FDR Media | April 27, 2023
(NAPSI)—Although the abolitionist, suffragist and lyricist of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe, first wrote a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870, and in 1908 Anna Jarvis sent hundreds of white carnations to a church in honor of her own activist mother, it wasn’t until 1914 that Mother’s Day was declared an official holiday in America.
Here are some additional fun facts and stats about Mother’s Day along with a clever cocktail you can share with her as well.
Moms Celebrated Around The World
More than a hundred countries celebrate Mother’s Day in some way. In Ethiopia, the festivities last for three days. In Britain, they celebrate “Mothering Sunday” on the fourth Sunday of Lent with a special service in “mother church.”
New Mothers Are Older
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of women giving birth in the U.S. is now 30, the highest on record.
Time To Call Your Mother
Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May every year—and more phone calls are made that day than at any other time.
A Toast To Mom
Celebrate Mom with an easy and flavorful tropical sangria. This five-minute cocktail comes together with a few ingredients over ice—add premeasured rum and white wine, a 7.5 ounce can of Seagram’s Escapes, your choice of fruit and voila.
You can double or triple the recipe to create an easy, flavorful punch for a Mother’s Day party or add extra spirits for a stronger cocktail, or swap in your favorite sliced fruits.
Mother’s Day Tropical Sangria
1/2 cup sliced fruit (assorted berries, lemons and oranges)
1/2 oz spiced rum
1/3 cup white wine
1 can (7.5 oz) of Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy®
Add ingredients to a pitcher or glass with ice and stir to combine. Garnish with fruit slices. Chill until ready to serve.
This easy and refreshing cocktail is made with the national bestseller Seagram’s Escapes Jamaican Me Happy, which boasts delicious flavors of lemon, watermelon, strawberry and guava. It comes in a convenient new 7.5 oz size can, so there’s no measuring required. Because the size is also handy for sampling, you can try a variety of flavors to find the one you enjoy most.
As the weather warms, you can freeze Jamaican Me Happy or any of Seagram’s Escapes’ indulgent flavors with lemonade, then blend for a grown-up slushy.
You can find this and other delicious recipes at www.SeagramsEscapes.com.
A Sampling of Dining Out Options for Thanksgiving Soul Food Around California
Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media | November 21, 2022
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and with that comes greens, beans, candied yams, turkey (roasted and deep-fried), dressing, mac n’ cheese, sweet potato pie and all the other soul food “fixins” that make the holiday meal arguably the tastiest meal of the year for many African Americans. We can choose from a diverse menu of food options that we prepare at home, or we can try to enjoy those options dining out.
The city of Inglewood, for example, is hosting a drive-thru turkey giveaway on Nov. 23 with special guest Snoop Dogg.
The event will go from 9 am to 12 pm and is located at Hollywood Park.
The goal is to serve 2,500 Inglewood residents with free turkeys provided by Don Lee Farms.
While many people enjoy preparing and eating that turkey dinner at home, some people prefer to outsource their feast.
For those folks, here’s a small sampling of some soul food restaurants around the state that will be open on or around Thanksgiving.
StreetCar (San Diego)
First up is StreetCar in San Diego. On Nov. 24, they will be hosting a Thanksgiving Feast Event.
“Bring your friends and family on Thanksgiving Day for a celebratory feast,” it reads on their flier.
The event is located at 4002 30th St. and will go from 11:00am to 10:00pm.
Founded by Ron Suel and RaVae Smith in 2014, StreetCar specializes in southern cuisine and features an all-day brunch menu.
“You will find classic southern dishes and Louisiana favorites,” their website reads.
ComfortLA (Los Angeles)
In Downtown Los Angeles, ComfortLA is an option for those who want to eat out this holiday as it’s open on Thanksgiving Day.
Located on 1110 E. 7th St., ComfortLA was once a pop-up restaurant founded by Jeremy McBryde and Mark E. Walker.
