The Bitten Word

Hot Chocolate Layer Cake with Homemade Marshmallows

Fine Cooking (December 2009/January 2010)

When it comes to food (or anything else, for that matter), we're not that big on whimsy. "Cute food" just isn't really our thing.

But we were positively bowled over by this stunning, amazing -- and, yes, whimsical -- Hot Chocolate Layer Cake.

It's the perfect dessert for the holidays -- fun, light-hearted and deliciously indulgent.

To be honest, though, this recipe really comes down to just two very important words: homemade marshmallows!

Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto

Fine Cooking (December 2009/January 2010)

Last month, we had a roasted chestnut soup at a restaurant here in DC. Tasting it for the first time was an almost religious experience. Sweet, nutty and silky-smooth, the soup was just one of those foods that instantly warms your soul. We couldn't stop smiling!

A couple days later, we saw pints of chestnuts at the farmers market. We decided to grab some and see if we could replicate that heavenly bowl of soup. By a stroke of luck, we came home, opened our December/January issue of Fine Cooking, and found this recipe for Chestnut Soup with Crisp Prosciutto.

Several days after that, DC got its first snow of the season. For eight hours on a chilly Saturday, fat wet flakes fell silently outside the windows.

Could there be any better day for this soup? We would literally have chestnuts roasting...okay, not on an open fire (our landlord wouldn't like that). But we were excited about the smell of roasting chestnuts wafting through our house while we gazed at the Christmas tree and the falling snow.

The universe, it seemed, was telling us to make this soup.

But the universe had some tricks up its sleeve.

Thanksgiving 2009: Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Hazelnut Butter

Fine Cooking (November 2009)

Reader, we fear we've done you a grave injustice. There's one vegetable we absolutely love, a vegetable we serve at home with great frequency. In fact, if you were to come to our house for dinner during a cold month, chances are this vegetable would be on the menu.

But until now, we've somehow never written about it on The Bitten Word!

We're rectifying that right now: We adore Brussels sprouts, and so should you.

Most of the time, we prepare Brussels sprouts very simply. Cut off the stems and cut each sprout in half. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and -- the real key -- dice a couple slices of bacon and mix them in. Roast the whole thing in the oven for about a half hour.

Seriously, it's great: We've made Brussels sprout converts out of countless dinner guests who arrived with horrible childhood memories of sprouts as limp, mushy and bland.

If you think you don't like Brussels sprouts, it's just because you haven't had them the right way. Trust us!

And if you're looking for a terrific Brussels sprouts recipe (other than our roast version with bacon), look no further than these Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Hazelnut Butter.

Thanksgiving Guide 2009: What the Food Magazines Are Recommending

172 Recipes From 9 Leading Food Magazines

 

Thanksgiving is food magazines' time to shine. In years past, many of the food mags we read have used their November issues to really push the limits with innovative spins on Thanksgiving faves.

Sure, there are usually plenty of approachable standbys. But the classics usually sit alongside some really envelope-pushing ideas: Throw a Thanksgiving clambake! How about a Pacific Rim-fusion dinner? Truffle-laden turkey! Indian-spiced sweet potato gnocchi!! Vegan French-Vietnamese gluten-free stuffing!!!

Not so this year. From the looks of this year's crop of Thanksgiving food mags, 2009 is all about simplicity and basic, standard dishes. It's the Great Recession, and everybody just wants a big ol' piece of pumpkin pie.

Just look at what the magazines call out from the newsstands:

Martha Stewart Living: "Thanksgiving, simple and sensational"

Fine Cooking: "All the classics made easy"

Food Network: "Easy Thanksgiving"

Bon Appétit: "Thanksgiving made easy"

Everyday Food: "A Thanksgiving menu that's easy to make"

We have nine November issues in front of us, and nearly all of them are focused on "traditional" menus that are very straightforward.

The food magazines may have stuck to the classics this year, but that doesn't mean the options are limited. In the nine magazines we have, there are, in fact, 172 Thanksgiving recipes.

All those options can leave you more than a little stressed out. It's all too easy to get wrapped up in the idea that Thanksgiving has to be perfect and if you don't select the right stuffing recipe, your mother-in-law will break into tears at the table.

