The 20 most popular recipes on Pinterest

We wanted to print a year-end list generated not from authorities, but from home cooks. And what better source than the ultimate user-friendly website, Pinterest? So without further ado, thanks to BuzzFeed, here are The 20 Recipes That Won Pinterest in 2013 (they have photos and some fun commentary on their article if you'd like to check it out): Cinnamon Toast, from… read more

Early New Year’s resolution: Why you should visit a farm this year

We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying the rewards of all that holiday preparation and cooking. So as you're looking to catch your breath and start focusing on the New Year, we thought we'd get in with an early suggestion for a New Year's resolution. This year, visit a farm and learn a little… read more

An early Christmas present inspires a big thank you!

It's a time for joy and a time for thanks. And we are thankful for many things here at EYB - our members, especially. So in that spirit we'd like to take a moment to thank our friends at New Zealand's Taste Magazine. They've published an article about us that does an excellent job of summing up why we're so… read more

Happy 75th Birthday to the chocolate chip cookie

We're taking a moment off from holiday cheer to note a different celebration - it's the 75th birthday of the chocolate chip cookie. For those of you as interested in food history as we are, The New Yorker has a wonderful history of the cookie here. Briefly, after its origin at the Tollhouse Inn in Massachusetts, the cookie performed stalwart service… read more

Break out the crystal ball: Next year’s hot food trends

As the New Year approaches, crystal balls are being brought out of the closet and food trends for 2014 are being forecast. We've uncovered three that create some interesting ideas to ponder: Eatocracy has Eat This List: 2014 food trend predictions. Two of their editors each describe 5 trends, along with some honorable mentions. The article has full explanations behind… read more

Peel an orange, without the gouging, by unrolling it

Oranges are in season now - and a nice alternative to holiday cookies for snacking. And thanks to Jewel Pie we have a way to peel them without having to gouge the skin with your fingernail - just roll them out as a strip.  Full explanation and photos can be found at an Easy way to eat mandarin oranges (without… read more

Mastering pomegranates

One way to add holiday color (and great flavor) to a dish is to sprinkle some pomegranate seeds (actually, technically, they're "arils" not seeds) on top, especially along with some minced parsley or mint. (Try it on cauliflower - it's positively beautiful.) Of course that may be easier said than done, given that you need to have the pomegranate seeds… read more

Cookbook store profile: Featuring Books for Cooks in London

Recently we began to offer a new EYB feature highlighting independent cookbook stores. Now you can discover (or get reacquainted with) a store near your home - or plan a new target destination when you travel. And to make this as strong a feature as we can, we're asking our members to help us. We already know of many great… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Tartine Book No.3: Modern, Ancient, Classic, Whole

  Chad Robertson, owner of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, has been called "a bread genius," "one of the most admired bakers in the U.S.," and "the cult prince of American bread making." He has recently published his third book, Tartine Book No. 3: Modern, Ancient, Classic, Whole, and we're delighted to be able to give away a free copy… read more

Chef’s cookbooks that actually help us cook

Today we're presenting our final holiday list (apart of course from our Best of the Best which will go up early next week) - which hopefully still leaves some time to actually find and buy the item. And, of course, we had to have a list of cookbooks. Of the various lists we've seen, this one from the Los Angeles… read more

Cookbook giveaway – melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese

  We're very pleased to be able to offer three free copies of Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.  This is not your mother's Mac 'n Cheese - Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord have  "combined our nostalgia of the old-school dish with healthy, high-quality ingredients to produce recipes that are both  classic and chic." For more on the book  read … read more

The worst food gifts to give – or to get

It's about time for another list, and this time the nod goes to Bon Appétit for their "The 50 Worst Food Gifts in the World." Some of them are at least attempts to help the cook out, but others you truly have to wonder, "What were they thinking?" Here are some that struck me as falling in that latter category:… read more

Jazzing up slice-and-bake cookies without icing

If you have a favorite plain, refrigerator-style cookie - or bought a package of slice-and-bake cookie dough - and want to jazz the cookies up without resorting to frosting or icing, Lynne Kasper in NPR's The Splendid Table has some excellent ideas in How to make store-bought slice-and-bake cookies more gourmet: "There are two approaches: the before-baking list and the… read more

Should breakfast be a time for innovation?

