Author: katherine-cox

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.

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.

You’ve got the mat, the stretchy pants and the water bottle. Now, what’s the perfect yoga style for you? Here’s a breakdown of yoga personalities.—K.C.

Target your "heart space" or your heart rate, depending on what kind of yoga you practice.

Anusara. The focus is on opening up the “heart space,” with a fairly free attitude toward the postures. It’s great for beginners and best for those who want to de-stress, reflect and spend time with like-minded people—it’s a communal style (i.e. brief chanting). Where: ACAC, Ashtanga Yoga of Charlottesville, Gold’s Gym.

Ashtanga. Strengthening, toning, and pushing limits are common goals for Ashtanga devotees with its challenging set routines and quick flow—breath work is key. “We use breathing (with sound), steady gaze and the bandas, or inner locks that hold energy in place, to draw energy up through the body and get the stagnant parts moving again,” says Jennifer Elliott from Ashtanga Yoga. Where: ACAC, Ashtanga Yoga of Charlottesville, Studio 206.

Bikram. If you appreciate hot temperatures (105 degrees), a good cleansing sweat and an unvarying routine, this is the one for you. “Because the postures and heat are always the same, it’s very easy to recognize the changes that your body goes through,” according to Lizzie Clark at Bikram Yoga. Where: Bikram Yoga Charlottesville.

Hatha. Most yoga falls under this category, so classes vary widely. It’s best to contact the teacher if you’re wondering whether you’re up for it—many are gentle, beginning-level classes, with detailed posture explanations and individual corrections. Where: ACAC, Body Mind Spirit Center, Studio 206.

Iyengar. Form is everything. It’s not like flow yoga; you’ll move slowly through a sequence, doing each posture precisely before moving to the next. Props, such as blocks or straps, help you along. Where: Blue Ridge Yoga.

Kripalu. The goal here is often transformation, because it’s intensive work for both body and mind. Be ready to get to know your physical thresholds and unlock your powers
of concentration. Not for the casual yoga practitioner. Where: ACAC.

Vinyasa. Another form of flow yoga, like Ashtanga—just more forgiving. You’ll use the rhythmic breath to focus your awareness, you can tailor the level of difficulty of each pose to your body’s needs, and you’ll learn a variety of poses, since the routine is generally switched up each time. Where: ACAC, Ashtanga Yoga of Charlottesville, Studio 206.

If your preferred way to ingest antioxidants is in a pill, you might want to consider going straight for the original food source, according to the National Institutes of Health. Scientists have been promoting antioxidants as a way to protect against free radical damage and prevent cancer. But recent studies have found that separating them from their natural context (fruits, veggies, nuts) pretty much zaps their usefulness.

Put down the capsules and pick up the seeds: Antioxidants work best in their natural setting.

Supplements like beta carotene, vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 have shown positive results only in the test tube—once they’re in a human body, little to no health perks have been noted. Even worse, some studies, like the one conducted by the National Cancer Institute, suggest that taking the supplements can actually increase the risk of disease.

But studies and trials often report that people who have veggie- and fruit-rich diets seem to be avoiding cancer and heart disease. Current theories point to slower digestion time of foods as opposed to pills and the relationship between antioxidants and other nutrients in the food.—K.C.

Yes…warm-weather soup that’s not gazpacho! Super quick and simply prepared, Fuel Co.’s chilled cucumber concoction kick-starts the appetite—though on a hectic day in the heat, it’s a perfect meal alongside a crisp salad and some nice sourdough or flatbread. Thomas Abrahamsson, the company’s new executive chef, suggested the soup as a late-spring and summer standby. The English cucumbers are deeper and sweeter in flavor than their country counterparts, though if you’ve got some that you’re particularly crazy about in your garden, try them out. You can play with the lemon, dill and mustard, too, depending on what you’re after; this recipe’s proportions whip up such a mild, balanced tang that it’s easy to polish off lots at a time. If you’re digging in with a big soup spoon, pace yourself.

