Rachael Ray

I drink a lot of water - a few years ago I started drinking it with lemon after I heard an interview with Denise Austin (remember her of the exercise videos of the 80’s?) and she said she starts every day with a room temperature glass of water with lemon - before coffee - to get things going. Sounded good to me and I have been doing it ever since. Then a few years ago I dabbled in the Flat Belly Diet which has its patented “sassy water” as a core part of the program. It’s a refreshing blend of ginger, cucumber, mint, and lemon and while the diet didn’t last very long, I still make a pitcher of old [...]...

Alan Richman, the dean of American restaurant critics, has been writing about restaurants from China to Peru for GQ for twenty-five years — and he celebreated his silver anniversary at the magazine by winning his 15th (!!) James Beard Award. I aspire to his august status, of course, to say nothing of his unshakeable indifference to the torrents of controversy that appear in his wake. But I suspected that his eating habits at the home are about the same as mine, and maybe as yours. So I asked him about it. Alan, what are the last three things you ate at home, and in what room did you eat them? Orwasher’s cinnamon-raisin-walnut bread, dotted with butter before toasting (which makes a mess [...]...

There are a lot of food festivals these days. There is a very classy one in Aspen; there is a rocking one in South Beach, which hosts a hamburger contest you have probably heard of. I even do a big food event myself. But having just got back from Atlanta, I am ready to say that there is only one indispensable event, and that is it. The reason is obvious: the south is the new capital of gastronomy in America. Food has to come from somewhere; the great chefs in capitals like New York or San Francisco or even Portland generally come there from somewhere else; they draw their inspiration and their authority from a tradition rooted in experience and agriculture. Maybe [...]...

My mom has always loved coconut cream pie. Her birthday was last week and we met for lunch at a local deli and lo and behold, there was coconut cream pie in the dessert case. We talked about getting a slice for dessert in honor of her bday, but ran out of time. I decided to take a stab at it for Mother’s Day and it was delicious, even though there was no chocolate involved. Anything that is a vehicle for whipped cream is worth having in my book. I happened to have a refrigerated pie crust dough in the fridge so I used it and no one noticed it wasn’t homemade (at least no one said anything - what good guests:-)). Coconut Cream [...]...

I hate to admit that my kids are huge fans of the refrigerated cinnamon rolls in the biscuit-type tube. So easy, so fun to whack the tube and open it up, full of ingredients I can’t pronounce with lots of consonants. That said, I’ve stopped buying them but that doesn’t mean my kids have stopped asking for them. I wanted to make some quickly last weekend which means I needed a recipe without yeast so I could avoid rising time (and yeast - I am a yeast-a-phobe). I had all the ingredients on hand, plus the recipe was super quick and took no time to whip up. The dough was veeeery soft however and required a ton of flour while rolling it [...]...

The introduction of fantasy hair colors made its debut in the late 1970s when two young New York City entrepreneurs Tish and Snooky (not to be confused with our Jersey shore Snooky) created, Manic Panic catapulting ultra-vibrant hair tones to a mass level of appeal. While the underground punk rock scene’s anti-establishment virtues got the ball rolling today’s main stream acceptance has made it clear that these tones have made their mark and are here to stay! From eccentric unique haircuts to creative color schemes and placement the kids of the 80s set the stage! At home, self-taught color sessions became the norm, ranging from all over color to multiple tones, over processing their hair with bleach for a clean [...]...

Half the fun of discovering a new restaurant is sharing it with people you know will enjoy it. As Rachael Ray’s resident restaurant guru, here’s an inside look at what I report back to Rach about some of my favorite restaurant finds and food experiences! From: Kappy To: RR Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2012 11:16pm Subject: Aaaaand… BACK to Hill Country Chicken! Hey Rach - I think I told you about the time I went to Hill Country Chicken when it first opened a little while back. I was with some former co-workers from the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. Chef Elizabeth Karmel was there and gave us a serious tasting of the menu, serving up fried chicken (served two ways, skin on and [...]...

I remember having congo bars when I was little so I was psyched to stumble upon this recipe online a few weeks ago. I have made them three times since - a testament to how crazy good they are. They are thick, rich and “toothsome” - thanks to lots of butter and all brown sugar - no white. Call them blondies, call them chocolate chip cookie bars (another favorite recipe - calls for melted butter though which results in a different texture - still good, mind you). For the life of me I cannot track down the origin of the name congo bars - if anyone has knows, please post! Congo Bars (click here for printable recipe) Ingredients 2 3/4 cups all purpose [...]...

People are always asking me for tricks on getting their kids to eat better. The short answer is, there are no tricks only persistence and patience. I always tell them to lead by example and keep offering and usually things fall into place. There really is no magic trick. Some kids like to eat and some kids don’t. Some will happily eat sashimi with a side in foie gras and others will only eat french fries. if you have always offered them healthy choices and continue to do so, rest assured, their picky eating phase is more about them asserting their independence and less about your failed parenting skills. It’s hard and can be very trying on a parent who [...]...