EatingWell January 2014

Let’s get introductions out of the way. This is my first issue as editor-in-chief. I started at EatingWell 10 years ago, working on recipes in the Test Kitchen. When I became food editor and got to direct all the food content for the magazine, our books, our website, I thought I was the luckiest gal around. Here’s the deal: I think about food and cooking all the time. At home, at work, on vacation, while I’m working out, wherever, whenever—I’m thinking about food. How do I unwind after work? Cook dinner. What do I do while I drink my coffee in the morning? Read about food. When I scoured my files for a recipe a couple of days ago I came across recipes and articles I collected when I was…

December’s issue features all of my favorite season’s foods. I was excited to see “Galettes for All.” I’m a galette fanatic and it was neat to see new ideas. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes mouthwatering. I loved “My Julia Child Moment” [Nourish]; I think we’ve all had one of those. ERIN McNARY HAMPTON via Facebook German Pumpkins I really liked the recipe for Creamy Rye & Butternut Squash Soup [October]. I combined it with a traditional German pumpkin soup. (Pumpkins are big here. My neighborhood just had a pumpkin festival.) Germans add coriander, fresh ginger and cloves. KIM SINGLETARY Berlin, Germany Makeover Magic We had Oven-Fried Beef Taquitos [December] for dinner last night and they are delicious. The picture does not tell you about all the zucchini in them. I will never [deep-] fry taquitos again. SUSAN…

HEALTHY NEW YEAR New Meal Plans to Lose Weight & Eat Healthy Get access to new delicious, calorie-controlled meal plans designed by our nutrition experts to help you lose weight and eat healthy using our new interactive meal plan tool at eatingwell.com/go/mealplans JOIN OUR DIET CHALLENGE This is your year to lose weight and feel great! Join the EatingWell Diet Challenge on January 1 as our editors offer daily tips and recipes to make dropping pounds fun at eatingwell.com/go/dietchallenge A WEEK OF CLEAN EATING Want to clean up your diet? Take our 7-Day Clean-Eating Challenge from February 3-9 as we help you eat healthier with daily tips and recipes at eatingwell.com/go/cleaneating 3 WAYS TO WIN! $15,000 TO MAKE OVER YOUR KITCHEN Enter our $15,000 Make Over Your Kitchen Sweepstakes at eatingwell.com/WinMakeover to organize, refresh and renew your kitchen. See…

Mushrooms do more than top pizza: they’re a valuable source of a vitamin we all need, especially during these short winter days. That’s because the sun is our main source of vitamin D. You will find the vitamin in a few fortified foods, like milk and OJ. And it’s naturally in mushrooms and certain wild-caught fish, such as salmon and mackerel, but there aren’t many D-rich foods. As a result, 80 percent of the U.S. population has seasonal vitamin D deficiency, says Michael Holick, Ph.D., M.D., who heads the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University’s School of Medicine. Mushrooms—like our skin—make D when exposed to sunlight. That’s why wild mushrooms are high in the vitamin. Commercial mushrooms are typically grown in the dark, but some growers have…

The 2014 Winter Olympics might be why you’re hearing about Sochi, Russia, for the first time, but there’s more to this Black Sea resort city than sports. Sochi may just be one of the best-kept culinary destination secrets around. Th anks to its geography, it has been a trade crossroads for millennia, settled by ancient Greeks, Circassians and successions of diverse ethnic groups. Most groups were largely displaced when Russians conquered the region in 1864. But Russian cuisine never dominated Sochi as completely as it did other areas of the country. Instead, today you’ll find Russian flavors along with traditions from its neighbors. Circassian chicken, for example: poached breasts layered with ground walnuts, hazelnuts and cream. Or chestnuts served Abkhazian style: mixed with ground walnuts and salt and garnished with…

At the sleek zinc and stainless-steel bar of SHED in Healdsburg, California, the tap system fills glasses with locally brewed craft beers, hard cider and, of course, Sonoma County wines. But what makes this bar special is its array of nonalcoholic fermented brews: kombuchas, kefir waters (fermented fruit-water blends) and colorful tangy drinks called shrubs, made with fresh fruits and house-made vinegars. No wonder it’s been dubbed the “Fermentation Bar”—the country’s first, claim the owners. “People find our drinks refreshing, hydrating and healthy-tasting,” says SHED’s mixologist Jordan Lancer. Looking to highlight more than just beer and wine, Lancer hopes to inspire customers to learn more about the fermentation process. “The shrubs and kombuchas have a bit of an acid bite to them,” he adds, describing the kefir water as creamy, with…