Making the most of getting together with friends.

Candles In The Snow - Martin Tessler

How To Light Snowy Pathways With Candles

 

Make light outdoors on a winter’s night by planting candles in the snow.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | Sometimes the most stunningly beautiful solution to a problem is also the most elementary one—like using candlelight rather than electricity to illuminate a snowy walkway.

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Affogato - Wikipedia Commons

How to Make The Perfect Affogato

If you love coffee-flavoured desserts, the make-it-in-minutes affogato is hands down as good as it gets.

Affogato - Chef Master ClassEASY & DELISH | The best coffee-flavoured dessert in the world? Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel think it’s the affogato, and I would have to agree. According to the celebrity press, the Timberlakes served this simple Italian treat made with a shot of espresso and a scoop of Italian gelato to go along with the almond and coconut wedding cake at their nuptials in southern Italy. Read more

Easy Chocolate Souffle

Make Easy Breezy Chocolate Soufflé

Contrary to popular belief, soufflés are a breeze to make. (VIDEO)

Easy Chocolate Souffle

 

EASY & DELISH | In the annals of dinner party desserts that look so impressive everyone assumes they must be horribly complicated to make, the chocolate soufflé is right up there. To begin with, it’s a soufflé for gawd sakes, and everyone knows that making any sort of soufflé can be a recipe for disaster. Read more

Puff: Provencal Pizza - Ngoc Minh Ngo

Make Frozen Puff Pastry Pizza Tonight

Make this gorgeous Provençal Pizza with store-bought puff pastry in a matter of minutes.

Puff: Provencal Pizza - Ngoc Minh Ngo

 

EASY + GOOD | Puff pastry is a flaky, crispy ingredient found in a surprising array of show- stopping appetizers, entrées and sweets. Of course you can make it from scratch if you want—à la Julia, perhaps?—but quality premade products found in the freezer section of grocery stores work fine, too.

Author Martha Holmberg used mostly frozen puff pastry for the 50 interesting and original recipes featured in her cookbook Puff—mains like the pizza alternative she shares with Frugalbits readers here. Read more

chicken-marbella - Kitchen Rebel

Make Dinner Party Fave Chicken Marbella

Chicken Marbella is dead-easy slam-dunk dinner party entrée that will have every guest who tries it begging for the recipe. We kid you not.

chicken-marbella - Kitchen Rebel

 

CULT RECIPE ALERT | Summer is dinner party season for us. Since early June, we’ve invited friends over for supper at least once a week. We manage this despite busy schedules by sticking to a few proven menus. First-time visitors, for example, invariably tuck into our number-one-favourite no-brainer entrée: Chicken Marbella, which usually results in their asking for the recipe. If you’ve ever made or been served Marbella, you already know the impact its exceptional flavour can have on all who take a bite. Read more

Kinfolk Dinner

Entertain “Kinfolk” Style This Summer

Instead of booking a last-minute summer trip, take a page from Kinfolk magazine —and make the most of staying home.

Kinfolk Dinner

 

SUMMER FARE | If you use the school calendar—June through August—as a way to measure summer days and have yet to find the time to get away or relax absolutely, you have six weeks remaining to do something fun and seasonal. But these six weeks will slip away on you like the last six did if you don’t make kicking back a priority. Read more

Puff Pastry Pinwheel-iStock

Puff Pastry Sweets & Savouries In Under 10 Minutes

These delicious puff pastry sweets and savouries are oven-ready in less than 10 minutes. (RECIPES)

Puff Pastry Pinwheel-iStock

 

EASY & DELISH | Making authentic French puff pastry is no small accomplishment, even for the likes of Martha Stewart who confessed in her cookbook Martha Stewart Pies & Tarts that producing a classic puff takes time, “skill and practice,” and that she’s had her share of difficulties making one “because there are so many variables.”

While “quick-from-scratch puff pastry” is definitely easier and less time-consuming to make than the true classic version, it can still be a disaster as I learned not long ago when I tried to replicate THIS AWESOME RECIPE from the Los Angeles Times. Read more

Roast Chickens - Fine Cooking

The One Meal Fits All Way To Entertain

Time crunched but wanting to entertain, here’s the creative way one woman takes care of business.

Roast Chickens - Fine Cooking

 

SAVE TIME & ENERGY | If in-home entertaining is something you’d like to do more of but you don’t have the extra time or energy to put into an elaborate production, consider adopting the game plan Janie Collier uses to host twice-monthly Saturday night suppers.

Collier has developed one wonderful meal that she can serve to carnivores, vegetarians and vegans—and she  repeats it—with slight variations and tweaks—in perpetuity. “If I had to come up with a new menu and source new ingredients every time I wanted to have people over, I just wouldn’t get around to it much.”

Janie Collier’s One Meal Fits All Saturday Night Supper Read more
Pear Place Card - Martin Tessler

How To Make An Edible Place Card Super Quick

These unconventional place cards are beautiful, organic, yummy and take only minutes to make.

Pear Place Card - Martin Tessler

 

EASY & QUICK | Silver and pewter are traditional materials for decorating and never go out of fashion. These metal place markers were created by cutting bannerlike shapes with scissors from a disposable aluminum baking sheet. Read more

Graham Cracker Caramel Nut Cookies - Doris Cheung

Meet The #1 Cookie For Cookie Exchange

Made in minutes, these graham cracker caramel nut cookies are ridiculously delicious. Share them with friends and they’ll want the recipe—guaranteed!

Graham Cracker Caramel Nut Cookies - Doris Cheung

 

SLAM DUNK | The next time you are asked to bring cookies to a book club, meet-up or exchange, try making the ones pictured here. After their taste, which is amazing, the fabulous thing about these caramel-covered slabs is their pan-generational appeal: sophisticated enough to seduce discriminating adults and gooey-good enough to reel in the children.

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