The Perfect Turkey Recipe for Christmas

The year is racing towards its end at a tremendous speed – just to think; in just over a month from now, we will be celebrating the festive season with our loved ones. And what better way to celebrate it with a well-cooked meal with turkey as main ingredient.

Here is how to prepare the perfect turkey with chestnut stuffing and bread sauce.

Ingredients for the turkey

• One turkey, trussed and weighing about 5 kg (10 lb.)
• 500 g (1 lb.) back bacon, thickly sliced
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 500 g (1 lb.) chipolata sausages
• 2 lemons
• A bunch of watercress

Ingredients for the chestnut stuffing

• 500 g (1 lb.) fresh chestnuts or if not readily available, a can of chestnuts in water
• 250 g (½ lb.) streaky bacon
• 250 g (½ lb.) minced pork
• ⅓ tsp. ground nutmeg
• Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the bread sauce

• 2 cups milk
• 1 onion, stuck with 8 cloves
• 5 slices stale white bread with crusts removed
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp. butter
• A pinch of mace

First, make the chestnut stuffing

1. Place the chestnuts into a pan, cover it with cold water and bring it to boil. Take the chestnuts out from the boiling water and remove the outer shell and inner skin. Put the prepared chestnuts into a mixing bowl.
2. Mince the bacon and add it to the chestnuts, together with the minced pork, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix the ingredients together but try to keep the chestnuts whole.
3. The stuffing is ready to use.

Now you can stuff the turkey with it

1. Starting at the neck, work your hand under the skin of the turkey to about halfway along the breast. Be careful not to split the skin. Insert the stuffing carefully under the breast skin, pressing it well into the turkey so that it will help to keep the breast moist during roasting.
2. Make sure the stuffing gives the turkey a well-rounded appearance. Tuck the loose skin, which covers the neck under the wing, as this will help to keep the stuffing in place.

Now the turkey can be roasted to perfection

The cooking time should be 20 minutes for each 500 g (lb.) and after calculating the time according to its weight, add another 20 minutes additional time overall.

1. Cover the turkey completely with the rashers of bacon – starting with the legs. Place the bird in a suitable roasting tin, pour the chicken stock around the bird, and cover the tin with cooking foil.
2. Roast the turkey in a pre-heated oven at 200⁰ C (390 ⁰F) for an hour and then reduce the heat to 180⁰ C (350 ⁰F) for the remainder of the calculated cooking time. After this first hour, baste the turkey without removing the bacon. Prick the chipolata sausages and arrange them around the turkey.
3. When a half an hour cooking time is left, remove the cooking foil and bacon to allow the skin to become golden brown.
4. When the turkey is cooked, transfer it to a warm dish and arrange the sausages around it. Cut the lemons in slices and garnish the turkey with the slices and the watercress.
5. Skim the fat off the liquid in the roasting pan and keep the sauce aside.

The last step is to prepare the bread sauce

1. Put the onion into a pan with the milk and heat it gently so that the flavor of the onion and cloves infuses into the milk.
2. Break the bread into small pieces and put it in a saucepan. When the milk is almost boiling, strain it over the bread. Cover the saucepan and leave the bread sauce to soak for an hour.
3. Beat the sauce with a fork until it is smooth. Add the gravy from the roasted turkey, the salt, pepper, mace and butter and bring to boil. It is ready to serve.
Serve it with yellow rice, seasonal vegetables, roasted potatoes and all the love in the world!

Enjoy with the people dear to you!

Exercises for Firmer Breasts

You cannot build breast muscle, as there is none to build. However, exercise can raise the pectoral muscle, the platform on which the breasts rest. (‘The pectoral is a thick, fan-shaped muscle, situated at the chest of the human body. It makes up the bulk of the chest muscles in the male and lies under the breast in the female.’) Do these exercises at least three times a week to make the pectoral muscle stronger.  

Exercise 1

Lie on your stomach, bend your knees, and cross your ankles. Bend your elbows and place your palms on the floor a bit to the side and in front of your shoulders.

Straighten your arms and lift your body so you are balanced on your palms and knees. Tuck your chin a few inches toward your chest so your forehead faces the floor. 

Tighten your abdominal. Bend your elbows and lower your entire body at once. Rather than trying to touch your chest to the floor, lower only until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Push back up. Do not lock your elbows at the top of the movement and do not do the dreaded "head bob." That is when you dip your head toward the floor without moving any other part of your body. Do 2 sets of 8, working up to 3 sets of 15.

Exercise 2

Lie on the floor face up. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor. Using a resistance band, stretch the band behind your back. Position your hands on top of your chest, with your elbows pointing out. Straighten your arms, pressing your hands toward the ceiling. Do not arch your lower back. Slowly lower your hands back to the chest. If you do not feel tension when pressing up, adjust the band so there is less slack.

Exercise 3

Lie on your back on a bench, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Hold a dumbbell in each hand above mid-chest with your palms facing in. Keeping your elbows bent slightly, lower the arms outward until the elbows are just below the level of the bench. Contract the abdominal and allow your shoulders, head and neck to lift slightly off the bench. At the same time, press the arms back up the starting position. Slowly lower the torso and repeat.

