Monday, October 25, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
I always overbuy baguettes for a party. Bread is cheap and I’d rather have too much than not enough.
But then I’m stuck with the leftovers. Any sane person would toss the remainder but I always bag the leftovers, intending to do something with them. I hate waste.
Monday, October 11, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
Michele Scicolone made me buy a slow cooker. She did it by writing The Italian Slow Cooker cookbook, filled with such irresistible recipes, to tempt anyone who doesn’t own a slow cooker to run out and buy one. Who wouldn’t want to try mouthwatering, traditional Italian dishes made easy?
Michele is a friend of many years and I have always admired her deep knowledge of Italian cooking and her meticulous recipe writing. One of the foremost authorities on Italian cooking, Michele is the prolific author of 14 cookbooks.
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
It used to be that “salad,” meant iceberg lettuce. Today, with so many sophisticated and more intensely-flavored varieties of baby greens, iceberg lettuce has been consigned to the role of leaf backdrop in burger buns.
Iceberg is enjoying a mini-comeback. Its mild taste and its ability to get totally crisp (we’ll show you how), makes it the prefect foil for rich and pungent blue cheese.
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
It’s a gorgeous Sunday morning in San Francisco. But instead of going out to enjoy it – and heaven knows we’ve had few perfect summer days to revel in – my son Dave and I are dutifully chopping and measuring and getting ready to shoot another Special Fork video blog.
Fridays are video days on our blog site and we are committed to introducing a new video blog every week. Dave and I comb through the Special Fork beta site looking for recipes to spotlight that are quick, easy and delicious, and that offer a teachable moment. Sometimes, we simply want to show how do-able a recipe is, even for beginners.
Monday, September 6, 2010 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
According to NPD’s Crest research as reported in Nation’s Restaurant News , young people between the ages of 18 and 34 are cutting back significantly on restaurant dining. And no wonder. The unemployment rate for adults under 30 is 19.5 percent, compared with 9.5 percent for the total workforce.
So if they’re not dining out, these young people must be in the grocery store. But they’re probably not shopping for potatoes and other food ingredients. They are buying frozen entrees or ready-to-eat meals from the deli or the prepared foods case.
At Special Fork, we believe it’s not hard to cook something simple, tasty and interesting. You save money by doing it yourself, you know your meal is fresh, and you know what you are consuming without having to check an ingredient label.