Now that we've learned how to peel ginger with ease, this ginger juice recipe seems less daunting, especially with its powerful health benefits. Prized for its piquant flavor, ginger is a medicinal treat in addition to being a tasty one -- to list just a few of its talents, it treats stomachaches and indigestion, reduces toxicity and aids mild lung disorders.
Kickstart your day -- and immune system -- with a shot of the stuff by passing diced and peeled pieces of the root through a juicer. If deemed too spicy for more sensitive palates, mix the juice with water, other juices or sweeteners like lemon, sugar or agave.
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This edible feast is predominantly about texture -- not that the artful arrangement isn't almost too perfect to disturb by consumption. This slow-cooked salmon recipe from stickygooeycreamychewy.com is salmon at its finest, attractively plated with lush, buttery layers melting, fragmenting, crumbling at the mere touch.
Tenderly cradled atop an aromatic layer of sliced oranges and onions, fennel and tarragon, the fish is baked at a low temperature for half an hour. Unlike the bland color and taste that can result from more traditional cooking methods, this unfussy recipe manages to preserve the vibrant tones of the salmon as well as its shape, while dishing up a luscious product. Plus, with the extra time slow cooking affords you, you can prepare your side or salad -- and even enjoy a glass of wine.
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Though we've never been able to choose sides on the vanilla-versus-chocolate debate, blondies as unique as these render the traditional brownie somewhat uninspired.
Frites & Fries' recipe for Butterscotch and Whiskey Bars inventively pairs the dulcet butterscotch with a not-so-subtle dash of whiskey (a quarter cup!), adding a pleasurably harsher nuttiness to what becomes a complex, sweet-savory confection. The grown-up recipe aims to please both those with a penchant for sweets and those with a weakness for whiskey -- and provides an easy, soul-warming wintery treat.
The flexible blondie serves as a vessel to showcase whatever ingredients you favor, from cranberry and white chocolate, to coconut and lime. What are your favorite blondie additions? Share your recommendations in the comments!
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Whoever conceived the idea to bake individual cakes in muffin tins is a culinary genius -- not only for giving the world the perfect sugary serving size, but also for allowing bakers at every level to mix and match flavors, colors and the most fun part of any sweet treat, sprinkles.
This chocolate-frosted chocolate cupcake was one of a delightfully diverse dozen captured by The Feisty Foodie after she received a box from New York City's Billy's Bakery. Just looking at the chocolate triple whammy -- chocolate frosting on a chocolate cupcake with chocolate sprinkles on top -- is enough to get us through a midweek slump (though a taste would be even better).
There are some things that -- no matter what kind of mood you find yourself in -- can put a smile on your face by merely existing. Puppies. Sprinkles. And for us, berries -- an especially potent antidote to a case of the Mondays.
These brimming cartons suggest a sun-kissed summer weekend spent slowly wending through the berry patches, plucking the gems from their shrubs and eventually departing with lips stained red and blue by all the tastes sneaked along the way.
Flickr user The Boastful Baker snapped these beautiful blueberries and ravishing raspberries on a recent trip to the Northwest, and this morning they serve as a happy reminder of weekends past, real or imagined.
Grilled eggplant and olive oil pizza. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.
A slew of youngsters are heading back to school this week, lugging backpacks, breaking in new shoes, sharpening pencils and, if they're lucky (at least a few days out of the year), forgoing the brown-bag lunch in favor of a pizza party. It's enough to make us nearly jealous, except that one of the many joys of adulthood is that we can have pizza whenever we please -- and booze to wash it down with -- no matter the circumstances (or caloric consequences).
For example, when Deb from Smitten Kitchen was craving grilled pizza and the weather didn't agree with her plans for dinner al fresco, she still found a way to make it happen, "Weather be damned!" She busted out a cast-iron panini pan, doused the dough with garlicky extra-virgin olive oil, and piled on the grilled eggplant, olives and provolone. The result, reports the cook, was "hearty, smoky and delicious."
So how'd she get those beautiful cheesy bubbles with her indoor "grill?" Well, since she was "grilling" inside anyway, she put it in the oven for a few minutes. They don't teach that in school.
A pasta dinner is what you make of it. A heavy-handed helping layered with too much sauce and cheese can leave a gal feeling lethargic. But when prepared with colorful, seasonal ingredients like zucchini, goat cheese and lemon, it makes for a light, savory summer supper.
Adapted from a recipe in the June issue of Bon Appetit, this beautiful bowlful of fresh fettuccine was tossed with a sauce made of green zucchini, yellow summer squash, olive oil, shallots, garlic, goat cheese, lemon and herbes de Provence. It's topped with what appears to be the only thing that could make it more summery than it already is: chiffonade of basil.
As one commenter on the photographer's Flickr page said, "It's possible that you just captured summer in a bowl." Agreed!
It's a well-known fact that writer-director John Hughes, who died Thursday at age 59, was a master of capturing teenage ennui (not to mention a master of setting too-high romantic expectations for a generation of women raised in the '80s.)
