Alton Brown, the lovable and knowledgable food geek and resident  cuisine geek, doesn't seem  too impressed with the current state of the grilled cheese sandwich. Thankfully, he has decided to share his own recipe for what he refers to as Grilled Grilled Cheese. You see, it's a sandwich cooked on the grill, and the recipe actually involves grilling the freaking cheese.

That’s because whenever and wherever people say they’re gonna make you a grilled cheese sandwich what they really mean is there gonna make you a griddled sandwich containing some melted cheese. Well not me. Now when I say grilled cheese sandwich, I mean a grilled sandwich containing grilled cheese and here’s how I do it.

Look delish though, right? Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Alton Brown presents his sumptuous ‘Grilled Grilled Cheese’ [Video]

Digging into its wealth of user data, Yelp has compiled a list of the top 100 places to eat in the United States. Mining that data and using the Wilson Score technique, the 100 must-try spots feature a mix of some of the big boys that you've heard of if you're a true foodie, as well as a bunch of hole-in-the-wall spots that the locals try to keep to themselves. We've got the top 20 below, and you can head on over to the Yelp Blog for the full meal deal.

Continue reading Yelp names the top 100 places to eat in the US

If you've ever eaten a pomegranate, you've likely encountered the frustrating task of removing the seeds--but there's a better way. Rather than fighting a spoon (or your fingers) through the various nooks and crannies, splattering yourself with pomegranate juice stains in the process, try this much easier, faster approach to deseed a pomegranate:

1. Cut off the ends of the pomegranate, creating two flat surfaces on the ends.
2. Cut the pomegranate in half, and twist each half a bit to loosen the delicious seeds that are held within
3. Grab something sturdy like a wooden spoon, and hit the flat part of the pomegranate half that you created in the first step. The seeds should easily fall out, so make sure you have a bowl or container underneath the pomegranate that you're hitting
4. Enjoy!

Give it a try, and let us know how it works out for you in the comments! If you want more a more detailed tutorial full of pictures, head on over to Instructables.

Set your beloved Sriracha aside, and prepare to hit your mouth with some bold, spicy sweetness from Negley & Son. The company offers three distinct flavors, all three of which aim to give your food a perfect kick. You have Classic Spicy, which is made from a secret blend of seven different peppers. Then you have the Smokey Chipotle, which adds smoke-dried jalapenos into the mix. Then, Ghost Pepper--flavored with one of the hottest peppers cultivated on the planet, the Bhut Jolokia. Yep, they've got our attention, too. We'll be looking to check it out soon, and will report back with our thoughts.

If you want a 21st century method of deodorizing your refrigerator, get ready to throw out that old box of baking soda and pick up the Kuro Cube. the Kuro Cube is a compressed block of white charcoal that specializes in absorbing the smells that you don't wanna smell, saving your nose from the horrid sensory attack you might get hit with whenever you open the fridge. It costs $25, and lasts a good five years, as long as you set it in the sun every now and then so it can get dried out. You can place these in other areas, too, if you want to purify the air in other rooms.

You and Sir Patrick Stewart now have another thing in common if you've ever eaten a slice of pizza. Yesterday, the man who played Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation admitted on Twitter that he was in the midst of enjoying his first ever pizza slice:

"But nevertheless, this was my first slice of pizza, which I was only eating because my fiancée and I were a little hung-over yesterday morning and she said what we need is pizza and a soothing drink — and she was right. It solved the problem. But, in fact, it was my first slice, and when it was brought over to me, my first comment was 'There's no knife and fork.' Of course, I was mocked for thinking that I could eat a pizza slice with a knife and fork."

Since he grew up in a small town in northern England, Stewart wasn't exposed to pizza much. Not much of an excuse, but Stewart does admit that he has eaten pizza in the past, but they were full pies eaten with knife and fork.

