Bad Toaster Karma

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

My toast took a flying leap, catapulting out of the toaster, splat onto the kitchen floor. This is not the first time my bread has shot out like a cannonball, soaring past the counter, ending up in the garbage.

In our house, we have bad toaster karma.

This is our third toaster in recent times. The one we had before lowered our toast into the slot electronically. It was fun to watch the bread majestically descend. The only problem was that the machine wouldn’t make toast!

Once the bread disappeared into the slot, instead of the heat being activated automatically, as advertised, we’d have to stand there and hit the “toast” button several times. After months of aggravation and cold bread, we returned that one.

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Christmas Tamale Stuffing

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

When I was little I thought stuffing was gross because it was, you know, the guts. My big brother Tony convinced me by whispering, “Yep, Mom really does serve us guts, but don’t tell her I told you!”

Then one Thanksgiving, when Tony was at his girlfriend’s house, I had a revelation … and the truth was miraculously delicious. Since then I’ve made all sorts of stuffings with oysters and figs, roasted shallots and pancetta, sausage, leeks, fennel and roasted peppers, but never with gizzards.

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Nutella Fondue

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Fondue was one of the special dinners I had growing up. I don’t remember what kind of an occasion prompted my folks to pull out the fondue pot, but it was fairly often. The first pot I remember actually used little cans of Sterno to heat the broth.

But then a new avocado green electric version showed up, evidently meaning the Hunter family had “made it!” My mom would heat broth, and sometimes oil, in the pot and surround it with meat and vegetables for cooking. But for truly special occasions, she would make rarebit (melted beer cheese with toasted bread) from her well-loved James Beard cookbook.

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You Say Sweet Potato…

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

...I say yam! There’s so much confusion about which one is which, I’m not sure anyone truly knows the difference anymore, or that the difference much matters. Part of the confusion is that both tubers come in different shapes, sizes and colors, and often look very similar in their diversity.

So whether I’m right or wrong, the tuber I call a yam is misshaped and gnarly with a dark red skin. I always pick the ones that are about the size of my fist because I think they’re sweeter and less fibrous than their bigger kin.

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The Boys’ Gougères

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

One fateful day a few months ago, we walked into a newly opened French bakery around the corner from our house. It was fateful because the boys discovered gougères that had just come hot out of the oven.

If you’re not familiar, gougères are like savory cream puffs. Delicious little pastries with cheese and herbs mixed into the dough before baking. So now gougères are the bread of choice in the Hunter household. The boys like them in the morning with scrambled eggs, at lunch stuffed with turkey and cherry tomatoes, and at dinner as slider buns.

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