The Thanksgivvukah face-off: Food 52 vs. Serious Eats

October 28, 2013 by
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  Two of our favorite online food sites are potentially entering into quite a culinary joust. To create recipes for the unique holiday of Thanksgivvukah (see our blog description if you're in the dark about this holiday), Food52 has challenged Serious Eats  to come up with the ultimate Thanksgivvukah recipe. The Food 52 campaign: In asking their members to help, Food… read more

Unearthing Halloween Inspiration

October 25, 2013 by
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With Halloween coming on Thursday, we thought we'd help out anyone looking for different ideas. We have over 150 pins on our Halloween Pinterest board   -  unique recipes all gathered in one convenient location. And there aren't just sweets -  savory ideas are included as well  (including the Pumpkin cheese ball, with over 50 repins) and an especially strong selection… read more

Do eggs really need to be at room temperature?

October 10, 2013 by
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We were making muffins recently and noticed that the eggs were supposed to be at room temperature when, of course, we hadn't taken them out. So this posting from America's Test Kitchen, "Do Cold Eggs Ruin Baked Goods?" seemed especially timely. The answer, with a few exceptions, is not really, especially when it comes to taste. The exceptions were pound, angel… read more

Microwave mug cakes

October 4, 2013 by
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  Somehow we've previously missed the concept of microwave mug cakes - which are exactly what they sound like - super quick cakes you bake in the microwave in a coffee mug. Since these sound like an excellent addition to a comfort food reportoire, we decided to look into them a bit. After a little research, it does appear that… read more

Cantaloupe is only one of many fruits that can be roasted to heighten flavor

September 26, 2013 by
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Over the past several months, we've noticed a number of recipes that suggest roasting fruit to maximize flavor - even restoring flavor in dull fruit. Roasting vegetables - cauliflower, green beans, even tomatoes - is fairly obvious, but fruit? Of course, it does make sense - roasting caramelized the inherent sugars in food. But there's the possible problem of destroying… read more

The most popular recipe on the Internet

September 12, 2013 by
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Unlike television shows or books, it's hard to gauge the popularity of things on the internet because of the sheer volume - how do you compare? But there are indications - Twitter has Followers, Facebook has Likes, and recipes have views and ratings.  And by those indications, The Washington Post has dubbed this lasagna recipe on AllRecipes.com - with over 7,000 reviews, 10,000 ratings,… read more

Gourmet picnic & camping gear

June 27, 2013 by
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Here are some fun suggestions from restaurant owner Peter Hoffman via the Wall Street Journal. His mission was to "test gear for the ambitious campside cook." He had us at the bio lite stove that generates enough electricity to charge your phone; it also uses the heat to power a turbine that can stimulate the flame.  There are also other… read more

Using a cicada invasion to get us over the “ick” factor

June 21, 2013 by
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According to Time Magazine, a recent United Nations report states that we will have to eat more bugs to stave off world hunger. In Fight World Hunger by Eating Bugs, Urges U.N., they point out that bugs are a cost-efficient, high source of protein with minimal environmental impact. And, further, that non-Western cultures are already happily consuming them: "The report… read more

Hybrid Pastries are all the rage

June 20, 2013 by
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We've all heard of fusion cooking - but apparently fused desserts are also a popular item. To recognize their notoriety, BuzzFeed has produced a list of 17 hybrid pastries that they regard as really exciting. Check out the article for more details, including photos and recipes, but in the meantime here are some that we found quite intriguing: Flan-chocolate cake (i.e.… read more

15 ways to bake eggs in something other than bread

June 13, 2013 by
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Here's something fun for a hectic dinner: 15 ways to bake eggs in foods, apart from using toast (though that is still one of the best ways). But before listing them, a slight digression on different terminology that our research unearthed. In the U.S. the classic egg fried in a piece of bread with a hole cut out of the… read more

How to build and roll the perfect burrito

May 17, 2013 by
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Burritos are delectable - but can be a sloppy mess. But this 4-minute video from The Daily Meal takes you by the hand and shows you how to build the perfect burrito - one that doesn't get soggy or fall apart. There are several keys: The order of ingredients is truly important - beans, rice, shredded cheese, meat/vegetable, salsa, guacamole,… read more

Four good reasons to eat chocolate

May 9, 2013 by
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Discussing chocolate is always appropriate, but never more so than approaching Mother's Day. So here's a shout out to The Daily Meal's article, Truth Behind 4 Chocolate Myths. By busting these myths, they produce even more reasons than you may already have for eating chocolate. Check out the article for the full details, here is a synopsis: "Myth #1: Chocolate… read more

