There are 365 days in the year—meaning 365 opportunities to take advantage of the great recipes on our site. We’ve divided our recipes into simple categories designed to make your browsing experience easier. If you still need help whittling your choices down, continue reading for some inspiration.

Appetizers Recipes

Everybody loves appetizers. Whether for a formal event or a more casual function, appetizers help usher in the party spirit long before the entrée is served.

If your party is going outside, we suggest offering Beer Battered Onion Rings or Cheese Sticks to your guests in the mood for an old-fashioned barbeque.

More formal hosts will appreciate passing around our Bacon Wrapped Scallops for a fancy, well-presented treat, or impressing your guests with our Caviar and Eggs.

Soups Recipes

Soups are always a good choice for pre-dinner, but they can also easily stand in for a light meal. Try our new takes on classic favorites: To get your mouth watering, check out our Chicken Vegetable Soup or our Chicken and Spinach Tortellini Soup. We also offer more out-of-the-box choices, such as our African Peanut Soup.

If the temperatures are climbing and something hot doesn’t suit your fancy today, mix up our Strawberry Soup or Berry Buttermilk Soup for a refreshing and healthy treat.

Entrees Recipes

The average person enjoys three courses a day. Start your morning off right with gourmet choices. Skip the boxed meals and prepare our Apple and Oatmeal Waffles or our Amish Apple Pancakes.

For lunch, treat yourself to easy meals, like our 16 Minute Tortilla Pizza or a refreshing helping of our Chicken Fruit Salad.

Dinnertime offers another opportunity to practice your cooking skills. Start off with Baked Steak and serve Chicken Cooked in Ale tomorrow.

Dessert Recipes

Now that your plate is licked clean, chocolate lovers will appreciate our All-American Chocolate Cake for dessert.

If fruit is more appealing, try these favorites: Apple Fine Pie, Baked Oranges, or Bananas Flambéed with Rum and Soft Caramel. Any one of our desserts is sure to provide a nice ending to a long day.

Side Dishes Recipes

In addition to entrees, Gourmetrecipe.com also has many healthy, easy and exotic side dishes to choose from. For example, its Asparagus and Pine Nuts offers a tasteful infusion of ingredients, as does the Baked Creamed Onions.

For more casual entrees, add our Barbecue Baked Beans and Grilled Vegetables for an additional side dish.

Salad Recipes

Salads are a healthy choice in eating, and Gourmetrecipe.com is chock full of great salad recipes. We are all aware of traditional garden salads, but did you know how creative you can be with salad recipes?

Try our Anchovies with Herbs and Salads or Easy Tomato Salad for a new way to utilize typical salad ingredients.

In summers, relax with our Festive Fruit Salad. When the weather turns cold, however, warm up to our Crunchy Winter Salad.

When you’re watching a video recipe, noticed how great the meat looks. Does it appear as tasty as what you cook at home? Often, the answer is no. But by understanding meat and poultry grading, you can not only have food that looks as great as a master chef’s, but tastes just as great, too.

In the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grades the quality of most meat and poultry sold in grocery stores. Look for a USDA shield symbol on the packaging or label.

Beef

When determining the quality of beef, the USDA uses medical knowledge to determine the age of the animal. For example, young cattle have oval-shaped, narrow, red ribs, whereas older cattle have flatter, wider, and grayer ribs. The USDA also looks at fat distribution in the meat (called marbling). More marbling means the meat is more tender and juicy.

From the highest quality down, the grades for beef are:

• Prime

• Choice

• Select

• Standard

• Commercial

• Utility

• Cutter

• Canner

Prime beef has the most marbling and is often what you’ll see when watching a video recipe or cooking show. Less than 2 percent of all beef qualifies as Prime and most Prime beef is shipped to fine restaurants. Typically, local grocery stores do not carry Prime beef, but it can be purchased online from fine meat retailers.

Choice beef is very high quality, less expensive than prime, and still quite tender and tasty. You may also see this quality of meat on a video recipe or cooking show. About half the beef graded in the U.S. each year is rated Choice.

Select beef varies in its juiciness and tenderness. It is leaner (and therefore healthier), but it’s not nearly as tender or flavorful as Choice or Prime.

Standard and Commercial grade beef has less marbling still and is often sold as a store brand in supermarkets. Utility, Cutter, and Canner grades are primarily used for making ground beef or processed foods.

Poultry

The USDA poultry ratings are considerably more simple than the ratings used for beef.

Grade A poultry is typically all you’ll see at grocery stores. If given this grade, the poultry has few, if any, defects (like bruises or broken bones) and has enough fat to make it moist. This is the USDA’s highest rating for poultry.

Processed poultry products, especially those where the bird is ground or chopped up, often hold a Grade B or C rating, meaning the bird had defects. If the processed product contains no USDA grade label, it probably was rated B or C.

Lamb and Pork

The USDA also offers 5 different grades for lamb. Typically, you’ll only find Prime or Choice in grocery stores. Prime is tender, juicy, and has lots of marbling. Choice is almost as high in quality, but has less marbling. Occasionally you might also see Good, Utility, and Cull grades, which come from older sheep and are tougher, less juicy, and less flavorful cuts.

The USDA does not grade pork.

Watching a recipe video from a gourmet restaurant, you may wonder: How would I eat this? Or perhaps you’ve attended a formal dinner party and not known what to do with the fish bone caught in your mouth. Or maybe you’ve been served an unfamiliar food and were unsure how to proceed. Here are some special and general rules that will make eating any meal – even a tricky one – much easier.

Something Tastes Bad

If your host needs to study more cooking shows or recipe video sites because his food is distasteful, put your fork in your mouth and, with your tongue, put the food back on it. Then lower the food to your plate.

There’s Something Amiss

If you discover something in your food that shouldn’t be there, ask the server for a fresh glass or plate. At a residence, remove the offending item and set it to one side of your plate.

Eat a Whole Artichoke

Remove the leaves and dip them in sauce using your fingers. Cut the heart into pieces with a fork and knife and use a fork for dipping and eating.

Eat a Whole Fish

Cut off the head, then cut along the back and lift one half of the fish from the bones. Remove the bones and set aside. Take small bites to avoid swallowing a bone; if a bone does end up in your mouth, remove it with your fork and set it aside.

Eat Caviar

Caviar is sometimes offered in a small dish. It’s usually spread lightly on bread, which is eaten with the fingers.

Eat Oysters

Use a fork to remove the flesh from the shell, if necessary. Pick up the shell in one hand; tilt the shell and slide all the flesh and juices into your mouth. You may also hold the oyster shell in one hand and, using an oyster fork in the opposite hand, lift the oyster flesh into your mouth. Always drink the juices directly from the shell.

Eat Escargot (snails)

Hold the shell in one hand and, using escargot tongs, pull the flesh out.

Eat Shrimp

Hold the shrimp by the tail and bite off the meat. A fork may also be used.

Eat Whole Lobster

In formal settings, always use a fork to remove and eat lobster meat. First, twist off the claws and use a cracker to break open the shell. Twist the tail off the body and remove the meat. For the legs, break away from the body before removing the meat. Break the body of the lobster in half, lengthwise to remove the meat found there.

Eat Crab

With your hands, remove the legs and suck the meat from them. Open up the back and remove the meat with a fork. Soft shell crab should be eaten with the shell, using a fork and knife.

When You’re Unsure…

No amount of cooking show or recipe video watching prepared you for this! If you’re unsure what’s correct, watch your host or hostess. For example, if she eats shrimp with a fork, use your fork, too.