Some Easy Thanksgiving Sides

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Isn’t Thanksgiving the best food holiday, ever? I love everything about it – the cooking, the baking; the table setting – even the leftovers!

I always plan my Thanksgiving around tried-and-true family favorites, plus a few new dishes thrown in. This year, I’m adding Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Pecans to our traditional menu.

The new recipe was created because I opted in to receive a free package of Diamond of California shelled pecans as a Klout perk. There’s no obligation to promote your perk, but of course, once you have a product in your hands, it ends up top-of-mind in your thinking.

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Welcome Winter Squashes: Kabocha

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Now’s the time to welcome hard-skinned winter squashes, including Hubbard, delicata, acorn, butternut and pumpkin. There are many easy ways to cook winter squash, such as roasting, steaming and sautéing.

But prepping them is another story.

The challenge is to get a knife to pierce the skin of your winter squash without piercing your own. You need a sharp, sturdy knife and good control, because the knife can slip on such a hard, smooth surface, with disastrous results. I go at it with a cleaver.

If you’re a novice at cutting squash, microwave it for several minutes to soften slightly. Once you can get the first cut into the squash, the rest goes a lot easier.

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Taking Comfort in Rice Pudding

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

I returned yesterday from Les Dames d’Escoffier International’s annual conference, held in Boston this year. LDEI is an organization of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage and hospitality. There are 30 chapters across the US, Canada and the UK. Membership, by invitation only, reflects the multifaceted fields of contemporary gastronomy and hospitality.

I attend every year for excellent professional and personal development seminars, networking, and to renew friendships made over years serving on boards, committees and as a former president of the organization.

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Halloween in a Hurry

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Some people go all out for Halloween, with steaming witches’ brews, ghoulish table centerpieces and elaborately carved jack-o’-lanterns. With my kids grown, I’m just the opposite. I don’t know if I’ll even get around to carving the pumpkins that are decorating my living room. (If not, I’ll use them for my Thanksgiving table.)

But that doesn’t mean I’ll ignore the festivities altogether. I’ll just do something easy and call it a day.

This year’s “easy” is a tray of “worms,” that you can use to top just about anything edible. These worms are almost flavorless so you can use them with sweet or savory dishes. It’s a great Halloween topper for pizza. The worms will collapse in contact with moisture, so if you sprinkle it on a salad, plan to consume the salad immediately.

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A Cooking Class in Japan

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

One of the most delicious meals I've had in Japan, to date, was at a Kikkoman consumer cooking class held at the company's Tokyo office on Friday. The theme was washoku, traditional Japanese cooking.

Of course, it didn't hurt that the class was taught by renowned chef Chisako Hori, managing director of Kikunoi, a restaurant group that was awarded three Michelin stars for its main restaurant in Kyoto. She is also chef-owner and nutritionist at the anti-aging restaurant, Rire.

I have a history with Kikkoman, having grown up with its soy sauce, as my mother and grandmother before me. Kikkoman is a family business that goes back 19 generations and if I could trace my family back to Japan, they were probably Kikkoman users, too.

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