Have you ever has an amazing steak, cooked to perfection, that you just couldn't finish? You get it boxed up and put it in the fridge, looking forward to finishing the tasty leftover morsels the next day. Then you heat it up, only to find that it's dry and tough. What happened? Why?? More importantly, what can be done to avoid your delectable dinner from turning into a disgusting disaster? The folks over at America's Test Kitchen have found that the best way to reheat steaks is as follows:

• First, pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees
• Place the steaks in the oven on a wire rack for about 30 minutes until they reach 110 degrees at the center
• Take out of over and pat dry
• Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a pan until hot
• Place steaks in pan and sear until brown, abotu 60-90 seconds per side

The end result here is that your steak will be only slightly less juicy than it was originally, and that means deliciousness. If you wanna see the process in action, check out the video after the break.

Continue reading How to reheat steak without drying it out

Did you know that a Hot n Spicy McChicken sandwich has 17 grams more sugar than a regular McChicken? Ot that light ranch dressing has twice the amount of sugar as regular old ranch? Yeah, sugar hides out in the most unexpected places. Check out the video below for a few more surprises.

Continue reading How much sugar is in random foods? [Video]

Layering in different flavors into a dish can turn your food from good to great, and to make it happen, you need the spices to seal the deal--and we've teamed up with Cooking Planit to hook you up with 26 of the most popular spices out there to help put a little more kick into your food. You may be wondering, though, what Cooking Planit is and what do they have to do with making food taste better. Well, Cooking Planit is an app that walks you through the step-by-step process in order to cook an amazing meal. It coaches you through the planning, shopping, and even the cooking process itself, in a GPS-like fashion that ensures everything is ready at the same time. It offers a bunch of pre-built menus that you can use to get started right out of the gate, and if you are using an iOS device, you can even use voice control to avoid getting gunk all over your display.

Want a chance to walk away with this spice rack? All you have to do is enter right here to win. We've made it easy to rack up entries, too, offering multiple ways for you to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This weekend we purchased a KitchenAid Professional 5 mixer. I have wanted one of these mixers for years, but they're expensive and I didn’t want to spend the money. As it turns out, we purchased this used on Craigslist for $130 (which excites me enough to add it to this post.) It was originally listed for $200 (and retails for over $400,) and I'm very proud to have negotiated (with some assistance) to the final price.

After we got the mixer and brought it home, we felt like we needed to immediately start using it due to the excitement. However, we needed to do some shopping and didn't have a lot of time right then. I remembered that we had some heavy cream in the refrigerator that Andru purchased for our coffee. We normally follow a Paleo diet and this cream, from grass fed cows, is an acceptable part of the program. That said, this month I'm following the Whole30 program, and that doesn't allow any dairy except butter from grass fed cows. I knew butter that butter is made by churning cream, but I thought for sure there was more to it than that.

Continue reading How to make homemade butter (recipe!)

A few days ago I shared a sous-vide poached egg recipe. Since then I've been playing around with it and modifying it to make it even better. Today I wrapped the eggs a little tighter, forcing all the air from the top, thinking that was the key to keeping them from floating and cooking a little more. I also tried to capture a picture of the low level boil in my pot. In the picture from today you can see the difference in the egg white at the top where it was pulled into the pouch format. It left the top just a little more translucent than it was yesterday. I remember a Top Chef episode in which Padma would not even try a contestant's dish because she felt the egg was still a little raw. Today I felt like there was a chance Padma might reject my breakfast, so I popped it on the microwave for about 15 seconds. Tomorrow (yes doing this for a third day - I love these!) I will try to make less of a pouch with the egg. I think the ramekin might be too deep and something more shallow would help.

Continue reading Modifying my poached egg sous vide recipe

If you consider yourself a foodie, you've likely heard of sous-vide cooking. These immersion circulators cook food at low temperatures for a long time in a bath of water set to a specific temperature, ensuring tender, even cooking from all sides of the food. The problem is that sous-vide cooking devices are expensive. This is where Nomiku comes in.

Nomiku aims to bring sous-vide cooking to the masses. It's a cyclindrical aluminum device with internal heat sink that you can clip to any pot that will then warm the water to any temperature, up to 100 degrees Celsius. It's also got a digital display at the top that gives you vital cooking information, along with a knob for controling the temperature (similar to what you'd find on the Nest thermostat.)

