Cooking Light’s Best 25 Recipes

Cooking Light is celebrating its 25th anniversary by publishing, both in print and online,  its best 25 recipes. As they say, "25 years, 25 dishes. We're going back in time to count down our best of the best, from 2011 to 1987." The collection, gathered by its recipe archivists, has some interesting features. We noticed that five include chicken (including… read more

Cooking at home – storm edition

Here in western Mass., we escaped pretty much scot-free - a power flicker or two, and then it was over.  The kids went to school this morning.  Last year, after the Halloween snowstorm, it was a totally different story.  The power was out for 3 long days (and much more, elsewhere); the roads were impassable.  The kids were sent out… read more

Making groceries last longer

First, we want to send all our members who were affected by Hurricane Sandy our very best wishes; we hope you're safe and recovery will be swift.  And since survival is on our mind, we thought it appropriate to share this article from BuzzFeed Food, 27 Ways to Make Your Groceries Last as Long as Possible.  The article is full… read more

Potato ghosts on the march

Over at Gourmet Live they're getting in the Halloween spirit and we were happy to see these little potato ghosts come front and center. They first appeared in the 90's and due to both how  easy they were to make and incredible cuteness factor, they were an instant hit. In The Story behind the Potato Ghosts Kemp Minifie describes their origin… read more

The proper way to eat a cupcake

Cupcakes have been an intensely popular food item for several years now, so it is not surprising that one of the key questions tormenting the food world has been how to avoid that dreaded modern problem - the frosted nose. It used to be that frosting was spread thinly over cupcakes, but the modern cupcake comes with a high swirl… read more

Perfect 2-ingredient sandwiches

Sandwiches are certainly the ultimate in convenience food. Indeed, the very story of their invention - the Earl of Sandwich wanting to have a convenient way to eat his bread and meat so he wouldn't have to leave the gaming table - testifies to their ease of preparation. Given this background, these 2-ingredient sandwich ideas from Saveur struck us as… read more

Quick tip: Turn white sugar into brown sugar

Recipes calling for brown sugar are surprisingly ubiquitous. Cookie season is fast approaching in the Northern hemisphere (of course, for many of us, it's always here),  and so many great cookie recipes seem to call for brown sugar. Or, for our readers Down Under who are now beginning to feast on fresh fruits, what's a better topping than brown sugar?… read more

Revel in lemons

Slate recently published a wonderful article called "When Life Gives You Lemons, Put Them in Everything." And what's not to love about a lemon? It's a beautiful fruit which adds zest to both sweet and savory dishes, brings out flavor (without any fat!), and makes hair shine. Plus many grocery stores sell them in sacks, making them affordable and plentiful.… read more

Calling all bacon fans – Bittman’s 25 ways to serve bacon

Of all the many recent food fads, bacon seems to be hanging around longer than most. We'll admit there have been some extremes (Jack in the Box's Bacon Milkshake certainly qualifies), but that still doesn't eliminate the pleasant fact that we've seen bacon add its special flavor to many unexpected dishes, and enjoyed them all the more. In his column… read more

How geeky is your kitchen?

Food science seems to have turned a corner for those of us who cook at home.  Of course, practical advice has been around as long as there have been cooks - have all your ingredients at room temperature before baking! searing seals in the juices! (WRONG.)  But the Internet has accelerated the spread of cooking do's, don'ts, and "try this"es.… read more

The newest over-the-top foods at the state fairs

As this article from Endless Simmer* warns, "Steel your arteries." They've compiled a list of the top 10 new foods from the state fairs. The intro states it all, "Well, in regards to ridiculous overloads of novelty foods, it's all downhill from here--state fair season is over for the year. We'll have to wait for months before a stream of… read more

Is Nordic cuisine the new “hot” trend?

Local, healthy ingredients are a world-wide craze. But what do you do when your growing season is only two-months long? This is one of the challenges that modern Nordic chefs face as they try to expand beyond "Ikea food" (although Ikea's meatballs are pretty darn good). Since 2004, when a group of cooks published "The Nordic Manifesto," emphasizing local and… read more

Kale as the latest aphrodisiac?

