Meatloaf in Half the Time

By Joanne Lamb Hayes
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Meatloaf has always been one of my family’s favorites, but as our schedule got busier and busier, the one-hour baking time made it scarce on the menu. When I discovered this easy trick, everyone was delighted to have meatloaf back on our table and looking a lot cuter.

I can’t take credit for the idea of baking meatloaf in cupcake pans; I must have seen it in a magazine somewhere. But I added another touch: pre-cooking the onion and carrots and then heating them with the salsa. Once I added the vegetables and salsa hot to the meat mixture, these little loaves cooked in 5 to 7 minutes less time than when everything was mixed in cold. And that made it a lot easier to have dinner on the table on time.

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Kiwi – a Nutritional Powerhouse

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

Kiwifruit’s bright green flesh is loaded with vitamin C, even more than oranges. It’s not a bad idea to load up on them during flu and cold season.

Kiwi are also a good source of potassium, magnesium and copper. And they contain more lutein (preserves eyesight) than any other vegetable or fruit except corn.

Pick fruit that is semi-firm to the touch and unblemished. When ripe, the fruit is sweet and tangy.

I usually peel and chop kiwi to make a simple winter fruit salad with pineapple, pistachios and toasted coconut.

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Make your own Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

As I said in my Special Fork debut post, I love breakfast. It’s the best meal of the day and has the best dishes to choose from: biscuits with sausage gravy, chilaquiles; corned beef hash!

But more often than not, I always choose something sweet, whether it’s a simple scone or a rich slab of cake. One of my favorite things is Nutella, and for years, I spread it liberally, rotating it with peanut butter, jelly, or cinnamon-sugar butter, on my 7-grain toast.

I got the idea one day to try and make my own “Nutella” for a dessert I was developing, and it came out better than I expected. It retained small chunks of hazelnut, and I could control the sweetness and quality of chocolate.

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How to Read a Recipe

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Dave loves to tell this story: Looking for cooking inspiration, he found a crowd-sourced tilapia recipe on the Internet. He invested the time and money to purchase the ingredients. He cooked, following instructions carefully and after tasting…promptly tossed the dish in the trash!

Dave came to me to find out why the dish was inedible. Perusing the offending recipe, I wisely told him, according to Dave, “Just looking at the ingredients, I could tell you this recipe wasn’t going to work.”

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Hoisin Pork Wraps: Dinner in under 30 Minutes

By David Hu
A new video for Video Friday

On those days when I come home from work exhausted, I turn to a select group of recipes: those that can be prepped AND cooked in under 30 minutes. These are my go-to meals. Each packs a lot of flavor, yet they can be made with minimal effort.

Among my favorites are pasta carbonara, pork tonkatsu, mint pesto couscous, and pizzetta with California dried plums and caramelized onions. Joining this select group of recipes is Hoisin Pork Wraps.

This recipe has only a handful of ingredients and almost no prep work. The only trick is mastering the technique of searing the pork. When searing meat, once you put it down in the hot pan, don’t mess with it – leave it alone until the meat is seared.

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