One of the best parts about fall is apple season! Apple orchards open up and the apples are ripe and ready to be picked and turned into all kinds of wonderful apple creations. Get your family or friends together and make a point to pick your own fresh apples this season. Personally, I’m a red apple kind of girl! I’ve never gone to apple orchard before, but I think I’m going to drag my boyfriend Paul along this season, and then make a few of these seasonal recipes.

Apple Pizza - This is a great pizza for the whole family to eat up. This pizza comes with melted apple jelly for the sauce, and apples with cinnamon for the main ingredient.

Applesauce- Instead of going to the store and buying pre-made applesauce try making your own by following this recipe.

Apple Sponge Cake - Everyone loves this delicious sponge cake recipe.

Apple Fritters - For a quick substitute to apple pie, try these fried treats.

Apple Pear Brown Betty - Layers of fresh fruit alternate with a tasty bread mixture made with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Apple Pie - This is a very good pie, and it’s easy to make!

Apple Butter - This apple butter is so creamy and spicy and always reminds me of Fall!  I never buy apple butter because it’s so easy to make.

Apple-Baked Pork Chops with Sherry - Cinnamon, apples and sherry give these pork chops an extra-sweet flavor.

Apple Yogurt Pie - A creamy pie with low-fat vanilla yogurt.

Click here for more delicious fall apple recipes!

Happy September, everybody!  I’ve always found September to be a pretty dull month overall.  Besides Labor Day, there’s nothing exciting going on.  But there is one relatively  new holiday that I will be celebrating this month: my boyfriend’s and my 1 1/2 yr anniversary! (Yes, it’s still new enough that we celebrate the halves!)  I have decided that I want to cook a meal to celebrate- help me pick my menu after the jump!

I found the perfect collection of recipes on Recipe4Living called “Elegantly Easy Meals for You and a Significant Other.”  Elegant AND easy?  I couldn’t imagine anything better.

I picked out two meals that I like the sound of the best, so I just need help in deciding which one is best.  Here are the candidates:

Meal One:

Green Beans, Toasted Pecans and Blue Cheese: This couldn’t sound any better if it tried!  Vegetables are always better when they have delicious cheese all over them, and it sounds pretty easy to make!

Broiled Herb Butter Chicken: This meal is in and out of the oven in 15 minutes and the herb butter is bound to give it some great flavor.  And who doesn’t like chicken?

Chocolate Silk Pie: The perfect romantic and tasty dessert.  You don’t even need to bake it!

Meal Two:

Moroccan Lentil Salad: Fresh veggies, lentils, and chickpeas make this a delicious and awesomely healthy way to start the meal.

Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderloin: Grilling is probably the simplest way to cook food, so this main course would be EASY!  The combination of maple and garlic is really intriguing, too.

Crustless Cranberry Pie: The person who added this recipe described it as “Light, super simple, and delicious dessert.  Great with vanilla ice cream.”  Enough said.

Now here’s where you come in: let me know which one you like the sound of.  I think I’m leaning towards meal #1, but I’m not sure.  They both sound yummy!

If you want to see ALL of the elegantly easy meals for two, click here!

Up until I was 15, I was a vegetarian. I’m 21 now, and even though it’s only been 6 years of eating meat, I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about turning over to the dark side. Since September is National Chicken Month, I wanted to share some tips and recipes that I think all cooks (beginners and experts) will find helpful about delicious chicken.

Really Easy Chicken Recipes
Easy Teriyaki Chicken
Easy Crockpot Pepper Chicken
Italian Chicken

Chicken Casserole Recipes
Country Chicken Casserole
Chicken Spaghetti Casserole
Chicken Artichoke Casserole

Chicken Salad Recipes
Fruited Chicken Salad
Chinese Chicken Salad
Best Chicken Salad Ever

Chicken Soup Recipes
Chicken Dumpling Soup
Chicken Tortellini Soup
Chicken Chili Soup

Tips for Thawing Chicken
- Always freeze uncooked chicken if it is not to be used within 2 days.
- Chicken should not be thawed on the countertop.
- It takes about 24 hours to thaw a 4-pound chicken in the refrigerator. Cut-up parts, 3 to 9 hours.
- For quick thawing of raw or cooked chicken use the microwave. Thawing time will vary according to your microwave.
- Chicken may also be safely thawed in cold water. Place chicken in its original wrap or watertight plastic bag in cold water. Change water often. It takes about 2 hours to thaw a whole chicken.

