America's Test Kitchen  is a real 2,500 square foot test kitchen located just outside of Boston that is home to more than three dozen full¬time cooks and product testers. Our mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods. To do this, we test each recipe 30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times, until we arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time, and equipment that yields the best, most¬ foolproof recipe. America’s Test Kitchen's online cooking school is based on nearly 20 years of test kitchen work in our own facility, on the recipes created for Cook's Illustrated magazine, and on our two public television cooking shows.

If you’re looking to make mom an extra-special treat for Mother’s Day this year, try baking a batch of our Sticky Buns with Pecans. The caramel glaze, intricately rolled dough and crumbled nut topping make these look like the work of a master - and they're easier to make than they look.

You may recognize these beautiful buns from the cover of "The Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book"; it includes recipes for other decadent (and some healthy, too!) baked goods that you may have never tackled at home. It also features lots of foolproof techniques, tips and recipes to help you (and your mom) reach your full baking potential.
FULL POST

Cara Reedy is an Executive Assistant at CNN. She previously wrote for Eatocracy on being a small cook in a big kitchen, St. Louis' Provel cheese and her family's soul food traditions. She caveats that doubles aren't pretty (as pictured above) but they sure are delicious.

The Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn has been home to a vibrant Caribbean and African American community since the great migration of the twentieth century. African American people moved to northern states to escape the racial segregation of Jim Crow laws, while at the same time Caribbean people moved to New York for better employment opportunities. The slow Southern charm mixed with the warmth of the Caribbean people make it a neighborhood unlike any other.

When I arrived five years ago, I was a Caribbean food novice. I soon caught up and caught on to the wonderful flavors. My favorite discovery is doubles, a Trinidadian street food that is a Bed Stuy breakfast tradition.

Despite its plural name, a double is a singular sandwich made of two pieces of fried bread (bara) filled with curried chickpea stew (channa) and then topped with tamarind chutney, kuchela (chutney made of green mangoes) and pepper (a vinegary sauce made from scotch bonnet peppers).
FULL POST

Bread served hot out of the oven. Fluffy pancakes topped with huckleberries. An espresso bar. These are the kinds of hotel breakfasts that keep guests from venturing out to a nearby restaurant.

The following properties want each element of your stay to be unforgettable, starting with the first decadent bite of the day. Each of the following breakfasts is included in the nightly rate, so go ahead - indulge in that second still-warm croissant.
FULL POST