Recipes

"Feast of the Seven Fishes", an Italian cookbook/graphic novel, is kicking off an East Coast tour on December 9th in Erie, PA, with additional planned stops in Cleveland, Youngstown, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. Started in 2004 as an online comic strip, the book follows the romantic and culinary adventures of an Italian-American family getting ready for and celebrating the traditional Christmas Eve seafood fest.

"Feast of the Seven Fishes" is written by Robert Tinnell, with artwork done by Ed Piskor and Alex Saviuk, and recipes by Shannon Tinnell. The book includes the entire run of the comic strip, some never-before-seen strips, and some yummy Italian recipes so you can create your own Feast.

"Feast of the Seven Fishes" is also currently in pre-production to be made into a feature length film, and is slated for a Thanksgiving 2008 release. Shooting will begin in January 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

An Ohio State vs. Michigan game get-together is not complete without tasty buckeye treats to munch on. Check out the recipe below, and get busy - you have less than 24 hours til kick-off!

INGREDIENTS

* 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
* 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 2 tablespoons shortening

DIRECTIONS

1. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar with hands to form a smooth stiff dough. Shape into balls using 2 teaspoons of dough for each ball. Place on prepared pan, and refrigerate.

Thanksgiving is infamously known as the holiday when we Americans gorge ourselves on food. From turkey to stuffing to pumpkin pie, this is the holiday of culinary excess. For those looking to eat a little healthier, either due to dietary restrictions or even the desire to just eat well, the Mayo Clinic has put together a comprehensive list of healthier Thanksgiving recipes.

The recipes that they've chosen still have all of the taste, but with less calories, fat, and sodium. And don't be scared off by the word "healthy" either; just check out the list and you'll see that many of the things on there don't sound very healthy even though, in fact, they are.

So without further ado, here's a list of healthy Thanksgiving recipes that you might also want to save for when Christmas comes around in December:

Thanksgiving recipes: Delicious options for healthy eating (Mayo Clinic)

Did you know, November is National Peanut Butter Lovers' Month? Celebrate your love all things peanut buttery with some of these carefully selected recipes. Of course, all contain peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Cookies - Recipe from Betty Crocker. This is a time-tested recipe with wonderful results. Yum!

Peanut Butter Pancakes - now you can eat peanut butter for breakfast too!

Peanut Butter Milk Shakes - A great recipe from Taste of Home. Add in a little chocolate for a "peanut butter cup" version of the shake.

Maybe you didn't get as many trick-or-treaters this year or you just have far too much left over Halloween candy. Whatever the case, here is a great recipe that utilizes some of your excess candy - Candy Bar Cookies. You can bring them to work or pass them out to friends who'll be sure to gobble them up.

3 c. sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. softened butter
3/4 c. smooth peanut butter
2 eggs beaten
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla
2/3 c. milk
5 small candy bars, chopped up

Epicurious.com is one of the web's foremost authorities on everything related to food, and includes such things as food news, recipes, and more. Their professional recipe collection itself contains over 25,000 recipes, and they've got another 35,000 home cooks' recipes. Unless you're crafty and motivated, there hasn't been a quick and easy way to create your own cookbook from their recipes - until now. Last week, Epicurious unveiled TasteBook, a service that allows you to import your entire Epi Recipe Box into TasteBook, select up to 100 of your favorite recipes, and in just a few days receive an awesome hardcover cookbook.

The completed cookbook is just as great as a cookbook you'd buy from the bookstore, and comes complete with tabbed chapters. Even better, the price is reasonable at just $34.95.

Epicurious has already gone ahead and started some TasteBooks for you, complete with 50 of their favorite recipes in different categories such as Holiday Cookies and Kid's Favorites. For these TasteBooks that have already been started, you just need to choose 50 additional recipes to include with the ones that were already pre-selected.

TasteBooks have arrived just in time for the holiday gift-giving season, and would make the perfect gift for friends, family, and co-workers, the chef in your life, or even for yourself. Buying a TasteBook is a great way to gift a cookbook as it allows you to personalize and tailor it to your recipient.

If you're looking for a way to spruce up regular old pizza for your Halloween bash, Betty Crocker has come up with a scary-good idea with their Halloween Cheese Pizza recipe.

To get started, make a pizza according to your favorite recipe, or you could even order one from a pizza shop. Betty Crocker's also got a recipe for the pizza base that you might find suitable. After you've got your basic pizza ready, it's time to Halloween-ize the pie.

Get out your favorite Halloween shaped cookie cutters, grab some slices of American cheese (or another flavor if you prefer) and start cutting out shapes. Arrange them on top of the pizza, and voilà, you've got a Halloween pizza.

Enjoy!

Most doctors and scientists would agree that deep-fried, high-fat foods such as fish and chips aren't good for you. But who wants to give up such good-tasting food? So, researchers in Japan set out to find a way to make the batter less fatty.

According to a report in the recent Chemistry and Industry magazine, Dr. Thanatuksorn and his team of researchers at Tokyo University of Technology have come up with a recipe for the perfect crispy batter that is also lower in fat. To achieve their goal, researchers studied how the structure of the batter molecules changes during the frying process.

They found that by altering the water content and frying time, they were able to suggest the perfect conditions to create batter with not only reduced fat content, but also the best lasting crispiness. While deep frying, a rigid microstructure of poors if formed in the batter, which is responsible for the textural properties of the food and how much oil is absorbed during the cooking process. The amount of water in the batter before and after frying was also found to be critical. As the water evaporates, the pores responsible for crispiness develop, and the residual moisture can cause sogginess.

This delicious 7-layer dip is the perfect snack for any get-together, from the a family picnic to a holiday party, it's a real crowd pleaser. Watch this video to learn how to make it yourself!

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