I couldn’t let summer fade away without posting about Melrose Peppers, a local variety of peppers that are at their peak right now. Back when I started my blog three years ago I think my second post was about Melrose Peppers, since then I have gotten numerous emails from fellow and former Chicagoans expressing their love for this humble pepper, just a couple of days ago I received this touching email from a man who pretty much sums up... 

This is not Betty Crocker’s Gluten-Free Bisquick mix. Nope. Is Mercury in retrograde? And if so, Darling, do I believe it can wreak havoc with recipes? I started out with a different approach to this peach cobbler recipe, you see. I thought I’d try out the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Bisquick mix I bought this week. I imagined a golden topped biscuity crust you could sink your teeth into, a melt-in-your-mouth forkful of shortcake,... 

The Chicago film critic, and now cookbook author, will answer reader questions about food, movies and his life.  Read More →

Joan Nathan answers reader questions about cooking for Rosh Hashana.  Read More →

Have you ever lifted a bottle of champagne and thought, “Wow, that’s heavy!” Well, the bottles are heavy partly with good reason: to contain all the sparkly goodness, which can be six times the atmospheric pressure. (And, of course, there’s a little bling factor to the bulk.) Apparently, before sufficiently strong bottles were developed, cellar staff in Champagne would enter the caves with masks akin to a hockey goalie’s... 

One of the most important pieces of information in a nutrition label is the serving size. Many people look at the calorie count, and are happy to see low numbers. But what they don’t notice is that they are consuming twice or more than the stated serving size. Which means twice the calories, twice the fat and sodium, etc.. (but on the bright side – also twice the minerals & vitamins. There are some funny examples of products... 

Who is man enough for an impossible food-wine pairing? Well, for those with a set of steel, head on over to the seventh (!) annual World Testicle Cooking Championship in Serbia. There, the AP reports that chefs prepare bull, boar, camel, ostrich and kangaroo testicles in such dishes as testicle pizza and testicles in bechamel sauce. Outback oysters! Needless to say, the AP ensures us that “visitors eat the dishes with plenty of wine or... 

Last May I received an email from Bonnie Taub Dix , a dietitian based in New York, complimenting Fooducate on the information presented in the blog about nutrition labels and how to decode them. She told me she was writing a book on reading food labels, and a beautiful friendship ensued. Today, Bonnie’s book, Read It Before You Eat It: How to Decode Food Labels and Make the Healthiest Choice Every …  Read More →

Bruce and Eric Bromberg, of the Blue Ribbon restaurants, are creating a menu for the R Lounge at the Times Square Renaissance Hotel.  Read More →

I have not been here a week yet and my heart is already replenished and my eyes filled with beautiful memories. I keep catching myself throughout the day thinking “I can’t believe I am here”. It’s good to go home and see all my cousins for a joyous occasion for once. I’ve been enjoying my mom’s wonderful cooking, let my nose take me to the cheese box and renewed my love affair with the most fragrant cantaloupes, Saturn peaches,... 

Condé Nast will publish three editions of the magazine built around recipes that were published before Gourmet’s demise in 2009.  Read More →

A couple of years ago, I had an op-ed in the NYT arguing for wine in a box. Since then, box wine sales have skyrocketed and many more selections, both foreign and domestic, have come on the market. But one category that seems woefully underrepresented stateside is rosé. Given that it is perhaps the quintessential “here today, gone tomorrow” kind of wine, it seems particularly well-suited for the bag-in-box format. Fridges across... 

Earlier this month, The NPD Group , a market research firm, released a report on consumer trends in reading Nutrition Labels. Hey, that’s our favorite subject matter, so we were eager to take a look. Top 5 items consumers are most interested in (ranked from highest down): total calories total fat calories from fat sugars sodium Top 5 items consumers want maximize : whole grains dietary fiber calcium vitamin C protein Top 5 items consumers... 

The secret to this salad is in the dressing, which is made creamy with tofu.  Read More →

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Which makes me wonder, how many words would be the equivalent of a 5 minute moving picture? There’s no denying that many people learn better by watching , so I’ve finally decided to enter the wonderful world of video blogging. Don’t worry, stonesoup isn’t about to become a crazy YouTube-obsessed hub. No things are going to continue to focus on words and pictures but once a...