recipes – In Good Taste

Fall-Themed Brunch Party & Sparkling Apple Cider Sangria

Maris Callahan — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 19:23:35 +0000

If you love to entertain, but want to do it within a conservative budget, a festive brunch party is a great way to play hostess without breaking the bank. With the holiday season approaching, a fall-themed brunch party is the best way to start a weekend day. I don’t consider brunch to be a B-list meal. In fact, if you do it right, weekend brunch can be the only meal you need to eat all day. You can eat sweet and savory foods together and you can drink cocktails before noon. What could be better? As we look ahead toward the holiday weekend, I’m going to hazard a guess at some point between now and the end of the year, you’ll spend a least one weekend morning skipping your usual “stay-in-bed-til-noon” routine in favor of preparing or attending a meal that is equal parts social and juuuust substantial enough to make you want to follow said meal with an immediate nap. The staples of any brunch party menu, whether you’re throwing the party or bringing a dish to a potluck, are pretty consistent: Something fresh, like a bright green salad with all of the seasonal fixings. In the fall, I like to toss mixed greens with walnuts, blue or […]

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What are French Mother Sauces?

Maris Callahan — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 23:04:44 +0000

A few days ago, a chef asked me if I knew about the French Mother Sauces and I nodded along as though I knew exactly what I was talking about, but officially I neither confirmed nor denied. I know that the Mother Sauces are seen as the foundations for many dishes and other sauces, particularly relating to French cuisine, but I was quite certain that I couldn’t name all five of them. Before we talk about the French Mother Sauces, we should talk about roux. Roux is the process of cooking fat (usually butter) with flour to create a thickening agent for the liquid that you want to turn into a sauce. It looks like a pasty white glob, but it’s pretty important in French cooking. It helps thicken the liquid so that sauce will coat the food properly, and even helps thicken items like tomato sauce, where you wouldn’t necessarily find flour. While a lot of French dishes rely on roux as a base, so do many Southern favorites (think: gooey macaroni and cheese) so it’s really a good thing to know how to roux. I mean know how to do. See what I did there? The CIA (Culinary Institute of America) […]

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How To: Make a Vintage New York Egg Cream Bar

Maris Callahan — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 02:51:58 +0000

This past weekend marked six years of living in Chicago. Naturally, I spent the weekend in New York instead of doing Chicago-y things in the city I currently call my own. As much as I love that I call Chicago home, there are certain things that taste better in New York: pizza (I’m sorry, but it’s true), lox and bagels, Chinese food and even the iconic black and white cookie that you just don’t find anywhere else. The other thing New York has is Vintage® Seltzer, which always had a place in the refrigerator when I was growing up in New Jersey. Made with natural flavors, no artificial flavors and no added colors or dyes, Vintage Seltzer is available in 10 flavors: Original, Lemon-Lime, Mandarin Orange, Lemon, Lime, Pomegranate, Seedless Watermelon, Raspberry, Raspberry Lime and Wild Cherry. Perfect on its own, Vintage Seltzer is also excellent in cocktails or in one of New York’s other iconic recipes: the New York Egg Cream. I learned about egg creams at a young age, but it’s only recently that I learned about the difference between seltzer and sparkling water. Essentially, the difference amounts to the carbonation: seltzer has more of that fizzy bubble and sparkling water […]

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Peppermint Eggnog

Maris Callahan — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 08:15:30 +0000

Eggnog is one my favorite things about the holiday season, but it’s seldom something I actually make the effort to create from scratch. This year though, it’s been on the short list for a long time and finally, with three cartons of Davidson’s Safest Choice Pasteurized Eggs in the fridge, I decided it was time to get down and dirty with homemade eggnog. Here’s the thing though: there’s actually nothing dirty about eggnog when you use Safest Choice eggs. As with in the refreshing Lemon Thyme Fizz, Safest Choice eggs provide complete and total peace of mind for anyone who worries about consuming raw or undercooked eggs. The Safest Choice™ all-natural egg pasteurization process eliminates the risk of salmonella in eggs before the eggs even enter your kitchen. As someone with a bit of a food-borne germophobia, it’s quite accurate to say that my kitchen is seldom void of Safest Choice Eggs. I absolutely love the peace of mind they provide, particularly at this time of year, when you’re serving a crowd, cooking for friends and family, and using eggs practically daily. If you’re scrambling for last-minute holiday ideas, join Davidson’s Safest Choice Eggs for their Dozen Days of Nog Facebook event. […]

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Gluten Free Quinoa With Pomegranate & Pistachio

Maris Callahan — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 08:00:02 +0000

There are a lot of milestones that we hit during our twenties that prove to our parents and grandparents that we’ve actually become real, live adults. For some, it’s the acquisition of a first job and or the purchase of a first home. For others, it’s the ability to contribute something edible to Thanksgiving without creating a fire or giving someone’s second cousin food poisoning. If you’re in the latter category and you want to contribute to your family dinner, gluten-free quinoa with pomegranate & pistachio is not only a safe bet, but an instant crowd-pleaser. This recipe comes to us from the October/November issue of AARP The Magazine, which, while not a daily read over here (at least not for another 20 years or so…), has some pretty excellent ideas for family gatherings. In this specific issue, Stanley Tucci shares his wife’s gluten-free quinoa with pomegranate & pistachio recipe that makes a perfect side dish to complement the traditional offerings at this year’s Thanksgiving meal. Healthy and full of flavor, the recipe is ideal for parents and kids alike who are following gluten-free diets or simply want to eat a little lighter at this year’s Turkey Day feast. It can easily be customized to add favorite cheeses (feta, goat, etc.) and/or spices. […]

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