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We know you have those go-to dishes that you like to cook every year for Thanksgiving. But there’s always room for a few twists and turns to liven things up a little, right? With over 30 new Thanksgiving videos on how2heroes covering everything from turkey preparations, to stuffings and sides, gravy and oh-so-many heavenly desserts, you’ll be sure to find something that we hope will become a new family tradition in your home. And definitely check out the Thanksgiving Quick Tips video we’ve put together with sound advice from many of our heroes on how to plan and enjoy your Thanksgiving. So dig in and check out all our delicious Thanksgiving videos and recipe. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Who better to teach us how to cook than the wonderful moms who prepare meals for a tough crowd - their families. We feel very lucky to have a number of moms on our site who have been generous in sharing the recipes their families love most. Susan Zubatkin is a mother of 2 children who are on their own now but still stay close to home to be near her - and the amazing Savory Roll-Ups she makes (not to mention her sweetly tart Ginger Cranberry Sauce). Jane Ziegelman not only inspires her own kids to cook but many others. She is the Director of Kids Cook!  in Brooklyn and teaches children social studies through food and cooking. And these kids aren’t making P, B & J (not that there’s anything wrong with that). They’re making Pasta from Scratch and other seriously delicious meals. And are they good! Jane Chiarelli is also a mother of 2 who takes dozens of her famous cookies, like her Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Cookies, to every family gathering. What lucky relatives she has. Don’t miss her moist, delicious Meatballs either!

These are just a few of the many talented and generous Moms featured on how2heroes. Others you should check out include:

Bea Viera - Apple Pie, Squash Pie, Vanilla Cream Meringue Pie, Gravy, Twice-Baked Potatoes and Classic Giblet Stuffing - after raising 7 children, she still has the energy to share her recipes with us. She’s truly our hero! 

Chiqui Collier - feel her love for New Orleans food and family recipes when you watch her 2 videos: Uncle Frank’s Oyster Stuffing, New Orleans Style BBQ Shrimp

Boo Macomber - when someone measures the time to cook a meal by the number of beers she consumes while cooking, and describes the correct color of roux as “the Bayou after a storm,” you can’t help but fall in love and follow every tip she gives. Boo’s videos are a MUST-WATCH - Crawfish Etouffee and Boiling, Peeling and Eating Crawfish. Coming soon - her to-die-for Dirty Rice Jambalaya Stuffing. 

We encourage you other Moms out there to join this group hug of great moms and share your family recipes on how2heroes. We hope to hear from you soon!

You can carve it, make velvety soup or delicious cupcakes out of it. So many things you can do with Fall’s harvest of pumpkins. We’ve just created some great how-to videos to help give you some inspirations for your very own pumpkins.
Want to have the coolest carved pumpkin in your neighborhood, watch Pumpkin Carving with Chris Gould. Chris is a master pumpkin and ice carver as well as a talented chef at Clio restaurant. He could carve Mount Rushmore into a pumpkin if you asked him to. But he also has some great basic advice that will enable anyone to do some creative “etching” on their pumpkin. Give it a try!

As we all know, cupcakes are king in the dessert world these days. And Peg Aloi’s Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes reign supreme amongst any we’ve tasted. The great spices she uses - cinnamon, allspice, ginger - make your whole house smell heavenly. The combination of the sour cream and pumpkin make the cupcakes much moister than your average cupcake. And the cream cheese frosting takes the cake. We can’t think of a better sweet treat to make with pumpkin. You’ll enjoy learning about Peg as well. She calls herself a Food Folklorist which we love. Watch Peg’s video to find out her perspective on food.

Another feast for the pumpkin senses was created by Chef Jose Duarte of Taranta restaurant. Jose is Peruvian and combines ingredients from his culture into the Italian cuisine he prepares in his restaurant. His Calabaza Squash Soup is a prime example on how successfully he brings these two cultures together.

Congrats to our Winner
In other news, we want to congratulate Ehaab Bakeer from Brooklyn, NY. He was the winner of a $50 Gift Certificate to Williams-Sonoma. Ehaab was randomly chosen from all the participants in our Holiday Survey. We thank him and everyone once again for participating. We loved hearing all your comments. All this valuable input will contribute to making how2heroes.com the place to go for all your Thanksgiving and holiday food inspirations and recipes.

Coming Soon
LOTS to look forward to in the coming weeks on how2heroes:
- More Recipes from Mothers and Grandmothers:
- Savory Chicken Roll-ups, one of her family’s favorites, from Susan.
- Mini Pecan Tarts from Anne, mother of 2, grandmother of 1. Her extended family fight over these during the holidays.
- Boston Cream Pie - the Omni Parker House, inventors of one of our all-time favorite desserts, shares their recipe with all of us. What a treat - literally!!
- Cold Weather Cocktails - learn how to warm up with a little help from a few fine spirits and our Bar Manager extraordinaire, Lino.
- Thanksgiving Extravaganza (stuffings, cranberry sauces, turkey recipes, pies, potato preps, gravy and oh, so much more).