If you want to get one, you'll have to hit up the Nomiku Kickstarter page. It's already a success, surpassing it's initial goal of $200,000. Current pledges sit at $331,823, with another 6 days to go. If you're interested in picking one up, pledge $299 and you'll get the green Nomiku along with digital access to the Nomiku sous vide primer. The finished product is expected to ship in December 2012.

We recently completed the Whole30 challenge and are now settled in to eating a paleo diet. I am not the one that does the cooking in the house but yesterday Andru told me about sous-vide cooking and we actually backed the Nomiku from Kickstarter after watching their video. Shortly after I saw a tweet with a video showing how to sous-vide an egg without buying an $800 machine, and I wanted to know more. I don't regret our Nomiku purchase at all--it wasn't $800--but since it won't arrive until December, I wanted to find something else in the meantime.

Continue reading Poached eggs sous-vide recipe

I'm an absolute sucker for rice pudding, mostly because I've found it to always be pretty delicious, regardless of the source. Whether it's something ordered at a New York diner, an Indian restaurant, or bought at the supermarket in a Kozy Shack plastic tub, if I see it as an option, I'm usually getting it. This rice pudding recipe is adapted from Monica Bhide, who suggests serving it with fresh mango. While that is good, the recipe does stand up on its own as well, as the coconut and cardamom bring something nice and different to the table, without changing the overall goodness.

Continue reading Coconut Cardamom Rice Pudding Recipe

Ever wonder what a cube of Jell-O looks like when bouncing around at 6200 frames per second? Wonder no more, and gaze upon this hypnotizing deliciousness.

This recipe for tropical chicken polenta cakes is one you can mostly prepare days in advance, making it a convenient mid-week meal. Simply boil the chicken breasts and prepare the polenta, put both in their own sealed containers, and bring them out when you want to make this dish. If you end up with extra polenta cakes, use them to make "grilled cheese sandwiches." Seriously, they're awesome. On to the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

Tropical Chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, shredded (see prep)
• 1/2 pineapple (2 cups), blended into a puree
• 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Polenta:

• 1.5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cups polenta (coarsely ground yellow cornmeal)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Optional: 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Continue reading Recipe: Tropical chicken polenta cakes

Chicken is a great meat because it holds the flavor of spices really well, while maintaining the original flavor of the chicken itself on the inside. This makes it a great base for recipes like this Pineapple Lime Chicken, where we are using a couple of different fruit acids, along with a few spices, with the end result being a nice, island-y dish. To make this one a little easier come preparation time, you can cut up the pineapple days in advance and keep it inside of a sealed container in the fridge.

INGREDIENTS

Marinade:

• 1/2 pineapple, chopped into chunks
• 2 limes (or 1/2 cup lime juice)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Chicken:

• 4 chicken breasts, bone in with skin
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground)

Continue reading Recipe: Pineapple Lime Chicken

I am a big fan of short ribs, and also enjoy a good marinade. There's just something about the way a few key ingredients can totally enhance the flavor of meat after leaving it to sit for a while in the fridge. Korean short ribs are a prime example. Typically, the marinade has a handful of ingredients, and you can taste each one in the end result. Here's a recipe for Korean-style short ribs, with a great marinade, that tastes absolutely delicious:

INGREDIENTS

Marinade:

• 1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 stalks chopped green onion
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Short Ribs:

• 1.5 pounds beef short ribs
• 8oz chicken or vegetable stock

Continue reading Recipe: Korean Short Ribs with Marinade

Even the secret KFC recipe for making delicious fried chicken isn't safe from the perils of the Internet, and we've got the recipe here to prove it. Here are the 11 herbs and spices that make KFC "finger-lickin' good." Wait, do they still say that? In any event, the recipe is as follows, and the chicken should be cooked in a pressure fryer:

• 1 tsp ground oregano
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried marjoram
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion salt
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 Tbsp Accent (MSG seasoning)

Anyone gonna give it a shot?

