All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.
Does anyone REALLY like to cook on vacation? I do! I love to visit local farmers’ markets, meandering around stalls, sampling regional produce and buying fresh-from-the-farm ingredients to take back to a vacation home or condo.
Cooking on vacation isn’t the same as everyday, after-work cooking. You have more time and greater flexibility. No need to be on a schedule: dinner is ready when it’s ready. If anyone is hungry, pass the wine and cheese! Continue Reading »
Posted in Video recipes | Tagged basil, bruschetta, farmers’ markets, food blogs, grill cooking, grill recipes, Inside Special Fork, mobile recipe website, recipe, recipes, recipes mobile, Sandy Hu, Special Fork, toasting bread on the grill, Tomato Bruschetta, tomatoes, Vacation cooking | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2012 by Andrew Hunter
All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.
We love going on vacation, though we can typically only steal away for a couple of days here and there. Ten minutes west is Santa Monica and an hour up 101 is Santa Barbara. Both quintessential California beach towns are vacation destinations for travelers around the world. Since we don’t have to buy plane tickets or even much gas to vacation in these locales, we justify our splurging on nice hotel rooms and delicious local food.
The other great thing about vacationing close by is friends can pop in for an afternoon play date or even to spend the night. We know where all the great food shops are in each town for picnics and snacks. My favorite snack by far is a casual cheese plate; a variety of soft and hard cheese, olives and fresh fruit all on a quick and easy platter – leave your design aesthetic at home, the goal here is assemblage not presentation. Continue Reading »
Posted in The Family Table | Tagged Andrew Hunter, cheese plate, how to make a cheese plate. mobile recipe site, Special Fork, vacation | Leave a Comment »
May 16, 2012 by Lori Powell
All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.
Lucky me, I get to spend a couple of weeks each year in Mid-Coast Maine at a house on a cove that I have rented now for the past six years. It is my Northeast Oasis where I fatten myself up with all that Maine has to offer, including all the seafood, berries and great produce that I can consume in that short period of time.
Of course, all of that cooking (yes, I love to cook on vacation with the indigenous ingredients that surround me), eating and then reading need to be combined with a lot of hiking so that I can do more of the first two things.
Maine, to me, screams seafood and Seafood Chowder in all its glorious forms… whether it is lobster, scallops, shrimp or even clams. To me it generally involves some shellfish, vegetables, herbs, sometimes pork and a creamy, slightly thickened base. Continue Reading »
Posted in One or Two Bites | Tagged chowder, clam recipe, Clams, easy recipe, how to make chowder, how to make clam chowder, Lori Powell, mobile recipe site, quick recipe, Special Fork | Leave a Comment »
May 15, 2012 by Katie Barreira
All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.
Ever booked a hotel room that claimed to have a kitchenette or some such access to cooking equipment only to find yourself in a bedroom with a mini-fridge and a microwave? No need to give-up and go out for every meal. You can still save big and have a few meals in, even with barest-boned kitchen. Continue Reading »
Posted in Cooking Newbie | Tagged banana, cooking in a microwave, cooking in a toaster, cooking newbie, cooking with almost no equipment, Dish-Free Spaghetti Squash, food blogs, Katie Barreira, Micro-Toasted Nuts, mobile recipe website, PB Banana and Honey Pressata, peanut butter, Pita Bread Pizzas, pita pockets, recipe, recipes, recipes mobile, spaghetti squash, Special Fork, Vacation cooking | Leave a Comment »
All this week, Special Fork bloggers are thinking vacation and sharing their best vacation cooking ideas, as we head towards Memorial Day and summertime.
In anticipation of summer outings and leisurely picnics, Special Fork will be holding a sweepstakes for a Newbury Picnic Basket by Picnic Time. It’s the kind of English-style basket I imagine getting tucked into the “boot” of a roadster by the butler and the contents (prepared by the cook, of course) getting laid out on a blanket in the countryside. This basket, fitted with service for four, has an estimated retail value: $144.95. To see a picture of the basket and to enter our contest, click here. Contest begins today and runs through May 27. Continue Reading »
Posted in Inside Special Fork | Tagged 30-minute recipes, Andrew Hunter, cook time, English picnic basket, equipment needed, food blogs, Katie Barreira, Lori Powell, Marilyn Hunter, mobile recipe website, Picnic Time Newbury basket, prep time, recipe, recipe box, recipe database, recipes, recipes mobile, shopping list, smartphone, Special Fork bloggers, sweepstakes, vacation, vacation cooing, vacation recipes | Leave a Comment »
By Zoe McLaughlin
This is my go-to recipe at least once a week. The term “en papillote” is French for cooked in parchment paper. It’s simple, yet elegant, and this dish is packed with flavor. All the ingredients cook together in the same amount of time and the parchment paper locks in the flavor. It’s super-fast, super-easy and leaves you with virtually no clean up.
I have made this dish countless times, changing the ingredients, depending on what I have on hand. This version is Mediterranean in its inspiration, but I often make it with Asian flavors using shiitake mushrooms, scallions, ginger and soy sauce. I used salmon fillets for this recipe but any type of fish such as halibut, sea bass, sole or snapper are great alternatives. Continue Reading »
Posted in Video recipes | Tagged cooking for one, dinner party recipe, en papillote, fish, food blogs, go-to recipe, how to make a parchment packet, kalamata olives, mobile recipe website, parchment paper, recipe, recipes, recipes mobile, salmon, Salmon en Papillote, Special Fork, Video Friday, video recipes | Leave a Comment »
May 10, 2012 by Marilyn Hunter
I love this time of year when young spring days become warmer and longer than their older winter siblings. Now is the time to bring the outdoors inside with great seasonal fruits and veggies on the kitchen table. Melons of all varieties peak in the hot summer months, but they’re catching their stride now with respectable sweet, juicy flesh.
Cantaloupe and honeydew melons are surprisingly compatible with the sweet acidity of balsamic vinegar and cured prosciutto ham, which makes this salad perfect for any occasion, fancy or casual. It’s also great to make with kids because they love scooping melon balls, and you can set them to their task without worrying about cut fingers. They love making them and eating them so much that I now buy twice what I need to account for ravenous appetites. Continue Reading »
Posted in The Family Table | Tagged balsamic vinegar, Busy mommy/daddy, cantaloupe, food blogs, honeydew, kids in the kitchen, Marilyn Hunter, Melon and Prosciutto Salad, melon balls, melons, mobile recipe website, prosciutto, recipe, recipes, recipes mobile, seasonal fruits, Special Fork, The Family Table | Leave a Comment »
May 9, 2012 by Lori Powell
Cooking for one is highly underrated and might seem to some a tad lonely. My day job is to create recipes to serve at least four or more people and sometimes involves working in the company of others. So I embrace MY time alone in the kitchen where the only sounds I hear are from my knife chopping and slicing or something sizzling and speaking to me from the pot on the stove.
Being alone in the kitchen is when I can truly lose myself in the ingredients and smells of conjuring up a nourishing meal. Everything else that happened that day gets drowned out by the current task at hand. It’s not unlike a runner who gets in the zone on the track and their single focus is to move forward. Continue Reading »
Posted in One or Two Bites | Tagged benefits of cooking for one, carrot ribbons, cooking for one, cooking for one or two, food blogs, Kitchen Yoga, Lori Powell, mobile recipe website, mushrooms, One or Two Bites, Pasta Primavera, recipe, recipes, recipes mobile, Special Fork | Leave a Comment »
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All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.
