Entries tagged with 'entertaining'
Page 1 of 2
I'm going to make a confession: when it comes to muffins, I'm one of those really strange people who almost prefers the bottoms. Almost. That may explain my reaction when I received a pan that specializes in making just the crusty, puffy tops: "Mini quiches! Dainty gratins! Individual fruit tarts!" The possibilities offered by the large bake-able wells seemed infinitely more diverse than just muffin tops, and I eagerly started compiling recipes that would fit the mold. In an attempt to eat dinner before dessert, I started with individual quiches loaded with baby spinach, Swiss cheese, and turkey bacon. By the time I'd layered my ingredients and was ready to pour in the egg mixture, a pang of skepticism...
Continue reading »
Editor's note: On Fridays Deb Harkness of Good Wine Under $20 joins us to talk some Serious Grape. Today, some advice for entertaining this weekend. Take it away, Deb! "If you can't be bothered washing stemware or are worried about fragile stems breaking outside, get yourself some stemless wine glasses." This weekend, at cookouts all over America, people will be drinking wine out of plastic cups. Sometimes, you just have to. Between the breakage issues and the cleanup issues, we can all be forgiven for occasionally serving Chardonnay in plastic tumblers. But the wine will suffer for it. It will have barely any taste, no discernible aromas, and seem tart and slightly vinegary. At a backyard cookout that may matter...
Continue reading »
All you need to know when you're looking for cookout wines is this: ZEST. It stands for Zinfandel, Easy on the Oak, South America, and Tempranillo.
Continue reading »
Kimchi. Photograph by Robyn Lee Economics professor and popular blogger Tyler Cowen sparks a lively conversation on his site, Marginal Revolution, about which foods can be produced en masse without significantly compromising quality. Indian food, produced en masse, sits relatively well, especially the non-meat dishes and the ground meats. It can sit and stew for a long time. Chinese food, which usually should be cooked at high heat and served immediately, wares about the worst. Barbecue can do fine, if it is cooked properly to begin with (not usually the case, however). At Chipotle the carnitas are pretty good and they are cooked sous vide at a distance and then reheated in the restaurant.But the top prize goes to...
Continue reading »
"Serving cheese plates to your guests that have five or six equally portioned, triangular cheeses is a beautiful thing." The knowledgeable folks at New York's Murray's Cheese have launched a series of interesting and helpful cheese videos on their website. The first series covers Portion Control, or how to properly cut different types of cheeses based on their shape and texture. Taylor Cocalis, Murray's director of education, hosts the videos, which cover exactly how to cut and portion all of the major types of cheeses: lightly aged goat, bloomy rind, washed rind, pressed, cooked, and blue. Usually learning such things requires purchasing an expensive ticket to one of Murray's otherwise excellent classes, but these videos are free....
Continue reading »
When I think about which celebrity chef would have a kick-ass menu at his or her Super Bowl, my thoughts always gravitate to Bobby Flay. And why not? He's a really good cook, he's a serious sports fan, and his food definitely lends itself to football-watching on TV. So the serious eaters at world headquarters here went through all the Bobby Flay cookbooks we had in the office looking for recipes that we could easily and quickly make for our own Super Bowl parties. His chipotle-honey-glazed wings with toasted sesame seeds and green onion sound delicious even if you have to make them in the oven instead of on a grill (we know it's winter). His wild mushroom quesadillas would...
Continue reading »
"This would be a great cheese to pick up for last-minute, run-to-the-supermarket-before-it-closes style of entertaining." Photograph by Jamie Forrest Président Cheese, makers of the ubiquitous wheels of "deli" brie, have released a new cheese they're calling the "Brie Log." They claim it has the same taste as their normal brie but comes in a convenient log shape with a 1-inch diameter, which means that its slices fit perfectly on crackers or bread rounds. A cool and interesting twist on an old classic, but how does it stack up? The folks from Président sent me a log last week, just before Thanksgiving. It arrived at my office frozen in a cooler pack and enclosed in a sealed wrapper. The whole thing...
Continue reading »
For me, reading cookbooks that emphasize “entertaining” has always been kind of like reading Vogue: the glossy worlds they present are attractive but have very little to do with the world I live in. Wearing clothes and cooking are two things I do every day but still feel surprisingly inexpert at. Although I would love to arrange my own flowers and cook beautiful dinners for twelve while wearing a Miu Miu frock, the truth is that the process of having even one person over—dispatching the apartment’s larger dust bunnies, buying and making the food, figuring out what we’ll eat on—is so challenging for me that I’m lucky if I can manage to change into a sundress inherited from my mother...
Continue reading »
For the Super Bowl, I love to serve what I call "team icon food"—classics
from the hometowns of the playing teams. It's especially exciting this year, as New York
and Beantown have great options. Here's my menu and timing, from pre- to post-game.
Continue reading »
Josh Friedland, proprietor of the über-useful Food Section blog, complied a neat list of 100 songs for food lovers last week for something called "Blogger Radio" on AOL Radio. It's a neat idea, and one that I've been employing almost since the date that Apple launched its iTunes Music Store. I've made mixes, for instance, to soundtrack a number of dinner parties, cookouts, and early-morning brunch feeds....
Continue reading »
