For a festive pie, look to your cookie cutters! Whether you are celebrating Halloween, the first day of school, or a pie-lover’s birthday, you can use your chilled pie dough to create a decorative crust. To make a decorative edge with cutout shapes, roll chilled dough scraps to ⅛-inch thick. […]
Sugar pumpkins (also termed pie or cheese pumpkins) are smaller, sweeter, and more tender and flavorful than pumpkins used for carving Jack-o’-lanterns. The flesh of this variety of pumpkin has a creamier, less stringy flesh. Choose smooth, deep orange pumpkins that are heavy for their size and without cracks or […]
You are in official Halloween weather watch mode, when you finally decide: do I have to wear a jacket over my awesome costume!? Your friends at the CIA are rooting for you, and our fingers are crossed for clear skies and warm breezes for your candy-gathering adventures! But before you […]
Are you afraid of ghosts? Monsters? Zombies!? For Halloween treat inspiration, we look to the creepy crawlies, and this easy spider web design can be used to make creepy cupcakes, spoooooky coooookies, and cakes or pizza that will give you goosebumps! For these cupcakes, we rolled pre-made fondant (you can […]
Small foodies may have candy on the brain, but before they start their whirlwind foraging expedition, little ghosts, cowgirls—and hopefully a tiny chef or two!?—need some food-fuel. Since it is Halloween, dinner needs to be fun and maybe a little spooky! For your sake, it should also be easy. We […]
Makes 4 to 6 servings Roasting the tomatoes adds an unusual twist to this bisque. If you prefer, you can substitute sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed) for the roasted tomatoes. Ingredients 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil 1 1/4 cups diced onion 1/2 cup diced celery 1 1/4 cups diced leek […]
Both roasting and smoking tomatoes helps to concentrate flavors for rich, sweet tomato flavor. Use these tomatoes as a garnish on pizza, blended into soups, or served alongside eggs and bacon for breakfast.
A good bisque reflects the flavor of the main ingredient. If you have added cream to round out and mellow the soup, it should not mask the main flavor. All bisques are slightly coarse or grainy, with a consistency similar to heavy cream. A crustacean bisque is pale pink or […]
As we ease into autumn, we can finally celebrate the return of roasting—especially vegetables. We love roasting because it is one of the most delicious ways to enjoy seasonal fall produce, like hard-skinned squash, cauliflower, fennel, and Brussels sprouts (color = flavor), as well as incredibly easy and hands-off. Even […]
As the fall rolls in, you can put on some sweatpants and curl up with a cozy blanket. But you also need to nourish your belly with the flavors of the season. We’ve made a list of some of our best fall recipes which just happen to be plant-forward. Brussels […]
Great food and wine go hand in hand, but when the-things-to-know-about-wine are seemingly infinite, it can be difficult (and intimidating!) to choose a wine. In this series, we’ll explore the fundamentals of wine, from grape varietals to tasting, so that you can tackle a wine list with confidence. Get to […]
Everything that can be brewed and is not tea or a coffee bean is known as an infusion (although technically coffee is an infusion, too). Remember, if it does not come from the tea tree, it is technically not tea. There are also herbal teas, but that label is only […]