Tinfoil Swan

Thanksgiving Recipes - Hot Turkey Sandwich

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Nov 19th 2009 @ 1:45PM

Need a way to spruce up those turkey leftovers? Top the traditional day-after open-faced turkey sandwich with a decadent mushroom and white wine gravy.

Get this turkey recipe along with many others after the jump.

Filed under: Tinfoil Swan, Holidays

Editor's Picks - Best of the Rest

COMMENTS 0

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted Nov 13th 2009 @ 6:00PM

Photo: Editor B, Flickr

For once, the government listens to New Orleans. On Friday, the FDA agreed to hold off on a warm-weather ban on raw Gulf oysters till the agency can fully study the issue. But in the Atlantic, it's getting harder to find cod on Cape Cod.

The International Vegetarian Union goes cannibalistic with this anatomical vegetarian advertisement. Keep it away from the woman afraid of vegetables.

Jamie Oliver, who's been hard at work trying to slim the waistlines of Huntington, W.Va., residents, is also peddling high-sodium pasta sauces in Britain.

If you like to slather it on, you can see all those Stephen Colbert-inspired Miracle Whip ads online here and here.

And finally, a Chicago Tribune sports columnist ate his own words -- the whole column in fact -- after admitting a basketball player drafted by the Bulls wasn't so bad after all.

Filed under: Food News, Tinfoil Swan

25 Must-Download Web-Only Recipes from Gourmet.com

COMMENTS 8

by Kat Kinsman, Posted Oct 19th 2009 @ 9:30AM

Savory Duck Fat Doughnuts. Photo: Gourmet.com.

Some of the most notable "Gourmet" recipes never made it to the magazine. Through its 69-year run, the magazine's food editors and test kitchen staff developed hundreds of adventurous, experimental, personal and just plain luscious recipes that for one reason or another escaped the print edition. With Gourmet.com's 2008 launch, multimedia supplements to magazine features, test kitchen video throw-downs, staffers' favorites and perusals of family archives afforded the opportunity to showcase Web-exclusive content, and a chance to serve up these recipes to their more cyber-savvy readers.

Though an Oct. 13 Tweet by the magazine's Executive Editor John Willoughby advised followers to "Go to gourmet.com, copy Web-exclusive recipes that will disappear: strawberry dumpling, banana upside down cake, curried pork noodles, etc.", Slashfood has been told by other Condé Nast insiders that after the magazine's recent, sudden shuttering, the future of Gourmet.com content remains uncertain, save for mag-published recipes that will be migrated to sister site Epicurious.com.

We're not taking any chances. We've clicked our way through 300-plus Web-exclusive recipes from October 2005 to September 2009 to find the 25 you simply must copy, paste and collect before they're (possibly) lost to the ages.

1. Frozen Peanut Butter Pie with Candied Bacon
Recipe by Andrea Albin

2. Potted Stuffed Squab
Recipe by Edna Lewis

3. Confit Gizzard with Honey Mustard
Recipe by Ian Knauer

4. Savory Duck Fat Doughnuts
Recipe by Ian Knauer

Get more recipes -- including Dijon ice cream and zucchini whoopie pies -- after the jump.

Filed under: Magazines, Tinfoil Swan

What Can I Get You Folks? - The Great Doggie Bag Debate

COMMENTS 6

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Sep 8th 2009 @ 11:30AM

Photo: dan4th, Flickr.

The debate this column fueled last week concerning the standard baseline tip isn't the sort of thing most servers spend much time considering: We'd all like our patrons to leave us lots and lots of money, thanks.

But that doesn't mean there aren't service issues upon which front-of-the-housers may never agree. I'm thinking here of doggie bagging, a practice that I've seen pit close friends against one another. The contentious question is who does the boxing.

At the white tablecloth restaurants where I've worked, it's understood that the task of wrapping a guest's half-eaten food in foil – ideally sculpted into a graceful swan – falls to the server (although since foie gras and lobster tail make for notoriously bad leftovers, many diners opt to have the vestiges of their five-star meals scraped straight into the trash.)

That's not always the case at slightly more casual restaurants, where many servers routinely plop Styrofoam boxes onto their guests' tables. As a veteran of fancy dining rooms, I always figured those servers were lazy. Turns out, they're looking out for their guests' interests.

Filed under: Leftovers, Tinfoil Swan, Chefs & Restaurants, Restaurants

Second Helping of Slashfood - July 24

COMMENTS 0

by Kat Kinsman, Posted Jul 24th 2009 @ 6:00PM

Tennessee whiskey. Photo: Flickr / jpenglert

Before we dive into the whiskey barrel and swim to safety, let's raise our glasses to the week that was.

