A simple gift

February 1, 2014 by
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Lindsay's eloquent farewell post reminded me of how the gift of two cookbooks greatly influenced my cooking journey. The first gift was for my wedding. My grandmother bestowed upon me a small plastic cookbook filled with handwritten cards containing cherished family recipes. Her love was evident in the time she took to carefully transcribe each recipe and add helpful hints… read more

Beyond breakfast: cooking with coffee

January 29, 2014 by
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  Coffee plays an essential role in my morning routine (it's wise not to talk to me before my first cup), but coffee is also found in foods served throughout the day, adding depth to both sweet and savory recipes. Epicurious lists its top 14 recipes with coffee, noting that coffee's "roasted quality, bitterness, and acidity make it a perfect… read more

Favorite breakfast cookbooks

January 23, 2014 by
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There's a post over at BuzzFeed that asks "What Does Your Favorite Breakfast Food Say About You?" The answers are classic BuzzFeed, although not snarky as they can be - if you like bagels, you're basically like Beyoncé, cinnamon rolls imply you're very loveable, French Toast people are destined for greatness, Huevos Rancheros make you a winner, etc. - they're all… read more

Are Americans now too stupid to cook?

January 17, 2014 by
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Michael Ruhlman had a particularly controversial blog entry recently. In America: Too Stupid to Cook, he presented the thesis that "Americans are being taught that we're too stupid to cook." To back up his argument, he cites several examples:  "The messages are everywhere.  Boxed cake mix.  Why is it there?  Because a real cake is too hard!  You can't bake… read more

The best way to protect that new iPad or Kindle in the kitchen

January 16, 2014 by
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Cook's Illustrated just conducted a test on the best way to protect an iPad (or other tablet) in the kitchen, and is making the report available online through April 30. They looked at stands, covers, and a combination of the two - and put them through a myriad of tests: "We pounded pork chops to see if the stands would… read more

Eating in Antarctica is for the truly tough

January 9, 2014 by
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We apologize to our friends down under, and others not as affected by the recent record low temperatures in the U.S. and Canada, but we're a little obsessed with cold right now. Those of us who live in these areas have learned far more about something called the "polar vortex" ( a large cold storm that is only rarely pushed south… read more

When other cooking appliances fail, can you turn to your hair dryer?

January 6, 2014 by
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What to do if your stove doesn't work? The grill is out of gas or you've run out of charcoal?  Well, it turns out that many of us have been overlooking an important cooking appliance - the hairdryer. According to NPR's recent article, Hair Dryer Cooking: From S'mores To Crispy Duck,  Marcella Hazan pioneered hair dryer cooking back in the 1970's.… read more

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

December 26, 2013 by
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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

Happy 75th Birthday to the chocolate chip cookie

December 23, 2013 by
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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

Should breakfast be a time for innovation?

December 9, 2013 by
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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

Gordon Ramsey takes on the Muppet’s Swedish Chef

December 6, 2013 by
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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

Food movies to watch during the holidays

December 4, 2013 by
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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

Safely treating your pets at Thanksgiving

November 27, 2013 by
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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

Do you judge people by what they’re eating?

November 12, 2013 by
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In their article, Why do we judge people by the food they eat?, The Guardian provided some interesting material to think about. In particular, the idea of food profiling struck a chord. Back in the day (way back in the day) if someone ate muesli, they were immediately identified as a counter-revolutionary hippie - ditto for brown rice, soy beans, and… read more

Take 50,000 recipes and derive 25 amazing facts

November 11, 2013 by
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Before we get to our regularly scheduled content, we wanted to announce a special holiday treat from EYB: Buy 1 EYB Gift Voucher, and Get 1 Free! Plus you'll be in the drawing to win Nathan Myhrvold's fabulous new book, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine.  Check out all the details here. _________________________________________________________________________ Whenever Wired  tackles food-related items, it's always fascinating, and… read more

Chip flavors have now truly jumped the shark

October 23, 2013 by
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As something of a purist when it comes to chips, it's been a little difficult looking down the snack aisle in the grocery store and seeing bag after bag of weirder and weirder flavors (chicken and waffle chips? ) But now it appears that even those flavors have become too dull and common. According to The Daily Meal, Pringles now… read more

Quick question: Does slamming an oven door cause a cake to fall?

October 16, 2013 by
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ATK's Feed posed a good question recently, especially timely as we head into baking season: "Does Slamming an Oven Door Cause Cakes to Collapse?" And the answer? In a word, no.  According to them, "The sturdy muffins emerged unharmed, as did the yellow cake. Even the notoriously fragile angel food cake and the soufflé survived the vigorous slamming. Why? A properly… read more

10 wonderful British food terms

October 2, 2013 by
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First, let us welcome back the Food News Journal, which everyday publishes links to interesting food items. They've been on hiatus and it's great to see them again. And it's thanks to them that we came across this fun news item from the Miami New Times blog: 10 Adorable British Foodisms We Should All Adopt.  They give longer descriptions of… read more

Lessons learned from a home kitchen health inspection

September 18, 2013 by
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Our friend, Faith Durand, recently volunteered for an interesting experiment - inviting a health inspector to come and check on her home kitchen. In the Kitchn's  A Health Inspector Visited My Kitchen, and Here's What Happened, she reported on the trial:  "It all started with an email from Mary, a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch, the local newspaper in my… read more

Test to see if you’re just a little obsessed with food

September 11, 2013 by
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Here at EYB, we happen to intensely dislike the word "foodie" and try to avoid using it, but in this case it may be appropriate. At least BuzzFeed, in their list of 22 Problems Only Foodies Will Understand, thinks so. So, take this test and find out how many of these strike a chord - and may mark a tiny… read more

Following raisins down the history trail

September 4, 2013 by
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We recently came across a PDF online of a 1932 SunMaid raisin cookbook - and couldn't help but be intrigued - this was even before our time! Raisins were apparently pretty exotic back then - in fact, while we think of them as merely dried grapes, in the book they're described as "Thermo-Jell'd, "  which makes each raisin into a… read more

The most common cooking mistakes

September 3, 2013 by
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We admit it - we love lists. But we do try to stick to lists that make us think.  So we couldn't resist this one from Cooking Light: The Most Common Cooking Mistakes. They list 57 common mistakes; here are the 10 we think are the most common (some are slightly reworded to make them more understandable), and cause the… read more

An homage to pigs

August 20, 2013 by
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After all the food fads, crazes, fashions, and just plain absurdities, it's nice every now and then to consider those things that are always steady and true. And that's why this article from the Guardian, Pigs: a very British obsession, is worthy of note.  Besides their very obvious culinary uses - it is now fashionable to boast of being able… read more

What makes a good cookbook app

August 2, 2013 by
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Yesterday, we wrote about the success of the cookbook Jerusalem - success partically driven by social media. Since we were discussing the effects of technology on cookbooks, we decided to delve into a related area, and share this article from App Storm on what makes a good cookbook app. In The Future of Cookbook Apps on iPad, Jessica O'Toole first… read more

Book-inspired Cakes

July 22, 2013 by
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Recently, there was a fun BuzzFeed post that highlighted great cake decorations inspired by books. Since cooking and books are kinda what we're all about - we couldn't let this post go by without comment. Here are photos of five of our favorites - check out 24 Incredible Cakes Inspired by Books for 19 more: By charmcitycakeswest.com By  Fancy That Cake… read more
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