Recipes

Everyone has a favourite chili recipe, and this is the time of year to break out yours, invite over some friends and yell at football players on TV.

TORONTO After holiday indulgences, baking might not be uppermost on the minds of most home cooks. Yet it’s not necessary to give it up if you use a few tricks to inject some stealth health into muffins, scones, cakes and other goodies.

For this easy Super Bowl snack, we combined two of our favourite game day indulgences — guacamole and roasted potato skins.

Want a delicious new way to eat rice? As in, a way that doesn’t involve eating it from a little white takeout box?

When it comes to ingredients, Graham Elliot thinks less is more.

“Think about taking a tomato and instead of turning it into a bunch of weird stuff, just slice a tomato paper thin with a drop of olive oil and sea salt and it’s one of the greatest things ever. Making food taste more like itself, I think, is important, concentrating flavours.”

The Chinese like to feature whole steamed fish on the menu of their New Year’s feasts. Said to signify togetherness, abundance and long life, it’s a dish with symbolism that is as important as taste. Indeed, you’re supposed to leave the bones, head and tail intact, a way to help ensure that the new year will be a winner from beginning to end.

When it comes to food, India and China have more in common than you might think. Both harbour a deep love of ear-tingling chilies, vast quantities of garlic and seafood.

Alice was our au pair from China, and when she joined our family she brought with her a slew of tasty dishes.

We’ve all suffered through cardboard-dry chicken breasts. We do it because periodically we commit (or recommit or re-recommit) to healthy eating. And boneless, skinless chicken breasts are a fine and filling lean protein well suited to the job.

I love every bite of the holidays. I loved the mashed potatoes and the pies and the cornbread stuffing and everything else. And I’m not going to look back with regret.

I am, however, not going to continue eating this way indefinitely. And this salad is why I’m not so sad about that.