Gazpacho is for sissies: Chill out with some cucumber soup for a change, courtesy of Fuel Co.

The cucumber-yogurt combination is popular across the globe: It’s the base for cacik (juh-jik) in Turkey, tzatziki in Greece, tarator in Bulgaria, mast o khiar in Iran, and raita in India. Of course, each place adds its own special touch—garlic or onions transform it into a pungent sauce, and mint lends a savory note that further ups the cooling effect. Some Middle Eastern cooks even strain the yogurt, making it thicker and packing in the tart flavor before mixing in the cukes and spices.

Fuel Co’s Chilled Cucumber Soup

4 English cucumbers
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. dry mustard powder
salt, pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
cucumber slices and dill sprigs

Peel, seed and chop three cucumbers; finely dice the remaining one. In a blender, puree the three chopped cucumbers with the yogurt, sour cream, and mustard powder. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a storage bowl to refrigerate. When chilled, stir in finely diced cucumber, dill and lemon juice. Garnish with the slices and sprigs.

We have a habit around here at ABODE: Every April, we publish an issue on gardening. We do this because we know that for many of you, the garden is also a habit—and we do mean habit as in “irrational, all-consuming addiction.” It starts innocently enough: one tomato plant in a bucket, a few hastily scattered zinnia seeds. Before you know it, you’re out there at midnight, picking aphids off your spinach leaves one by one and humming Mozart to the snapdragons.  l  Good stuff, man. When you’re in that deep, you’re really part of a community with plants, bugs and other natural phenomena. And that got us thinking: Why not take a look at the ways gardening connects people to larger communities? For example, as Katherine Cox explains, building a rain garden (don’t worry, she’ll lay out what the heck that is on page 20) is a good way to be a steward of our watershed: the community, if you will, of creeks and rivers in our region.  l  Then there’s the human community. For years, the city of Charlottesville has offered garden plots for rent in Azalea Park and at Meadowcreek Gardens—and as Carolyn Zelikow found out in her interview with John Clark on page 19, gardeners there interact with each other as much as with their cucumber seedlings. And this being the 21st century, more and more of those gardeners are likely finding each other as well on a computer screen. Check out page 20 for a review of online gardening forums. And then get outside and check on your garden! (As if we had to tell you…)

The City has a rain garden (in Greenleaf Park), and you can have one too.

Water you waiting for?
Make a rain garden in five easy steps

Want to make a rain garden? For those of you who know what that means, kudos to you. I didn’t. So I signed up for the workshop offered by the Rivanna Regional Stormwater Education Partnership, where I learned that I’m a perfect candidate for making a rain garden—there’s already a low spot in my yard that gets saturated when it rains, and the runoff goes straight into a little stream nearby. Rain gardens are a multifunction solution: They absorb excess rainwater and filter it before it hits deeper soil, protect streams and rivers from taking in so much polluted runoff, and provide dynamic new spaces for trees, shrubs, flowering plants and vegetables. If gardening or lawn beautification is on your spring to-do list, try it out. Here’s how:

1. Survey. Locate a low spot or depression in your yard, where grassy slopes meet. The grass will act as the first filter for your garden, slowing the water down and collecting large particles that might clog the mulch layer. Make sure no utility lines run through your chosen site, and note if you’ll be getting water from the roof or gutters of your house. If you’re up for a bit of writing, check in with the Virginia Department of Forestry—because you’ll be protecting public resources, they might give you a grant to build your garden!

2. Dig. The smallest size that will filter properly is about 3’x3′ across and 2′ deep, but you can go bigger than that (and don’t feel limited by geometry—you can make circles and ovals, too). General guides are no more shallow than 2′, though if you build a big one, you’re going to need to dig several feet deeper. If you want a more precise method of determining area (especially if you’re getting lots of runoff from “impervious” or impenetrable surfaces like roofs or road), contact Repp Glaettli at the Department of General Services, 296-5816.

