"30 minute meals" news and stories

• Add wine to your weeknight meals, including Glazed Carrots, Red Wine Chicken, and Fruit Soup with Port.
• Check out what Jewel keeps in her tour bus fridge.
• Even your pet wants a special meal on St. Patrick's Day.
• The decorator from Extreme Makeover shows you how to make an interesting centerpiece.
• The Burger of the Month: Cordon Croquettes.
• What does Muhammad Ali eat every day?
• Mmmm...Spaghetti Burgers!
• Hosting a poker game? Try out these cool drinks and finger foods.
• More recipes: Chocolate Pudding Parfaits, Pizza Pockets, and St. Paddy's Corned Beef and Cabbage Stoup.

• I love holiday issues of cooking magazines (I collect them), and Rachael Ray's is no exception. This is the Thanksgiving issue, and she covers everything from Herb-Roasted Turkey with Dried Plums and Stuffing to the best Pecan Pie.
• Speaking of turkey: have you tried making it on the grill?
• Holidays, of course, are made for booze! Check out these recipes for the Pumpkintini and Cranberry Punch.
• Check out what House star Lisa Edelstein eats all day.
• More recipes: Double Chocolate Scones with Cinnamon Butter, Crunchy Breadsticks, Shepherd's Pie, and Oatmeal-Raisin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting.
• In the print edition (should be on the site too, bu the link is wrong): You might be making candy this season (and you're certainly making some for our Candy Day tomorrow, right?), so check out which candy thermometers work best.

• It's the super summer issue: cookouts, bbq, road trips, beaches, you name it.
• Keeping with the season, it's the Burger of the Month: No-Joke Artichoke Spinach Burgers.
• Summer isn't exactly the time for stuffing, but Ray is holding a contest to find the best stuffing. Deadline is June 30.
• Diane Neal stars on Law and Order: SVU. She also loves pine nuts.
• 30 Minute Meals: Andouille Dawgs with Gumbo Sauce and Brutus Salad.

The full title of this new Rachael Ray book is Express Lane Meals: What To Keep on Hand, What To Buy Fresh for the Easiest-Ever 30-Minute Meals. Quite a mouthful, wouldn't you say? But in almost the time that it takes to say the name of the book, you can have a meal on the table because Rachael Ray is that fast.

This book has a great premise. At the beginning of the book, Rachael gives her readers a list of pantry ingredients that they should always keep in their home, including various spices, flour, milk, fresh fruits and vegetable, pasta and assorted canned goods. Once you've taken the list to the store and stocked up, you will have all you need (except the actual cooking equipment, which you might need to make another trip for) to fix every recipe in the book. All the recipes call for ten items or less - hence the name of the book - and there is a backup shopping list with each one, so you can be doubly sure that you have everything you need before you start. Sticking with her easy-to-read style, the recipes are not intimidating and should be a good start for a beginning cook or a good starting point for a more experienced cook who is short on time.

Source

Time Magazine has named their Top 100 Most Influential People. There are scientists, academics, leaders, and revolutionaries like Steven Levitt (economist), Oprah Winfrey, and Bill & Melinda Gates. And there among the group of Artists & Entertainers, which also includes Ang Lee, Howard Stern, Meryl Streep, and now Rachael Ray.

Her feature story for Time is written by Mario Batali (whom I would have picked long before I'd ever pick Rachael Ray), who says that the 38-year-old Rachael Ray has "has radically changed the way America cooks dinner" in less than five years. Of course, this has also made her rich with millions of cookbooks sold, a magazine, and about a gazillion shows on the Food Network. Hey! Now we know how old she is.

So I would have chosen Mario Batali, but I guess the reason that she is chosen for this list is that she is influential. I mean, how many people out there call it "EVOO" now?

Read In Defense of Rachael Ray.