Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show

Today was the first day of exhibition at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Atlanta at the Cobb Galleria.

We set up yesterday and this morning bright and early I was there getting ready to cook.

I started with a peanutty chicken salad and it was a hit. It is a simple recipe but finds a great deal of favor from consumers.

I sure needed a dishwasher today but had a sink with a water heater that went from too hot to too cold really fast. I had to wash dishes between every demonstration.

The next demonstration I did a shrimp and mini bowtie pasta with creamy peanut sauce and complimented it with an Asian Cole Slaw recipe that I have yet to do measurements so no recipe but I have to do that and get a recipe card because I sure had to tell a lot of folks about how to make it. The pasta has chopped peanuts cooked in it in the place of pine nuts. The sauce is really easy...a small can of evaporated milk, peanut butter, and salt and pepper and blended with a wisk over medium heat. I sprinkled some Italian Blend cheese over the top.

Washed more dishes!!!

Then I did my new signature recipe which I developed to introduce at this show. It is an Orange/Peanut Oriental Sauce which I served over panbroiled boneless chicken breasts. I use peanut oil for panbroiling.

Leslie had suggested couscous as a simple easy compliment but I had to do something peanutty so I used peanut oil instead of olive oil and chopped some cocktail peanuts and put in the water to boil and then dumped in the couscous and in a couple minutes it was done and boy was I surprised at how that turned out. Never cooked couscous myself and never a peanutty variation.

Everything seemed to be a hit and the show was well worth doing.

Tomorrow Paula Deen will be here. She will be a serious draw to the show. I wish I could get with her and get her to use some of the recipes as she would amend them for her bragging rights.

All my recipes are very consumer friendly and have limited number of resources and have also a shorter prep time. They are convenient.

we gave out a lot of recipes, talked to a lot of folks and had a good day.

Refreshing Event

In a spur of the moment situation yesterday, I spoke to the local Organization of Professional Women at their monthly meeting.

The scheduled speaker had become ill and they called to see if I could fill in. I was glad to because we have a great story to tell.

I addressed the Salmonella issue and then shifted gear to the great benefits of eating peanuts and peanut butter. It is great for individuals who have adult onset diabetes because it stabilizes blood sugar. Women of childbearing age benefit because it is a good dietary source of Folic Acid which helps prevent neural tube birth defects. Peanuts are full of heart healthy, mono-unsaturated fats. They are high in protein...a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk is a nutritionally perfect meal.

I also pointed out that two new studies on allergy found that feeding minute and increasing doses of peanut flour to allergic individuals helps reduce the severity of the allergy. Also, that new studies show that delaying exposure of children to peanuts increases the incidence of peanut allergy.

We sure have a lot of good news to tell.

I about pulled my hair out in the past three months and it is refreshing to be back touting the things that make what our farmers grow a miracle food.

That said, work we funded through Dr. Mark Manary, at Washington University in St. Louis has the potential to take starving children and restore them to over 90% of their normal body mass. Plumpy nut is made from peanut butter and milk proteins and some other lesser but important ingredients. It is a miracle food for starving children.