The Bitten Word

Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache

Martha Stewart Living (February 2012)

Here's something we probably don't need to tell you: Martha Stewart Living has nice photography. Great photography, in fact. 

But there's a feature in the current February issue that has such stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous photos, we wanted to cook something from it just so we could talk about the pictures.

Could this Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache possibly live up to its photo?

Doctor-Your-Own Potato Chips + Other Menu Ideas for the Super Bowl

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living (September 2011)

 

Our interest in sports can be summed up in this small snippet of recent conversation: 

Zach: "I don't even know who's playing in the Super Bowl."

Clay: "Uh, duh? Madonna."

So yes, it's Super Bowl Week, when America's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of snacks.

And whether you're a fan of the Giants or the Patriots -- or just Madonna or the commercials -- we've got the perfect snack for the big game: heated and spiced potato chips.

Yup, you heard us.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens

Martha Stewart Living (January 2012)

We're on a bit of a cauliflower kick right now.

Last week we made that yummy Radicchio and Cauliflower Salad with Toasted Breadcrumbs, and now here we are with this cauliflower soup.

Cauliflower abounds in the January issues of food magazines. In fact, two magazines -- Everyday Food and Bon Appétit -- are currently featuring recipes for cauliflower steaks. (Do two make a trend?) 

There are plenty of reasons why the food mags turn to cauliflower in January. It's seasonal, affordable, healthful and hearty. And, oh yeah, it's extremely versatile and it tastes great.

Nothing showcases all those accolades more than this Creamy Cauliflower Soup with Greens.

Clementine Granita

Martha Stewart Living (December 2011)

When we moved into our first apartment together and started cooking in earnest, granita quickly became our go-to, fall-back dessert.

Why? Because it's tasty and impressive -- and unimaginably easy.

If we had friends coming over but didn't have the time or moxie to make an elaborate dessert, we'd throw together some juice, water and sugar, pour it into a glass dish, and freeze it. Then we'd scrape it with a fork and pile it high in an old-school champagne glass, kind of like we did when we made Coffee Granita last year. We loved it and so did guests. (And in truth, a few times we served granita as a dessert before a more substantial dessert.)

These days, we don't make granita nearly as often, mostly because we've either already served it to just about everyone we know or we're trying out a new dessert to share with you. But we still love it, which is why we jumped at the chance to make this Clementine Granita from Martha Stewart Living.

Thanksgiving 2011: Cranberry Pomegranate Gelatin

Martha Stewart Living (November 2011)

You know how people like to make fun of Martha Stewart by saying how unnecessarily complicated her recipes can be? And you always feel the need to defend her, but your friend is all, "Oh no, it's like, 'Here's a recipe for roast chicken. First step, raise a free-range chicken from birth before killing and dressing it.' " And you're all, "Whatever, some of her recipes may involve a few steps, but it's worth it." But your friend is all, "No way, it's ridiculous and over-complicated."

This is the kind of recipe your friend is talking about.

Thanksgiving 2011: Salted Caramel Six-Layer Chocolate Cake

Martha Stewart Living (November 2011)

Back in October, when we first started planning our Fakesgiving/Thanksgiving menu, we each individually pored through all the food magazines, flagging different recipes on our own before comparing notes. Then we sat down and went through our lists.

Here's a verbatim account of how that conversation began:

Clay: "So. What are we thinking?"

Zach: "Well, clearly, Martha's Salted Cara--"

Clay: "I mean, obviously."

Aaaaaand, scene.

Thanksgiving 2011: Prune and Sausage Stuffing

Martha Stewart Living (November 2011)

Let's face it. "Prune" can be kind of an ugly word.

"Stewed prunes"? Doubly ugly. 

But we unabashedly love them as a snack or thrown into dishes.

And we doubly love them in this Prune and Sausage Stuffing.

Thanksgiving 2011 Recipe Index: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

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! 

Thanksgiving 2011 Trends in Food Magazines: Pies, Pecans, Ginger and Green Beans

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):

Apple-Fennel Sauerkraut with Caraway (Part 2)

You may remember that we've been making our own sauerkraut for the past few weeks. Following a recipe in the October Martha Stewart Living, we've been fermenting a cabbage-fennel-apple sauerkraut, duly opening the jars every five days to release the pressure.

It's been 30 days, and we finally sampled the sauerkraut this weekend.

What was the verdict?