Jaden Hair’s newest book, Steamy Kitchen’s Healthy Asian Favorites, is on sale today! To celebrate her book launch, Jaden is teaming up with a few members of the blogging community to cook through the book all week long. These recipes are a fun and easy way to introduce your family and friends to delicious Asian dishes. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll be seeing this week:

Tuesday, February 5th: Jeanette’s Healthy Living – Dan Dan Mien

Wednesday, February 6th: Two Peas & Their Pod – Cauliflower Steaks

Thursday, February 7th: Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef – Miso Soup/Dashi Broth

Friday, February 8th: White on Rice Couple – Thai Larb Lettuce Cups

Saturday, February 9th: Recipe Girl – Kung Pao Chicken

Sunday, February 10th: Katie’s Cucina – Sparkling Vietnamese Limeade

Many of these dishes can be made to celebrate Chinese New Year this Sunday. It’s important to start out on the right foot when a new year begins, and with Jaden’s help we’ve made this infographic to give a little more insight on fun ways to incorporate Chinese tradition (and a little superstition) into your New Year’s meal.

Chinese New Year with The Steamy Kitchen's Jaden Hair by TheRecipeClub

Anna Mintz is a Publicist for Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, and is an editor for The Recipe Club. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in New York City and loves exploring NYC’s restaurant scene and trying out new recipes in her own kitchen.

Whew! We had a whirlwind weekend at all the events for the 2012 Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival — a foodie’s paradise, with events starting on Thursday evening and continuing on through Sunday night.

Everything kicked off on Thursday night with the Meatball Madness event, hosted by Giada De Laurentiis. This is always one of my favorite events of the whole festival, with over 30 NYC chefs and restaurants showcasing their unique take on the meatball. Meatballs ranged from Marco Canora’s classic Meatball Parm, to Gramercy Tavern’s spicy lamb meatball with yogurt sauce, but my personal favorite was Giada’s turkey meatball panini with arugula, provolone, and prosciutto.

Another fun event was the Burger Bash on Friday night. Similar to Meatball Madness, the Burger Bash celebrates the best burgers in town; there were so many good options this year! A favorite among our crowd was Bobby Flay’s Napa Valley “crunchified” burger with goat cheese, potato chips, and watercress. Yum! Saturday night’s Tacos and Tequila event was probably the wildest night of the weekend. Tacos + Tequila = a lot of fun!

Another highlight of the weekend was a Saturday brunch hosted by Blackberry Farm. Blackberry Farm, a luxury resort located in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, is as famous for its food as it is for its beautiful views and luxe accommodations, so we were really looking forward to tasting their Southern cuisine. The meal did not disappoint! Some favorites were their classic Buttermilk Fried Chicken and an outstanding Apple Peanut Butter French Toast.

But the weekend did not just consist of party after party; events ranged from a Times Talk with Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, to a Q&A with Ina Garten and Food Network Magazine Editor-in-Chief Maile Carpenter, to demos and book signings from all our favorite Food Network stars. It was a fantastic weekend, and we’re already looking forward to next year!

Check out our pics of all the fun at the 2012 New York City Wine & Food Festival:

Anna Mintz is a Publicist for Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, and is an editor for The Recipe Club. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in New York City and loves exploring NYC’s restaurant scene and trying out new recipes in her own kitchen.

This morning, I went to the Today Show with Hedy Goldsmith for a fun cooking segment where she showed Al Roker how to make some of the delicious sweets from her first cookbook Baking Out Loud (Clarkson Potter, October 2012). Let me tell you, sampling some of Hedy’s creative treats was a great way to start the work day!

In Baking Out Loud, Hedy Goldsmith brings back the nostalgia of childhood treats such as Oreos, Twinkies, and Pop-Tarts—and cookies, brownies, puddings, pies, cakes, ice cream, and more—and pumps up the volume with bold flavors and exciting recipes that are sophisticated yet simple enough to make at home. This morning, she showed Al how to make her Giant Sesame Fortune Cookies!

Hedy, the executive pastry chef of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in Miami and Grand Cayman, keeps the fun in dessert by maximizing the flavor of bespoke versions of everyone’s favorites and introducing her own simple and addictive recipes. She also showed off her beautiful Overstuffed Nutters, O’s, Popcorn + Peanut Bark, and Basil Panna Cotta. I’m still on a sugar high from all these amazing treats!

