If you’re anything like us, your holiday to-do list is already a mile long. With a calendar full of parties to attend, boxes of decorations to hang, and desserts to bake for school and work, it’s hard to find time to complete one of the trickier items on your list: shopping for gifts.
To help you host the best possible Thanksgiving feast, our friends have helped us bring together the ultimate sweepstakes. The prize includes everything you need to wow hungry guests – from the appetizers and the turkey (and the drum cooker to make it all happen!) to the tools you’ll require to serve it with ease.
If you’ve watched my TV shows (the latest one is Project Fire on American Public Television), you’ve likely noticed I always emphasize that the quality of your food is at least as important as how you cook it.
On the show, we use the best meat. The best produce. The best seafood. This dedication to quality extends to other ingredients as well.
October is a month of celebrations, with Halloween and Columbus Day marking calendars across the country. What you may not realize is that it is also one of the most crowded months for food holidays. From National Taco Day to National Pumpkin Day (and everything in between!), this month is a veritable bonanza of food celebrations.
If you happen to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History, you’ll find an exhibit on a uniquely American institution: the backyard barbecue.
And if you happen to tour that backyard barbecue exhibit, you will see, next to James Beard’s Complete Book of Barbecue & Rotisserie Cooking (published in 1954), and the Sunset Barbecue Cook Book (1958), a book near and dear to my heart: The Barbecue! Bible, written by yours truly and published by Workman Publishing in 1998.
A photo on Facebook of a taco that stopped me in my tracks: It was composed of tender shards of chorizo-spiced beef plate ribs and flame-roasted salsa verde and topped with crunchy chicharrones (fried pork rinds). He encountered this sexy taco while judging an event called Chefs for Farmers. The taco’s creator was talented chef Cody Sharp of Dallas’ Wheelhouse restaurant.
O Coffee how we love thee! Strong coffee and espresso have helped us survive long overnight smoke sessions and clear early morning mental fog enough to prep a brisket for an all-day cook. Perhaps it is the reliance on caffeine that inspired the first barbecuers to use coffee in their recipes. Whatever the reason that introduced coffee to the barbecue scene, it has been a happy marriage between the two.
Tailgating is more than just the act of grilling with friends and family. It is a fall tradition made even greater by the anticipation of your team’s charge to victory. And in a way, the tailgating itself has become a competition.
Jamaican jerk brisket. Wood oven lobster mac ’n cheese. Montreal smoked meat. Korean pork sliders with Asian slaw. Lone Star poppers. Caveman corn. Grilled watermelon salad. Chocolate brownie s’mores with bourbon and bacon. Smoked martinis.
America is blessed with an incredibly rich barbecue culture. Many countries grill. Some smoke. But only one, the United States, has a deep, rich, and highly evolved tradition of both barbecuing (smoking) and grilling.
When Americans are polled about their favorite foods for grilling, steak always heads the list. A slab of beef is the perfect food for the grill. Its broad surface area soaks up wood and smoke flavors, and it cooks quickly.
Hurry! Ends Soon: Stock Up on Steven Raichlen’s Cookbooks for Less Than $3. From time to time, Steven’s publisher offers a limited-time offer on the ebook version of his bestselling cookbooks. This month, you have a chance to purchase TWO of Steven’s recent ebooks for less than $3 each.
