Happy Holidays from Special Fork

By Sandy Hu

Special Fork bloggers will be on vacation beginning next week, to enable each of us to spend time with family and friends through the holidays. We’ll return January 2 with a look back at the best of Special Fork from 2011; all bloggers will return beginning January 9 with new recipes and fresh insights.

While there are no new blog postings, remember to check our database of recipes for your everyday cooking and holiday needs.

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“No Thank You” Bite

By Andrew Hunter

Several months ago I was at a dinner party at a loud restaurant with business associates when amongst the chatter, laughter and clamor of raucous conversation, I heard a husband quietly taking care of family business with his wife, “The boys did a good job with dinner tonight,” he said quietly, “except for Timmy who took a ‘no thank you’ bite and passed.”

I wondered what a “no thank you” bite could possibly be. So thanks to the Cronan family from Folsom, the Hunter boys now take no thank you bites whenever they turn up their noses at something. A no thank you bite is a simple but brilliant way to get your kids to at least try everything they’re served. If they take a bite and still don’t like it, then they don’t have to eat it. But our experience is that at least half the time our boys change their mind from no to yes after the no thank bite rule is enforced.

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Very Merry One-Pot Pasta

By Katie Barreira

It’s lovely to go about making everything merry and bright, but it sure takes a lot of huffing and puffing. Here’s a weeknight meal that’s perfect for the holiday season: filling, festive and on the table in 15 minutes flat.

Ruby Pasta
Add a few glugs of red wine to your pasta pot and turn ho-hum into ho-ho-ho! Choose an inky, jewel-toned red, like Garnacha or Tempranillo, and trim the plate with a dash of greenery and a flurry of cheese.

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It’s a Wrap!

By Sandy Hu

Part of the fun of homemade food gifts is wrapping them for giving. Here are some of the foods we’ve cooked and baked recently, and how we packaged them for presents.

First the food gifts, all taking no more than 30 minutes of prep time (except for the sugar cookies):

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Fun with Grapefruit

By Lori Powell

Grapefruit or Pomelo?

Well, the real difference is in the size of the fruit and the taste. The pomelo is the largest of the citrus fruits. It comes from Asia and is milder and sweeter than the grapefruit. It also has a much thicker rind than the grapefruit with a pale yellow flesh as opposed to a Ruby Red grapefruit that has a bright pink interior.

Pomelos are great for segmenting and eating just as it is but I do prefer the sprightly acidic flavor of grapefruit, especially the Ruby Red variety that is not only pretty to look at, but I believe is slightly sweeter than the regular kind. Ruby Red or regular grapefruit works well in both sweet and savory dishes.

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