A Drain’s Not the Only Place for Bean Liquid

By Katie Barreira

I’d prefer dried beans to canned any day, but the reality is that canned beans have a place in my pantry and so does their liquid.

Poke around the Web and you’ll see that bean liquid has a bad rap. But the biggest beef is its high sodium content and there’s an easy answer for that: buy low-sodium or sodium-free beans (like Eden Organics). They’re better for you anyway.

Another common complaint is that the cloudy liquid has “gunk” in it. I get it; coagulated starch balls don’t do much for me either, but I’ve found that higher-quality canned beans tend to be less gunky and when in doubt, you can just pour the liquid through a sieve. It’s no harder than draining the beans.

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My Essential Pepin

Photo courtesy KQED from the Essential Pépin TV Series Photo credit: © 2010 – Cristiana CeppasToday, Sandy turns over her Monday spot to Mary Jane Reiter, Special Fork’s public relations manager, who blogs about her recent class with the legendary chef, Jacques Pépin.

By Mary Jane Reiter

Before there was Emeril, Bobby, Gordon or Martha, there was Jacques. Jacques Pépin has spent the last 60 years as a professional chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and host of many PBS cooking shows. His most recent TV show and companion book Essential Pepin contains more than 700 of his favorite recipes.

Jacques Pépin is MY celebrity chef. So when I had the opportunity recently to attend a techniques class for culinary students, taught by Pépin, I jumped at the chance. He spoke at the International Culinary Center in Campbell, California, where he is on the board.

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Hot Breakfast in a Hurry

By David Hu

Growing up, both my parents worked outside the home. But despite their busy schedules, they always found time to make a home-cooked meal for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast I especially remember pancakes, muffins, waffles, French toast and sunny side up eggs and rice with Portuguese sausage (a Hawaiian favorite).

As I get older, weekday breakfasts have become much less elaborate but I do try to make an effort. I’ve found two keys for weekday breakfast success: either make-ahead breakfasts like granola, or recipes with very few ingredients like breakfast burritos or healthy smoothies.

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Kettle Corn Style Pistachios

By Andrew Hunter

I remember as a kid eating pistachios by the sacksful. In those good old days, my fingers, palms and face would be as red as the pistachios. It simply didn’t dawn on me that pistachios weren’t naturally red. Now I know that in fact red pistachios should be avoided like the plague. Why, because inferior and even moldy nuts are dyed to hide any number of impurities.

Recently, we were wandering around a farm in Northern California and got lost in the pistachio groves. The nuts hung in bunches with split creamy beige shells exposing the tender green and rosy hued kernels, waiting to be shaken from their branches, roasted and sold at farm stands and country markets along the roadways.

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Extreme Food Styling

By Lori Powell

Last week, I was food styling on the North Fork of Long Island for a future Prevention magazine issue. Sounds glamorous, yes?

Well, not so much when you have brush fires raging a couple of blocks away and 40 MPH wind gusts. The fires were eventually put out, but not without destroying 1,000 acres and three homes.

The winds, on the other hand, kept on gusting so that anything that wasn’t tied down was flying through the air. Then came the rainstorms that blew through our shoot not once but twice…what’s next…locusts?

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