My British Brekkie: Soldiers & Eggs
Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day; I really could eat it any time of the day. Brunch at noon, brinner (breakfast for dinner), or sometimes at 3 AM–you name it. Like famed molecular gastronomy chef Wylie Dufresne, I seriously love eggs. It’s a borderline obsession; a breakfast without eggs is a sad one indeed. One of the greatest egg dishes of all time is arguably one of the simplest and it comes to us from our brekkie-loving friends across the pond. In Britain, soldiers and eggs refers to a runny, softly boiled egg and strips of toasted bread that are...
Read MoreIn the Cocina: Cooking in Mexico
Can you think of a better way to start off a cooking class than with a (virgin) hibiscus margarita? My love of Mexican food runs deep and the pretty substantial group of Hispanic friends I had growing up is partially to blame. The remaining blame falls squarely on the shoulders of their abuelas whose homemade tortillas and hand-formed sopes were a mainstay in my adolescent diet. Over the years, I have visited Mexico many times and sampled everything from sugary, straight-from-the-fryer churros and bowls of piping hot menudo to pibil pollo and the acquired-taste huitlacoche. In...
Read MoreA Soup for All Seasons
My love of soup is legendary. I’m a soup fanatic and I could eat it just about every day of the week. In fact, my love for the hot stuff is only rivaled by my love of ice cream. Wait. I just realized something. Maybe I just have a thing for food I can eat out of bowls. But that’s another story for another day. As usual, I recently bought way too many groceries and found myself with an abundance of asparagus, onions, and lemons which seems like a random bunch of ingredients until you consider that with the addition of butter, chicken stock, and heavy cream, you’ve got...
Read MoreKeen on Quinoa: Comfort Without Calories
If the calendar months were a reality TV show, they would be the Real Housewives. Surely, winter must be so jealous of summer—after all, summer garners most of the seasonal cooking praise. Every year, the sunshine-deprived anxiously await the first sign of warm weather to uncover idle grills and dust off forgotten tongs in preparation for the backyard barbecues to come, but counting autumn and winter as a time to slack off in your culinary pursuits is a mistake indeed. Anyone who has ever stood over a stockpot of simmering stew or tucked into a hearty root vegetable casserole on a brisk...
Read MoreA Q&A with Food Network Star’s Malcolm Mitchell
No matter how you feel about Food Network’s programming (and why it seems as if celebrity chef Bobby Flay has no less than 30 shows on the network), its food competition shows are entertaining (and mildly addictive). Food Network Star, easily one of the network’s most popular shows and responsible for launching the career of the boundlessly energetic Guy Fieri, has seen an interesting parade of contestants over the years and perhaps not one has been as charismatic (and cocky) as the man known simply as “The Chef.” Malcolm Mitchell, private chef and founder of...
Read MoreWho is The Palate Princess?
Iris McCarthy is a food writer and author of the popular book Food Lovers' Guide to Philadelphia. This website is where she gets to sound off on all things culinary.