Bunny Toasts for a Toddler’s Easter Basket

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

I've been wracking my brains, trying to figure out how to fill Tara’s Easter basket. No chocolate eggs or bunnies for a child who isn't yet two years old. So, how to delight her?

I didn't want to make cookies, because I’d rather not give her anything sugary. And homemade crackers could be tough on her teeth. So I came up with…Bunny Toasts!

I packaged the Bunny Toasts in a cellophane bag and they looked as festive and special as any sweet Easter treat. Then I took small plastic containers, filled them with mom-approved snacks (Cheerios, cut-up cashews) and decorated each container with ribbon and a bunny cutout made by tracing cookie cutter shapes. With some Easter stickers, crayons and coloring books, I’m all set.

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Irish Scones for an Irish Day

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Tomorrow, on St. Patrick’s Day, I'll be baking up some Irish scones. And I'll be thinking fondly of Ireland and Mary Burns.

Mary is a resourceful dairy farmer in County Cork who took over the family farm when her husband died, preserving a heritage of more than 150 years. Milk from her Friesian cows goes into Kerrygold dairy products, as well as into her own farmhouse cheeses. Mary is the revered maker of a delicious, handmade cheese called Ardrahan, found in specialty stores and some restaurants here in the U.S.

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Lamb X 2, Part 2: Couscous

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Many years ago, when Steve and I went on our first trip to Paris, we were advised by our budget travel book to eat couscous as a way to save money on meals. Of course, today in Paris and elsewhere, there are countless budget choices from practically every corner of the world. But then, couscous was one of the few options – and it was always delicious!

In France, couscous refers not only to the couscous itself, but also to the savory stew served over it, redolent of fragrant spices. It was completely exotic to us as transplants from Hawaii, newly living in New York City, and visiting Paris for the first time.

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Lamb X 2

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

At Special Fork, we don’t often write posts about planning ahead, because our goal is to solve the dinnertime dilemma: what to cook at 4 p.m. for dinner that day.

We know that meals planned around recycled leftovers are timesavers. If you can cook something one day and turn it into something else the next, you’re ahead of the game.

However, if you’re late from work that next day, or kids have an unexpected event that necessitates a speedy takeout dinner, or if you just don’t feel like cooking, that second effort might never happen and the leftovers end up wastefully, in the trash bin.

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Take the Bitter with the Sweet

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

I’ve been to an endive farm and I’ve seen how they’re cultivated. But I hadn’t noticed that an endive, while still attached to its chicory root base, looks like a French tulip.

Whoever saw that similarity was brilliant. And whoever gathered them into a bouquet to gift food writers at Valentine’s Day was inspired.

Once again, a few days before February 14, I received such a bouquet from California Endive Farms to remind me how much I love these crisp vegetables, with their nutty, sweet flavor and slightly bitter edge. I lopped off the chicory root to toss, and bagged my treasured heads of endive in plastic, thinking about the delectable possibilities…

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