The best sangria I ever had in my life was made by a Spanish friend for my birthday party. The ingredients included a giant box of Franzia red, one bottle of Bombay Sapphire Blue, one cup of sugar, a liter of 7-Up, and some cinnamon sticks. She put everything but the 7-Up in a giant zinc bucket from Home Depot and insisted that it had to sit overnight so the flavors could blend (and so the Franzia wouldn't taste so, well, Franzia-ish).
Autumn is a time of year when everything looks, smells, and tastes good. The scents of cinnamon and spices are everywhere you go, and even the dead leaves that fall off the trees are pretty. In particular, the fruits and vegetables of the season are gorgeous.
Impress everyone by bringing a beautiful homemade tart to the next celebration. You can use seasonal berries or even other fruits to create a colorful and flavorful dessert that will make any occasion seem extra special. With its rich pastry cream and tangy fruit wrapped in a flaky, buttery shell, the fruit tart is a classic dessert. Make this version with one or more of your favorites berries.
Interested in peeling a dragon fruit by hand? With the proper technique, it's easier than you'd think. So easy, in fact, that this free video lesson can present a complete overview of the peeling process in about a minute's time. For more information, and to get started peeling your own pitahayas, watch this video guide.
A robust appetite for imported foods is leading to increased disease outbreak in the US. Despite the locovore and slow food movements, America's demand for foreign foods is picking up. According to a study published in the journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, demand for imported fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafoods has jumped in recent years.
If you think that "pawpaw" is just an affectionate name for your grandfather or a cute way of talking about your cat's feet, you're missing out on one of the most interesting fruits out there.
Apples are great snacks, and they're often paired with peanut butter or sliced cheese for a well-rounded energy boost of carbs, fat, and protein. The apples are an important part of the equation, as they are low-calorie and full of vitamins, nutrients, fiber, and lots of other good stuff. It's the other half that's always the problem, as eating too much peanut butter or cheese is an easy way to polish off a boatload of calories and fat in one sitting.
I'm as adventurous an eater as just about anyone, but some foodie trends leave me scratching my head and wanting nothing more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But sometimes the trends become trends because they're, well, brilliant.
We're a little citrus-obsessed, and with good reason: lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit: Mother Nature really packed those babies with flavor, from peel (which you can zest without special tools) to juice. Now executive chef Amanda Freitag of Empire Diner has come up with a way to make those lemons and limes give up even more flavor by applying a lot of heat.
A lot of fruits start to turn colors once they've been cut due to an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase that turns the fruit colors when it's exposed to oxygen. You can prevent this reaction in apples with a honey-water bath, but what about avocados?
Making your own alcohol at home sounds like fun, but it's a long, complicated, and sometimes expensive process. You need all sorts of equipment, and by the time you're finished, it's been a few weeks—even months.
Most of us have conducted an investigatory science project without even knowing it, or at least without knowing that's what it was called. Most science experiments performed, from elementary to high school students and all the way up to professional scientists, are investigatory projects.
I think part of the reason why I don’t eat more vegetables or fruits is because there's always a process—a simple one, but a process nonetheless. Having to wash my fruits and veggies is just flat out annoying. I just want to eat them, not take a shower with them.
Precious resources can be wasted if you do not have the knowledge necessary to get the most out of a fruit or vegetable.
This video shows you how to open a jackfruit. You should not use a knife when opening and use coconut oil on your hands afterwards because it is very sticky. You should find a soft spot and open it from there. Tear along the middle and all the way around to open the fruit in halves. You can then proceed to tear pieces off and eat it. Make sure to use coconut oil on your hands to get the stickiness off.
Fresh coconuts can look a bit intimidating but in just a few easy steps you too can be enjoying both the milk and the meat of this delicious fruit. Coconuts' peak season is from October through December. You should be able to hear the liquid inside and it should feel heavy for its size. Check for three eyes, at the smaller end of the coconut. They should look intact and there should not be any cracks or damage to
Using food as a platter or bowl to serve food in is a genius idea. Because once you're done digging into the fruit salad inside this watermelon, you can then eat the "bowl"! Well, maybe not the rind. But you get the point.
Not everyone likes papaya. But a lot of times the sweet fruit is simply misunderstood. They require different methods of preparation which most people just don't feel like doing. But trust us, biting in to a juicy piece of papaya is totally worth the work.
Homemade baby food provides your little one with a natural, nutritious meal. Learn what fruits are right for your child and how to prepare, cook, and store baby food. Babies between 4 and 6 months old are ready to start integrating solid food into their diet. Remember to check in with your pediatrician before making any changes to your baby's diet. When making baby food, be sure to wash your hands and use clean equipment and tools. You can also freeze it in an ice cube tray, and once frozen, ...
During the summer, fresh strawberries are everywhere: at your neighborhood farmers market and in many desserts like strawberry shortcake and strawberry rhubarb pie, to name just a couple. Bringing home a few baskets of the ruby red fruit always seems like a good idea... until they begin to turn to mush or grow mold only a few days later.
In many places, May has given way to a surplus of strawberries cluttering the produce aisle. These sweet berries are great in a wide variety of delicious baked goods, from pies to cakes and everything in between.
