Lodestar
Lodestar's JournalAnyone have experience making steamed English puddings?
"Pudding" is actually a really moist cake. I really want to try it. Sounds just as easy as cooking it in the oven but super moist. It does seem to take more time but I'm also curious if it could be made in a pressure cooker that would be faster. The timing is the big mystery for me which I'm guessing is just something one learns with experience. Anyhooo...just wondering if anyone here has that
experience and has any tips, special ingredients or recipes to share?.
It's Greek To Me - Whole Foods to stop selling Chobani Greek Yogurt
Whole Foods to Chobani: Please Leave
Is it possible to get too successful for Whole Foods? The grocery chain's latest move to stop shelving the Greek yogurt brand begs the question.
Here we've got one outstanding entrepreneur selling his product to a public company run by another crazily successful entrepreneur. Both entrepreneurs care about healthy food, and they're both supporting another large community of entrepreneurs--dairy farmers. And it looks like it's going to be quite a mess.
According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods Market, still run by co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey, has said it will no longer be selling Chobani yogurt as of 2014. Chobani is owned and operated by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant and entrepreneur who is credited with turning struggling areas of upstate New York into a veritable yogurt Nirvana.
In a statement released by Chobani, Ulukaya said, "Though we have very limited distribution within Whole Foods, they have been an important partner of ours over the years," and added, "We hope to continue our partnership moving forward."
Whole Foods is reportedly dropping Chobani because it wants to make room on its shelves for products from smaller producers that either do not contain genetically-modified organisms or that clearly label ingredients that are genetically-modified. While Chobani markets its yogurt as "Nothing but good," there have been complaints that some of the farmers who sell milk to Chobani give their cows genetically-modified feed.
MORE -
http://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/whole-foods-to-chobani-please-leave.html?cid=ps01902grow
Personally I prefer FAGE Greek Yogurt.
Iran lures oil majors with new contracts pledge
Source: Reuters
Iran will have a new, attractive investment model for oil contracts by September, its president and oil minister told some of the world's top oil executives here on Thursday, part of its drive to win back Western business.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said their new administration was keen to open up to Western investments and technology, executives who attended the meeting said. They also stressed the importance of fossil fuel, with global energy demand rising.
"The fact that the president of Iran came to the meeting today... is clearly a sign that Iran wants to open up to international oil companies," said Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Italy's Eni (ENI.MI), who was at the meeting.
"It was an impressive presentation," said one of three further oil executives who were at the meeting and spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/23/us-iran-rouhani-davos-oil-idUSBREA0M0JD20140123
Apparently Iran has figured out how to speak 'english'....our language.
Canadian Company Starts Keystone Pipeline in Texas HOUSTON January 22, 2014 (AP)
Source: AP
A Canadian company on Wednesday started delivering oil through the Texas portion of a proposed cross-border pipeline that has stirred controversy and tension between the United States and its northern neighbor.
TransCanada began delivering oil from a hub in Cushing, Okla., to customers in Nederland, Texas, early Wednesday, Alex Pourbaix, president of energy and oil pipelines, said at a news conference. The company expects to complete a smaller pipeline that will transport oil from Nederland to refineries near Houston later this year.
The $2.3 billion pipeline from Cushing to Texas is the Gulf Coast — or southern portion — of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. This shorter leg will begin transporting on average about 300,000 barrels of oil daily and should end the year at an average of about 520,000 barrels, Pourbaix said.
The longer Keystone XL, which would transport heavy tar sands crude from Canada and oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale, requires a permit from President Barack Obama because it crosses an international border. That $5.4 billion segment has not yet been approved. Obama fast-tracked the shorter, southern portion of the pipeline with the hope of relieving a bottleneck in Oklahoma.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/canadian-company-starts-keystone-pipeline-texas-21622662
FBI suspects front running of Fannie, Freddie in swaps market
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Wall Street traders may be manipulating a key derivatives market and front running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, hurting the US-owned mortgage giants in the process, according to an FBI intelligence bulletin reviewed by Reuters.
Using what Federal Bureau of Investigation agents described as "unsophisticated tradecraft," such as hand signals and special telephone ring tones, some traders are conspiring to rig rates on large orders submitted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or front running them in the interest rate swaps market, the document says.
The FBI said in the bulletin that the information came from a former high-level employee at a U.S. bank and an employee at a Canadian Bank, plus interviews with other bank workers conducted in 2012 and 2013. The former high-level employee at the U.S. bank estimated the front running had resulted in profits of $50 million to $100 million for the bank, the FBI said.
....
Front running occurs when someone with advance knowledge of another market participant's plan to make a sizable transaction puts an order in first, often profiting from a market move that can occur once the big trade has gone through.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-usa-swaps-probe-idUSBREA0D04N20140114
Iraq's Maliki threatens to cut funds if Kurds pipe oil to Turkey
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threatened on Sunday to cut Kurdistan's share of the federal budget if the autonomous region exports oil to Turkey via a new pipeline without central government consent.
The Kurdistan Regional Government said last week that crude had begun to flow to Turkey and exports were expected to start at the end of this month and then rise in February and March.
"This is a constitutional violation which we will never allow, not for the (Kurdistan) region nor for the Turkish government," Maliki told Reuters in an interview.
He reiterated Baghdad's insistence that only the central government has the authority to manage Iraq's energy resources.
"Turkey must not interfere in an issue that harms Iraqi sovereignty," Maliki said.
Cont'd
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/12/us-iraq-kurdistan-oil-idUSBREA0B0AY20140112
Uh oh.... Turkey is going to lose their neutral status in that region which could throw their delicate balancing act off and ignite an already volatile situation.
My previous post in GD gives a little more background:
Independent sale of Kurdistan oil could "break Iraq apart" ---
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024281425
Hilarious new kind of ventriloquism
http://vimeo.com/61886386
How to create an extrovert -
Conservation Tips - buy an insulation blanket for your gas or electric water heater
Easy. Saves money and energy!
Independent sale of Kurdistan oil could break Iraq apart
berry...berry...interestink......It seems Turkey and U.S. oil interests among others have decided to work around the main Iraq government. I'm sure there is much more to uncover about this as it relates to current events. And Turkey doing deals with the KRG?
NKARA, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan has started flowing via a new pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean export hub of Ceyhan but will not be shipped to world markets without the consent of Baghdad, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Thursday. Yildiz hopes a deal can be reached this month for exports to begin, he told a news conference in Ankara. Flows through the pipeline would start at 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) and rise to 400,000, he said. Turkey signed a multi-billion-dollar energy package late last year with Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG) under which the semi-autonomous region plans independent energy exports via Turkey. Kurdistan could eventually export some 2 million bpd of oil to world markets and at least 10 billion cubic metres per year of gas to Turkey. Its bid to export oil and gas independently from Baghdad has infuriated officials in the Iraqi capital, which claims sole authority to manage Iraqi oil. Turkey has been working to get the central government on board before exports start. - See more at: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/130895/Kurdistan_Oil_Flow_to_Turkey_Begins_Exports_Await_Iraqi_Consent#sthash.0mJLDjDF.dpuf
Edited to add this article: Turkey, the US and the KRG: Moving Parts and the Geopolitical Realities
http://www.insightturkey.com/turkey-the-us-and-the-krg-moving-parts-and-the-geopolitical-realities/Articles/196
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