Here’s a cool food hack that we just came across and had to share. Did you know that you can technically slice a bagel in such a way that the two halves are linked? Even better, when cut this way you get a little more surface area than the old school slice, which means that you can technically fit a bit more spread and goodness on it as well. Don’t believe me? Hit the link below for the full details, with diagrams on showing exactly where to cut the bagel and everything.

Yeah, if you thought you knew how to consume a chicken wing correctly, you may in fact be sadly mistaken. Chef John from Food Wishes put together the video above that shows how to eat the flat part of the chicken wing for maximum meat and deliciousness consumption. Give it a look, and enjoy your new knowledge.

Today, I will be writing about one of my favorite restaurants in the Seattle area, La Isla, located in Ballard. It is not the easiest place to get to as far as easy freeway access, but so worth the drive. I love Puerto Rican food, as my husband does, and we don’t have any other restaurants in this area, for that matter anywhere in this region that we have heard of that offers the dishes that one must have to call themselves an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant. Why is that I wonder? I hope many more will open in this area following in the footsteps of La Isla, but they will have big shoes to fill.

Continue reading Puerto Rican Cuisine Done Right: La Isla Restaurant Review

From today until Sunday at 8:00 PM Eastern, comment on this entry about your most memorable “Dad” moment. Did your dad show up to the aforementioned steakhouse in a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops? Maybe your friend’s dad stepped in to save the day when a road trip went bad, or your uncle’s BBQ went up in a blaze of meat glory. I want to hear about it! I’ll be choosing five of the most memorable BBQ stories that you all share and the winners will each receive a prize pack, containing the fantastic recipe for MUG Root Beer Southern Specialty Brew-B-Q sauce (and the sauce is awesome - I was given a copy of the recipe and made some last night) and all of the ingredients to boot, in an insulated MUG bag with a MUG apron.

Lay’em on me guys - I want to hear your Dad stories!

File these under “Super Easy, Still Impressive” - palmiers (light, sweet puff pastry cookies) are criminally cinchy to make and an impressive and tasty way to end a meal on a high (and not too heavy) note. I love to eat these with chocolate sauce or whipped cream, and every once in a while I get a little crazy and add some cinnamon to the sugar.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 sheet of puff pastry

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425.

Sprinkle half of the sugar on a cutting board. Unfold the puff pastry and press it down into the sugar. Sprinkle the other half of the sugar on top of the puff pastry and spread it around with your fingers, brushing off the sugar that doesn’t stick to the pastry.

Fold the sides of the puff pastry in to the center. Fold the pastry again so there are four layers. Using a sharp knife, cut the pastry across the short side into 1 inch slices. For the best results cut straight down, not back-and-forth like with bread or steak.

The very best baking results will be achieved using a silicone baking mat like a Silpat, but parchment paper will work in a pinch. To bake, take the sliced pieces and place them cut side down on the baking sheet. Unfold them slightly and twist the edges down, so that the cookies make a V (this part is not the easiest thing to explain, I know - basically you’ll have one end standing up on the cut side, and it will be the point on the V that’s formed with the two ends lying flat on the the non-cut side). Bake until the tops are slightly golden (about 7 minutes) and remove from the oven. Flip them over and put back in the oven another 4 or 5 minutes or so - until the tops and sides are nicely browed and the sugar has caramelized. Remove and let cool, then eat!

At home one night with plenty of nicely marinated chicken but no pita to be found, I had an epiphany - if souvlaki is basically an undressed Greek salad with chicken on a pita, why couldn’t I eat it as a DRESSED Greek salad with chicken without a pita? And thus my new summer standby meal was born - the chicken souvlaki salad. This recipe will feed two very well and leave four wanting more (I suggest getting some baklava for dessert).

:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 5 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

:

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 head of Romaine lettuce or 2 hearts of Romaine
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 large cucumber, peeled and de-seeded
• 2 Tablespoons crumbled Feta cheese

Preparation:
Mix the marinade. Reserve half to dress the salad, and combine the other half in a zipper bag with the chicken. Marinate the chicken for 4 to 24 hours.

