November 30, 2006
Recipe News: Recipes for hot buttered rum and hot cherry chocolate
"A day on the slopes — or even just an hour of shoveling the driveway — calls for a rich, hot drink to help return feeling to frozen digits."
includes recipes for:
- Hot Buttered Rum
- Hot Cherry Chocolate
Full article here.
November 30, 2006
Recipe News: Pretzel recipe: Jingle Bells Chocolate Pretzels
This would make a good gift for Christmas.
includes recipe for:
- Jingle Bells Chocolate Pretzels
Full article here.
November 28, 2006
Coffee News: Roast-your-own coffee hits the spot
"America's most finicky coffee drinkers tout their caffeine connoisseurship in many, often contradictory, ways. They spend a bundle at Starbucks, or refuse to patronize big chains. They drink only espresso, or decline any cup of joe they didn't brew themselves.
Then there are people like Chris Becker of Arlington, whose coffee worship involves a ritual that places him at the outer edge of the country's java culture.
Becker roasts coffee beans at home.
"Even my less-than-good batches are fresher than any (beans) I'd buy in a store," said Becker, a 30-year-old government employee who uses a gas grill to transform flavorless green coffee beans into savory dark-brown kernels he then grinds and brews within a few days, if not hours.
It doesn't require a lot of time, money or equipment to roast coffee beans at home - less than 10 minutes in an air popcorn popper does the trick - but enthusiasts devote plenty of each to the craft.
They congregate at Web sites such as coffeegeek.com, where they exchange techniques; they get together in person to sample, or "cup," each other's beans; and many maintain logbooks, where they record details such as the amount of time and heat applied to each batch they roast.
"Some guys are over the top," said Dave Borton of Monroe, Wis., who has been roasting at home since January, belongs to an Internet-based bean-buyers' club and gives away about two pounds of freshly roasted beans every week to co-workers and members of his church. "My wife would tell you I am over the top."
To cater to this tiny-but-growing market, a cottage industry that exists mostly online has blossomed over the past decade, selling countertop electric roasters that cost anywhere from $75 to $500 and green coffee beans from the world's best growing regions priced at around $5 a pound. These items can also be found at some brick-and-mortar specialty shops, such as Fante's Kitchen Wares Shop of Philadelphia and Zaccardi's of Scarsdale, N.Y."
Full article here.
November 28, 2006
Food News: Books every cook would love
"From the exotic to the homespun, from locales around the world to our own backyard, these cookbooks offer more than just collections of worthy recipes. You'll also find tips on entertaining, fascinating information on culinary history and beautiful photography."
Full article here.
November 25, 2006
Recipe News: Special Chicken Soup Recipe Used To Fight Flu
"Homemade chicken soup has been making people feel better since the 12th century which is probably why your grandmother made it for you.
It's been scientifically studied as a germ fighter and the research has been published in several respected medical journals.
Studies have shown that a grandmother's original chicken soup recipe worked wonders at relieving cold symptoms.
The hot chicken broth will unclog a plugged nose but it's the ingredients in the broth that chemically work to keep you from coughing and help thin out a thick head.
The vegetables used are loaded with vitamins and antioxidants which will help make you feel better. The onions and celery are especially good at soothing a sore throat."
includes recipe for:
Full article here.
Wine News: If your wine budget's limited, try these
"The party season is officially under way, and Team Best of ... has your back. We know that however well you mean, once again this year you will find yourself rushing to pick up something to take to the party, whether a gift to the host or as a bring-your-own-bottle deal.
We can see you now, flustered, stopping at the nearest grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine. You want something decent, preferably local because it's the cool thing to do, but you also want something that won't break the bank.
Therein lies the challenge. Ever since California bulk producer Bronco Wine resurrected the once-prestigious Charles Shaw label, but charged less than $3 a bottle through Trader Joe's stores, we have a new low-pricing standard."
Full article here.
November 24, 2006
Holiday Gift and Shopping Guides from Around the Blogpire
Our editors have been hard at work coming up with the latest products to give as gifts this holiday season. Each of our different sites has their own holiday gift guide on various topics including: shaving, hdtv, gps, gaming, coffee and espresso, kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, and more.
Make your holiday gift giving easier this season by visiting the holiday shopping guides below, and get your shopping done online without the crowds and hassle of ever leaving your comfy couch or computer chair.
November 17, 2006
The Cooking News Holiday Gift Guide - Cookbooks, DVDs and Kitchen Gadgets
Looking for things to give your favorite foodie for the holidays? Here are some suggestions if you're stumped and need some ideas.
Cookbooks
The Silver Spoon
$19.99
"First published in 1950 and revised over time, Italy's bestselling culinary "bible," Il Cucchiaio d'argento, is now available in English. The Silver Spoon boasts over 2,000 recipes and arrives in a handsome (and weighty) photo-illustrated edition complete with two ribbon markers."
Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition $18.00
"The much anticipated 75th anniversary edition of Irma Rombauer's kitchen classic Joy of Cooking promises to be as indispensable as past editions of this generational favorite. In addition to hundreds of brand-new recipes, this Joy is filled with many recipes from all previous editions, retested and reinvented for today's tastes."
The Bon Appetit Cookbook $23.07
"Now, for the first time, The Bon Appétit Cookbook brings together more than 1,200 of the magazine's all-time, best-loved recipes for every meal and occasion. These recipes represent the very best of the magazine's sophisticated, foolproof style: easy-to-make dishes that incorporate a variety of regional and international influences--recipes that are delicious the first time out."
The Best 30-minute Recipe: A Best Recipe Classic $23.10
"300 Fast and Flavorful Recipes from America’s Most Trusted Test Kitchen"
Starting With Ingredients: The Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook $26.37
"The book offers a hundred chapters in alphabetical order, Almonds through Zucchini and Other Summer Squashes: some categories are wide-ranging (Beans: Dried and Fresh-Shelled) while others narrow (Ugli and Other Unusual Fruits—seemingly chosen to fill a gap in the alphabet). Bakers will appreciate recipes that offer both scratch and shortcut versions, but perhaps best of all, the book reflects perceptive appreciation of cooking the world over; in its broad embrace, it evokes the hopeful ethos of using food to open doors and build bridges."
DVDs
Julia Child - The French Chef $31.96
"Cooking legend and cultural icon Julia Child, along with her pioneering public television series, The French Chef, introduced French cuisine to American kitchens. In her passionate and sometimes breathless way, Julia forever changed the way we cook, eat, and think about food.
Now chefs of all ages and abilities can share Julia's love of fine French food and learn to cook some of her most-loved dishes with this special collection of 18 episodes from her original 1960s series, The French Chef."
Flavors of Italy: Northern Italy and Tuscany $8.98
"Italy is considered one of the culinary capitals of the world. Each of its great cities exhibits its own culinary identity, and its own exciting and colorful cuisine. In this program, we travel through the great cities of northern Italy and Tuscany, experiencing the local history and pageantry. Under the guidance of Italy’s most famous chefs, we learn to prepare the cuisine that has made the Italian kitchen justly famous. The splendor of Italy and the wonders of its kitchen await us. Buon appetito!"
Martha's Favorite Cookies $11.24
"Martha makes everything special, and making cookies is no exception. Martha's Favorite Cookies features 33 of Martha's best cookie recipes your whole family will enjoy --- such as Chocolate Malt Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Fig Bars, Snickerdoodles, Scottish Shortbread, Coconut Pinwheels and much more!"
For the Kitchen
Cuisinart DLC-10S Pro Classic 7 Cup Food Processor $99.95
"A perfect gift for new homemakers, the food processor has become an integral part of modern cooking, speeding up a multitude of processes, including kneading dough, slicing, chopping, shredding cheese, vegetables and meat, mincing garlic and parsley, mixing batters, and emulsifying mayonnaise. Cuisinart's Pro Classic comes with a 7-cup work bowl, four basic attachments for slicing, shredding, chopping, mixing, and kneading, and also features two feed tube options, one big enough to handle a whole potato."
KitchenAid K45SS Classic 250-Watt 4-1/2-Quart Stand Mixer $168.88
"KitchenAid's stand mixer is a substantial piece of equipment: 250 watts of mixing power make child's play of creaming butter, kneading dough, and whipping cream. The kid in you will appreciate how quick and easy it is to mix up a batch of cookie dough; the 4-1/2-quart bowl can hold up to 8 cups of flour, which translates into as many as 192 sweet treats."
All product quotes from Amazon.com product listings.
November 14, 2006
Wine News: Wine-Flavored Chocolates Are All the Rage at 2006 Chocolate Show
"There's always been veritas in vino. Now there's vino in chocolate.
Spices such as chili pepper and cardamom have been showing up in chocolate for a while, and many chocolatiers have also been flavoring their concoctions with teas like Earl Grey.
This year, one of the up-and-coming trends is chocolate infused with wine. Among the confections spotted at the industry's annual Chocolate Show in New York City over the weekend were truffles and ganaches spiked with everything from Chardonnay to Shiraz."
Full article here.
Recipe News: A Holiday Classic: Low-Carb Gingerbread New York Style Cheesecake
"Nothing beats a well-made cheesecake just about any time of the year. But when Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around each year, there's something special about creating this decadent and delightful dessert for friends and family members.
Your cheesecake need not be loaded with carbohydrates either and I've got just the recipe for you, too! Using the unique secret ingredient--DaVinci Gingerbread Syrup--this is a cheesecake you can be proud of and delight your guests with whether they are livin' la vida low-carb or not. You'll make this recipe a holiday tradition for many years to come!
