Cajun Catfish With Spicy Strawberry Sauce

2 lbs. of Catfish Fillets
Salt
Black Pepper
2 oz Hot Pepper Sauce
1 1/2 cup Strawberry Preserves
1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 tb Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Seafood Cocktail Sauce
1 Clove Garlic, minced
2 ts Horseradish
3/4 cup Cornmeal
3/4 cup Flour
1/2 cup Safflour Oil
Fresh Strawberries
Parsley Sprigs, optional

Instructions: * Strawberry Flavored Vinegar may be used
instead of Red Wine Vinegar. Place fillets in large
shallow dish.

Season fish with salt, black pepper and hot pepper
sauce; cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

In small saucepan, combine preserves, vinegar, soy
sauce, cocktail sauce, garlic and horseradish; simmer
sauce over low heat stirring occasionally, while
preparing catfish.

Blend cornmeal and flour in shallow bowl.

Drain catfish and dredge in cornmeal mixture, coating
on all sides.

Heat oil in heavy skillet over medium-high heat; when
hot, add catfish and saute' until browned on both sides.

Drain well on paper towels; keep warm.

Spoon 1/4 cup sauce on each plate; top with catfish
fillets.

Garnish with sliced strawberries and parsley, if
desired.


submitted by QuiQue L. - Kennesaw

These Recipes are sponsored by The Cajun Kitchen 840 Marietta Street, Atlanta Ga 30318

Since 1991

Authentic Cajun and Creole Food in Atlanta Georgia

Call for Catering: (404)-898-8788

Do you have a recipe to share? Please email info@homepartnersatlanta.com

Adding Value with Kitchen Cabinet Lighting

Homes today are more like small buildings than the traditional houses of 40 years past. They contain more rooms, more furniture, and more interior custom build outs than previous designs afforded. As such, cabinets have moved beyond the kitchen and bathroom into other portions of the home as well. Workrooms and home offices contain both functional and decorative fixtures constructed to make life more convenient on a room-by-room basis. The specific purpose of cabinet lighting thus varies accordingly. It can be either exclusively task oriented, exclusively decorative, or a subtle blend of both. With specialty and custom cabinets, the decorator is often hard pressed to find standard fixtures that will fit the unique dimensions and eclectic materials used by today’s builders. Particularly on the decorative end of the spectrum, puck lights are becoming increasingly unpopular because their high visibility often detracts from the visual aesthetic of specialty design. Linear strip lights are now the dominant fixture in this discipline, and linear lighting manufacturers who can custom manufacture fixtures to fit precise vertical and horizontal dimensions becomes an increasingly valuable resource in today’s rapidly changing world of lighting design.

"display lights are custom designed to fit your cabinets "

Phantom was one of the first cabinet lighting manufacturers to notice this movement toward specialization and customization in home interior design. They realized that in order to make truly superior linear lighting products we would have to accommodate aesthetics, practical usage, and power saving features all in one bundled value offering. Knowing as well that cabinet lighting itself would become increasingly decorative in its intention and simultaneously mores sophisticate in functional applications as well, we designed a shelf lighting strip that would be all things to all workers, homemakers, collectors, and professionals from a wide range of vertical markets.

This resulted in the patented design of six linear strip light series, five of which will fully accommodate the demands of any commercial, office, home, or specialty cabinet lighting requirement that a client may bring to the table. Each strip light features a specialty; niche functionality combined with features shares by all six linear strips to make them both the most unique lighting fixtures of their kind and the most readily adaptable to any environment.

The first thing Phantom Lighting accomplished when it first designed these fixtures was to develop a new method of conductivity that would completely eliminate visible wires. We perfected a technique that allows us now to send current to low voltage festoon lamps by means of existing metal shelf standards that allow for reshelving without tools or risk of short circuit. This has made them a hot item in display cabinet lighting. Their low profile design makes them undetectable to the casual viewer, and their proprietary conductivity features allow decorators to move or replace entire shelves when the time comes to modify or switch out displays. In the retail world in particular, Phantom cabinet LED strip lights have proven themselves exceptional accent lighting tools whose compact, wireless presence is ideal for glass accessory cabinets and specialty showcase displays.

