Celebrating leftovers

December 26, 2012 by
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According to The Guardian, food's latest hot trend may be leftovers.  First, however, we need to expand the definition of leftovers. Leftovers are not just food that has been cooked and not eaten, but the food parts that are discarded before even being cooked. According to the article, there are multiple reasons why we have chosen to discard leftovers (and,… read more

These food quotes impart wisdom in just a few words

December 24, 2012 by
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The attraction of quotes is how truly wise just a few words can be. In that spirt, here are some of our favorite food quotes from a list - compiled by Buzz Feed - of the 24 Best Quotes Ever About Food: Everything you see I owe to spaghetti - Sophia Loren The most remarkable thing about my Mother is that… read more

The best time-saving tips of 2012

December 22, 2012 by
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The Kitchn is running a series of "Best of 2012" articles, and we particularly liked this one, Homemade in a Hurry: 15 Time-Serving Tips. From coring a head of lettuce in 3 seconds, to four ways to soften butter, to quickly peeling fava beans, to freezing smoothie ingredients in muffin tins, this list truly has something to help everyone.  And we'd like… read more

3 food & drink apps for your consideration

December 20, 2012 by
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Food- and drink-related apps are becoming better and better. Here are three that have been singled out in the press recently that we thought you might be interested in: The Kitchn recently published, This New Italian Cooking iPad May Be the Best We've Seen. They introduce it with "If you're looking for a clever yet easy-to-understand Italian cooking app, we… read more

Well-meaning but disastrous kitchen experiments

December 19, 2012 by
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The Guardian has an amusing story this week, When kitchen experiments go wrong. It's an equal-opportunity article, since it includes a number of stories about well-known chefs, male and female, as well as home cooks. As they write, "It's when we tend to make the most effort in feeding our loved ones, and beyond the perils of the still-frozen turkey… read more

The year’s most embarrassing live TV food moments

December 18, 2012 by
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We're fans of Monty Python, which we can still catch at occasional odd hours on TV, and in that tradition we thought we'd bring you this list from the Braiser of "The 11 Most Disasterous Morning Show Cooking Segments of 2012." Some of them have reached notoriety already, such as the infamous scene of Paula Deen groping Matt Lauer who… read more

The best food books, but not cookbooks, of the year

December 17, 2012 by
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There are numerous lists this time of the year - best gifts, best cookbooks, best holiday recipes but nothing like the EYB master list - Best Cookbooks of the Year - which we'll be publishing imminently. In the meantime, we thought we'd tease you a little bit with a short version - a compilation of some of the most interesting… read more

Why we eat what we eat – a new blog presents a unique viewpoint

December 16, 2012 by
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In a recent Huff Post Food blog, Why I Don't Read Your Damn Food Blog, Stephanie Stiavetti details quite clearly what makes a bad food blog. What made this article particularly interesting was to compare the faults she lists (poor writing, too much advertising, bad photography, uninteresting writing) with a new food blog that we ran across recently and, frankly,… read more

2012’s worst cookbooks and lowest culinary events

December 14, 2012 by
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We recently found two articles that are, admittedly, out-of-tune with seasonal jollity, but still worthy of notice for committing culinary sins, including being remarkably tone-deaf, excessive, and hypocritical. May we recommend everyone on this list contemplate their New Year's resolution list carefully. First up is Esquire's Worst Food Moments of 2012. From deep-fried butter ("the worst use of butter since… read more

Determining if baking soda and baking powder are dead

December 13, 2012 by
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During this heavy baking season, here are ways to tell if the baking powder and baking soda you're using are still healthy and active: For baking powder, stir 1/4 teaspoon into 1/2 cup of very hot water. The powder will immediately bubble if it's still usable. For baking soda, do the same thing as for baking powder,  but add 1/4 teaspoon of… read more

Led by Bobby Flay, star chefs argue for a gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven

December 12, 2012 by
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We'd be remiss if we didn't alert our readers to the latest viral controversy, since it reflects on the way many of us may have enjoyed our first cooking experiences. Apparently, an eighth-grade girl has petitioned Hasbro to offer Easy Bake Ovens in more colors than just pink, backing up her request with a widely viewed You Tube video of… read more

Preventing smoke alarms from going off without disabling them

December 11, 2012 by
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We'll confess this posting is a little personal. Having forgotten that a) the windows are now closed, and b) how much smoke a steak on a cast iron pan can generate, we spent a lot of time a few days ago running around disarming all the smoke alarms in the house. And we'll admit we haven't gotten them back up,… read more

Are vegetable or bean chips that much healthier than potato chips?

