It’s a sunny Thursday in May at the Charles Krug winery in St. Helena, Calif., and Guy Fieri is giving Robert Irvine a shoulder massage. In a few minutes, Robert will be marrying his girlfriend of three years, professional wrestler Gail Kim, and Guy, one of Robert’s best men, is giving the usually unshakable Restaurant:Read more »

If you need to use up all of that basil from the garden, make basil-flavored salt: Pulse ½ cup kosher salt and ½ cup packed basil leaves in a food processor, then spread on a baking sheet and bake at 225 degrees F until dry, 30 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway through. Let cool andRead more »

Hot Tips From Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford: To get fluffy, evenly cooked rice, ignore it for 5 to 10 minutes after it’s done cooking and keep the lid on while it sits. (Do not stir.) The rice will continue absorbing moisture from the steam in the pot even after all of the water isRead more »

Bing Cherries Most of the sweet cherries grown in the United States are this large wine-colored variety. Their intense flavor and firm, crisp texture make them the ultimate all-purpose cherry, great for snacking or baking. They’re usually available from May to August.

Each month, thousands of Food Network Magazine readers submit clever names for the back page’s Name This Dish contest. Previous dishes include bite-sized cakes (winning name: “Swirly Temples”), crab-stuffed mushrooms (“Surf ‘N Earth”) and even an egg tart (“Breakfast in Bread”). In the June 2012 issue, we asked you to dream up names for thisRead more »

Sliced bread is the measure against which we judge all the best things in life because without it we wouldn’t have one of the most ingenious food inventions of all time: the sandwich. Starting six months ago, we scoured America for the country’s most delicious sandwiches and we learned two things: One, you can putRead more »

Hot Tips from Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford: To check a steak for doneness, insert a thermometer into the side, not the top. Aim the tip of the thermometer toward the center of the meat: You’ll get a more precise reading there than from the hotter areas near the surface. Move the steak to theRead more »

We can’t fault Jose Garces for choosing one of his own restaurants as a top spot in Philadelphia: The guy has opened seven places there in the past six years. But after living in the city for 11 years, he knows some other great finds, too. Here are his top picks: Middle Eastern Combo fromRead more »

Hot tips from Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford: As soon as you add pasta to boiling water, stir it vigorously for about 5 seconds to keep it from sticking, like Food Network Magazine did with the Broken Lasagna With Zucchini-Tomato Sauce. Each piece should be able to tumble freely in the pot. Don’t add oilRead more »

The average high in Austin this time of year is 97 degrees, so it’s no wonder the city’s ice cream festival was an instant hit when it started in 2007. Nearly 12,000 people showed up that summer, and now the all-day event (taking place August 4, $10; www.icecreamfestival.org) is an annual affair, with an iceRead more »