Food & Drink Archives - Page 6 of 10

Are These The Best Fire Roasted Tomatoes?

January 26, 2012/2 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, View All Food Stories /by Editor

How to make pasta simply amazing by just opening a can of tomatoes.

DINNER IN A MINUTE | When I really don’t want to spend time making dinner but can’t be bothered to go out or even order in, I love to boil up a big pot of water, throw in dry pasta and open a can of tomatoes. Oookay, you say, making nice but imagining I’m nuts to think plain spaghetti and canned tomatoes “straight up” could be anything but spectacularly boring. And maybe it would be if I opened your Hunt’s garden-variety dice, but the canned tomatoes I’m talking about taste nothing like that. Read more

Trader Joe’s Comes To Vancouver—Sort Of!

January 18, 2012/3 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Taking a page, and products, from the quirky Trader Joe’s supermarket chain, one idealistic, enterprising Vancouverite offers great groceries at great prices.

SHOPPING AROUND | “Somebody had to do it.”

That’s the first line of the manifesto taped to the window of Transilvania Trading, a tiny food emporium that recently opened in the nether reaches of West Broadway Street in Kitsilano, a shop destined to become a haunt among Vancouver foodies on the lookout for interesting, healthy packaged foods at reasonable prices. Transilvania’s current raison d’être is to sell a selection of mostly dry products from Trader Joe’s, quite possibly the coolest, quirkiest supermarket chain in the U.S., though that’s by no means the only stuff shop owner Mike Hallatt plans to stock in the future. Read more

The One Meal Fits All Way To Entertain

January 17, 2012/1 Comment/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., Easy + Quick = Delicious, Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, View All Food Stories /by Editor

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

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

Graham Cracker Caramel Nut Cookies - Doris Cheung

Meet The #1 Cookie For Cookie Exchange

November 29, 2011/2 Comments/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, HOLIDAY, Holiday, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

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

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.

3 Cult Classic Places To Eat In San Francisco

November 28, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Go Here Now, TRAVEL, View All Food Stories, View All Travel Stories /by Editor

Where you absolutely must go for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next time you visit the City by the Bay.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | With so many fabulous restaurants to choose from, San Francisco can be frustrating for tourists who travel to eat. I visit every November, and each time I go I try new places—but first I schedule a return meal at my three favourite eateries. Each one is a bone fide cult classic, and not one need be stratospherically expensive. Read more

Cheesecakes in Jars - My Baking Addiction

Awesome Ways To Put Weck Jars To Work

November 23, 2011/1 Comment/in BUY THIS. MAKE THAT., FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

You needn’t be an ace with a canner to find awesome ways to put gorgeous Weck jars to work.

BEAUTIFUL & EASY | “Now this is a full-circle moment,” said my friend Anne, pointing to the Weck canning jars prominently displayed in the chi-chi San Francisco kitchen shop we cruised through last week. “I was so happy to get away from these things when I moved here from Germany and to discover canning jars with screw-top lids. They’re much easier and more convenient to use.” Read more

Make Two Top Appies In Under 10 Minutes

November 4, 2011/0 Comments/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

It’s party season, people, and you know what that means: You’re going to need appies. Here are two dead simple ones that’ll please even your zaniest guests.

EASY & AWESOME | Unless you have serious Hollywood connections, it’s unlikely that Katy Perry and her best “gurlfriend” Markus Molinari, pictured here in the cockeyed hat, will be partying at your house this coming holiday season. But hey, if you’re like me, that’s probably the least of your worries. You’re more likely thinking, “I’ve got people coming over for a holiday thing, and what can I serve them that’s thoughtful, tastes great and makes up really easy?” Time to dip into the Frugalbits vault for two of our all-time favourite appetizers that can be made in less than 10 minutes. Read more

The Best Little Cooking Videos On The Internet

September 29, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

New York Times columnist Mark Bittman has made dozens of the best little cooking videos on the Internet—and they’re free for the watching.

FREE & EASY | Last January, after 13 years, Mark Bittman, The New York Times food columnist who is now formerly known as The Minimalist, stepped away from the weekly production of his immensely popular how-to-cook column and instructional videos. And though he says he may put on his Minimalist apron from time to time in the future (he left this gig to join the NYT’s opinion pages and Sunday magazine), the 200-plus easy-cook videos he made during his Minimalist period (none more than five minutes long) are screen gems for Frugalbits readers looking for quick, doable, interesting things to cook. Read more

Thanksgiving Potluck: Less Work & More Fun

September 22, 2011/1 Comment/in Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, HOLIDAY, View All Food Stories /by carolannrule

Why do all the cooking for this holiday meal by yourself, when going potluck is less work and a lot more fun.

ENTERTAIN SMART | Unlike Christmas dinner, which is usually reserved for next of kin, our Thanksgiving meals invariably involve friends who always ask, “What can we bring?” We used to suggest things like wine or light hors d’oeuvres, and would then slave away in our modest-size kitchen to churn out everything else: a photogenic bird with all the trimmings, four sexy sides and a few scrumptious homemade desserts. Read more

Chef Michael Smith Shares A Hot Fish Dish

September 9, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

In Chef Michael Smith’s new cookbook, the recipes are full of memorable flavours and the prep work’s a piece of cake.

EASY & DELISH | Michael Smith had us at easy. The celebrated Canadian chef who, among his many other accomplishments has a James Beard award-winning television series to his credit, has just released a new cookbook with the “E” word in the title—Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen: 100 of My Favourite Easy Recipes—and that’s music to our ears. Read more