The Best of BGSK

One of the foodie new year’s resolutions I suggested for 2012 was that we all make more pancakes. Pancakes was really just a stand-in for any slightly involved, completely delicious breakfast treat. And I didn’t suggest it so we’d all enter 2013 all chubby from eating coffee cake instead of yogurt every morning (I have a wedding dress to wear in late 2012–remember?). On weekends, I like to make pancakes for Alex or cake and baked eggs for friends I’ve invited for brunch. It’s fun to spend longer in the kitchen than the time it takes to…

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Italian cuisine plays a lot of roles in our kitchens. It’s easy. It’s cheap. It’s comforting. And despite being all of the above, it’s also romantic.

Proof? The best way I can think to celebrate Valentine’s Day is with Alex and a few of my best friends over brick-oven pizza at a downtown NYC Italian restaurant. Comforting, easy, and full of love.

But pasta is the Italian staple we come back to the most. We’d venture to guess that you do, too. And as such, it can sometimes get old. Pasta with tomato sauce is a classic and our favorite,…

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There’s a reason why we dedicate an entire chapter to dips in our book: they’re fun, they’re filling, and they’re easy to make in Super Bowl-sized proportions. As the countdown begins to the big Sunday, we highly recommend factoring a few dips into your menu. While size does matter on game day, Mexican and Southwestern flavors also seem to score extra points. So we’ve selected our cheesiest, heartiest dips for the football lovers at your table. Make them in advance, and don’t be shy about your quantities–commercial breaks are no time for replenishing!

**Recipes**

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Chinese New Year offers tons of opportunity for celebration: parades, dim sum brunches, and Chinatown feasts. It’s also a brilliant reason to throw a party! If you’re feeling ambitious, celebrate the year of the dragon by making your own dumplings or bun–or supplement any of the great main course treats that follow with takeout dumplings from one of NYC’s many $1-for-four-dumpling joints.

**The Best Chinese-Inspired New Year’s Treats**

1. Pork and String Bean Stir Fry. This was invented as an easy weeknight dinner for two, but it doubles as a buffet main…

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Cozying up with a bowl of stew is our favorite way to spend a drowsy winter weeknight evening. Most stews are one-pot meals, and most get better with time–genius! That means you get to make them in advance, maybe even on Sunday, and enjoy the fruits of your cooking later in the week. Though stews may be best enjoyed wearing sweatpants and flannel, they also wind up being quite elegant, refined enough for a dinner party (think Julia Child and Boeuf Bourguignon).

**9 Stews To Keep You Cozy This Fall**

Slow-Cooker Beef Stew with Red…

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As food bloggers, you might imagine that we’d be tethered to a line that runs from our kitchens to our desks. You would be fairly justified in imagining this. But in real life, things are a little different. There are days–glorious, delicious days–when we cook and photograph all day and eat things like Grits with Frizzled Shallots and a Fried Egg for breakfast, Golden Zucchini Sandwiches for lunch, and Coconut-Crusted Tilapia for dinner. There are also days when deadlines approach and we can hardly be bothered to cook, as there’s so much typing…

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The new year is a time to reinvent yourself, even in the kitchen. Sure, you’ll go to the gym more and eat less like a college student this year. Sure.

But really, let’s be realistic about this.

Here are our simple, straightforward food resolutions for 2012. Attainable, green, and heart-warming, they’ll give us goals to meet all year long. Are you making any cooking resolutions? Where will your kitchen bring you in 2012?

**Food Resolutions to Make in 2012**

1. Simmer Stock. When you’re a quarter-life cook, convenience is undisputedly queen. But when you do have some extra time, and some…

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With the holidays near–er, here–holiday party season is in full swing. We’re sure you’ve already labored over festive meals and decadent desserts to serve to your loved ones when entertaining at home. If you’re still hosting, for New Year’s Eve, perhaps, you deserve to take a break. Or at least appear to in front of your guests.

These awesome appetizers require almost no moment-of work or attention. Some need to be pulled out of the oven or gently reheated, but other than that, they’re purely make-ahead. For the most part, they’re easy too, requiring no more than a few…

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Christmas Cookies! With just a few short weeks to go, it’s time to start baking…or at least time to start thinking about baking.

Just the mention of cookies smiles to our faces. Between holiday parties and cookie swaps, we’ll be eating our fill. The question is, what to bake? There is the classic: a sugar cookie, artfully decorated. There’s the historical: a mandelbread recipe, passed down from Cara’s grandma. And there’s the seasonal: a spiced snickerdoodle, or a super-gingery gingersnap.

The best Christmas cookies look pretty and taste great, and they also keep well. That last quality means they…

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Our first-ever BGSK gift guide highlights eight days of presents we know you want to give and receive. To cut through the cluttered shelves of kitchen-oriented goodies, we’re spending eight days showing you the best of the best of the kitchen goodies to wrap up for or unwrap on Hanukkah and Christmas.

Today is Day #6–The 7 Best Giftable Food Activities.

There are food gifts like boxes of chocolate bark that can fit inside a stocking, and then there are those that are simply explained in a card. Who says the best presents have to be material things? For…

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