Lemon Sponge Pudding

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Years ago, when I was the food editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, I saved a recipe for Lemon Sponge Pudding from a news wire story. I hadn’t run the story but must have liked the recipe, because I just found it recently in an old recipe binder. So after decades, I thought I’d try it out.

Lemons have been on my mind recently because Dave bought a new house that came with a bonus lemon tree. Delighted to receive the bounty from my son, I grated the peels and juiced the lemons to store in my freezer.

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A Simple Sweet and Sour

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

One of my favorite dishes to make and eat is sweet and sour pork. I love that interplay of, well, sweet and sour in a savory context. But many of us, including myself, never think to go beyond that Chinese take-out staple when craving that flavor profile.

In comes one of my best standby meals to make when I can’t think of anything to cook, and I don’t have the time, energy, or money for a big meal. I learned this dish from Lidia Bastianich years ago, and it’s easily the most satisfying meal I make that requires virtually no energy to prepare, but pays off big in flavor. And best of all, it plays off that sweet and sour flavor marriage I love so much.

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A Luncheon First Course

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Wouldn’t you love to spend a week working with a leading winery, caterer or a specialty farmer for hands-on learning and mentoring? Each year, a few professional women who have had a minimum of four years of work experience are selected for this invaluable opportunity as winners of Les Dames d’Escoffier’s (LDEI) Legacy Awards.

The mentors, women who are tops in their fields, are all distinguished members of LDEI who volunteer for this program to give back by sharing their knowledge. The award program is supported by a donation from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, which was created by Julia Child in 1995 to support non-profit organizations sharing her commitment to educate and encourage others.

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A Savory Pumpkin Pie

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

At this time of year, it’s difficult to avoid the barrage of pumpkin-flavored everything – beer, doughnuts, and good grief, those spiced lattes. And although I love pumpkin, I don’t ever go for all those iterations of its sweetened and cinnamon-laced flavor profile.

If it’s going to be sweet, I prefer my pumpkin only in traditional pie form; although I’ve eaten a pumpkin version of St. Louis’ famed gooey butter cake that still makes me weak with pleasure when I think about it.

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Cooking with Beer: Beef Stew

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

I’m an avid beer drinker, so I always have more than a few brands and styles hanging around my house at any given time. This sometimes becomes problematic when I have a lot available to drink but don’t have the time or desire to drink them all before they go bad.

My solution is one of my favorite recipes: a beef stew cooked in beer. Beer adds dimension and depth to the beef and fits perfectly in this time of year. Plus, it gets rid of some of that extra beer.

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