A Party in your Pantry

Special Fork celebrates Entertaining Week. Stay tuned for party tips and recipes from our Special Fork bloggers all week long. This week also kicks off our annual holiday kitchen tools sweepstakes. Please check our Facebook page to learn about the tools we've selected for the sweepstakes and how you can enter to win our prize package (estimated retail value: $122).

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

Over the years I’ve learned a lesson: you don’t always have to make everything from scratch. Yes, that would be nice in a perfect world where we are all kings and queens of our domain and life is a bit less hectic. Let’s face it …it’s a rare moment these days.

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Umami Crisps

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, Special Fork bloggers are revealing what’s in their pantry, with tips for using pantry staples. To celebrate Pantry Week, Special Fork has teamed up with Zojirushi, the Japanese maker of top-quality kitchen appliances, to offer a fabulous sweepstakes prize: the 5.5-cup capacity Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer ($192 MSRP), which not only cooks rice flawlessly, but also steams foods and bakes cakes. Menu settings include: white/sushi, mixed, porridge, sweet, brown, cake, steam and quick cooking. Enter to win!

The joke about a chef’s refrigerator is it’s filled with condiments, but nothing normal to eat like fruits, vegetables or meat. This is because condiments make everything taste better and because many of us shop for the immediate meal ahead instead of doing a weekly plan.

This week is “What’s in Your Pantry?” week at Special Fork. All week long, we’re blogging about our go-to pantry staples … the essential items we can’t live without.

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How to Dress a Burger

By Lori Powell

I love burgers for so many reasons. They are super-delicious, juicy patties that you can dress up or down, depending on your mood and what you might have on hand. You can easily make a burger for just one or two pretty quickly.

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