Cubing Chicken – For cubing chicken: Refrigerate after cooking. Wait until and gets cold and then it will be so much easier to cut!

Fore more tips, click here!

If you’re looking for more chicken recipes, click here!

A week ago, I was lucky enough to chat with Melissa and Joey Maggiore, stars of the new Food Network program “Family Style,”which premiered on August 26. The show follows the Maggiores, a brother and sister team who opened up Tommy V’s Urban Kitchen, an Italian restaurant in Carlsbad, California.  This unscripted “odd couple-esque” series documents the mayhem, mishaps, and hilarity that come with working with your sibling. Read some of the interview highlights after the jump!

On parenting:
Both Melissa and Joey both have children at home, so working long hours can be tough.  While Joey has his wife to take some of the load of parenting off his shoulders, Melissa, a single mother, has the difficult task of balancing working life with caring for her children.  She tries to make sure that she is involved in her children’s lives as much as she can be, taking them to school in the morning, picking them up from school in the afternoon, and having them visit the restaurant throughout the day.  “From what I’ve learned, it’s not the quantity; it’s the quality of time. So, the time that I am with them is just for them - I turn off the phone and I’m just with my children.”

On Their Guilty Pleasures:
Melissa:  Cheese! “I hide in the walk-in and I go through the cheese and eat all the gorgonzola and the blue cheese, and as soon as they walk in I take my hand away.”

Joey: “We make a traditional, Sicilian cheesecake called testata – basically a cannoli filling in a cake. That’s my guilty pleasure- every night I try to sneak one in!”

On Their Favorite Italian Dishes to Make at Home:
Melissa: Aioli.  “I do it all the time – pasta, olive oil, garlic, a little red pepper. I cook really simple at home, with a lot of seafood.”

Joey: Sugo.  He describes it as “braised short ribs, homemade meatballs, and you cook it all day long.”

Read the full interview here to learn about the advice they have for getting picky eaters to try new foods, the time Joey dug up the yard of Melissa’s rented house, and the signature dishes at Tommy V’s Urban Kitchen!

Also, be sure to tune in to the Food Network on Thursdays at 10:30pm Eastern time to see all-new episodes of “Family Style!”

For interviews with chefs from the Cooking Channel, click here!

We gave you a rundown on salmonella last week, since millions of eggs have been tainted. Now we’re giving you an update, and we’re sorry that it isn’t a happy one. It’s actually really gross, and it will probably make me think twice about eating eggs for a while. Government reports made a grim discovery regarding the conditions at the two Iowa egg producers that are at the forefront of the egg recall. Filthy doesn’t even begin to describe what they found. More after the jump.

A report that described the Wright County Egg said that it was filthy, infested with rats and flies and overflowing with manure so that some of the doors couldn’t even be closed. The other egg producer, Hillandale Farms, had many unsealed rodent holes into its hen houses. Liquid manure leaked out from a manure pit and almost 50 hens that had escaped brought manure back with them into the henhouse.

And we have been eating these eggs! Imagine being one of the poor souls who is sick beyond belief, and hearing about the disgusting conditions these places were in. If we’re holding B.P. accountable for the oil spill, these farms need to held liable for the damage they have caused. As many has 1,470 people have been sickened by the eggs.

After the FDA learned of the reports, it announced that it will immediately launch inspections of all the egg-laying operations in with more than 50,000 laying hens. This totals out to more than 80% of the eggs produced in the U.S. I’m a little nervous about what they will find, and I’m hoping that these two farms were the worst of it.

Here are the detailed descriptions of what was found at the farms, according to USA Today:

At Quality Egg the FDA found:

- Chicken manure in piles up to 8 feet high under five egg-laying houses
- Chicken house doors blocked by manure
- Dark liquid which appears to be manure, seeping through concrete foundation to the outside of the laying houses.
- Escaped birds using the piles of manure to enter the egg-laying areas.
- Live rodents
- Living and dead flies in various houses.
- Living and dead maggots in the manure piles.

