For many people – and that includes yours truly – the best time to make a really good meal is on the weekend. This is because you have enough time to spend in taking care to prepare an elaborate meal. During the week, you normally only have less than an hour to make a quick meal. I suppose that is the beauty of Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch cookbook, which helps you come up with some of the best weekend meals you can ever make.

Gordon Ramsay is no stranger to good meals and he shares his expertise in a simple manner. The cookbook is described by Amazon as:

Gordon Ramsay’s aim is to get us all cooking up a storm and sitting down at the table with friends and family to share lunch on Sundays and at other leisure times. In the second series of “The F Word”, his highly acclaimed topical food programme, he visits people all over the UK of all ages, backgrounds and ethnic origins to help them cook up a meal for family and/or friends. These range from traditional Sunday roasts to lighter summer fare, from easy 30-minute meals to Italian, Indian and Moroccan influenced family feasts. As always, Gordon is there to help the home cook at every stage – buying the right ingredients, preparation and serving and helping to co-ordinate the cooking of several dishes to arrive on the table simultaneously.

I do not have my own copy of the cookbook but from what I have seen in previews, the recipes are quite simple, especially if you have at least the tiniest experience in the kitchen. Who knows, Santa might bring me one tonight?

With Halloween just around the corner, here’s Martha‘s advice on some fabulously frightening treats that will have the kids screaming with delight.

CREEPCAKE HOW-TO
Each design starts as chocolate or vanilla cupcakes iced with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

For “spider” creepcakes, use your favourite cupcake recipe (vanilla or chocolate) pouring batter into 2 1/2 mini muffin tins with paper liners. Ice mini cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and coat icing with black sanding sugar. Use cinnamon candy for eyes. For legs, attach 8 pieces of black licorice. For fangs, cut out tiny cone shapes from a marshmallow and attach.

For “tentacle alien” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. Cut strips of green taffy and attach around top of cupcake. For eye, slice a yellow gumdrop in half and press into top of cupcake. A piece of black licorice attached in front the gumdrop completes the creepy gaze.

For “big-eyed alien” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream tinted with a few drops of green food coloring. For small eye, attach a mini marshmallow and create pupil by painting on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). For large eye, push chocolate chip, tip down, into regular size marshmallow, then cut gummy tape for an eyelid. For teeth, place 5 mini marshamallows along the bottom of cupcake.

For “mummy” creepcake, spread cupcake with a thin layer of buttercream. Add jelly beans dotted with melted chocolate for eyes and red gummy candy for mouth. Using a ribbon tip (such as Ateco #44), pipe bands of buttercream.

For “brain” creepcake, use a medium round tip (such as Ateco #12) to pipe a mound of Vanilla Meringue Buttercream in the center of cupcake, then outline and pipe a brain design over it.

DECORATING TECHNIQUES

To decorate, use marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates for whites of eyes; jelly beans or gumdrops for peepers with an eerie glow. For pupils, paint on melted chocolate (microwave 1/2 cup chocolate chips for 1 minute). Or use candies whole: candy-coated chocolates will stick to marshmallows sliced to expose their stickiness; for our aliens’ eyes, we pushed chocolate chips, tip down, into marshmallows, then made a hole in the other side with a toothpick and inserted a licorice lace. Cut gummy tape for an eyelid. Sandwiched between halved gumdrops, marshmallows form a toothy grin; snip irregular pieces for fangs. Bend licorice or gummy rings into grimaces, or cut taffy tape for a tongue or tentacles.

Try these toppings:

* marshmallows
* licorice and jelly bean
* gummy ring
* taffy tape
* gumdrops and marshmallows
* marshmallows with licorice and mini
* chocolate chips
* jelly beans with melted chocolate
* marshmallows and candy-coated chocolates or melted chocolate
* marshmallows with candy-coated chocolate or gummy
* tape and licorice drop
* licorice with gumdrops or marshmallows

Technorati Tags: Martha Stewart, Halloween, HalloweenRecipe, Halloween Cupcakes

Could Virginia Willis be the next celebrity chef? This article claims she is, listing her achievements (including the book, above) and describing some of her down-to-earth charm.

We’ll see what happens!

A lot of celebrity chefs come out with cookbooks…but how many of the recipes can actually be done by real people (i.e., those among us who don’t have a big kitchen, 150 different kinds of spices, and a set of expensive kitchen knives?)

Jamie Oliver says that anyone can cook the recipes in “Jamie’s Dinners” and even proves it by
posting stories of readers on his website. Check it out. It may just be the perfect Father’s Day gift…and a subtle hint to the man in the house to take over kitchen duty once in a while.

Have you ever heard of the firehouse chef, Joseph Bonnano? He’s published several cookbooks, has a degree in culinary arts, and yes, was a practicing firefighter for most of his life. His site offers many free recipes and even a fitness and nutrition video.

Bet he does a great grilled porkchop.

Watch out for “Maze, The Cookbook” this April. It is the first cook book of Jason Atherton, who heads the award-winning restaurant Maze. It contains about 30 of his signature dishes. Atherton is one of Gordon Ramsey’s proteges (he must be pretty darn good to get his attention).

If you’re a fan of celebrity chef Robin Miller, you can preorder her new book, Robin to the Rescue.

One of the most popular celebrity chefs of the Food Network, Robin Miller specializes in quick and easy meals. In fact, her book organizes the recipes by main ingredient, so busy cooks can quickly find a dish based on what they have in the fridge. There are also tips on how to prepare big batches ahead of time, or transform leftovers into a “new” dish.

Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, who released the book “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food” will have to defend her rights (and honor) in court.

Chase Lapine, author of “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals” brought a lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringement to U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Both Lapine and Seinfeld have been very vocal about their, uhm, differences — but after Jerry called her a crazywoman in an interview, she decided to take it to courts. Her reason? “He may be a public figure, but he has no right to slander, and his wife has no right to plagiarize.”

Seinfeld’s lawyer, on the other hand, accuses Lapine of making everything up just to boost her book sales.

Italian chefs always have a signature pasta dish, and this is one of Roberto Donna’s favorites. It’s delicious, gourmet enough to serve guests, but fuss-free for days when you’re too tired from holiday shopping to cook.

One of the most popular chefs in the Washington DC area, Donna actually hails from Italy, and aims to teach what “real” Italian food is (as opposed to the watered-down stuff they sell at steakhouses).

Serve this dish with a Pinet Noir, he suggests, and a bowl of light chicken broth.

Ingredients
1/2 loaf Italian bread, crust removed and sliced (preferably day old bread)
1 onion, very thinly sliced
6 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 small cucumber, peeled, quartered, seeds removed, and thinly sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered
1 bunch basil, shredded
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Soak the bread in cold water for 15 minutes. Then, in a separate container, soak the onion in water as well (place on paper towels when done).

Mix celery, cucumber, tomatoes, basil and onion. Throw in the the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add the bread and toss well to combine.

Before Food Network, before celebrity chefs were even a million-dollar brand, there was Julia Child. She was the food guru, and many a housewife made her cookbook their kitchen bible. (To the gratitude of their well-fed husbands.)

Now, her life will be made into a movie, starring no less than Meryl Streep. It will be directed by Nora Ephron, and will be based on Julie Powell’s book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

Julie was a fan who made it her mission to try every single recipe Child ever made, but the renowned chef would have nothing to do with her and never returned her calls. “I’m just not interested,” she said in one of her final interviews.

Maybe having Oscar-winner Meryl Streep portray her will make her feel a little better.