Grill (or saute) the marinated chicken breasts. Slice thinly. Prepare the salad vegetables. Top with the chicken and cheese, then the reserved vinaigrette. If you’re feeling really saucy, you can use tzaziki as a dressing instead of the reserved half of the vinaigrette. Or you could just use both.

It’s time for fresh berries! One of my favorite ever weekend breakfasts (okay, most weekend breakfasts are my favorite) is a nice warm blueberry muffin. Or a few. And yes, there are plenty of mixes and bakeries around who will hook my breakfast up right for just a little bit of time and money, but I’m still firmly of the belief that everything tastes better when it comes from my personal oven.

These muffins are an adaptation of a recipe from the Butter Queen Paula Deen - when I went to buy blueberries this week, there were some raspberries that I just couldn’t resist. I added a streusel topping recipe found on the Chowhound message board for a little bit of extra sweetness and crunch. And before you ask, I did not eat muffins straight off of my counter - there IS a plate under there. It’s just clear. I swear.

Continue reading Recipe: Summer Berry Muffins

Cakes are great, pies are good, anything gooey and sweet is fantastic. But cookies? So underrated. Cookies are, in my opinion, the best way to end a party. Put a big plate of cookies out at the end of a party and people will eat them up! I made these Mexican Chocolate Icebox cookies the first time a couple years ago, and they’ve been the sleeper hit in my repertoire.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t cayenne
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
• 12 T (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg

PREPARATION:
Sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla extract and egg. Gradually add flour mixture until dough is uniform in color and no unmixed flour remains.

Shape into two 9” logs and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Make sure the wrap is airtight. Freeze overnight. The dough will keep up to six weeks in the freezer.

When ready to use, preheat oven to 375F and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should feel a bit firm at the edges. Store in an airtight container when cool.

Be sure to check out our other Cinco de Mayo recipes!

“Make your own…” bars are super fun, and incorporating them into a party is always a hit - everyone gets exactly what they want.  And a Cinco de Mayo taco bar couldn’t be more awesome! Get yourself a meat or two, lettuce, sour cream, cheese, radishes, and some leftover guacamole and pico de gallo, set them all out in bowls with a stack of warmed tortillas for soft tacos and a stack of taco shells. And I recently made the life-changing discovery of these taco plates that keep your tacos upright and your ingredients safely inside the shells.

So what’s to serve with the tacos?

Continue reading Cinco de Mayo Dinner: Mexican rice recipe

Pico de gallo, spanish for “rooster’s beak,” is a great fresh condiment that is made from fresh ingredients and a little fruit juice. It’s also quick to make, and fits into an Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Ingredients:

• 2 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 to a whole small onion
• 1 or 2 seeded chopped jalapeño peppers
• Chopped cilantro to taste
• Lime juice to taste
• Salt to taste

Preparation:
Put the tomatoes, onion, and peppers into a bowl. Add the cilantro and stir to combine. Sprinkle the lime juice and salt on top and stir again. Done!

Be sure to check out our other Cinco de Mayo recipes!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound spicy chorizo
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 small can diced green chiles
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups cheddar
• 1 cup Monterey jack
• 1/4 cup milk (if desired)

Preparation:
Squeeze the chorizo out of its casing and fry on medium in a shallow pan. Once it’s done, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain, retaining as much of the rendered fat in the pan as possible. Pour the chicken broth into the pan to deglaze it - scrape the browned bits from the bottom. Add the chiles, tomatoes, onion and garlic and heat until bubbling. Add the chorizo back to the pan and stir until well incorporated. Add the cheese and stir until melted. If the dip is too thick for your taste, add the milk. Serve hot with chips or warmed tortillas.

PS - if you’re feeling crazy, you could always deglaze the pan with tequila instead of chicken broth for an extra kick of Mexican flavor.

Be sure to check out our other Cinco de Mayo recipes!