We admit to reading a lot of food blogs, so a catchy title does make an impression. And Jennifer Iserloh's article in Epicurious certainly caught our attention with her article, " Kale and Sex Drive?" She actually discusses three libido-enhancing foods in depth: kale, maca, and pumpkin seeds. B-vitamins and zinc are among the factors she cites for their powers. Irregardless,… read more

Is Paula Deen’s restaurant really that trashy?

Food Republic's Joshua Stein recently took a trip to Savannah to visit Paul Deen's iconic restaurant, The Lady and Sons, and reported in full in A Voice From Within the Paula Deen Wilderness. His report has created a bit of a storm on the internet, given its portrayal of a massive, volume-driven operation that seeks to drive people into the… read more

For maximum flavor, stop seeding tomatoes

NPR's The Salt recently interviewed Chris Kimball from Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen. CI has just published a new book, The Science of Good Cooking, where they instruct you how to "Master 50 Simple Concepts to Enjoy a Lifetime of Success in the Kitchen." (Thanks to the Kitchn for pointing us to this interview.) In the interview, Kimball reveals… read more

“New” vs. “All in One Place” cookbooks

Fall cookbooks have been streaming in over the threshold, and over the weekend I got the call for cookbook roundup.  So, this morning I sat on the kitchen floor, where stacks of books have been piling up, and started sorting. There are three big piles: (1) "Give away," (2) "Keep but not under consideration for roundup," and (3) "Roundup candidates".… read more

Now readily accessible: 3 much-loved recipe and food collections

Great cookbooks don't age (isn't that one excuse many of us use to justify our large cookbook collections?). And at EYB we're proud not only of making our members' cookbooks more readily accessible, but helping cooks resurrect great food writing and recipes from the past. We have three great examples to talk about today. First, we've now indexed the entire… read more

The Rachael Ray garbage bowl

Adam Roberts over at The Amateur Gourmet reminded us recently of one of the best tips we ever learned in culinary school - the garbage bowl. He calls it the Rachael Ray garbage bowl, as he first learned the tip from her cooking show (and she apparently sells one through Target). As he describes it, "Simply take a large bowl… read more

Quick tip: Easily peel garlic – no sticky skin!

Tired of having thin garlic skin stick to your fingers when you're peeling garlic? It's easy to prevent - in fact, there are two methods: (i) just put the garlic cloves in the microwave for a few seconds or (ii) blanch them in boiling water. And once you have all that lovely garlic peeled, try one of our favorite recipes:… read more

What’s the most important invention in the history of food?

The Guardian  recently reported that the Fellows of the Royal Society posted its list of the 20 most important food inventions. The list is below, but as equally as much fun are the comments that the Guardian received disagreeing with the list. You can see them here.  Refrigeration Pasteurization/sterilization Canning The oven Irrigation Threshing machine/Combine harvester Baking Selective breeding/Strains Grinding/Milling… read more

Caramelizing onions in just 15 minutes

Kenji Alt over at Serious Eats writes an always-intriguing science food blog - and we pay special attention when he has cooking tips. His latest is how to caramelize onions in just 15 minutes - without adding either sugar or baking soda. We encourage you to watch the video, which demonstrates that the keys are good stirring and temperature regulation.… read more

Why were we so confused about authentic Chinese food?

David Chan on the Menuism blog has an illuminating article on how American Chinese food came to be - and why it took us so long to appreciate diverse and authentic Chinese food. It turns out to be a combination of geographical and political factors. Chinese immigration began with the California gold rush and virtually all the travelers came from… read more

Money is no object! (and neither is time.)

Ah, the restaurants of the 1%.  I haven't been inside one since the 1% were more like the 20%, over a decade ago.  And though I wasn't part of the 20% even then, I could once in a while visit their culinary haunts. The kind of personalized, luxe experience now enjoyed by patrons of the world's most rarified eateries may… read more

New Features on EYB

At EYB we're always tweaking things to make members' experiences more enjoyable. We've just released a new version that includes a few changes: Improved pagination - search results are now shown in pages - a feature that many members have requested. Increase speed when displaying search results. To achieve this we have removed 'search as you type'. You now have… read more

Cook any whole grain in the same no-fuss way

The Kitchn has some good advice for anyone looking to add more whole grains to their meals, but concerned about how tricky they are to cook. It's easily understood for anyone who knows how to cook pasta: "Basically, I use the same method for cooking whole grains that I use for cooking pasta: I simmer the grains in a good… read more
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