Food & Drink

JFP Cocktail Hour

The Jackson Free Press is a great place to work for so many reasons. One especially fun reason came last Wednesday before we shut down for the holidays when we had an impromptu JFP cocktail hour as we opened presents.

The Basic Home Bar

The basic necessities for your own home entertainment.

Adventures in Gingerbread

My mother spoiled me with books, and my prized possession was a gilded copy of "Grimm's Fairy Tales," which I pored over with all the twisted earnestness of Wednesday Addams. The details never lost their punch between readings: the revelation of the wolf's fearsome maw beneath granny's spectacles, the quiver of schadenfreude at Cinderella's feathered friends blinding her bullying step sisters, and the unfettered glee when wicked tricksters fall to their ruin.

The Hanukkah Oil Club

Oil. It's in nearly everything we eat. We use spritzes of oil to sauté and roast, drizzles of it to toss with salads and puddles to deep fry, well, everything else. Oil is made from olives, corn, a variety of nuts and soybeans.

Christmas Dinner: Let the Pros Do It

Looking for some help with your holiday meal? Consider letting a local restaurant, food distributor or grocery store help out.

Kids In the Kitchen

On Black Friday, while others pushed and shoved their way through crowds of shoppers, my son Mateo and I made our way to the Viking Cooking School in Ridgeland to create a gingerbread house. The class, designed for guardian-child interaction, was full.

Love in a Bottle: Edible Gifts

My experience with Secret Santa has been a never-ending cycle of gag gifts and prepackaged hot cocoa in holiday mugs. Two years ago, I received a parcel that changed my mind, filled with exquisite jellies and preserves, like rare gems on a drift of packing peanuts.

Cookin', Schmookin': Help Is On the Way

On Thanksgiving you have two options: Do the cooking, or let someone else cook for you. Luckily, local restaurants and food distributors can fill in and make Thanksgiving easier.

A DIY Thanksgiving

Want to cook Thanksgiving dinner yourself, but don't know where to start? Tired of the same old recipes? Here are some new options, from my kitchen to yours.

Leftovers? Make Soup (Duh)

Thanksgiving is a time to relax, enjoy a good meal, and make new memories with family and friends. Alas, this warm and fuzzy feeling is soon dispelled once the guests have gone home, and you are left with enough leftover food to feed Santa and all the elves.

Turkey Trivia

Turkey time is here. Hallelujah. Before you dive into your towering plate of gobbler, take a minute to get to know this fabulous poultry that wows dinner tables across the nation.

A Good Deed

It is easy to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season that we forget about those less fortunate. This year, before beginning your own holiday shopping, we urge you to reach into your kitchen cabinets for food items for one of the shelters below that feed the homeless and less fortunate families of Jackson.

A Salty Solution

If you grew up feasting on a dry, chewy, tasteless bird every year, here's the good news: Turkey meat can be juicy and even flavorful, thanks in part to a technique known as brining.

Spice Box: SAGE

Thanksgiving turkey wouldn't be the same without the peppery, somewhat astringent flavor of sage. It's used in poultry seasoning and stuffing for holiday meals, but plenty of good cooks don't know what to do with this velvet-leaf herb outside cornbread dressing and the roast turkey behemoth of the holiday season.

Alt.Thanksgiving

We've had it all before: roast turkey, stuffing, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie. It is easy to get tired of the typical Thanksgiving meal, specifically when the post-turkey drowsiness sets in.

Ellington