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
JOIN US!

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 pork (6)

    Monday
    Jan112010

    Perfect Meatballs

    I've got a confession. A pretty rank one. Pull up a chair, get a cup of coffee.

    First, a picture.

    A skillet full of browning, herb-laced meatballs. Pretty good, eh? OK, so now the truth. Ready? I don't like ground meat.

    OK, don't leave me. I did my best to prepare you. There's more. I could probably go the rest of my life and not eat another hamburger. (See, it gets worse.)

    Growing up, we called it "loose meat." As in "loose meat sandwiches." (AKA, Sloppy Joes.) Call me crazy, but I don't like loose meat rolling around my plate. It's unbecoming. Plus, you have to go through about a thousand sessions of expensive therapy for every time your mother ever asked you as a teenager, "Mark, are you willing to try some loose meat tonight?"

    That said, Bruce has changed me over the years. (Darn you, marriage.) I've actually gotten to the point where I like meatloaf. And--get this--crave meatballs. Beg for them, in fact. I'm still not over the burger thing, but I'm working on it. Nonetheless, when we were writing COOKING KNOW-HOW, the chapter on meatballs was hands-down my favorite. I loved the whole technique, the way you could make this crazy, global range, from Turkish kofta to buttery Danish frikadeller, from down-home Italian meatballs to Romanian chiftele (made with mashed potatoes and lots of garlic).

    So I begged for meatballs the other night. And here's what I got:

    Click to read more ...

    Wednesday
    Nov042009

    Lard

    Is there a more wonderful sounding word? The moment we got our pig back from slaughter, Bruce spent an entire day rendering this pot of pork fat. (All of it, by the way, leaf lard, taken from around the kidneys, the most delicate and prized kind of fat on the pig.)

    Spent is a big word for his activity. He put the fat in a gigantic Staub pot, turned the flame as low as it would go, and left it alone for 7 hours. No joke.

    Click to read more ...

    Monday
    Oct262009

    Red Cooking Pork Belly

    I thought we might as well go over the top. I've been saving this recipe back; but heck, the day's are getting shorter and it's time to fatten up for winter. Thus, a big hunk of pork belly. NOT smoked. About 2 pounds worth. Notice how lean this thing is. You can find the same at high-end supermarkets. But this baby is from our own pig. This year's version, that is. Wilbur II. (The tale of the original is told in our forthcoming HAM book. Let's just say it involves gunky stuff scraped off Prada boots with twigs, screeching French butchers, and a certain collie on meat patrol for weeks. But that's another story indeed.)

    Anyway, "red cooking" is a classic Chinese braise, so named because of the way good soy sauce develops a slightly red cast after simmering for hours. In other words, this is not a dish for a Wednesday night but a weekend one, for sure. (With a couple statins as a chaser, of course.)

    Click to read more ...

    Monday
    Jun292009

    Mapo Dofou

    One man's comfort is another man's. . . .

    Not sure. Anyway, I am sure that this dish is one of mine--even if the name means something like "pockmarked grandmother's tofu." Doesn't sound very promising, eh? My grandmother steered clear of smallpox. And Baptists. But that's another story.

    Anyway, I'm crazed about Mapo Dofou. It's one of those go-to meals around here. Because of the wedding.

    Mine, to be exact. Bruce and I were officially married this past weekend. Nothing big: just the two of us, a rabbi, her partner, and some homemade gravlax with cream cheese on rye toast for brunch. You see, I've now been married four times. Three of them to the same person: Bruce. What am I, Elizabeth Taylor? First, a commitment ceremony in Maine in 1999, then a legal civil union in Connecticut in 2007, and now this legal, full-blower marriage. Whew. Bring on the diamonds--and the comfort food.

    Like this:

    Click to read more ...

    Tuesday
    Mar312009

    Slow-Cooker Pork Chili

    Sometimes, life moves too fast. Like lately. We've had photo shoots aplenty at the house, as well as scouting runs for a coming series of cooking technique videos for weightwatchers.com--and have been in and out of New York City so many times in the past two weeks, I feel as if I live there. Dreydl's sick of the kennel. I'm sick of the car.

    Slow-cookers are made for times like these. Dump stuff in, set the thing going, come back later, eat dinner. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

    So I have no clue why these lovely appliances get such a bad rep. Once, we pitched a fancy magazine on a passel of slow-cooker recipes, and the uber-chic editor said, "Oh, sure, American housewives love that crap." (Well, she actually used another word for "crap." I'll leave it to your imagination.)

    Well, Ms. Fancypants, call me an American housewife. I've always been partial to the slow cooker (aka, the crock pot).

    Because of my years in Wisconsin for graduate school? No.

    Because of my Baptist pot-luck supper roots? No. (By the way, we didn't believe in luck, so we called them "pot-providence suppers." We were nothing if not exacting.)

    I love the slow cooker because it's really just a braising tool. And you know how I feel about braising.

    Click to read more ...

    Wednesday
    Feb182009

    Oven-Roasted Pork Ribs

    I was reared a good Texas boy. You can tell because I say "reared," not "raised." Children are reared; rolls, raised.

    In the tradition of Texas boys who get reared and itch for something else, I moved to New York City to get as concentrated a dose of the whole liberal, complicated, moiling mess as I could swallow.

    So I got a Jewish boyfriend.

    Click to read more ...