Hot Tips From Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford:

There are so many good choices in the canned tomato aisle now. We used fire-roasted tomatoes with green chiles to spice up the Greek Meatball Stew in the May issue of Food Network Magazine. Fire-roasted tomatoes also add a great smoky flavor to marinara sauce. Or buy canned cherry tomatoes and crush them in a saucepan for a slightly sweet, chunky pasta sauce.

Bread pudding and French toast are like first cousins. Traditionally one is dessert and one is breakfast, but they really are more alike than they are different: Both are made by soaking (preferably stale) bread in a milk and egg mixture and cooking it until slightly crisp on the outside and lusciously custardy on the inside.

In the April issue of Food Network Magazine, you’ll find five delicious French toast recipes, each made with a different type of bread and a different flavor profile. Some of them, like the Rum French Toast a la Mode (pictured above), can easily double as dessert without a change. My personal favorite, the Baked Croissant French Toast, can be tweaked just a bit to skew it further toward the dessert realm (although it’s pretty decadent as it is!). Simply swap out the plain croissants for chocolate croissants and double the sugar in the custard. You’ll have an over-the-top dessert bread pudding. I like to top it with a little sweetened whipped cream, the marmalade sauce from the recipe and a little extra chocolate sauce for good measure.

Kelsey Nixon, host of Cooking Channel‘s Kelsey’s Essentials, tells Food Network Magazine what to eat in her hometown, Salt Lake City.

Shrimp-Stuffed Mushrooms From Tin Angel Café
This cafe and art gallery was one of Kelsey’s favorite hangouts after she graduated from nearby Brigham Young University (she now lives in New York full-time). Stuffed mushrooms, filled with peppers, onions and shrimp, was her go-to dish. “I’ve been meaning to re-create something similar at home,” she says. And she should: They come and go from the menu!
$6.50; 365 West 400 South; thetinangel.com

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Barbecue king Tim Love built the ultimate meat-lover’s kitchen. Check it out here, then pick up some of Tim’s finds for your own kitchen.

This stainless steel 42-inch built-in grill doubles as a rotisserie oven.
$6,199; lynxgrills.com for more information

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Hot Tips From Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford:

Next time you make burritos, try these construction tips.

1. Layer the fillings horizontally across the lower half of your tortilla (not the middle), starting with absorbent ingredients like rice. Put the cheese against something hot like meat or beans so it will melt.

2. Fold up the bottom of the tortilla and tuck it under the filling.

3. Fold in the two sides.

4. Tightly roll up the burrito.

(Photographs by Christopher Testani)

Each month, thousands of Food Network Magazine readers submit clever names for the back page’s Name This Dish contest. Previous dishes include a stuffed cupcake (winning name: “Heart of the Batter“), a cheese puff tower (“Mount Chevrest“) and even a stuffed popover (“Puddin’ Pops“). In the March 2013 issue, we asked readers to dream up names for these cheese fries (pictured above). Some of our favorites were:

Web of Fries
Amy Wojcik
Clearwater, Fla.

Starch Madness
Ashley Denton
Camden, S.C.

More favorites and the winner announced

Food Network stars answer your burning questions in the April issue of Food Network Magazine:

Justin, how would you describe your relationship with Alton? You two are definitely Food Network’s outside-the-box father-son dream team.
Amanda Bisesi via Facebook

I lost my father when I was in my teens, and as a young man I haven’t had the “paternal push” to get things done. I’ve just done things on my own — most of the time resulting in success. But now there is someone who I can bounce ideas off of as I continue to grow into my new role as TV-food-guru-outside-the-boxer.
— Justin Warner

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Hot Tips From Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford:

Combine a soft cheese, like goat cheese or ricotta, with chopped nuts, seeds, dried fruit, grated garlic or a favorite condiment to make a quick sandwich spread. (Food Network Magazine mixed goat cheese with hot sauce and pepitas for the Ham and Goat Cheese Sandwich pictured above.) You can also use the spread on crostini, or dollop it onto hot pasta for a fun, fast dinner.

Give your breadsticks a fresh look for spring. Arrange refrigerated breadstick dough on a baking sheet and brush with a beaten egg. Place small, delicate herb leaves like dill, chervil, oregano or parsley on top, then brush with more of the egg and bake as directed.

(Photograph by Sam Kaplan)

Hot Tips From Food Network Kitchens’ Katherine Alford:

Swirl a few tablespoons of cold butter into a pan sauce before you serve it — you’ll be amazed by how it improves the texture. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk them in a few at a time, then remove the sauce from the heat and cover to keep warm. If the sauce gets too hot, the butter can separate and make the sauce oily. If this happens, just whisk in a few tablespoons of water.

(Photograph by Christopher Testani)