Posted on December 17th, 2011 by Sara Moulton | Filed under Blog « Sara's Picks | Submit Comment
It’s a beautiful art book, published by Rizzoli, entitled Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label. It was co-written by Bill Adler, my husband, the record label’s first publicist, and Dan Charnas.
If I were forced to explain what makes my husband, Bill Adler, and I such a good match – we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in September – I might just say that I’m a chef who loves music and he’s a… 
The first time I ever made ricotta cheese was in my dining room at Gourmet Magazine. It was based on a family recipe from the magazine’s art director Richard Feretti. And it was amazing. Not only did it taste so much better than the supermarket version (anything homemade tastes better anyway, doesn’t it? or at least we think it does) but it was just so easy to make. Let me take you through the process.
First, if you are able… 
There is one spot available on my September 29 to October 6 trip to Perigord. In this beautiful setting, I will be teaching classes, exploring local markets, tasting wine at a chateau, visiting an artisan goat farm and much more — with eight students. Of course there will be many excellent meals both at the house and at restaurants in the neighboring towns. This lovely little week takes place at “La Combe,” a maison de maitre (gentleman’s house) set amid… 
I don’t know about you but I have always been vaguely suspicious about anything labeled “ground beef” or “hamburger.” I am even more suspicious since I’ve read a few articles about what a meat purveyor is legally allowed to put in to that mix. For awhile, I was recommending to my students that they buy ground meat from just one muscle – for example: ground round, ground chuck, ground sirloin. Then I read another article that said those packages were… 
Hope you enjoyed my Valentine’s Day Treats on Good Morning America. Here’s a link to my Warm Chocolate Cheesecake.
I love it when I figure out how to make something that seemed so out of reach, particularly if that something can be made from scratch with good ingredients and no additives. I like being in control. I have three of those kind of discoveries that I would like to share with you in the next few blogs. Let’s start with butter.
Homemade Butter
It has happened to all of us. You start beating heavy cream in a mixer to… 
I just announced this year’s Top Ten Cookbooks on Good Morning America. Hope you had a chance to tune in. You can check out the announcement on GMA’s web site. A copy of the list follows along with some additional cookbooks that are worth a look.
GMA’s 2010 Cookbook Roundup
One Big Table
Molly O’Neill
Simon and Schuster
600 recipes from home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit masters and chefs. It took Molly 10 years to make. She traveled around the… 
Every year in preparation for “Turkey 911,” On Good Morning America I read up on the latest turkey roasting methods and generally try out a few. This year I tried two new things (at least they were new to me): dry brining and cooking a turkey in an oven bag.
I tried out dry brining because it seemed so much simpler than wet brining and so much less messy. I had read a recipe in “Cook’s Illustrated,” last year for… 
It’s always time to bake cookies and if you caught me on the NBC Today Show when I showed lots of delicious options from the new Gourmet Cookie Book you know just where to start. Here is a link to that segment and the Polish Apricot-filled Cookie recipe that I made on air. You can find The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year 1941-2009 in stores and on line this week.
I also recently had… 
My Black Thumb
Whenever I teach a cooking class I always tell my students to read the whole recipe through from start to finish, before they begin to cook. That way they can avoid that unfortunate moment when the guests are seated and waiting at the dining room table and they come across the part of the recipe that says to “chill overnight.”
I usually follow my own good advice when making a new recipe, particularly one that is out… 
When I was on book tour in the spring a young woman showed up on my doorstep holding a flowerpot filled with popcorn, made completely out of chocolate. I was blown away. Her name was Beth Jackson Klosterboer and she told me she had worked as a chocolatier and event planner for over 20 years. Her newest venture was going to be a Halloween book. I asked her to send it to me when it came out and now that… 
Last week I received this email from Kemp Minifie who was the director of the food department at Gourmet for many years before it shut down. And prior to becoming the director she worked in the test kitchen. I felt bad for myself when the magazine shut down because I had racked up 25 years but Kempy had put in 32!
Dear Family and Friends,
In case you haven’t seen it on the newsstands or read about… 
I never thought I could have too many tomatoes in my house. And I mean the summer time- grown at a local farmer’s market -or in your back yard -kind of tomato. But that is the state I find myself in right now. We are on vacation at my parent’s old farmhouse in northeastern Massachusetts and for some reason every last tomato that was planted on Memorial day weekend (when the whole backyard vegetable garden is always planted)… 
Two weekends ago I went to my first ever county fair. I really did not know that this kind of old fashioned America still existed (I’m too much of a city kid!) and I have to say I was delighted. There was a big ferris wheel towering over the whole scene and many other much scarier big rides, as well as arts and crafts booths, tons of fried everything and real live animals!
After I settled into the Mission Tortilla… 
I did two food demos at the Taste of Dallas a couple of weeks ago and found the crowd quite lively despite the humid hot weather. It appeared that everyone in the crowd came from Texas and at least half from Dallas itself (unlike my audience in Atlanta where not one person came from Atlanta). It also became clear that these Texans sure do like to eat (interesting – there was not one vegetarian in my audiences.) As someone in… 