Slashfood's barista pulled a hearty cappucino, the head sommelier uncorked some serious steals, our badass bartender ran afoul of the law, the brewski boys swilled Seattle and got hoppin' happy about a new Colorado IPA while our head blogger was caught in the crossfire of some cinematic Beer Wars.

We showed off our can-do attitude toward food preservation and gentleman farmers, then got snappy about food photo settings and crabby with 1970s-style dip and lingering customers until the Skinny Chef got us to chill out with summer soups and rooibos tea.

Julia Child's editor weighed in on her famous client's online Mini-Me, folks raised a kerfuffle over sodium levels, salmonella, felonious franks, free pastry and secret spices but really -- we just wanted to focus on our tacos.

Speaking of -- let's raise a toast to our dearly departed spokeschihuahua. Say perhaps, in Summit, N.J.? All-weekend-ish?

Filed under: Tinfoil Swan

Party, Pizza Party

COMMENTS 1

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted Jul 17th 2009 @ 1:30PM

Hi foodies! Photo: Xavier Barade

Not much to say here but "party, pizza par-tay." Happy Friday!

[Via Urlesque]

Filed under: On the Blogs, Tinfoil Swan

Santoku Time - A Knife Lover is Born

COMMENTS 3

by Alex Van Buren, Posted Jun 29th 2009 @ 5:00PM

Shun's santoku knife on caramelized onion tart. Photo: Alex Van Buren

Knives. Outside of the full-time food dork world, people -- even foodies -- don't tend to talk about them much.

They have a bad association as, um, dull conversational topics: There's the unwelcome knife salesman banging on the door, or that eternal infomercial ("Only $39.95 in three easy installments!"). I owned a sub-par knife for years, until a friend trained at a local culinary institute basically took it away from me.

I've been shopping ever since with an eagle eye for sales. The santoku style caught my attention for its multiuse blade (note the indentations, which purportedly help keep food from sticking) and stylish look. And when I grabbed a Shun in hand at a local shop -- its base has a slight teardrop shape, perfectly suited to that soft nub between thumb and index finger -- I fell in love.

Filed under: Food Gadgets, Tinfoil Swan

Second Helping of Slashfood - June 26

COMMENTS 2

by Kat Kinsman, Posted Jun 26th 2009 @ 5:00PM

The Westport Flea Market's Burgermobile. Photo: Emily Farris

Before we all pile into the Burgermobile and head into the weekend, let's ketchup on the events of the past week.

The College of William & Mary spearheaded an effort to approve an asparagus stalk as their school mascot, while our beer blogger set out in search of the Great Lost Bear.

Our Coffee Meister got fresh about frozen beans, some nice Southern brothers threw down with an Iron Chef who'd just been grilled by the President and a pastry paragon fell short in his efforts to entice the wee folks with tofu pizza.

The Hungry Bride contemplated the morning after, our sommelier-in-training got a chilly response to the notion of iced wine, an Arkansas pea champ came out of her shell and we washed it all down with a Grasshopper and a pint of oyster ice cream.

Catch you at the Fancy Food Show!

Filed under: Tinfoil Swan

Second Helping of Slashfood - June 19

COMMENTS 0

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted Jun 19th 2009 @ 6:00PM

Father's Day Burger Cupcakes. Photo: bakerella/flickr

Oh what a week! Strawberries are back in season (bring on the shortcake!), carrots are 25 percent healthier and Ubuntu's sommelier admits he eats meat.

Wylie Dufresne got salty this week on "Top Chef Masters," and we're not talking fun with NaCl. Tom Colicchio proved himself to be a fan of campy gothic vampire TV. And we digested all that yummy Big Apple barbecue. The Tweets from Aspen had us drooling so we thought up our favorite "pop-tails," and pondered our favorite foods and when, if ever, it's OK for a waitress to rest her dogs at your table.

Skinny Chef built a better grilled cheese, the Hungry Bride talked down-home wedding foods, the CoffeeMeister cupped and Bonnaroo fans made culinary do. And we reviewed "Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking" and "The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen."

Here's to a Father's Day that's filled with good eats!

Filed under: Food News, Tinfoil Swan

Kitchen Food Safety - 'Dirty Little Secrets'

COMMENTS 2

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted Jun 9th 2009 @ 11:00AM

Every once in a while it's good to have a refresher course in kitchen safety. The FDA's 1996 flick "Dirty Little Secrets" does just that with a dramatic announcer, toilet paper in the fridge and a copy of "The Silver Palate Cookbook." Did they miss anything? Weigh in.

[Via Public.Resource.Org, BoingBoing]

Filed under: Food News, Tinfoil Swan