Ways to use leftover Valentine’s Day chocolate

I cannot imagine this happening to me, but according to Food & Wine it is possible to receive too much chocolate for Valentine's Day. For those who are fortunate enough to have a windfall of extra truffles or other chocolate goodies, they offer five ideas for using up the leftovers. I suspect you will be able to guess some of… read more

What it’s like to live with a food nerd

My husband often jokes that the only way to get me to make something twice is to tell me that the dish I made isn't very good. He is not altogether wrong in that opinion. As someone who is more than mildly obsessed with cooking and baking, I am so eager to try the next new thing that it can… read more

This week: King cake and Madri Gras recipes, a preview of upcoming giveaways, cookbook previews and more!

This year Mardi Gras falls on the 25th of February, with celebrations happening in the two weeks leading up to the date itself. The largest celebrations occurring on the two weekends before the day itself, which always falls on a Tuesday. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is the food-laden fête before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season. One of… read more

Over 25 years of quick tips

Cook's Illustrated Magazine has been helping people understand the whys of cooking since 1993. Ever since the publication first appeared, a column called "Quick Tips" has been showcasing readers' tips for the ultimate kitchen hacks. Daniel Souza, Editor-in-chief of Cook's Ilustrated, sat down with The Splendid Table's Sally Swift to talk about the history these reader-provided tips. In case you… read more

How to pick the perfect melting cheese

While most recipes in the EYB Library that call for cheese specify a particular variety, sometimes you will come across one that tells you to use your favorite "melting cheese". You might wonder which cheese is best suited for the purpose. The varieties that immediately come to mind are mozzarella and American cheese, both considered to be a "melting" cheese… read more

Rage Baking – Cookbook Promotion

Enter our US/CA giveaway to win a copy of Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Butter, Sugar, and Women's Voices by Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford. Please note the authors' events that begin on February 17th are shared on our calendar. As of today, Rage Baking is a part of the buy three books for the price of two on Amazon.… read more

A treasure trove of rare and historical Mexican cookbooks is now available online

The history of Mexican cuisine involves adaptation, conquest, and assimilation. One way to trace this story is through cookbooks. While not many exist from the earliest interactions between Europeans and Native Americans, a collection of cookbooks at University of Texas at San Antonio provides a rough timeline of the transformation from native dishes to the today's cuisine that combines American… read more

Beyond the North Wind – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US giveaway to win a copy of Beyond the North Wind: Russia in Recipes and Lore by Darra Goldstein. Please note the author is touring and her events are on our calendar. Beyond the North Wind is an intriguing, thoughtful study of Russian cuisine and culture brought to us by Darra Goldstein who has been immersed in the… read more

Unsung culinary heroes

February is Black History Month here in the US, a celebration of African Americans who have contributed to the fabric of American society. In the culinary world, the focus tends to be on familiar names like Edna Lewis and George Washington Carver, but Nneka M. Okona of The Huffington Post is using this occasion to highlight people you may not… read more

Quick Bites: Kat Kinsman

People who love food are the best people. I enjoy learning more about my favorite cookbook authors, food writers, and bloggers and hope you do as well. Every few weeks, I will share a new article under the tag #QuickBites. Upcoming columns will feature: Melissa Clark and Paula Forbes. Two years ago at the IACP conference in New York, I… read more

Food news antipasto

Have you ever thumbed through a supermarket tabloid while waiting in line at the cash register? If so, you've probably seen a headline that went something like "Stars: they're just like us," with photos of celebrities doing everyday tasks like grocery shopping or walking their dog. For some reason, a recent Epicurious article reminded me of those tabloid pieces. The… read more

Why recipe writers don’t need to worry about artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is touted as a way to make things better and faster than humans can by harnessing the power of computers that process innumerable equations in the blink of an eye. It's been put to use in the fields of engineering, medicine, finance, and more. There are plenty of people worried that AI will put them out of… read more

The history of chopsticks

Everyone knows that chopsticks are the traditional food eating implement of most Asian cuisines, but do you know where they started and why they became popular? That's a question posed by the Chinese Food & History blog of the University of Michigan's Chinese studies program. There, Q. Edward Yang explores the origin and function of chopsticks in Asian cuisine. Right… read more

This week: The best brownie recipes, Valentine’s treats, giveaways, EYBD previews and more

While I am not a huge chocolate fan, my husband and son are chocolate fiends. Anything vanilla or citrus-flavored send my way and I will imbibe until my stretchy pants give up the ghost. So, I don't bake the types of treats I adore for two reasons: those desserts are not met with the enthusiasm that chocolate garners and number… read more

Cool Beans – Cookbook Giveaway & Circulon Cookware

Enter our US giveaway below to win a copy of Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes by Joe Yonan with one grand prize winner receiving a Circulon Symmetry 5.5-Qt. Covered Straining Casserole in Merlot. Please note the author's cookbook events on our calendar. Joe Yonan is the author of… read more

A tale of two covers

Have you ever noticed that the covers of the same cookbooks published in the US and the UK are frequently different? There are several reasons for this phenomenon, explains Charlotte Druckman in a recent Epicurious article for why this occurs so often. One of the examples discussed is Diana Henry's 2016 release Simple.  Says Henry, “The cover is the thing… read more

Extreme makeover: cast iron edition

There are few household items durable enough to hand down from generation to generation, and among these tough goods cast iron cookware may be the most useful and appreciated hand-me-down. A well-seasoned pan is a thing of beauty, handling everything from high heat searing to baking the best cornbread you've ever eaten. If you aren't fortunate enough to receive Grandma's… read more

First pancake problems

Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite meals, and if I'm making it then chances are good that pancakes will appear on the menu. Both decadent and comforting, pancakes make any day feel like a special occasion. I have a favorite recipe, developed over the years, that always gets rave reviews. There is just one problem: the first pancake… read more

Jubilee – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our giveaway open to US/CA to win a copy of Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin from the publisher. EYB is providing one copy outside US/CA worldwide. Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin is a celebration of two hundred years of African-American cooking. The author’s vast research is shared in… read more

Something fishy going on

You may have read an article or two of late that discusses fish fraud - it seems that a frighteningly large percentage of the fish you see on display in supermarkets is mislabeled. This makes cooking with fish a dicey proposition, especially so if your recipe calls for a specific variety with which you are not familiar. Finding a reputable… read more

Food news antipasto

The Unicode Consortium, the group that approves all new emojis, has announced eight new food emojis set for release in March in Unicode Version 13.0. The new symbols are blueberries, an olive, a green bell pepper, flatbread, tamale, a Swiss fondue pot, teapot, and bubble tea. Not making the cut again this year: white wine. Sorry, Chardonnay lovers. Don't expect… read more

Over 8,000 video recipes in the EYB Library

Video recipes are a growing trend in food media. Some people use them as a tutorial while others watch for entertainment. The videos can take the form of a mini-episode of a cooking show or focus on specific techniques or methods. Sometimes it’s easier to make something if you can watch how it’s done, as in the braiding technique for… read more
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