Welcome to issue 4 of Recipes Mania News.

It has been an eventful month and by now each subscriber should have received a free copy of “150 Appetizer Recipes”. If you haven’t please contact me on the following email address: recipesmania@hotmail.com

Thank you for the positive feedback received concerning last month’s health tip: Your diet and colon cancer. I believe this month’s tip, the first of many concerning the health benefits of vinegar, will be just as well received. - You will be the judge of that.

Recipe of the Month

As usual we will start with our recipe of the month and this month the simple meatloaf gets the star treatment. I chose meatloaf because the number of visitors we get to the meatloaf section indicates that it is a real favorite.

Recipe of the month:

Glazed Meat Loaf.

Ingredients:

1 pound (500 grams) bacon, trimmed.

1 onion, chopped.

1 clove garlic, crushed.

1 pound 12 ozs. (750 grams, beef ground (minced.)

½ pound (250 grams) of sausage meat (sausage mince)

1 cup fresh breadcrumbs.

½ cup parsley, chopped (I prefer the Italian flat leaf parsley)

2 Tablespoons rosemary needles (halve the amount if using dried.)

1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

Sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Glaze ingredients:

1/3 cup of tomato ketchup (sauce)

2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

2 Tablespoons of red-wine vinegar.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F (180C)

Make Glaze by combining the three glaze ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Brush the glaze over both sides of the bacon.

Line a 9 inch x 4” x 3” (20 x 10 7 cm) loaf pan with strips of bacon allowing it to overlap.

Place all remaining ingredients into a non-metallic bowl and mix together.

Press this mixture into the loaf tin and fold the bacon over the top to enclose the filling.

Cook for 35 minutes (or until cooked thru.)

Drain any excess fluid.

Carefully turn the loaf out onto a serving dish and brush again with remaining glaze.

Cook for a further 8 – 10 minutes or until the top is golden color.

This meatloaf serves 8 people.

Health Tip

In the rush of modern day living we are all spending far too much money on buying health cures over the counter. If you had listened more carefully to your Grandmother you would be more aware of the benefits that simple vinegar can bring to you for both health and beauty. Not to mention the hundreds of dollars that you can save on expensive cures.

Let’s take a look at Apple Cider Vinegar alone and determine just what can be treated by it:

One tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in a glass of water at meal times works wonders for your health because apple cider vinegar contains acetic acid and that stimulates the production of natural stomach acid. The more stomach acid you produce the better it will break down food into smaller particles. The smaller the molecular particles the more efficiently your intestines and liver can absorb the needed nutrients. It will also reduce problems like indigestion, gastric reflux, bad breath, fatty liver, lactose intolerance, allergies and fatigue.

Life today is so full of stress that our digestive system needs the boost that apple cider vinegar can bring to us at a very low cost. In the old days when we had less stress our stomachs produced sufficient stomach acid to do this for us. But that didn’t stop wise old grannies from adding apple cider vinegar just to be sure.

During the past two weeks I’ve been experimenting with one dose each day, taken just before dinner, and noticed an improvement in my digestive system immediately. The level of improvement seems to increase as my natural stomach acids are re-invigorated. - The great thing about these natural remedies is that there is no risk in trying them and the benefits could surprise you. If it doesn't work for you just drop it.

Safety in Your Home

There is a need to discuss safety in and around the home as a family group. A home can never be made safe unless everybody participates in the safety plan. They will participate more willingly if they have contributed to the plan.

A good way to start the conversation is with a safety issue that has happened within your community recently. The local newspaper is a good source. Then, if you are running the discussion, you need to involve the family to identify any unsafe conditions that exist and any unsafe actions that take place in and around your home.

If you can cut out all unsafe actions and remedy unsafe conditions then the only home accidents you will suffer will be due to natural disasters like earthquakes. tsunami's and violent storms. In other words you will have eliminated 90% of events that cause accidents in your home.

Unsafe conditions include having loose handles on cooking utensils, frayed eleictrical wiring, loose electrical connections, sharp knives left laying around. I'm sure you can expand this list for yourself.

Unsafe actions include having children in the kitchen when you are moving hot things around. Not being aware of the EXACT location of children when reversing your car out of the driveway. There are hundreds but it is better that you do the identifying.

Isn't there enough stress in the world without making your home stressful too? Discuss safety in the same way as you discuss health or food, it is equally important.

Coming Soon

What’s happening at Recipes Mania:

Right now I’m working hard to set up an outlet for the recipes ebooks that we have resale rights to. This isn’t a particularly difficult thing to do technically, it is the security side of the equation that is taking time. We must have a system that is foolproof in protecting private details of customers. There are many tailor made systems that can be purchased online but each time I send a specific question regarding guaranteed privacy they either ignore the request or refer to something on their website that is usually ambiguous. - On the positive side we are almost ready to float and as soon as we have these security measures in place.

The other front we are working on is to install an RSS feed on to the website. I’m told RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it is a SPAM FREE method of communication that allows the reader to pick and choose which articles they wish to read rather than being hit by a hail of unwanted emails. Over the next five years this will be the biggest growing sector of the Internet. I propose to publish health tips and home safety tips together with any interesting food articles that I come across. Not to mention publishing Recipes Mania News each month in RSS form as well as sending it by email to our opt in subscribers. Once more you will be informed when it is launched.

Short Story

Story:

LOOK FORWARD TO THE OPPORTUNITY TO HELP OTHERS:

One night, at 11:30 PM, an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.

Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant consol color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read: ‘Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others. Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.’