Oyako Donburi – Good, Cheap, Fast!

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Have you ever ordered donburi at a Japanese restaurant? It’s a single-serve, one-dish meal—a big bowl of rice with savory toppings. The donburi items are usually the cheapest on the menu since inexpensive rice is the base.

Oyako donburi, rice topped with chicken and egg in a sauce, is especially easy to make. It’s economical because half a chicken breast and two eggs will stretch to serve two people.

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Skillet Queso Fundido

By Marilyn Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

There’s a definite love connection between children and melted cheese. No doubt, kids love cheese pizza, mac & cheese, nachos and grilled cheese sandwiches but have you ever thought to plan a one-pot dinner of melted cheese? It’s super simple and sure to become a new family favorite.

Our boys often look for the cheesiest item on the menu, whether a French fondue, Greek saganaki or Mexican queso fundido. Sometimes I wonder how they can eat so much cheese.

We’re lucky that they don’t just crave the sliced American version, but go for Parmesan, sharp Cheddar and even Manchego on occasion. We haven’t been successful with blue or goat, but we’ll keep trying.

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Tooling Around

By Sandy Hu

Just in time for holiday cooking, Special Fork is featuring Tool Week. For the entire week Special Fork Bloggers will be blogging about their favorite kitchen tools.

And we’d like to know which are your go-to tools.  Those of you who are our fans on Facebook will be eligible for a drawing of some cool kitchen tools especially selected by Special Fork (value: $75). And don't forget to let us know what your favorite tools are.

I love kitchen tools and my utensil drawers are chock-full of them But here are my go-to choices.

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Going Bananas

By Sandy Hu

Growing up in Hawaii, I know a thing or two about bananas. We ate enough of them as kids. Apple Bananas, Bluefields, Cavendish…so many varieties thrive in tropical climates. And mostly we got them for free, a gift from somebody’s backyard.

We ate bananas in many ways – fried in butter with brown sugar for dessert, suspended in glistening Jell-O for a snack or scattered over cornflakes for breakfast.

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It’s not Just Icing on the Cake

By Katie Barreira

This week, my dearest friend asked if I would give her a cake-frosting tutorial. Fairly certain that the bride-to-be wasn’t planning a do-it-yourself, or worse, a do-it-together wedding cake, I consented readily.

Between my three-week culinary school foray into the pastry arts, a hand-modeling cameo appearance in a cake decorating spread and testing the magazine’s five, 5-year anniversary cakes, I’ve probably only frosted a whopping baker’s dozen. And yet, I faced the impending lesson with complete confidence. Why? Because I had an ace of a frosting recipe up my sleeve.

The first time I took this frosting for a test drive, it felt as if my offset spatula was a magic wand. But the power wasn’t in the stick, it was in the icing. This glossy, billowing, meringue-based whip glides onto cake with ease and precision. It’s perfect for cake-frosting newbies because you can hone your icing skills and produce impressive results on the first time out; very encouraging.

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