Author Archive

You came, you cooked and four of you conquered!

Our latest Ready, Set, Cook! Recipe Contest was nothing short of incredible. Exactly 317 home cooks went head-to-head, submitting original recipes that featured Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, dip mix or seasoning mix, along with at least four basic ingredients from our contest list.

The stakes? The chance to win one of four mega cash prizes and have your dish judged by Food Network host Sunny Anderson in the Food Network Kitchens!

Last week, after all the entries were in, Sunny joined the Food.com team for a fun tasting of our top 10 semi-finalist recipes. Before we kicked off the taste-test, the mission was clear for Sunny: “I want the ranch to be like, ‘Bam! In yo face!’”

So whose ranched-up dish took the top spot? Drum-roll please… Read More

We asked everyone to show us your best holiday cookie photos and you all definitely delivered! We received 160+ entries — from shots of  classic sugar cookies and gingerbread men to more decadent Nutella chocolate cookies to Ischler Toertchen, a chocolate-covered jam-filled cookie from Austria. Alas, we couldn’t actually sample them all, but we did get to feast our eyes on all the baked goodies.

You also shared your cookie photos with friends, and everyone voted for their favorites to come up with our top cookies. And the winners are…

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Food.com is teaming up with our friends at FoodNetwork.com, CookingChannelTV.com and a few of our other favorite food sites to celebrate Thanksgiving. Since we can’t gather in person, we’re pulling up a chair to create a virtual Communal Table. Our contribution: A festive dessert without the fuss!

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I don’t get like to get fancy. Especially with dessert. Keep it simple, keep it classic—and make sure some type of pumpkin goodness is on the table.

This year, instead of—ahem—in addition to pumpkin pie, I’m serving up these beloved Maple-Frosted Pumpkin Bars from home cook jan007. Why? Because the only thing better than a pumpkin dessert is when it’s lavished with sweet, sticky maple-flavored frosting. Plus, with a prep time of only 20 minutes, these cakey bars are ready in just under an hour, making them a perfect holiday pinch-hitter when time is of the essence.

Another reason to love this recipe: All the helpful reviews! Based on what I read, I decided to bump up the pumpkin pie-y flavor by adding an additional 1/2-teaspoon each of ginger, ground cloves and nutmeg. I also knew imitation syrup wouldn’t cut it for the big holiday. So I pulled out the big guns: Grade-A Vermont maple syrup. Lastly, instead of the requested jellyroll pan (which I don’t own), I opted for a 9×11 Pyrex casserole dish. It took more time, but meant thicker bars—and who wouldn’t want that?

The result: Well, let’s just say you shouldn’t make these too far in advance of Thanksgiving day. If you’re anything like me, you’ll come up short for company!

—Mandy Major, Online Editor at Food.com

GET THE RECIPE: Maple-Frosted Pumpkin Bars

What five-star Food.com recipe is a must for your Thanksgiving table? Tell us by commenting below! Plus, see what our friends are contributing by checking out the links below or using the hashtag #pullupachair on Twitter.

Cocktails, Appetizers, Salads and Breads:
Devour: Maple Pecan Baked Brie
Liquor.com: Spiced Thanksgiving Cocktails

Mains:
FN Dish: Black Pepper-Pomegranate Molasses Glazed Turkey

Sides:
YumSugar: South-Meets-West Squash Casserole
Food Republic: Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Macaroni and Cheese
Healthy Eats: Kid-Friendly Gluten-Free Honey-Cherry Stuffing
Fox News: Sweet Potato Grits

Desserts:
Food52: Meta Given’s Pumpkin Pie
BlogHer: Pumpkin Spice Caramels

Thanksgiving Leftovers:
EatingWell: Turkey and Leek Shepherd’s Pie
The Daily Meal: Ultimate Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwich
Eatocracy: Stuffpuppies

La Dilettante and her husband

For this month’s spotlight, we are thrilled to feature La Dilettante as our “Miss July.” Although she’s been (mostly) vegetarian for the last 16 years, she still occasionally hankers for fried chicken livers and often “cheats” with fish.

A member since 2009, La Dilettante has reviewed over 130 recipes! Salads, soups, crockpot recipes — she’s given many of them a healthy meatless makeover without complaint from her meat-loving household. To find out more about La Dilettante’s life in the kitchen, we chatted with her about her biggest cooking flop and her guilty pleasure food confession.

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Zurie (Granny Z with her granddaughter)

For this month’s spotlight, we’re visiting with one of our international members — Zurie, who logs in every day from her house and farm in a small seaside town in South Africa.

A member since 2005, Zurie is one of our most active members and hosts three of our talk forums: Food Photos, African Cooking and Celebrity Chefs.

Over the years she has contributed 330-plus recipes, which range from her simple (and very popular) Microwave Magic Chocolate Mug Cake to more exotic South African dishes like her Hakuna Matata All-African Barbecue Sauce.

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2Bleu (a.k.a. Buddha and Bird)

For this month’s spotlight, we’re featuring a double dose of greatness — husband-and-wife duo 2Bleu, known separately by their nicknames Buddha and Bird.

Members since 2007, this couple from Duncan, South Carolina, add, rate and photograph dozens of recipes each year. They dabble in every cuisine, creating inventive recipes that get glowing reviews.

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Grilling can be a challenge when you play the guessing game. Your dish can go from underdone to charred in only a matter of minutes. Help is here! Bookmark our easy-to-use chart or save it and print it (bonus points for laminating it like we did!) and keep handy next to the grill. Perfectly grilled goods every time!

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You came, you cooked and two of you conquered!

We received some seriously fantastic and creative submissions to our Ready, Set, Cook! special edition recipe contest – 325 of them to be exact! And now we’re pleased to announce our winners.

Drum roll, please….

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Behind our yummy recipes, reviews and photos are creative cooks, crafters, photographers and food lovers. This month we’re spending time with Andi of Longmeadow Farm!

This Maryland family girl loves loading up her recipes with fresh ingredients straight from her farm, and is always spicing things up with habaneros and peppers!

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Check Out Our Top 3-D Recipes

We have exciting news, Food.com fans! In the next several weeks, we will be converting all of our recipe images to 3-D images. Using cutting edge photographic technology, we’re starting the process of updating our thousands of member-submitted recipes to be 3-D. Over the next several weeks, the recipes you love will be enhanced to feature 3-D IMAGES.

To get a sneak preview at this exciting new enhancement, CLICK HERE for a gallery of some of our favorite recipes with new 3-D images.

There’s a catch: You’ll need a pair of special glasses to view these photos in all of their glory. And we’re giving them away for free! CLICK HERE to get your TOTALLY FREE pair of FOOD.COM 3-D glasses for the most amazing food experience you’ve ever had on the net.