Special Edition Cooking Magazines

[Kathleen]

I confess that I am a cookbook addict. Unfortunately, cooking magazine "special editions" are almost equally as bad. Everywhere I went (CostCo, Walmart, etc.,) I would see the "Lodge: Best ONE-DISH Recipes" magazine. When I saw it on the shelf at Home Depot, I got it. It seemed to be taunting me at that point.

It's like most special edition magazine in that it has a lot of colorful pictures of the finished recipes. Being Lodge, it also had an overview and a single page discussing the proper way to handle cast-iron pans. The Table of Contents lists the Welcome, Caring for Cast Iron, Breakfast, Main Dishes, Sides & Breads, Desserts, Metric Equivalents, and an index. There are approximately 101 recipes.

Tonight, I made "My Mother's Chicken and Potatoes with my special touches" recipe from page 43. I stuck to the recipe and the end result look remarkably like the photo in the magazine - which is always a happy surprise for me. True to the promise, I used one pan. I also needed a bowl, spatula, tongs and fork.

The recipe calls for chicken, potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, rosemary, and olive oil. The special touches from the author included some pickle peppers. Basically, crisp the chicken skin in olive oil, then mix rosemary, salt, and a bit more olive oil. Stir the potatoes in to coat and crisp them. Ditto with the onions. Add the chicken back in, toss on peppers, and cover. Give all a stir and cover again. When done, remove lid to allow all to caramelize and excess liquid to evaporate.

The result was the chicken was crispy and juicy. The potatoes were crisp on the outside and tender inside. Onions were crisp and dry. The peppers were still crispy and zesty.

It really was a good meal...and the best part: ONE PAN dinner!

I cannot wait to try something else.

Do you have a recent Special Edition Magazine that you like?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I have a penchant for special edition Italian or Mexican Cooking Magazines...they often have the same recipes in them as the ones I bought the year before...

 

[Kathleen]

I have a penchant for special edition Italian or Mexican Cooking Magazines...they often have the same recipes in them as the ones I bought the year before...

Boo! So wrong. This is why I peek at them from moment to moment before I fall and take them to the check-out!

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Impulsive shoppers beware...who me? Impulsive? Nah!

 

[danbuter]

I should pick up the Lodge mag. I really only use my cast iron pan for burgers, bacon, and eggs.

 

[FrankZ]

And the dinner was quite good. I think the home made pickled banana peppers went right well with the chicken.

And we opened a jar of the spicy 14day pickles.

 

[Kaneohegirlinaz]

my Chefy-gal-pal steered me towards the Epicurious Magazine Special Edition this month Italy,
Italy Eats Guide - Italy Eats Guide | Epicurious.com
WOW WOW WOW!
I'm only on page 17 and already I have a list of dishes I want to make!
I am such a sucker for food mags! (and not the e-editions either, I need to paper in my hands)

 

[licia]

I've only recently started looking past the glossy eye catcher cooking magazines. For a while I was taking several only to find I almost never ade anything out of them except a big stack of unread magazines. My across the street neighbor somehow got double issues so she puts one of them in my mailbox when they come. I keep thinking I should make something and take it to her since she has been doing this for well over a year. I've decided to go thru what I have and pass right by the eye catchers.

 

[Addie]

Fortunately for me, I only go into the store once a month and with Spike always in a hurry to get through checkout once we are done, I don't have the time to look at those magazines. Or I would be in big trouble. Spike would be taking them out of my cart saying, "You don't need that" or "You can't eat that." He keeps my impulse buying in check.

Now on line is another story. He is not here to monitor me. But he is always asking me, "What did you order today?" And if I am honest and tell him, then I get, "Don't even open the package when it comes. It is going right back." But when the package comes he is not here, so I open it and what ever it is, I have removed all the tags and have it set up or even used. I do all my impulse buying on line.

 

[Mad Cook]

Tonight, I made "My Mother's Chicken and Potatoes with my special touches" recipe from page 43. I stuck to the recipe and the end result look remarkably like the photo in the magazine - which is always a happy surprise for me.

This made me smile. One of my (many)cousins is a "food stylist" for illustrations in magazines and cookery books and tells us tales you wouldn't believe about how food is "tweaked" for the camera. She says mashed potato is the food stylist's saviour. Among many other things it's used to replace ice cream in photographs and as filling for pies which are to be photographed to make them look full and as if the filling hasn't shrunk.

The (digital) camera often can lie!

 

[Mad Cook]

I've only recently started looking past the glossy eye catcher cooking magazines. For a while I was taking several only to find I almost never ade anything out of them except a big stack of unread magazines. My across the street neighbor somehow got double issues so she puts one of them in my mailbox when they come. I keep thinking I should make something and take it to her since she has been doing this for well over a year. I've decided to go thru what I have and pass right by the eye catchers.

The only one I buy is the BBC Good Food Mag. I got a years subscription for a Christmas present a few years ago and while I didn't renew at the end of the year I still buy the odd copy if it has something interesting in it.

I usually go through it again when I've finished reading it and extract any recipes or hints that I find interesting/useful and put them in my file before dropping them off at the Doctor's or the dentist's for the waiting room.

 

[Mad Cook]

I have a penchant for special edition Italian or Mexican Cooking Magazines...they often have the same recipes in them as the ones I bought the year before...

I find that with the monthly I sometimes buy.

 

[Addie]

This made me smile. One of my (many)cousins is a "food stylist" for illustrations in magazines and cookery books and tells us tales you wouldn't believe about how food is "tweaked" for the camera. She says mashed potato is the food stylist's saviour. Among many other things it's used to replace ice cream in photographs and as filling for pies which are to be photographed to make them look full and as if the filling hasn't shrunk.

The (digital) camera often can lie!

They also paint those beautiful steaks with Gravy Master over a coat of Vaseline to make them look juicy and have beautiful grill marks.

Sara Moulton after she graduated from Culinary School wanted to be a food stylist. That is what Julia Child hired her for to do the pictures in her cookbooks. But somehow she got distracted when Julia wanted her help in the kitchen for her TV shows and she was hooked.

 

[medtran49]

This made me smile. One of my (many)cousins is a "food stylist" for illustrations in magazines and cookery books and tells us tales you wouldn't believe about how food is "tweaked" for the camera. She says mashed potato is the food stylist's saviour. Among many other things it's used to replace ice cream in photographs and as filling for pies which are to be photographed to make them look full and as if the filling hasn't shrunk.

The (digital) camera often can lie!

I guess it would melt under the hot lighting required for shoots, but whipped butter looks remarkably like ice cream as well. There used to be a local restaurant that had a fabulous buffet years and years ago and they'd have urns with different flavored/colored butters in large balls stacked high. Nearly everybody that walked in there for the first time thought it was mounds of ice cream.