She also loved to make Jell-O salads. As kids we loved Jell-O in all flavors. Who were we to wonder when my grandmother put things like cucumbers, horseradish, carrots, and or pineapple in with the Jell-O? One of her favorites was a Jell-O salad made with carrots and crushed pineapple. I had all but forgotten this salad until I met a woman at a counter at Logan Airport who told me about her favorite Jell-O salad, called a “Sunshine Salad”....
Back in the old days, a pot of sputtering polenta would have been stirred for a full forty-five minutes over a hot stove. This lengthy cooking brings out the full corn flavor of the grain, but it is definitely tedious. Newsflash! You can make it in the oven! Without stirring! This is revolutionary to anyone who loves polenta but can’t stand the labor involved. In fact, the only real work from you is stirring in the cheese partway through cooking....
This is just about the easiest sweet bread I know; it takes precious little thought to make, tastes wonderful with sweet butter or cinnamon sugar, and, as an added bonus, this bread keeps for several days. Why I have no idea. A few pointers on making this beer bread: The Guinness must be cold, the self-rising flour must be relatively fresh (like men, its rising power diminishes with age), and the loaf pan needs to be well-greased....
If you just like to make your own boozy concoctions or if you’re vegan this is the recipe for you. Many of the most popular on-the-shelf coffee liqueurs, such as Kahlua, use a bone char filtration process for their sugar that makes them unsuitable for people following a vegan diet. You can make your own coffee liqueur right at home! With a little time and planning, making it only requires standing over a stove for a few minutes, transferring the liquid to a jar and gently shaking the jar every few days, for a few weeks....
In fact, at first blush the thought of it was not particularly appetizing. You take slices of hot dogs, sauté them in butter with onions, and add sour cream. That’s it. Serve it with pasta. But then I recognized the brilliance. This is just a stroganoff, made with hot dogs, or sausages, instead of strips of beef. Heidi’s mom Jill used to make these so-called “fancy hot dogs” for her kids and now Heidi makes it for her family....
With some notable exceptions, cheese generally freezes well. Here’s what to know. How Freezing Changes Cheese As a rule of thumb, the less special the cheese, the less freezing changes it. A lovely raw milk triple crème brie should never be frozen. A block of orange cheddar cheese from the grocery store, what you could call everyday cheese? Go ahead and freeze it. Cheese that’s been frozen is best for cooking with, not eating straight-up....
Not to worry! We’ve got a handy list of ingredient substitutions that will help any home cook work with what’s available this holiday season. 10 Holiday Ingredient Substitutions Follow these guidelines whenever you need to substitute ingredients unexpectedly. 1. Use frozen cranberries instead of fresh cranberries. Fresh cranberries have a very brief season. While November is the peak of it, they can be in short supply. If fresh cranberries aren’t available, choose frozen....
They are, to be succinct, astoundingly good! Creamy, sweet, very soft and with a bit of zing from the lemon they’re incredibly rich with a lot of flavor. A cookie that’s sure to satisfy the most insatiable sweet tooth.
Whipping up a quick, satisfying lunch in the summertime is especially easy, since you have seasonal produce and warm weather on your side. Hot food isn’t always appealing, and peak vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers don’t need any cooking to make them delicious. We also rely on trusty canned ingredients in this round up like beans and tuna. Ready? Let’s dig in!
A cousin of the more popular Eggnog, this creamy, deep-flavored, suggestively spiced sipper is as well-suited for nightcaps as it is for a slightly boozy brunch. It is deceptively strong, and memorably delicious, with a sweet and silky texture thanks to a simple splash of cream or milk. The milk amplifies the vanilla and fresh apple notes of cognac, as well as the dark molasses or stewed banana taste of Jamaican rum....
My parents moved to the United States from Taiwan back in the 1960s. My mom escaped her small conservative town in Asia by graduating top of class in high school, going to the best university in Taiwan, and then attending grad school in the United States in upstate New York. This is where she met my father. It was a radical shift for both of them—going from a small tropical island that most American folks had never heard of—to the cold East Coast of the United States....
Frank always bought the newspaper and coffee at the store, which, oddly, was not on a corner. I can’t remember why we were there around lunchtime, only that I was hungry, and that Frank suggested I get an Italian Hot Dog. Seemed like a decent enough idea. What’s on a New Jersey Italian Hot Dog? When the cook handed it over the deli counter, it did not look anything like any hot dog I’d ever eaten....
The Secret to Tasty Potato Salad? Sour Cream The recipe couldn’t be easier. It’s just boiled new potatoes tossed with a dressing of sour cream, vinegar, green onions, fresh dill, salt and pepper. What’s surprising is how much mileage you get out of so few ingredients. The credit lies with the sour cream, which provides a perfectly tangy base for the potatoes. Many thanks to my friend Kathi for sharing this recipe with us....
Where To Buy Nopalitos The paddles are widely available in Mexican markets in the US, either whole (with spines) or prepared (cleaned, spines removed, chopped). They are tasty cooked and are used in many traditional Mexican dishes. Here is a quick, easy, and delisioso nopalitos recipe prepared for me by my Mexican friend and caterer Arturo Vargas. Do you have a favorite nopalitos recipe? Please let us know about it in the comments....
One of my favorite dishes in the whole world is Mexican octopus salad, or “ensalada de pulpo”, with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, and chiles. It’s fabulous as a side or topped over tacos or tostadas. Ensalada de pulpo is often made like a ceviche, the octopus “cooked” in an acidic marinade, without heat. For this recipe we are taking a different approach using a technique taught to me by Hank Shaw, who cooks and eats a lot of octopi....
Also called a pastry cutter wheel or a ravioli cutter, this tool costs less than $12, takes absolutely no skill whatsoever to use, and makes all of your pies look like you spent $40 at the neighborhood bakery. What’s So Great About a Fluted Pastry Wheel? Recipes and techniques can be acquired if you have determination and time. Practice makes perfect, as folks often say. But what elevates something from “homemade” to bakery-style or professional are the details: that little swoosh of a sauce, the perfect dollop of cream, the artfully sprinkled herbs over the dish that folks love to post on Instagram....
This Paleo hot chocolate is high on the cocoa content, lower on sugar. It’s sweetened with dark amber maple syrup and gets a flavor boost from espresso powder. Make a double batch of the cocoa syrup base and store it in the fridge so you can have truly great hot chocolate in the time it takes to heat up some milk! For the milk component of this hot chocolate, use any type you like....
