Author: katherine-cox

Bellair Market never lets me down for perfect picnic lunches, and here’s one of the many reasons why: freshly made tomato-avocado salad with hearts of palm, all bright and tantalizing in the cold case. It’s a simple dish, and in my opinion, you can’t find enough of those any more—a good chef magnifies the flavors of a few choice ingredients, rather than blending them into oblivion with every spice in the cupboard. “In cooking, as in all arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection,” said Curnonsky, the Prince of Gastronomy. Hear, hear.

Bellair Market’s Tomato-Avocado Salad is simply delicious

Now, to get this recipe really, really right, you’re going to need to be picky about the details. Go to the farmer’s market for the tomatoes, unless you’re growing some yourself. And massaging some salt onto the chopped pieces draws the juices out, which makes them a more flavorful, less sulfuric addition—if you want them milder still, dice them. Most importantly, the olive oil shouldn’t be the stuff you cook with: This is the most serious mistake that people make when dressing a cold dish. Good extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil is usually the key to a magnificent salad. I like the unfiltered Ranieri (gold foil-wrapped) at Foods of All Nations.

Bellair Market’s Tomato-Avocado Salad

3 lbs. Roma tomatoes,
   cut into bite-sized pieces
1 whole red onion, sliced
1 bunch chopped parsley
4 avocados, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 can hearts of palm sliced into rounds,
   or 1/4 lb. sugar snap peas, slightly
   blanched

Dressing:
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
2 tsp. salt or to taste
1 tsp. black pepper

Mix dressing ingredients in bowl. Toss avocado into bowl of dressing to keep from turning brown. Add other ingredients and you’re done! Serves 15, but can be halved or quartered.

If you’re one of those people who scours every last molecule of cream cheese frosting from your plate of carrot cake, you’re going to love this. Henry’s Carrot Cake Cheesecake delivers nothing but the good stuff: sweet cream cheese times two—cheesecake and icing—and a thin layer of moist cake. The recipe was created by Henry’s co-owner Debbie Hackett; if you’re a regular there, you know about her mastery of both classic and innovative desserts. Among the cheesecakes alone, there’s German Chocolate and Bananas Foster, and she’s always got cobblers, pies and bread pudding ready, too. Twelve to 15 homemade desserts are available every day from a revolving list (somebody stop her!), so it could take weeks to sample everything she’s making.

If you (like us) enjoy your cheese with a little cheese on top, indulge in a double dose of the creamy goodness with Henry’s Carrot Cake Cheesecake.

Hackett loves to experiment, too, and she’s been known to take requests (I think I’m going to tell her about the coconut-pineapple custard cake that haunts my dreams). She’ll ask you, “Well, what would it taste like?” so be ready with the details. And I should mention how totally affordable her supreme creations are: $2.95 to $4.50 for a portion that would make an Italian grandmother proud. Next time you’re heading to the Mall, bring your sweet tooth.

Henry’s Carrot Cake Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Cheesecake:
32 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs

Carrot cake filling:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
3/4 cup shredded carrots

Cream cheese icing:
4 oz. cream cheese
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 to 3 Tbsp. milk

To make crust: melt the butter and add to crumbs and sugar. Bake at 325° for five minutes in a 9" or 10" spring form pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray. To prepare cheesecake mixture: soften cream cheese and add sugar, then mix till fluffy. Add flour, vanilla, sour cream and eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. To make filling: mix dry ingredients together, add oil and eggs one at a time until combined, then crushed pineapple and carrots.

Pour half the cheesecake mixture into cooled crust, then add carrot cake mix and top with remainder of cheesecake.  Bake at 325° for one hour and five minutes. While baking, mix icing ingredients together until uniform. When cake is cool, loosen rim of pan and refrigerate for two hours till set. Top with cream cheese icing, refrigerate another two hours. Serve. Makes 12 servings.

Butter, cream, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, corn syrup, chocolate, more butter. It’s like the seven deadly sins, with some walnuts thrown in. (I love when people scarf down three pieces of pecan pie and then say, “What? Nuts are good for you! Protein!”) But this kind of indulgence is most definitely worth it from time to time, and HotCakes can prove it: They’ve had to send out this recipe before, to faithful customers who moved out of town and couldn’t quell the toffee jones.

Working with caramel and toffee is sticky, tricky business, but what sweet rewards!