Check out some recipes from the book below:

In honor of back-to-school madness, we thought we’d make it a little easier on you to prepare delicious meals for your family (or yourself!) by offering a SUPER-SIZED GIVEAWAY!

Enter to win a signed copy of Weeknights with Giada (Clarkson Potter, March 2012) by Giada De Laurentiis AND a food processor from her line of goods for Target by commenting on this post and telling us why you love Giada. We will pick a winner on Monday, September 17.

For some cooking inspiration, check out these recipes from Weeknights with Giada:

Anna Mintz is a Publicist for Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, and is an editor for The Recipe Club. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in New York City and loves exploring NYC’s restaurant scene and trying out new recipes in her own kitchen.

One of the most interesting parts of my job as a publicist is that I am able to accompany some of our authors on their book tours across the country. This month, I was traveling with Food Network’s Melissa d’Arabian, whose debut cookbook Ten Dollar Dinners (Clarkson Potter, August 2012) went on sale a couple weeks ago.

Drawing on personal life experiences – growing up on a tight budget, earning her MBA and working in corporate America, and managing her own family’s resources as a stay-at-home and then working parent – Melissa easily relates to home cooks and encourages them to think about cooking in a different way. It was really fun for me to get to witness Melissa in action over the past two weeks, taking photos with her fans, answering questions, and dishing out grocery shopping advice.

Our travels took us all over the U.S., from New York and New Jersey to Los Angeles and San Diego, and everywhere in between! Melissa has lived in many different states over the years, so it was exciting to go to each city and wonder who she was going to run into from a previous stage of life — from former Georgetown classmates in DC, old neighbors in Dallas and Seattle, bridesmaids from her wedding in Los Angeles, or her aunt and uncle in Orange County, old friends showed up all over the country; it was clear that Melissa is well-loved wherever she goes.

Enjoy some sample recipes from Ten Dollar Dinners by Melissa d’Arabian:
Recipes From Ten Dollar Dinners by Melissa d’Arabian

Anna Mintz is a Publicist for Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, and is an editor for The Recipe Club. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in New York City and loves exploring NYC’s restaurant scene and trying out new recipes in her own kitchen.

It’s that time of the year again: launch presentations! These thrice-yearly meetings give our editors a chance to present their upcoming cookbooks to the rest of the staff. We always have these meetings about a year in advance of the books’ publications, so this week, we were looking at cookbooks for next summer. There’s a little something for everyone on the Summer 2013 list, from sweet (a doughnut book from the pastry chef at Colicchio & Sons) to savory (a seafood book from the Cooking Channel’s Ben Sargent) to sophisticated (a memoir with recipes from Corton chef Paul Liebrandt)!

With so many goodies from our editors’ kitchens, it was hard to know where to start, so we each filled our plates with a taste of everything! I particularly loved the Quick Bacon, Cheddar, and Scallion Biscuits from the upcoming book by by Sunny Anderson, the Peach, Almond, and Cardamom Clafoutis from Clotilde Dusoulier’s book, and the sweet, gooey, crunchy Pecan Squares from the upcoming book from the Casserole Queens.

But perhaps the biggest hit of all was the absolutely adorable Jukebox Cake from Extreme Cakeovers by Rick and Sasha Reichart! This book, from the owners of cakelava in Hawaii, shares how to transform store-bought sheet cakes into edible showstoppers. The book’s editor, Ashley, decorated a plain chocolate cake with icing and all kinds of candy from the grocery store, and the result was extremely impressive — the cake was definitely the most popular item on the table. Best of all, it was our Marketing Director’s birthday, so we were all able to celebrate with the most creative birthday cake we’d ever seen!

Kim Small is a Publicity Director at Random House. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, loves all things food, and has a very tender spot in her heart for freshly baked pies.

This past weekend, the highly anticipated Great Googa Mooga food and music festival took place in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. I went on Saturday with three foodie friends, intent on sampling some of the best culinary treats that New York has to offer, and we came hungry.

