Raines Realm

Ahhh, the time of year when planning family trips, preparing for Thanksgiving di,ner, and shopping for presents make your already busy life almost unbearable. Well, the good news is that with these simple tricks, you can make meals a snap and eliminate some of the stress. 1. Plan your meals With so many things competing for your time these days, the grocery store should not be one of them. Plan your meals a week in advance so that you go to the store armed with a complete list. Try opting for simple breakfasts, such as fruit and yogurt or smoothies. Here's a quick and easy smoothie recipe: https://youtu.be/neil5RiwnRQ  Leftover dinners can make great lunches and cut your prep time in half. Think casseroles, chilis, and other one pot dishes. 2. Utilize Meal Prep Using a portion of your morning or afternoon on a day off to prepare meals ahead of time is an excellent time-saver. Make several meals in advance and freeze or refrigerate for the rest of the week. You can h...

Nothing can quite bring people together like cake. And what better way to celebrate our unity as a country during this trying time than with a traditional cake reserved for just this occasion. Historically, election day was a celebratory affair, filled with food and drinks. People would travel to the polls, visiting family and friends along the trip. There were dances and special balls to commemorate the occasion. During this special time, women would bake election cakes and give them to men at the polls to encourage voter turnout. Voting was harolded as an American right and that was something worth celebrating. (And it still is, in my opinion.) This sourdough cake is a cousin to the fruit cake and a batch could feed an entire community. Typical recipes could call for 10 lbs of butter, 13 lbs of sugar, and 3 dozen eggs among other ingredients! Election day was a reminder of the principles that America was founded on. With all of the stress associated with this election...

"Candy!" is generally the first thing that springs to mind when thinking of Halloween, but a traditional Irish fortune-telling cake is more accurate. We all know that Halloween is the modern-day celebration of the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhaim (pronounced Sow-in). It was originally celebrated as the time of year when the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest. This led to all sorts of fortune-telling and divination methods in hopes of learning about the future. Thus enters the barmbrack. This simple fruit bread is the delicious ancestor of the questionable fruit cakes of today. The fun part about this bread though, has nothing to do with its taste or appearance, but what it has inside. Particular "charms" are wrapped in parchment paper, evenly distributed, and baked inside. Traditionally, the items include a coin, ring, thimble, button, and scrap of cloth. The cake is then divided and whatever charm you had in your piece was you...

Chocolate cake? The kid in all of us is doing a happy dance right now and rightfully so. New studies suggest that adding chocolate cake to your breakfast routines can have a plethora of positive results. And, unlike other diet trends out there, you don't have to psych yourself up to indulge in chocolate. Scientists have conducted new studies that show eating cake occassionally for breakfast can have positive effects on your waistline. Groups that had cake as their morning meal were less likely to indulge throughout the day and saw an increase in weight loss. Eating dessert foods in the morning when your metabolism is at its highest is the best way to our those delicious calories to their best use. And chocolate has been proven to increase cognitive brain function and memory. I like to eat it because it tastes good, but hey, you can't argue with science. We should be seeing an increase of dessert menus and options at restaurants for breakfast in the coming ...