Lisa McEwan, whisk-master at HotCakes, notes that working with caramel is a tricky business—firstly, you want to avoid touching it, since it will stick on you like hot lava. There are other tips for getting it just right: Use a high-sided, heavy gauge metal pan to keep it from burning, and keep a moistened pastry brush around to prevent crystals from forming on the side of the pan (they’ll make it gritty). You’ll have to have all your ingredients out and ready to go, too, because caramel waits for no one. Once you’ve stirred it to a gorgeous dark amber, don’t delay with the butter-cream mixture; the flavor depends on good timing, even if you are smothering it in chocolate.

HotCakes’ Chocolate Toffee Squares

22 Tbsp. (2 sticks, plus 6 Tbsp.)
   unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/3 cups walnuts
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
12 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate

Part 1, Shortbread Crust:
Combine 12 Tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, confectioner’s sugar, and flour in a mixer or food processor. Press into an even layer in a 9"x13" baking pan or sheet. Bake at 350° until the crust has a pale golden color. Scatter 3 1/3 cups of walnuts evenly over the surface. Set aside.

Part 2, Caramel Filling:
In a BIG pot, over low heat, cook to dissolve sugar in 1/2 cup water. Stir until all sugar crystals are dissolved. Raise heat, bring to a boil and cook until the syrup takes on a golden color. Continue cooking a couple more minutes until the color is deep amber, almost mahogany. The syrup will quickly burn and turns bitter, so be watchful. Meanwhile, in a smaller saucepan, melt 5 Tbsp. sweet butter. Add 1 1/3 cup heavy cream and heat until it just comes to a simmer. Slowly and carefully add this to the caramel. This is the point we refer to as the “Volcano Stage:” The hot caramel will bubble up very energetically as the cream is added. Continue to simmer the caramel over medium-low heat for 10 minutes. Then, very carefully, pour the caramel oven the nuts and crust. Transfer to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until the entire surface is bubbly. Cool at room temperature. 

Part 3, Chocolate Glaze:
In a heavy saucepan, melt 5 Tbsp. sweet butter. When the butter is melted, add 1 cup heavy cream and light corn syrup. Bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and add semisweet chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Pour the glaze over the cooled and firm caramel, spreading evenly with a spatula. Refrigerate until set. 

If a bubble bath isn’t yet part of your beauty regimen, perhaps a room fragrant with the balm of peony and white lily will convince you to add it; that’s just one of the heady Lollia foaming bath selections that Neroli Spa and Apothecary has to offer with its aptly titled “Breathe” line. Lollia’s high-end treats score big design points—elegant wine bottles are trimmed with satin sashes. “Relax,” a confection of lavender and honey, and “Dream,” milk and linden flower, make the collection complete.

She who soaks in it, nose it with Lollia’s aromatic bath oils.

Or try the ultra-indulgent Sugared Pastille foaming bath liquid from the “Wish” line. Check out its decanter presentation with little bumblebees floating in gold leaf across the vase.
Not that Lollia products stop at being aromatic and fetching moisturizing oils. Avocado, brazil nut, olive oil, shea butter, and vitamins A and E also make for a nourishing soak.
   
Give them a try at Neroli, Charlottesville’s only carrier of Lollia products. Hurry, too. The Sugared Pastille bath is a limited edition product, sure to be gone by summer.—K.C.

Could the ingredients in your moisturizer have come straight from your garden?

Charlottesville-based Brigit True Organics works with this appealing idea, creating a full line of products with nothing but herbs, flowers, nuts and fruits. The website, www.brigittrueorganics.com, catalogs everything—yummy lip balms, butters, massage oils, baby balm, body creams, and a prolific selection of organic olive oil soaps.

Calendula is one of the many healing herbs featured in Brigit True Organics’ line of moisturizers and balms.

Owner Brigitte Rau named the company after Brigit, Celtic goddess of healing, herbalism and firecraft, and she’s been connected to what you might call the Wise Woman healing philosophy from childhood (thanks to Grandma’s garden). “I learned to go out in the woods and touch the herb, smell and taste the herb, and really commit [its properties] to my mind. It’s the old world style of knowledge,” Rau says.

The website is a trough of knowledge, too. The ingredients lists are a quick read—they stick to a short list of super-pure, often handcrafted components. The site’s also dotted with helpful tidbits about therapeutic ingredients, as well as aromatherapy benefits. Visit the site and
make your purchases there or shop locally (though the selection will be more limited). Rebecca’s Natural Foods, Market Street Wine Shop, Petit Bebe, Fabulous Foods and Whole Foods all carry the line.—K.C.