Office managers also prefer Phantom low voltage cabinet lighting strips to traditional fluorescent linear strips when it comes to delivering essential task light to break rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. It was proven in the 80’s that fluorescents flicker causes eyestrain and headaches, so replacing fluorescent strips with cost effective, superior lamping technology such as low voltage incandescents or super energy conscious LED festoons does a great deal to make for a more pleasant and comfortable environment.

Along similar lines, kitchen under cabinet lighting has had to evolve beyond the rudimentary task oriented focus that also relied upon fluorescent strip lights in past decades. Kitchens now are bigger and often the center of home sponsored events. In fact, they are often one of the first rooms that interior decorators and lighting designers pay attention to accent lighting fixtures because kitchens and bathrooms are the two rooms every guest will eventually visit at some point during his or her stay.

Our technology offers a number of color trim choices that allow decorators to combine glare free functional cabinet lighting with an aesthetic sensitivity to adjoining layers of room and accent lighting and specialty interior designs. We offer each client low voltage fixtures that can be dimmed upon command to create different levels of light for different times of day and different activities. We also provide an impressive selection of colour temperatures in incandescent, xenon lamps, and led festoon lamps.

Phantom Lighting is a manufacturer of high end lighting projectors and linear strip display lighting fixtures. Phantom operates throughout North, Central, and South America through a network of agent representatives. Visit http://www.phantomlighting.com/custom_cabinet_lighting.htm and http://www.phantomlighting.com for more details.

Melting Chocolate

If you haven't had it happen to you at least once, consider yourself lucky. You're standing there at the stove, melting some of those little blocks of chocolate that come in boxes. You anticipate with glee those chocolate-dipped strawberries that will be tonight's dinner finale. You look up to check the time or talk to the kids, and when you look back at the stove, your chocolate is not becoming silky smooth, but gloppy and weird. And to add insult to (culinary) injury, the more you heat and stir, the lumpier it gets.

Your chocolate has seized. The good news is that you can still use that chocolate mess in other recipes if you haven't scorched it. The bad news is that you won't be having chocolate dipped strawberries tonight. Read on to discover the seven most common ways to ruin chocolate when melting it and what you can do to avoid disaster.

Mistake #1. Letting water make contact with the chocolate - A block of chocolate doesn't look like it, but it has no water in it at all. It's made of small, dry particles of cocoa and sugar and of cocoa butter. A drop of water that gets into the melting chocolate causes the particles to clump up around the water. This is seizing. You can avoid this by keeping any moisture away from the chocolate. If you melt your chocolate in a double boiler, don't use too much water in the bottom and do not let the water boil.

Mistake #2. Overheating. If the heat is too high, the chocolate will scorch before it's all melted. While this is technically not seizing, scorched chocolate forms little clumps of its own. There is nothing you can do with scorched chocolate, except maybe use it as a face mask or something. Don't eat it.

The double boiler is a life saver here (although still not totally foolproof). Again, let the water simmer, not boil. You can also melt chocolate in the oven if you have extra time. Set the oven to its lowest temperature and check the chocolate every few minutes and stir it. Keep in mind, chocolate shouldn't get hotter than about 115 degrees F. when melting. This is just warm, not hot.

The microwave oven works quite well if you set it on 50% power, check your chocolate and stir after 1 minute, then nuke and stir every 15-20 seconds until it is almost melted. Stir without heating, and let the residual heat melt the chocolate completely.

Mistake #3. Trying to melt a big chunk of chocolate - not only will you still be standing there at the stove until sometime tomorrow trying to melt it, you'll have scorched it long before the whole chunk is melted. Chop up the chocolate, please. Try to chop it into fairly uniform pieces. Think chocolate chips for dark chocolate, finer for milk or white chocolate, as they tend to burn more easily. This applies no matter what method you use.

Mistake #4. Trying to melt it directly in a pot on the stove - Much too hot, too fast. You know that the chocolate touching the bottom of the pan is going to get way over 115 degrees. Don't do it.

Mistake #5. Neglecting it - Melting chocolate needs attention; it needs love. It needs to be stirred frequently to distribute the heat evenly.

