The question is simple, but do you know exactly just what grits are made from?  The Southern breakfast food comes from ground, dried corn.  Similar to the consistency of porridge, grits are easy to make and many things can be added to them.  Butter, salt, sugar, cheese, tabasco sauce and ham are commonly added ingredients.  The next question is, do you prefer instant or traditional grits?

To view a few grits recipes, click here.

Dust off your molcajete, grab these ingredients and treat yourself to a food fiesta!  You will need grilled chicken, steak, shrimp and cheese swimming in a roasted tomatillo sauce with green onions and avocado.  The combination of poultry, seafood and steak should have your mouth watering by now.

Star Instructor Athena Palombi shows us how to make an exquisite homemade yogurt cheese. To watch the demonstration, click here.

Ingredients

• 4 Cups Plain Greek Yogurt (Cow’s or Sheep’s Milk)
• 5 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Rosemary
• 2 Tablespoons Crushed Dried Chilies or Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 ¼ Cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Butchers Twine
• 1 Large Preserve Jar

Directions

1.  Sterilize a 4 ½ square foot piece of Cheese Cloth by steeping it in boiling water. Sterilize the Jars as well by heating them in an oven pre-heated at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. During this time you can set the Cheese Cloth out to dry a bit.

Instead of spending Valentine’s Day at a restaurant (and spending superfluously), remember that a dinner at home can be just as romantic.  These recipes will cover your entire Valentine’s Day meal, from a sexy salad to an exquisite entrée.

This Valentine’s Day themed salad includes beets, goat cheese and walnuts scattered on top of a bed of greens.  To make this salad even more festive, use a heart shaped cookie cutter to carve beats into hearts.  The instructional video shows you exactly how to put together this delicious salad.  Click on the pictures to bring up the recipes.

Your special someone will be so much more impressed this Valentine’s Day if you create a cocktail for them, instead of giving them another teddy bear.  The Liquid Lust looks especially thirst-quenching, given the apples, oranges, grapes, lemons and limes that the recipe calls for.

Appetizers are an integral part of any Valentine’s Day meal.  If you’ll be making a seafood dinner tonight, spinach cheese mushrooms make for an excellent starter.  Is your main course poultry- or steak-based?  Shrimp marinated in lemon would be the perfect Valentine’s Day appetizer.

Crab cakes make any dinner special, let alone a Valentine’s Day meal.  This easy recipe will have you eating premium seafood in just 20 minutes.  Heat the crab cakes up until they turn golden brown, squeeze a lemon over them and enjoy an entrée that will have your taste buds rejoicing.

For Valentine’s Day dessert ideas, check out Food University’s blog here.

Food University recently held one of our must-see IKEA events in Philadelphia, where Food U chef Mary Ann Espisito delighted the crowd with her insightful cooking demos. Among the many topics: everything from basic cooking tips to entertaining with professional style. But the real test came after the show—when the Food U crew headed over to two of Philly’s iconic cheesesteak stands, Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s Steaks.

Before we left, we grilled everyone on the art of ordering a cheesesteak in South Philly. This is not something you take lightly. Pat’s and Geno’s  aren’t known for their customer service. Great cheesesteaks?  Yes. Patience and manners? Forgetaboutit!

So here are the keys to ordering a cheesesteak in South Philly. Continue Reading →