SO BE SURE TO COME BACK TO HOW2HEROES.COM EVERY DAY. SO MANY DELICIOUS IDEAS COMING YOUR WAY. THANKS FOR VISITING. WE LOVE HAVING YOU HERE.

Cheers!

What goes together better than food and beer? How about food made with beer! Recently, we have spent a lot of quality time at The Publick House restaurant in Brookline, MA, where Chef Brent has cooked some amazing dishes - some made with beer, others best accompanied by one.

First off, you need to watch Brent cook up a hearty pot of Stout Beef Stew made with a plethora of vegetables and Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout. Add some crusty bread to this dish and a cold beer to drink and you’re golden!

Next, experience Bacon-Wrapped Cod with Smoky Mussels – so fantastic. Made with a smoky beer (Brent used a Schlenkerla Rauchbier Beer in the video), it brings a mild smoked flavor to a seafood classic.

Another comfort food favorite from The Publick House crew is a homemade Mac & Cheese. Chef Brent walks you through how to do it right – with a roux, a béchamel sauce and lots and lots of cheese. Delicious. We’re drooling just thinking about it.

And for some Beer Education, turn to Brent’s co-worker and self-proclaimed Beer Baron, Remi Johnson. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between an Oktoberfest and a Pumpkin Ale? Or why some beers are served in different types of glasses? Remi has the answers for you. Check out our Fall Beer Tasting and Beer Glassware 101 videos. And you thought only wines deserved their own special glasses. Not so, my friends.

We hope you enjoy the videos as much as we enjoyed shooting them and sampling the goods.

Thanks so much to the folks at The Publick House, 1648 Beacon Street in Brookline, MA. We encourage you to stop by and sample some of their fine Belgian beers and hearty fare.

Cheers!

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Do you think of healthy eating as boring and bland? Well, have we got a video for you. Watch Heart Healthy Jambalaya. Executive Chef Brad Stevens from Community Servings shows you some great ideas on how to make a meal great without adding a lot of salt, butter, etc. There are a couple tips in there that are real keepers and may change your life. So be sure to check it out. This recipe is also diabetic friendly so if you are a diabetic or know someone who is, this is another reason to make this flavorful satisfying meal.

Chef Brad is the perfect hero for health. Not only is he in charge of the kitchen that prepares hundreds of meals every day for the critically ill with multiple dietary concerns, but he also trains these people when they’re ready to start cooking for themselves so that they can stay on a healthy track.

We encourage you to learn more about Community Servings, a great organization that serves hundreds of meals a day to the critically ill. They are great people with big hearts and need volunteers.

Here’s to your health!

Brandywine. Speckled Roman. Chocolate Stripe. No, this isn’t the new Martha Stewart paint collection. These are just a few of the many juicy heirloom tomatoes that Carl Hills grows at Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, MA.

You might ask “What exactly is an heirloom tomato?” “How are they different from regular tomatoes?” “How do they differ from each other and what’s the best way to prepare and eat them?” We had these very questions which is why we consulted an expert. There’s nobody more qualified than Carl Hills to answer these questions. We visited him recently at his farm, on the kind of summer day you dream about, to get a walking tour of his acres of heirlooms. Watch our new Heirloom Tomato video. Carl is fascinating and will teach you things about heirlooms you’ll take with you forever. And be sure to watch Carl’s profile to learn about him and his family farm.

What you’ll see when you watch the video is that heirloom varieties cover a lot of territory. You’ll find tomatoes as small as a golf ball and as large as your head (seriously). Red ones, green ones, yellow and orange ones. Some perfectly round or oval. Others kind of bulbous and funky looking.  Cut into any of them and it’ll make you sigh.  So beautiful, juicy and absolutely delicious.  Makes you wish summer would never end.

We hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed our time with Carl at Kimball Fruit Farm. It was truly a memorable experience and we learned so much. Thank you, Carl.

Here are some great ways to put your heirlooms to good use:

If you get the chance, visit Kimball Fruit Farm sometime. Kimball’s is to tomatoes what the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory is to candy. It’s a tomato lover’s fantasy. In addition to tomatoes, peaches, corn and berries, they have acres and acres of apple trees that will be ripe and juicy around mid-September.

Thanks to Chris Crandall from In Season for introducing us to Carl.

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Is August the most incredible month for farm fresh ingredients or what? We feel obliged to stuff ourselves with blueberries, corn on the cob, squash, tomatoes - whatever we can get our hands on that’s fresh off the vine. Because, as we all know, this wonderful window of time is sadly short-lived.

The question is…what do you do with all these wonderful farm fresh ingredients? The answer is…not much. Simple preparation is all it takes to heighten the flavors of your fruit, produce and even farm fresh milk and cream.

We are thrilled to bring you some great ideas from two talented heroes: this year’s Best of Boston Personal Chef JJ Gonson as well as Veteran Personal Chef and Nutritionist Polly Crowninshield.

JJ helps you get started by walking you through the Farmers’ Market and showing you what to look for when Buying Squash and when Selecting Your Stone Fruits (plums, peaches, etc.). She then treats you to some recipes and techniques you’ll carry with you from here on out - Kosher Dill Pickles, Simple Squash Sauté, a lesson on How to Freeze Blueberries (so you can make heavenly blueberry pancakes in the middle of winter), and Roasted Tomatoes for your pizzas, pastas, or whatever!

