"how-to" news and stories

Talk about a quickfire challenge!

Vimeo user Animi recently posted this short stop-motion movie on making an apple pie. The video certainly is fun, set to the music of Dave Brubeck. But what we found curious was the method for making pie crust.

Do you make a cylinder of dough to create the sides of your pie dough? Let us know in the comments below.

[Via Serious Eats]

Gena's chicken kebabs. Photo: Erica George Dines Photography.

It is hard to believe that kids are nearly back in school, and it's time to resume the hectic weekly schedule of balancing school, work and afternoon activities while still getting a hot meal on the table.

As much I enjoy eating out, I also love cooking and knowing exactly what is going into my food. Summer is nearing the end, but that does not mean you have to put away your grill -- use it to your advantage.

Grilling can save you time in the kitchen and help you get meals on the table in a quick fashion without heating up the kitchen. Get my go-to quick grilling recipes after the jump.

Brian Boitano is renowned for his 1988 Olympic gold medal in figure skating and infamous for a song from 1999's "South Park" movie. But now the professional skater is working a different arena -- the cooking show.

On Sunday, Boitano makes his Food Network debut with "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Quite possibly one of the campiest cooking shows to hit TV, it follows the Olympian as he makes meals for the likes of a bachelor friend, a handyman, a new mom and roller derby girls, all from the comforts of his real-life kitchen.

Boitano spoke with Slashfood about his cooking-show debut, being a "clean eater," his "South Park" song and the one kitchen gadget he can't live without (Slap Chop anyone?).

Have you always been a cook?
Well, not always. After the Olympics I really started to discover food. I always wanted to eat food, but I never ate food before the Olympics because I was always on a diet, and what I ate wasn't that interesting. Then after I started discovering food and wanting to prepare it, and then discovering different recipes and ways to prepare it -- just by trial and error. So it's like all self-taught, and just having friends over and finding out what they like, and what I like to serve.

So I've always, always loved food. In fact, for my 'up close and personal' in the '88 Olympics, I did a thing where I went to a restaurant and said I wanted to open a restaurant. So I've always wanted to have a restaurant and that kind of thing since I've been 20.

Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow has road-tripped through Spain with Mario Batali and Mark Bittman on "Spain On the Road Again," and the chefs' culinary know-how seems to be rubbing off.

The star of "Shakespeare in Love" has made a move towards her own cooking show with a roasted chicken how-to video she posted to her Web site Goop. During the nearly 8-minute video, the actress debones a chicken while talking about learning to cook while a 19-year-old student at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

"I was trying to be an actress as well so I kept driving down to LA to audition for movies, and my dad was there working. We sort of started getting into cooking together; we got sick of the frozen meatballs that were left in the freezer for us," Paltrow says. "It just became our thing. So we started watching a lot of cooking channels, and over the years its become a major passion."

Paltrow's Quick Roast Chicken and Potatoes after the jump.

Today for lunch, my sister and I did something we don't do very often. We went to an Italian restaurant. Italian just isn't one of my favorite cuisines. After a minute of looking at the menu, she asked me what cannelloni was, at which point I realized I had no idea. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found this post from Baker's Banter. It's a how-to on Sara Moulton's (Sara's Secrets) version of cannelloni, which uses crepes rather than pasta sheets. It looks incredibly delicious, and would probably make a great, easy, special dinner.

According to this article in Wikipedia, cannelloni can be made with either pasta sheets or crepes and still be considered correct. It was really interesting to learn about this dish, especially since it found me rather than the other way around. It occurred to me that cannelloni is similar to baked enchiladas. Now I'm curious if there are similar recipes from other cuisines. What do you think?