Once inside, we beelined to the Burger Experience area where we had sliders from DuMont and a vanilla shake to wash it down. Sated, we took our time deciding where to go next. We wandered over to the Pizza Experience to have an individual pie from Roberta’s, but the line was so long that we decided to go to the Hamageddon area to get pulled pork sandwiches at from Harlem’s famous Dinosaur BBQ stand instead.

Anna Mintz is a Publicist for Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, and is an editor for The Recipe Club. Originally from Atlanta, she now lives in New York City and loves exploring NYC’s restaurant scene and trying out new recipes in her own kitchen.

We’ve written about our launch presentations (in which our editors present their upcoming cookbooks to the rest of the staff) in the past, but I have to say that this time around, the Clarkson Potter editors really outdid themselves! The launch presentations for Spring 2013 were exciting, inspiring, and made us really eager to get our hands on some of these upcoming cookbooks. I can’t believe we have to wait a whole year for these books to come out!

We have some really great cookbooks on our list for next spring, including new titles from Alice Waters, Martha Stewart, Bobby Flay, The Lee Bros., and Nigella Lawson. We also have awesome debut cookbooks from Food Network’s Sunny Anderson and Top Chef All-Stars winner Richard Blais, among others!

It’s always up for debate whether people are more excited to hear the editors’ presentations, sample delicious food from the cookbooks, or have a chance to win one of the fabulous raffle prizes. I go for all three reasons, but I have to admit that I was disappointed not to win a coupon for dinner for two at Chez Panisse — what an amazing raffle prize! Luckily for me, I was able to drown my I-never-win-anything sorrows in lots and lots of delicious food and drink.

This time, we sampled so many goodies from the books. Some of my favorites were the Groundnut Cakes from The Lee Bros. (a cross between a thin sugar cookie and a brittle — crumbly, crispy, and delightful!), Chocolate Caramel Truffles from Nigella Lawson, Fresh Pea Hummus from the upcoming book from Martha Stewart Living, some amazingly flavorful “Bacon Bark” from Sunny Anderson, and homemade soda from P&H Soda Co. All in all, it was a really fun way to spend an afternoon, and we are all so excited about the cookbooks coming out next year. Stay tuned for more details on those as the year progresses!

Check out all the mouth-watering photos from our Clarkson Potter Spring 2013 cookbook launch:

Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, is the day before Ash Wednesday–February 21. Nowhere is Mardi Gras celebrated more than on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. But, as Mitch Rosenthal, author of Cooking My Way Back Home (Ten Speed Press, October 2011), says: “You need not be in that particular bend in the Mississippi River to join in the festivities. You can catch that spirit anywhere, and feed it with, say, a po-boy of fried oysters and shrimp.”

Mitch’s Mardi Gras Recipe Sampler has some suggestions for bringing the festive spirit of Bourbon Street to your own bash–

The Menu

Smoky Chicken Hock Gumbo with Andouille Sausage and Green Onion • Chicken and Smoked Andouille Jambalaya • The Peacemaker • Warm Beignets with Powdered Sugar • King Cake • Sazerac’s Sazerac • Uptown Hurricane • Beer • More Beer

The Music

The Atmostphere

Click the picture below to get planning:

Want to taste  more of Mitch’s N’awlins grub? Attend the Mardi Gras party at Town Hall–one of Mitch’s restaurants in San Francisco–try recipes from this excerpt of Cooking My Way Back Home, or read about when one Recipe Clubber cooked the book.

Dawn Casale and David Crofton, the owners of the beloved bakery, One Girl Cookies, in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, celebrated their new store opening in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and the launch of their debut cookbook, One Girl Cookies (Clarkson Potter, January 2012), with a Pie Social. What better way to celebrate than with pie?

As to be expected, their pie did not disappoint. They served four magnificent, creative pies, (Rosemary & Pear, Pumpkin, New York State Maple Pecan, and Apricot, Honey and Pistachio) along with Maple Mascarpone whipped cream and Cinnamon whipped cream. If I had to pick a winner, I think it would be the Apricot, Honey and Pistachio, but they were all so delicious, it would be difficult to choose just one.

It was great to share in our authors’ celebration of their cookbook and new store opening. We will all be trying to recreate those amazing pies at home!

GIVEAWAY: One lucky winner will receive a copy of One Girl Cookies! Simply comment on this post to be entered to win. A winner will be chosen on 2/24/2012.

All photos © Anita Aguilar.