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.

It's all about the recipes!
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
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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.

    Entries in condiments (5)

    Friday
    Jan152010

    Pickled Shallots

    Comment2 Comments

    OK, here's an easy way to beat back winter (if not the snow lining our deck): some pickled shallots. Although that's the easy way to say the name of the dish. It's really Cebolinhas no Vinagre. But since I don't even pretend to speak the first word of Brazilian Portuguese, I'm going with Pickled Shallots.

    These little bits of sweet zip show up in relish trays in small Brazilian restaurants, even in New York, but particularly near Cachoeira. They're usually made with small, red onions, ones we don't get in the United States. So Bruce reinterpreted the dish the other night for a dinner party with shallots. He made a room temperature relish tray of these, olives, caper berries, roasted red peppers, Manchego, and grilled squid to serve before a meal of marinated skirt steak, oven fries, and chimichurri. Let's just say we were having a South American feast.

    And while the food was good, I loved these shallots most of all.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateFriday, January 15, 2010 at 7:35AM | in ,
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    Wednesday
    Jul012009

    Red Currant Jam

    Comment3 Comments

    When I first met Bruce, he was a canner of the first order--and surely the only person canning at any given moment in New York City! On the hottest summer days, our kitchen would be filled with steam. We even considered installing an air conditioner in the window. Never did it, but people say it's the thought that counts. Seems to me it's the air conditioner that counts. But call me a crazy Texan.

    Soon, the shelves in the living room were lined with jars of jams, jellies, and pickles, serried up in front of the books. It looked as if we were running a general store for graduate students--home-canned fruit and vegetables along with volumes of Yeats and Auden.

    Now that we've moved to the country, Bruce is always in canning heaven. Right now, the red currants are coming in like mad. All this rain and cool weather in the Northeast has given us a bumper crop. So yesterday, amid the rumbling thunder and while I tried to get a bunch of gooseberry bushes into a plot in the backyard, he cranked out five small jars.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateWednesday, July 1, 2009 at 4:26PM | in
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    Wednesday
    Apr082009

    Haroset

    Comment1 Comment

    When I met Bruce, I attended a church, sang in the choir, did the whole nine yards. I even wrote the Lenten and Advent lectionaries every year.

    It was a liberal Presbyterian church in Austin. And frankly, it was a bad time in my life: a nasty divorce, coming out, career upheavals (years and years of a Ph D program and then finally a job teaching at a liberal arts university all led to the whole "I got to get out of academia" mess).

    So liberals took me in.

    Now, years later, up in liberal New England, I'm still the one goading us on to religion. Left on his own, Bruce probably wouldn't celebrate any religious holiday. So every year, I write the haggadah for Passover. And it's sort of crazy, with people acting out the parts of Moses, Pharaoh, and the rest. I even have plastic bugs and sunglasses and other things to act out each of the plagues.

    Thus, I find myself making the haroset today. For the uninitiated, haroset is supposed to represent the mortar with which the Israelite slaves were to build Pharaoh's temples. It's pretty sweet stuff, perhaps to symbolize how God can turn bitter slavery into sweet redemption.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateWednesday, April 8, 2009 at 11:16AM | in ,
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    Thursday
    Feb192009

    Deli Mustard

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    When I was a kid, my mother had a friend I called "Miss Minnie." She was neither. But she knew everything. She probably knew who was buried in the tomb of the unknown soldier.

    Sometimes, if we had early release from school, I got to go to lunch with my mother and Miss Minnie. My mother was fond of a German deli in Dallas (still there: Kuby's). So one day, we all trundled in the car and went down for corned beef sandwiches.

    My mother warned Miss Minnie that the deli mustard in the little pot was hot. But Miss Minnie just narrowed her eyes and gave a shallow nod, as if to say, I am an urban sophisticate, dear. I have eaten steaks in Amarillo. I have picnicked at Platt National Park. I know what's what.

    She smeared it in great gobs on her sandwich. And bit down.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateThursday, February 19, 2009 at 7:07PM | in
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    Tuesday
    Feb172009

    Hot Hot Sauce

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    Lately, I've been hankering for culinary fire. You know, a real spike on the tongue, Maybe it's because of this:

    That's the skating rink that is our driveway. Ah, New England. Ye gave us Puritans and schoolmarms.

    I can't possibly understand what made them so bitter.

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    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateTuesday, February 17, 2009 at 7:48PM | in
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