December 10, 2012 by
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With the holiday season, there are more parties and more snack foods. In that context, It's been fun watching the proliferation of "healthy" chips in the snack food aisle. After all, it's been drilled into us that potato chips are bad for us, so it seems to make sense that kale chips, black bean chips - indeed anything not labeled… read more

Ten rules for the best-ever hot chocolate

December 9, 2012 by
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If our friends down in the southern hemisphere will excuse us, we're going to concentrate today on how to make  the ultimate winter comfort beverage - awesome hot chocolate. We've reviewed the possibilities, and this list from Buzz Feed Food, 10 Commandments of Awesome Hot Chocolate, strikes us as taking absolutely the right approach. The article explains the full reasoning… read more

Controversial N.Y. Times critic speaks out

December 7, 2012 by
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A few weeks ago we, and most of the food world, noted that The New York Times food critic, Pete Wells, had written one of the snarkiest reviews ever about Guy Fieri's Manhattan restaurant. While everyone granted it was really funny, and no one actually  defended the restaurant (except for Fieri who responded with a media blitz), a consistent criticism leveled… read more

Mint confusion: spearmint vs. peppermint

December 6, 2012 by
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Peppermint is a popular holiday flavor - where would we be without candy canes? And spearmint can also be a popular candy flavor  - think gum. Most of us would  regard these two flavors as quite different, yet most recipes just call for "mint." So which type should you use? And which flavor do you get when you buy undifferentiated… read more

When should a chef give credit for a recipe idea?

December 5, 2012 by
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  Eater has an intriguing article, "Inspiration and Attribution in Cooking: How and When Should Chefs Credit Their Sources." Traditionally, the guideline was that any recipe had to be credited unless the chef had made three significant alterations in the recipe. But in these internet days, when recipes fly fast and furious, are there any guidelines left? And what are… read more

Will recipes become living things?

December 4, 2012 by
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  In a short video over at Serious Eats, Kenji Alt interviews Alton Brown on the future of recipe writing. In just over a minute, Brown mentions several interesting items. Here are two that especially intrigued us: First is the question: What if a recipe could take any of three paths to completion:? "And you got to choose your path… read more

Fixing over-softened butter

December 3, 2012 by
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Here's a quick tip from America's Test Kitchen, via the Kitchn, that should come in particularly useful during this period of intense cookie baking. When a recipe calls for softened butter, and we've forgotten to leave it at room temperature, most of us go to our microwave to do a quick fix. But it's hard to calculate exactly how much to… read more

3 special books for wine lovers

December 2, 2012 by
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The New York Times recently published Highlights from the 2012 Vintage in Wine Publishing, singling out three special reference books. Any of these would be a pleasurable gift to give to wine lovers who have all the basics, but want to delve more deeply into specialized areas. Specifically, the list includes: Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties,… read more

23 unexpected, but intriguing,flavor combinations

November 30, 2012 by
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One of the hardest challenges for cooks is to go beyond cookbooks (no matter how great they are) and branch out into experimenting with creating individual recipes, maybe using unusual food combinations. And here is where true taste preferences can come in (peanut butter and pickles anyone?). But despite the obstacles, it remains a fascinating challenge. In this context, we… read more

How to purchase cookbooks to match your cooking style

November 29, 2012 by
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  As avid cookbook collectors, we're sure that everyone in the EYB community has met with one of two aggravating scenarios. First, there are the recipes that just don't tell you enough. For example, a muffin recipe calls for 2 butternut squash, pureed, but just how much pureed squash is that - after all, squash come in different sizes and… read more

Eliminating smelly fish odors

November 28, 2012 by
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We all know that we should eat a lot of fish - not a hardship since fish can be extremely tasty. But you rarely see a discussion regarding one issue with fish - the odor that remains after you cook it. Over at the Kitchn they've looked at the problem and come up with some solutions. Here are a few:… read more

Cookbook ghostwriters – the secret behind the sauce

November 27, 2012 by
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Some time ago there was quite a kerfluffle about cookbook ghostwriters (here's the blog we wrote to refresh your memory). Rachael Ray, in particular, took great umbrage. The Chicago Tribune has brought the subject up again in an article called Hidden Ingredients,  but this time they're highlighting some great chefs who aren't afraid to look for help. To begin, they… read more

The one kitchen app that rules them all

November 26, 2012 by
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Since we ran a Black Friday gift article with ideas from Michael Ruhlman and others last week, it's only appropriate that we acknowledge Cyber Monday - the time that everyone goes online to shop. Of course, now it's perhaps even more appropriate to acknowledge that an EYB membership is the perfect cyber gift, but we also wanted to bring up… read more
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