New Flowers to Eat Blog

The times they are a-changing.

We have started posting on a new blog and hope you will follow us there.

Please check out our new postings at: www.flowerstoeatblog.wordpress.com

See you there!

Happy Unique and Bizarre Month

Do you know what 'month' June is?

Well, according to Holiday Insights, June has 10 different unique and bizarre things the month is named for.

Some are cute and totally unknown to probably everyone except other people who search on 'holidays' and find this site. June is Candy Month, Dairy Month, and Aquarium Month. Did you know it is also "Flight of the Filthy Fly Month"? That is the most unique and bizarre one and I don't think I want to know any more about it.

As a retail fruit and vegetable bouquet shop, I was happy to see that June is also National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month.

 Here in Florida, we have been enjoying local fresh fruits and vegetables for several months now. Starting the year with oranges, grapefruit, lemons and limes and going to strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes. My little garden was full of fresh broccoli, cucumbers and leaf lettuce this spring. Yum!

Our friends further north are a few months behind us in having ripe, fresh fruits, but even in the far north you can see the lush growth, flowering and subsequent delicious fruit growing. Personally, I can't wait for farm fresh peaches from Georgia and South Carolina, they are coming soon!

Check out our website for our newest creations. The Citrus Burst is a refreshingly light combination of pineapple, oranges, honeydew and cantaloupe with a surprise topping of Key Lime. It is so summery to look at and delicious to eat.

Enjoy your favorite fruits and vegetables during Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month!

It's Blueberry Season!

When I was growing up, my mother used to talk about going blueberry picking in Connecticut with her mother and sisters. She used to tell me how sweet those little berries were as they picked and ate as many as went into the pails.

Here in Florida we have U-Pick-em farms for blueberries as well as strawberries. And because our climate is so much warmer than Connecticut, our blueberry season is just about over. But the berries are readily available in stores, full of antioxidents that are good for you, and still very sweet.

Along with your blueberry muffins, pancakes, pies and on your cereal, I thought you might like this Berry Parfait recipe from  Self Magazine.

BERRY PARFAIT
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
• 2 cups skim milk
• Juice and zest of 3 lemons, divided
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1 pint blueberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
PREPARATION
1. Whisk milk, juice and zest of 2 lemons, sugar and cornstarch in a pot over medium heat until mixture thickens, 3 to 4 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes. Whisk in yogurt. Cook blueberries, juice and zest of remaining lemon, and sugar in another pot over medium heat, mashing until a chunky sauce forms, 2 to 3 minutes. Divide graham cracker crumbs and sauce among 4 glasses; top each with 1/2 cup yogurt pudding. Chill 1 hour.
The skinny
243 calories per serving, 1.7 g fat (0.4 g saturated), 51.8 g carbs, 2.6 g fiber, 7.5 g protein

Enjoy the fruit bouquets from Flowers to Eat™

Healthy Gifting with Fruit Arrangements

The winter holiday season is over, but there are many other occasions throughout the year when you may want to give a gift to someone.

Giving gifts to others requires a delicate touch that not only needs to take into account the recipient's life style choices, but your own creative abilities as well. It simply isn't enough to hand over a ho-hum gift to others, particularly when the gifts are in a corporate environment. This can be a challenge to many people, since they simply don't know where to find or create the type of gift that is thoughtful, appropriate and is part of health gifting.

So many people today are seeing the benefits of eating and living healthy. This can make it a challenge to provide the right kinds of gifts to family, friends and co-workers. You still want the personal touch, yet want to give a gift that will actually be enjoyed and used. Thankfully, there are many ways to use creativity along with healthy living choices to come up with a perfect gift.

Fruit arrangements are one of the best gifts for any occasion. Not only can they be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing form, but they are a gift that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Depending on your personal preferences and resources, you can create an arrangement made of delicious gourmet fruit that resembles a gorgeous flower arrangement, you can use chocolate dipped fruits like chocolate strawberries to create a delightful, thoughtful and beautiful arrangement that tastes as good as it looks.

When it comes to making the perfect fruit arrangements, you need the best and freshest ingredients. For example, when making chocolate covered apples, you want to make sure you use crisp, juicy apples, the sweetest chocolate and also, as the final touch, you need to employ beautiful decorations atop the outer layer of chocolate. Or use a variety of tropical fruits to create a tangy and delicious and tasteful arrangement.

By learning to carefully combine the colors and tastes of fruit, you can create stacked arrangements that also follow the basic rules of floral arrangements, and thus create a work of art. The rules for flower and fruit arrangements are quite similar, and you can employ techniques to build height and visual stimulation with color, and as an addition, fruit baskets also allow you to challenge the taste buds as well. You will need to take into account the colors, shapes, tastes and decorations of a fruit arrangement in order to make a unified whole that makes the absolutely perfect gift.

