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The Best Little Cooking Videos On The Internet
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
Chef Michael Smith Shares A Hot Fish Dish
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
Make Bal Arneson’s Yummy Beet Salad
Celebrity chef and “Spice Goddess” Bal Arneson whips up an adventurous summer salad — plus fresh cheese in under 20 minutes!
DINNER IN A MINUTE | Quick and healthy may not be the first words most of us would use to describe Indian cuisine, but “healthy, aromatic and delicious meals that are quickly and easily prepared” were the mainstay of Vancouver bestselling cookbook author Bal Arneson’s childhood diet in India, and they are the focus of her recently released second cookbook Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian. Read more
Ina Garten Reinvents The Tuna Sandwich
Barefoot Contessa’s Ina Garten takes a humdrum tuna sandwich and transforms it into something exotic in a matter of minutes.
EASY DOES IT | Celebrity chef and Food Network cooking show host Ina Garten’s latest cookbook, Barefoot Contessa, How Easy Is That? has been flying off the shelves since it first hit bookstores last October, and it’s easy to see why. Garten understands that few among us have the time or energy to prepare elaborate, complicated meals for our family and friends. She also knows that despite these impediments, we do want to have delicious, interesting things to eat, and to entertain too, if it isn’t going to derail us. Read more
Perfect Prime Rib: The Easiest Way To Cook It
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
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.
Frugalbits Oscar Party Day-By-Day Game Plan Read more
One Of These Mustards Is Not Like The Others
Which of these Dijons cuts the mustard with chef Glenys Morgan: French’s, President’s Choice or Western Family?
It’s Hip To Cook Retro With Vintage Cookbooks
It’s fashionable to cook retro right now, and to do it using old recipes from outdated cookbooks.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Blame it on Julie & Julia (both the book and the movie) if you want to, but it’s fashionable to cook retro right now. Who could have guessed that when New Yorker Julie Powell spent 365 days in the early oughties cooking every dish from Julia Child’s 1961 classic, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (volume one), that both her book and Child’s classic would reach the top ranks of The New York Times bestsellers list—and that curious cooks across North America would take a new interest in making old dishes from recipes found in outdated cookbooks? Read more
