7 Dinners in 7 nights

• Monday

  

  Potato-Ham Bake

  Asparagus and tarragon enhance the flavor of the classic combination of potatoes and ham. Serve this appealing recipe to a family that loves classic potatoes and ham casserole but is ready for a new tradition. Share this impressive recipe with people who love to try new twists on old favorites.
• tuesday

  

  Mark Bittman's Curried Chickpea Salad

  Chickpeas - aka garbanzo beans - have a distinct flavor and a meaty bite that make them exceptionally versatile for mashing, roasting, frying and serving in a variety of ways. Here they are used as the foundation for a substantial salad-one that is dressed in classic Indian flavors (curry, coconut milk and cilantro), and bulked up with red bell pepper and peas.
• wednesday

  

  Chicken and Barley Stew with Lemon and Dill

  This one-pot dinner from Food & Wine's Gail Simmons is an enriched take on classic chicken soup with rice - it's flavorful, hearty and comforting all at once.
  
• Thursday

  

  Pork Chops Primavera

  Try making this sweet and salty meal for a great weeknight dinner. Pork chops are seasoned with soy sauce, apple butter, and bacon and served alongside a bed of fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes. This low-fat dish is full of flavor and ready in less than 20 minutes.
• Friday

  

  Meatball Sandwich with Spicy Mayo

  These meatball sandwiches make a dinner that the kids will love. The toasted ciabatta bread is spread with a spicy mayo dressing, the meatballs are added and then a jicama, carrot, and jalapeno slaw is placed as a cool and crunchy topper. This hearty hot sandwich will keep them going all day.
  
• saturday

  

  Spring Pizza

  Asparagus, chives and fontina cheese top this easy pizza recipe. Serve with baby greens tossed with vinaigrette and pecans.
  
• Sunday

  

  Almond-Crusted Chicken

  Get all of the benefits from eating almonds in this low-calorie entree. The chicken is first dipped in an egg mixture and then rolled in an almond mixture to give it a crunchy texture. This is a recipe that you can use for weeknight meals, but it's also fancy enough to serve to guests.

Strorage Ideas

The 5 Best Ways to Store Seasonal Clothes

The 5 Best Ways to Store Seasonal ClothesWinter's over, and unless you're enjoying disproportionately spacious closets, you're rotating your clothes for spring and summer. Away go the winter coats, wool, tights, and so forth. But where do you put them? How can you store out-of-season clothes in a way that's attractive and accessible? Here are 5 ideas for you.







Use Old Comforter Packages as Storage 1. Use Old Comforter Packages as Storage
Store clothes in old comforter packages, which will keep them dust-free and easily identifiable from the outside. You can probably even pick these up at the dollar store!











Store in Mod-Podged Suitcases 2. Store in Mod-Podged Suitcases
Eschew the plastic container for something with a bit more charm and personality: Mod-Podge old suitcases to fit your decor and taste!


Sliding Roof Storage 3. Sliding Roof Storage
Out of sight, out of mind: build some tracks at the top of your garage and slide storage containers in the tracks to keep coats and out-of-season clothes!

Store Clothes in Stylish Storage Bins 4. Store Clothes in Stylish Storage Bins
I love this under-stairs-storage idea, and coupled with the stylish storage bins, it's irresistible.

Build a Storage Cubby Cabinet 5. Build a Storage Cubby Cabinet
Build a cabinet and put plastic containers in it to hold out of season clothes, coats, blankets and other storage!

Passover Diet habits to Adopt

Don’t Panic, It’s Just Passover

Fudgy Chocolate-Walnut Cookies During the week before Passover begins, on April 6, observant Jews will prepare for the eight-day holiday by removing every piece of chametz (food with leavening) from their homes. Then panic will start to take over: "Oh, no, there's nothing to eat except matzo. I'm going to the supermarket to buy every product that's ever been marked with a 'Kosher for Passover' label." The result is often a kitchen full of packaged cookies, cakes, chips, gefilte fish and marshmallows (seriously, how did marshmallows ever become part of Passover?). For a more satisfying and relaxed Passover, without processed foods and artificial ingredients, here are some delicious and unorthodox ways to restock the pantry.

