Go-To Dinners: Meals in Under 30 Minutes

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

Twitter is a terrific way to observe how people are reacting to the dinner hour each day. I check in around 3:30, which is getting on to dinnertime on the East Coast, and then periodically as the West Coast starts cooking.

I offer suggestions from our Special Fork recipe database to people who are bemoaning their dinnertime dilemma: what to cook now!

Some people are musing about whether they should make dinner or get takeout. The answer is, it’s often easier and faster to cook something at home. Not to mention healthier, tastier and cheaper.

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A Visit to the Fancy Food Show

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

As you read this, I’ll be in my comfy shoes, notepad and iPhone in hand, trekking through San Francisco’s Moscone Center, well into my second day at the Winter Fancy Food Show. More than 200,000 square feet of exhibit space have been dedicated to 1,300 exhibitors showcasing 80,000 food, beverage and related products.

Of course, it would be madness to try to see the whole show. Despite my best efforts, I’ll just touch a small sampling over two days.

I’m looking for interesting food products to tweet, Instagram and blog about for Special Fork. I’ll be nibbling on cheeses, paté, and prosciutto. I’ll be tasting sauces from around the world, condiments, meal kits, exotic grains, salad dressings, vinegars, cookies, chocolates, frozen treats, seasoned nuts, fancy snacks…and more.

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A Centerpiece for Christmas Dinner

By Sandy Hu
A new video for Video Friday

One of the best things about making Christmas dinner is coming up with a different centerpiece for the table each year. As kids, I doubt my boys really appreciated the effort, but I enjoy this annual project. I continue to collect all the holiday issues of magazines, looking for design inspiration.

This year, I’m making Christmas trees from sheet moss, something I saw in one of the magazines a few years ago. These trees are easy to make but moss is messy – it will crumble on you – so make these trees in a place where you can clean up easily afterwards. I like the trees in their natural state for a woodland effect, but you can add embellishments if you like your trees fancier.

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Trifle, an Easy Christmas Dessert

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

What’s your favorite holiday dessert? In our house, it’s bûche de Noël or trifle. We alternate them from year to year. I love the French yule log cake but it’s much more time-consuming to make than the traditional English trifle.

Trifle is a fitting Special Fork recipe because it’s mostly assembly: layering prepared sponge cake, raspberry jam, macaroons and drizzling with homemade custard that seeps between the layers of cake to make a pudding. Then the whole thing is topped with a layer of toasted slivered almonds and clouds of whipped cream.

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My Go-to Holiday Appetizer

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

I love to throw a big holiday party, but it’s so much work, I’ve forsworn doing them. I shared my party tips with you during my last big holiday party, ever.

It doesn’t mean we won’t deck our halls. As I write, there are hundreds of ornaments collected over the years, sorted by type, waiting to be hung on our nine-foot Noble Fir, purchased, as in years past, from a Delancey Street lot where the trees are beautiful, the service is excellent and the cause is admirable.

Delancey Street is the country's leading residential self-help organization for former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom. All of the cheerful and helpful staff at the Christmas tree lot are working their way out of their various life issues through Delancey Street programs.

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