Mistake #6. Putting a lid on the melting chocolate - Okay, I've seen this recommended before, but the problem here is that any moisture caught in the pan will condense on the lid and drip down into the chocolate. And you know what happens then, right?

Mistake #7. Trying to make it melt faster - Patience is a virtue. You can't hurry the process. You're just asking for trouble. Use low heat and take your time.

Remember: use low heat, take your time, keep it dry, and stir, stir, stir. You're working with chocolate here. Breathe in that rich aroma. Marvel at the silkiness of the melted chocolate. Anticipate the delight of the final product. Hey, don't get too lost in your senses. You have to keep stirring. Good luck.

In the next article on chocolate, I'll talk about what you can do with that seized chocolate.

Barbara O'Brien is an author, cook and mother of two young chefs. She encourages adults and children to learning about cooking and nutrition together. Find great recipes, nutrition tips, and fun facts at Incredibly Good Recipes and Kids-Cook.com

Scam Alert: BBB Phishing Scheme

Scheme uses E-Mail and Blogs to Encourage Recipients to Register Software with BBB

Better Business Bureau is alerting consumers and businesses about a phishing scheme that uses both e-mail messages and blog posts directing recipients and viewers to register software with BBB. BBB wants the public to know that such messages and posts are not coming from any element of the BBB System, and that this attack has not affected BBB computer systems or networks nor has any data been comprised.

Reports to BBB indicate that businesses began receiving bogus messages yesterday, requiring them to “register new software and update contact information” with BBB, and provided a link for the process. In investigating the attack, BBB also discovered phony “notices” and postings on various blogs being used as additional tactic to reach victims.

“The messages and posts are most likely part of a large-scale phishing scam leveraging the trusted nature of the BBB name to entice recipients and bloggers to open messages and access attachments or links,” said Steve Cox, BBB spokesman. “Anyone receiving an e-mail or viewing a blog requiring the registration of software with BBB should not click on any links or in any way respond to the message, because doing so may allow harmful viruses or spyware to enter the recipient’s computer or network.”

Following is a copy of an actual e-mail associated with this phishing scheme:

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Better Business Bureaus Account Service"
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:04:22 +0000

Attention Better Business Bureaus Consumers!

We've enhanced web surfing process with new security measures to keep your online data and personal information safer.
All registered and new BBB consumers must register new software and update contact information until October 24, 2008.
Please read the following information carefully:

Register your BBB company certificate here>>>Link

As always, we appreciate your business. And thank you for working with us.

Sincerely, Sherry Hopper.
2008 Council of Better Business Bureaus

BBB has determined that there are a number of addresses and subject lines being used in to perpetrate the e-mail element of the attack. Following is a representative sample of actual address and subject lines used in this attack.

· Address: “Better Business Bureaus Service Center " provisor399@bbb.org

· Subject Line: Council of Better Business Bureaus - We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you

· Address: "Better Business Bureaus Update" provisor633@bbb.org

· Subject Line: Better Business Bureaus, Attention: Protecting your personal information

· Address: Better Business Bureaus Support Center provisor062@bbb.org

· Subject Line: Better Business Bureaus, Attention: Shred unwanted documents that contain personal information.

The phishing scheme is also appearing on multiple blog sites. Following is a representative example of the type message BBB research and investigation has discovered on a number of blog sites.

“We've enhanced web surfing process with new security measures to keep your online data and personal information safer.
All registered and new BBB consumers must register new software and update contact information until October 24, 2008.”

Please read the following information carefully>>>Link

BBB is advising consumers and businesses to take the following precautions and actions to steer clear of this phishing attack and to protect their computer systems and networks.

• Anyone receiving an e-mail similar to those described should not open the message, not click on any links, or respond to the message – the message is not from any entity affiliated with BBB. Opening or viewing a preview of the e-mail, or clicking on the link within the e-mail, could enable a discreet download of a virus or spyware.
• Report receipt of any such messages. BBB is working with the U.S. Secret Service's Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) to address phishing issues using the BBB name. BBB has established an e-mail address - phishing@council.bbb.org – people can use to forward the message to, thereby reporting the incident to BBB and the ECTF.
• The public can view updates and the latest information on the phishing attack on the BBB Web site at the Security and Alerts Web page at http://www.bbb.org/securityalerts.

