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!

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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 cookies (12)

    Thursday
    May202010

    Cherry Oat Bars

    Comment11 Comments

    Um, yum. Crunchy bar cookies, laced with jam. I ask you: what could be better?

    But before we get into it, and because we're into real food, let's have the discussion. You know, THE discussion. The one about empty calories. The one about sweets.

    Listen, anything like this is nutritionally void. Oh, sure, I could blather on about oats. But really? These are a treat. Period.

    And should be. You need treats in your food choices, if only to vary them. But two things. 1) Despite any ad copy blather, any dessert should have a whole grain in it. Hey, let's not kid ourselves. We need to get in the grains where we can. And 2) we shouldn't have treats lying around the house for days on end. So here's a strategy. Make these, then cut them into squares and freeze them in small batches. There'll be ready to go when you are. Or share them. The very best way to enjoy treats? With others.

    And you know the final rule: never make pans of dessert within two weeks of a relationship break-up. I'm just saying.

    OK, enough. On to the bars.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateThursday, May 20, 2010 at 8:09AM | in ,
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    Friday
    Apr162010

    Orange Rosemary Biscotti

    Comment6 Comments

    You probably could have figured this out, but I'm not much of a soft and gooey person. (No, we're not talking about the marks of a personality!) I'm the guy picking off the crunchy bits at the edge of a casserole. I'm the one who orders his fries extra-extra-extra crisp. And I'm the one who can keep a whole bag of toffee for months on end but will eat every potato chip in the house for no other reason than that they're there. (It's why there's rarely any potato chips around here!)

    For all these reasons, biscotti are about the best cookies for me. But here's the conundrum: I like to dunk them. Yet I still want them still crunchy, even after they take a dive. That means they have to be very crisp. Tooth-breakingly so. Because I want to souse one or two in the last of my red wine after dinner. Or in a cup of tea mid-afternoon. And still get a crunch!

    Bruce's orange rosemary biscotti are gorgeously crunchy but also delicately aromatic. A perfect treat. Plus, they freeze exceptionally well. What could be better?

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateFriday, April 16, 2010 at 9:03AM | in , ,
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    Wednesday
    Mar312010

    Tropical Macaroons

    Comment4 Comments

    The other night, Bruce asked me if I wanted coconut or almond macaroons for dessert. I couldn't make up my mind. Not that I'm all that indecisive. Oh, a little. But not a lot. I'm like any good Southern boy who's lived a decade and a half in New York City and New England. You know, just a remnant of good manners left. I smile before I cut you off on the highway.

    Anyway, I couldn't decide. So he ended up making both--at once. With some chopped candied pineapple in the mix, to boot.

    Here's the shtick for about 32 cookies:

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateWednesday, March 31, 2010 at 2:09PM | in ,
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    Tuesday
    Mar232010

    Fig Cookies, Part 2

    Comment8 Comments

    You've got that first bit down, right? The filling. If not, check it out here. Because now we're making cookies.

    Remember how I said I wanted something like those brand-name, mass-produced fig cookies, but more--that is, more like a cross between a danish and a biscotti?

    Stick with me here. Have you ever even considered crossing a danish and biscotti? I have! Sometime, I'll tell you about our attempts to cross cheesecake and baklava.

    Anyway, here we go, the completion of our fig-stuffed cookies.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateTuesday, March 23, 2010 at 3:32PM | in , ,
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    Monday
    Mar222010

    Fig Cookies, Part 1

    Comment10 Comments

    I can't tell you how many times people have asked Bruce and me, "Where do you get your recipes?"

    Given that Bruce is a trained chef and that I've been writing full-time about food for over a decade, I try not to take offense.

    The recipes come from our kitchen. They are products of our imaginations--and hard work. The photos on this blog, too. I'm not a professional photographer and have no aspirations to be one. I simply snap what's on the counter or the stove without the help of any fancy lights or even a fancy camera. Shoot, I use the one I stick in my pocket when we're on vacation.

    Nonetheless, although the recipes are ours, we do look for inspiration. For example, when we order something we love in a restaurant, Bruce often sees if he can morph the cheffy techniques into a home-friendly recipe. (There's a Chinese-inspired, braised leg of lamb coming up on this blog, based on a recent meal at Szechwan Gourmet in New York City.)

    Believe it or not, another bit of recipe inspiration lies with all those mass-produced things in the supermarket. These are the knock-offs, the recipes where I say to Bruce, "Hey, can you make this, only better?" These are the recipes in which we try to take packaged, processed favorites and turn them back into real food.

    That's how this recipe came about. When we were writing The Ultimate Cook Book (check it out here--with 900 new recipes!), I told Bruce I wanted some figgy, sandwich cookies to match the packaged ones. You know the cookies I mean, the ones I can't name without a trademark issue. Those. Only better. Crunchier and definitely figgier. I wanted a fig danish in cookie form. Or a biscotti wrapped around figs.

    Anyway, here's what he came up with. It takes two days to make these treats, so I'm going to offer this on the blog in two parts. Stick around. It gets better and better. But they're definitely real food, nothing processed about them. And pretty healthy, too.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateMonday, March 22, 2010 at 10:03AM | in , ,
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    Monday
    Mar152010

    Everything-But-The-Kitchen-Sink Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Comment5 Comments

    OK, that's my world right now. Or more specifically, my backyard. It's been raining for days. The snow is giving way to rank ugliness. It looks as if we're going to have an early spring in this part of New England, up here in the iron-cold dark where Calvinists sprang full formed from the ground.

    Mostly, it means the brook behind our house is flooding, filling the meadows with water. Not a bad thing, mind you. I'll be glad of it come July when the wildflowers flourish. But right now, it just means mud. And lots of it.