The Importance of Respect in a Relationship

Why do you love your spouse or partner? If you start thinking carefully, you will realize that the physical attributes play a great role in it all, and there is no reason why they should not. However, do you really respect him or her for what he or she is? Respect is a heavy word — it weighs more than love. You have to respect your partner’s opinions, his or her idea of personal space, and retain your own respect at the same time. Slavishly following every whim of your partner and then behaving like a spoilt child once this transient charm of saying yes to everything is over is not what makes a marriage.

There are too many people squabbling over money, career, child rearing, household duties and every possible angle of a conjugal life today. These petty disagreements are not going to occur if two people respect each other. It is difficult, and not blindly done, but those who can manage it have found the key to happiness.

Fact File on Sunstroke

Sunstroke is a dangerous condition that occurs when the body’s thermostat breaks down from overheating. It can, and should always be prevented, as even with treatment it may be fatal or cause permanent damage. 

Although we are all used to thinking of this extremely serious heat disorder as something that only happens to people who stay out too long in the hot sun, in fact the heat itself is the problem and not the sun’s rays. For instance, people who find themselves in very hot places such as engine rooms and steel works can suffer the severe effects of ‘sunstroke’ without ever being near the sun. And, for this reason, doctors tend to talk about ‘heat-stroke’. 

The body’s reaction to heat

The body has two main mechanisms for losing heat. First, the blood vessels to the skin are dilated so that more blood flows to the surface, allowing it to lose heat through the skin into the air. Second, the skin is cooled by the action of the sweat glands. The sweat glands pour out their salty fluid on to the surface of the skin. It evaporates, and heat is lost as vapor. 

 Overheating

There are many ways in which the environment can intensify the effects of the heat on the body - it is not just a question of the reading on the thermometer. If the air is humid, then this reduces the ease with which the sweat evaporates, so that it becomes more difficult to lose heat. Similarly, if the air is very still, then less heat is lost from the surface of the body by convection. People doing hard physical work in a hot environment are, of course, producing a lot of heat of their own. They may be losing up to one liter of sweat every hour, compared with the one liter per day of sedentary workers in a temperate climate. This loss of salt and water can contribute to a condition known as heat exhaustion, which, unless checked, can lead to the eventual breakdown of the body’s temperature-regulating mechanism (heat stroke). Fortunately, however, as the body gets used to working in a hot environment, it adapts and the loss of salts decreases, making the body less vulnerable to heat disorders.

Extra risk factors

The very young and the very old are most at risk from heat disorders, and consequently from heat stroke. This is because their bodies’ temperature regulating mechanisms are not very efficient. Also elderly people tend to wear too much clothing in hot weather. 

However, there are several other pre-disposing factors. People who are unused to heat, who are very overweight, who drink heavily, or who are suffering from a feverish illness, in the right circumstances, may all be at a greater risk from heat stroke. 

Symptoms and dangers

The three basic signs of heat-stroke are: a very high temperature (more than 41 ⁰C (106 ⁰F); a total absence of sweating; and, most seriously, nervous system problems which may lead to coma. Disturbances of mood, disorientation and headache, often accompanied by dizziness and difficulty in walking all happen in the early stages of the stroke until, eventually, consciousness is lost. 

Unfortunately, a fully developed heat stroke is an extremely dangerous condition and over 20 per cent of sufferers may die, even with treatment. In addition, those who do recover may have persistent trouble in the nervous system and their balance and co-ordination may take months to get back to normal. However, if treatment is prompt - at the first sign of symptoms and before consciousness is lost – then the chances of recovery are good. 

Treatment and prevention

As soon as any symptoms appear, it is essential to call a doctor immediately. Meanwhile, cool the patient down as quickly as possible. The temperature should be brought down to about 39 ⁰C (102 ⁰F) - no lower as the patient’s circulation may go into shock. The best way to cool the patient down is in a bath of cold water. In hospital, special slatted beds on which sufferers can be doused with water and cooled by fans are used. The most sensible and effective way to fight sunstroke is, of course, prevention.

And this can be done quite simply by ensuring that the body is not overheated. This means not staying out too long in the sun; wearing cool, loose clothing in the heat; taking salt tablets and drinking plenty of liquids when doing physical work in very hot environments. 

The Benefits of Ginger

Ginger served as a drink may help fighting the flu and keep the body stays fresh during stressful conditions.

It stimulates the release of adrenaline; widen the blood vessels, making it easier for the heart to pump the blood. Ginger can also prevent the blood agglutination – helping to lower the risk of stroke and heart attack. It may also reduce the cholesterol level.

Ginger is good for your digestion system since it contains useful enzymes such as protease and lipase. Those enzymes are needed to digest protein and fat.

It also helps preventing nausea – including carsick, seasick, and airsick. It also can be used to reduce the pain caused by common headaches and migraine.