Cookbook Giveaway: Simple Asian Meals

Kick up the flavor of a familiar healthy eating standby with Ginger-Balsamic Salmon. Photograph by Romulo Yanes.

A craving for Asian takeout doesn’t have to mean the end of your healthy eating resolutions. With the new cookbook Simple Asian Meals: Irresistibly Satisfying and Healthy Dishes for the Busy Cook, Asian food expert Nina Simonds shares more than 100 easy, wholesome and healthy recipes for Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese favorites. From soups, stews and casseroles to stir-fried and grilled dishes, eating well will be easy with these vibrantly flavored Asian foods.

Continue Reading Cookbook Giveaway: Simple Asian Meals

Thirsty Thursday: A Beer and a Ball

A Beer and A Ball Cocktail

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 a Brown Butter Old Fashioned; this week we’re back and tipping our caps to the upcoming Super Bowl with a refreshing beer-based sip.

Throwing back a few cold ones is great and all, but pouring them over ice, along with grapefruit juice, Italian aperitifs and simple syrup instead? Now we’re talking. We call it the Beer and a Ball Cocktail, but don’t be surprised if you end up gravitating towards names like highly addictive and dangerously good. Bottoms up, folks.

Continue Reading Thirsty Thursday: A Beer and a Ball

Light and Sweet: Pavlova for Dessert

Pavlova Recipe

Craving a decadent dessert, but still want to keep it light? It isn’t an impossible request. Pavlova is a sweet pillow of crisp meringue, topped with tart lemon curd and fresh berries. This low fat treat is full of bright flavors, so you’ll never miss the calories. You can even add a touch of bittersweet chocolate without giving up on your New Year’s Resolution. It is as lovely and elegant as the Russian ballerina it was named after.

Continue Reading Light and Sweet: Pavlova for Dessert

Top of the (Holiday Cookie) Swap

Graham Cookies Recipe

And we have a winner! We are pleased to announce that after testing and trying the top ten finalists in our Holiday Cookie Swap, we’ve determined whose cookie was Top of the Swap (drumroll, please…):

Continue Reading Top of the (Holiday Cookie) Swap

Big Game Giveaway: Cheeseboards, Pitchers and Pint Glasses

Giants Cheeseboard

When the New England Patriots and New York Giants meet in Indianapolis on Sunday, February 5th, two of the world’s top teams will leave it all on the field, while we at home, well, we’ll do our best not to leave anything on our plates. It’s football’s biggest stage and tailgating season’s biggest feast. With an eternity’s-worth of time still left to prepare (ok, 11 days to be exact), there simply are no excuses for not bringing your A-game on Super Bowl Sunday.

Chili, wings, chips and dips are all locks for our gameday menus, but a bit of outside-the-bowl thinking has us considering more exotic eats like Pulled Pork Nachos, Crab-Stuffed Potato Skins and Golden Gate Chili Ribs. Then there are the food rivalries, inescapably brought on each time two food-rich cities are pitted one against another, always more exciting with culinary powerhouses like New York and New England. But how could we possibly choose between paying homage to the Giants with homemade pizza and repping the Patriots with a cup ‘o chowda? Simple, we can’t.

Continue Reading Big Game Giveaway: Cheeseboards, Pitchers and Pint Glasses

Shortcut: Milk Bar Cookie Mixes

When I got my hands on a copy of the gorgeous Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook a few months ago, I wanted to dive in right away and bake some of my favorite cookies from the original East Village shop. But I’ll admit: I was intimidated by a few of the ingredients and the multiple components involved, so I never got around to it.

Fortunately for me and my fellow lazy bakers, there’s now an easier way to get Milk Bar goodness at home. Boxed mixes for some of pastry chef Christina Tosi’s most popular cookies recently hit the shelves at Williams-Sonoma.

“I started baking with cookie and cake mixes, before I branched out into making my own recipes, so having a line of cookie mixes has always been near and dear to my start as a home baker,” explains Christina. It took “months and months” of testing to get the mixes just right, and as a result, the Compost cookies I made at home tasted pretty spot-on. Williams-Sonoma is also stocking Blueberry & Cream and Corn cookie mixes, which a couple of my fellow Cooking Channel colleagues tested out.

Continue Reading Shortcut: Milk Bar Cookie Mixes

Meatless Monday: Penne With Roasted Tomatoes

Penne Recipe

One of my favorite recipes from Ellie Krieger is her Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and White Beans. Ordinarily, I’m no fan of out-of-season, winter tomatoes, but when you roast them, it deepens their flavor and makes them sweeter. And the garlic in the recipe is roasted, too, making its flavor more mellow and sort of nutty. The roasting part of this recipe takes about 40 minutes, but if you’ve got the time, it’s totally worth it; it makes it seem as if tomato season wasn’t seven months away.

Continue Reading Meatless Monday: Penne With Roasted Tomatoes

National Pie Day: Celebrate with Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Salted Caramel Apple Pie Recipe

It’s National Pie Day, so put aside the endless Team Pie vs. Team Cake debate and focus on what really matters — finding yourself a slice o’ pie.

We’re celebrating this food holiday with an American classic : Apple Pie. But it’s not just apple pie — it’s Salted Caramel Apple Pie.

Continue Reading National Pie Day: Celebrate with Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Chinese New Year: Recipes for the Year of the Dragon

There are many traditions and superstitions surrounding the Chinese New Year, which Steamy Kitchen’s Jaden Hair outlined for us, but as we enter the year of the Dragon, we at Cooking Channel are most excited about the holiday’s fifteen days of feasting. (Naturally.) This year, the Chinese New Year falls on Monday, January 23.

Steering clear of squid (eating the tentacled creatures during the celebration symbolizes getting fired in the coming year), we’ve rounded up some of our best Chinese recipes for your at-home celebration:

Wok-Cooked Monkfish with Sesame Soy Sauce
Cooking a fish whole — including head and tail — symbolizes togetherness and unity. Enjoy this dish on New Year’s Eve and then partake in the leftovers the next day to gurantee having more than enough food in the coming year.

Zesty Chile Tiger Prawns
Forecast a year filled with happiness and laughter with this delicious garlic and chile-flavored shrimp dish.

Continue Reading Chinese New Year: Recipes for the Year of the Dragon

Cookbook Giveaway: Deliciously G-Free

These gluten-free Chocolate Devil's Food Cupcakes will please any chocolate lover.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View and New York Times best-selling author of The G-Free Diet, grew up in an Italian-American family that would gather around the dinner table for cozy homemade feasts. When she was diagnosed with celiac disease a decade ago, Elisabeth’s favorite dishes were suddenly off-limits. But now, with Deliciously G-Free, she has developed family-friendly, gluten-free versions of her favorite dishes.

Continue Reading Cookbook Giveaway: Deliciously G-Free