BRUCE (AKA The Chef)

MARK (AKA The Writer)

 

DREYDL (AKA The Dog)

Check out this cheeky tome called Ham: An Obsession With The Hindquarter

FINE COOKING calls it "a witty ode to pork's most primal cut." It's our hymn to backsides: American country ham, European dry-cured hams like prosciutto crudo or jamón ibérico, wet-cured hams like the ones from HoneyBaked, and even fresh hams, the best pork roast you'll ever eat. (Click on the cover to get your copy today.)

The Ultimate Cook Book

Our big compendium cookbook--900 new recipes, tons of cooking tips. You'll be an ultimate cook in no time.

Want to see a video on this book. Check it out here.

Cooking Know-How

WINNER OF THE 2009 GOURMAND AWARD at the Paris cookbook show for the "BEST COOKBOOK IN THE WORLD" for "easy recipes." Also starred reviews in both Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal, a main selection of the Good Cook Book of the Month Club, a selection by NPR as one of the best cookbooks of 2009, and a favorite of the San Jose Mercury--that called us "culinary wonks."

Pizza: Grill It, Bake It, Love It!

Our brand-new pizza book. That's the squash, caramelized onion, and pine nut pie. And there are 89 more.

The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book

Cookies galore--and every one of them with chocolate: chips, shavings, cocoa, melted, irresistible.

The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book

America's favorite spread? Yes, but also the world's. Wait until you see all the no-cook Asian sauces, the African stew, the Filipino braise, and a host of favorites from breakfast to dessert!

Cooking For Two

Every dish for just two--and no waste. Cut it, open it--and use it. It's a feast for twosomes.

The Ultimate Muffin Book

Get your muffins! The chocolate chip ones soon became a holiday tradition in our house.

The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

The book that started a whole career. A quarter million copies in print and still going strong!

The Ultimate Frozen Dessert Book

And a follow-up to The Ultimate Ice Cream Book, this time with gelato, sherbet, granita, and a groaning board of ice cream cakes and frozen pies!

The Ultimate Shrimp Book

A one-book compendium for America's favorite seafood

The Ultimate Party Drink Book

Up, shaken, frozen, pitcher punches, shooters--here's a guide to drinks to make your next party a splash

The Ultimate Brownie Book

Fudgy, cakey, you name it--even a chapter on brownie mix doctor recipes--here's a book that'll keep everyone smiling!

The Ultimate Candy Book

A reviewer on amazon called it "an evil book." We could only hope so. Gooey, crunchy, a ton of chocolate barks, fudge, divinity, and it just keeps going.

The Ultimate Potato Book

Spuds forever! We love everything about the potato--and in this book, we made our favorite vegetable front and center since every recipe is a main course with spuds aplenty.

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Our Youtube Channel

Want to see more? Come on over to our youtube channel. We're cooking up a storm! Check it out here.

Get your copy of our seven-step plan to get off processed food!

Click on the book jacket for your copy. Don't miss it. Seven simple steps, a hundred great recipes, lots of motivational help, and all in an easy plan that starts small and could end up changing your life!

THE BLOG ROLL
THE PERSONAL STUFF
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Want to come cruising with us? We're off to Alaska with Holland America on August 4th for a week--leaving from Vancouver (and returning to there) with lots of cruising up the Tracy Arm and through Glacier Bay National Park. We'll be cooking up a storm in classes on board, so come have a blast with us. For more information, click here.

 

REVIEWS OF COOKING KNOW-HOW

Don't take our word for it. Here are some cool reviews of COOKING KNOW-HOW:

weightwatchers.com

In Mama's Kitchen

5 Second Rule

Richmond Times-Dispatch

The Winston Salem Journal

Super Chef

NPR--chosen one of the ten best cookbooks for the summer of 2009

Relish Magazine (although the writer complains that I use too many big words. Heaven forfend!)

And if you want to see an outrageous clip of us on San Francisco TV, check out our appearance on A View From The Bay here.

