MacGourmet News

Every once in a while I like to post really great deals here. Amazon.com offering a few great ones right now:

Amazon.com is offering the Cuisinart DLC-10S Pro Classic 7 Cup Food Processor for an amazingly low price of only $99 with free Super Saver shipping. If you don't have a food processor, this is a great time to get one. It's one of the most useful things to have in the kitchen.

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This is an easy cheese cake recipe and tasty as well. The orange chocolate gives a tangy, but sweet flavor. Serve some fresh strawberries or other berries in season to give color and contrast. -- EclecticCooking.com

Ingredients:

100 g (3 oz) plain digestive biscuits*
50 g (2-1/2 oz) melted butter
2 x 200 g (ca 13 oz) orange chocolate bar
2 dl (1 Cup) whipping cream
250 g (ca. 8 oz) Philadelphia light cream cheese
250 g (ca. 8 oz) mascarpone cheese

Directions:

Break up the digestive biscuits and reduce them to the size of bread crumbs in the food processor and mix the bread crumbs with the melted butter. Line the base of a 20 cm (8 oz) spring form with the bread crumb mixture; press firmly to cover the base in an even layer (use the back of a spoon if necessary), cover and refrigerate to set. Break the chocolate into small pieces and over very low heat melt it. (You can put a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water, then remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate continue to melt, stirring once or twice).

Whip the cream and set aside. Gently beat the Philadelphia cream cheese and mascarpone in a bowl until well combined (do not overbeat, just combine well), stir in the melted chocolate and then fold in the whipped cream until smooth. Spoon the cheese mixture over the biscuit base and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight. Before serving, grate some white or dark chocolate over the top and decorate with fresh orange segments (fresh strawberries or raspberries are also nice and give a nice, appetizing color).

*Graham cracker biscuits (cookies) may be used instead of digestive biscuits.

(Serves 8-10)

Orange Chocolate Cheese Cake. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet for OS X, which is free to download and try, features lots of great features like drag and drop import, clipping recipes from web pages, publishing recipes to your .Mac account and much more. Give it a try today!

Read the latest Recipe of the Week.

MacGourmet 1.1.3 is now available: "Today Advenio updated MacGourmet, its recipe, wine and cooking note organizer, to version 1.1.3. This free update includes Spotlight support for MacGourmet recipe and note files, as well as many fixes and enhancements. MacGourmet is priced at US$24.95."

You can find a full list of the changes here.

This free update is available from the MacGourmet download site.

This is a tasty accompaniment for a summer barbecue. Can be made ahead or while the meat is on the grill (barbecue). -- EclecticCooking.com

Ingredients:

2 yellow bell peppers (capsicum)
3 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
3-4 stalks of celery, including the leaves
1/4 Cup (1/2 dl) olive oil (or less)
Little balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro (coriander leaves), chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut the bell peppers in half, remove seeds and grill or barbecue until the skin is blackened and begins to bubble. Place the peppers in a plastic bag until cooled, remove and pull off the skin. Cut the peppers into small cubes. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds and cut them into cubes.

Crush the garlic, chopped cilantro, parsley, olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar and mix with the peppers and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for 30 minutes or longer to blend the flavors. Serve with grilled or barbecued meat.

(Serves 4)

Grilled Pepper Salsa. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet for OS X, which is free to download and try, features lots of great features like drag and drop import, clipping recipes from web pages, publishing recipes to your .Mac account and much more. Give it a try today!

Read the latest Recipe of the Week.

This is a simple salad which has a special flavor because of the sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts and gorgonzola. You can substitute blue cheese if you want a stronger-tasting salad. -- EclecticCooking.com

Ingredients:

4 Cups mixed salad (including rocket salad)
2 stalks sliced celery, including leaves
1 handful cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3-4 sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
1/4 Cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced
2-3 oz ( 60 to 90 g) gorgonzola cheese, mild
2 rashers fried bacon, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of sugar
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp freshly chopped oregano
1 Tbsp freshly chopped parsley
4 hard-boiled eggs

Directions:

Rinse, dry and place mixed salad in a large salad bowl. Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into strips and to the lettuce together with the celery, and cherry tomatoes. Cut the gorgonzola into small cubes and together with the walnuts and spring onion place on top of the salad. Season with coarse sea salt and generous amount of freshly grated black pepper.

Whip the olive oil and lemon juice together with the paprika, oregano, parsley and a pinch of sugar and pour the dressing over the salad. Just before serving, mix the salad, peel and cut the eggs into halves and garnish the salad with these. Sprinkle the chopped bacon over the salad and serve with Naan bread.

(Serves 4)

Mixed Salad with Gorgonzola. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet for OS X, which is free to download and try, features lots of great features like drag and drop import, clipping recipes from web pages, publishing recipes to your .Mac account and much more. Give it a try today!

Read the latest Recipe of the Week.

Introducing The Cooking News, a new source of daily cooking, recipe, wine and general food news gathered from around the web. Every day The Cooking News, staff searches web sites for new recipes, wine reviews, cookbook reviews and more. Everything that's found is displayed in one place for you, so you can make it your daily stop for all the latest information. Additionally, you can subscribe to their news feed, so you can always be kept up-to-date. The Cooking News, we find the "stuff" for you!

What does this mean to MacGourmet.com users? Not much will change. You'll still be able to find MacGourmet product information here, and drag-and-drop recipes like you do now, but general news will be now be linked from The Cooking News rather than posted to MacGourmet.com. You will however be able to always see what's new at The Cooking News using the new "news box" on the right, which will always show the most recent posts to the site. This means more and different news available to the users of both sites.

Also note that we've added the list of the last 10 recipes from RealCajunRecipes.com. RealCajunRecipes.com provides drag and drop recipe support, just like MacGourmet.com does, and now you can find their latest recipes right from here. Enjoy!