Resolution: Clean Pantry

By Katie Barreira

This year I’ve decided to use my blog as motivation to actually keep a New Year’s resolution. In 2012, well at least in the first month of 2012, I vow to eat up the items causing congestion in my pantry shelves.

You know the ones – the box of cornstarch you congratulated yourself for remembering to pick up, only to find a near full package sitting on the shelf at home, or the jar of exotic spices that you just had to have for this fabulous recipe, which called for only 2 teaspoons of the stuff. These doubles, dregs and mystery ingredients taunt me every time I open the cupboard.

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The Family that Cooks Together…

By Sandy Hu

So much of our family life and social life center around food and cooking. In December we had a big holiday party for 75 guests and the whole family – all five of us – prepped and cooked for it. We cooked our Christmas Eve dinner, complete with a Bûche de Nöel for dessert, and we prepared our annual Christmas night Dungeness crab fest.

We had a traditional Japanese New Year with soba noodle soup on New Year’s Eve and mochi soup on New Year’s Day. We ate traditional New Year foods like sushi and other celebratory Japanese dishes and each family member, including our new daughter-in-law Lynn, prepared a dish for the feast.

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If it’s Friday, it’s Video Blog Day on Special Fork

By David Hu

All this week, we have been re-introducing our bloggers by re-posting their very first post for Special Fork. On Monday we’ll be back blogging with more cooking insights, helpful tips and delicious recipes that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time, all to solve your daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now!

Today we feature Dave Hu’s early video blog post on cooking tilapia. Dave was inspired to found Special Fork, a mobile recipe website, when he was tempted to buy tilapia at the market because it was cheap. However, he refrained because he didn’t know how to cook it. Dave realized having tilapia recipes easily accessible on his smartphone would have enabled him to buy and cook tilapia or any other unfamiliar ingredients that he’s like to try cooking.

Dave, a competent novice cook, is CEO and Co-Founder of Special Fork. He is responsible for the design and features of the mobile recipe website and runs the Special Fork business. Dave has over 10 years of experience in the high tech industry, his last three years focused on the mobile space. Most recently Dave was the Manager for Mobile Devices at Virgin Mobile USA where he oversaw special edition handsets.

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Andrew and Marilyn Provide Help for Busy Moms and Dads every Thursday

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, we will be re-introducing our bloggers by re-posting their very first post for Special Fork. Next week we’ll be back blogging with more cooking insights, helpful tips and delicious recipes that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time, all to solve your daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now!

Today we feature Andrew Hunter’s introductory blog. Andrew and his wife, Marilyn, post every Thursday to provide cooking help for busy families.

Andrew is the founder and owner of Culinary Craft, where he develops food products for such brands as Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, Niman Ranch and Martha Stewart. Previously, he was a VP of Culinary Development for Wolfgang Puck and before that, Andrew managed the culinary operations for the 525-unit Olive Garden chain. Earlier in his career, he was chef de cuisine of Barbara Tropp’s China Moon Café.

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Cooking for Just One or Two? Lori Shows how every Wednesday

By Lori Powell

All this week, we will be re-introducing our bloggers by re-posting their very first post for Special Fork. Next week we’ll be back blogging with more cooking insights, helpful tips and delicious recipes that take no more than 30 minutes of prep time, all to solve your daily dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now!

Today we feature Lori Powell’s introductory blog. Lori posts every Wednesday focusing on cooking for one or two people.

Lori Powell is a chef, food editor and stylist with more than 18 years of experience at the country’s top food and lifestyle magazines. She is currently Food Director of Prevention magazine. She has been Food Director at Real Simple, Food and Entertaining Director at Ladies’ Home Journal, and Deputy Editor of Food and Entertaining at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings.

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