TIP OF THE DAY: The Easiest Cupcake Garnishes

Easy Mother’s Day cupcakes. Photo courtesy Sweet Street Desserts.   If you still haven’t settled on a dessert for Mother’s Day, here’s the easy way out. You can make cupcakes like these, from SweetStreetDesserts.com, simply by purchasing plain cupcakes and topping them with a large piece of candy. Instead of sprinkles, the idea is to…
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Spring Salad Recipe: Asparagus & Radishes & The History Of Radishes

It’s easy to put together a spring salad of asparagus and radishes. Most of us are familiar with the crimson radish, and maybe even black radish and white radish (the shredded daikon served with sashimi). If you’re lucky, you’ve enjoyed the beauty of a watermelon radish (photo # 3) or another specialty radish (photo #4—check…
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RECIPE: Oysters & Pearls

The great chef Thomas Keller, inventor of “Oysters and Pearls,” created a splendid first course with fresh-shucked oysters in a pearl tapioca sabayon, garnished with osetra caviar (today it’s domestic white sturgeon caviar, due to import restrictions). Here’s a video, here’s the recipe). Keller’s inspiration was a box on tapioca pearls he noticed on a…
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TIP OF THE DAY: Different Egg Dishes

A frittata, made on the stove top and finished in the oven or under the broiler. Photo courtesy Applegate Natural & Organic Meats.   You can have your breakfast eggs baked in a nest, boiled, fried, poached or scrambled or stuffed. You can make breakfast burritos and pizzas, Eggs Benedict and a library of other…
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RECIPE: Decorated Macarons

Almost too pretty to eat (photo © Culinary Vegetable Institute).   Here’s something easy for Mother’s Day (or Valentine’s Day): a dessert or tea snack consisting of a single macaron, beautifully decorated. It’s from the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Ohio, where farmers grow the most glorious produce and chefs create wondrous dishes with it. You…
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