Georgia Culture: Art in the City: Thursday Nights at the High

The High Museum

High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309

A history rich in art and architecture.

From a stately home on Peachtree Street to its current award-winning buildings in a spectacular setting, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta has grown to become the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States with its renowned collection of classic and contemporary art and renowned architecture by Richard Meier and Renzo Piano.

The High's Early Years

Originally founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, the High Museum of Art received its first permanent home in 1926 when Mrs. Joseph M. High donated her family's residence on Peachtree Street. In 1955, the Museum moved to a new brick structure adjacent to the original High house. When the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center opened in 1968, the High Museum of Art was at its center.

A New Museum By Richard Meier

In 1979, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff offered a $7.5 million challenge grant for a new facility that would triple the High Museum of Art's space to 135,000 square feet. After raising $20 million, the High Museum of Art opened its new Richard Meier designed home in 1983. Among its many awards, the American Institute of Architects deemed the Meier design one of the "ten best works of American architecture in the 1980s."

The stunning, porcelain-enameled building is the ideal setting for the High Museum of Art's collection of over 11,000 pieces of art. A towering atrium soars to four interior levels, with the galleries moving from 18th and 19th-century collections near the ground floor to the cutting edge of contemporary art on the upper levels. Lower level galleries have been dedicated specifically to African art, photography, works on paper, and the works-on-paper study center.

The Expansion By Renzo Piano

The High Museum of Art continued to enjoy phenomenal growth through the 1990s and into the 21st century. To accommodate the growth, acclaimed Italian architect Renzo Piano was commissioned to design three new buildings. Opened in November 2005, the expansion of the High Museum of Art doubled its size to 312,000 square feet.

All three new buildings in the expansion of the High Museum of Art are clad in panels of aluminum to unite with Richard Meier's original choice of a white enamel façade. Often called the "master of light," Piano's sculpturally inspired buildings meld seamlessly with the High's existing light-filled Richard Meier structure.

Piano's design of the new Wieland Pavilion and the Anne Cox Chambers Wing features a special roof system of 1,000 light scoops that capture northern light and filter it into the skyway galleries. The Wieland Pavilion houses part of the Museum's modern and contemporary collection and the Anne Cox Chambers Wing features special collections.

The renovated Stent Family Wing is home to the Museum's permanent and folk art collections. The High Café and the Museum's new Greene Family Education Center and Greene Family Learning Gallery are also located in the Stent Family Wing.

Piano's signature piazza design opens the High Museum of Art to the surrounding Woodruff Arts Center and neighborhood, inviting both residents and visitors to connect and relax among the art-inspired environs.

Want to Volunteer?
The High can always use a helping hand during special events and programs!

Learn more >>

High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree Street, N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30309

Replies to voicemail and e-mail messages are made during regular Museum office hours, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Georgia Art

Receive the Georgia Art Exchange Bulletin. Its loaded with with Art Events, Artist info and Gallery announcements...and its free! Subscribe

Barbeque in Atlanta : What is Barbecuing?

Barbeque in Atlanta

What is Barbecuing?

If you're reading this, then it's pretty safe to assume that you are interested in learning how to prepare a killer barbecue meal without pulling your hair out of your head.

First lets get somethings straight because there are at time misconceptions about the term 'barbecue'. A lot of people associates barbecuing with anything cooked on the grill. This however is not so and there is a difference between barbecuing and grilling. Unlike grilling when barbecuing the meat is not applied directly to the heat but is rather on a low temperature heat to achieve maximum results.

What should also be understood is that barbecue is not a dish but rather a method of cooking.

