The Other Yogurt

By Katie Barreira

When Greek yogurt arrived in supermarkets, it was a revelation. With a texture closer to crème fraîche, the thick, creamy yogurt was immediately embraced as a substitute for mayonnaise in dips, ice cream atop pie, and sour cream on chili.

Now, it seems, Greek yogurt has flooded the market. And while I wouldn’t want to live in a world without this super-rich, highly strained yogurt, I worry for the forsaken plain yogurt. With its pourable consistency, refreshing tang and light mouth feel, regular old yogurt is still my favorite. I use it in my morning cereal instead of milk, for a filling breakfast that’s packed with probiotics.

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Dad’s Pistachio Pudding Cake (and Your St. Patty’s Day Dessert!)

By Katie Barreira

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for St. Patrick’s Day. And to celebrate, Special Fork is giving away a prize package of a year’s supply of delicious Kerrygold Butter and cheeses, imported from Ireland, courtesy of Kerrygold! It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

While reminiscing over a box of long-collected recipe cards my mom asked me whether I “was around” for dad’s pistachio cake. Now, my father is an ace on the grill and the man makes a mean pb+j, but in my life, I have never seen him navigate a baked good.

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Put Some Pop in Your Pork!

By Katie Barreira

The first I heard of spiking ground meat with soda was while cooking with a friend and fellow chef who uses a splash of Sprite to tenderize the filling in her pork dumplings. But the idea has been around at least as long as the soft drink. For Coke, that’d be 125 years as evidenced by their heritage meatloaf recipe – a mixture of ground beef, onions, catsup, basil and ½ cup of Coca-Cola.

While soft drinks also make excellent marinades for tough cuts, like flank steak, they are particularly effective in ground meat mixtures. So what’s the method behind the madness?

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Get Scrappy!

By Katie Barreira

One of the cardinal sins of professional cooking is waste. A restaurant doesn’t stand a chance if it doesn’t scrimp, save and make the most of every last scrap. In these lean economic times, home cooks can take a page out of the restaurateur’s book in order to stay out of the red.

Cheese rinds are among the most expensive of scraps. At about 20 bucks a pound, chucking a few ounces of Parmigiano Reggiano is like lining your garbage with dollar bills. It may look like the dregs, but the hard exoskeleton of that cheese could be the backbone of your next meal.

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Sloppy Joe Tacos

By Katie Barreira

A recent unearthing of my great-grandmother’s acclaimed Sloppy Joe recipe got me thinking about the nostalgic loose meat sandwich. I admit, the soupy sando has never been on my list of faves. Perhaps it’s the association to the commercially canned sauce, or maybe it has to do with the way it’s served – on fluffy white buns that begin to disintegrate the moment they come into contact with the saucy filling. The whole mess really puts the slop into Sloppy Joe.

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