ComfortLA focuses on taking a clean approach to their menu, sporting a variety of all-natural soul food options.
“We use locally sourced, fresh and organic ingredients and healthier cooking methods to create top-notch, Southern cuisine including ‘Cousin Kina’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese,’ ‘Clean Mean Greens’ and our signature ‘Organic Not Your Average Fried Chicken’ with ‘That Sauce,'” it reads on their website.
They also have an Inglewood location, though that restaurant is not open on Thanksgiving.
Minnie Bell’s (Emeryville)
Minnie Bell’s – a soul food truck in Emeryville up north – may not be open the day of Thanksgiving, it will be open on the 23rd for those who want to celebrate a little early.
Founded by Fernay McPherson in 2013, “Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement” is born out of legacy.
“Fernay learned to cook from her great aunt Minnie and late grandmother Lillie Bell,” the website reads. “Fernay’s family arrived in San Francisco during the Great Migration as part of the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to cities in the North and West.”
Minnie Bell’s is located in the Emeryville Public Market at 5959 Shellmound St.
Hotville Chicken (Los Angeles)
The last establishment on this list is Hotville Chicken in Los Angeles.
This restaurant is not open the day of Thanksgiving but patrons can order ahead of time and pick their food up on the 24th.
Hotville, then known as the BBQ Hot Chicken Shack, was founded by Thornton Prince in 1936 in a segregated part of town.
Thorton’s great-great niece Kim Prince now runs the family business.
Their website boasts about how spicy their chicken is, as Thorton’s original recipe focused heavily on a fiery flavor.
“If you’ve never heard about Nashville-style hot chicken, it’s certainly time to get familiar,” it reads.
Prince’s focus is on community, as Thorton’s original chicken recipe “brought people together” even in a divided town.
Hotville is located at 4070 Marlton Ave.
DELICIOUS TRADITIONAL RECIPES
Give Traditional Recipes A Better-For-You Twist
CVV News-Posted: July 28, 2022
(NAPSI)—Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States—about 655,000 Americans die from heart disease each year, according to the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention—but you can protect yourself 3 ways.
Three Steps To A Healthier Heart
1. Don’t smoke. If you do smoke, quit. Your doctor can help.
2. Get regular exercise. The Surgeon General recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise week.
3. Eat right. Choose plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and foods high in fiber and low in saturated fats, trans fat, and cholesterol.
To help, Mazola® Corn Oil has come up with a number of recipes that are delicious and support heart health. The all-purpose cooking oil is a heart-healthy* choice for baking, grilling, sautéing, stir frying or mixing up a marinade.
Plus, it has a high smoke point of 450° F. All cooking oils have a smoke point that, once exceeded, negatively affects the food’s flavor.
Here’s a heart-healthy* recipe, popular with Latinx cooks, that’s delicious for everyone:
Steak Tacos
1 pound flank or skirt steak, frozen for 30 minutes
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) Mazola® Corn Oil, divided
3 tablespoons tamari or reduced sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
8 taco-sized flour tortillas heated on skillet lightly coated with Mazola® Corn Oil until lightly charred.
Toppings:
Cotija cheese
Chopped cilantro
Pickled jalapeno
Lime wedges
In large bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, 2 tablespoon Mazola® Corn Oil, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano. Remove steak from freezer and slice thinly across the grain. Place in bowl with marinade. Stir to cover. Marinate 45 minutes to 2 hours. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in large skillet over high heat. Add steak to hot oil. Sear on both sides for about 1 minute. Immediately reduce heat to medium high. Add reserved marinade. Cook, stirring often, until marinade has reduced to half, about 3-4 minutes. Divide steak among warmed tortillas. Top with a sprinkling of chopped cilantro, crumbles of cotija cheese and pickled jalapeño. Serve immediately with lime wedges.
Learn More
For further healthful eating facts, tips and recipes, visit www.Mazola.com.
