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A Simple Ragu Sauce That's Got a Good Kick My wife found this spicy ragu sauce recipe in the NY Times. We were surprised by the spiciness of the dish but enjoyed it immensely. What is Ragu? By definition, a ragu is a sauce made with ground meat, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and a few other ingredients depending on who's preparing it. Ragu's are typically cooked "low and slow," meaning at low temperature for a long time. This ragu takes less time, about 45 minutes, and still has the slow-cooked flavor because of the spices added to the dish. Let's Look at the Ingredients Meat Choices - we used ground beef as the recipe suggests, but you can substitute ground pork or ground turkey if you have some leftovers from Thanksgiving. Italian sausage meat works too, but I would s...

A Pie for The Pastry Dough Haters In 1926, Monroe Boston Strause invented the chiffon pie. The wholesale pie baker saw pie slipping in favor as advancements in home oven technology enabled bakers to make better cakes, and he felt an urgent need to innovate what he believed to be the quintessentially American dessert. Tired of heavy cream pies, he utilized whipped egg whites to lighten a traditional custard into an airy, ethereal pie filling, paired with a crispy, buttery new type of crust made from graham crackers instead of traditional pastry. Chiffon became a hit, and Strause became known as the “Pie King,” but it was his graham cracker crust that truly went down in baking history.  Ingeniou...

When did buying eggs at the grocery store become so confusing? These days, the aisles abound with acronyms and symbols proclaiming growing practices, but understanding the difference between pasture-raised and free range is another story. If you’re looking to eat animal products more thoughtfully, consider stocking your shopping tote with a copy of The Humane Table, a new cookbook from American Humane president and CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert, with recipes highlighting the efforts of humane-certified food producers across the country.  As Ganzert attests, fair treatment for animals isn’t just ethical. Lowering their cortisol levels and feeding them nutrient-rich diets creates better-tasting animal products, yielding tender turkeys and eggs with deep y...

There is an observable imported foodstuffs hierarchy in America, and you can see it on the shelves of every fine food store in the country. It’s been in place since the early days of Dean & DeLuca’s New York City reign began—since the birth of the “gourmet boom.” This hierarchy grants primacy to culinary goods from countries like Italy, France, Spain, and Japan—nations home to distinct, centuries-old culinary traditions, producing the olive oil, chevre, boquerones, and shoyu that are the stuff chefs and cookbook nerds dream of, with advanced import-export systems and long-standing sales networks. But over the past decade or so, a new wave of imports have become available to American chefs: Korean fig vinegars, Ukrainian butter, Haitian scotc...

Photo Credit - National Turkey Federation Even More Expensive Than Last Year's Turkey Dinner I thought last year's Turkey Dinner was expensive compared to the year before, but 2022 is the priciest ever. According to the Farm Bureau's annual survey, this year's Thanksgiving dinner for ten people is $64.05 or about $6.50 per person. Wow! Last year's average cost was $53.31, $10.74 cheaper than this year's. That's a 29% increase. Inflation Is Driving Thanksgiving Dinner Costs Up What's leading to the cost rise? Well, just about everything. Only one item in the survey is down this year, fresh cranberries, down .41 cents from last year. But, unfortunately, this will not make up for all the other items that have gone up. A 16-pound turkey is up $4.97 from 2021. That's cra...

When I hold the Sheep’s Nose apple in my hand, it feels like a gnarled and arthritic fist. I bite into its hard, lumpy knuckles. It’s not too sweet, like a mellowed-out Honeycrisp, and the flesh is foamy and juicy. This is an apple that is extremely fun to eat. I Google “sheep nose” to compare the animal with the apple, which has the elongated shape of an apple in a funhouse mirror. A sheep’s face, I realize, is mostly composed of a long schnoz. I’m charmed, and I’m already nostalgic for it. When will I ever eat one of these again? Sheep’s Nose apples don’t have the farmers’ market fandom of the superstar Honeycrisp. I can’t find them near me in Michigan; this one was plopped into my tote bag by a friend in Norfolk, Connecticut, before I boarded...

Photo Credit - National Turkey Federation Even More Expensive Than Last Year's Turkey Dinner I thought last year's Turkey Dinner was expensive compared to the year before, but 2022 is the priciest ever. According to the Farm Bureau's annual survey, this year's Thanksgiving dinner for ten people is $64.05 or about $6.50 per person. Wow! Last year's average cost was $53.31, $10.74 cheaper than this year's. That's a 29% increase. Inflation Is Driving Thanksgiving Dinner Costs Up What's leading to the cost rise? Well, just about everything. Only one item in the survey is down this year, fresh cranberries, down .41 cents from last year. But, unfortunately, this will not make up for all the other items that have gone up. A 16-pound turkey is up $4.97 from 2021. That's cra...

How to Prepare a Delicious Middle Eastern Soup My daughter and her friends prepared this recipe for Burnt Eggplant and Israeli Couscous recipe many times during the semester they lived at our Salt Lake City home because of Covid. We purchased the house to retire in but were still living in Philadelphia, getting our house ready to sell, so we let her and her friends stay there. It worked out great for them, and we appreciated having someone in the house. Maddie's three friends were vegetarian, so once they found a recipe they enjoyed, they would make it often. Maddie is still living with us until she finds her full-time job and likes to make dinner for us once a week, and this is a recipe she knows well. This recipe can be served as either a side dish or, in our case, the ...

How to Prepare a Delicious Middle Eastern Soup My daughter and her friends prepared this recipe for Burnt Eggplant and Israeli Couscous recipe many times during the semester they lived at our Salt Lake City home because of Covid. We purchased the house to retire in but were still living in Philadelphia, getting our house ready to sell, so we let her and her friends stay there. It worked out great for them, and we appreciated having someone in the house. Maddie's three friends were vegetarian, so once they found a recipe they enjoyed, they would make it often. Maddie is still living with us until she finds her full-time job and likes to make dinner for us once a week, and this is a recipe she knows well. This recipe can be served as either a side dish or, in our case, the ...