September/October 2012

A New Cooking Technique for Bitter Greens

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:45:25 +0000

Squeeze Your Greens

There’s an amazing tool for transforming bitter, dark leafy greens into a tender, melts-in-your-mouth salad packed with punchy citrus, garlic and Parmesan. And it’s only an arm’s length away: your hands! A few minutes of judicious massaging (think rolfing, not Reiki) will completely transform kale, mustard greens or broccoli rabe into something velvety and soft. The secret is in the squeezing: by doing so you actually start to break down the cell walls, releasing enzymes that split apart the bitter-tasting compounds.

Matthew Thompson

Learn how this no-cook massaging technique can turn your bitter greens into a tender salad in minutes.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Healthy Recipes for Greens

Delicious Recipes with Kale and More Healthy Winter Greens

Quick Recipes for Broccoli Rabe

Healthy Recipes for Kale

Download a FREE Kale Recipe Cookbook!

New Apple Varieties

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:50:53 +0000

An Apple Renaissance

In autumn, orchards swell with perfectly ripe, color-splashed apples. And though they come in a host of tasty varieties, for many the belle of the ball is a relatively new arrival, the Honeycrisp. Perfectly snappy and just a little tart, the Honeycrisp has taken America by storm, with roughly 693 million apples sold in the last year alone—up 25 percent from the year before. There’s a reason for all the love.

Matthew Thompson

Roll over, Red Delicious: there’s a host of tasty new apple varieties to try.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Apple Recipes to Try & Health Benefits of Apples

Heart-Healthy Apple Recipes

5 Health Benefits of an Apple

Healthy Apple Desserts

Simply Cajun Cuisine

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:21:11 +0000

Simply Cajun

I was fishing with a friend one steamy early morning in southern Louisiana, when I suddenly understood Cajun food. We had glided for miles through channels in the green-gold marsh grass, then anchored our boat in a big, brackish lake. From the fishing boats I could see working the lake, I knew it must be brimming with shrimp, crabs and oysters. In between casts, I dipped my hand into the water and tasted it. It was salty as broth, brown as roux. I looked around, and in the shimmering light I had the momentary impression that I was bobbing atop a gargantuan bowl of gumbo.

Rowan Jacobsen

Louisiana's best chefs discuss creating the distinct southern flavors that are the essence of Cajun classics like gumbo and étouffée.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Healthy Cajun Recipes to Try

Healthy Cajun Recipes & Healthy Creole Recipes

Healthy Catfish Recipes

Okra Recipes

A Place at the Table

Sarah Hoff — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:07:29 +0000

A Place at the Table

We see the stars through plastic sheathing where the roof of our home should be. “Is that the Big Dipper?” my youngest son asks, looking upward, scooping Chinese noodles into his mouth, the third takeout meal this week. “It could be,” I shout over the staccato punch of a nail gun.

Marcelle Soviero

An essay on what happens when the heart of the home disappears.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Can the Farm Bill Help Small Farms?

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:51:07 +0000

Growing Better Farms

Chellie Pingree (D-ME) is not only a seasoned two-term Congresswoman, she’s also a lifelong small-scale farmer. She has 200 acres on the windswept hills of Maine’s coast that provide organic milk, vegetables, chickens and goat cheese to Nebo Lodge, which Pingree co-owns, as well as to local schools and markets. So she was a natural for us to interview about the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, which expires on September 30.

Rachael Moeller Gorman

Learn about one Congresswoman's plan to strengthen small farms, promote farmers' markets and help school lunch programs buy more food locally.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

More Information on Farming

Meet the Farmers

Understanding the Farm Bill

Do You Know Where Your Food Comes From?

Will Eating Foods with Probiotics Help Boost Your Immune System?

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:41:04 +0000

Ask Brierley

Here’s an instance where you can feel good about bugs in your food: probiotics—the live microorganisms found in fermented foods, such as yogurt, kefir, miso, tempeh and sauerkraut—may help your immunity.

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.

Learn about probiotics and how they may help fight cold symptoms.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

More Information on Immunity

5 Immunity-Boosting Foods & Nutrients

Healthy Recipes for an Immunity-Boosting Diet

Healthy Immunity Quick Tips

Trend Watch: Crop Mobs

Erin McCormick — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:32:43 +0000

Join a Crop Mob!

