Being a kid from the snow covered hills of Northern New York, I love a classic Northeast winter. Snow storms, sledding, and mornings so chilly you can see your breath — it’s nostalgic and delicious. That being said, I don’t mind a bit of a refresher on the beauty of summer fun and flavors every now and then.
Enter taco night! Pick up the recipe for my quick & delicious Spicy Chicken & Chorizo Tacos on this week’s “Dinner Rush!” post on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
Imagine what happens when you combine your favorite tailgating beverage with America’s favorite sandwich. Chardonnay Hoagies? Yuck. Cosmo Reubens? Way off point. But beer and burgers? Now we’re talking.
This “knife & fork” style beer-braised burger does most of its cooking in a delicious sudsy bath of brew, which not only builds in a great depth of flavor, it also helps to create a killer pan sauce that you can pour over your finished masterpiece. While it looks like 110% “so bad, but so good” man food, a few tricks can help lighten this dish. Opt for ground sirloin to cut out some excess fat from the meat and use a strongly flavored cheese (such as the recommended Stilton) to get the most flavor bang for your caloric buck. You can also use a lighter beer like a lager or ale (though I’d recommend something hearty like a porter or stout).
Now – if you’ve had enough time to shake the thought of what a train wreck Cosmo Reubens would be – game on!
It’s now week two of the “Resolution Stretch.” How you holding up? I know, I’d rather we call themlong term goals, too. How about a quick and healthy dinner plan to get “two birds with one stone” ahead of the game?
The combo of cooked beans and hearty greens is a pretty classic one in Italian home cooking. The beauty of it, really, is that you can easily make a super hearty dinner for four (or even a few more) that is nutritionally balanced, ready in no time and light on the wallet.
Nothing says New Year’s Resolution Rockstar like beans! Right? Who’s with me??
OK, perhaps not the first thing to come to mind. Don’t discount this mighty little legume, though – check out this week’s “Supermarket Score! White Beans” for a few new ideas to help you get your bean on.
Congratulations, digital world — we all made it! We survived the End of the World, championed the drunken Saturday thereafter (and its inevitable sister, hangover Sunday), managed to white knuckle our way through a flawless Christmas day and even shepherded in this millennium’s first lucky number 13.
With all that going on, who’s got time to think about dinner? Moreover, who’s got the stomach for even more leftovers? Take this week off and whip up a meal that is truly a “one dish” wonder courtesy of my newest post on Cooking Channel’s “Devour” blog.
I married into a Dutch family (and no, it’s not entirely like spending every holiday meal at the table with Goldmember). Decades here since immigrating over have certainly tempered the “American” side of their personalities, though the delft and tulips are still quite strong in their customs. Especially when it comes to food.
Learn more about (and pick up a recipe for) my in-law’s Curry-Spiced Minestrone soup, this week on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
The star of the meal were his amazing Korean-style roasted Brussels sprouts. They were sweet, spicy, Brussel-y (in a good way), and flavored with his vegetarian secret weapon: gochujang (“go-choo-tjang”). Gochujang is a fermented soybean paste mixed with chili powder that’s a staple in Korean kitchens. Think of it like sriracha meets miso. Also think of it as the only way you’ll ever want to have Brussels sprouts ever again.
Read the complete post and pick up this recipe for a delicious and easy new take on Brussels sprouts – this week on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
#FirstSnow. That’s how I started one day this last week, watching pillowy white flurries dust my backyard. It’s of course too early in the season for any of it to stick for any length of time, but the magic of that moment had already taken effect. Only one thing seemed a fitting commemoration of a day I look forward to all year. It was to be a chicken pot pie kind of day.
Pick up an easy & delicious chicken pot pie recipe that takes only minutes to prepare and tastes like an all day labor of love – this week on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
With Turkey Day just around the corner, everyone seems to have their knickers in a twist about turkey, stuffing and all that nonsense. Sure, it’s all delicious (and don’t even get me started on the binge-fest known as “dessert”), but I’m getting a bit of a head start on the unsung, fail-safe hero of the Thanksgiving table. I’m giving it up for the cranberry.
Pigeonholed into a can-molded, jellied sidekick to turkey or juiced companion to vodka and lime, the breadth of the cranberry’s abilities is far-reaching and delicious. Think of it as going great with more than just poultry or booze. Take a hanger steak, for instance. It is rich, meaty and sings in perfect harmony with the tart, acidic flavor of cranberries.
Pick up the recipe (and more of my homage to the humble cranberry) on my newest post on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
I often joke with people that, in my house, bourbon is a food group. Thing is, I’m not really joking. Aside from the standard cache of artisan cocktails I keep flowing in regular rotation, I do my best to work bourbon into as many other edible applications as possible.
This recipe is a match made in heaven with bourbon, fresh thyme and maple syrup. It’s also a really cool method that is universal for preparing almost anything. Pick up your guaranteed new favorite kitchen trick and learn how to make anything deliciously “sticky” with this week’s post on Cooking Channel’s “Devour” blog.
