down cake.
I am a staunch supporter of and advocate for cooking on cast iron cookware. I own half a dozen pans and use them almost daily. Cast iron cookware has been around for hundreds of years. The same reasons that made it popular 200 years ago make it popular today. It is durable, non-toxic, non-stick, heats evenly, and retains heat well.There are styles...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Music Review: SoundStage Presents - Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation

El Bicho — Sat, 4 Nov 2006 17:04:11 EST

Robert Plant and his backing band The Strange Sensation reel, rock, and sway their way through this SoundStage performance, covering some of his solo tunes as well as reworked Led Zeppelin classics, on this first ever music DVD from Robert Plant. The Strange Sensation was handpicked from some of the best and most varied musicians England had to offer, from electronica to brit pop, and all held together by Plant’s passionate vocal wail. These classics are approached with a world music vibe that shines and carries the day, expanding the groove where the Plant and Page project left off.The Strange Sensation has a wonderful world music sound, percussion heavy and rhythmically funky, spitting out all kinds of keyboard tricks while holding fast to a solid rock drive. The expanded-upon Zeppelin songs include “No Quarter,” “Black Dog,” “Four Sticks,” “Gallows Pole,” and a jamming version of “Whole Lotta Love.” Sticking with the blues/rock base and expanding them by the addition of keyboards and more percussion/hand drums than you can shake four sticks at. The music becomes funkier and a bit spacey at times, but that’s alright because it’s a new take on old favorites and Plant’s vocals remain the same. The drums are jazzier, too, yet still thunder when they should. The guitar drives are hard and heavy, while new instruments like the gimbri and darbouka only add to the rockin’ cocktail that is The Strange Sensation. “Whole Lotta Love,” done as it should be, a long jam, is the perfect example of this band at its creative best. The entire band comes together very well here and the tune is the perfect closer for the original broadcast performance.“Tin Pan Valley” and “The Enchanter” are the two songs where drummer Clive Deamer and keyboardist John Baggott, both from the electronica/trip-hop unit Portishead, get a chance to shine and bring forth their style and brand of pop/rock. “Tin Pan Valley” opens with Baggott’s keyboard mastery, and Deamer’s steady drumming put the band in a trip-hop mood, while the guitar soars around them. The song's structure allows the band to break this vibe by kicking everything up and then bringing you back down to mellow out and chill. The drum machine soaked beat on “The Enchanter” takes a page right out of the Portishead book, while the sitar-esque guitar, darbouka rhythms (a Turkish conga/bongo type of drum), and Plant’s echo-laden moans send this one spinning into orbit.The bonus tracks are two old favorites made popular by Plant contemporaries Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. “Hey Joe” is a tune best associated with Hendrix, although not one of his originals, while “Girl From The North Country” was written and recorded by Dylan. Both are essentially folk tunes, one rocked up a bit more than the other. The Strange Sensation reworks them, yet maintains the true feel of the songs. Guitarist Skin retains the driving force on “Hey Joe;” meanwhile, second guitarist Justin Adams picks up the gimbri (a North African lute-like string instrument), and the infused keyboard samples take the song someplace it’s never been before. For “Girl From The North Country,” bassist Billy Fuller switches to the upright bass, Adams rocks the mandolin, and Baggott shows us how well he can tickle the ivories. Which all make for a wonderfully mellow closer to the show and DVD.Robert Plant shows he can still rock at close to sixty years of age and that his musical vision is still fresh. Plant’s energy is perfectly matched by his band, who help bring his vision to life while leaving their own fingerprints on the overall sound. The SoundStage audio is awesome and the camera angles give you the feeling of being right there in the mix, on stage next to the band, a wonderful place to record Robert Plant’s first music DVD.Written by Fantasma el Rey

This writer is a member of The Masked Movie Snobs, a collective that fights a never-ending battle against bad entertainment.