3. Fill ’er up. First, a layer of sand, at least 4" deep. Next, a filtering soil mixture: You can buy it premade at Luck Stone, or you can make your own from 50 percent sand or sandy soil (in Central Virginia, you’re not going to be using the clay-heavy stuff you just excavated), 25 percent compost and 25 percent topsoil. Fill the hole several inches short of the surface.

4. Plant. Choose only species that tolerate both dry and wet. For aesthetic and functional purposes, situate the tall plants in the center, keeping in mind that they will get more moisture than plants on the edges. Native plants will fare very well, and there are tons of gorgeous trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials that love this area—check Web resources for selecting good rain garden plants. Go to www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/waterquality/426-043/426-043.html at the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s site, or call Extension agent Peter Warren at 872-4580.

5. Mulch. Hardwood mulch is the only kind that won’t float away, so finish your garden with several inches of it. The mulch surface should still sit a few inches lower than the surrounding ground.

Want a new way to sauce up an old favorite? The Petit Pois chalkboard wrangled me in from my hasty midday Mall-walk with this listing: gnocchi with fava beans and mushrooms. Yes, please. It’s one of those dishes in which every bite tastes slightly different—buttery mushrooms, tender bites of fava, garlicky goodness—and all pair very well with the pillowy little gnocchi. Combining the carrots and cream makes for a sweet and delicate sauce, and one you can use somewhat sparingly if you’re not trying to ingest your entire daily allowance of fat in one meal. (O.K., you might do that anyway.)

Mmmm, potato dumplings. And cream.

Gnocchi have been around for centuries; some food historians think the recipe is older than that of pasta. The word gnocco translates literally to “lump,” but it’s also slang for a stupid person—if you’ve ever made them, though, you know they take some wits to perfect. The Petit Pois version cuts the traditional half-a-day prep time down to a couple of hours, but they’re super tender and thus more prone to falling apart. To give them a more textured bite, let the potatoes dry out for an hour or two after you rice them.

Petit Pois’ Gnochhi with Fava, Mushrooms and Carrot Cream Sauce

3 baked potatoes
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cup flour
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
2 Tbs. butter
1 cup white wine
1 cup cream
1/4 cup white button mushrooms,
    cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, cleaned
    and chopped
1/4 cup oyster mushrooms, cleaned
    and chopped
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 Tbs. fresh fava beans
salt, pepper

Gnocchi: Boil a large pot of salted water. Peel skin from cooled potatoes and put through a potato ricer (or mince). Add yolk, sprinkle flour on top. Mix until a soft—not sticky—dough is formed. Roll into a long, thin log and cut into 1/2" pieces; cook in salted water until they float. After all pieces have been floating for about a minute, remove them from water and place in ice water until cool. Remove and toss with olive oil.

Carrot sauce: Peel and dice carrots, garlic and shallots. Place in a sauce pot with butter, cook over medium heat until carrots are soft and fragrant. Add white wine and reduce by half. Add cream and cook until tender, about another five minutes. Remove from heat, blend until smooth.

Mushrooms: Place a heavy-bottomed pan over high heat and add butter. When butter starts to foam, add mushrooms, cook until golden brown, and season with salt and pepper.
To finish: Place heavy-bottomed pan over high heat. Add butter. When butter begins to foam, add gnocchi. When gnocchi begins to brown, add minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, favas and carrot sauce. Season to taste.

It may seem ridiculous to go to a buffet for the condiments, but I can’t help myself. The hot mango pickle at Maharaja calls to me; it gives the already yummy naan and veggie curries that spicy-sour tang that makes me eat twice as much as the Army recruit sitting at the next table. Jonathan Costa, the main chef and owner of Maharaja, hails from India’s smallest southwestern state, Goa—lots of good mangoes there. “This recipe comes from Goa; the people there preserve it in April or May so they’ll have it through September, the time of the monsoon,” Costa adds.

