Bon Appétit (January 2012)
We wanted something fast, easy and fresh for dinner last week. We knew just where to turn: Bon App's "Fast, Easy, Fresh" section. It's a front-of-the-book collection of relatively quick and simple recipes, and it's always good for a little inspiration.
This Creamy Polenta with Sausages and Roasted Grapes sounded perfect -- hearty and comforting, with the roasted grapes adding a fun twist.
Continue reading "Creamy Polenta with Sausages and Roasted Grapes" »
Bon Appétit (November 2011)
We're always up for a dose of different.
And in perusing the November issues of the food magazines, this Crispy Cauliflower with Capers, Raisins and Breadcrumbs stuck out as being very different. Capers and raisins? Plus some anchovy paste, too?
We were certain this was going to be unlike any cauliflower we've ever tried, with big, bold flavors.
Turns out, that isn't the case. There's something amiss with this dish.
Continue reading "Thanksgiving 2011: Crispy Cauliflower with Capers, Raisins, and Breadcrumbs" »
Bon Appétit (November 2011)
For many people, mashed potatoes are a non-negotiable part of the Thanksgiving menu. Their place on the table isn't up for debate: No mashed potatoes, no Thanksgiving.
It's easy to understand why. Creamy, buttery mashed potatoes are a warm and welcome part of the feast.
But let's all be honest here. Let's call a spade a spade. At Thanksgiving, mashed potatoes serve one purpose, and one purpose only: Gravy-vehicle.
They don't really taste like anything, except the butter and salt and pepper you add to them. Sometimes we think they're really only there because it's considered impolite to eat gravy with a spoon, straight outta the gravy boat.
But what if you had a mash that actually brought something to the table? A root-vegetable mash that actually had flavor?
What if you had this Celery Root, Kohlrabi, and Apple Purée?
Continue reading "Thanksgiving 2011: Celery Root, Kohlrabi, and Apple Purée" »
Bon Appétit (November 2011)
Modern Family, Season 2 Episode 6:
Claire: I’m not done! So not done! Look, here's the thing. We have fireworks at Christmas now because that’s what they do in Columbia. I don’t mind. Thanksgiving? That used to be me, roasting a turkey, until the gays took it over with whatever new turkey-cooking craze it is that you saw on the Food Network. And I’m fine with that too. All I ask, all I ask, is that you leave me Halloween. Yeah, Halloween. I realize it is a crazy-ass holiday for a grown woman to care about this much, but it’s my crazy-ass holiday. Mine!
Cam: That’s a lot of complaining from somebody who asked for thirds of our tandoori turkey last year.
Ladies and gentlemen: Our tandoori turkey.
Our Fakesgiving + Our Favorite Holiday Dishes
A little more than a week ago, we had Thanksgiving.
Or really, we had Fakesgiving, our annual tradition with friends and family where we pack as many seats as possible into our apartment, make a bunch of new dishes from November food magazines, and see what everyone likes and dislikes. This year, there were 13 of us. Zach's mom and sister came and helped cook the day before (we literally could not have done it without them), and we made 17 new Thanksgiving dishes.
(This year's Fakesgiving crowd, minus the two of us.)
Below, you'll see the initial list of recipes we started with: more than 250 Thanksgiving recipes from 10 magazines. To be included in the index, the recipes had to be part of the magazine's Thanksgiving coverage. So this is not meant to be comprehensive -- there are many more recipes in this month's magazines. If the recipe is hyperlinked, it is available online. If not, it's not there yet.
In preparation for this year's Thanksgiving coverage, we've also created a page of Our Favorite Holiday Recipes. There, you'll find a collection of dishes from Thanksgivings, Fakesgivings and holiday dinner parties past. We'll be updating it as we introduce new content and recipes on the site.
Enjoy the index!
Continue reading "Thanksgiving 2011 Recipe Index: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending" »
Thanksgiving is coming! Thanksgiving is coming!
And we're ready. We've scoured the magazines, tested recipes, and we're eager talk turkey, recommend dishes, and answer any Thanksgiving-related questions you might have.
We're kicking off our Thanksgiving coverage by looking at the trends in this year's crop of magazines. As in previous years, we've indexed every single one of the November Thanksgiving recipes from the magazines in our rotation. We'll share that list with you on Monday. There are some really exciting (and bizarre) dishes among the more than 250 recipes.
But today we're going to talk about trends.
As we pored through this year's Thanksgiving features, some clear trends emerged. To illustrate many of the trends in this year's T-Day recipes, we created word clouds, like the one above, which illustrate how frequently certain words popped up. You can click on all the word clouds to enlarge them, so you can take a closer look.
What's the general theme for this year? Well, for a lot of our magazines, the theme seemed to be, "Thanksgiving 2011: We're Just Not That Into You." Food & Wine and Saveur seem rather light on their coverage. Even Martha Stewart Living, which we would sort of hold up as the grande dame of Thanksgiving entertaining, seemed scaled back. (We hasten to add that we're not saying that's a bad thing -- Lord knows there are plenty of great autumn recipes out there that don't involve sweet potatoes or cranberry sauce.)
But there was one magazine that blew us away this year. You guys know we tend not to single out particular magazines or issues as favorites, but this must be said: Bon Appétit BROUGHT IT this Thanksgiving. Buh-ROUGHT. IT. From its "Feast from the East" feature, which showcased marvelous ideas for an Asian-inspired Thanksgiving, to the "Down South" feature on a Louisiana Cajun Thanksgiving feast, we were enthralled. Four turkeys, a host of awesome side dishes, and drool-worthy desserts (we need that Grape-and-Apple Pie) -- the November 2011 Bon Appétit is a pleasure. Even if you're set on your Thanksgiving menu, consider picking up a copy just for fun.