Michele White has something different to add to your exercise routine: a 90-minute massage and a feeling of blissful weightlessness. Certified in Thai yoga massage and Hatha yoga, White provides a posture-based yoga massage that delivers your daily dose of yoga benefits with hardly any effort on your part. Plus, since the poses are sandwiched between drool-worthy foot, hand and head massages, she could make a pretzel out of you and you might not even notice.

Between stretching you into yoga poses, Thais massage features drool-worthy foot, hand and head massages

Thai massage focuses on properly aligning the energy pathways of the body. White claims that in Thailand people make appointments with masseuses as frequently as they do hairdressers. Treatments are totally clothed and (except for the delicate neck work) oil-free, with luxury being dosed out in honey and spices (a specialty of Michele’s facial work). Muscles feeling sore?  Switch up your yoga massage with the hot herbal version. White works in the Glass Building, like fellow Thai massage practitioners Sarah Handley and Maria Manzione, as well as in her own Scottsville studio (where she discounts her prices). For an appointment, dial 286-4400.—K.C.

The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep website gives you health skinny on all the ingredients in the potions and lotions you keep around the house. The site, at www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2, wins smart design points with its search options, too: You can search by brand, product or ingredient, and the listings provide comprehensive information on relevant toxins and hazards. It’s a good thing, too, since no one else is on the lookout. “The FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their products before marketing,” stated the FDA Office of Cosmetics and Colors in 1995, and that hasn’t changed.

Search by brand, product or ingredient to find comprehensive info on relevant toxins and hazards in your beauty products.

Yikes. What’s more, just because it’s O.K. to put chemicals on your eyelids for a day doesn’t mean that the buildup over the years is safe. According to EWG, currently “safe” substances found in cosmetics include known immune system toxicants, endocrine disruptors and cancer hazards, all of which are used in nontoxic amounts in individual products; however, if you’re like most people, you use an average of 10 products per day (soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, makeup, perfume, etc.). The Skin Deep site states that “a coalition of health and environmental groups, including the EWG and the Breast Cancer Fund, is working with manufacturers to eliminate or reformulate chemical ingredients suspected of hazards as mild as skin irritation and as serious as cancer, genetic mutation and nerve damage.”—K.C.

Americans spent more than $1 billion on white teeth last year—on gels, strips, bleaching and bonding. If you’re part of that crowd, consider Lumineers, porcelain veneers that are contact lens-thin and painlessly bonded to your teeth. Whereas veneers usually require grinding the existing teeth down to make room, ruining the natural teeth for good, Lumineers require no reduction in the size of your teeth. They also make chipped, misaligned teeth look shapely and straight. Once they’re on, your regular dental upkeep is all the routine you need.  They’re good for 20 years.

If you’re tired of messy bleaching gels, you could shape up your smile with Lumineers.

Pricing varies based on how many teeth are covered and what you’re covering, but a good per-tooth estimate is somewhere between $700 and $1,100. Cash might not be your only setback: Without proper placement, Lumineers can crack, darken or irritate your gums.

Waynesboro dentist Dr. Alan Bream has put Lumineers on a handful of patients since he started offering them two months ago. “People love them, but if you’re going to get them, you’re going to want a uniform smile—meaning you need to get at least six.” Bream says you can choose your shade of white and the shape of the new teeth—“rounded for a more feminine look, squared for more masculine.”—K.C.

Implanon is a newly approved form of birth control, but it’s not a new drug—not really. It’s a progestin-only product that inhibits ovulation, increases cervical mucus viscosity and reduces the thickness of the uterine lining, making it a triple-threat against pregnancy. What’s different? The format. It’s the first single-rod, under-the-skin implant on the market. Norplant II, a.k.a. Jadelle, is down to two rods. So Implanon is one tiny matchsticks versus two on your inner arm. What’s the difference? Visibility. Norplant users’ complaints often include the veinlike appearance of the rods themselves. Implanon, by contrast, is pretty much invisible, but like all implants, you should be able to feel it if you run your fingers over the skin.

By the time you read this, gynos in Charlottesville should be offering the teeny hormone implant known as Implanon.

Interested? Gynecologists in Charlottesville should be offering Implanon now; clinicians at UVA’s Womens’ Place underwent training in March. “It’s a good contraceptive alternative for women who can’t take estrogen, women over 35 and smokers, since it’s progestin only,” says Yvonne Newberry of the Womens’ Place. Upsides? It doesn’t appear to cause much weight gain, and no bone thinning. Downsides? It can cause irregular bleeding and totally disrupt your cycle, Newberry advises.—Katherine Cox