"Though barbecuing is normally associated hardwood fire or charcoal it is also common to barbecue on a standard grill." Atlanta Outdoor Grills

Barbecue Defined

A process whereby a large cut of tough meat is cooked by the smoke of a hardwood fire at low temperatures (210 degrees or less) for a long period of time, with doneness determined by the meat's tenderness. Chris Schlesinger, Foreword to Smoke and Spice

Though barbecuing is normally associated hardwood fire or charcoal it is also common to barbecue on a standard grill. As a matter of fact there are some techniques that can be used to achieve some pretty admirable results with a standard grill. There are a lot of people who thinks that the stuff cooked in the oven or Crockpot soaking in a barbecue sauce is a form of barbecuing, however it is just plain old baked or stewed meat. It bears no resemblance to real BBQ whatsoever, so don't kid yourself.

In the process of barbecuing, the temperature is normally at about 225-250 degrees, and this very slow magical process breaks down the connective tissues of the meat and turns tough cuts into the most delicious tender food on earth. Just imagine that bite of that tender pork chop, my my.....

The exterior of the meat caramelizes, which produces an intensely flavorful crust or, as we like to say in BBQ circles, "bark." (If "caramel" implies sugar to you, you're exactly right. All meats contain natural sugars that darken, or "caramelize," when heated, and that's what makes up your BBQ's bark.) Since the meat cooks in low indirect heat, very little of the natural juices in the meat boil off. Your BBQ is therefore tender and juicy, pink in color, and smoky in flavor.

If you have tried to prepare a barbecue meal and it didn't work out for you don't give up. All you need is a step by step guide to show in detail what to do: from choosing the right meat cuts down to the seasoning(dry or wet) to storm up that tender juicy meal.

Lemarc is the owner of best barbecue recipes. If you want to learn how you can prepare tender barbecue meals so tasty your guest begs you for your secret and spread the news like a virus then go to http://www.best-barbecue-recipes.com

Scam Alert: Email Fraud

E-mails fraudulently claiming to be from the FDIC are attempting to trick recipients into installing unknown software on personal computers. These e-mails contain the subject line: "Funds wired into your account are stolen."

The FDIC is aware of e-mails appearing to be sent from the FDIC that ask recipients to open and review an attached file. Currently, the subject line of the e-mail states: "Funds wired into your account are stolen." The e-mail is fraudulent and was not sent by the FDIC.

The fraudulent e-mail tells the recipient that proceeds from identity theft crimes have been wire-transferred into their bank account. The e-mail then directs the recipient to open and review an attached copy of their bank account statement and to contact their bank account managers.

The attached file is actually an executable file containing malicious code or software. Recipients should consider the attached file as a malicious attempt to collect online banking credentials or other personal and confidential information that could be used to gain unauthorized access to on-line banking services or perpetrate identity theft and other criminal activities.

Recipients of the fraudulent e-mail should not reply and should not attempt to open the attached file. According to reports received by the FDIC, many antivirus software programs have been detecting and removing the malicious attachment before the e-mail is delivered. However, if a recipient does open the attachment, the FDIC recommends updating anti-virus software patches and performing a complete scan of the computer and network, if applicable. If a computer becomes infected and the user encounters difficulties removing the malicious code, users should contact their anti-virus software vendor. The FDIC highly recommends using anti-virus software.

For additional information about safe online banking and avoiding online scams, visit http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/guard/.

Atlanta Foreclosure Help

Foreclosure Help

HOPE NOW is an alliance between HUD approved counseling agents, servicers, investors and other mortgage market participants that provides free foreclosure prevention assistance.

HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, servicers, investors, and other mortgage market participants. This alliance will maximize outreach efforts to homeowners in distress to help them stay in their homes and will create a unified, coordinated plan to reach and help as many homeowners as possible. The members of this alliance recognize that by working together, they will be more effective than by working independently.

The Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraged leaders in the lending industry, investors and non-profits to form this alliance.

Alliance Action Plan

* The alliance will conduct a new, national direct mail campaign to contact at-risk borrowers, encouraging them to either call their lender or a credit counselor.
* This alliance has agreed to adopt a standard process model that will strengthen and speed work flow, productivity, and communications between servicers and counselors.
* The alliance will work to expand the capacity of an existing national network to receive, assess, counsel, refer, and connect borrowers to servicers.
* The American Securitization Forum, which represents servicers, investors, and other secondary market participants, has announced that counseling fees can be reimbursed from securitization transactions in appropriate circumstances.
* The alliance will develop common communications guidelines that will be used to respond to at-risk borrowers in order to offer them the best possible solutions, customized for each borrower.
* The servicers have agreed to work toward cross-industry technology solutions to more effectively connect servicers and counselors together in order to better serve the homeowner.
* The alliance will develop a common set of metrics to measure the initiative's progress.