Click here to view the many Flowers to Eat gifts

Follow Flowers to Eat on Facebook

Using Edible Holiday Centerpieces to Spice Up Your Decor

When the holiday season rolls around again, many people are at their wits end to try and figure how to create the perfect atmosphere for holidays like Christmas. Fortunately, there really can be an easy solution. Fruit arrangements can make a fantastic edible holiday centerpiece, and can be made to represent any type of holiday theme you wish to create. By adding a touch of holiday décor to these fruit arrangements and centerpieces, you can allow it to become a focal point for your holiday decorations, and yet can still enjoy the perfect marriage of functionality and beauty.

 

The advantages of edible fruit centerpieces are that you can branch out and stop decorating in the usual ho-hum fashion for the holidays. Instead, you can explore the world of fruit arrangements as the healthiest and most intriguing way to fill your home with holiday cheer. Rather than stick to the very dull and predictable

centerpieces that simply do not stand out, you can instead choose a centerpiece that features bursts of color, sensual tasting fruits and stylish accents. When it comes to creating an atmosphere of holiday cheer, the small details can make or break the illusion, so it is important to only use high quality edible centerpieces.

Centerpieces are a central part of decorating, and although most people may choose to use candles, wreaths or traditional trappings for their holiday centerpiece, you can also choose to break away from humdrum by using a holiday fruit arrangement for your centerpiece. Not only is this a highly decorative use for fruit, but it is also practical, since you can enjoy eating the fruit and will not have extra centerpiece items to throw away once the celebrations are over. Whether it is Yuletide celebrations, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day or even just a birthday celebration, the edible fruit basket, arrangement or centerpiece can be an elegant touch.

Holiday decorating traditions are part of American culture, and whether you go all out and decorate your entire home for Christmas or simply wish to decorate a side table with centerpieces, you can change the whole feel and look of a home in time for the holiday that you are celebrating. Fruit arrangements are absolutely beautiful to look at, and you can easily create or buy those that match your holiday décor or that contain your favorite fruits.

An Apple A Day Helps the Pounds Drop Away? by Nancy Schramm

Remember that old saying, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"? Recent research appears to be supporting the idea that eating apples can help you lose weight.

So, they not only taste good, make a great cobbler or pie, can be center stage at Halloween parties either covered in caramel or floating in a bucket of water, and are a staple in the Flowers to Eat Strawberry Apple Banana Bliss™ bouquet, but they could help me lose weight?

How you ask?

Well, the fiber pectin in them does help you feel fuller, as well as the other benefits of having a sufficient amount of fiber in your diet. But there's more.

There is a chemical that occurs naturally in apples, ursolic acid, that has been linked to maintaining muscle mass. In one experiment with mice, the mice that were fed chow to which ursolic acid from apples was added:

• Gained 33% less belly fat
• Had an 11% higher metabolic rate
• Ran 38% longer on a treadmill exercise
• Stored 24% less fat in the liver

More research needs to be done with humans, but what a great way to preserve  muscle mass, which is important for maintaining a  metabolic rate that is sufficiently high enough to lose weight.

Read more about it on the Dole newsletter blog: http://newsletter.dole.com/2012/anti-obesity-apple/

Summer is Here and Fresh Mangos are Plentiful by Nancy

When it comes to fruit, I grew up with a pretty sheltered life. Oranges, apples, most kinds of berries, but my mother never bought or brought home a mango. I had no idea what I was missing until I tasted one at a friend's house as an adult. YUM! How sweet and delicious it was.

When I went to the grocery store to buy one for myself, I realized I had no idea how to pick a ripe one. There were Mangoes that were all green, some that were green and yellow, and some that had red for some of their skin. Thinking that the red ones must be the most ripe, I picked a firm, green and red mango and headed home to taste it.

I was wrong, color has little to do with how ripe a mango is. I have since learned that you pick a mango by touch......if it is slightly soft when you gently squeeze it it will probably be ripe. I'm now much better at choosing one that my family will like.

Here's a fun fact about mangos......they are related to cashews and pistachios!

Dole Nutrition News recently published a blog about mangoes helping mice lose weight and lower their cholesterol. To read more about this, go to the Dole blog site: http://newsletter.dole.com/2012/minimize-with-mango/

One of my favorite recipes for mangoes is as a smoothie. This one is good for people on a dairy-free diet.

