Simply Delicious Macadamia Nut Cookies

By Sandy Hu

Growing up in Hawaii, we had a macadamia nut tree in our front yard. We’d wait for the nuts to fall, then remove the outer husk and get a hammer to crack the rock-hard inner shell. It took a lot of patience to line up one nut at a time, and to keep the nut in place long enough to connect with the brunt of the hammer. A traditional nutcracker was useless against the mighty macadamia.

My ever-resourceful mother figured out a more efficient method. She would corral the nuts in one layer in the base of a shallow candy box, put a piece of cardboard on top to hold the nuts in place, then whack away with a hammer indiscriminately. Eventually, all the nuts would yield their buttery meat.

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Texas Toast with Italian Inspiration

By Katie Barreira

The other day I saw a commercial for Dunkin Donuts latest offering, the Big ‘N Toasty, a tower of fried eggs, bacon and cheese, sandwiched between slices of Texas Toast. “What’s Texas toast?” asked my mom, as the breakfast behemoth spun for the camera. Thick-cut bread was my best bet and hating to be at a loss in the face a culinary quandary, I went off in search of a more satisfactory answer.

As it turns out, Texas toast is, in large part, defined by the thickness of the slice. Manufacturer’s like Wonder Bread sell bags of the stuff in its unadorned state: honkin’ slabs of white loaf bread, cut about twice as thick as the standard sandwich variety.

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Spare Ribs, Asian Style

By Sandy Hu

In our house, “spare ribs” in the summer means succulent meaty bones on the grill with a spicy rub or barbecue sauce. But come fall and winter, when we don’t grill as much, “spare ribs” is something marinated, then slow-roasted in the oven.

Chinese spare ribs are cut across the bone so you can pick up the pieces with chopsticks. You can find this type of spare ribs in a Chinese butcher shop or get your supermarket butcher to cut them for you. Chinese spare ribs always seem to be pork ribs, the better to add some sweet-tart flavors to complement the richness of the pork.

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Make an Easy, One-Skillet Meal

By David Hu

Here’s a recipe that’s especially welcome on nights when you just don’t feel like cooking. Meat, veggies and rice come together in one skillet, so dinner is an efficient, one-dish meal. You do have to cook some rice first, however, but if you have a rice cooker, it’s a simple matter to measure out the rice and water in the pot, turn it on and come back to it when the rice is done.

Ground beef or lamb, green pepper and eggplant are an especially delicious combination of Mediterranean flavors. Quick, easy and hearty, this is a great dish for a brisk fall day.

To get the recipe and shopping list on your smartphone (iPhone, BlackBerry, Android device) or PC, click here.

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Crazy for Fried Foods from the State Fair

By Katie Barreira

If a year were a roller coaster, now would be that bit right before the big drop; a steady uphill chug and then, whoosh! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and before you know it, bam, the ride’s over and it’s a new year. But even though Macy’s has already hung some tinsel, I am staying squarely in the moment and celebrating the unofficial holiday of early fall, State Fair Season.

There’s so much to love about this nondenominational tradition. Sheep shearing demos, blue ribbon bake-offs, prize winning poultry, a full-scale Jersey cow carved entirely out of butter and, at the very top of the list, the unabashed consumption of fried food.

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