    So it's a good day to stay inside and make cookies. The kind that empty the pantry: maple syrup, coconut, wheat germ, tahini, oats, chocolate chips.

    Wow, are they good! Pour yourself a glass of milk. Whole milk. I mean, what's the point of low-fat? You saved, what?, thirty calories? Really? That's going to save the world? Listen, if you're going to make these cookies, go for broke.

    But before we get to the recipe, a confession. (It is Lent, after all.) I like crunchy cookies. Period. I'm not a soft-cookie guy. Yes, I learned to like a few of the gooey ones for our chocolate cookie book. But mostly, I'm all about the crunch. Because I'm all about the dunk. You realize we're back to the milk discussion, right?

    OK, Let's get started.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateMonday, March 15, 2010 at 1:08PM | in , , ,
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    Thursday
    Mar042010

    Pistachio Cardamom Cookies

    Comment4 Comments

    Lately, I've been obsessed with cardamom, my new favorite "warm" spice (as in "warm in the body," like cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace--not hot, and not herbaceous).

    I've been putting it in chocolate cake, in ice cream, in chicken sautés, in just about everything. I was reading some cookbooks this morning and found a recipe for sour cherry cardamom clafouti. I almost passed out.

    Last week, probably to stifle my cardamom whining, Bruce morphed the Indian sweet, kaju makrum (cashew macaroons) into ridiculously crisp wafer cookies with pistachios and, yes, cardamom. I swear, all week I didn't eat any sweets during the day so I could have a small stack of these with a glass of milk after dinner, my little-kid dessert while the Olympics were on. I was undone. They're that good. Try them. Promise.

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    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateThursday, March 4, 2010 at 10:19AM | in ,
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    Thursday
    Aug062009

    Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

    CommentPost a Comment

    OK, now it gets serious. Really serious. Because I love peanut butter. I think that may have had something to do with writing the darn peanut butter book. I could live on the stuff. Have, in fact. When I was a kid, I wanted PB&J at every turn. My mother insisted on olive loaf and white bread. Of course, she was trying desperately to keep me straight.

    We made these little cookies from said peanut butter book the other night--but then gave them a twist with the filling. More on that in a minute. First, the cookies.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateThursday, August 6, 2009 at 5:29PM | in
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    Friday
    Apr172009

    Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

    Comment3 Comments

    Someone's going to say I'm a day late and a dollar short for Passover.

    Actually, no. Because we're going to a seder on Saturday night. That's right: a seder after the holiday. Because our hosts were traveling last week during the "real" Passover. So they're having a seder the first night they can.

    Which is about as it should be. (And forgive me if I'm about to step on any toes.) Because the sacred doesn't exist on a calendar.

    In Greek philosophy, there are two concepts for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos is the day-to-day, minute-to-minute time, the one that consumes our lives, the fire in which we burn.

    Kairos (KEYE-ross) is elemental time, time in its quintessence, the time at which you forget the minute-by-minute details, the tick-tock-tick-tock, and suddenly exist in a fuller moment, a deeper moment. (We sort of retain the distinction in English: the difference between "a minute" and "a moment.") People try to schedule the sacred, but it's too deeply rooted in chaos and creativity for it to have a calendar.

    Not temporal, not chronological, the sacred abrupts into life with shocking abandon. Like the sudden riot of daffodils, glimpsed as you drive down the road on the way to some boring errand or doctor's appointment. The sacred isn't on schedule; it arrives, like the cloud bursts of robins in spring--while we're going about out other business, making other plans. The minutes evaporate; time shifts from a line to a sphere, a wholeness, a fullness. Maybe that's why Emily Dickinson once wrote "Who has not found Heaven below will fail of it above." It's easy to miss it "below." Because we're on schedule (mostly); it's not.

    And so to our chocolate macaroons.

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateFriday, April 17, 2009 at 10:16AM | in ,
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    Monday
    Apr062009

    Jam Thumbprint Cookies

    Comment2 Comments

    I hate retro. No, I don't hate the notion that some dishes are classics. They are--if for a time. (Anyone for honey-soaked chicken gizzards in blood aspic? That one was a classic in Italy in the 1300s.)

    Instead, I'm cranky about the use of "retro" as an excuse for "recycled"--aka "I'm out of ideas." Or better yet, "retro" as a cover for some twentysomething writer who's just "discovered" a dish.

    In either case, a creeping insecurity soon haunts the writing--which inevitably gets coated in some fake blather about "retro." As if the word shellacks the classic with hipness, safeguarding it against catcalls from the cognoscenti.

    Which somehow brings me to jam thumbprint cookies. Talk about a classic: nut-crusted cookie "cups" filled with jam. Could anything be better? Or less "retro." I ate one last night with a glass of local, organic goat's milk while watching In Treatment and it somehow morphed the depressing (but wonderful) HBO series into It's a Wonderful Life. Or something like that.

    Last night, we used a recipe--tweaked--from THE ULTIMATE COOK BOOK. Here's the tweak: Bruce and I have a difference of opinion on when the jam should be added. He thinks it should bake on the cookies; I think it should be added to the indentations after the cookies have baked. His has a deeper taste; mine, fresher. But since chefs create recipes and food writers write them, I won out in how the recipe appears in the cookbook itself. These days, we split the difference, adding the jam partway through baking. And I'll be the first to admit: the meet-each-other-halfway technique gives the jam a more complex, candy-like taste.

    So here goes:

    Click to read more ...

    AuthorMark Scarbrough | Posted on DateMonday, April 6, 2009 at 9:34AM | in
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