*Very limited and preliminary scientific evidence suggests that eating about 1 tbsp (16 grams) of corn oil daily may reduce the risk of heart disease due to the unsaturated fat content in corn oil. FDA concludes there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim. To achieve this possible benefit, corn oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day
Blue Shield of Calif. Expands Mental Health Support With Addition of Ginger on Wellvolution Platform
Blue Shield of California announced that its health plan members who are enrolled in the Wellvolution program now have access to Ginger’s on-demand, personalized mental health support that can be accessed on their smartphone.
“Ginger provides a safe space for our members to quickly make appointments, be matched with a coach or therapist, and benefit from the expanded range of mental health resources,” said Bryce Williams, vice president, Mind Body Medicine at Blue Shield of California.
Blue Shield’s Wellvolution platform, built in collaboration with Solera Health, is helping to make behavioral support more readily available. Last fall, the nonprofit health plan announced Headspace, now a Headspace Health brand, on Wellvolution. On the first day Headspace was available, thousands of members signed up to access its mindfulness tools to manage stress, sleep, and focus. With the addition of Ginger, Wellvolution members now have access to Headspace Health’s full spectrum of mental health and wellness self-help and clinical services on one platform, from one smartphone.
Ginger is an on-demand mental health platform that can help individuals manage anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and other mental-health challenges. The service provides eligible Blue Shield members easy access to confidential, text-based mental health coaching and self-guided activities anytime, any day at no additional cost. In addition, members have access to video therapy and psychiatry sessions with Ginger’s highly trained providers.*
According to a recent study by Mental Health America, more than half of adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, totaling over 27 million adults in the U.S. who are going untreated.
“There are many reasons for this alarming statistic, including the stigma of mental health problems, access to appropriate care, and a shortage of therapists and psychiatrists in some areas,” Williams said. “Ginger addresses these barriers and gives members easy access to the clinical care they need, right at their fingertips.”
“Mental health is not a linear journey, and thus, members need access to a full continuum of preventative and clinical care services that can meet them where they are, at any moment in time,” said Dana Udall, PhD, chief clinical officer, Headspace Health. “Ginger and the larger Headspace Health platform support members wherever they may be along that mental health and wellbeing spectrum, from thriving, to coping to struggling.”
Wellvolution is Blue Shield’s digital lifestyle medicine and health platform that can be personalized for individual health needs and preferences. Created in collaboration with Solera Health, Wellvolution provides members guided on-demand access to a tailored network of clinically proven apps using lifestyle to prevent, treat, and even reverse disease. It is available to most Blue Shield members with their benefit plan at no additional cost and is an example of how the nonprofit health plan is reimagining health for individuals, families, and communities.
“We are excited to help expand Blue Shield of California’s mental health offering on the Wellvolution platform to cover more parts of the acuity spectrum through our partnership with Headspace Health’s beloved brands,” said Mary Langowski, CEO, Solera Health. “Making mental and behavioral health services and solutions accessible and convenient for consumers is core to our mission and is more important than ever during this critical time of need.”
Last week, Business Intelligence Group awarded Blue Shield’s Wellvolution Program the Big Innovation Award for the health plan’s collaboration with Headspace. This annual business awards program recognizes organizations, products, and people that are bringing new ideas to life in innovative ways. For more information about mental health resources available through Blue Shield’s Wellvolution platform, go to wellvolution.com/mentalhealth.
*Copay or coinsurance may apply based on the member’s benefit plan
About Blue Shield of California
Blue Shield of California strives to create a healthcare system worthy of its family and friends that is sustainably affordable. Blue Shield of California is a tax-paying, nonprofit, independent member of the Blue Shield Association with over 4.5 million members, over 7,500 employees and more than $21 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 in San Francisco and now headquartered in Oakland, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid, and Medicare healthcare service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $150 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation in the last four years to have an impact on California communities.
For more news about Blue Shield of California, please visit news.blueshieldca.com.
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