But fear not!  We've cataloged all 172 options below so that you, dear reader, can browse this year's recipes and make some selections for yourself. Over the next three weeks, we're going to be cooking and writing as many recipes as we can fit in. We'll post our photos and let you know how they turn out.

And as you're gearing up for the holiday, if you have questions, post them here and we'll do our best to answer them.

Okay, ready for the recipes?

Braised Chicken with Gewürztraminer and Grapes

Fine Cooking (October 2009)

Food nerds that we are, we were excited to see a feature about cooking with grapes in the October issue of Fine Cooking. Though grapes are by no means a new fruit to us, they are definitely an ingredient that we pass over time and time again while shopping. 

It's not that we don't like them, but when we buy them, we typically relegate them to the realm of snacks. And if we're not buying them for snacks, we're getting them for the role of sidekick, where they play second fiddle on a cheese tray at a party.

What excited us about this magazine feature is that the grape recipes are extremely varied.  Sure, there are expected grape uses, like a frisee and grape salad. But there are also recipes that take grapes far into the savory side of cooking.

There are, for instance, duck breasts with saba and grapes, as well as seared scallops with green grapes and lemon relish. For dessert, there's a beautiful custard tart with wine-poached grapes that we're dying to try. 

And finally, there's this recipe, that incorporates grapes into a white wine-braised chicken.

Boozy Ice Pops

Fine Cooking (August/September 2009) & Gourmet (July 2009)

 

Nothing makes us more nostalgic for long, lazy childhood summers than the idea of a Popsicle. Opening the freezer and seeing a Technicolor array of bright, sugary ice pops is one of life's great pleasures. Unwrapping a Popsicle and then eating it -- while your tongue slowly turns unnatural hues of blue, green or red -- is one of the most refreshing and most quintessentially summer things there is.

This summer, we've been making our own ice pops, but with one great twist that's decidedly un-childlike: booze!

Whether you're a bourbon girl, a Bloody Mary guy or more of a margarita person, if you're looking for one last summer hurrah this weekend, look no further than these boozy ice pops.

Top Crust Peach and Cardamom Pie with Cardamom-Vanilla Ice Cream

Bon Appétit (August 2009)

When we saw this Peach and Cardamom Pie while leafing through magazines earlier this month, we immediately knew that we'd be making it. After having a cardamom flavored dessert this summer at Chez Panisse, we've been dying to give the spice a whirl ourselves.

Plus, we were eager to try out the concept of a "top crust" pie. A new spice and a new technique?  Sign us up! And because that wasn't enough, we also tried our hand at making a homemade cardamom ice cream to accompany the pie.  

Let's see how it went.

Grilled Low Country Boil

Fine Cooking (June/July 2009)

Sometimes you see a recipe that is so simple -- yet so innovative -- you can only think, "How is it possible this has never occurred to us?!"

Most recently, that thought hit us when we saw the June/July issue of Fine Cooking.

A grilled low country boil?! Genius! How have we never thought of this?

Grilled Chocolate Pound Cake with Homemade Peanut Butter Chococlate Chip Ice Cream

Fine Cooking (June/July 2009) | Martha Stewart Living (July 2009) | Food & Wine (June 2009)

For Clay's birthday dinner, we were hopelessly undecided about dessert and went round and round in conversation about it. Should we make a cake?  A pie?  We knew three things for certain:

1. There had to be chocolate. 

2. Dessert needed to seem special but not too fussy. 

3. And we were going to make ice cream. 

As we began to pick out recipes, we found ourselves drawn to three in particular.  We couldn't make them all, so instead we settled on an option that the kids seem to find all the rage these days: a mash-up.

Sear-Roasted Halibut with Blood Orange Salsa

Fine Cooking (January/February 2009)

We're receiving a lot of food magazines these days. 

Though the blog has been excellent for getting us to use the magazines, which was our goal all along, it has also unexpectedly caused us to start receiving more magazines. 

We started getting Saveur because we felt like we needed to, you know, for research purposes.  And the Food Network Magazine has started arriving in our mailbox every month.  And now, we've just received a new magazine and we're afraid that we're not going to be able to stop reading it.