Have you made your gingerbread house yet? Or have you taken a class this season to learn how? We’d like to see your pictures! (see below)

And if you’re out there baking your own gingerbread, chance are you’ll end up with a little extra dough. Here’s an idea for that leftover dough, inspired by Pinterest.

After baking a class set of houses yesterday, I had one tennis-sized ball of gingerbread left. My kids and I free-handed a few tiny gingerbread pieces and constructed miniature houses, the perfect accompaniment for a mug of warm cocoa. A generous dollop of icing on top and a sprinkling of crushed candy canes and the two-bite-sized treats were ready.

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Show us your gingerbread houses!

We invite you to post a photo of your house on our Facebook page by Dec. 19. Add a note to your post to give us a little information about your house and design. If you’re submitting a photo of your child’s gingerbread house, let us know your child’s name and age.

If you aren’t on Facebook …

Continue reading Baking your own gingerbread? Use up leftover dough »

In December, families at my son’s school are invited to share a family tradition with the class. The tradition I’ll share is gingerbread house making, meaning that I’ll be baking 20 little gingerbread cottages tomorrow for class decorating on Friday.

Last year I shared the tradition with the Food and More blog and would like to do so again this year with our second annual parade of gingerbread houses. We want to see your masterpieces!

We invite you to post a photo of your house on our Facebook page by Dec. 19. Add a note to your post to give us a little information about your house and design. If you’re submitting a photo of your child’s gingerbread house, let us know your child’s name and age.

If you aren’t on Facebook but would still like to share a photo of your house, email your photo to Jenny.

Our dining team will choose our favorites and share them on the Food and More blog on Dec. 21. Anyone who submits a photo will be entered into a drawing for a prize.

If you need …

Continue reading Time to bake the gingerbread; Share your photos! »

One part PSA, one part auto-tuned remix, and one part Shatner-style weirdness, William Shatner wants to simultaneously creep you out and educate you on the dangers of fried turkey. As the resident Food & More fried turkey advocate, I thought I should pass this one along.

Last year, Shatner joined forces with State Farm to create a non-musical dramatization of an actual incident where he set a blaze during a turkey fry. Well, that has been remixed, and it kinda of creeps me out.

Also, what exactly is the dingle dangle? I don’t think my fryer set has one.

P.S. In all seriousness, be careful if you are going to fry any birds this holiday season. Here is a serious and much more useful video on fryer safety.

Continue reading Shatner’s fried turkey remix »

PHIL SKINNER, PSKINNER@AJC.COM

This month, Santa will leave his elves to the toy-making as he breaks bread with families all around Atlanta at these events hosted by area restaurants.

Buckhead Diner

The Coca-Cola polar bear, Atlanta Ballet ballerinas in Nutcracker costumes, Rudolph and the elves will be on hand to welcome Santa as he arrives by fire truck to attend this breakfast. After visiting with Santa, families will dine on chocolate chip waffles, ham steak and eggs Benedict, and hot chocolate. 8:30-11 a.m. Dec. 8 and 9. 3073 Piedmont Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-262-3336. $39, 2 and under free.

One Midtown Kitchen

At this holiday event, the kiddos can take photos with Santa and parents can feast on the breakfast buffet. The menu will include french toast bites, ham and cheese croissants, chicken Waldorf salad and other breakfast favorites. Four seatings from 9 a.m. – noon, Dec. 8. 559 Dutch Valley Road, Atlanta. 404-892-4111. $20 adults, $10 children.

Village Tavern

This …

Continue reading Santa visits Atlanta restaurants »

Holiday Seafood Stew (photos by Johnny Crawford)

The first time Ian Cox’s family attempted the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes — a beloved Italian holiday tradition — they prepared seven full-sized entrees and attempted to consume them one after the other.

“We couldn’t eat them all, we got so full,” said Cox, a manager at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Little Five Points. “So over the years we fine-tuned it. Now it’s more like seven tapas dishes spanning the globe. We always do raw oysters, and there’s usually a tuna tartare in there.”

Beth Hamilton, a stay-at-home mom in Atlanta, gets around the seafood surfeit by constructing her annual Feast of the Seven Fishes out of seven varieties of seafood rather than seven distinct dishes. “So if we have a seafood gumbo or soup with several different kinds of fish in it, then we count them all. Someone even suggested we do cupcakes decorated with Swedish Fish for dessert.”

Hamilton’s family began preparing the feast with good …

Continue reading One fish, two fish: Seven Fishes for Christmas »

This year my wife bought me those brussels sprouts on the stalk for our Thanksgiving dinner. I think she was hoping this might prevent me from actually cooking them, choosing instead to offer them up as a table decoration.

No such luck.