The Passover "Ham" "For Easter, having a ham in the house is like having money in the bank," says Tina Ujlaki, Food & Wine's Executive Food Editor. The Passover equivalent is turkey. You can serve it on the first night of Pesach, and there will be leftovers all week. Use the bones for turkey soup. Throw it over salad, make a chunky turkey salad or cook a turkey shepherd's pie with beautiful spring vegetables.

Salty and Crunchy Foods that Aren't Matzo Too much of the ever-versatile matzo can sit like a brick in your stomach, and most kosher-for-Passover potato chips and flavored crackers contain MSG, plus not-great-for-you cottonseed oil. This is a good time to try tastes-like-they're-fried-but-they're-not foods like kale chips and oven fries. Or even real French fries; potatoes are your friend during Passover.

Quinoa The master of disguise, this protein- and fiber-packed food looks like a grain but is actually a seed that's OK to eat during Passover. It makes a great substitute for oatmeal (which is chametz) in a warm breakfast dish sweetened with honey, and is also delicious in salads or served as a side.

Non-Boxed Desserts What other time of year calls for four boxes of cookies and a huge bag of marshmallows for only eight days? The kosher-for-Passover cake mixes, cookie mixes, prepared cakes and cookies are often loaded with empty calories and can taste like the cardboard boxes that they came in. Flourless cakes, flourless cookies (pictured) and meringues are among the easiest desserts to make, as well as the lightest calorically.

Homemade Vinaigrette Something green and leafy is necessary when you're downing matzo by the box (you know who you are). Although white vinegar and mustard are chametz, salads can be dressed with a wine or cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil (all EVOOs are kosher for Passover according to the OU).

Cardio Workout Fix

Fix Your Biggest Cardio Flubs

Getting your heart racing isn't the only fundamental element of get a great cardio workout. Although working up a sweat may seem like a no-brainer, most of us make the same mistakes over and over again, putting ourselves at risk for unnecessary pain and injuries.

I recently caught up with Alice Burron, exercise physiologist and American Council on Exercise personal trainer and spokesperson, to help debunk the most common cardio flubs. Here's what you need to know:

Mistake:
"My alarm didn't go off. I had an early meeting. I worked late last night!" You've used every excuse in the book but, unless working out truly becomes a habit, you'll never reach your fitness goals.

Fix:
"It is recommended that you do cardiovascular exercises every day for 30 minutes. At the minimum, set aside 30 minutes three times a week. Make this a priority appointment and don't bail out!"

Mistake:
"Why fix it if it isn't broken?" is your fitness philosophy yet you struggle to overcome constant plateaus.

Fix:
"Doing the same workout every day can often lead to injuries, plateaus or general fatigue. If you feel like your workouts have stalled, this may be why. Combine harder workout days with easy days to recover and rebuild. Variety is key to injury prevention so perform a high-intensity day then follow it with a lower intensity day and vary your exercises."

Mistake:
You focus entirely on the treadmill to burn fat and ignore the weights because you're afraid of bulking up.

Fix: "Although cardio training is the most important exercise for the cardiovascular system, strength training can keep injury at bay and is beneficial for the bones. Strength training can be combined with your cardio workout if done in supersets (performing exercises with rest in between). Supersets are a time-efficient way to get strength training and cardio workouts done all at once."

Mistake:
You talk on the cell phone and chat to friends during every workout.

Fix:
"If you're able to chat without small gasps, you're probably not working hard enough so make sure your intensity is moderate to hard. On a scale of one to ten, one being at rest and ten being the hardest you can exert yourself, aim for at least six."

Plants to Grow

10 Easy Edible Plants

Starting your own edible garden? Never fear with these easy-to-grow crops.

Lettuce
Lettuce These leafy greens are a cinch. They prefer the cooler temperatures of spring or fall. Loose-leaf varieties can be trimmed down multiple times for repeated harvesting. We love that!