At Hillandale the FDA found:

- Multiple rodent holes.
- Gaps under doors where rodents and insects could enter henhouses.
- Standing water near manure pits.
- Liquid manure leaking out of manure pits.
- Fly and rodent monitoring forms not correctly filled out.

We will keep you posted as this story continues to develop.

Most people have heard of the spork, the spoon/fork hybrid utensil that comes in handy on many occasions, but today I learned about some other crazy eating utensils that I’ve never heard of before!  Introducing…the knork and the spife!

The knork is- you guessed it- a combination of a knife and a fork.  The edges of the fork are slightly sharpened and curved so you can turn your fork on its side and cut through meat and other foods with ease!  The Nibble recommends using the knork for airplane journey when you have little elbow room or occasions where you need to hold your plate in one hand and have a utensil in the other (i.e. tailgating or a picnic).  It’s also good for children who aren’t yet skilled at using a knife and fork together.

I see the merits of the knork, but I can’t really see it catching on as well as the spork did (and the spork is still not mainstream whatsoever!) 

The next utensil that I learned about is the spife.  The end of the spife is that of an ordinary spoon, but the handle is converted into a knife.  It is most commonly used for cutting and eating kiwis, but it can also be used for other fruits. 

The obvious issue that I see with the spife is you’re holding onto a knife blade!  I understand that most spifes are made of plastic, so they’re not particularly dangerous, but it can’t be comfortable to hold jagged plastic for a long time.  Another version of a spife that I saw had an ordinary handle, but one of the spoon’s edges had a knife-like texture.  That situation has you putting a knife blade in your mouth!  Not good. 

I think for now I’ll stick to ordinary silverware.  I’m not generally in situations where silverware is a hindrance, so I’m perfectly happy with knives, forks, and spoons! 

Related Articles
Cool Kitchen Gadgets from Usefulthings.com
Know Your Knives
Kitchen Essentials for First-Time Cooks

Read all about tons of unique cooking gadgets right here!

Over the weekend, my boyfriend, Paul, and I visited the Taste of Greece in downtown Chicago. We were both craving some Mediterranean food, and this was a perfect opportunity for a midday date. Located on Halsted St. in Greek Town and running about 4 blocks, the Taste of Greece was dominated by food stands. Vendors were also selling jewelry and religious items and there were lots of disc jockeys and bands. Find out what we ate, and how the Taste of Greece rated after the jump.

Instead of just settling on the first food stand, Paul and I walked through the entire fest just to make sure we knew exactly what was on sale. Each restaurant stand had 3-4 items, mostly gyros, souvlakia (shish-kabobs) and other common Greek items. But a few had octopus, kalamari and pastitsio. It was tough to make a decision!

Paul absolutely loves gyros, and as much as I tell him to try something else, he always retreats back to his comfort dish. Since the Santorini stand had what we both wanted (gyros and souvlaki), we settled on it.

Gyros is typically made with pork, but the one being sold was chicken. It was a lighter brown color and a little thinner than pork gyros. It came with a piece of bread, onions, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, rice and potatoes. Paul was a little disappointed that he didn’t get pita bread, but that was his only complaint. The chicken gyros surprised him. It was much better than he thought it would be.

Here are some more delicious gyros recipes:
Gyros
Gyros Greek Sandwich
Gyros

I decided to go for the pork souvlaki. The plate came with two kabobs, pita, onions, tomatoes, tzatziki, rice and potatoes. Both plates costs about $8, but there was a ton of food so it was really worth it.

Too bad my pork wasn’t as good as the gyros though. It was way too chewy for my taste, and I choked on one of the pieces and almost caused a scene. Talk about embarrassing. The rice and potatoes were super tasty though, and so it made up for the pork.

I’d much rather have this Greek-Style Pork Chops recipe. Pair it with rice and potatoes: Oven Roast Greek Potatoes and Mediterranean Rice Pilaf.

