Happy Back to School season parents. Now, it’s time for YOU to enroll in some classes at the newly launched ChefsLine Cooking School.

The ChefsLine Cooking School delivers 30 and 60 minute, high-impact cooking lessons by phone and video chat. Our chefs have revamped their most popular and trendy classes with a focus on delivering step-by-step technique instruction in those areas where many of us tend to falter at home. Get your shopping list, recipes, and book your class for a time that’s convenient for you. Then log-on or call ChefsLine and you’ll be connected to your own personal chef instructor for the ultimate, practical learning experience.

No other cooking school helps you get dinner on the table that night. Learn from the pros from your own kitchen!

Some ChefsLine’s Featured Cooking Classes

Skinny Meals: Get Your Kitchen Ready for the Healthy You with Tina Ruggiero, $15.95.

Tarts and Pies with Chef Jim Gray, $15.95.

Be Your Own Personal Chef with Chef JoAnna, $45.

TELL A FRIEND
As a special offer to our newsletter subscribers, refer your family and friends for a ChefsLine Cooking Class, and receive complimentary ChefsLine personalized culinary services.
*ChefsLine will not contact your friends nor share your friends’ email address with anyone. Refer five or more friends to receive your complimentary one-month subscription valid for unlimited calls to the culinary hotline and two cooking classes. Refer 1-4 friends and receive 30 minutes of free, on-demand cooking advice and instruction on the culinary hotline (use any time). Offer valid until September 5, 2007.

It seems that everywhere you look: grocery aisles, restaurants, farmer’s markets, your hotel pillow, you’ll find chocolate. I’m not talking about a 99-cent candy bar, but premium, all natural, gourmet chocolate. Not only is it the rage, with more science linking health benefits to eating chocolate, you can now argue it’s good for you.

This attention on premium chocolate has elevated it to star status on  restaurant menus around the country, usually paired with a wine recommendation. So how can you create the same taste sensation for your next dinner party? We asked Chef Richard Kaplan, founder of artisan Brown Paper Chocolates, for his tips when selecting a wine to pair with gourmet chocolate.

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This past Summer, ChefsLine has been ‘on’ round the click to answer your cooking questions live online. And, chef-boy-r-dee it’s been fun. We’ve chatted with home cooks in Pakistan, Scotland, Australia, Paraguay, and every corner of the States. We are so pleased to ease the stress of cooking by offering the quickest and most personalized service available for last minute dish ideas and creative solutions to the proverbial question, “What’s for Dinner?”

What follows are links to some of the more in depth and interesting cooking consultations we’ve had using our online chat service. Check out these FAQ’s, learn a little, and then chat online with us soon. We can’t wait to bring out the chef in you!

Favorite LiveChef Chats
I Want an Adult Meal (aka ‘No More Mac And Cheese’)
Eggplant Rollatini
Food Fix
Party Planner
Quick How To: Beets
Wait, How Do You Do That Again?
Can I Finally Make a Good Salad Dressing?
In the Mood: Fajitas

Anne prepared a basil-blackberry crumble that turned out watery. Here are my tips on keeping your berry desserts smooth and not watery.

Your choice of berry will make a difference in the challenge of combating ‘runniness’ in your cobbler or crumble. Generally, blackberries tend to break down further in cooking than blueberries and strawberries. By releasing more juice, your recipes should have a way to thicken or sop-up the juice. Thickeners are the most common way of dealing with juicy, watery berries.

Choosing your Thickener

Several different ingredients can be used as a thickener and although they all work, they also have pros and cons.

Arrowroot. It has no effect on flavor and the sauce is bright and translucent. Additionally, the sauce holds up better if you make extra desserts and freeze them. I prefer arrowroot for berry desserts.

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Julie Logue-Riordan, Napa CA
Cooking with Julie is pleased to partner with L’Academie de Cuisine and offer its first culinary and cultural program in Burgundy France at Château du Feÿ, home of La Varenne cooking school. Join Chef Julie Logue-Riordan and Francois Dionot from September 23-28, 2007 for this exceptional program to further enhance your culinary background by seeing and tasting first hand, the foods, wines, and cheeses of this famed French region. If your looking for another reason to travel, how about Napa Valley before the end of the wine harvest and a culinary tour of the region with Chef Julie? “Worth a cross country trip” A. Simmons, North Carolina.

Gwin Grimes, Ft. Worth TX
Gwin has spent the Spring and Summer launching her newest business, Artisan Baking Company. Gwin is a professional cooking instructor, cookbook author, food writer, and ChefsLine consultant. She and her family have been distributing their breads direct to sell-out crowds at her local farmer’s markets. One of their most exciting breads is the Cowtown Sourdough made from a 250-year-old starter and Tuscan Breakfast Bread. Gwin’s latest cookbook, Coffee Creations, is available for pre-order. Her book includes 50 recipes for coffee lovers including Coffee Glazed Bacon, Cappuccino Swirl Bread, and Coffee Fajita Marinade.