All hail Hummus – the new King of the Snacks

May 8, 2013 by
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No less an authority than the Wall Street Journal has chosen to crown hummus as the new king of the snacks. In their online article, Hummus is Conquering America, they discuss how the growing demand for hummus is encouraging farmers to trade transplanting tobacco for chickpeas. Apparently the chickpea harvest has been concentrated in the Northwest, which creates a diversity of climate… read more

Mark Bittman identifies “the Big Mac of desserts”

May 7, 2013 by
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Mother's Day is approaching, and what mother wouldn't want the ultimate chocolate dessert - the "Big Mac of Dessert?" Mark Bittman has bestowed this title on Jean-Georges Vongerichten's molten chocolate cake - the original lava cake that has spawned so many offspring. But Vongertichten produces over 1,000/day, so if you want to go to the master, this is the one… read more

The cookie chosen by both Jacques Torres & Dorie Greenspan

April 30, 2013 by
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We don't usually bring attention to cooking contests - there are far too many of them - but the winner of the recent Fonseca contest caught our attention. First, the contest was rather unique - design a cookie that would go well with Port - and the judges (Jacques Torres and Dorie Greenspan) are no slouches. Then the cookie itself is really… read more

Foolproof Hollandaise in 2 minutes

April 22, 2013 by
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Last month we published An honest to goodness foolproof way to poach an egg - which became one of our most highly viewed blogs. That blog pointed to a video from Kenji Alt at the Serious Eats Food Lab on, obviously, egg poaching. Now he has followed up with a somewhat related video how-to: The Food Lab's Foolproof Hollandaise in… read more

An honest-to-goodness foolproof way to poach an egg

April 3, 2013 by
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We all have little challenges in life that aren't momentous but are a constant irritant - and cooking a perfect poached egg was one of ours. Somehow, despite numerous attempts, research and, yes, even cooking school (where we were taught to carefully lay the eggs on a kitchen towel and manually trim the eggs with scissors), our poached eggs tasted… read more

Thomas Keller loves Peeps!

March 29, 2013 by
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Thomas Keller is certainly one of the top 5 most respected chefs in the world, so it wasn't surprising that NPR visited him to talk about his favorite Easter recipes, as reported in Homemade Peeps, And More Easter Treats, A La Thomas Keller. Keller's  new book, Bouchon Bakery,  is up for numerous awards, so a lot of the conversation had to do… read more

The Bloomberg – the “sugariest drink in the world”

March 15, 2013 by
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Since Friday is a good day to clean up loose ends, we thought we'd finally note the death - or at least the coma - of Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to ban the sale of mega-sodas in New York City. And the most creative coda to this story  has come from a surprising source, NPR, which invented The Bloomberg - the… read more

Five creative cheese tips

March 3, 2013 by
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Most of us cook with cheese, so tips on managing cheese are always appreciated. Here are five tips from Cook's Illustrated on handling cheese (check out the article for full illustrations): Fit round cheese slices on a square slice of bread by breaking the cheese slices into quarters. Grate and store cheese in one easy step - and keep your… read more

Pies in the face and James Bond

February 24, 2013 by
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This weekend we're honoring the Oscars with great food-related movie moments. Yesterday we wrote about The best food movies and movie scenes. Today we're presenting memorable food fights and a tribute to 50 years of James Bond. Food Republic recently published 10 of Our Favorite Movie Foodfights, inviting readers to "get ready to get dirty." Here's their list: Homicidal tomatoes… read more

The best way to store lemons

February 18, 2013 by
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America's Test Kitchen Feed recently  tackled one of the kitchen's basic questions: How to best store lemons? It's tempting (and cheaper) to buy lemons in bulk, but then how to keep them juicy? In We Prove It: The Best Way To Store Lemons, they compared the results between storing whole lemons in an unsealed container,  in a zipper-lock bag with 1/4… read more

Celebrating the year of the snake

February 7, 2013 by
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This coming Sunday begins the Chinese New Year. The Chinese calendar is a lunar/solar calendar and other names for this festival - by far the biggest in the Chinese calendar - are the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival. The celebration begins on the new moon on the first day of the new year (Feb. 10 this year) and ends… read more

When can you claim a recipe as your own?

February 5, 2013 by
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Last month The L.A. Times published an article that delved into a thorny problem in food editing - who actually owns a recipe? When can you claim a recipe as your own? In The complicated case of the simple cookie The Times described how a rosemary apricot bar cookie had been declared the winner of a recent baking contest. Several readers wrote in… read more

Jello and Popcorn

February 3, 2013 by
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As we already wrote the only Superbowl blog you'll need (Margaritas and guacamole), we thought that, while we'd get in the Superbowl spirit today, we'd take an off-beat path. So we're noting two recent articles on under-praised snack foods - jello and popcorn. Buzzfeed has a wonderful photo essay on popcorn that should provide lots of inspiration, as should some… read more
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