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Bourbon can make many foods better

If ever there was a season for bourbon, it's fall. The rich, round vanilla notes of a good bourbon complement our favorite autumn foods. That goes for meats, vegetables and sweets. It's an equal opportunity spirit that makes everything taste better. A splash of bourbon is an easy way to up the flavor ante and elevate your home cooking. For example, a little bourbon and brown sugar mixed with butter, salt and pepper transforms ordinary sweet potatoes and winter squash into a side dish that steals the spotlight. To coax all the flavor out of these vegetables, make sure to roast ...

Celebrate the flavors of fall

(Family Features) As chilly weather sets in and days get shorter, comfort food favorites once again fill menus. While traditional flavor combinations typically hold a special place in many families' hearts and on their plates, there is almost always room to add new and exciting flavors to tried-and-true favorites. If you're craving cheesy scalloped potatoes, savory stuffing or juicy braised meat, an option like California Ripe Olives are an easy addition that can spruce up your go-to dishes. Their mild and unique taste lends itself well to many different flavor pairings such as ...

Cook for a crowd with this cassoulet recipe

Entertaining a crowd can be a lot of work, but there’s also a lot of excitement and fulfillment when welcoming loved ones into your home. When hosting includes homecooking, hosts may worry they won’t get to spend too much time with their guests. However, when using a slow cooker to prepare meals for a crowd, hosts can get much of the work done long before the first guest arrives. Hosts who want to show off their culinary chops can try this recipe for “Classic Cassoulet” from Andrew Schloss’ “Cooking Slow: Recipes for Slowing Down and Cooking More” (Chronicle Books). A ...

A Grape Sensation

(Family Features) By incorporating versatile ingredients into your holiday cooking, you can make a vast array of tasty seasonal goodies. For example, California grapes are abundant throughout the holiday season and add taste and visual appeal to dishes of all kinds, such as Seared Salmon with Spinach and Grapes, Grape Caprese Salad Hors d' Oeuvres, Grapes in RosÈ Wine Sauce and Wild Rice Stuffing with Grapes and Hazelnuts. Plus, they're an easy, fresh, healthy snack to keep on-hand for hungry guests waiting for the meal. With their natural beauty, grapes can also be used to create ...

Stop fiddling with the food! And other mistakes cooks make

We all love getting kitchen tips, those little tricks we should be doing to make us better cooks. But sometimes it's the things we should stop doing that matter. A dozen common kitchen mistakes, and how to easily correct them: 1. NOT READING THE RECIPE ALL THE WAY THROUGH Before you start cooking, make sure you a) have all the ingredients, b) think through the timing of the steps and c) look up directions that might be confusing. This way, you don't find yourself staring at the recipe in dismay when the words "marinate overnight" or "chill for at least four hours" pop up at the ...

Put down that takeout menu: Stir-fry basics for home cooks

For every home cook happily tossing together a stir fry at home, there are a dozen would-be stir fryers wanting to make chicken-broccoli-sugar-snap-pea stir fry . and then sheepishly reaching for the takeout menu. Stir-fry technique has many people intimidated. But if you can slice and stir, you can stir fry. So, let's break it down, review the basics, and get everyone on their way to stir-fry success. DIRECTIONS: 1. Read the recipe all the way through. The ingredients, the steps, everything. Getting a sense of the order of events so you know what's coming will make you more ...