We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day.
Click here to view videos 1-4.

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for the last video!

Click here to view videos 1-3.

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for the fourth video!

We’ve got five videos of Chef Thomas Keller sharing tips, tricks and inspiration from his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home, and we’ll be posting a new one every day. Check back tomorrow for another!

All creatures great and small…we want jokes for them all! Your joke could win you a copy of the NEW 2011 Animal Crack-Ups Page-A-Day Calendar!

Animal Crack-ups is good, clean fun for the whole family, and we need YOU to fill it with your best animal jokes! Each page of the calendar will feature an animal joke, along with an irresistible photo of that animal cracking up.

From elephants and tigers to bears and penguins, no creature is too obscure and no joke too corny. The only requirement is that the humor be family-friendly—and the more original the joke, the better! For inspiration check out these standard-bearers of silliness:

Kangaroo: I hate April!
Wallabee: Why?
Kangaroo: It rains so much, the kids have to play inside!

What happens when 50 rabbits hop backwards at the same time?
You get a receding hare line.

Post a comment below with your joke and email address for a chance to win! We’re looking for jokes that emcompass the entire animal kingdom, from monkeys and dogs to hippopotamuses and lizards—even the occasional llamas and hyenas—and everything in between. All we need are jokes to go with them! All submissions must be made by December 31, 2009. If we use your joke, you’ll get a free copy of the 2011 Animal Crack-Ups Page-A-Day calendar!

Read the official contest rules here

Chef Thomas Keller talks about his newest book, Ad Hoc at Home. Ad Hoc at Home is filled with family-style home-cooking recipes and Keller’s perfected versions of classic comfort foods.

Abby Stokes, author of “Is This Thing On?” A Computer Handbook for Late Bloomers, Technophobes, and the Kicking & Screaming, talks computers with Pat McMahon of AZTV7 in Phoenix, AZ. Watch her weigh in on Mac vs PC, protecting yourself from identity theft, online shopping, avoiding spammers, and more in the videos below.

I’m a long-time fan of The Cake Mix Doctor–it was with Anne Byrn’s recipes that I first experimented with making icing from scratch (believe me, once you try it, you will never buy canned icing again). As soon as The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! landed on my desk, I was already picking out which cake I was going to make first.

I went with the Fresh Orange Birthday Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting. The freshly squeezed orange in the cake and zest in the icing had my kitchen smelling incredible before I even got the pans in the oven. The result was a decadent icing paired with a light and refreshing cake so good that we ended up eating a generous slice for Sunday brunch! One of my favorite things about the Cake Mix Doctor books is how easy it is to mix and match the cakes with different icings, and I’d love to try this one with a chocolate frosting or glaze with some orange zest sprinkled in, but I’ve got 159 cakes to get through before trying repeats!

Fresh Orange Birthday Cake

Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans
Flour, for dusting the pans
1 large orange
About 1 cup orange juice from a carton
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
12 to 15 fresh orange slices, or candy gum drop
orange slices, for garnish

Continue Reading »

The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! is in stores now, and we’ve got recipes from the new book to share.

For a full-color look at all of the cakes in the book and four recipes including Fresh Strawberry Cake and Orange Birthday Cake, click here or read the excerpt below.

Visit cakemixdoctor.com for Anne Byrn’s tour dates

Meet Patricia Schultz, author of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die series, at the Adventures in Travel Expo in New York City, October 10 at 2:30 PM. The Adventures in Travel Expo is located at Jacob Javits Convention Center and runs October 10-11.

There will be a presentation with Patricia Schultz followed by a book signing. For more information, visit adventureexpo.com

To purchase tickets to the expo, visit http://www.adventureexpo.com/newyork. Use promo code: SCHZ for $5 off the ticket price.

Click here for a preview of 1000 Places to See Before You Die