"holiday cooking" news and stories

Thanksgiving is over and the holidays have descended upon us once again, which generally entails a hectic month of harried gift shopping, family gatherings, a frenzy of social obligations, and a few cherished small pleasures, namely: holiday baking. Granted, that too may be a stressful undertaking -- where does one find the time for all the grocery shopping, baking and cookie exchanges! -- but within one bite of a sublime cookie, holiday stress is bound to just crumble.

And these Chocolate Crinkles appear to be just the thing to unwind, with an oh-so-subtly-crunchy cracked crust, a soft, fluffy chocolate-y interior and a powdered sugar coating of snowy sweetness. Blogger Patricia from Brownies for Dinner confesses to have "spent two days with my lips dusted with tell-tale powdered sugar" with these delights -- and so can you, with her simple recipe.

And as luck would have it, today is National Cookie Day! Help other readers rejoice in the small pleasures and share your favorite cookie recipes, after the jump.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

'The Thanksgiving Table: Recipes and Ideas to Create Your Own Holiday Tradition'
By Diane Morgan
Photography by John A. Rizzo
Chronicle Books -- 2001
Buy it on Amazon

Though Thanksgiving may be conceptually about unity and giving thanks, the feast is often anything but -- be it from menus predominantly meat-centric or overwhelmingly vegetarian that rely upon traditional recipes or adventurous ones, to lively affairs or smaller, more austere gatherings prone to the usual family quibbles.

But with the help of this book and guide, the meal itself is at least guaranteed to go smoothly, with preparation and decoration ideas as well as recipes to suit eaters and appetites of all kinds. Catering to the variety of the holiday's staples -- the smells, the anticipation, the flavor, the feel -- this book is virtually all you need to host the most perfect, memorable Thanksgiving.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Have you ever watched a cooking show and thought, "I think I could do that!" If that sounds like you, then there's a contest you should really check out. Epicurious is hosting a video contest this holiday season in which they are searching for terrific videos about holiday cooking and entertaining.

The winning video will receive nearly $600 in Michael Chiarello cookware and autographed copy of his book. Three runners-up will receive Epicurious editors' favorite cookbooks, and the first 25 people to submit a video will receive a TasteBook cookbook that will include recipes from Epicurious as well as some of their own. All videos must be submitted by January 2, 2008 so get out those cameras and start rolling. Because you never know, you could be the next internet food sensation.

Source

Over the course of the next month and a half, most of us are going to be running around with a panicked glint in our eyes as we try to get everything done for the holidays. Food can be one of the most stressful aspects of this November-December stretch. Luckily Kim O'Donnel, the washingtonpost.com food blogger extraordinaire, recently wrote a cookbook to help us all come through the trials of holiday cooking with honors.

The book is called A Mighty Appetite for the Holidays: Kitchen Tricks for the Feasting Season and it is full of terrific tips, stories, techniques and recipes (you can buy it here). She offers advice on how to brine a turkey, gives a 7-day cooking timeline for Thanksgiving and also includes a section on what to cook if you find yourself alone on turkey day.

One of the recipes that jumped out at me from the book fits nicely into the alternative side dish category we've been talking about lately. It's for a Parsnip-Potato Mash and seems to be a good way to mix up your regular old potato mashers. The recipe is after the jump.

Source

I make chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons each year for the holidays but in honor of today's event I decided to perform a few boozy experiments. I am a firm believer that anything can be made better with a little booze. I think every cook who has experimented with cooking with liquor probably has a few bottles of half-finished liqueurs around the house. My recipe uses the same proportions as this one only I use almond instead of vanilla extract. In order to get the maximum flavor for my experiments, I upped the flour a bit so that I could include more liqueur. The results were mixed.

Source