Category Archives: Cool Cooking Techniques

Sponsored Post: Overnight-Oats Pazazz Apple Muffins with Peanut Butter and Honey-Roasted Peanuts

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Pazazz apples star in these hearty muffins made with overnight oats and spelt flour.
Pazazz apples star in these hearty muffins made with overnight oats and spelt flour.

Peanut butter smeared on crunchy apple slices have got to be one of the easiest, most nutritious, and most deliciously satisfying snacks around.

Now, I’ve taken that dynamic duo one step further by transforming those irresistible flavors into a moist and hearty muffin. What’s more, they’re full of good-for-you whole grains and juicy pieces of Pazazz apples, and get fancifully finished with a drizzle of creamy peanut butter and a shower of chopped honey-roasted peanuts.

If that isn’t the perfect way to greet the day or perk up an afternoon, I don’t know what is.

Bake a batch of “Overnight-Oats Pazazz Apple Muffins with Peanut Butter and Honey-Roasted Peanuts” to celebrate National Peanut Month in March and to mark National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day that was March 1.

Pick up juicy, snappy, late-season Pazazz apples at your local grocery store.
Pick up juicy, snappy, late-season Pazazz apples at your local grocery store.

March also is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, a good reminder that a healthy diet full of fiber can go a long way to prevent what is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

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A Twist on Chicken Pot Pie

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Creamy, comforting chicken pot pie -- with a different topper.
Creamy, comforting chicken pot pie — with a different topper.

Take your favorite fruit crumble — but skip the apples, berries or stone fruit, and give it a hearty savory filling instead.

That’s just what this chicken pot pie is delightfully like.

That’s because “Chicken Pot Pie with Savory Crumble Topping” swaps out the usual puff pastry or buttery pie crust topper for crunchy, toasty, Parmesan-laced crumbles strewn over the top that act almost like croutons — adding bits of crispiness that also deliciously sop up the creamy sauce underneath.

This recipe is from “The Savory Baker” (2022), of which I received a review copy.

Version 1.0.0

The cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen includes 150 recipes for baked items that lean savory, not sweet, such as “Manchego and Chorizo Muffins,” “Cast-Iron Skillet Calzone,” “Blue Cheese and Chive Popovers with Blue Cheese Butter,” and “Pizza Monkey Bread.”

If all you know is the mass-produced pot pies in your supermarket freezer case, this version will be a huge step-up.

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Messy But Good: Garlicky Roasted Shrimp with Cumin, Ginger & Sesame

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You'll need a stack of napkins to eat these, but they're worth it.
You’ll need a stack of napkins to eat these, but they’re worth it.

Not shrimp boil, but shrimp broil.

That’s what “Garlicky Roasted Shrimp with Cumin, Ginger & Sesame” encapsulates.

Prepare to get down and dirty with this quick and easy dish. That’s because not only do you have to rub seasonings all over and into slit, shell-on shrimp before broiling, but of course once cooked, you have to then peel them to eat.

But like Dungeness crab in-season, these shrimp are well worth the effort and cleanup afterward.

This recipe is from “America’s Test Kitchen 25th Anniversary Cookbook: 500 Recipes That Changed the Way America Cooks” (2024), of which I received a review copy.

Believe me, you’ll get a workout just lifting this 711-page book.

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Zahav’s Braised Lamb Shanks with Sour Cherry & Cola

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Lamb shanks braised low and slow with soda and juice. Yup!
Lamb shanks braised low and slow with soda and juice. Yup!

I am not a soda drinker.

But I am someone who likes to cook and bake with the stuff.

It’s curiosity that draws me, imagining what the fizzy, sweet drink will add to a particular dish or treat.

That’s why “Braised Lamb Shanks with Sour Cherry & Cola” leaped off the pages of the new “Zahav Home” (Harvest, 2024), of which I received a review copy.

The book is by Chef Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook, co-owners of the Philadelphia hospitality group, CookNSolo Restaurants, of which the flagship is Zahav. In 2019, that restaurant became the first Israeli and first Philadelphia restaurant to win the James Beard “Outstanding Restaurant” Award. They now own 23 restaurants in three states. Their Zahav Hummus is now sold at Whole Foods Markets across the United States, too.

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Tom Colicchio’s “Possibly the Best Grilled Cheese You’ll Ever Have”

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'Nduja and plenty of mozzarella make this grilled cheese extra messy and delicious.
‘Nduja and plenty of mozzarella make this grilled cheese extra messy and delicious.

Tom Colicchio may be a household name now, thanks to 21 seasons as head judge and executive producer of the Emmy-winning, Bravo hit show “Top Chef.”

But as a kid, he felt a little lost and a lot unsure while growing up in northern New Jersey, especially with a father who was often moody, silent, and a gambling addict.

One day, when he was 13, his mom dragged him to her weekly hair appointment. As he waited, he happened to pick up a magazine, Cuisine. Leafing through it, he grew mesmerized by a recipe for roasted, stuffed eggplant. So much so, that he asked permission to take the magazine home, where he made the dish, the first meal he had ever cooked.

His dad took a taste and remarked, “Not bad, Tom” — words that Colicchio would cherish.

Three years later, when Colicchio was 16 with nary a thought to his future, his father suggested he become a chef, saying, “I think you’d be good at it.” Coming from his usually stoic dad, it carried immeasurable weight and would propel him into his exceedingly successful career.

So Colicchio recounts in his new book, “Why I Cook” (Artisan, 2024), of which I received a review copy.

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