Nutty for Nut Milk

By Katie Barreira
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

Happy 2013! As I think back over the past year of eating, there are a few culinary encounters that stand out because they revolutionized the way I eat.

As a foodie and a food professional, I’m always getting hyped-up about some hip trend (home brewing, from beer to kombucha) or novel restaurant item (toast oil), but few of these marvels actually stick, become part of my routine eating habits and working themselves into my everyday way of being.

Here’s one that did.

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Celebrating the New Year

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

On the last day of the old year and into the new, our house takes on the delicious aromas of a Japanese restaurant – the smell of shiitake mushrooms, gobo (burdock root) and soy sauce simmering, intermingled with the tang of rice vinegar and the ever-present fragrance of dashi, the soup stock that’s a signature flavor in Japanese cooking.

As a third-generation Japanese American, my cooking is quite eclectic and more Western than Eastern. I use olive oil by liter, but soy sauce? Not so much.

Still, once a year, I go for tradition – I love that my family has a rich Japanese food heritage nurtured over three generations and I’m proud to carry it forward.

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From the Kitchen to the Christmas Tree

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Each year, we buy a little tree for our Special Fork office. We decorate, keeping to a kitchen theme, using a few purchased ornaments, such as a garland of “candy,” blown glass fruits, fabric ice cream cones and other food-related decorations. Then we fill in by improvising with what’s available in the Special Fork kitchen.

The ornaments we’re making today would look wonderful on a kitchen Christmas tree, or would be perfect for anyone just starting a household who hasn’t yet collected enough baubles.

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Holiday Butter Tarts

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

My Grandmother Love personified her name. My mother’s mother, she married into such a gentle family name. Grandma was of the generation that didn’t work, though she had a nursing degree. In fact, she didn’t even drive. As a child I wondered how she got the most basic things, like grocery shopping, done if she had to wait for Grandpa to come home from work.

Evidently their strategy worked, as there was never a lack of food on the table. The Loves, of Youngstown, Ohio, back in the days when it was a thriving industrial town, had a big grand wooden porch with swings. I remember swinging on the swings at night after dinner. The adults talked and the kids listened.

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Easy Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

By Katie Barreira
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

Cookies, cookies and more cookies…even St. Nick could get sick of them over the holidays. This Christmas, break out of the baking rut and leave Santa a treat that’s full of sweet surprises.

How long it took to make them, for one. These decorative confections may look like they require a workshop of merry elves, but really, all it takes is a zap in the microwave and some time to chill out (the truffles, not you – you will be stocking up on last-minute stuffers, wrapping presents, watering the tree or scolding the dog for giving the tree a watering of his own design.) Then it’s a quick roll in the seasonal candy and you’ve got truffles fit for a Klaus.

And shhhh…don’t tell Santa that these chocolates have half the fat and calories of a traditional truffle. He’ll never know the difference and neither will you! In fact, replacing heavy cream with almond milk amplifies the chocolate flavor.

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