Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 28, 2008 at 1:30 PM
While I’ve been going on and on here about the pleasures of a thoughtfully packed lunch, I have not revealed a shameful truth: at the moment the only lunch I make is my own. My husband is in the home stretch of medical school, which means that he spends long days in hospitals with little time for indulgences such as "lunch." Most days they're given some kind of greasy Chinese food or inferior pizza to wolf down during a midday meeting, and the rest of the time lunch is catch as catch can. My impression is that sitting down and unpacking tasty leftovers or even a good-looking sandwich would be suspect, food being decidedly too frivolous to concern a busy MD (or MD-to-be).
So Andrew asked me to buy him some energy bars, which I have always regarded with distaste and even suspicion. I just don’t think they count as food. I soon discovered that they are rather expensive, and what's more, many of them contain tree nuts, to which Andrew is deathly allergic. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to make something myself, and wouldn’t I feel better about it?
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Posted by Dorie Greenspan, April 24, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Illustration by Florine Asch
It's not just potato-chip makers that understand that if you offer us something salty we won't be able to eat just one—French pastry chefs know that trick too. And Arnaud Larher, whose pastry shop is in Montmartre, is a master of the add-salt-and-we'll-munch-away school. He's the chef who created the TV Snacks, irresistibly munchable, salty little butter cookies molded into lumpy, bumpy balls.
When I asked Larher how he came up with the idea to make a salty cookie, he said it came to him very naturally, since he grew up in Brittany, where butter is always salted. "I'm just continuing the tradition," he said.
I bet you could start your own tradition with these.
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Posted by Lucy Baker, February 23, 2008 at 6:00 PM
©iStockphoto.com/hidesy
What would an Oscars party be without a big bowl of popcorn? For Hollywood's most glamorous night, though, not just any popcorn will do. Instead of run-of-the-mill microwave varieties, why not make some the old-fashioned way—in a pot on the stove? Here are three of my favorite fancy popcorn recipes: Giada de Laurentiis's Rosemary Popcorn, Sally Schnieder's White Truffle Popcorn, and a seriously indulgent Bacon-Cheese Popcorn.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, February 11, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Potato chips too unhealthy for you? Why not try kale chips? Yup, just take those cruciferous leaves, toss them with vinegar, salt, and oil, pop them in the oven and you've got yourself a healthy snack. Try the recipe from 28 cooks, who says you should like them even if you don't like kale since you'll mostly taste the salty flavor. [via tastespotting]
Photograph from 28 cooks on Flickr
Posted by Adam Kuban, February 1, 2008 at 2:45 PM
Who doesn't love eating nachos while watching the Super Bowl? This recipe, adapted from Robb Walsh's Tex-Mex Cookbook, refers to Brown's Mexican Food on Hackberry Street in San Antonio. Nachos there come eight to an order and come in three styles: cheese; bean and cheese; bean, cheese, avocado. The portions here re-create Brown's serving style, but for a Super Bowl party, you'll obviously want to increase the dose, amigos (unless you're having the saddest Super Bowl party for one). Luckily, upping the yield is easy enough, since all ingredients scale on the same ratio. Or, better yet, make a couple batches of each variation here.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 30, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Alright. It's my belief that you can't have a football party—and especially not a Super Bowl party—without a seven-layer bean dip. This dip doesn't mess around, so use extra-thick tortilla chips or Fritos for dipping.
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Posted by mothgirl, December 24, 2007 at 8:00 AM
In 2000, Odessa Piper, the founding chef and former owner of L'Etoile Restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, told Wisconsin Trails magazine that generations of Piper women have been candying grapefruit peel by a three-day process that I have since incorporated into my holiday kitchen routine—with the exception of last year, when I realized too late that we had moved away from the neighbor whose Crock-Pot I had always borrowed for the task.
This year I bought my own Crock-Pot. I also ordered a box of organic grapefruit from L'Hoste Citrus in Braithwaite, Louisiana, which is better known for its satsumas but also produces exceptional navel oranges, Meyer lemons, and pink grapefruit this time of year. The L'Hostes farm on land so low-lying that cruise ships tower above their citrus groves as they travel up and down the Mississippi River just beyond a grassy levee.
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