How-To – In Good Taste

Tips and Recipes to Host the Best Holiday Cookie Swap

Maris Callahan — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 18:00:41 +0000

Sound easy enough to pull off? We have everything you need to organize the best holiday cookie swap of the season, including a baker’s dozen cookie recipes from some of our favorite blogs. The Prep Guest List When planning your holiday cookie swap, remember that you’ll need to bake enough cookies so that everyone can take a few home. That means you might not want to invite thirty of your closest friends…unless they happen to be serious bakers. Shoot for up to ten friends who enjoy baking and who you think will all get along with one another. Cookie Rules The first rule of a holiday cookie swap is that no one talks about the holiday cookie swap. Or is that from the movie Fight Club? Either way, the holiday cookie swap rules are up to you, but you should definitely set some. Let guests know what the parameters are—such as, whether or not cookies should be made from scratch or if they should be holiday-themed. Don’t be afraid to delegate a little to ensure you don’t have three identical shortbreads. Typically, guests bake a dozen cookies for every attendee. But a half dozen would work if the party is large (say, more […]

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9 Essentials to Know When Hosting Thanksgiving for the First Time

Maris Callahan — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 04:49:06 +0000

If you are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year, you’re probably wondering where to start. Hosting Thanksgiving for the first time is a big milestone whether you’re hosting three people or 30, especially if you’re taking over hosting duties from a family member who has established some long-standing traditions. The first time I cooked Thanksgiving dinner was for a “Friendsgiving” in college. It was also the first time I had ever dared venture into the body cavity of a turkey, and it certainly wasn’t the last. As much fun as it can be to cook the big meal, it’s also a daunting task. We asked readers for their best advice on hosting Thanksgiving for the first time and by keeping these tips and ideas in mind, you’ll be able to get the details out of the way so that you can enjoy the big day — and maybe even squeeze in a little time for a shower, too. Make a menu plan When you’re trying to pull off the orchestrated affair, planning ahead is key. When you’re planning your menu, go beyond bookmarking recipes and delegating side dishes. Make a special note of how long each dish takes to […]

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Five Things You “Knead” to Know About Homemade Pasta

Maris Callahan — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 06:06:51 +0000

The first time I tried making homemade pasta I was sure I was going to break it, drop it or roll the delicate sheets so thin that I could barely lift them without poking finger sized holes into the pliable dough. I wish I could finish this anecdote with a heroic tale of how I hit my linguine out of the park but actually? I did all three of those things and at the end of my class, still ate some magically delicious pasta. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was cooking the pasta with a dozen other people considerably less clumsy than I am in the controlled environment of a recreational cooking school, so please try not to kill my fantasy. Despite plenty of bumps in the road (and in the dough) I can crank out a halfway decent sheet of lasagne and make just enough not-screwed-up wontons to stuff a melt-in-your-mouth ravioli, but I’m far from a master pasta maker. Enter, our friend Phil Rubino, former sous chef at Cicchetti Restaurant in downtown Chicago, now helming the kitchen at Dusek’s in Pilsen. Rubino has just a tad more experience handling fresh-Italian focused ingredients than […]

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How To Plan a Coastal Seafood Date Night Dinner Party

Maris Callahan — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 23:25:43 +0000

This summer, it’s easy to channel your favorite coastal cities and serve a few of your favorite seafood dishes for a coastal seafood date night dinner party based on these regional specialties. To me, nothing says summer like fresh seafood, even if you’re landlocked. Whether it’s a casual meal after work or an elegant dinner for a special occasion, you can find seafood recipes that fit the bill. Most of these recipes are inspired by regional specialties from cities up and down the East and West coasts. In New England, Maine is synonymous with lobster and after sampling the lobster rolls from roadside seafood shacks outside of Portland, I completely understand why. 90 minutes South in Boston — and in outlying beach towns like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard — you can get fresh-shucked oysters almost anywhere and find some of the best raw bar seafood in the country. Even further south, the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, is a huge tourist destination that draws crowds eager to experience famous Maryland crab cakes. Broiled or fried, prepared with lump crabmeat and intricate spices, Maryland crab cakes are so good that true Marylanders generally won’t eat them anywhere else. Other cities […]

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How to Cook Fish: a Beginner’s Guide to Cooking Seafood

Maris Callahan — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 04:56:26 +0000

Once you know what you’re doing, fish is one of the easiest proteins to cook, even easier than a chicken breast. Until you reach that point though, seafood is daunting. We’ve covered how to select the best seafood, but what do you do once you get it home? There are plenty of cooking methods to choose from, but we dug up some of the most user-friendly fish at the market and have some tips for you about how to prepare and cook them. You want to consider how the natural flavor, thickness, and fat-level of your fish will work with your method of choice, whether it be frying, baking, roasting or steaming. Here are some fun facts to consider before you start cooking Pan searing fish is always a good option! Yes, you can eat the skin on fish — it’s not going to kill you, but people are off and on about it (it’s a personal taste thing) The best fish for the grill are salmon on a cedar plank, swordfish, tuna and scallops! Leaner meat tends to not be ideal for grilling — anytime you grill fish you want to grill fish with a higher fat content Mussels and clams are great […]

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