entertaining Archives - Page 7 of 9

Watch How To Make Il Diplomatico Cake

August 12, 2011/2 Comments/in Video /by Editor

Video and recipe for how to make an updated version of Marcella Hazan’s classic—and foolproof—Il Diplomatico, a rum-and-coffee-flavoured mousse cake.

Teresa Syrnyk discovered the recipe for Il Diplomatico when she decided to cook her way through Marcella Hazan’s The Classic Italian Cookbook. Originally published in 1973 and now out of print, this cookbook was the first of many by the woman whose name is now synonymous on this continent with authentic Italian cooking, someone rightfully credited with having introduced most of us to dishes such as risotto and polenta.

Syrnyk’s version of Hazan’s recipe eschews the heavy whipped cream icing in favour of much lighter and infinitely more attractive dusted cocoa for the top.

RMO Media has collaborated with Doris Cheung Art + Media to produce a video on how to make Il Diplomatico, the first in a series on topics designed to appeal to Frugalbits readers. Click through to view the video and/or obtain a printable version of the recipe. Read more

Dorie Greenspan’s Apple Cake Is Easy

July 7, 2011/1 Comment/in Easy + Quick = Delicious, FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

Taking over from Julia Child, Dorie Greenspan offers contemporary French cooking for those with more taste than time.

EASY & DELISH | In a world awash in cookbooks filled with pretty pictures and recipes that come up flat, Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, published last fall, reads and eats like a classic—a book that will do for contemporary French cooking what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for Cordon Bleu. Read more

Celebrities Pick Foods They Use In a Pinch

June 10, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Food & Drink /by Editor

Vancouver’s top chefs, cooking instructors and food writers weigh in on the tinned, packaged and frozen products they reach for in a pinch.

SAVE TIME | Much as we might like to make every dish we eat from scratch, we don’t always have the time to do it. Even top food professionals cheat with premade products on occasion, which is why we asked three top foodies—critics, writers, chefs and instructors—to reveal the tinned, packaged or frozen ingredients they reach for in a pinch. Read more

Classic Whoopie Pies With Sprinkles - Antonis Achilleos

Make Whoopie Pies

May 19, 2011/1 Comment/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, View All Food Stories /by Editor

After overwrought cupcakes and posh macaroons, the next big sweet thing has just got to be humble {whoopie} pie.

SIMPLE TO MAKE | This past week, my favourite francophile foodie/writer Dorie Greenspan reported on her entertaining blog that while the cupcake craze is alive and well in Paris, “the cupcake’s American cousin, the whoopie pie, is squeezing in on its territory.” What she didn’t mention is that in North America, the whoopie pie is also squeezing in on the territory currently occupied by its French cousin, the chi-chi macaroon. Read more

Ming Got A Ding? Where To Get It Fixed

May 4, 2011/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

Antique china is irreplaceable—but if it {or any glass or pottery item} breaks, here’s where to fix it locally.

DARE TO REPAIR | My grandmother passed on to me not only a love of beautiful things but some of the beautiful things she loved—like a set of delicate Czech glass goblets. I carefully packed them in a box and brought them home on the plane from Winnipeg as carry-on. At least that was the plan. As I watched the box go through the airport security x-ray, I realized to my horror that I’d carried on the wrong box and the goblets were taking their chances as regular luggage. Read more

Have You Tried Non-Medicated Meat?

April 26, 2011/9 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, FOOD, Food & Drink, HEALTH, Nutrition, View All Food Stories, View All Health Stories /by Editor

Beef, pork and chicken from “naturally” raised animals are purer than conventionally produced meats—and way less expensive than organic.

MONEY WELL SPENT | We’re fast coming up on barbecue season when everyone eats more beef burgers, lamb chops and chicken parts than usual. It’s no lie that meat is expensive and that organic meats, much as I would prefer to eat them, are even more so. So I was happy to learn about a less-expensive but solid alternative to the hormone-laden conventional meats in most grocery stores and many butcher shops. Read more

Get Your Grill On: Win A Weber Cookbook

April 6, 2011/2 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by Editor

How one bad day with a gas-fired barbecue turned us into charcoal lovers for good—plus enter to win A Time To Grill, a hot, new BBQ cookbook.

BACK TO BASICS | My searing romance began a few summers ago after an unexpected breakdown. The collapse occurred on that first sunny weekend in May that signals the beginning of barbecue season. My husband, who claims zero finesse when it comes to cooking indoors, turns into K-Paul the instant he slips on an chef’s apron and grill mitts. On this particular Sunday, he was suited up and ready to go when he ran into problems with the barbie.

(Instructions on how to WIN YOUR OWN COPY of the book at the bottom.) Read more

Style Maven Anicka Quin Shops & Eats YVR

April 1, 2011/0 Comments/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Columns, My5 Finds /by Editor

Western Living editor and style maven extraordinaire Anicka Quin shares a few of her top spots to eat and shop.

As the editor-in-chief of Western Living magazine—western Canada’s largest magazine dedicated to homes, food and wine, and travel—Anicka Quin spends a lot of time travelling the West to sleuth out her favourite design finds. A former Craigslist devotee—fed by an addiction to collecting midcentury modern furniture—she’s now a gatherer of contemporary pieces to pair with her teak. When she’s not travelling, she’s feeding her other great love: cooking fabulous food with friends and documenting it on her blog, Cardomom Pod.

Here are her suggestions for five cheap, free or worth-it things to do, see or buy in Vancouver. Read more

Perfect Prime Rib: The Easiest Way To Cook It

February 9, 2011/0 Comments/in FOOD, Food & Drink, Recipes, Tools & Techniques, View All Food Stories /by carolannrule

How to cook a standing rib roast to perfection without a meat thermometer or having to think about it even once.

DEAD EASY | See the perfectly cooked standing rib roast in this picture, the one cooked to medium rare, the hunk of beef that looks like it belongs on the cutting board at a buffet carving station at the St. Regis in NYC? Well, I had one that looks exactly like it resting and ready to serve on my kitchen counter last week. I called it my beautiful no-brainer roast.

My road to roast perfection was pretty much bump-free thanks to a recipe I read in The New York Times a few weeks ago (see the link below). It originally appeared in the newspaper in 1966, and food writer Amanda Hesser reprinted it recently “so that rib roast can finally have its no-knead-bread moment.” Read more

How To Throw A Last Minute Oscars Party

February 5, 2011/0 Comments/in Culture & Leisure, Entertaining, FOOD, Food & Drink, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All Food Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

How to throw a last-minute, stress-free Academy Awards party that everyone even the host will enjoy.

EASY DOES IT | Pamela Anderson, one of Frugalbits’ favourite food writers, says people should stop entertaining and “have people over” instead. “Having people over,” says Anderson, is about coming together casually with good pals and enthusiastic acquaintances. It’s about serving uncomplicated food and having no other expectation for an evening other than that it be fun. The Oscars this Sunday is the perfect “having people over” occasion. No worries that today’s Thursday and you’ve only got four days to get your event together. We started planning our Oscar party yesterday, and you’re welcome to follow our game plan and our menu.

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