Mango Mania

1 medium mango
1 1/4c of soya milk
1 lime, juiced
zest of 1 lime
2 Tbs. honey

Peel the mango and cut the flesh off of the stone.
Place in blender with the soya milk, lime juice, zest and honey.
Blend until smooth and frothy.
Pour over crushed ice and enjoy!









http://newsletter.dole.com/2012/minimize-with-mango/

Top 10 Reasons to Buy a Bouquet from Flowers to Eat™

10. To say: Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary!

9. To say: Congratulations or Well Done!

8. To say: I Love You!

7. To say: I'm Sorry!

6. To say: Thank You!

5. Because you or they have had a bad day.

4 Because you Know they Love dark chocolate and fruit.

3. Because a Flowers to Eat™ bouquet LOOKS so good!

2. Because a Flowers to Eat™ bouquet TASTES so good!

1. Because no one else makes those "Melt In Your Mouth Banana Bites™!

We look forward to helping you make someone's day very special.

National Gardening Exercise Day by Nancy Schramm

The post card says "Celebrate National Gardening Exercise Day" on June 6th.
The back of the postcard says that lunch at Sweet Tomatoes is just $5.00 on June 6th.

And there is a video that you can watch poor Aaron and two ladies 'exercising' in a garden with simulated gardening tasks. Aaron looks like he could use a little more frequent exposure to the sun, if he was a plant, I don't think there would be a lot of photosynthesis going on. But it is all in good humor. If you have a chance, watch them at the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDEwFo6kM_E&feature=youtu.be

Ok, it's a cute idea, creative marketing in an industry that has seen fewer people eating out or eating out as often in the last year or two. There are lots of healthy fruits and vegetables at Sweet Tomatoes that you can choose for your buffet lunch or dinner, but then there are the blueberry muffins and the chocolate brownie muffins. Yum! Why do carbs have to taste so good?

A Picnic Favorite! by Nancy Schramm

Not fried chicken, potato salad, hot dogs or hamburgers, this picnic favorite hits your sweet tooth. Cold and juicy, green and red, it's the Watermelon that I am talking about.

Watermelon season is here once again and my family loves it. Yes, there are the seed spitting contests, which I haven't won in years. There are the decoratively cut watermelon flowers and melons themselves (my favorite is one carved like a shark's head complete with watermelon rind teeth). And, there are the beautiful and delicious fruit arrangements that Flowers to Eat makes that include this yummy melon.

Watermelon is actually healthy for you. It has high levels of vitamins A and C, and a good level of vitamin B6. The Doctor's Book of Healing Foods says that eating just one serving of watermelon a day can reduce a man's risk of developing prostate cancer by 82%! For those of us fighting the battle of the bulge, 2 cups of watermelon chunks contain only 80 tasty calories.

Watermelon.org suggests that you 'spoil your appetite' by having a slice of watermelon before your meal. Being 92% water, it will help curb your hunger while satisfying your tastebuds.

When you have a chance, please go to our website, www.flowerstoeat.com, and under the 'arrangement' tab, see the nice selection of bouquets that feature watermelon as a key ingredient. We love that sweet, juicy watermelon is again available.

Flowers to Eat website

RNC Small Business Directory Interview by Nancy Schramm

August will be a very hectic and exciting month for businesses, large and small, in Tampa, Fl. In case you have been media deprived over the last few months and did not know it, the Republican National Convention will be held here. Like most small businesses, we at Flowers to Eat are looking forward to putting our community's best foot forward welcoming all the visitors who may be making their first trip to the Tampa Bay Area.

Recently the Host Committee published their Small Business Directory. Over 500 small businesses of all types are included in the directory, making it an excellent resource for event planners, hosting hotels, restaurants, committee members, delegates, the media and everyone else associated with this major event.

Bay News 9 interviewed Flowers to Eat on the day that the availability of the Small Business Directory was announced. When you have a chance, please click on this link to watch the interview. Thank you Bay News 9.

http://baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/video.html?clip=http://static.baynews9.com/newsvideo/bn9/arc/RNC_Small_Business_Directory.f4v

Do You Know a Leaper?

No, not a Leper, although there are fewer and fewer people termed 'leper' with the availability of today's medical treatments. A Leaper is a person born on February 29th.

Today's local paper had a feature story on a woman who will be having a baby, by C-section. She has chosen to have the birth take place tomorrow, Leap Day. I guess that means that once every 4 years her child with have a very large birthday party. Most Leapers celebrate their other birthdays on February 28th.

Interesting facts for individuals born on February 29th.
1) Most life insurance companies computers cannot accept a birthdate of February 29th. Leapers have to put their application birthdate as March 1st.

2) There is no excuse for not knowing when a U.S. Presidential election is to be held because they are always held in Leap Years.

