Cook's Country February/March 2022

A FEW MONTHS BACK, I joined a panel at the 43rd annual International Association of Culinary Professionals conference, convened to talk about the ways that magazine editors find the stories our publications tell. I had a lot to say, but I narrowed my remarks to just one thing: a personal statement I once wrote to help me clarify my purpose. At the time of its writing, I was the CEO of our household (also known as a stay-at-home mom), anticipating my youngest son’s high school graduation and my return to the workplace. I jotted a list of the skills I thought I was good at and recorded my family values in a journal. Then I distilled these thoughts into a simple principle that has guided my career ever since: A…

A FEW MONTHS BACK, I joined a panel at the 43rd annual International Association of Culinary Professionals conference, convened to talk about the ways that magazine editors find the stories our publications tell. I had a lot to say, but I narrowed my remarks to just one thing: a personal statement I once wrote to help me clarify my purpose. At the time of its writing, I was the CEO of our household (also known as a stay-at-home mom), anticipating my youngest son’s high school graduation and my return to the workplace. I jotted a list of the skills I thought I was good at and recorded my family values in a journal. Then I distilled these thoughts into a simple principle that has guided my career ever since: A good…

FROM LEFTOVERS TO NOVELTY ICE CREAM Do you ever have a few leftover cookies or one random piece of pie that you just don’t want to eat anymore? Mix them into our Vanilla or Milk Chocolate No-Churn Ice Cream (August/September 2019). Crumble or cut brownies, cookies, or that lonely slice of pie into bite-size pieces until you have about ½ cup. After pouring your ice cream mixture of choice into an 8. by 4½-inch loaf pan, gently stir in the pieces; press plastic wrap flush against the surface of the ice cream mixture; and freeze it until it’s firm, at least 6 hours. Then dig in! –AMANDA LUCHTEL Find our recipes for Vanilla No-Churn Ice Cream and Milk Chocolate No-Churn Ice Cream at CooksCountry.com/icecream. DON’T TOSS THOSE SHRIMP SHELLS In…

WHEN TACKLING STUBBORN messes in the kitchen—whether it’s cooked-on egg, crusty bits of frizzled cheese, or baked-on tomato sauce—we often bypass a sponge entirely and reach for a scrub brush. Scrub brushes off er a few advantages to sponges: Their bristles are better at cutting through tough messes and are less likely to cling to food, their handles help provide good leverage, and they tend to keep our hands out of the mess. But not all scrub brushes are built the same, so we decided to test nine models, made from both natural and synthetic materials, with varying handle lengths and head sizes. They ranged in price from about $5.50 to about $24.00. We put the brushes through the wringer, powering through bowls sticky with biscuit dough as well as…

FROM LEFTOVERS TO NOVELTY ICE CREAM Do you ever have a few leftover cookies or one random piece of pie that you just don’t want to eat anymore? Mix them into our Vanilla or Milk Chocolate No-Churn Ice Cream (August/September 2019). Crumble or cut brownies, cookies, or that lonely slice of pie into bite-size pieces until you have about ½ cup. After pouring your ice cream mixture of choice into an 8. by 4½-inch loaf pan, gently stir in the pieces; press plastic wrap flush against the surface of the ice cream mixture; and freeze it until it’s firm, at least 6 hours. Then dig in! –AMANDA LUCHTEL Find our recipes for Vanilla No-Churn Ice Cream and Milk Chocolate No-Churn Ice Cream at CooksCountry.com/icecream. DON’T TOSS THOSE SHRIMP SHELLS In many of our recipes,…

AT THE FOREVER jam-packed brunch joint Biscuit Head in Asheville, North Carolina, the highlights include fluffy biscuits (as big as a cat’s head), towering breakfast sandwiches, and a unique delight called mimosa fried chicken. A nod to the popular brunch libation of sparkling wine and orange juice, Biscuit Head’s creation is a crunchy, juicy boneless chicken thigh with bright orange notes layered throughout both the meat and the breading; a touch of heat; and just a hint of aromatic, complex white wine. The sparkling wine flavor doesn’t hit you over the head, and if you weren’t looking for it, you might not know it was there, but it adds unmistakable depth and intrigue. We liked this dish so much that we were inspired to develop our own version and bring…