• Weeknight Dinners

    After a day of work, we all run into the dinner conundrum: We don't want the same quick standbys we always eat, but we really don't want to expend the mental energy to scheme up something fabulous. Soon, this back and forth turns us from hungry to famished, and we end up scarfing down whatever's in the fridge or reverting to takeout.

    But it doesn't have to be this way! We're obsessed with quick dinners, and, with a little bit of creative thinking, we've come up with some surprisingly simple dinners that will transform the weeknight meal from a hassle to a pleasure.

    Whip up these recipes, and you'll still have plenty of time to relax after work, preferably with a glass of wine in hand.


    1. Rigatoni With Easy Pork Ragu
    Rigatoni with Pork Ragu

    If you've never had a real ragu before (no, we're not talking Chef Boyardee), you're missing out. A rich, slow-simmered, meat-based sauce is served with pasta for a decadent-feeling meal. In our simple take on the classic, the finishing touch of salty

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  • by Sara Bonisteel


    Throw a Great Gatsby party.Host a Roaring Twenties Champagne-fueled bacchanal inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, now a new movie directed by Baz Luhrmann

    "He gives large parties. And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." -Socialite Jordan Baker, The Great Gatsby

    Ingredients:
    Fireworks. Methuselahs of Champagne. A band. Everyone you know and many more that you don't.

    Preparation:
    Put all your furniture in the bedroom. Pull out your New Year's Eve finery. Stock up on confetti. Learn the Charleston.

    Yield:
    A soiree so good it will leave revelers with no other recollections aside from that warm feeling of having attended the greatest party of their life. (No pressure on your part.)

    The Menu:
    A catered affair is ideal, but if you don't have the means of the great Jay Gatsby, then fully stock your bar with reserves in waiting, prepare a flotilla of hors d'oeuvres, whip up two suppers (one for early evening and another for after midnight)

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  • The Best Texas Barbecue

    By | Shine Food – Fri, May 10, 2013 2:04 PM EDT

    by Esther Sung

    The Prophets of Smoked MeatGrilling and barbecue season's "official" start date is still a few weeks away, but this year's batch of grilling and bbq cookbooks are trickling in. Daniel Vaughn's The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue (Ecco/An Anthony Bourdain Book) kicks off this year's coverage. It's a bit of an odd choice given that it's not a cookbook, per se (though the book does contain a number of choice pitmaster recipes from the Lone Star State). But if there was ever a paean for barbecue written for the common man who just happens to love barbecue, this book might have to be it. Vaughn's career trajectory wasn't exactly straightforward--exactly how does one plan on becoming "Barbecue Editor" for Texas Monthly magazine?--but the trained architect's insatiable zeal for barbecue pays off handsomely in this book. Part travelogue and part food reviews, the book is entertaining as well as sometimes maddening, thanks to Vaughn's subjectivity (there's a lot of

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  • Strawberry Champagne Cupcakes

    Here's a little secret: I'm known by my co-workers as Bubbly Muse. What can I say-I have a penchant for champagne!

    Of course, my favorite way to consume champagne is straight up in a frosted flute, but I've been known to throw a little in pasta sauce or use a bit to deglaze a pan. It just gives any dish an extra boost of yum.

    I've never baked with champagne, though. I wasn't even sure if it would work. But I wanted to make something extra special for all the moms (or in my case, mum) out there, so I figured I'd give it a go.

    I decided to make a batch of deliciously fluffy, ever so airy cupcakes. But not just any cupcakes-these cupcakes are made with champagne, filled with a fresh strawberry buttercream, and then topped with even more buttercream on top. Yum! The champagne added an extra airiness to the batter, and the surprise pink filling took the cupcakes to the next level.

    The best part? I made this recipe with a boxed cake mix, so you can whip up a batch in no

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  • Here are some malts and milkshakes recipes you'll loveIs there any drink more iconic than the milkshake? It's hard to argue against it. Now that the soda fountains of the 20th century are roaring back into style, we can't get enough of a good milkshake or malt.

    The first milkshake was reportedly made by a Walgreens employee, Ivar "Pop" Coulson. He updated the pharmacy's "chocolate malt beverage" by adding a scoop of ice cream, and the lives of ice cream lovers, sweet tooths, and soda fountains were forever changed. Heck, the blender was invented in 1922 by Stephen Poplawski just to mix up milkshakes - who knew?

    Check out America's Best Milkshakes

    Now, milkshakes are getting the culinary treatment just like your cocktails, lemonades, and juices. You'll never go wrong with a chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry milkshake from the soda fountain heyday, but now we're finding just as many imaginative flavors, like peanut butter and jelly, watermelon and lime, and salted caramel.

