It’s Chocolate Week on Cooking Channel, which means you can tune in for our best chocolate-themed shows and get our top 50 chocolate dessert recipes. And since some of you just can’t get enough of this decadent ingredient, we though we’d share some new ways to look at chocolate.
Here are 5 unique twists on chocolate:
Last night the Tour de France Restaurant Group kicked off its annual Stinky Cheese Festival with an opening party featuring cheesy bites paired with wine and beer. The week long festival brings cheese-centric menus to their many locations in New York City including: Nice Matin, Marseilles, Café D’Alsace, French Roast, Le Monde, L’Express, Maison and Pigalle.
Even if you aren’t in New York, though, you can still enjoy some delicious cheese/booze pairings. Here are my top three pairings from the party:
Did you just suffer a nasty break-up? Are you down on love? Or perhaps you just can’t stand all those red hearts and flowers? Nadia G. — the fiercest chef around — has the perfect anti-Valentine’s Day plan for those dodging Cupid’s arrows: a girls’ night in, complete with tasty eats. Save your formal wear for another fest; this pajama poker party is all about comfy and cool.
Continue Reading Anti-Valentine’s Day: Nadia G. Plans a Girls’ Night In
It’s more than just alliteration; it’s a statement, a proclamation that Thursdays are when the weekend should really start. Kicking it off right is the key, and what better way than with a cocktail that not only takes the edge off, but tastes good too.
Last week we shared a recipe for four Super Bowl-inspired sips; this week we’re shaking things up with our favorite icy Irish concoction.
For the first time in, well, ever, McDonald’s will be serving its coveted and crazy-evasive Shamrock Shake at every one of it’s 14,000 U.S. branches. Considering our love for all things green, made with ice cream and Irish, we simply had to join the folks at the Huffington Post and Gothamist in celebration. There are many takeaways to be had from such a momentous announcement — requisite visit(s) to your nearest Mickey D’s for a minty, vanilla-y shake being the first, of course — but consider this: What if it was alcoholic? What if the Shamrock Shake were…spiked? Fortunately for, well, everyone we asked that timely question long ago. The result? Something we like to call The Irish Pirate. Bottoms up, folks.
Continue Reading Thirsty Thursday: Adult Shamrock Mint Shake
Show your sweetie some love by baking up Better-Than-Boxed Chocolate Cake for Valentine's Day (or any day!).
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, here’s a book all about cooking for (and with) your sweetie. For newlyweds and happy couples of all kinds, The Newlywed Cookbook by Food Network Kitchens veteran Sarah Copeland is a delicious guide to nurturing your love with great meals, day after day. I caught up with Sarah by phone to ask her a few questions about her new cookbook.
How did you get the idea for this cookbook?
I always wanted to write a cookbook; I didn’t have an exact idea, I just knew I wanted to make it a garden-to-table or farm-to-table lifestyle easier for people instead of an ambitious change-your-whole-life thing. I met my editor at a workshop, and I must have talked a lot about my husband – I was just married and totally in love. He called me a few months later and said, “We have an idea for a book, and I think you might be our author.” So it’s a book all about my real life. When I actually sat down to write it, it literally poured out onto the page.
Continue Reading Valentine’s Day Cookbook Giveaway: The Newlywed Cookbook
It has been 25 years since The Princess Bride graced the silver screen, but the characters (and quotes!) are truly timeless. In honor of this cult classic, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is releasing a line of wine called “The Bottle of Wits” with two varietals. (You know the scene, Wesley rescues Princess Buttercup from Vizzini by outsmarting him in a “battle of wits.”)
In the small Southern town where I grew up, chicken shacks dot every other street corner, gas station, and strip mall. My first summer job was at one of those famous fry joints; I was 16 and had so much to learn. My best friend and I drank bottomless cherry cokes and ate too many French fries — it was three short months of greasy teenage bliss. Man, what I wouldn’t give to have that high school metabolism back!
As a veteran and self-proclaimed chicken joint “pro,” let me give you non-Southerners a couple of tips should you make it down this way. Chicken joints do one thing — fried chicken — and they do it well. Don’t even think about asking for grilled. You can get a plate, a box, or a bucket; all served with crinkle fries, slaw, and Texas toast. There are three options for a reason, so don’t try to over-complicate your order. (Simple works, folks, especially when high schoolers are running the register). And let’s not forget about that oh-so-special “special sauce.” Every spot has its own secret recipe, but they all taste pretty similar, and delicious, to me. Go ahead and order a couple of extras; you’re gonna need them.
In case you aren’t headed South anytime soon, here’s a recipe to give you a little taste of what you’re missing.
Turns out you can make pesto with almost anything green, not just basil.
Pesto is one of my favorite sauces — I love it on pasta, crostini, pizza and on a spoon, straight out of the food processor after I’ve made a batch. Classic pesto is made from bunches of fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts and olive oil, but since basil won’t be in season for a few months, the basil selection in the supermarket is a little grim. It’s more expensive and only available in small quantities, so I usually suffer through the winter without it. But here’s what I just figured out: Pesto doesn’t have to be made with just basil. This verdant sauce can be made with other herbs, like parsley or cilantro, so as soon as those roll into markets and sprout up in the garden try making pesto with a green herb other than basil.
During the winter months, when cruciferous vegetables are in season, grab a bunch of broccoli and make pesto out of that. Bobby Deen’s Broccoli Pesto recipe calls for just a handful of basil, plus cheese, nuts, garlic and olive oil, so it will have the bright color and flavor you’re used to. Toss the sauce with sun-dried tomatoes (packed in water if you can find them — this cuts down on the oil/fat) and whole-wheat pasta for a hearty tastes-almost-like-summer meal you can make all year. Bonus: Broccoli is loaded with cancer-fighting plant chemicals (so have an extra serving!).
Continue Reading Meatless Monday: Fettuccine With Broccoli Pesto
Once all the dips are devoured, you’ve weaned your supply of wings — and the chili has gotten, well… chilly — what sweets will you be serving to satisfy guests’ cravings?
In our book, brownies and cookies are as synonymous with the big game as the messy, savory stuff. And the easiest way to keep your focus during the fourth quarter is to munch on handheld desserts — no utensils or hand-eye coordination necessary.
Get ready for a whole new season of Kelsey’s Essentials. This time around, Kelsey’s spending some time out of the kitchen, looking for inspiration as she develops new recipes.
Tune in to today’s premiere as she steps into the role of butcher at the Meat Hook in Brooklyn, New York. Kelsey gets a lesson a butchering, gaining a new appreciation for a butcher’s favorite cut of meat, the eye of round steak (much less expensive than other premium cuts). Plus, she learns how to make fresh sausage, tailoring the ingredients to her recipe.
Kelsey puts her new skills to use by serving up Chicken Fried Steak and Sausage and Shrimp Over Grits.
