The Bitten Word

Clementines in Cinnamon Syrup

Martha Stewart Living (February 2011)

Since the middle of December, rarely a day has gone by that we haven't had a bowl full of clementines sitting on our kitchen counter. 

We carry them to work as part of our lunch, grab one when we need a snack, and often eat them for dessert after dinner. 

Will we tire of them?  Unlikely. This clementine frenzy happens every year around this time, and the clementines are generally gone before our enthusiasm for them begins to wane. 

Should we start to get tired of plain old clementines, no worries. This excellent Martha Stewart Living recipe for Clementines in Cinnamon Syrup is all the variety we need. 

The Bitten Word Goes to South America: Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Uruguay

Back in November, we took an amazing 15-day trip to South America. We spent a week in Buenos Aires, a few days in the Mendoza wine country, a one-day jaunt to an amazing waterfall on the border between Argentina and Brazil, and five blissful, languid days on the beach on Uruguay.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of adventure: vibrant city life, jungle hikes, relaxed wine tastings and lazy, breezy days on the beach.

And we have tons of great memories. Tango hall!  Flea markets!  Museums at midnight!  Doing an Evita impression at the Casa Rosada! 

But when people have asked us what Buenos Aires was like, or how much we enjoyed our trip, somehow we always keep answering in terms of food...

So we wanted to share some of our fave food memories with you from our trip. To that end, here are 9 Unforgettable Meals from our trip to South America!

Mini Mocha Cheesecakes

Everyday Food (January/February 2011)

 

As more than one commenter noted in our recent gallery of magazine covers, January is the time of year for food magazines to trot out every "light" and "health" dish they can find. It makes sense, of course, after the glut of holiday fare and with New Year's resolutions fresh on the brain.

If you've resolved to eat better, these Mini Mocha Cheesecakes are a terrific way to satisfy your sweet tooth in a healthier way. (Although let's just all be honest for one second: If we were really trying to improve our diets, we'd be skipping dessert altogether.)

Anyway, we were drawn to these cheesecakes because they seemed like light, simple desserts. Well, they are light -- just 174 calories each -- and they should be simple. But there are some things you need to know.

We Have a Cookbook Winner!

We're just back from a whirwind few days in Los Angeles. In fact, we took a red eye back to DC last night, so we're moving a bit slower than usual today. We'll share more on that trip very soon. In the meantime, you can read some updates from our time in sunny California over on our Twitter feed.

While we were gone, we were blown away -- blown away! -- by the response to our first-ever giveaway, in which we we asked you to share your thoughts on your favorite January food magazine cover. Nearly 300 of you weighed in, and the observations were not only varied but also insightful. It so fun to read your opinions!

Many of you loved the Saveur cover for its variety, Martha Stewart Living's scrumptious roast chicken, the runny egg on the Food & Wine breakfast sandwich, the "art-like" quality of Cook's Illustrated and the festiveness of the Fine Cooking croquembouche. And that's not to mention other great comments about Cook's Country's citrus and Food Network Magazine's meatballs.

We chose a random comment number to identify a winner. That person is Emily Rae -- congrats Emily! She picked the Saveur cover:

Saveur. I got really annoyed by all the "light" focus everywhere else -- it's winter, and I still want to eat filling food! It wasn't so "here's what we expect everyone wants" but more "here's what we actually want to write about", and the layout was unusual and eyecatching. Is that pepper vodka?

As our random winner, Emily wins a copy of America's Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2011. Congrats!

You can check out all the comments and view the January covers on the original post.

Would you like seeing more galleries of covers or giveaways here on The Bitten Word? Let us know in the comments.

 

 

January Magazine Covers Gallery. Plus: A Giveaway!

As our magazine subscriptions come in each month, we're always hyper-focused on what's on each cover. It's fascinating, really, especially around major holidays.  Do they go with the turkey for Thanksgiving? The chocolate for Valentine's?  How does each magazine set itself apart?  

We have no doubt that teams of people spend hours deliberating what should be on a magazine's cover in a given month in order to set it apart on newstands. 

Here at the top of the year, we thought it would be fun to showcase all the latest covers for January.  

And while we're trying something new, we thought we'd also offer up our first giveaway!

Since several of this month's magazines are featuring "light" themed covers, we're going to give one reader a copy of the America's Test Kitchen Light & Healthy 2011 cookbook -- a collection of the past year's best recipes, lightened up. 

[UPDATE: We have a winner!  Click here to see who won the cookbook!]

Here's what you need to do in order to be entered to win:

Leave a comment telling us which magazine cover below is your favorite, and why.

To be eligible, submit your comment by midnight (EST) on Sunday, January 23. 

And then on Monday, we'll randomly select one comment who will be the winner of the cookbook. 

And now on to the covers!

Beet-and-Apple Salad

Food & Wine (January 2011)

You can be forgiven if you think, when reading the title of this post, that a Beet-and-Apple Salad sounds, well, a little dull. At first blush, it sounds pleasant but not exciting, tasty but not delicious. 

And that's where first impressions can steer you wrong, because we're happy to report that this salad is anything but ennui-inducing. 

The reason?  It has a secret ingredient, a component you'd never expect in a salad like this.

Tandoori-Marinated Chicken with Cucumber, Lime and Chiles

Martha Stewart Living (January 2011)

As you guys know, we're always up for a new roast chicken recipe. And the thought of some soul-warming Indian spices on a cold January night had us excited for this Tandoori-Marinated Chicken with Cucumber, Lime and Chiles.

Did this Indian-kissed chicken live up to our expectations?

Well, yes. And also no.

Emeril's Orange and Cumin Pork Loin

Everyday Food (December 2010)

We don't know the first thing about cooking with children.

For one thing, we don't have any. Also, all of our friends' kids are all far too young for any cooking. 

But in last month's Everyday Food, Emeril Lagasse surprised us with what he offered up as a "Cooking with Kids" recipe: this Orange and Cumin Pork Loin.

See, if we were to come up with something to cook with kids, we'd instictively go for a dessert, or maybe spaghetti and meatballs. Something kid-friendly and hands-on.

Shows what we know. We think Emeril was just right to pick this cooking project.

Our Wedding: The Food

Since we got married back in September, we've shared a few updates, including our wedding announcement and some photos from our friend William.  

But what we were missing was photos of the actual food that we served. This being a food blog and all, that was a pretty big omission.

Well, after much delay, we're happy to be sharing some additional photos with you!

We mentioned this in earlier posts, but our photographer was the lovely Ms. Katie Stoops, and all the images featured here are from her.  Our caterer was Oliver Friendly of Eat & Smile Foods, who we loved working with.  Dessert, which was a huge hit, was from Dangerously Delicious Pies. 

So here we go -- photos! 

Almost-Instant Masala Baked Beans

Food & Wine (December 2010)

We're always a little dubious when the ingredients list for a recipe like these Masala Baked Beans calls for two cans of baked beans.

Yeah, okay, maybe we have a knee-jerk aversion to anything that seems a little too semi-homemade. But also, we're just always a little skeptical about how much you can actually do to a dish when you start with 32 ounces of baked beans straight from the can. How much flavor can you really develop?

Still, we liked the notion of these Almost-Instant Masala Baked Beans.  The Indian Spiced Turkey Meatloaf with Spicy Indian Ketchup we made before the holidays had us jonesing for more classic American dishes with an Indian twist.

So we shoved our skepticism to the side and reached for a can-opener.