Are you having trouble paying your mortgage? Nothing is worse than doing nothing. Call the Homeowner’s HOPE™ Free Hotline:

1.888.995.HOPE

Atlanta Poised For Recovery

Atlanta Poised For Recovery

Jeffrey Humphreys published November 2008 in Georgia Trend Magazine

Georgia’s prolonged and severe housing downturn has nearly run its course. Sales of new homes will bottom out in the final quarter of 2008, and sales of existing homes will bottom in the first quarter of 2009. New home sales will lead the turnaround because builders have been quicker to cut prices than homeowners. Spending on new residential construction will rise in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2009.

In 2009, the number of single-family home permits authorized for new construction should increase by 10 percent, and homebuilding will cease to be a drag on Georgia’s economy. That’s a positive development, but a 10 percent upturn in new home permits pales in comparison to the 74 percent peak-to-trough plunge in activity that occurred since building permits peaked in the first quarter of 2006.

Georgia’s single-family housing starts are at their lowest level since 1981, when the state’s population was only 5.6 million – the 2008 population is 9.8 million. At the national level, single family housing starts have hit their lowest level in 63 years.

Existing home values will not begin to appreciate until late 2009 or early 2010. Home price depreciation will continue to weigh heavily on the psyches of the consumers and on their ability to spend.

An important difference between Georgia’s housing recession and those that are still playing out in other states is that there was no investor driven home price bubble to burst. For example, investors’ share of mortgage originations peaked at only 8.5 percent in the Atlanta metropolitan area in 2005, nearly equal to their 8.2 percent share in 2000. The end result is that homes remained affordable. In 2008, the median house price divided by the median family income ratio was 2.4 in the Atlanta MSA compared to 3.5 for the nation.

Georgia’s large homebuilding industry, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of land suitable for new residential development, plus relatively few restrictions imposed by local governments on new home construction helped to ensure that home prices never really got too far out of line with household income levels and replacement costs. Home price bubbles did not develop in Georgia. That’s fairly amazing given the fast-paced population growth that Georgia enjoyed.

Consequently, selling prices of existing single-family homes have not fallen too much even as buying activity plunged and inventories of unsold and bankrupt properties accumulated. One factor that limited depreciation was the steep 74 percent drop in the number of single-family home building permits. Because Georgia’s home builders pulled back swiftly and sharply, new home inventories did not soar too much.

Since Georgia did not develop any speculative housing bubbles, home price depreciation has been and will remain modest compared to the nation as a whole. Single-family home prices in Georgia did not begin to decline until the second quarter of 2008, and the quarterly drop was only 0.7 percent. U.S. existing home prices began to decline – in the third quarter of 2007.

One factor driving down home prices is the elevated number of properties in foreclosure, which are priced by banks to sell rapidly. Consequently, existing home prices have not been as sticky as they typically are during a mild recession. In Georgia, existing home prices will decline the most in the outlying suburbs – places characterized by a lot of new neighborhoods and long commutes – and in areas where mortgage fraud was ubiquitous.

A number of forces will support the recovery of Georgia’s housing industry. On the demand side, the temporary $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers included in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 will help to strengthen the starter home segment of Georgia’s housing market. Since first-time homebuyers do not have to sell a home before they buy a home, the tax credit, which expires on July 1, 2009, will help to take excess inventory off the market. By the time the tax credit expires, statewide employment and personal income growth are predicted to resume, giving more people the confidence and the wherewithal to buy homes.

Demographic trends will provide ongoing stimulus to Georgia’s housing industry. The state’s total population will grow at 1.8 percent – twice the national average. Georgia will attract retirees in greater numbers than ever before.

Jeffrey Humphreys published November 2008 in Georgia Trend Magazine