Such a pleasure to go on Rachael Ray and share this recipe from Modern Freezer Meals! Watch the video and then make the full recipe below!
Read More
No, really. It’s the easiest AND the most delicious. This salad is crisp and fresh with a dash of tangy-ness - perfect for a quick bite after you hop out of the pool!
Read More
Snap peas are in your grocery store all year long, but I get so excited when I see the local ones pop up at the farmers market. They are so tender and perfect you can almost just snack on them by themselves. But this twist on a recipe from my book is a way to take that crisp, light flavor and turn into something even more flavorful.
Read MoreI'm VERY into sports if being 'into sports' can mean being very into making the food that comes with watching sports or tailgating. Getting the food right for a sporting event can be a sport unto itself, and one I take as seriously as everyone seems to be taking the game.
As much as I love a many-layered dip and wings, I also always like to have a light, bright option to offset some of the heavier food people might expect. But you want something hearty enough that it won't wilt during a long afternoon - and it's especially great if it's quick to make. And it's an extra bonus if vegetarians feel like they have a main course option that doesn't alienate meat eaters who are just looking for flavor.
Sometimes a lot of ingredients are right in front of our eyes, and that's what I love about this pickled beet and lentil salad with tahini lemon dressing. You can easily buy the sesame goodness of tahini at any grocery store; find canned lentils to save yourself a cooking step; and I use Aunt Nellies pickled beets to add acidity and depth without the long process of roasting and pickling the beets yourself. So what you end up with is a surprising and filling vegetable dish that requires no cooking. The sesame and lemon of the dressing match perfectly with the earthy beets and you have a dish that will make you the tailgate hero with little to no work. Find a sport that can give you that kind of outcome!
Read More
Every party needs a good cocktail to start and it shouldn’t be made in a vacuum separate from the food. Instead it should all flow together like different elements to the same meal.
Alex Guarnaschelli - chef at Butter and a judge on Food Network’s Chopped - is of the same mindset, which is why she included an entire section for cocktails in her book The Home Cook. So when we had a chance to catch up with her I wanted to get her chef’s perspective on a good cocktail to serve to kick off a party. Her take is a classic and simple lemon ginger concoction that goes perfectly with easy bar snacks.
Read More
There are some dishes I just can't ever get enough of and in the summer I will have ceviche in any form. But some have sauces that make you want to lick the bowl at the end.
I went to De Maria in Soho recently and every dish had that joyous pop of flavor that makes you want to just jump for joy. But the leche de tigre on the ceviche really took the cake.
If you're not familiar, leche de tigre is a sauce used in Peruvian cooking to add a bright citrus pop to their famous seafood. It is literally 'tiger's milk' and its a creamy take on a lot of flavor. But the one at De Maria was the perfect combination of texture and citrus so I knew I needed the recipe. Turns out it is as simple as can be.
Watch the video below or follow the recipe below for a sauce you'll want to put onto everything.
Read More
Gaby Dalkin seems to live on of those breezy California lives that makes me question all my life choices for living in New York. Her sunny blog, What's Gaby Cooking, has really delectable recipes and now she is out with a new book based on the style her readers have grown to love.
I loved getting to bring a little bit of that California feel into my new test kitchen. I am going to be doing a lot more videos from the kitchen which will allow for a lot more cookbook authors from out of town to share recipes - and I'm doing in a series I'm calling The Easiest Recipe. The Easiest Recipe will take what I think is the simplest recipe from the book and we make it in real-time right in the kitchen. For Gaby's book we picked the citrus marinated olives. These might be the most addictive snack - be careful if you make them for a party because you might just eat them all on their own.
So watch the video, check out Gaby's new book and you can make the recipe below if you feel inspired!
Read More
I was recently in LA doing some book promo for Bring It! and every kept telling me to go to Kismet. So we went early enough where we could take my son (and...to be honest... when they would let us in without making a reservation weeks in advance). The style and service was very LA - interpret that how you will - but I was really delighted by a lot of the fun and ease of a lot of the dishes.
One dish in particular was a cucumber and orange salad sitting on a little bed of labneh with a lot of surrounding spices. It struck me as such a cool presentation for a salad - leaving the dressing as part of the image, rather than tossed together or drizzled on top.
I got home and decided to make a slightly more home-cook friendly version using a fruit that is coming back into season - grapes! And I also figured that I would char them because why not and I love my broiler.
Read More