Special thanks to our friends at Low-Carb Connoisseur and Low-Carb Luxury for sharing this simple yet festive cheesecake recipe with us today. ENJOY!"
includes recipe for:
- LOW-CARB GINGERBREAD NEW YORK STYLE CHEESECAKE
Full article here.
Recipe News: Pork and apples: sweet appeal
"This recipe for Apple Glazed Pork Chops pairs two classic fall ingredients. Available year-round, both are at their peak of flavor now: Apples are harvested from September to November, and pork is in peak supply between October and February."
includes recipe for:
Full article here.
November 11, 2006
Recipe News: White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
"I thought I was done messing around with pizza dough. It took me a long time to settle on a recipe I love, and I've remained faithful to Peter Reinhart's Napoletana Pizza Dough from The Bread Baker's Apprentice for years now. It yields a beautiful crust that bridges the perfect thin-crust balance of structure, flavor, texture, and crunch."
includes recipe for:
- White Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Full article here.
Recipe News: Roasted Garlic Chicken Recipe
"The trick to this tender, succulent roast chicken is the overnight brining. We usually roast chickens breast side down to ensure tender breast meat. But with the overnight brining in a roasted garlic and lemon juice marinade, the breast meat was perfectly moist, even cooked breast up. The garlic flavor is subtle, not strong or overwhelming, due to roasting the garlic first."
includes recipe for:
- Roasted Garlic Chicken Recipe
Full article here.
November 9, 2006
Recipe News: Modify recipes and food preparation to promote health
"The link between diet and health is important. Food alone cannot make you healthy. Good eating habits, based on variety and moderation, can help keep you healthy and even improve your health. Good eating habits include knowing how to prepare and select foods that fit into the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which suggest that we eat less fat, sugar and salt and more complex carbohydrates, fruits, vegetables and fiber.
One way to help meet these recommendations is to modify our recipes and methods of food preparation. This is relatively easy because many recipes are higher in fat, sugar and salt than is needed for good flavor and quality.
To cut calories, identify which ingredients contribute the most calories. To cut fat, sugar or sodium, or to increase fiber, identify the ingredients that contain these components.
Fat is the most concentrated source of calories. Each gram of fat supplies nine calories, compared to four calories for each gram of protein or carbohydrate and seven calories for each gram of alcohol. Reducing the amount of fat in a recipe is the most effective way to cut calories.
Ingredients can be eliminated completely, reduced in amount, or replaced with a more nutritionally acceptable ingredient.
Not all recipes need modification."
Full article here.
Recipe News: Try these recipes from Paula Deen's kitchen
includes recipes for:
- BUBBA'S CHARGRILLED OYSTERS
- SWEET POTATO DOUGHNUTS
Full article here.
Recipe News: Two-hour turkey
includes recipe for:
Full article here.
Recipe News: Herb-crusted beef tenderloin
includes recipe for:
- Herb-crusted beef tenderloin
Full article here.
November 6, 2006
Recipe News: Recipes for salmon burgers offer rainbow of flavors for your plate
"Everyone has their own vision of the perfect grilled meal. I love ribs and chicken and even burgers, but every now and then I just gotta have fish. Especially fresh salmon.
I serve it grilled, broiled, poached and pan fried. But the highlight of my salmon fiesta is always my salmon burgers. Everyone loves them, and since I start with fresh salmon (as opposed to the canned stuff), the meals are light, healthy as well as incredibly and amazingly delicious.
A really great salmon burger should be tender and moist with a crispy crust. You can experiment with your own combinations of spicing because salmon readily adapts to a variety of different herb and spice combinations. Minced parsley, chives, garlic, onions, shallots, green onions, fresh ginger, basil, oregano and minced jalapeno peppers are all particularly good. Homemade and prepared sauces like Worcestershire, soy and Tabasco add a tangy spiciness and moisture to the mix.
Never, ever, taste the raw mixture. Bad things can happen. To check a raw mixture for seasoning, cook a teaspoon or so of the seasoned mixture in an oiled pan and then taste. This technique can also be used to taste test ground meats."
includes recipes for:
- Fresh Salmon Burgers
- Herbed Salmon Burgers
- Honey Glazed Salmon Burgers
- Fresh Salmon Burgers with Wasabi Mayonnaise
Full articlehere.
Recipe News: Flex your mussels with Thai recipe
"If you have a craving for seafood, and you want it cooked quickly, flex your retail buying power and purchase some fresh mussels. They are widely available, can be readied in minutes and this plump, budget-friendly mollusk won't bruise your bank account. Before you put them in the pot, though, there are some things to consider.
It's best to buy fresh mussels the day you need them. However, if very fresh, they could be stored for a day in the coldest part of your fridge.