    Leading the way? Autumn Martin at Seattle's Hot Cakes Molten

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  • Photo: Nick FerrariPhoto: Nick FerrariBecause who actually wants to wait in line at Starbucks?

    As ELLE's photo director, I am responsible for every single image we publish in the magazine. Hey, it takes a lot of synthetic energy to hawkeye a zillion contact sheets every day! And as a mother of two with an hour-long commute, my patience for fussy pick-me-ups is, well, zero. That is why I am obsessed with Grady's Cold Brew coffee concentrate. I first heard of it last summer when [associate editor] Seth Plattner kept a growler of it in the communal fridge. I watched enviously as he poured the stuff over ice and then mixed in milk for the perfect at-your-desk latte. The bottle is chic. It makes an awesome present. Plus, with eight servings in each $15 bottle, it's a whole lot more economical than that $6 Agave Rhubarb Frappuccino you're sipping on. In short: Grady's on the rocks, rocks.

    Purchase Grady's Cold Brew 32oz bottle for $15 at gradyscoldbrew.com


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  • Major fast-food chains have global reach, and in most cases they tailor their menus to incorporate local tastes and cultures. In Japan, for example, Burger King sells a Premium Black Kuro Burger with squid ink-flavored ketchup, and in India, where a large percentage of the population doesn't eat beef, McDonald's sells the Maharaja Mac, which replaces the beef patties with chicken.

    The World's Top 10 Coolest McDonald's

    And while it makes perfect sense to sell sandwiches and burgers tailored to the local audience, it might not be obvious that desserts also get the global treatment. In honor of National Pie Day, we're taking a look at five of the craziest McDonald's pies from around the world.

    The World's Strangest McDonald's Commercials

    For our list, we chose the ones that are legitimately flabbergasting. Who would have thought that in Japan pies would be filled with mashed potatoes and bacon? That's certainly bridging the snack/dessert divide. And while cherry, chocolate, lemon,

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  • Ellen SilvermanEllen SilvermanThere's something missing in your cooking, and if we were to take a wild guess, we'd say it was sauces. For those of you who have dreamt of going to culinary school but just never took the plunge, here's something you would've learned while there: how to make the mother sauces, and why they're essential to your cooking.

    20 Tips for How to Be a Better Cook


    A lot of people don't know the term "mother sauces," but it refers to the five basic and essential sauces that all other sauces stem from. They're the building blocks of what every young chef is taught during their training, because if you know the mother sauces, you know the foundations of pretty much any other sauce out there (the technical term for those other sauces are "small sauces").

    7 Reasons Why You Should Eat More Fish

    Times are changing, though. If you asked a traditional French chef what the five mother sauces are, he'd give you a traditional list (and maybe a few additional ones), but if you turned to a more modern

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  • Want healthy cookies? Find out the best healthy cookies.Healthy cookies? I know, it sounds like an oxymoron. And believe me, I understand your skepticism! But I went on a mission to find them, and I actually dug up some good options. The cookies listed below are made predominantly with whole grains, have only a reasonable amount of sugar, and clock in at no more than 130 calories per serving (a diet-friendly amount). Here are my picks:

    Related: 50 Best Low-Calorie Snacks

    1. 100% Whole Grain Fig Newtons (2 cookies)
    2. Back to Nature Apple Cinnamon Oat Grahams (2 full sheets), Golden Honey Oat Grahams (2 full sheets), or Crispy Oatmeal Cookies (2 cookies)

    3. Barbara's Bakery Snackimals in Wheat Free Oatmeal (about 10 cookies)
    4. Kashi Cookies (1 cookie) in Chocolate Almond Butter, Oatmeal Raisin Flax, or Oatmeal Dark Chocolate
    5. Willamette Valley Granola Company Granola Chips (about 20 chips) in Butter Pecan, Vanilla Bean, and Honey Nut

    Related: Healthy Cookies Recipes

    What are your favorite healthy cookies? Let me know

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  • My after-school snack was a sacred ritual. I sat on the carpet in my parents' bedroom at a low table, the television turned to "I Dream of Jeannie," and ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich cut into neat squares. I wasn't fussy about crusts. I just loved the sticky pairing of creamy peanut butter with syrupy golden sweetness drizzled from a honey bear in diagonals across the soft white bread. Nothing else--save for maybe apples and peanut butter in a pinch--could have made for as sweet an afternoon, with Nickelodeon reruns stretching into the distance.



    This month, the Shine Supper Club is celebrating our nostalgic childhood favorites. Were you crazy for popsicles on hot afternoons? Mad for mac and cheese? Join us by revisiting a classic in your kitchen, and sharing a recipe, photo and a story about just how good it was back then. Here's how it works:



    1. Write a blog post telling us about your favorite childhood recipe by Monday 11:59PM PST, May 27th. Be sure to include a photo

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