3) Signing a one year contract on February 29th means that it expires when, February 28th or March 1st of the following year?

4) There is an Irish tradition that says if a man receives a proposal of marriage on February 29th, he must accept it.

I titled this blog entry, Do You Know a Leaper. While I have 6 close family members with February birthdays, I personally do not know a Leaper. Here are a few famous people who were born on February 29th.

• 1468 – Pope Paul III (d. 1549)
• 1792 – Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (William Tell, The Barber of Seville) (d. 1868)
• 1896 – Morarji Desai, former Indian prime minister (d. 1995)
• 1916 – Dinah Shore, American singer (d. 1994)
• 1924 – Al Rosen, American baseball player
• 1924 – Carlos Humberto Romero, former president of El Salvador
• 1960 – Anthony (Tony) Robbins, American motivational speaker

If you are lucky enough, or unlucky enough as is thought in Scotland, to be born on February 29th, I hope you have a very Happy Birthday tomorrow.

So good, I had to repeat it!

We are at the height of Strawberry Season here in Florida. The Plant City Strawberry Festival will be starting in just a few weeks, and Strawberry Shortcake is on the dessert menu of nearly every restaurant in town.

I put this Strawberry Tart recipe on our blog last year but it is so good, it is worth reposting it.

I hope you enjoy the quick, easy and delicious results!

Easy Strawberry Tarts

Use your favorite pastry recipe for the tart shells or buy frozen tart shells at the grocery store.

Ingredients:

1 small package of French Vanilla Instant Pudding

1 ½ c. whole milk

1 c. whipping or heavy cream

¼ c. confectioners sugar

1 pt. of strawberries

Wash, hull, and slice strawberries in half.

Follow directions on pudding package to make the French Vanilla Instant pudding using 1 ½ c. of whole milk instead of 2 cups.

In separate bowl, beat the whipping cream until light and fluffy. Add ¼.c of confectioners sugar slowly, and continue beating until it holds soft peaks.

Fold ½ of the whipped cream into the pudding mixture, and divide between 4 – 6 tart shells (depending on the size of each tart). Top each tart with several sliced strawberries arranged decoratively. Add a dollop of whipped cream to each.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve

Valentine's Day Thanks to Driscoll's

Our strawberry supplier, Driscoll's has once again provided Flowers to Eat with the freshest, sweetest strawberries for the busiest single day of the year. While our undipped fruit bouquets are very popular on this day, we create almost twice as many chocolate covered strawberry arrangements for Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is hands down the single busiest day of the year for fruit arrangement companies. We need our fruit and chocolate suppliers to be flexible and reliable in meeting last minute additions to our usual orders. Thanks to our suppliers and our terrific in-store team, Flowers to Eat was able to dip, decorate, assemble, and deliver 100% of our customers' orders on time, on this super-busy day.

Driscoll's has been the primary supplier of the berries that enable our customers to 'See and Taste the Difference' in the Flowers to Eat product line. And we want to publicly thank them for the excellent product and service that we have received from them over the years.

Thank You Driscoll's!

Pomegranate Juice

Many magazine articles and health journals have expounded upon the benefits of drinking Pomegranate juice. Not only does it taste good, but it is so good for you! An older article, published in a 2004 issue of Clinical Nuitrition, has associated drinking just 50 ml. of Pomegranate juice each day with some fantastic results.

We have heard about all the benefits that the anti-oxidants in deep dark chocolate and red wine can provide, well, it appears that drinking Pomegranate juice has many of the same positive effects. This particular study showed that drinking just 50 ml. per day of Pomegranate produced a very significant decline in the test subjects' bad LDL cholesterol levels. Could just adding a glass a day of this delicious juice make a measurable and sustainable difference to the heart health of a person? More clinical trials need to be completed, but the results of this research are very promising.

Now, if you would like to add the Pomegranate juice to your evening entertainment, here is a recipe for Pomegranate Mimosas.

Pomegranate Mimosas
Combine 1 cup Pomegranate juice with 1 cup Orange Juice.
Add 2 Tablespoons of orange liquour
Shake well
Fill your favorite champagne glass half way with champagne and top it off with the
Pomegranate juice/orange juice mixture.

Those Tart Little Red Berries

The North American Cranberry

Thanksgiving is over, but for the next month, fresh cranberries will continue to be easily found in grocery stores and gourmet food emporiums. And that is good news!

Cranberries are one of the healthiest fruits that are available to us. Ok, so they may make you pucker up a little (is that a bad thing?) due to their tartness, but they are delicious and so nutritious. Packed with nutrients like antioxidants and other natural compounds, cranberries are a great choice for the health conscious consumer. In recent years we have even been able to enjoy sweetened, dried cranberries all year round.