You'll find fresh mussels sold in three ways. Some stores have live tanks, where they'll scoop out the mussels and package them the moment the customer orders them; other places will keep the mussels on ice in a presentation case; and stores lacking these pieces of equipment will simply pre-pack them in foam containers.
No matter where you buy them, you should choose mussels with tightly shut shells or that have shells that tightly shut when tapped, the latter of which is hard to do if the mussels are prepackaged. If the mussels don't close their shells they are dead and should not be eaten."
includes recipe for:
Full article here.
November 4, 2006
Recipe News: Soup, chili recipes will warm spirits
This time of year I always find myself searching for soup recipes here are a couple to try.
includes recipes for:
- Asparagus Soup
- White Bean Chili
Full article here.
Recipe News: A Thanksgiving cranberry recipe to savor
"Each year at Thanksgiving we travel to Pennsylvania for a mini-family reunion. We all pitch in (I peel potatoes), but the cooking genius behind the feast is my stepmother, Julie.
On Wednesday, she bakes five or six pies. My daughter Laura, dressed in an apron and tiara, is a Thanksgiving cooking princess helper. Her favorite pie is a cranberry sour cream pie.
Julie varies the pie selections each year, except for two standbys everyone demands: pumpkin pie and her recipe for cranberry pie."
includes recipe for:
- Cranberry sour cream pie with walnut streusel
Full article here.
November 3, 2006
New Thanksgiving "how-to" book saves the day for harried cooks; publisher to donate $1 per book to San Francisco Food Bank
This came across the ol' CookingNews desk today. Are you preparing a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for the first time? Are you looking for a set of tried-and-true recipes to replace your own "misfires?" How about an entree for your vegetarian friends, or ways of scaling that dinner to larger numbers? You'll find this and more in a nice ebook or hardcopy form, just in time for Thanksgiving. And, if you buy it in time for Thanksgiving, you can help feed others: $1 of each sale will go to the San Francisco Food Bank.
Ithaca, NY (PRWEB) November 3, 2006 -- It's easy to find Thanksgiving recipes, but much harder to find a complete set of tested recipes that go together to help real-world cooks in real-world kitchens make a delicious Thanksgiving meal without stress or last minute problems. Help is now at hand in the new book, "Take Control of Thanksgiving Dinner," written by Joe Kissell, author of the Geeky Gourmet blog. The 104-page book may be ordered in traditional printed form ($19.99) or as an instant-gratification PDF download ($10) from http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/thanksgiving.html.
For each book sold during the month of November, $1 will be donated to the San Fransciso Food Bank, a non-profit organization (where Joe Kissell has volunteered) whose mission is to end hunger in San Francisco. For more information about the San Francisco Food Bank, visit http://www.sffoodbank.org/.
Kissell walks readers through all the steps: planning, shopping, preparations the day before, and finally cooking the turkey and trimmings on the big day. Detailed recipes are provided for traditional Thanksgiving dishes, from turkey and stuffing to cranberry relish and pumpkin pie. Appendixes cover special cases from allergies to vegans. A downloadable "Print Me" file provides shopping lists and schedules, as well as concise versions of the recipes to tape up in the kitchen. Readers are encouraged to modify the included shopping lists, schedules, and recipes to suit their holiday traditions.
The downloadable version is a carefully designed PDF file with hot links for cross-references and mentioned Web sites, making it easy to navigate quickly; the print version is professionally printed and bound with a lay-flat binding.
November 2, 2006
Recipe News: Slow-cooker recipes require little fuss
includes recipes for:
- SWEET AND SPICY GERMAN-STYLE POT ROAS
- CROCK-BAKED POTATOES
- TURKEY THIGH AND HOMINY CHILI
- THAI PORK WITH PEANUT SAUCE
- SHREDDED FRENCH DIP
Full articlehere.
Recipe News: Low-fat cooking: A lean recipe for pork and black bean verde stew
"Low-fat pork and beans sounds like an oxymoron.
But Devin Alexander trims the fat from this normally hefty Mexican dish by doing just that. She starts with an already relatively lean pork loin or tenderloin, then cuts away any visible fat.
The result is a substantive meal loaded with hunger-subduing protein, and just 7 grams of fat per serving. And Alexander doesn't skimp on flavor, infusing this stew with oregano, cumin, coriander and salsa verde.
This and other low-fat recipes by Alexander appear in "The Biggest Loser Cookbook" (Rodale, 2006, $21.95), a spinoff from the reality television series of the same name."
includes recipe for:
- PORK AND BLACK BEAN VERDE STEW
Full article here.
Recipe News: Provencal-Style Roasted Tomato Sauce
"Wondering what to do with those last-of-the-season tomatoes? Try this super-easy recipe that I picked up in Provence for Roasted Tomato Sauce."
includes recipe for:
- Provencal-Style Roasted Tomato Sauce
Full article
here.
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