Christmas Dinner and Happy Holidays Cuisine for 2010

Greetings Everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010,

The New Year is within a few hours and our family want to wish you the BEST OF 2010! Since 2009 was an amazing and challenging year for all of us, we celebrated the 2009 holidays and the New Year 2010 with a number of healthy and delicious cuisines.

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Dinner. As usual, Gloria cooked an outstanding, delicious, nontraditional and healthy dinner and treats!! Of course, all of us helped yet it was the creative mind and spectacular cooking style of Gloria which set this cuisine apart from all others!!

By the way, perhaps the best surprise of the Christmas Dinner was the Cajun Turkey! The turkey was moist and just the right kick to the flavoring (slightly spicy). Just the way we thought it would taste!

Happy Holidays Everyone and Welcome Back!

Holiday Menu

It has been a busy year and the holiday break will give us all a chance to rest and restore positive energy. The menu for this Christmas will be a combination of homemade and special order. This year, I decided to keep things light and make Leek Soup for Christmas Eve. It reminds me of a bowl of Leek soup I had at a California Kitchen Restaurant in Manhattan Beach, California several years ago. I like to add sage, turkey ham and a few more golden potatoes to my soup. One of the ingredients in Leek Soup is white wine so I chose Sandy Cross Vineyards Muscadine wine that is bottled in Mount Airy, North Carolina. The Duplin Carolina Bald Head Red Sweet Table wine works well with punch drinks. I am going to try my best to venture to Raleigh/Durham to try the California Kitchen's new Moroccan Salad or Baja Fish Tacos with Blue Corn Tortilla Chips. I will let you know how it turns out. As a base, I chose Knorr Leek Recipe Mix and just follw the directions on the package. Speaking of special orders, I will be picking up a Whole Cajun Turkey and a mini ham from the Honey Baked Ham store. My menu side items will be scalloped potatoes with reduced fat cheddar cheese.

My main vegetable will be the underrepresented Cauliflower. Once I lightly steam my cauliflower, I plan on adding sauteed corn, orange bell pepper, and onions to it. This should give me a colorful dish. I am adding a side of corn bread stuffing for the kids. Homemade stuffing is great but if you are in a hurry, Stove Top stuffing will do fine.

One of the favorite deserts in our house is Pecan Pie and Peach Cobbler so I will have that on hand for everyone to consume. There are also good pecan pies at the Honey Baked Ham store, Food Lion, Kroger, Harris Teeter and Sams Club. I decided to purchase pie crust for the canned peach pie filling and picked up a jar of Delmonte fresh peaches to lighten the taste of the canned filling. You will notice I am bias to the texture, taste, sight and smell of the food I eat which makes cooking more enjoyable for me. For New Years, I plan on a seafood menu of crab salad, shrimp, black eye peas and rice for good luck and the addition of Chinese food. As a child, my family would go to our favorite Chinese food restaurant for New Years Eve and come home and ring in the New Year.

Stress Release

The holidays can be stressful on the cook so I de-stress by playing holiday music of old school, new school, jazz and classics. Some of the holiday classic songs I listen to while I cook were my father's favorite singers such as Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis. Natalie Cole is unforgettable also.

The Luciana Souza/Romero Lubambo Duos II acoustic jazz CD is wonderful. Luciana's voice is crisp and melodic. Lately, I have been burning up the Al Jarreau song "Brite N' Sunny Babe". Yep ladies, I consider myself a Brite N' Sunny Babe for the New Year. I hope you do too.

Thanks Natalie Cole for making us fabulous 40 and up women of today look good. A Class Act.

Meanwhile, my kids and I are listening to everything from the Black Eye Peas, Lupe Fiasco, Barcelona, Beyonce', Shakira, The Fray, Mary J Blige, John Legend, Alicia Keys, The Avett Brothers and many others. Don't forget to dance to the music while cooking. It's a fun way to burn off those holiday calories.

Check it out:

You can find other health and cultural commentary by visiting the blogs:
http://innervoice-rise.blogspot.com/
http://culturalcommentaryartist.ning.com/
Web Tip: http://www.nataliecole.com/

I wish you a positive, energetic and bright New Year! Keep the faith and stay mentally, physically and spiritually healthy!
Gloria J Harden-Bailey

THANKSGIVING 2009 PHOTOS

Greetings Everyone,


We trust that everyone had an enjoyable and delightful Thanksgiving with family and friends as we did. We also trust that everyone fixed and ate healthy food and watched how much you at during turkey day. Although this is the day in which everyone trys to eat everything on the table and more, it ALWAYS important to be aware that we STILL must eat healthy smart on this day.


What we mean by "Healthy Smart" is eat foods that have been prepared in a healthy way (i.e.. less sodium, less sugar, baked - not fried) and smaller portions. That's it!! Then, you can truly enjoy your Thanksgiving Dinner and fixins' all day long.


Instead of the traditional turkey dinner and fixins, we had the following:
1. Cornish Hens
2. Low sodium Ham
3. Low sodium Macarroni and Cheese
4. Stuffing
5. Sweet Potato Pie using fresh rolled-out crust.


Here are a few pictures of our Thanksgiving helpers and healthy foods:
















































Here are final dishes of our hard work.


THANK YOU FOR VISITING OUR BLOG AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!

THANKSGIVING 2009 AND NBCD CHANGES!

Greetings & Happy Thanksgiving Everyone,

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving today and the BEST for all families celebrating this American holiday tradition. Each year, Thanksgiving brings us together in all types of ways and in all types of families. Celebrate Thanksgivings the way that you want and it's always refreshing to start your OWN traditions during this holiday season!

The New Black Cultural Diet team also wants to let you know that WE ARE NO LONGER HOSTING THE ORIGINAL NEW BLACK CULTURAL WEBSITE (NBCD) AT THIS TIME. WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF REVISING OUR ORIGINAL SITE SO YOU MAY SEE ANOTHER HOST AT OUR SITE AT THIS TIME!

We will continue to HOST OUR BLOGS and BRING YOU OUR particular INSIGHTS, THOUGHTS, AND EXPERTISE to the WORLD OF HEALTH, FITNESS, FOOD, DIETING, HEALTHY LIVING, CULTURAL HEALTH AND LIFE.

If you want to contact us directly, please email us at: ebailey8@aol.com.

PEACE AND BLESSINGS TO ALL!!


Eric Bailey and Gloria Harden Bailey

Easter On A Budget - Mrs. B Style!

Greetings Everyone,

Another holiday season is upon us -- Easter!! It doesn't take long for spring to arrive and the annual tradition of all the activities associated with Easter is upon us.

Yet with all the tradition comes the reality of present day -- our country is in a recession and we can't do ALL the same rituals and activities associated with holidays as we did back in the day or just a couple of years ago. Therefore, as a family, we are making adjustments, cutting back, and making things a bit more efficient than in the past. Although there are changes, we nonetheless celebrate the Easter Holiday with all the family just like we did before!! In actuality, we doing things much wiser and direct than ever before.

For example, we still do the coloring of eggs and we will have our Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Yet we will not purchase for our Easter Dinner -- all the extras along with all the extra time cooking and preparing the Easter meal. That's why I would like for you to check out Mrs. B.' " Easter on a Budget" Recipe!!

After reading her Easter on a Budget newsletter, send us your comments at: feedback@newblackculturaldiet.com to let us know if it is helpful or if you would like to add to it!

Also, check out our photos of the kids making the Easter Eggs!! It was fun for the entire family ONCE AGAIN!! KEEPIN' THE TRADITION MOVING FORWARD!!