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How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

I loved visiting my father's mother or having her visit us. She would always make our family's version of some Turkish/Sephardic treat:
bimuelos (for breakfast)
montees (not the Turkish lamb dumplings and yogurt, but more like a spinach borekh that's flatter and has more cheese)
biscochos (a flat toroid with the outside edge cut so it flared with sesame seeds on top)

The food was great, but boy, did she use a lot of oil. The walls in her kitchen always had a coating of oil on them. I knew that I was making my own montees properly when I had a small fire in the oven!

My other grandmother was a decent baker, but her sister was a master. I still remember seeing a pie crust recipe in the Times when I was young that called for a little vinegar. She railed against its use in a pie crust--"It should be sweet! Why would you destroy that with vinegar?" and gave me her recipe, which I subsequently lost.

From A Hamburger Today

Rachael Ray's Burger Bash Competitors Revealed

While I love the Burger Joint (especially, since it's a few doors down from me), I may have to check out as many of the others that I can--those in the city, or with city outposts.

From Serious Eats

Top 10 Celebrity Chef Earners: Who Isn't on the List?

How much of "their" restaurants do these chefs actually own? Even JGV has partners in "his" restaurants. Very few, if any of the top chefs likely own the majority of any one restaurant. No one is immune to a failed restaurant, so why should any smart chef put up too much of his own money? Sure, the chef is the draw, but someone else is putting up the vast majority of the cash, so the lion's share of any profit will USUALLY go to the money guys.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Bring on the dumplings fom Shun Lee Cafe with a big plae of spare ribs!

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From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

I loved visiting my father's mother or having her visit us. She would always make our family's version of some Turkish/Sephardic treat:
bimuelos (for breakfast)
montees (not the Turkish lamb dumplings and yogurt, but more like a spinach borekh that's flatter and has more cheese)
biscochos (a flat toroid with the outside edge cut so it flared with sesame seeds on top)

The food was great, but boy, did she use a lot of oil. The walls in her kitchen always had a coating of oil on them. I knew that I was making my own montees properly when I had a small fire in the oven!

My other grandmother was a decent baker, but her sister was a master. I still remember seeing a pie crust recipe in the Times when I was young that called for a little vinegar. She railed against its use in a pie crust--"It should be sweet! Why would you destroy that with vinegar?" and gave me her recipe, which I subsequently lost.

From A Hamburger Today

Rachael Ray's Burger Bash Competitors Revealed

While I love the Burger Joint (especially, since it's a few doors down from me), I may have to check out as many of the others that I can--those in the city, or with city outposts.

From Serious Eats

Top 10 Celebrity Chef Earners: Who Isn't on the List?

How much of "their" restaurants do these chefs actually own? Even JGV has partners in "his" restaurants. Very few, if any of the top chefs likely own the majority of any one restaurant. No one is immune to a failed restaurant, so why should any smart chef put up too much of his own money? Sure, the chef is the draw, but someone else is putting up the vast majority of the cash, so the lion's share of any profit will USUALLY go to the money guys.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Bring on the dumplings fom Shun Lee Cafe with a big plae of spare ribs!

From Serious Eats

Is Whole Foods Becoming Costco with a Side Order of Trader Joe's?

I like Whole Foods, but they haven't opened their long-rumored Park Slope branch, yet, so I have to drag stuff home from Manhattan. I prefer Fairway (in Red Hook, the Manhattan stores ARE zoos), because it's never overly crowded, even if the parking lot is, and the lines are never more than 2 deep at checkout.

By the way, if you are going to compare Smucker's peanut butter to another brand at Whole Foods, you probably would have been better off comparing the pricing of the fresh/grind your own at the two stores. I believe they were both about $2.99/pound last I checked.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Sweety Pies'

It had to be the apple pie I baked for my first Thanksgiving with my in-laws. The hostess wouldn't give me my pie pan back, because there was still a piece or two of pie left! I got the pie pan back almost a year later with a note requesting I bring another one for Thanksgiving!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Food Life'

I'd have to say the Fairway in Red Hook. Even with the maddening crowds at Ikea, it's easy to get to, not crowded (even when the parking lot is full), and has a great selection. And the deli counter and cheese counter crews are always willing to give my toddler daughter a taste of whatever she wants. Unfortunately, I haven't recently found a counter where they will give you a taste of whatever you're ordering without asking (now, I really feel old). And, I haven't tried their lox, yet.

Last time I got lox, it was at Balducci's. The packaged stuff at Whole Foods isn't worth the plastic it's wrapped in.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: Serves One

I used to make a veritable vat of pasta salad with fresh vegetables and eat it all week for lunch. Now, I just throw a burger or some chicken on the grill, top it with cheddar, and put it on a bun. Or, if I'm not too lazy, I'll dig up some leftover rice from the fridge and make some fried rice with whatever is handy.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: Grill Every Day

Just hot dogs and hamburgers. Standing at the grill all day!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: New South Grilling

Steak, hot dogs, hamburgers. Growing up, my dad would grill whenever he was home for dinner, no matter the weather. I remember him bundling up in a big down jacket and boots to go out and grill in the snow.