Tomato
Tomato
Full sun and plenty of compost are just about all you need for successful tomatoes. You'll never buy store-bought again.


Sugar snap peas
Sugar snap peas
These quick growers prefer cool temps; sow them in spring or fall. Their crunchy pods are so delicious plucked straight from the vine that we find they rarely make it all the way inside.


Beans
Beans
It makes no difference whether you go with a bush or pole variety-beans need sun and some water, and they'll willingly produce a bounty.


Radish
Radish
One of the fastest crops around! Grow in cooler temps or in light shade. Twenty-eight days later, you've got yourself a crunchy crop.


Summer squash Summer squash
Summer squash plants are vigorous producers. You'll be so successful that you'll likely be giving squash to all your neighbors.


Rhubarb
Rhubarb
This gorgeous perennial makes a lovely mound that looks stunning in the landscape. Homegrown rhubarb strawberry pie is hard to beat.


Chives
Chives Chives are the champions of the herb world. They can handle almost any type of soil or sun.


Basil
Basil
Put basil in a warm, sunny spot, keep the flowers pinched, and you'll be swimming in pesto all season long.

Thyme
Thyme
This perennial herb isn't fussy in the least. Plus, just a few sprigs will elevate your cooking and wow your guests.

Fishy Dish

Gabrielle Hamilton's Salmon with Creamy Lemon Rice

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton offers the simplest preparation imaginable that yields a fillet so succulent and sumptuous, there won't be one flake left over.

salmon with riceAt Easter I am typically and steadfastly a roasted leg of lamb type, usually with a Greek bent - including baked orzo and the traditional egg-lemon soup, avgolemono, served alongside the asparagus and morel mushrooms that make the meal, above all, a celebration of spring. But due to an aberrant stretch last year in which I had roasted lamb nearly every night for the better part of three months (a story for another day), when Easter rolled around, I had the shudders at the prospect of lamb on the table.

I had seen some fantastic Scottish salmon from my fish guy, firm and silvery and so fresh they had a still-piercing gaze. I ended up buying 35 pounds of the stuff, and when I cut into the flesh, a clean, melon-like smell wafted through the kitchen.
I tied in Greek flavors by making a soupy, lemony rice dish instead of the lemony soup, adding scallions and peas. Frozen peas work beautifully, and the bright tartness of the rice is just right with the rich salmon. In case you don't already do it this way, cut your lemons in thirds instead of halves to get a greater yield of juice out of fewer lemons.
The salmon has to be of superior quality. The preparation is so scarily simple-salt-and-pepper cooking at its most literal!-that there is nothing to hide behind if the fish is mediocre. It's also imperative not to overcook it. Salmon turns from silky and succulent and luscious to chalky, bitter, and lifeless in the span of a minute. The parchment seals in all the juices, and when you open it a cucumber-fresh scent escapes that may well cause you to shudder-but with utter pleasure.

Ingredients for the Salmon, serves 2-4
1 pound whole salmon fillet, pin bones removed, neatly trimmed, and skin intact
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 generous pinches coarse kosher salt
6 full grinds of a pepper mill
1 sheet parchment paper (brown is not recommended)

Directions for the Salmon
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Lay a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet and place the salmon fillet skin-side down in the center.
3. Thoroughly coat the fillet and an inch or so of the surrounding parchment with the olive oil, creating a slick and glossy surface.
4. Generously and evenly season the fillet with salt and pepper. Hold your hands about eight inches above the fish when seasoning for more even distribution, thus avoiding salty or peppery patches.
5. Gather the parchment by both long sides and bring them together, folding over two or three small folds with a sharp crease, until you have a neat packet. Then fold the open ends two or three times in the same way, tucking them under the fish, thus creating a tightly sealed packet from which no steam can escape during cooking.
6. Place the packet on the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven and cook for exactly 10 minutes. Remove and, in good light, check the fish's color by peeking inside the parchment without fully opening it. It should be pale pink and opaque at the edges with a broad swath of still-translucent orange flesh down the center.
7. Return to the oven for about five more minutes, or until the rare-looking swath has narrowed to a half-inch stripe. Don't overcook it!
8. Remove the salmon from the oven. Very carefully, open the packet and release the steam to prevent further cooking.