In the dairy category, we are proud to bring you Polly Crowninshield who shows you how easy it is to make your own Yogurt and Creme Fraiche. If you’ve never tried Creme Fraiche, you are truly missing out on something special. And since it only takes 2 ingredients to make, we suggest you get thee to a dairy or the supermarket to get yourself some quality cream and buttermilk so you can make and experience your first heavenly batch. Thanks to Polly for her hospitality, for teaching us something new and healthy, and for showing us her wonderful backyard goldfish pond.

We would like to thank our new best friend, Chris Crandall, from In Season for introducing us to Polly. Chris is working with farms all over New England to bring their produce, eggs, dairy and pastas to city folk like ourselves. To us, it’s like Christmas getting a delivery from In Season. Doorbell rings, you run down, nothing there but a bag of goodies. You can expect to see some more great hook-ups from Chris. We don’t want to give anything away but make sure you come back to the site often to see what we bring you from the farms!

We would also like to thank the Central Square Farmers’ Market for all the farms who let us bother them with our endless questions. We encourage you to support your local farmers! Doesn’t get any fresher than what they bring you - unless you grow your own.

Savor the summer and all its sun-kissed fruit and produce, my friends!

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It was quite a challenge but we ate our way through New York City so we could bring you some of the best recipes the city has to offer!

We started like every true food lover should - with dessert! We met Jansen Chan, a Le Cordon Bleu trained Pastry Chef with a former life in architecture. Some of you may have seen both these worlds work in harmony when he built his award-winning chocolate Eiffel Tower in a Food Network competition. Jansen is a great guy with a lot of energy. He has a fantastic handwritten sketch book (see his Mochi Cake sketch in the video) with recipes and sketches of his creations. I wanted to pocket it but I figured he might miss it. He was kind enough to whip up 2 desserts for us - a simple Flourless Chocolate Cake and one of his signature desserts currently on the Oceana Restaurant menu, Blueberry Mochi Cake with Coconut Tapioca. Both desserts are killer and you must make them!

With a sugar high, we cabbed it downtown to meet Ethan Kelley, Beverage Director and Spirits Sommelier (great title!) at The Brandy Library in Tribeca. There, Ethan was the consummate host and gave a great Whiskey 101 lecture for us and shared a fabulous unique cocktail recipe called The Full Blonde Aperitif. With a slight buzz on and some tasty gougeres cheese snacks in our tummies, we called it a night in preparation for NYC, Day 2.

As we all know (even though we may not want to admit it), New York makes some of the best pizza on the planet and Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn makes its borough proud. Learn how to make the dough, the sauce & the toppings with some of the hippest people you will ever meet. Seriously they should have a reality show like the Ace of Cakes dudes.

Sunday morning we headed over to Kids Cook! in Brooklyn Heights where the fabulous Jane Ziegelman teaches kids social studies through recipes. Watch Buster (10) and Alice (12) make Fresh Pasta like they’ve been doing it for years. Jane is the greatest teacher. We wish there had been a Kids Cook! school when we were growing up.

We ended with Chef Chris Wyman blinding us with science. He showed us how to combine traditional cooking methods with Molecular Gastronomy techniques to make an absolutely beautiful and unusual entree. Check out his Avocado-Wrapped Ceviche with Tomato Pearls and Lemon/Lime Air video.

We can’t thank everyone enough who took the time out of their busy schedules to share their expertise with the how2heroes community. Much appreciated!

For more great photos from these shoots and others, check out our Photo Gallery.

Watch our hero Poppy Tooker (see her Calas video on how2heroes) on the Food Network’s “Throwdown with Bobby Flay“! She shows Bobby how Gumbo is done the right way! Tune in and watch her in action. She’s fantastic! Times: Jul 19, 2008 4:00 PM ET/PT, Aug 31, 2008 10:00 PM ET/PT and Aug 31, 2008 1:00 AM ET/PT. You can also learn more about Poppy by watching her how2heroes profile video.

JUST ADDED!! Stuffed Clams, Venezuelan Arepas, Tres Leches Cake.

Nothing says summer more than Paul O’Connell’s Stuffed Clams. Paul, Chef/Owner of Chez Henri in Cambridge puts a Cuban twist on this New England classic. Serve them after a day at the beach, at a roofdeck party or whenever the mood strikes you.

Join our spicy Venezuelan mother and daughter team, Anamelia and Carla, as they share their family recipe for Arepas as well as classic Latin dessert, Tres Leches. And don’t forget to watch their profile. It’s our first bilingual profile!

Coming soon - Tomatoes 3 Ways, BBQ Dave’s Baked Beans and Grilled Mushrooms, Peruvian Ceviche, and a whole slew of how-to surprises from our trip to New York - we’re leaving tomorrow!

Thanks to everyone for visiting how2heroes.com and for all the great comments and e-mails you’ve been sending. Keep it coming. And tell your friends!