Blog Posts by Sarah McColl, Shine staff

Chicken thighs are the lusty, flavor-rich cousin to virtuous chicken breasts. Cheaper than their white meat counterpart, chicken thighs are perfect for fall's slow-cooked stews and braises and can stand up to the fierce heat of grilling in a way chicken breasts can't. If your recipe calls for boneless thighs, an especially nice grocery store butcher might de-bone it for you. But for skinless chicken thighs, save a few more bucks by removing the skin yourself (it's a cinch). --Sarah McColl, Shine staff

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Great minds do indeed think alike, and these easy chicken and pasta recipes from the Shine Supper Club are the proof.

What's your go-to easy chicken recipe? Join the club by sharing! Here's how:

1. Write a blog post, on Shine or elsewhere, telling us about your favorite weeknight chicken recipe by Monday, September 24th. Be sure to include a photo and a recipe.
2. Mention and link to the Shine Supper Club in your post: http://shine.yahoo.com/supper-club/
3. Tweet @yahooshine with a link to your post and include the hashtag #shinesupperclub. Aren't on Twitter? Email the link to shine_sarahmccoll@yahoo.com. We will compile the links and send them out to all participants to include in their post so all Supper Club members can share in the link love.

Diced chicken, broccoli with whole wheat pasta In My Element: "For busy folks, I recommend baking up a large quantity of chicken breasts, one night of the week, and then using them up for weeknight meals."

Recipe: Diced Chicken and Broccoli with Whole Wheat Pasta








Pesto Chicken BakeSushi and Stilettos

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By mid-afternoon, the line at Culture Espresso stretches out the door and onto the sidewalk. Once inside, Midtown New York City office workers are handed white paper cups with artful foam and, if they are smart, a chocolate chunk cookie as big as a basketball player's palm, still warm from the oven.

"Nothing really beats a good chocolate chip cookie," owner Jody LoCascio says, echoing our cookie-crazy thoughts exactly. "We have a full-time cookie guy," he adds, an oddity for a small coffee shop that focuses on expertly brewed espresso drinks and coffees. "We do over 100 a day."

Related: How to Make Oreo Cookies at Home

Form the dough into ballsThe cookie is golden crisp at the edges, an inch-thick, and soft--blissfully almost undercooked--with melty dark chocolate chunks inside. I've eaten a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my day, but this one balances near the top of the heap.

The cookie's been a customer favorite since Culture first opened and a Culinary Institute of America-trained pastry chef created a

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A diagnosis of celiac disease, which affects more than 200 million people in the United States, doesn't have to be a death sentence for people who love to eat. But intolerance to gluten (a protein in wheat, rye, and barley) does mean keeping an eye on ingredients lists and some employing some creative cooking. Food blogs like Gluten-Free Girl have helped deliciously guide celiacs through their days that are missing gluten--but filled with every other fresh, vibrant food any cook would love. In honor of Celiac Awareness Day and Shine readers out there who steer clear of gluten, we're serving up great, fall-friendly gluten-free dishes from some seriously talented food bloggers. Think cheesy lasagnas, kicky curries, and a cookie you can eat for breakfast. --Sarah McColl, Shine staff

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This salad won't wilt hanging out in the office fridge.Even those of us who don't head back to school soon can feel the draw of blank notebooks, freshly-sharpened pencils, and the possibilities of a fresh start in September. We will finally read the works of Dickens! We will wear on-trend black cherry lipstick! And whether in a brown paper sack or chic insulated tote, we will bring lunch to work, save thousands of dollars and feel like bastions of health in the process! I get as excited about this time of year as I do about the real new year, can you tell?

This time at Food Network's Communal Table, we're bringing back-to-school lunches. I like a big lunchtime salad made with bright, filling ingredients to keep me charged through the afternoon, but I don't like soggy, sad desk salads. This quinoa salad is perfect for taking to work: because only the quinoa is dressed in olive oil and lemon juice, the lettuce won't get wilty as it hangs out in the office fridge. The protein-packed grain has earthy staying power, red onion adds a

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Share your easy weeknight chicken recipe with the Shine Supper ClubSo long, summer, hello September. We're ready to embrace quick-cooking weeknight-friendly dinners that make the back-to-school transition that much easier. We're issuing a call to food bloggers and home cooks everywhere: what's your go-to easy weeknight chicken dinner? One winner will be chosen by the Shine community and featured on the Shine homepage. Ready to join us? Here's how:

To Join Us:
1. Write a blog post, on Shine or elsewhere, telling us about your favorite weeknight chicken recipe by Monday, September 24th. Be sure to include a photo and a recipe.
2. Mention and link to the Shine Supper Club in your post: http://shine.yahoo.com/supper-club/
3. Tweet @yahooshine with a link to your post and include the hashtag #shinesupperclub. Aren't on Twitter? Email the link to shine_sarahmccoll@yahoo.com. We will compile the links and send them out to all participants to include in their post so all Supper Club members can share in the link love.

The Shine Supper Club is a virtual

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Every year, the State Fair of Texas invites creative cooks to compete for a golden statuette in the Big Tex Choice Awards, a food contest open to fair concessionaires with only one requirement: everything must be fried. Over Labor Day weekend, three judges tasted their way through 52 fried entries, including deep-fried pork wings, fried cactus bites, mac and cheese sliders, and deep-fried tres leches cake. But only two fried concoctions can be crowned with Big Tex's ten-gallon hat.

PHOTOS: America's Wacky Fair Foods

This year, Butch Benavides took home the most creative award for his fried bacon-wrapped cinnamon roll: a classic cinnamon roll dipped in sweet pancake batter, rolled in bacon crumbles, deep-fried, and blanketed by powdered sugar. The best-tasting award went to Abel Gonzales, Jr.'s. deep-fried jambalaya. The spicy rice balls are packed with chicken, sausage, and shrimp, coated lightly in flour, fried, and served with a spicy ranch sauce. This is not the first prize for

Read More »from State Fair of Texas Names Best Fried Foods in Big Tex Choice Awards

The Supper Club serves up no-cook, keep-cool tips to make summer feasting as relaxed and lazy as August itself.

• Use summer tomatoes. They're at their ripest right now, ruby red and bursting with flavor, perfect for a no-cook pasta sauce, salsa, salad, or gazpacho.

• Turn to your crock-pot. Is it cooking? Kind of. But it's not you doing the cooking.

• Savor a summer salad. On hot days, fresh, crisp ingredients are way more refreshing that a steaming casserole.

• Whip up a dip. "Puree some white beans with herbs and olive oil...then you can use raw vegetables, crackers, whatever," suggests Shine reader K.

• Dinner of champions. The favorite no-cook dinner of our Community Manager, Brenda: a bowl of cereal. "And I don't even sit at the table to eat it!"

• For the perfect snack, remember two words: Frozen grapes, says Nicole Gulotta.

• Put together odds and ends. Who says dinner can't be a hunk of cheese, olives, sliced salami, bread, and a big green salad. Add a glass of wine and

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