Letter from the Editor

STRESS EATING

Every cook, no matter how seasoned, occasionally stumbles in the kitchen. We’ve all been there: reaching for the baking soda instead of the baking powder, accidentally adding salt instead of sugar, or condensed milk when evaporated was called for. Even the most experienced baker makes the occasional slip, like using cumin instead of cinnamon in pumpkin pie. It’s all part of the beautiful journey of cooking and baking. I once tried to degrease a pizza while it was still piping hot and it swallowed the whole paper towel. No one was the wiser.

The biggest mistake people make in the kitchen is not reading the recipe all the way through before they start cooking.

I am so guilty of that.

I missed the most crucial step when we were preparing Donny Rouse’s peanut butter ham for this issue: knowing when to glaze the ham. So, we had to abandon our first attempt and hurriedly acquire a different ham, right in the midst of our photo shoot. Then we had to cook it. The combination of remaking Donny’s signature dish and the anxious wait for it to cook led the whole magazine team to stress eat.

The skillet of Brussels sprouts Tim made didn’t stand a chance against our anxiety, and neither did the speck he fried. We polished off dozens of cookies Mary Ann baked and decorated for our Table of Contents page. We ate the original failed ham, slice by slice by slice, with our hands — we didn’t even use plates. We drank the melting gelatos from our Italian ad like they were milkshakes. And we watched as Peyton devoured 10 King’s Hawaiian Rolls — TEN — from the packs we brought for our slider shot. Oh, and we ate the sliders too.

As if that that wasn’t enough, our friends in the Bakery Department held a meeting next door to our photo shoot, and then gave us their leftover jambalaya, chicken fingers, croissants and French bread. Which we also ate.

I personally consumed more at this photo shoot than I typically do during an entire Thanksgiving or Christmas feast combined.

The only items we left untouched were the turkey necks that Lee smoked while preparing the turkey and ham — but that’s only because he told us not to eat them because he wanted them for his lunch.

So as you prepare to stress eat your way through the holidays, know that we’re here to offer you some invaluable recipes and tips, including the correct recipe for Donny Rouse’s ham so you can get it right the first time. And remember the timeless advice of the legendary Julia Child: “Learn how to cook — try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all, have fun!