From Serious Eats

Half Banana Holder

And what's wrong with eating the brown end (my kids 1 and 3) occassionally only eat 1/2 a banana at one time. My wife cuts out all of the "imperfections", and my older kid will hand a banana back to me if it's bruised and ask me to "fix it." Luckily, I got to the younger one first, and she'll eat a banana whether it's white, brown or somewhere in between. The only problem is that she likes to mush it, if it's too soft!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: Cowgirl Cuisine

My mom is a great cook and was game to try her hand at almost any kind of food the three kids and my dad could throw at her. The most memorable was when she acceded to my father's request to prepare his favorite Sephardic dishes (she's Ashkenazi).

What a great meal!

From Serious Eats

The Real Issue in Pennsylvania: Pat's vs. Geno's

Too true. We're generally talking small variances here. I prefer Geno's or Jim's to the any cheesesteak here in NYC.

From Serious Eats

The Real Issue in Pennsylvania: Pat's vs. Geno's

Jim's?!?
Sure, eat at Jim's, if you want a tasteless beef sandwich.

Pat's is the hands-down winner. The last time I tried Geno's (granted, it was 15-20 years ago), it tasted like they marinated their beef.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

creme brulee or, if I'm in a place that calls it "burnt cream" (yes, it's happened), key lime pie.

From Recipes

Cook the Book: Hamantaschen

Sorry to quibble, but Purim starts tonight at sundown and ends tomorrow night.

I'll have to try these sometime, but I'm used to apricot (and for the past 20 or so years, raspberry). I never developed a taste for the poppy or prune variety.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking'

Are there no Sephardic Jews here? What about yakprakis, borekas, rosca, ashuplados, biscochos, brown eggs, bimuelos, boyos?

Boy, do I miss bimuelos. My grandmother's were the best!

From Serious Eats

Valentine's Day Chocolate Giveaway

Milk chocolate. White chocolate isn't real chocolate, is it?

From Serious Eats

Valentine's Day Chocolate Giveaway

I prefer milk chocolate, but the wife loves dark.

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

My Grandma Ruby was born in 1903. She taught me the old ways like making egg noodles and fluffy dumplings. She always baked her cornbread in a sizzling hot cast iron skillet for a crunchy dark golden crust. Her green beans cooked forever and were laden with onion and ham hocks. Chicken was fried in bacon grease after being simply dredged in seasoned flour. Pork chops browned next to apples and onions while potatoes fried on the next burner. The biscuits she made were a mile high and equally delicious under gravy or topped homemade jam. The dried apple fried pies she made are still a family favorite today.

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

My one grandmother's not much of a cook, but a terrific baker. Her pies are amazing.

My other grandmother once cooked the Thanksgiving turkey in a microwave. She's best known for her "party cake," a recipe that does not include a single ingredient not found in a box or a can.

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

@NotAmerican: I had no idea that I help old British people putz around! Thought I was only a car and a German room.

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

Wouldn't Michael Pollan rather agree with a more old fashioned, grandmother-esque style of cooking? Before everything was laced with HFCS, before trans fats, and before you could buy yogurt in a squeezeable tube? Just a thought...

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

Corn flakes, cold cuts and Pepperidge Farms frozen coconut cake.

From Serious Eats

How to Cook Like Your Grandmother

My mom's mother believes in overcooking and under-seasoning, but I was very fond of her stuffed cabbage as a kid. She used to bake, too. It's kind of sad that as she's gotten older, she's stopped cooking almost entirely, despite still having the physical faculties to do so.

My dad's mother paid the housekeeper extra to come in and cook when she had company. But she did stock ice cream and cookies, which my parents never had around. Also, butter, which I don't think has ever seen the inside of my family's house. She let me put it on matzoh, which was even better than ice cream.

From Serious Eats

Top 10 Celebrity Chef Earners: Who Isn't on the List?

Spot on, Bill. It's all about the cult of personality and to her credit, RR does not call herself a chef.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Thank you for participating, and congratulations to our winners:

Cataroo
MrKnish
beausdorei
kathyvegas
MerMade07

Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Peking Duck...Wait, shouldn't that be Beijing Duck??? LOL...

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

hot & sour soup, pork & chive dumplings, scallion pancakes, kung pao chicken, and something noodle-y, cause I just looove noodles!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

All-American, baby! Hamburger and Freedom Fries! :-D

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Cajun-style blackened chicken with a mustard sauce, the absolute best red potato salad I could find, fresh corn seasoned with paprika, & a vanilla cake filled with cooked blueberries and cherries with a vanilla bean-pecan glaze.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

To celebrate in China, I would order Peking Duck. YUM. To celebrate in the US, I would order lazy lobster. YUM. Thanks for this chance.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Caesar salad Linguini Italian Ice garrettsambo@aol.com

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

a massive cheeseburger and excellent, crispy, salty fries. yum.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

prime rib, mashed potatoes, salad with shrimp and a huge piece of new york cheesecake - oh yes and a huge glass of water with tons of ice

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

In Beijing, Peking Duck, at home steak and crabcakes.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

foie gras, lobster, crab, oysters, clams, scallops, couscous, lamb, pasta, and cheesecake

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

a seafood platter with whole belly clams,shrimp,scallops, haddock :)~~~~~~

From Serious Eats

Top 10 Celebrity Chef Earners: Who Isn't on the List?

Salaries and "profits" from restaurant are two different things......

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

Deep fried chicken breasts stuffed with prociutto & provolone, garlic mashed potatoes and fresh italian green beans.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'The Shun Lee Cookbook'

I would celebrate over DIM SUM. I would have Shu Mai and Har Gow and Shrimp Rice Noodle(s) along with other items. To add to the joy, I would have my meal with a nice bottle of Veuve Cliquot.

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