SMP Craft

Hear ye, hear ye, fellow guacamole lovers! Do you make mind-blowing guacamole? Then why don’t you put your guac to the test and enter Nachos NY‘s 5th annual Guactacular? On Sunday, May 5 from 2 to 9p.m., at the Bell House in Brooklyn, this epic guacamole showdown will take place. Home cooks will be competing in the afternoon, while food industry pros face off at night. Do you think you’ve got what it takes? Then enter to achieve guacamole greatness by emailing rachel@nachosny.com with the subject line “Guactacular Competitor” to join.

If mashing avocados isn’t your thing, but eating delicious, creamy guacamole is, then buy your tickets here to take part in the festivities and to fill your bellies full of yummy. The Coolhaus truck will be there during the afternoon session selling their insanely-good ice cream sandwiches, and Mexicue will be slinging their tacos and sliders at night. The Sporkful will also be present, covering the day’s festivities for their weekly podcast.

Have I made you hungry? If you want to guac out in the comfort of your own home, then check out our new book from the founders of Nachos NY and the Guactacular, Lee Frank and Rachel Anderson. In Ultimate Nachos there are over 80 recipes for nachos, guacamole, salsas, queso, cocktails, and more. With this book, you can seriously eat nachos for every meal of the day with dishes like Sunny Side Nachos, Nachos with Lamb and Black Bean Chili, and Nachos Panna Cotta! The best part: former Guactacular-winning recipes are featured in the book. So you can try your hand at Ricotta and Red Onion Guacamole or Ginger Guacamole with Vegan Sriracha Mayonnaise. You know you want to!

(click on cover to pre-order your copy)

(click cover to buy)

There’s nothing like a thick, creamy milkshake to make you feel like a kid again. In this book author Autumn Martin, an award-winning chocolatier and owner of Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery in Seattle, shares a range of 60 new and old dessert drinks that will have you salivating and ready to get your milkshake on! I guarantee you that there’s something within the pages of this gem to satisfy any sweet tooth. Relive a nostalgic moment by indulging in one of the Soda Fountain Classics like  Banana, Butterscotch, or Strawberry.

Strawberry Shake

Or how about creating these Salted Peanut Butter Cookies Ice Cream Sandwiches that are to die for?

In the Modern Flavors chapter, Autumn shakes it up by adding unique twists to time-honored flavors that both kids and adults will love like Salted Caramel, Not Your Grandma’s Apple Pie Shake, Strawberry Cheesecake, and much more.

It’s Peanut Butter Jelly time!

Molten Chocolate Cake Shake

Lemon Curd Raspberry Shake

Finally, the Boozy Shakes chapter is the one to turn to late at night when the kids are in bed. Sip on Chocolate Espresso Whiskey Malts, Mojito and Campari Shakes, or try the Jalapeno Tequila Shake for a kick!

St-Germain and Huckleberry Shake

Are you drooling and ready to get started making some of your own malts and milkshakes? Do you have an ice cream maker? No? Well, not to worry! For anyone without one, all the recipes in the book can be made with store-bought ice cream or using one of the three basic ice cream recipes given at the beginning of the book for chocolate, vanilla, and ginger. And for complete beginners, an overview of blenders and ice cream and sorbet makers is given, along with notes for how to choose the best ingredients for your frozen treats. Autumn also provides a host of ideas for variations and side dessert, as well as bonus recipes for mouthwatering syrups and sauces for drizzling onto your malts and shakes. With all these delicious possibilities, who can pass up a milkshake?

In honor of Passover, we’d like to share with you authors Todd Gray and Ellen Kassoff Gray’s Passover menu picks from their book The New Jewish Table (on sale now!). Click through the Issuu pages above to see their picks plus get their Quinoa Salad with Figs and Mint recipe. Mmmmm….delicious! I don’t know about you, but this year we’ll be combining cultures (much like Todd and Ellen have in this book) and I’ll celebrating an Easter-Passover Seder with friends and cooking straight from this book the Quinoa Salad recipe and the Kassoffs’ Sweet Noodle Kugel. What are you making for Passover?

