The Cookstr Weekly: Soups to Stay Warm
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Welcome to The Cookstr
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company. |
 January is National Soup Month, and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time. Whether you’re in a part of the country where it’s been freezing for weeks, a place where it stays temperate year-round, or you’re just starting to feel the chill, there’s nothing like a hot bowl (or cup, or mug, or tureen) of soup filled with goodies like fresh vegetables, herbs and spices, whole grains and slow-cooked proteins to warm you all the way to the core. Gussy up a pot of classic chicken noodle or minestrone with some unusual ingredients, or go global with cross-continental flavors and traditions. The Real Mushroom Soup by Jamie Oliver can be made with a variety of mixed wild mushrooms, and garnished with crostini or truffle oil for company – or just when you want to treat yourself after a hard day of snow-shoveling, icicle-dodging and resolution-making. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Auld Lang Syne
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Welcome to The Cookstr This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage. As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous. Cook in good company. |
 Of all the holidays, New Year’s Eve is the one that calls most for genuine enjoyment by the host or hostess: no fiddling in the kitchen with labor-intensive hors d’oeuvres, or washing endless dishes well into 2012. A New Year’s Eve party requires food to pair with champagne and cocktails, small mouthfuls of flavors and textures that pop to keep palates entertained. The well-suited recipes below fit the bill, all falling into the ‘easy’ category but with plenty of glitz to suit the occasion.For dessert, you’ll want something light and colorful, like a sherbet or sorbet, or just a bite of rich, dark pre-resolution chocolate to welcome the New Year. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Christmas Dinner
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Welcome to The Cookstr This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage. As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous. Cook in good company. |
 No matter how you celebrate, the holiday season should be a time of warmth and sharing, marked by memorable moments and meals with loved ones. These don’t always take the form of a sit-down, five-course meal: the bites worth savoring could be a slab of gingerbread and a mug of hot chocolate after ice-skating; a feta omelette or panettone french toast on Christmas morning; the last handful of candied spiced nuts eaten while wrapping presents. Christmas is celebrated with different foods around the globe, from the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve; to vegetables blanched and bathed in butter in French cuisine; to the impressive roasted meat ubiquitous in almost every culture. Try mixing and matching flavors to suit your guests. These festive Christmas Vegetables by Jamie Oliver are colorful and redolent with herbs, a familiar side dish to pair with any holiday main course. While tradition is important, so too is trying new things, exploring tastes and creating new rituals and customs for yourself and your family. Happy holidays, and as always, happy cooking. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Winter Fare for Hanukkah
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Welcome to The Cookstr
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company. |
 During Hanukkah, tradition dictates eating fried foods or foods baked in oil, in commemoration of the oil that lit the Temple in Jerusalem for eight nights. Besides potato latkes and fritters (try making your own applesauce to serve alongside!), explore other vegetables that take well to frying, like carrots, parsnips and zucchini. One of the most well-known Hanukkah foods, particularly in Israel, is sufganiyot, yeast doughnuts deep-fried in oil. Now, American and Israeli bakers create fried doughnuts filled with a variety of flavors, like chocolate cream, vanilla custard or dulce de leche. Try Barbara Kafka’s Chestnut Doughnut Holes for a unique and seasonal treat. In the Middle Ages, the custom of eating dairy foods like cheese blintzes and cheesecake during Hanukkah became widespread, drawn from the story of the Jewish heroine Judith who used cheese and wine to charm and then disarm the Babylonian army that besieged her village. And of course, cold-weather favorites like brisket and chicken soup will always be at home on a Hanukkah menu. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Comfort Food
Welcome to The Cookstr 
Weekly!
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company.
 Hot bottomless cups of tea, full-on fireplaces (or just a few candles), long scarves that don’t itch, and your favorite comfort foods: with the right arsenal of winter coping mechanisms, neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail will keep you from enjoying the holiday season. This week we focus on the last of these tools, comfort foods! Hearty casseroles, creamy soups and sumptuous desserts that keep your spirits buoyed even as the thermometer drops. As a nod to the beginning of Christmas cookie season, start off with these classic Chocolate Chip Cookies by Kim Boyce: chewy on the outside, with a soft interior and big chunks of dark chocolate. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Pasta Party!
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Welcome to The Cookstr
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company.
