Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are the farmers and innovators behind Beekman 1802, a 200-year-old estate and farm in upstate New York. We'll be running recipes, photos and tales from the farm as their crops come into season. Catch them on the Farm to Table episode of 'Rachael's Vacation' on the Food Network.
We had a bounty crop of carrots this year. We sliced them and diced them every which way we knew how and still they kept coming. It seems like you can open almost any refrigerator in America and find a neglected bag of carrots. You use one or two in a salad and then get stumped as to what to do with the rest.
We turned to our friend Sandy Gluck who always helps us out with our overstock. The result is a sweet and spicy carrot dish that will definitely clear up crisper space in refrigerators across the nation.
Find the recipe for Sicilian Glazed Carrots after the jump...
The nation's only Giant Omelette Celebration will mark its 25th anniversary this weekend by adding one more egg to its 12-foot skillet.
The town of Abbeville, La., in 1984, joined the confederation of seven cities from Argentina to Belgium that annually commemorates Napoleon's order for a tiny town in southern France to produce an army-sized omelette. Bessieres upheld the tradition long after Napoleon's troops had gone, cooking oversized omelettes at Easter to feed the poor. The practice has thrived in places where locals fret about losing touch with their Francophone heritage.
But that doesn't mean the Abbeville cooks are entirely faithful to the recipe favored by Monsieur Bonaparte: Festival president Gordy Landry reports, "we add a Cajun flair."
"Most of the other giant omelettes are a little bit plainer and not quite so tasty," he continues. "In France, they just stick to the eggs. In Canada, they add some ham. But the only place that puts crawfish in is us."
Seared scallops, salad and rib-eye are the way to go at the newly revamped Simms Steakhouse.
The Colorado Beer Festival descends on Colorado Springs this Saturday, and offers more than 70 beers to sample, as well as a designated-driver program.
Dublin-made cream liqueur Coole Swan, which gets its name from Yeats' poem "The Wild Swans of Coole," is finally for sale in Colorado, and one food writer -- who claims it's the finest cream liqueur he's ever tasted -- couldn't be happier.
A "gastropub" opens in Cherry Creek, inspiring food critic Tucker Shaw to explore the etymology of the word.
Kansas City kids collected more than 850 pounds of sweets on Halloween night and gave it all away to benefit a charity that provides braces to low-income youths. Rest assured, the candy didn't go to waste, but to troops overseas.
Think it's too early to start planning Thanksgiving dinner? Think again! Nov. 26 may seem like a long way off, but for the holiday host, it's right around the corner. That's why each Tuesday until Turkey Day, we'll bring you preparation tips to ensure your Thanksgiving is as smooth as your gravy (should be).
1. Get a head count.
Now's the time to start inviting people to Thanksgiving dinner. If you're thinking about it, chances are good your friends and family are, too. So if your cousin is bringing her new boyfriend, and both sets of grandparents are coming to town, as well as your parents and siblings, you're going to need to figure out how to seat everyone at your small table with three mismatched chairs.
Getting a head count this early ensures you'll have enough time to borrow tables, chairs and whatever other furniture items you need to so that everyone can eat comfortably, and then have a place to lounge when the tryptophan-wine combo sets in. And don't forget to find out who's a vegetarian, who's allergic to nuts, and any other dietary restrictions you'll be dealing with. The last thing you want to hear as you put your orange-scented green beans with toasted almonds on the table is that your cousin's new boyfriend has a severe nut allergy.
Halloween is almost here. The costumes are coming together, the ghosts are swooping in, the kiddies are getting restless and there is simply no time to make fancy graveyard cupcakes or malted eyeballs. But Halloween-themed brownies and blondies are still a snap! When time is of the essence, witch fingers are a great treat to whip up, and they will certainly elicit kudos from the crowd.
These crunchy Halloween cookies have run their way back and forth across the Web, but we've come up with twists and style updates that are sure to please. Hit the jump and visit the gallery for inspiration.
Jacques Torres chocolates at Chocolate Show New York. Photo: Sara Bonisteel.
You'd think that with the nation's focus on turkey, cranberry sauce and the subsequent holiday season, November food festivals would be few and far from interesting. Not so -- from warm-ups to warm climes, check out our roundup of remarkable November fȇtes.
Chocolate Show New York, New York, Oct. 30-Nov. 1: A brief event straddling two months, these three decadent days include book signings, cooking demos and tastings, from chocolate experts such as Jacques Torres' -- he's pairing Puerto Rican rum and chocolate -- as well as party ideas.
Chocolate Festival of Texas and Texas Wines, Houston, Tex., Nov. 6-7: Not to be out-gunned by the Yanks, the Lone Star State is holding its own celebration for chocoholics, and this one includes oenophiles, who get a souvenir wine glass.