Instead of cutting the brussels sprouts from the stalk and making my usual Turkey Day sprouts and chestnuts, I instead got the idea to grill them.

Out came the Big Green Egg and a quick marinade of olive oil, fresh garlic and some leftover barbecue rub.

After about 40 minutes of turning them and brushing them with marinade over indirect heat, they started to look really appealing.

They smelled very cabbage-y — something my wife doesn’t abide well. But luckily we were serving the meal buffet style, so she could keep them out of olfactory range.

I put a pair of kitchen shears on the plate and let people cut them off. They were soft in the center, almost creamy, with well blistered, crisp leaves. I really liked them, but I like any brussels …

Continue reading Thanksgiving experiment: Brussels sprouts on the Big Green Egg »

Chasing parking spaces, wading through crowds and waiting in checkout lines can only be done with the proper nourishment. Take a break and grab a bite to eat to boost your shopping stamina. (Our Atlanta Bargain Hunter blog has updates on shopping throughout the holidays.)

If you find yourself at or near one of these malls, here are a places to recharge and refuel.

Cumberland Mall

• Taverna Fiorentina: This neighborhood Tuscan kitchen with a lengthy wine-by-the-glass menu is now open for both lunch and dinner. 3324 Cobb Pkwy S.E., Atlanta. 770-272-9825.
• Muss & Turner’s: This full-service restaurant/deli offers soups, salads, sandwiches and heartier fare with an impressive beer list. 1675 Cumberland Pkwy S.E., Smyrna. 770-434-1114.

Lenox Square/Phipps Plaza

• Buckhead Diner: Not your average diner, at this swanky spot perfect for celebrity spotting, you’ll find Southern touches to menu items like the white-truffle deviled eggs. 3073 Piedmont Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-262-3336.
• STG …

Continue reading Shopping break: Places to eat near Atlanta malls »

Mary Mac's, always busy (photos by Becky Stein unless otherwise noted)

When our Italian friends Alessandro and Rita came to spend their vacation with us, we wanted to regale them with food. We cooked grand dinners, we went out to our favorite restaurants, we drove them to Charleston to feast on shrimp and oysters.

AJC Chief Dining Critic John Kessler writes about all cuisines.

Then, on their last morning in town before a late afternoon flight back to Europe, they conferred quietly in Italian before coming to me with a request.

“John,” Alessandro asked, “Do you think we might take our breakfast at the, uh — What do you call it? — Waffle House?”

Forget the triggerfish crudo and heirloom tomato salad. They wanted their Southern food vacation scattered, smothered and chunked.

It is easy to forget that out-of-town visitors aren’t always looking for the best food, but rather the truest sense of place.

Many of us will face this quandary during the holidays. Our friends and family …

Continue reading Where do you take out of towners? Try these »

Credit: Bravo

“If you fail during this challenge, you might as well go find another career.” – Josie

I wonder if Josie has ever watched this show before? If she had, as soon as those words left her lips she should have smacked herself in the face. That is just courting disaster.

Josie made that comment because Dana Cowin, editor of Food & Wine magazine and familiar face on Top Chef, is this week’s guest judge, which clearly sets all of the chefs on their toes.

For this week’s Quickfire, the chefs start with a mad dash to a map with 17 knives on it, each representing a different style of dumpling from the corners of the world. In this season’s first unabashed product placement, the chefs are given 5 minutes on an Amazon Kindle Fire to look up their style of dumpling if, for example, you were Micah and got stuck with manti, a dumpling native to Kazakhstan. Considering that he “didn’t know that Kazakhstan was real,” this internet access saved him.

And thanks CJ, for at …

Continue reading Top Chef Seattle recap, Episode 3: Thanksgiving in July »

credit: William Berry/staff

All those fancy cooks at the New York Times are proposing exciting  ways to cook your Thanksgiving turkey. Why shove your bird into the oven on a roasting pan, they ask, when you know that’s just a one-way ticket to the ho hums?

According to the New York Times, you should STEAM your turkey.

But if that’s too much work, then you should BRAISE the bird or — better yet — SPATCHCOCK the sucker.

We will not be outdone by those commonplace techniques here at the AJC. If you really want to impress guests far beyond any way they might be momentarily wowed by a New York Times turkey, may we propose one of these five exciting new preparation methods:

1. Tie it to your exhaust manifold: Nothing could be simpler. Wrap the turkey in sage leaves and then chicken wire and then heavy-duty aluminum foil. Drive to Whole Foods (the one in Birmingham) to pick up your sides and desserts, and you will have one beautiful bird by the time you roll back into Atlanta.
2. Go …

Continue reading Five fabulous new ways to cook your Thanksgiving turkey »