A Winning Chili for Super Bowl Sunday

By Joy Taylor
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

I’ll admit right up front that my favorite teams got knocked out of Super Bowl contention weeks ago. (Okay, if you must know: Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers; long story that I would like BOTH rivals. But, hey, I’m a Midwesterner.)

But despite their losses, I’ll still be glued to the TV come Sunday for the royal conclusion to football season. That means our home will be filled with people and enough food to satisfy the whole defensive line.

The most all-American of foods will be a part of the menu: chili. Now everyone has their favorite bowl of red – with or without beans, blazin’ hot or mildly sweet; pork cubes or ground beef. If you haven’t already settled on your Super Bowl game plan, food-wise, perhaps you’ll give one of my favorite chili recipes a try.

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How to Toast Spices

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

Do you find you’re cooking with more spices, more often? I do! I’m lucky to have a floor-to-ceiling herb and spice cabinet in the Special Fork kitchen and I turn to it often – especially for Mexican, Middle Eastern and Indian dishes.

Many recipes I cook these days call for toasted spices or seeds. Toasting brings out the flavor and aroma of spices and takes away the raw taste – especially important when the spice is used uncooked, as in dips, salad dressings and salads.

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Homemade Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich

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

I love to make and eat breakfast on the weekends…especially cold, wintery ones that cause me to linger in bed for an extra hour or two.

My chickens are still producing quite a lot of eggs this winter (usually they slow down this time of year) so fresh eggs are always in abundance. Also uncured Applegate Farms Organic bacon is a mainstay in my fridge or freezer.

This past weekend, I thought, why not change things up a bit – well, just a little – and make a bacon egg and cheese sandwich with homemade biscuits that are a touch healthier? I swapped out half of the all-purpose white flour with whole wheat and replaced some of the butter with buttermilk. To my surprise, the result was a flaky, crumbly, better-for-you biscuit!

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Goodbyes Are Bittersweet

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

To all the Newbie readers, whether you’ve tuned in for one blog or all 121 (thanks, Mom!) I hope you’ve enjoyed reading, and hopefully cooking along, as much as I have enjoyed sharing.

Today will be my last post, but continue to follow Special Fork’s blog – I promise you won’t be disappointed by the the next act! I must say, I’m sad to go, so like any good cook, I’ll balance out the bitter by leaving you with a little something sweet to remember me by.

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SPAMMED – the Food Kind!

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

If you grew up in Hawaii and you claim Spam has never touched your lips, you are: 1) a hermit 2) a protected child of food snobs or 3) telling a lie.

As everyone knows, Hawaii boasts the highest per capita consumption of Spam in the U.S. Spam meals and snacks are sold at local drive-ins, McDonald’s and even the 7-Eleven.

So tonight, when I attend the annual ancestral potluck of the San Francisco Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, an august gathering of food influencers, guess what I’m taking to represent my heritage? Spam musubi!

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