Mark Tafoya, New York, NY
Chef Mark Tafoya of ReMARKable Palate Personal Chef Service is bringing Canada’s “100 mile meal project” to the US. The project, sponsored by the Canadian Personal Chef Association, is to promote 100-mile eating. 100 mile eating means to consume only foods from your local area - a great way to consume fresher ingredients, support your local farmers, and reduce the environmental impact of purchasing foods that have more frequent-flyer miles than the people consuming it! “I’m thrilled to be able to bring farm-fresh meals to my clients as part of the 100 meal mile project during the month of September,” says Chef Mark. For more information about the project, visit http://www.100milemeals.net/.

Contributing Writer: Jane Butel. Developing a chile habit is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself! What happens when one eats chiles is that the capsaicin within the chile fires one’s endorphins at a direct proportion to the heat or Scoville units within the chiles. Endorphins are what produce a sense of well-being or runner’s high–rather an euphoric feeling.

Chiles are the primary food that one can eat to produce this rush! Chocolate excites the endorphins, but not to nearly as great an extent. The other methods one can get an endorphin rush are basically through physical activity such as sports, running, exercise, yoga and sex.

Check Out ChefsLine’s Special Feature About Chiles to Learn More
Recipes Include….
Green Chile Sauce
Open Faced Chicken Enchiladas

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Tirzah is looking for our recommendations on cutlery. The term “cutlery” usually refers to the knives, forks, and spoons we eat with (also called “flatware,” “tableware,” “utensils,” and even “silverware”) and not the knives used in preparing food.*

Flatware is a pretty personal choice and the variations in quality among the most popular, stainless steel, are not so vast. We recommend you start with your budget, then look at style, and consider your long term strategy. Is this your everyday ‘keeper’ set or a stand-by until you can purchase that silver plated monogrammed Vera Wang you love? Start paying attention to flatware when you eat out to figure out what you like. Then, and most importantly, hold the pretty flatware pieces you prefer. Which feels best in your hand? Ideally you’d want to try eating with some samples, but that’s unlikely while shopping.

Your flatware should feel and sturdy. Look for knives with a heavy and long handle, forks with a deep curve, and spoons with a deep bowl.

The Details
Materials
Note that just because an item is “stainless” does not mean it will not rust. If it’s an everyday set that you will place in a dishwasher, make sure your stainless includes chrome and also titaniam or nickel. The top quality stainless steel is labeled 18/10, containing 18% chrome and 10% nickel. Your lower grade flatware to avoid is “13/0 stainless steel,” containing no nickel. Unlike cooking knives, flatware does not have a high carbon level - that’s probably the main difference in the different types of ‘cutlery.’ Another distinguishing characteristic of flatware will be the handles, which can be made of plastic or a composite material. You should examine your handles and know that there’s less risk of chipping and loosening with solid steel handles.

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Throwing a dinner party is an obligation for some, the ultimate creative expression for others, and for most of us a time-consuming process with great reward. But the trip begins with the menu, and half the fun in hosting a dinner party is the host’s own instinct concerning what culinary roads can and should be traveled. Today, more of our food media is focused on presenting its readers with turn-key and complete menus culled from the best restaurants and reflecting presumed styles and tastes. If you read between the lines, the mix of dishes presented to us can help home cooks better understand what makes a great menu. ChefsLine, however, challenges its members and its team of top chefs to do more. Working one-on-one with a great chef, ChefsLine coaches home cooks through the process of creating their own unique menus that start with sound culinary principals but incorporate the styles, tastes, budget, and skill level of the host. The menu planning process, or “itinerary,” for a dinner party is a thoughtful and time-saving way for any home cook to plan their party and express their own style through food.

Let’s Get Started!
The Creative Process
Selecting Dishes
Putting it All Together
Plan of Action
Sample ChefsLine Dinner Party Menus

 

 Joy of Cooking [29:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Listen now to the ChefsLine Special Event Podcast with Maggie Green, editor of the Joy of Cooking. Discover what it takes to write a cookbook, develop and test 4,500 recipes and how America’s home cooking has changed in the past 75 years. ChefsLine members and chefs had a great time sharing their Joy of Cooking experiences and our opinions, generally, that the 75th Anniversary Edition of the Joy of Cooking is a must-have for your kitchen.

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Stone fruits are some of the prettier fruits around. To keep your firm yet ripe fruit looking great in a fruit salad, on a tart, cheeseplate, or alone - slice gently. A ChefsLine visitor, Jackie, asked us for some guidance about how to properly remove the pits and prepare pretty slices of peaches and plums.

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