Top Pops (click on cover to buy)
55 All-Natural Frozen Treats to Make at Home
by Emily Zaiden
$16.99/$18.99 Can.
112 pages, trade paperback with French flaps

I don’t know about you, but when the heat hits, I’m the type of person who’s running indoors to the nearest air conditioner, sipping on iced tea, and savoring some popsicles. With our new book Top Pops, I have been on a popsicle-making spree and keeping cool in process! They are the perfect treat to satisfy my sweet tooth and refresh me on a hot summer day.

On a particularly sweltering Saturday a few weeks ago, I cracked open the pages of Top Pops and took my first stab at popsicle making. Since it was so hot out, I knew that I wanted something fruity and refreshing. Since I love mangoes, when I saw the Mango Lime pops recipe, I just couldn’t resist. I called a friend, we bought the ingredients, and whipped up the popsicle “batter” in a matter of minutes, using my trusty friend: the immersion blender.

As I was blending the mangos, lime juice, zest, water, and sugar together, my friend was flipping through the pages of the book, and discovered the Mango Chili Margarita recipe in the Tipsy Pops section of the book. It was essentially the same exact recipe as the Mango Lime one, except tequila and a dash of chili powder are added for a kick! So we divided up the “batter” and made one batch of the Tipsy version.

Mango Chili Margarita pops in their molds

Hours later, we had ourselves a popsicle fiesta! The Mango Lime pops were deliciously refreshing, while the Margarita pops were just…wow! The tequila and chili powder gave the popsicles an earthy flavor that was deceptively subtle and sweet.

Enjoying my Mango Lime pop

Since my first foray in to pop-making, I’ve since tried the Apricot Honey Yogurt, which were super simple to make and had a nice tangy flavor from the yogurt, and the Avocado Vanilla pops, which are a unique, but deliciously creamy treat.

Apricot Honey Yogurt

Avocado Vanilla

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Homemade Preserves & Jams (click on cover to buy)
Over 90 Recipes for Luscious Jams, Tangy Marmalades, Crunchy Chutneys, and More
by Mary Tregellas
$24.99/$28.99 Can.
192 pages, trade paperback with French flaps

One of my favorite things to do in August is visit the farmers market to pick up and sample the fresh fruits. The only problem is, I get so excited at the sight of all that abundant fruit that I oftentimes overload my shopping bag with too much, and then I can’t manage to eat it all before it spoils.

Our new book, Homemade Preserves & Jams takes care of this dilemma. It contains over 90 recipes for sweet and savory jams, preserves, marmalades, jellies, curds, chutneys, and so much more! Plus there are extra recipes that allow you to incorporate the jams into your cooking. Now, when I have a basket full of overripe apricots, I know what to do. Make apricot jam!

Apricot Jam

I’ve never made jam or jelly before, so I was pleased to find that the steps are surprisingly easy and don’t require lots of specialized equipment. All you really need is a pan, a wooden spoon, and some jars. If you want to get fancy: a scale, jam thermometer, and a funnel are helpful, too. And the jam recipes involve only about 3 or 4 steps. It’s really quite simple!

Using a jam funnel to pot herb jelly

My favorite part of the book are the main dishes and the tons of suggestions for meals that you can incorporate your jams and jellies into. For example, now’s the perfect time of year to whip up a jar of Lemon Curd, then use it as part of a batch of delicious Lemon Meringue Tarts.

Lemon Curd

Lemon Meringue Tarts

Or, everyone’s familiar with the age-old problem of having a bunch of overripe bananas. But instead of making the standard banana bread, why not make some banana jam and use it as a topping for waffles or pancakes for a tasty breakfast treat? Also, the back of the book contains an array of recipes for breads, rolls, muffins, and scones for slathering your jams, jellies, and chutneys on.

Banana Jam and clotted cream on a belgian waffle

And if sweet isn’t your thing, then no worries, there’s a plethora of savory recipes, too: Tomato Chutney, Carmelized Onion Marmalade, Tomato and Zucchini Chutney, and more.

Tante Betty’s Zucchini Pickles

The book is filled with seasonal jam recipes that you can make all year round. So I know that I’m going to reference it again and again for inspiration throughout the year, and definitely for those times that I go a little overboard on a fruit-buying spree at the market!

Seville Orange Marmalade

Pear and Ginger Jam