The HandPicked 8 is our quick overview of stuff that matters. There’s always a lot going on in the space we call ‘real food’, but not every story generates a whole post on its own.
That’s why we’ve created The HandPicked 8, to give you a quick idea of some of the things happening in food.
We’re constantly cruising the web, listening to people and generally keeping our eyes and ears open to information we think HandPicked Nation will find useful.
If you have run across a story you think is worth sharing, put a link to it in the comments section and we’ll consider making it part of the next HandPicked 8.
So, here’s the HandPicked 8 we think is worth reading about this morning.
1. Did you know you could cook with evergreens? Over at the salt.org they have the low-down. Cooking With Conifers: An Evergreen Trick That’s Newly Hip tells the story.
2. Using a smartphone or tablet as a kitchen tool is becoming more and more popular. Chow has some tips for you in this smart, informative article.
3. If sangria is your go-to refreshment in summer, maybe mulled wine should be your wintertime warm-up. Edible Feast explains how booze, heat and spices warm you up three ways at once.
4. Plants and fungus are involved in an ancient and often ignored partnership. Lately, scientists are searching for new ways to use that union to boost crop yields. Grist has the story.
5. Think you have the right stuff to be the first recipient of a new Marcella Hazan Scholarship? The International Culinary Center wants to award the $20,000 prize to “someone who aspires to be the next Mario Batali,” says ICC founder Dorothy Hamilton. Enter now, the deadline is March 7.
6. Vintage cookbooks are hot right now and Garden & Gun wants to add to your shelves (kinda). Five old-fashioned cookbooks are available online. From La Cuisine Créole from 1885 to What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking published in 1881, come and get ‘em!
7. We love Russ Parsons’ writing on latimes.com and he’s amazed us once again. Seven Steps To Becoming a Better Cook pulls together some simple, effective suggestions to cook even better. How many of these do you already do?
8. And finally, over on thekitchn.com they have posted a very thoughtful article: Martin Luther King Jr. Day: A Day of Service & Hospitality. Here’s a great quote from their post:
Hospitality of home and table is perhaps the most direct, personal avenue to “keeping it real,” in the pursuit of friendship and peace with others.
HandPicked Nation couldn’t agree more.
And that’s some of the stuff that matters, January 20, 2014!
Have an idea for a story? Send it to us, we’ll try to use it.
Photo credit: Craig McCord
The post HandPicked 8-Stuff That Matters appeared first on HandPicked Nation.