Ingredients for the Creamy Lemon Rice
2 cups excellent, rich chicken broth
4 large egg yolks
½ cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
½ cup frozen peas
1 bunch of scallions, sliced to yield a scant ½ cup of rings
2½ cups cooked rice (day-old is more than fine)
2 generous pinches coarse kosher salt, or to taste

Directions for the Creamy Lemon Rice
1. Bring the chicken broth to a simmer on the stove top in a stainless-steel pot and keep it simmering as you gather the rest of the ingredients. It will slightly reduce and intensify in these few minutes.
2. In a stainless-steel or glass heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add the lemon juice and whisk until blended.
3. Add a ladleful of hot stock to the egg-lemon mixture and whisk thoroughly.
4. While whisking, slowly add the hot egg-lemon mixture into the pot. Stir or whisk gently over medium-low heat while the liquid ever so slightly thickens and changes color from bright to pale yellow, about two minutes. Add the peas and the scallions, which will turn bright green in the first few seconds as they blanch in the hot liquid. Stir gently until the peas are warmed through, then add the cooked rice. Stir thoroughly, then turn off the heat and let rest, covered for a minute or two. Season with salt and pepper as needed.
5. To serve, spoon the soupy rice onto a platter with a rim. Place the salmon on top and gently pull it apart into large hunks. Leave the skin stuck in the parchment.
6. Taking care not to spill, lift the parchment and pour the accumulated juices over the salmon on the rice.

Debate on Prostituition

Should We Legalize Prostitution?

Prostitution1

Dollars and Sex

Former IMF chief/Sex-Scandal Magnet Dominique Strauss Kahn was back in the news again this week. And the fact that he is being investigated for his involvement with sex workers in France wasn't the most intriguing part of the story.... Reading about his latest PR debacle, I realized for the first time that while profiting as a pimp or madam is against the law in France, paying for sex is perfectly legal. In fact this is true of many countries around the world - including Canada! So, that got us wondering: Is the United States' conservative stance protecting women's rights or hurting them? Is it worth the government missing out on multi millions of taxable dollars to uphold a moral code by turning a blind eye on reality? Or, could legalizing the oldest profession bring much needed regulation to those who partake -while increasing the government's profit margin?

What Happens In Nevada...

Minus the rest of the United States, prostitution is legal in certain counties of the state of Nevada. Because Nevada only legalized prostitution in counties with low populations, it means it is still illegal in Las Vegas... In the counties where it is legal, revenues are produced through the same avenues as other businesses - license fees, taxes etc. So, extrapolating these fees to a mass market like Vegas - and you're talking potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. Like so many other "sin taxes" (cigarettes, alcohol), it doesn't seem quite as sinful when you think about putting those dollars towards health care, social services and education ...

157722775_working_xlargeWorker's Rights

Okay, so aside from government revenues, what about the individual sex worker? Pro-legalization points to the fact that legalizing prostitution includes many heath regulations - meaning the workers would be better off due to regulations requiring the use of condoms and weekly STD testing. In addition, with legalization of industries of course comes unions, which many argue would greatly empower sex workers and help protect their interests...

Female Empowerment

In addition to financial considerations, there is another very big cost - the cost of freedom of choice for adults of legal age. Even among our own group of friends there is a huge debate on this topic - are women victims of prostitution? Or are sex workers really in charge of their own destiny and own decision making? Though these questions are not in and of themselves financial, they are the moral queries behind what makes this profession illegal in the first place.

Recessionary Thinking

Paraphrasing the lawyer in the Strauss Kahn case, you can think that something is morally reprehensible, but that doesn't mean it should be illegal... OR should it? Is our country missing out on millions of taxable revenue dollars and the opportunity to help better protect the millions of people who now illegally engage in sex for money? Or should we continue to ignore an age old practice and legislate based on our moral code and ethics? We want to know what you think!