What's less remarked upon is his fascination with food and the way American culinary rituals define adolescence. There's the lunch scene in the detention hall of "The Breakfast Club," in which Molly Ringwald snottily articulates the concept of "sushi" to an incredulous Judd Nelson and "bad girl" Ally Sheedy demonstrates fantastic Coke can catching skills before creating a sandwich out of Pixy Stix, butter, bread and cereal -- which she proceeds to devour like a raptor.
We're stuck on a loop of John Hughes memories, but this photo of a different 16 candles -- a snapshot taken by a father of his rosy-cheeked son "caught in the glow of his 16th birthday cake" -- caught our eye.
It's a tribute to the maestro that any cake teeming with candles will always make us think of him. So to paraphrase one of his own characters, "May we admire you again today?"
August may mark the end of peak cucumber season, but that's no reason to be sad -- it's also the perfect time to stock, slice and pickle the green veggies, whether they're 2-inches or 2-feet long.
These pickles, made and taken by Flickr user melsands, were jarred with dill, coriander, allspice, garlic and fennel seeds. While they were probably intended to go on a sandwich, we'd be tempted to pluck each perfectly pickled cucumber chip straight from the jar until all that's left is just enough juice left to pickle another batch.
Gazing upon Pham Fatale's perfect peppercorn-encrusted medallions of lamb on rounds of onion-flecked baguette, it's easy to imagine them being devoured in a shady spot following an afternoon in the summer sun with friends.
Seared, roasted and dolloped with "Dijonnaise" (mustard, lemon juice and creme fraiche) and a sprinkle of crisp garlic chives, these colorful, two-bite-size hors d'oeuvres would make a wonderful dinner alongside a mixed green salad and a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon or Rioja. Pham Fatale's recipe is right on the page, so a reader might -- irrespective of whether her name is Mary -- have a little lamb.
Watermelon inspires utter devotion in some and utter nonchalance in others. Like pickles or mayonnaise, it is not one of those "middle ground" foods.
This photograph of the ruby-hued fruit seems designed precisely to make the watermelon lover lose track of whatever else she was working on: "Would I eat one slice? Two?"
Even the typically stodgy "The New Food Lover's Companion" seems smitten: "The watermelon is considered less sophisticated than other categories of melon because it lacks flavor complexity and has a watery texture. But there are those who wouldn't trade a slice of watermelon on a hot summer day for anything."
Or -- to paraphase this Very Serious Encyclopedia of Culinary Knowledge -- "Watermelon: It Rules."
While many scents (sunscreen, chlorine, charcoal) remind us of summer, few foodies will dispute fresh basil's ability to capture the essence of the season. Looking at this picture of the sun shining through the stems of The Sweet Kitchen's homegrown basil, one can almost smell its sweet, pungent leaves.
Luckily, the joy doesn't have to end when summer does. Due to the rainy spring many of us witnessed, gargantuan basil plants lurk all over North America. Clever gardeners like The Sweet Kitchen have preserved Mother Nature's summer fragrance with homemade jarred pesto. That way despite the winter blues inevitably kicking in, a bite of sunshine, captured perfectly in this photo, will remain.
It's a lovely thing to spy a gorgeous photo on Flickr, but even more lovely to realize its creator is a trained baker ... and that her recipe is available to mere mortals.
This layered verrine (from the French "verre," or glass) may look like the work of a prop stylist -- probably tasteless, intended to tempt hapless foodies -- but it is in fact a coconut and mango purée concoction from the prolific Bay Area blogger behind Dessert First. Not smitten yet? That's a chocolate wafer cookie straw. We thought so.
We adore this photo for its Care Bears like innocence (note the espresso cup with hearts) and the dreamy powdered sugar gracing those spare raspberries. Berry season being as fleeting as it is glorious, we appreciate as many reminders to take advantage of it as nature -- and the food blogosphere -- sends our way.
Sometimes, you really just want to eat whatever's placed in front of you. Other times, you just want to look at it, amused and delighted by nature's more whimsical side.
Such is the case with this bowl of carambolas, commonly -- and aptly -- known as starfruit. Immortalized by Kitty LaRoux in the Slashfood Flickr pool, they could be used as a centerpiece or placed strategically on a mantelpiece or coffee table. Taste, obviously, is important, but if you caught a bowl of shooting stars, wouldn't you want to just sit back and admire them for a little while, too?
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Cold, briny, clean and salty: is there any food that offers a more refreshing counterpoint to the heavy summer heat than the oyster? These beauties, from Pt. Reyes, Calif., were snapped by Nicole at Cucina Nicolina. Their pearlescent, craggy appearance captures the soothing yet bracing pleasure that lies within the act of swallowing one whole. It's an almost otherworldly experience, tasting the essence of the sea and mysteries of the earth's history on your tongue, but there's nothing alien about the feeling of suddenly wanting to follow it with another oyster. And another. And another.
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