After we pigged out on our meals, we took another stroll down the fest. We definitely wanted to have some saganaki, and Athena Restaurant was selling it. Paul and I split a piece, and even though it was fresh, it was very salty. Don’t get me wrong, I know that saganaki is supposed to salty, but this was just over the top. I wasn’t impressed at all.

We then played a few games, lost some money and grabbed a frappe to cool ourselves off. It was extremely hot at the fest, and I forgot to bring a hair-tie! I drink my frappe with a little bit of milk, and Paul drank his with a ridiculous amount of milk and sugar! Way too much if you ask me!

Refreshing frappe recipes:
Coffee Frappe
5th Avenue Frappe
Frappucino

Overall, I didn’t think the food at the Taste of Greece was that good. But my expectations may have been too high. I eat Greek food all the time, so I should have expected that it wouldn’t be something over-the-top amazing. Paul, on the other hand, enjoyed everything!

Here are some more delicious Greek recipes:
Greek-Style Beef Stew
Greek Steak Pitas
Greek Tomatoes

As I recently had a Hawaiian party at my house, I’m still in a bit of a tropical mood. I also happen to still have leftover pineapple juice and flavored rums and vodkas all over my house, so I decided to use them up and make a Hawaiian Martini!

I’m not gonna lie; I was a fool when I picked this drink.  Why?  Well, I picked it by just looking at the ingredients and not actually reading anything about it.  Big mistake for 2 reasons:

1) The recipe makes 36 drinks.

2) This drink takes 3 days to make.

Click here to view the original recipe and see what I mean!

I did not have 3 days to spare, nor did I want to make 36 drinks, so you can see the predicament I was in.

After about a half an hour of long division, I decided to just give up and make my own measurements based on the recipe’s proportions.  Here’s what I came up with:

1 1/2 oz. vodka
3/4 oz. vanilla vodka
3/4 oz. coconut rum
splash pineapple juice
about 1/4-1/2 tsp. sugar

I just threw all this together in a shaker, mixed it up with ice, strained it, and garnished it with a pineapple slice!  Voila!

My first sip was actually really good- the flavors of the coconut rum, the vanilla vodka, and the pineapple juice  went perfectly together.  Now, I have the tendency to forget that even if liquor is flavored, it still tastes like liquor.  The fact that this drink was pretty much 90% pure alcohol never crossed my mind! As I continued to sip the drink, it seemed to get stronger and stronger (which is kind of the opposite of how it usually goes).  I couldn’t continue after my 4th sip of what tasted like pure rubbing alcohol.

I honestly believe, though, that if I followed the original recipe, it would have been SO much better. The original recipe calls for you to let the booze sit for 3 days with fresh pineapple spears in it.  I think the pineapple would have really sweetened the drink and taken away from the strong alcoholic flavor.

If you’d like to make this drink, but you don’t have 3 days to spare, I would recommend using half pineapple juice and half alcohol (adjust the measurements accordingly).

Here are some other tropical drinks you might enjoy:
Honolulu Punch
Melon Spritz
Island Chiller
Papaya Agua Fresca
Grenada

Salmon Baby Food – Susan Brewer created a baby food that uses wild salmon. Salmon isn’t exactly the fish you might think of for baby food because it’s a little tougher. But the food uses salmon that caught late in the fish’s life, when its flesh has begun to soften. Brewers also adds salmon bonemeal and roe to her mix, for added nutrition. I didn’t start eating fish until I was about 16, so the thought of infants putting mashed up salmon in their mouths kind of grosses me out.

A Food Opportunity For Refugees – A dairy near Boardman, Oregon has hired refugees from many places, including Bhutan, Myanmar and Somalia. They come here for a enw life and an opportunity to chase the American dream. I think this is an amazing story. Even though we are still in the throes of the recession, some people are still finding amazing opportunities.

Texas State Fair Has Fried Beer – At the Big Tex Choice Awards at the Texas State Fair, tons of foods are deep-fried in an attempt to take the Most Creative and Best Taste awards. The food doesn’t have to be fried, but that seems to be the way to go. This year, two interesting items caught my eye: Fried Beer and the Deep Fried Frozen Margarita. The former is kind of like a roll of pretzel dough filled with beer. The latter is like funnel cake mixed with a tequila-tasting liquid, and finished off with a bit of margarita mix.