Anyway, trends.
As you can see from the word cloud above, the usual suspects are, well, the usual suspects. So here's a word cloud showing all the recipe words, minus "turkey," "gravy," "cranberry," "stuffing," "potatoes," "dressing" and "roasted" (a.k.a. the saddest Thanksgiving ever):
Bon Appétit (October 2011)
When Clay first mentioned that he wanted to try this Rye Witch cocktail, Zach thought he was saying "wry" witch. Naturally, that evoked images of a haggard old crone making witty, dry asides, which actually sounds like a pretty great costume...
We're always intrigued by the Halloween recipes in food magazines. Halloween is one of the few times during the year when the magazines go out of their way to have a little fun with their food. Martha dons crazy outfits, and we start to see recipes like "Broken Glass Cupcakes" from Martha Stewart Living, Spicy Cheddar Witch Fingers from Food & Wine, Ghastly Meringues from Food Network Magazine, and "I Scream" Graveyard Pie from Everyday Food.
Mostly, it's a whole lot of "cute" food. Which is great for Halloween, if that's what you want. Us? We thought this Rye Witch cocktail was more our speed. Rye whiskey and orange? Yes sir, bartender!
Plus, this recipe has a fantastic twist that we love.
Continue reading "The Rye Witch Cocktail and No-Cook Simple Syrup" »
Big thanks to everyone who entered this month's contest. We loved hearing your comments about the covers! While most people praised either the Martha Stewart Living short rib potpies, the Saveur roast beef or the Bon Appétit pork loin, we were surprised to see how much you guys loved the Whole Living cover. Dozens of you were enticed by that roasted veggie salad.
Before we get to this month's winners, we want to highlight a few items from recent magazines that we enjoyed.
Bourbon is our favorite spirit, so we are enamored with Saveur's current feature on bourbons and whiskeys in their October issue. It's practically a crash course in whiskeys, with tasting notes for more than 20 varieties. Needless to say, we were very thirsty after reading it. The piece -- titled "Whiskey Rebellion" -- isn't online, but as an accompaniment to the article Saveur.com has an excellent gallery of 8 whiskey cocktails.
The same issue has a feature on fermentation that we also loved. There are recipes for everything from Spiced Red Wine Vinegar to Fermented Beets. The photos are amazing, but the thing we loved about the feature was an two-page spread called "The World of Fermentation." It highlights 30 fermented products from around the globe. Some of them are staples -- soy sauce, raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, cultured butter. Others are foreign but familiar, like Marmite. But it's the products we've never heard of that really got us curious, like Kefir, an "effervescent milk drink from Central Asia...bubbly with yeast," and black garlic, which we've been reading a lot about lately. Have you cooked with it?
Saveur's Fermented Beets with Orange and Ginger
In Cooking Light, check out the Halloween Treat Picker, a great chart that divides candies on an axis of Sugar versus Saturated Fat, so that it highlights those items that have Less Fat & More Sugar (Nerds -- the candy, not an accusation), More Fat & More Sugar (Reese's Peanut Butter Cups), and on and on in any combination. We're not big candy eaters, but we thought this was a great Halloween tie-in.
This same issue of Cooking Light features their annual Taste Test Awards. We love reading about taste tests in Cook's Illustrated, but few other magazines seem to do them. The two winners we're most excited to try are Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Steel Cut Oats and the Whole Foods 365-brand Aged Balsamic Vinegar. You can explore the categories and some of the winners online.
And lastly, there's a new food magazine of which we've become aware over the last few months. It's Chop Chop Magazine, which is focused on cooking with kids. Randomly, we both received an issue through our day jobs, and thought it was adorable. It features kids cooking and sharing their favorite recipes. If you have kids, it's definitely worth checking out.
And now -- who won this month's giveaway?
Continue reading "Contest Winners + Things That Have Caught Our Fancy" »
Bon Appétit (September 2011)
Cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen can be a challenge.
You're not sure where things are, or what equipment is on hand. When it's time to buy ingredients, you don't know what staples may already be in the kitchen. There are odd utensils, leftover spices and wondrously unusual cooking tools.
But there's also something amazingly fun about this experience, which often includes the need to improvise and often to just make do with what you've got.
Each Labor Day, we retreat to the North Carolina coast with a big group of friends, to our friend Drew's family's beach house. It sits in a beautiful spot right on the water. There's absolutely nothing to do there, and that's why we all love it. We play Scrabble, read and stare at the water. It makes for a wonderful and relaxing vacation.
And we eat, and eat, and eat, taking turns cooking dinner each night. There were tacos and enchiladas, and some of the best shrimp we can remember eating in a long time. This year, there was also a surprise wedding (!), but that's a story for another time.
On our night to cook, we went simple with the main event: pork tenderloin with an orange-oregano gravy, sautéed corn off the cob and fresh green beans. But we decided to go fancy with dessert, opting to make this Devil's Food Cake with Black Pepper Boiled Icing.
Continue reading "Devil's Food Cake with Black Pepper Boiled Icing " »
Bon Appétit (August 2011)
We've been lucky enough to have eaten at our fair share of fancy restaurants. And more than a few times, we have ordered some version of a scallop crudo. You see it there, lurking among the first courses on menus. And it pops up, occasionally, on cooking competition shows.
It seems so upscale, so refined, so (dare we say it?) classy.
So we wanted to make it ourselves, and Bon Appétit gave us the perfect excuse with this recipe from Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Dan Kluger, current kings of the fancy restaurants in New York City.
And there was one thing we were shocked to find about this recipe.
