Kale: Enjoying Bitter

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

As a food professional, I’ve tracked American eating habits over decades and what truly astonishes me is how quickly our food sophistication has ramped up in recent years.

What we consider common ingredients today, such as cumin, fish sauce, salsa, miso, quinoa, hoisin or sriracha, were not on the culinary radar of most Americans in the 70s. We’ve gone from iceberg lettuce to arugula; pre-sliced white bread to rustic loaves.

But the biggest change, I think, is in how we’ve learned to embrace bitter flavors, such as dark chocolate, espresso and hardier greens like kale.

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Opening Day

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

The boys look forward to a few special days each year. The big ones like Christmas and their birthdays are obvious, but one of their favorites is opening day of apple season.

We make the trek east each Labor Day weekend on the Pomona Freeway toward San Bernardino, then exit into the foothills where Los Angeles peels away to orchards that support communities in existence to grow, harvest and sell apples.

Snow-Line, Riley’s and Willowbrook apple farms host scores of visitors with hot fry cakes, fresh pressed cider, and “mile high” apple pies. Our favorite is Snow-Line because it’s a simple assemblage of red barns, orchards for picking and a hillbilly musician who takes his break between songs with a cold can of Coke in his dilapidated old red Cadillac parked in the shade.

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End of Summer Chowder

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

My quick summer dinner of choice is a delicious, filling chowder made with peak-of- the-season corn, basil, a touch of bacon and whatever might be growing in the garden, herb wise. It is my perfect meal while I’m in the great state of Maine on vacation.

Every year, I come up with new variations. You can consider this soup as the base for many chowders to come – it’s the simplest version that I’ve made over the seven to eight years that I’ve been coming to Maine.

This super-easy chowder takes no time to prep or to cook and makes a great lunch if you happen to have any leftovers for the next day. Chowder only gets better with time.

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Five Ingredients make an Easy Meal

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

Since moving to Berkeley from San Francisco three months ago, I’d been living in a small apartment with no kitchen. Suffice it to say, it was difficult for me to cook every night for dinner.

But two days ago, my partner and I moved into a new apartment with a large kitchen and I wanted to commemorate it. So I dusted off all my kitchen tools and set forth making one of my favorite meals to celebrate the occasion: salsa-braised chicken.

This dish is one of those that seems too simple to be good. It only has five ingredients (excluding salt, of course), and is ready in less than an hour and a half.

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Labor Day Sides and Desserts

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Special Fork’s summer vacation comes to an end next Tuesday. After Labor Day, all bloggers will be back with more delicious recipes and food ideas to fit the 30-minute prep limit that we’ve set for ourselves, to ensure that no recipe is too time-consuming for busy home cooks.

Meanwhile, I wanted to leave you with a last look back at recipes from previous blog posts. This week, I’m showcasing side dishes for your Labor Day get-together. You’ll find recipes for salads, salsas and desserts for your end-of-summer enjoyment on a special Pinterest board.

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