You’ll be bowled over by the wonderful aroma, and surprised by the mild flavor of Maharaja’s Hot Mango Pickle.

The ingredients list prompted a little research, though: I knew almost nothing about a key spice, asafoetida, which is apparently so pungent in its raw form that it can make you sick (its nickname is “Devil’s Dung”). Asafoetida is a tall, hollow-stemmed herb that produces yellow flowers—the spice comes from extracting a resinous sap from its stem and roots, drying it into little chunks, and grating or pounding it. Despite its knock-out aroma, its cooked flavor is mild; it also helps along the digestive process. Maybe that’s why I can eat it in massive quantities.

Maharaja’s Hot Mango Pickle

2 lbs. raw, green mangoes (about 3)
scant 1/2 cup fenugreek seeds
3 cups vegetable or sunflower oil
scant 1/2 cup coriander seeds
1 tsp. asafoetida
3 Tbs. mustard seeds
scant 1/2 cup chili powder
3 Tbs. cumin seeds
2 tsp. turmeric powder
1/4 cup salt

Soak whole fenugreek seeds in water overnight. Drain and set aside to dry for one hour. Cut mangoes into chunks (whatever size you’d like your pickles to be), heat oil and put in whole fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds and asafoetida. When the seeds stop popping and turn reddish, add mustard seeds, chili powder, cumin seeds, turmeric and salt. After five minutes, remove from heat, add mangoes, stir well and let cool. Mangoes should be completely covered in oil. Transfer to a lidded jar, seal, and let sit 15 days before eating.

Chicken that has flavor? Get out of town. Or don’t. Milan’s Chicken Jal-frazi gets high marks—it’s easier than fried chicken, quicker than roasted chicken, and spicy is the name of the game. Jal-frazi means “dry-fry,” and it denotes that the dish will finish with little sauce left in the pan. At Milan, Charanjeet Ghotra’s recipe ups the ante with fresh green chilis to round out the flavorful heat of the chili powder. “This North Indian dish goes well with Jeera Rice (cumin rice) or Peas Puloa. You can also serve it with hot naan bread, chapattis (Indian flatbread), or parathas (pan-fried Indian flatbread),” says Ghotra.

Dry-fry? It’s much tastier than it sounds, so just call it Jal-frazi and get your chilis ready to rock.

The spice and veggie combinations in Jal-frazi vary from chef to chef, so you can give it a slightly different spin each time you cook it. Substituting butter for part of the oil will give it a richer, thicker sauce; spices can be mixed into yogurt as a marinade or glaze for the chicken before cooking; a tablespoon of tomato paste can take the place of the canned tomatoes if you’re not a big fan. And if you’re craving something super hot, leave the seeds in the chilis.

Chicken Jal-frazi

3 Tbs. vegetable/canola/sunflower
   cooking oil
2 onions, chopped fine
3 green chilis, halved (remove seeds to reduce the spiciness)
1 tsp. ginger paste
2 tsp. garlic paste
2 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. cumin powder
2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1/2 tsp. red chili powder (optional)
2 lb. chicken (use boneless breasts or
   thighs cut into 2" pieces)
1 1/2 cans of diced tomatoes
Salt to taste
2 red bell peppers cut into 2" cubes

To prepare Chicken Jal-frazi, heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed, deep frying pan. Add onions and fry till light brown. Add green chilis, ginger and garlic pastes, and fry for two minutes. Sprinkle in powdered spices (coriander, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, red chili powder) and continue to fry until the oil starts to separate from the masala. Add the chicken and tomatoes, cook until the chicken turns opaque. Add a cup of water, salt to taste, cover and cook till the chicken is almost done. This dish should have very little gravy, so only add more water if needed to further cook the chicken. Toss in red bell peppers and mix well. Let cook for two more minutes, and serve.