Or for white bean veggie burgers on the same show--in which I go off on a bizarre jag about the ethics of cruising--click here.

DANCING WITH A COLLIE

brought on no doubt by that empty bottle of wine on top of the fridge

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    Bruce's Blog

    Bruce has his own blog. A knitting blog. Knits Men Want. It's a companion site to his new knitting book: ten rules every woman should know before she knits for a man--plus ten patterns men are guaranteed to like. And I do. I have some of the sweaters. And I wear them. Imagine that. Check on the cover to check it out.

    Thursday
    Apr092009

    Gefilte Fish

    One of the great things about this career is that I get to rediscover things that I once thought that were a tad . . . how shall we say . . . blech. Like gefilte fish.

    Having grown up in the Danish modern '60s, I thought a lot of things came from cans and jars. Like gefilte fish. (Someday, I'll tell you my Vienna Sausage story. Or as they say where I'm from: "Vie-EE-nuh SAW-suhj.")

    Last night, as every year, Bruce made the real thing for our seder. Yes, gefilte fish is a bit of a saga to make. Don't forget these things were "invented" to "save work" on the Sabbath--in this case, to save the work of separating the fish from its bones. Someone could thus make an inexpensive fish dish in advance. Of course, the work-saver turned out to be laborious. My guess is it's because the people who made the rules weren't the ones who had to implement said rules.

    Which brings me back to real food. It's always easier to go the jarred route. But nothing beats the original. And if you're going to celebrate the redemption of an entire race, I think you should go the whole route. (I originally wrote "go whole hog" here but thought maybe it wasn't quite right for Passover.)

    So here's what Bruce did:

    In the food grinder attached to our KitchenAid mixer, he ground 1 pound haddock, 1/2 pound hake, 2 quartered large yellow onions, 1 celery stalk, and half a medium carrot.

    Um, let's just say, it's not a pretty sight. But at least he didn't use carp or pike or any of the other less expensive fish. A special meal calls for a special treat, no?

    He then stirred in 6 large eggs, 1 cup matzo meal, 1 tablespoon sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and some ground black pepper.

    Now comes the best part: he also stirred in 3/4 cup mustard oil. It gave the gefilte fish a brilliant yellow hue, very springlike, and also a spiky, slightly mustardy taste. Quite delicious--and a far better choice than plain ol' canola oil which would have added no taste, only calories.

    I'm not a canola-phobe as some food writers these days. Canola oil is perfect for dishes in which you need to streamline the fat to let more intense flavors permeate--like chili. But I can't imagine wasting the calories in a dish like this where a little spike brightens the whole thing up considerably.

    OK, so he formed the mixture into large cakes (about 1/2 cup each), then poached them with some baby carrots, covered, for 1 1/2 hours in vegetable broth. A very low poach, by the way--just a few bubbles, hardly anything more, because this is very light, almost "fluffy" gefilte fish. Too high a simmer and the cakes would come apart.

    He made two sauté pans worth, in fact. Twelve cakes. Enough that we were able to send some to another seder. Nothing like a personal delivery of gefilte fish!

    He scooped them out with a large ladle, scooped out all the baby carrots, too, and put them all in 9 x 13-inch baking dishes. He covered them and refrigerated them until we were ready for the meal, in which they got served with a big dollop of horseradish.

    Delicious. And real. Nothing fake. Which means it was wonderfully sacred.

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    Reader Comments (3)

    Wow, that is soooo much better than in the jar.

    April 9, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterThe Single Guy

    But wait, what about the nasty gelatinous goo? None, you say? Then maybe I'll give Bruce's version a go.

    Where does one find mustard oil?

    Back to my matzohballapalooza. They kind of look like your gefilte fish, actually.

    April 9, 2009 | Unregistered Commentercheryl

    Cheryl: mustard oil is a common fat in East Indian cooking. You can find it at any East Indian market or online at places like kalustyans.com. A very tasty addition to many dishes--although probably not for the elementary-school set.

    April 9, 2009 | Registered CommenterMark Scarbrough

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