Being a native-born Yankee, I’m thankful that one of my best friends in life is a Mexican-blooded guy from Texas. Eddie gives me perspective and a glimpse into a life very different from the one I grew up with, especially when it comes to food.
Eddie and his family have shared with me some life-changing culinary traditions. Spending time in the kitchen with him and his Grandma Mary making fresh tortillas next to pots of simmering pinto beans are sights and smells that I’ll never forget. They’re gateway memories to a family lineage that takes immense pride in what they’re able to produce and share with each other.
But that bucolic portrait of a life more devout and less complicated isn’t what today is all about. Where there’s a place for hand-crafted food made with love, there’s an equally large place for some delicious junk food, which in Eddie’s house means “Frito Pie.” Get the skinny on what exactly “Frito Pie” is and pick up a kickin’ dinner recipe for it with my newest post on Cooking Channel’s “Devour” blog.
As a nerdy, husky jeans-clad teenager growing up in Northern New York, I always had a soft spot for Chinese takeout night. Like clockwork each week, origami cardboard containers of exotic concoctions like moo goo gai pan, boneless beef spare ribs, lo mein, and chicken with cashews would arrive in a sawed-off cardboard box and be subsequently devoured, funny-shaped flavorless cookies and all. It wasn’t until many years later — when I actually began to study the flavors and cooking methods of East Asia — that I realized how truly awful most of it was. I was just a hungry, hungry little hippo. What was I supposed to know? Knowledge can be a funny thing that way.
Check out my easy & delicious take on a miso-based stir fry in my newest post on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
I can remember, clear as day, being a kid at my babysitter Kimmy’s house and watching one of the boys across the table from me eat raw ramen noodles with his lunch. Horror. Or so I thought with the worldliness of a five year old.
How behind the curve I was on the universal glory of ramen noodles.
Pick up four fab ideas to bring new life to a dorm room staple on this week’s “Supermarket Score” on Rachael Ray’s blog.
After spending a recent (and most delicious) weekend in Washington, D.C., I’m dedicating this week’s Dinner Rush! to my father-in-law. For those who don’t know Ype Von Hengst, he’s an amazingly talented and accomplished chef who’s well-known for his multi-unit restaurant concept in the Mid-Atlantic region. One of his most-popular menu items (and also one of my personal favorites) is his Grilled Wasabi Salmon Sliders. These things fly out the door of his restaurant!
Pick up the recipe and make yourself a quick and delicious restaurant-quality dinner at home with my newest post on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
So last week’s “Supermarket Score: Pumpkin” post garnered quite a few comments (much to my appreciative surprise). I heard from many a die-hard baker out there that could appreciate the suggestion of a Pumpkin Corn Muffin, but didn’t want to go the boxed mix route. They wanted to go old school and make them from scratch.
This is it you die-hard, pumpkin-crazed, at-home-bakers! Pick up this delicious sweet & salty Pumpkin Corn Muffin recipe on this week’s post on Rachael Ray’s blog.
Isn’t fall just the best? In New York, anyway, the dappled landscape of red and orange leaves and the ever-present smell of apple cider doughnuts frying in vats of oil so dark and overused you can’t see through it just screams: “Feed me something delicious and hearty! And put on a sweater! Now!”
This week’s recipe post is just that – easy, hearty, and delicious! Hop over to Cooking Channel’s Devour blog to pick up the recipe!
It’s that blissful time of year where pumpkin starts emerging in all forms from muffins and martinis, to lattes and lobster rolls (well, maybe not so much the latter). The point is, now is our chance to savor as much pumpkin as possible.
Explore all that pumpkin season has to offer (beyond the latte, that is) with this week’s “Supermarket Score: Pumpkin” on Rachael Ray’s blog.
I’m completely guilty of being an overbuyer in the grocery store’s produce department. I love the flavor and freshness of vegetables and am hard-pressed to leave my local market without some combination of them compromising the structural integrity of my shopping bag.
Assessing the contents of my refrigerator crisper drawer and noticing a bit of a Mediterranean theme in my most recent haul, I was inspired to pull together a quick and delicious Greek-style chopped salad. Grab the recipe from my current post on Cooking Channel’s “Devour” blog.
As my husband loves to retort when I ask him how his workday went, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug.” Regardless of your side of the motor vehicle, nothing says “time to celebrate” or “let’s get this day over with” as universally as mac & cheese.
Pick up my easy and killer delicious BB&C Mac recipe on this week’s “Dinner Rush!” post on Cooking Channel’s Devour blog.
The bucolic dream of a fresh haul of locally-grown and hand-picked apples means that a box of fruit landing close to my body weight in size inevitably nests itself on my kitchen counter each and every fall. About five minutes in – when the dream has worn off – it actually becomes game time as I then need to find a use for a crop that brings delicious to the table in very sizeable abundance.
Fear not, lovers of the Macintosh, Gala, Empire, and beyond! Check out these delicious and crazy simple “fruit of the fall” ideas to see some light at the end of that crate. Check out this week’s “Supermarket Score” on Rachael Ray’s blog for some great apple-based ideas.