There's something great about sweet, ripe strawberries coated in a bit of hardened chocolate. They're decadent, beautiful, and make for the perfect after-dinner dessert.
Several years ago, I moved to Brooklyn, New York, just outside a Spanish neighborhood. It was here that I was introduced to chayote. Fast-forward to present day: I live in Los Angeles and buy several chayote squash a week to cook with—yes, I said several. It's so versatile and healthy! For the uninitiated, chayote (chai-YOH-tee) is a light green squash shaped like a pear originating from central Mexico. Although it's considered a fruit, chayote is a member of the Cucurbitaceous (gourd) family...
The produce section is full of fruits, both familiar and quite strange. Depending on the season, you may see giant, bright-green bananas on display next to the normal bananas that you know and love. No, those aren't super-unripened bananas—they're plantains, and they are definitely a different fruit altogether. However, once you get to know them a little better, you'll find that they're much more fun to cook with.
No crème brûlée is worth its custard without the crackled, caramelized crust it's famous for. For this reason alone, many cooks have a brûlée torch sitting somewhere in their cabinets.
Personally, I think everyone should have the freedom to sit down and enjoy a delicious breakfast each morning... but that isn't always attainable, especially because of the prep work and cook time that tasty meals often require.
Watermelons scream summer like no other fruit, and there's nothing like biting into a sweet one on a hot summer day. Although there's no exact right way to cut watermelon, there are many occasions when you might not want to cut it into wedges. It may be the classic cut, but the triangular shape insures that you'll always get some on your face. And for parties, there's always the messy problem of leftover rinds.
Pies and soufflés: these are two dishes that can try even the most experienced cook. Berry pies can be especially challenging, since the high water content of cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries often leads to a big, leaky mess once you cut into your beautiful pie.
We've told you how a rice cooker can work as a DIY sous vide machine and make amazing risotto the lazy way, but did you know that it can also make pancakes, bread, mashed potatoes, and poached fruit?
When you come home from the grocery store, you probably put away every single fruit and vegetable in the bins and drawers in your refrigerator. Any fifth grader knows that fridges work to preserve food, thus everything should go in there, right? Nope!
Are you a messy burger eater? Ants and fruit flies invading your home? Hate drinking warm drinks? Find out the quick and easy DIY solutions to these problems with these 10 amazing tips and tricks for the summer.
There's nothing better to cool those hot summer days that a deliciously fruit Italian ice. Italian ice is one of the best desserts to beat the heat, right alongside frozen yogurt and ice cream! And you probably didn't realize how easy Italian ice is to make at home. Robin Benzle of Chow Time will show you how with her lemon-cranberry version. There's only four ingredients: lemons, cranberries, water and sugar.
We can promise you that your party guests will do a double take when they see these cupcakes shaped like delicious deli sandwiches. We almost couldn't believe our eyes when we first saw them ourselves; these cupcakes are decorated down to the very last sesame seed to resemble ham and cheese deli sandwiches.
Here's the inevitable food hierarchy you must know if you're a cooking looking to make the most delicious, succulent meals possible: When it comes to cooking with vetables, fresh veggies from the supermarket beats canned, and in season produce beats just about everything else.
Eating healthy does not mean crunching on cardboard 24/7, even if that's what your kids think. While it's always easy to reach for a neat package of Cheetos and toss that into your kid's lunchbox for school, doing so means you're giving them a hefy serving of artificial coloring (some of which has been linked to cancer), artificial flavoring, and high fructose corn syrup.
Chocolate is undeniably a food fit for the gods, with it sumptuously silky texture, bittersweet flavor, and health benefits (not that gods need to worry about getting sick).
A lemon a day keeps the skin doctor at bay. You're probably more than familiar with a lemon's antibacterial, antiviral (and even weight loss-promoting!) properties as a foodstuff, but did you know they can also lighten, brighten, and bring a youthful glow to your skin?
Raw food diets are fast becoming a popular and healthy lifestyle due to its all-natural slant, and in this video Chrissy Bix shows you how to make a delicious raw mango and berry pie. The raw pie crust is nut and date-based and requires a blender to get the correct dough-like consistency. From there it can be transferred directly into a pie dish and topped with blueberries, raspberries (fresh or frozen) and mango. It can be served with Keffir or cashew cream, both of which are good whipped cr...
This video shows how to make a mermaid birthday cake that would be perfect for a little girl. To make the mermaid take a fashion doll, or a Barbie doll, and wrap her legs in plastic wrap. Now cover her in green and blue fruit roll-ups to form the mermaid's tail. You will need about three strips to make the entire dress and tail. The fruit roll-ups will stick to itself. For the cake you will need two 8 inch rounds and a smaller cake baked in a custard cup. Make sure the cakes are flat on top, ...
This how-to video shows you how to make boiled wheat. To do this, take some wheat and put it in a pot. Pour some water into the pot and put it on a stove in order to boil it. After about 45 minutes to an hour, you will now have lovely boiled wheat grains. You can use this dish as a side dish. You can also use it with natural yogurt, fruit, and cinnamon for breakfast. Another alternative is using milk, peanut butter, and honey. You can also use it with a salad. Just add lintels, parsley, salt,...