Port Barre Cracklin Festival, Port Barre, La., Nov. 12-15: You read right -- fat back is on offer! The perfect way to pad up for winter hibernation. There will be a fair pageant, rides, live entertainment and the obligatory cook-off.
Sugary treats, bread and tamales -- the dead have it so good! The Day of the Dead, orDía de los Muertos, is actually two days that combine Aztec traditions with Christianity's All Saints and All Souls Days on Nov. 1 and 2. It is by no means a somber holiday. In fact the Day of the Dead is a joyous time during which the dead re-join the living and are honored by their families.
Ancestors are memorialized with visits to cemeteries and homemade altars adorned with ofrendas(offerings). These include items belonging to the dead, candles, flowers, a bowl of water, incense and food, of which the dead are believed to consume the essence prior to the living's meal.
The food most closely associated with the Day of the Dead is pan de muerto (bread of the dead). It varies regionally, and is baked in many shapes, including skulls, human figures, crosses and teardrops, then sprinkled with colored sugar.
These adorable spooky cupcakes not only look the ghoulish part, but there's more to them than meets the eye -- beneath the eerie, glowing gummy-candy eyes lies a cookie dough surprise secretly nestled inside the cakes. We're positively enchanted with these cupcakes not only for their appearance but for their complex flavor layers.
Borrowing from "The Cake Mix Doctor Returns," the folks at A Baked Creation whipped up these beastly beauties using a combination of vanilla cake and instant pudding mixes, with a package of frozen cookie dough for the center. And though many cooks scoff at the use of premixed baking bases, with creatively tweaked creations like these we can't resist the extra ease. Plus, we were sold at the mere sight of the fondant ghosts floating atop the fluffy chocolate frosting.
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'Tis the season for pumpkin carving, but don't throw out the scraps! AOL Food's toasted pumpkin seed recipe and these tips make it easy to turn a pile of pumpkin seeds (or pepitas) into a tasty and healthy snack.
There are very few nights when I sit down to a homecooked meal that does not include a salad that reflects the season. Even if I put little effort into the main dish, I always have fun creating new dressings and salad combinations. While there are hundreds of salad dressings on supermarket shelves, I encourage you to make your own. Not only are they better for you, homemade dressings are simple to prepare and have a delicious, clean flavor.
Fall is full of some of my favorite ingredients, and the colors and textures of all the seasonal fruits and vegetables create amazing salads. Grilling pears and apples adds a smoky flavor, and a good quality cheese and simple dressing brings the dish together. You can top salads with toasted nuts, pomegranate seeds or even pumpkin seeds. Grilled portobello mushrooms also lend a nice, earthy flavor during the cooler months.
Get creative with seasonal ingredients, buy local and use fall nights to create delicious grilled dinners for your family and friends.
While cold-hearted Halloween detractors might blame candy corn and bite-size chocolate bars for bulging kids' waistlines and tooth decay, holiday celebrants once held Halloween foods responsible for determining whom they'd marry and whether their spouses would be true.
The notion of eating Halloween foods apparently never occurred to many 19-century Americans, who instead used nuts and apples to engage the occult. The nation's first Halloweeners burnt walnuts, scattered apple peels and chomped on apples hung from strings, all in hopes of figuring out what their future held.
Halloween got its start as Samhain, a pagan autumn holiday in the British Isles marked by "mumming," or the practice of wandering from house to house and trading performances for food. Feasting -- especially on freshly harvested apples and nuts -- remained a central activity as the festival evolved into Halloween: Apple potato cake, perhaps reflecting back to the day's near-coincidence with a Roman celebration honoring the orchard goddess Pomona, was among the most popular foods. Celebrants also carved turnips and tromped into cabbage fields, believing the shape of a root plucked on Halloween would presage the shape of one's spouse. More on strange and outdated Halloween traditions of the past, after the jump.
If you really want to make your Halloween party guests squeal, raise the gross-out factor of the foods.
This Halloween concoction, meant to resemble kitty litter just might take the cake with the gross-out gourmets. And don't worry, those are Tootsie rolls.
Despite New York's deli domination -- and the alarm of passionate "Seinfeld" enthusiasts -- "Save the Deli" author David Sax believes Los Angeles to be the true deli capital of the U.S.
"Top Chef" finalist Stephan Richter opens the "smart and cheeky" Stefan's at L.A. Farm restaurant in Santa Monica.
The Times marvels at the jarringly whimsical shape -- and "powerfully aromatic" flavor -- of the "Buddha's hand" fruit, and praises ragu as "fall food as its best: slow cooking that develops deep, harmonic flavors."
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