Banning Chocolate Milk – Cafeteria milk isn’t always what you think. About 71 percent of the milk served in cafeterias around the U.S. is flavored. But chocolate milk contains twice as much sugar as plain low-fat milk. This problem has caused some schools to actually ban chocolate milk. Some people say that the only way kids will drink milk is if it’s flavored. I don’t know a lot of kids who drink milk at all. I’m partial to keeping chocolate milk in the schools. What do you think?

Airline Food Cookbook – I’ve ranted about airplane food before. It’s completely gross most of the time. But Singapore Airlines is trying to change that. The airline has earned tons of service awards over the years, and has released a cookbook titled, “Above & Beyond.” The 145-page book is filled with gourmet dishes from 10 celebrity chefs the airline has hired. Most of the recipes have been served on the airline. Pretty cool! But since I won’t be visiting Singapore anytime soon, I’ll stick to eating before I get on a flight.

580 million eggs have been recalled all over the U.S. so far, and the numbers might continue to increase. Salmonella is the culprit, and a farm in Iowa seems to be the source.

Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, Trafficanda Egg Ranch issued a voluntary egg recall on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website because the eggs were associated with a salmonella outbreak. Millions of shell eggs in medium, large, extra large, and jumbo cartons have been recalled. After the jump, learn all about salmonella.

Which eggs have been recalled? - The Aug. 13 recall covers eggs from Wright County Egg in Iowa packaged under the brand names Lucerne (Safeway’s store brand), Albertsons, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farm and Kemps. The eggs come in 6-18-egg cartons and other packaging stamped with so-called Julian or packing dates from 136 to 225 (May 16 to Aug. 13). The cartons come from plant Nos. 1026, 1413 or 1946.

The second recall includes eggs from Wright County Egg packaged under the brand names Albertsons, Farm Fresh, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma’s, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast. The egg cartons are stamped with Julian dates 136 to 229 (May 16 to Aug. 17) and plant Nos. 1720 or 1942.

So what is salmonella? - Bacteria that is responsible for many illnesses in humans. Salmonella can be a cause of food poisoning and typhoid fever. The “bad” type of salmonella is usually contracted by touching raw meat, raw eggs, raw shellfish or unpasteurized animal products such as milk and cheese.

How do eggs become infected with salmonella? - Salmonella enteritidis can infect the ovaries of healthy hens and contaminate the eggs before the shells are formed.

Symptoms of salmonella in a human include: fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea beginning 12 to 72 hours after consuming a contaminated food or beverage. The sickness usually lasts 4-7 days. Most people recover with any medicinal treatment, but some cases may be very serious and actually require hospitalization.

Over 1,000 people in 10 different states have gotten sick from the salmonella eggs. But there are a few ways that you can help prevent yourself from falling ill.

These egg safety tips are The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Keep eggs refrigerated
• Discard cracked or dirty eggs
• Avoid eating raw eggs
• Wash hands, cooking utensils and food preparation surfaces with soap and water after contact with raw eggs
• Consumers should cook eggs until both the whites and the yokes are firm. Consumption of raw or undercooked eggs should be avoided.
• Leftovers containing eggs should be promptly as soon as possible
• Avoid restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs

According to Recipe4Living, eating eggs has many visible results. Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids that are found in the lens of the eye.  These help protect the eye from harmful UV rays, as well as diseases such as macular degeneration.  Eggs contain a great deal of these carotenoids, as well.  By eating eggs, you are actually protecting your eyes from diseases and harmful natural elements.  In one study, people who ate eggs regularly were even less likely to develop cataracts.

Here are some more quick egg facts:

• Eating eggs can reduce women’s risk of breast cancer
• Eggs contain vitamin D, which promotes bone health
• The vitamins, minerals, and sulfur in eggs promote healthy hair and nails
• Eggs contain all 9 essential amino acids

The bottom line? Steer clear of raw eggs, now and always. Eat healthy egg recipes, where they are fully cooked.

Here are a few examples:

Everything Omelet
Veggie Scrambled Eggs
Eggs Goldenrod

For more information on eggs, click here!