Along with blueberries and the Concord grape, cranberries are one of 3 native North American fruits that are commercially grown.

According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association, “The cranberry helped sustain Americans for hundreds of years. Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, the most popular was pemmican - a high protein combination of crushed cranberries, dried deer meat and melted fat - they also used it as a medicine to treat arrow wounds and as a dye for rugs and blankets.”

Contrary to popular TV commercials, cranberry vines do not grow in underwater. They grow in bogs and can live for a very long time. Some vines in Massachusetts are over 150 years old and they continue to produce fruit to this day.

Here’s a recipe for a delicious Cranberry Bread from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association.

Servings: 1 Loaf

Ingredients:
1/2 C. Butter
1 Tbs. Grated Orange Peel
3 Large Eggs, Beaten
2 1/2 C. Flour
1 Tsp. Baking Soda
2 C. Fresh or Frozen Cranberries, Chopped
1 C. Sugar
1Tsp. Vanilla
3/4 C. Buttermilk
1/4 Tsp. Salt
3/4 C. Pecans, Chopped

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray bottom only of 9" X 5" loaf pan with cooking spray. Beat butter, sugar, orange peel and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt, add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating at low speed just until blended. Fold cranberries and nuts into batter. Turn into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool slightly in pan. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

See and Taste the Difference from the Fruit Arrangement Pros

How many times have you heard, "Practice Makes Perfect"? Or been told to persevere, to keep working at something?

Here's an illustration of the difference between the pro golfer and the amateur.

How much of a spread do you think there is between the number of strokes that a top pro and a top amateur take in any given golf round?

Usually, it is only a few, 2 or 3 shots.

What makes the pro the odds on winner of the round? His quest for perfection.

The amateur practices until he can hit a shot right. The pro practices until he can't hit it wrong.

Like the pro, Flowers to Eat has practiced our art of fruit design to perfect the look and taste of our arrangements. We think you will be able to see and taste the beautiful, delicious difference.

The Foodie and the Health Nut Together At Last: Scrumptious Healthy Meal Ideas

Thank you to contributing blogger, Carolyn Knight, for the following article on Healthy Eating!

The Foodie and the Health Nut Together At Last: Scrumptious Healthy Meal Ideas

It is unfortunate, but true, that plain veggies rarely inspire mouth-watering cravings, and French fries are not the best friend of hips and arteries. Do not despair. There is hope. Delicious food and healthy food are not mutually exclusive. Healthy meal ideas do exist to bring enjoyment, flavor, and nutrient-rich dishes to your table. If indulging in fatty foods can make you feel tired and cause long-term health concerns, then why not figure out a way to dress up disease fighting foods that will tempt your palate and leave you feeling energetic and guilt-free.

Even the healthiest of health nuts will cheat from time to time, so learning portion control can let you enjoy a taste without busting a seam.

1. Variety is the Spice of Life

Staring at a pile of boring lettuce will make anybody reach for the spaghetti; however, mixing all different kinds of flavors, textures, and food groups can turn a boring salad into a complex and interesting meal. Slice grilled flank steak, about 2-3 ounces per person. Then add it to a fresh salad with walnuts, dried cranberries, sliced mushrooms, shredded carrots, and beets with a good homemade champagne-shallot vinaigrette for a colorful, well-balanced salad that tastes a little different with each bite.

2. Size Matters

Now, even if you have the whole eating healthy, balanced meals thing down, inevitably someone will walk into the office with cupcakes for no good reason whatsoever. You are facing a difficult challenge, teetering on the verge of well behaved eater and no-holds-barred-vacuum ready to inhale the entire tray. There is good news: portion control is your friend. Halve the cupcake, put it on a napkin, and walk back to your desk. If you go to a dinner party, and the host is serving steak, not to worry—just know your portion sizes. A 3-ounce cut of meat will look roughly like a deck of cards.

3. You Cook It, You Control It

When you cook at home you get to decide what goes into your dishes, as well as how much of your dish goes onto your plate. Try new things and liven up dinner time by stocking your spice rack and choosing vibrant, colorful produce. Yellow fruits and vegetables contain beta-carotene and vitamin C, and blue and purple varieties house zeaxanthin, resveratrol and fiber.

Healthy meal ideas are the way to satisfy your appetite without feeling like ‘denial’ is your new food mantra. It is all about balance, portioning, and taking matters into your own hands. Fresh ingredients, variety, and spice are the key to boost flavor into an exciting and healthy meal, straight out of your very own kitchen.