Coffee Talk: Brewing the Perfect Cup

By Katie Barreira

In my mother’s kitchen hangs a framed print of an iconic Saturday Evening Post illustration. It depicts a schoolgirl (think young June Cleaver) at the knee of her grandmother, learning to fulfill the first duty (okay, maybe second) of every aspiring housewife: making coffee. While the exhibition of this oppressive advertisement in our liberated kitchen is tongue in cheek, its point (minus that whole cult of domesticity nonsense) is well taken; everyone should know how to make a good cup of joe.

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Sweet Bitters- Campari: A Love Story

By Katie Barreira

Picture it, Italy, 1860. Gaspare Campari comes home from a long day in the fields, feeling downright haggard. Good thing his wife has spent the afternoon steeping her secret recipe of herbs, spices and citrus peel.

Just a glug of the health tonic, sends the worn Gaspare straight to bed and in the morning he awakes, refreshed and fortified by the medicinal brew. Over the milk pails Gaspare extols the virtues of the Campari family restorative and the rest is history…Ok, so everything past Gaspare Campari is my fanciful and entirely concocted, version of Campari’s mysterious inception, but you get the idea!

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Everybody’s Favorite Retro Salad

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.

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Trail Mix – Mom’s Best Friend

By Marilyn Hunter

First comes hunger and then comes attitude. All you moms out there know what I’m talking about. Two hungry boys and one tired mom can be an awful combination.

To keep everyone happy, I never leave home without healthy snacks. Our healthy snack of choice is trail mix…perfect to stave off hunger and chock-full of natural energy and protein, carbs, and even potassium for important electrolytes on a hot day.

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Inside Special Fork: Behind the Scenes of our Video Blogs

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.

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