Category Archives: Food
Heart-smart eating can be delicious, nutritious
Keeping your heart in good shape starts at mealtime. Fortunately, there’s no reason to skimp on flavor to spread the love to your heart.
For example, homegrown American Pecans are a naturally sweet, heart-smart ingredient you can add to salads, vegetable side dishes, oatmeal and other whole grains – or enjoy on their own as a snack. Their unique mix of “good” unsaturated fats, fiber, plant sterols and flavonoids add up to make pecans a powerful, heart-healthy food.
Each 1-ounce serving provides 18 grams of unsaturated fat with zero cholesterol or sodium. In fact, American Pecans are certified as a heart-healthy food by the American Heart Association’s Heart-Check Certification Program. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, such as pecans, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Try adding a colorful, flavorful twist to a simple salad by combining crunchy kale with fresh pecans, pomegranate seeds and pears for a tasty, heart-healthy meal you can feel good about.
For more recipes, nutrition information and cooking tips, visit americanpecan.com.
Pecan, Pear, Pomegranate Kale Salad
Prep time: 20 minutes
Servings: 8
1 bunch kale, stems removed
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Show off your sweet side
Treat family, friends and co-workers to something they will all 
love this Valentine’s Day by making easy and impressive cookies. Start with your favorite roll-out cookie recipe or simply dress up store-bought ones by adding some simple details with icing.
From the cupids at Wilton, here are three ways to leave them
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Cooking with nuts
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
We all love pecans, and they are amazing nuts. But this week I wanted to 
branch out a little on the nut tree.
Cooking with nuts can bring your main dish to another level, turning the simplest meal into something exotic.
So here are four recipes featuring almonds, peanuts, walnuts and
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Crepes — perfect for main dish or sweet dessert
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
The first good crepes I ever had were years ago at a restaurant in Highlands, N.C. We ordered the strawberry crepes for dessert, and they were a huge success.
This was pre-internet, so the library and old cookbooks were the
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Bring on the brownies
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
Chocolate is a truly wonderful ingredient. If you’re suffering from the 
winter doldrums, baking something with chocolate will bring hope into the kitchen. Just smelling a warm brownie fresh from the oven is an uplifting experience.
So get out a mixing bowl 
and try some of these outstanding brownie recipes. Everybody has a favorite brownie. I love the chewy ones and am especially fond of the corner
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Zucchini doesn’t have to be bland
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
Zucchini was never a favorite at my house. It didn’t seem to have much flavor, and frankly, we’d just have soon eaten a slice of cardboard.
But there is more than one way to prepare this prolific producer, so we’ve been looking into various recipes to help get zucchini out of its rut.
I hope you will give these a try. You
Go green for the New Year
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
Eating greens on New Year’s Day is a time-honored tradition we 
enjoy, because not only are greens delicious and good for us, they’re supposed to bring greenbacks our way all year.
Cooking and eating greens on
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Nothing says Christmas like cookies
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
When you bite into a Christmas cookie, you’re doing more than 
eating dessert. You’re revisiting every past Christmas stored in tastebud memory.
Christmas cookies should jumpstart the celebrations we all look forward to. There’s nothing like walking into a warm kitchen from the cold outdoors with the scent of spices and baking in the air.
These recipes are unapologetically packed with richness and
Make your own coffee treats
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
Some like it hot, but some like it cold.
The recipes this week are for a variety of coffee drinks. They’re all different, all good, and all easy. Why spend a fortune buying designer coffee drinks when you can make your own at home, save money and have as many refills as your system can stand?
Not everybody likes coffee. Or at least think they don’t like it. That usually means they started out tasting really bad
These cookies are not just for Santa
By Olivia Fowler
For the Courier
ofowler@thepccourier.com
There are many great cookie recipes out there, and everybody has favorites.
However, Christmas cookies are in a special category. These four recipes are associated with Christmas in my family and give an extra memory to the kitchen.
The best way to make these cookies is with children. Even small children can do some task. Cracking eggs, taking the wrapper off the butter or helping mix are just a few of the things they enjoy doing. Older children are great for the heavy work of creaming butter and sugar together and mixing. Everybody enjoys dumping in flour. And the