Nothing builds ties like pulling potatoes with your neighbors. That’s exactly what a few North Carolina farmers discovered in 2008, when they started throwing on-farm work parties to help each other complete projects. Since then, so-called “crop mobs” have caught on throughout the country. And it’s not just farmers getting their hands dirty: you can too. Volunteers help spread mulch, build fences, pull weeds and harvest crops. Though helpers shouldn’t expect anything in return, the bonds made are real. Get more information at cropmob.org.

Emily Horton

Find out how this growing agricultural movement is helping farmers and strengthening communities.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Healthy Vegetable Recipes to Try

Recipes Fresh from the Farmers’ Market

Produce-Packed Recipes for Summer

Tasty Tomato Recipes

Low Calorie Potato Recipes

Easy Cabbage Recipes

The Truth About Sugar

Sarah Hoff — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:48:20 +0000

Solving the Sugar Puzzle

On a steep, wet hillside near the equator, two hands place sugarcane stalks in shallow dirt trenches and cover them carefully with damp soil. Sprouts soon poke from the tropical ground in long, straight rows. After 12 to 18 months, the bumpy stalks grow as thick as a fireman’s pole and as tall as a two-story house. Workers harvest the giant cane by hand and take it to the nearby sugar mill, where heavy metal rollers crush the stalks into a pulp and extract the sweet juice. Heat condenses the liquid into a syrup and the molasses is spun out.

Rachael Moeller Gorman

What’s good? What’s bad? How much sugar is too much? Here’s what the latest science says.

September/October 2012

Related Content Title 1:

Grilled Thai Chicken Sandwich

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:18:37 +0000

Grilled Thai Chicken Sandwich

Juicy grilled chicken, onions and peppers combine with a Thai-inspired sauce in this chicken sandwich recipe. We love how the flatbreads made from whole-wheat dough sop up the extra sauce. If you have one large (12-ounce) chicken breast instead of two smaller (6-ounce) ones, cut it in half horizontally before grilling so the chicken cooks in the time specified in this recipe.

Chicken Potpie with Biscuits

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:13:20 +0000

Chicken Potpie with Biscuits

In this lightened-up recipe for chicken potpie, creamy chicken stew is topped with flaky biscuits for quintessential comfort food. Our recipe for chicken potpie takes advantage of convenient frozen mixed vegetables to keep it quick.

White Pizza with Clams

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:54:56 +0000

White Pizza with Clams

Here’s an easy homemade pizza recipe that is a take on white clam pizza, which was first made famous by Frank Pepe of Pepe’s Pizzeria in New Haven, Connecticut. Look for fresh clam strips in the seafood department. You can find them ready to use out of their shells at most large supermarkets. If you don’t want to use fresh, we also like the briny flavor and convenience of canned chopped clams.

Seared Salmon with Green Peppercorn Sauce for Two

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:43:11 +0000

Seared Salmon with Green Peppercorn Sauce for Two

In this recipe for two, a simple sauce of piquant green peppercorns, lemon juice and butter top seared salmon. Green peppercorns come from the same plant as black ones, but are harvested before they mature. Typically packed in vinegar, they have a refreshingly sharp flavor. Look for them near the capers in most supermarkets. Serve with smashed red potatoes and sautéed kale

Seared Salmon with Green Peppercorn Sauce

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:33:55 +0000

Seared Salmon with Green Peppercorn Sauce

A simple sauce of piquant green peppercorns, lemon juice and butter top this seared salmon recipe. Green peppercorns come from the same plant as black ones, but are harvested before they mature. Typically packed in vinegar, they have a refreshingly sharp flavor. Look for them near the capers in most supermarkets. Serve with smashed red potatoes and sautéed kale.

Seafood Gumbo

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:24:00 +0000

Seafood Gumbo

Gumbo, a hearty stew made with anything from sausage or duck to rabbit or seafood, starts with a roux, a mix of flour and oil that’s cooked until it turns dark and nutty, giving the stew recipe its signature earthy flavor. This crab and shrimp gumbo recipe comes from Eula Mae Doré, who was the cook at the Commissary on Avery Island, home to the Tabasco company. Just as most cooks of her generation did, she learned Cajun cooking by watching, rather than from cookbooks. Serve with brown rice. (Recipe adapted from Eula Mae’s Cajun Kitchen by Eula Mae Doré and Marcelle R. Bienvenu; Harvard Common Press, 2007.)

Oyster-Stuffed Artichokes

Erin McCormick — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:11:54 +0000

Oyster-Stuffed Artichokes

Packed with oysters, Parmesan and herbs, these stuffed artichokes make a spectacular meal along with a fresh salad. Cooking the artichokes first softens the leaves so they’re easier to stuff.