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 As the days grow shorter and there seems to be less time for weeknight dinner planning, a comforting bowl or plate of pappardelle or pastitio can be just the spot-hitting comfort food you need. Many of these recipes or components thereof can be made ahead and freeze well, good for stocking up in anticipation of wintry weather ahead. They make use of seasonal ingredients like root vegetables and holiday flavors like sage and wild mushrooms. This recipe for Pasta and Lentils by Maria Felice is quick, easy, hearty and healthy, with pancetta adding a note of richness. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Leftovers Galore
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Welcome to The Cookstr This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage. As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous. Cook in good company. |
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Turkey a la King by Victoria Blashford-Snell and Brigitte Hafner |
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 Hardly before the last bite of pie is gobbled and the third helping of stuffing digested, eyes turn to the vast array of leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and veggies awaiting their turn to be divvied up in doggie bags for guests, parceled into Tupperwares or ziplocked away in the freezer. While a classic turkey sandwich slathered with cold dressing, cranberry relish and mayonnaise can certainly hit the spot, the recipes below provide a wide range of ideas inventive enough to become the basis of a menu all their own. In the headnotes to this Turkey a la King recipe, the authors write that “this dish is a time-honored way of using turkey leftovers after a holiday meal. Good with steamed rice, mashed potatoes, or egg noodles.” Read more… |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Thanksgiving Countdown: Turkey and Trimmings
Welcome to The Cookstr Weekly!
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company.
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Roast Turkey with Spiced Cranberry, Bacon and Walnut Stuffing by Jamie Oliver |
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 The big day has nearly arrived! Start making that pie dough and blanching those green beans, because Thanksgiving’s just a week away. This year, we’re thankful for you, our loyal readers, members and friends, with your insightful comments and thoughtful questions on the recipes that make Cookstr special. Below, Cookstr offers up a plethora of pies, stuffings and all the classic trimmings for the holiday, along with a few different turkey preparations. This Roast Turkey with Spiced Cranberry, Bacon and Walnut Stuffing recipe by Jamie Oliver includes dried fruit, nuts, aromatics and classic pork sausage in the rich dressing. However you prepare your Thanksgiving bird, be sure to check out theHow to Carve a Turkey slideshow on Cookstr’s homepage from ZWILLING J.A. HENKELS COMPLETE BOOK OF KNIFE SKILLS by Jeffrey Elliot and James P. DeWan! Happy cooking! |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Thanksgiving Countdown: Starters and Sides
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Welcome to The Cookstr
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company.
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 Thanksgiving is arguably the biggest event of the year for meal planning and entertaining, and it’s made vastly more enjoyable and stress-free by a well-organized approach. As you begin planning your Thanksgiving menu, it’s often the staples like turkey and pumpkin pie that get most of the attention, while you may be left scrambling at the last minute to put together a cheese plate or scouring the grocery store for the last bag of Brussels sprouts. Planning your vegetables and appetizers well in advance lets you get some of the shopping and prepping out of the way early, so there’s less to do during the buildup to the big day. And if you’re a guest at someone else’s Thanksgiving feast, a well-thought-out starter or make-ahead side is often a welcome addition to a sea of potluck pies. This simple Green Bean and Lemon Casserole by Nigella Lawson adds a fresh, tart note and plenty of crunch to your Thanksgiving plate. |
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The Cookstr Weekly: Cold-Weather Casseroles
Welcome to The Cookstr Weekly!
This newsletter is filled with a variety of editorial features and links to Cookstr’s expert recipes by chefs and cookbook authors. You can access an archive of Cookstr newsletters here, and check out more featured recipes on our homepage.
As always, Cookstr recipes are tested, trusted, and handpicked by Cookstr’s editors from published cookbooks to help you on your culinary journey. To get you started, here are a selection of recipes on Cookstr by the chefs and cookbooks authors that made them famous.
Cook in good company.
 The chillier weather of November just calls out for casseroles: hearty and warm and filling the entire house with the smell of something good in the oven, they’re the very definition of comfort food. Casseroles don’t need to be blanketed in cheese and loaded with calories and fat to be fulfilling! Laura Pensiero’s recipe for Enlightened Eggplant Parmesan focuses on the flavor of the eggplant and goes lighter on the bread crumbs, mozzarella and parmesan. Casseroles also make ideal hands-off dinners and are portable enough to bring to potlucks. Along with the old mainstays like shepherd’s pie, gratins, and cassoulets, try new recipes for tetrazzini and fideo – they may end up landing a comfortable spot in your casserole repertoire. |
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