The red carpet. It’s nothing you ever get used to, having been on both the receiving and the giving side of the gawking, it is a surreal experience. The cameras, the yelling, the well rehearsed poses. It lives in the intersection between weird and fabulous. During Fashion Week I was a gawk-ER not a gawkEE, but a gawker for a good cause. One of my absolute hands-down favorite events of Fashion Week is the Red Dress Event. I love it because despite the fact that the event is to bring awareness to a very serious topic, Heart Disease in Women, it is...

Dear Rachael - Just a line to say how much I like your stocks.  I use them all the time, especially the chicken.  I prefer them over any other brand…excellent flavor and not too much sodium.  Thanks for this product, and all your great recipes.   Sincerely, Joanie I. (Fort Myers, FL) Thanks Joanie! Rach’s stock is available at stores like Wal Mart and online at www.rachaelraystore.com. Here are a few of Rachael’s delicious recipes that use stock as a main ingredient: Special Sausage and Kale Soup Toasted Orzo Chicken Soup Wild Mushroom Barley Soup Lemon Risotto Ancho Chicken Tortilla Soup Lemon-Garlic Chicken Noodle Soup Chicken with Tarragon Cream...

Don’t ya just love cake. Think about it gang, of all the diverse foods, flavors, cooking styles, spices, herbs, and seasonings in every culture in the world past or present, there is at least one food all cultures share, CAKE ! Everyone can probably say they have an aunt, grandmother, mom, friend or someone whom when thinking of them instantly brings a memory of a great, best ever cake. Cake is royalty and muffins and cupcakes are the little princes and princesses. You find it ornately decorated and at the center of every important celebration, b-days, weddings, graduations, anniversaries,...

It is almost time to turn the clocks forward which means that Spring is right around the corner.  For those of you who can’t stand to bundle up in the Winter (not me, I love it), this is the time to crack open the windows and let that warmish air into your home and start thinking about planting a garden.  I just ordered some organic seeds from the Italian Seed and Tool website and I am looking forward to trying these imported seeds this year to see if there is a difference in quality and taste. If you don’t feel like...

My family’s favorite bakery has the most amazing cookies, cakes, tarts and cheesecakes and our favorite treat to get there is the classic black and white cookie. It is a moist, cakey, not-too sweet sugar cookie as big as your hand with yummy icing. They can be pricey though, at $1 each. One year I made the mistake of letting one of my kids bring these cookies in for their class birthday treat and without thinking, I agreed. Well, $50 later, I vowed never again. For a fraction of the cost, I made black and white cookies a few...

On the website of the People’s Garden NYC, New York’s stately City Hall building is depicted with a brightly colored vegetable garden in front of it being worked by happy school children. When I first saw the picture, I thought it was real. It turns out the “photo” is an artist’s rendering, and the garden is only a fantasy, but it’s a dream that could become a reality, like the now famous organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn. If enough people sign the petition on the People’s Garden website asking Mayor Bloomberg to put in...

Hiya, I am from New Zealand and I love to watch your show in the mornings. I understand that we are a few episodes behind you guys, but I just watched you make french onion soup with cheesy croutons. You were saying about tips to stop your eyes from watering when you are chopping onions, I just chew a piece of mint chewing gum.. I promise you, it’s amazing! Thanks, Alice Hemmings Thanks for the tip,  Alice! Many, if not most, of Rachael’s recipes have onions at least in supporting roles -  here are just some of Rachael’s recipes where onions are one of the...

A friend asked me for a pizzelle recipe recently, so I went digging through my arsenal of recipes(30+ years worth), to find I actually had 6 recipes that I had made notes on like yummy, extra yummy, good fast and easy, etc. It’s been a while since I’ve made pizzelles so I decided to refresh my memory and skill before I passed on a recommendation. All pizzelle recipes are basically the same, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, baking soda, and flavoring, but I think there is a real significant improvement in the taste when 3 eggs are used instead of 2....

If you’ve ever eaten sushi, then you’ve eaten nori. Nori is a sea vegetable most commonly sold in packages of square sheets and used to hold together the rice and fish in a sushi roll, but it’s a delicious and useful ingredient that can be cooked in lots of other ways. Hmm, what’s that? You don’t like the idea of eating so-called “seaweed” on its own, because it’s weird and tastes fishy? Not nori. It’s dry and toasty, with a rich taste of umami, the flavor often called “the fifth taste,” of which monosodium glutamate or MSG is...