The Guardian just asked an interesting question: "Breakfast: too early for culinary innovation?" Apparently in Britain an organization is running a contest asking for the best breakfast recipe, and one of the categories is for the most innovative breakfast. Of course, this leads to the first problem - defining innovation. Apparently it's being defined in the contest as "Something a… read more

The recipe for the Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken with Bread Salad

In my recent tribute to Judy Rodgers, I mentioned that I've dreamt of her roast chicken recipe. At the time, however, I didn't link to the recipe. Since then, Erica over at Northwest Edible Life has printed her own homage to Judy along with a home-easy version of the roast chicken and bread salad. So if any of you are looking… read more

Gordon Ramsey takes on the Muppet’s Swedish Chef

It's time to take a little break for whimsy, and this Muppet short video of a cook-off between Gordon Ramsey and the Muppet's Swedish Chef is just right. We won't spoil the surprise of who wins, but we will say that in the secondary contest - who delivers a better insult, Ramsey or Miss Piggy - Miss Piggy wins hands… read more

Sorting out Mandarin oranges – tangerines, clementines, satsumas, etc.

Just noticed that the satsumas have arrived in the store, which triggers an annual question - What is the difference among Tangerines, Clementines, Mandarins, Tangelos, Mineolas, Satsumas. etc.? So, if any of you are also curious, here's a brief primer: The master category that these fruits fall into is Mandarin oranges or "Mandarins." Compared to oranges in general, Mandarins tend to be… read more

Food movies to watch during the holidays

We're being inundated with lists this holiday season - some have information that is largely recycled, but some lists are really rather good and we'll be linking to those occasionally. Case in point is this list from Epicurious, The 15 Best Food Movies to Stream for the Holidays (the links go to a description of the movies and documentaries at imdb… read more

A tribute to the late Judy Rodgers

  For those who may not have heard, Judy Rodgers, who was  the chef-owner of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, died last night of a long-standing cancer. Zuni Cafe won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2003. In 2005, Judy Rodgers was named Outstanding Chef in America, beating out Mario Batali, Tom Colicchio, Alfred Portale and Nobu… read more

The secret to Domino’s pizza success isn’t the pizza

Every now and then we like to look at the business behind food, and this article in the Motley Fool struck us as interesting. The article discusses the surprising continued growth experienced by Domino's pizza chain. The growth is not, as you would expect, from new stores - same stores sales have increased for 79 straight quarters. And it isn't… read more

A fun way to count down to the holidays

Happy December 1 everyone! Thanks to The Guardian, we've found a fun version of an advent calendar to start the count down to Christmas. They've collected both recipes and gift suggestions from a variety of top chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Anissa Helou, Fergus Henderson, Tom Kerridge, Thomasina Miers, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Simon Hopkinson, Cerys Matthews, Nathan Outlaw, Fiona Beckett, Simon… read more

Which one of the 8 beef grades should you choose?

With holiday parties revving up, we thought it might be a good time to help people choose their meat carefully by looking at what beef grades really mean (at least in the U.S.). The USDA uses eight grades of beef, which are rated by tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. With the help of an article from Fooducate, here's a quick run… read more

Safely treating your pets at Thanksgiving

As a food-oriented website, we can't ignore the fact that Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least here in the U.S. But we wanted to do something a little different, so we thought we'd focus on what foods you can, and can not, share with your pets at dinner. After all, for those of us who are blessed with animals, we want… read more

Taking the best possible food photos

With the holidays almost here, there will be a lot of food photos. So we thought we'd compile some basic food photography tips from 3 excellent sources: First up, from Digital Photography School, are 11 Quick Food Photography Tips to Make Mouth Watering Images - here are some of the tips we especially liked: Pick the freshest ingredients Lighting is everything (natural,… read more

Allison Robicelli rescues cupcakes from cutesy-wootsy bakeries & ignorant critics

For those of you who may not live in the New York City area, Matt and Allison Robicelli are iconic bakers, specializing in cupcakes, whoopie pies, and other items reputedly too addictive to resist - their Chicken n'Waffles flavor is legendary. Until recently, they were exclusively wholesale bakers, with fans signing onto their website to find out which flavors were… read more
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