Punchfork was first launched two years ago, with the mission of “helping home cooks discover new, high quality recipes and share them with family and friends.”

CEO Jeff Miller says that Punchfork will continue to be operational for a short time, but after that the site, API, and mobile apps will all be shut down.

“We believe that a unified destination benefits our users in the long run, and the Punchfork team will focus on contributing to Pinterest as the premier platform for discovering and sharing new recipes and other interests on the web,” he says.

“To cooking aficionados, Pinterest needs no introduction. It stands as one of the fastest growing online services in history, and millions of people use it to find recipes every day. Pinterest is often described as a platform for inspiration, and we feel this aligns perfectly with the goals of Punchfork. We couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with the Pinterest team in San Francisco.”

Considering the fact that food is such a big part of what’s pinned to Pinterest users’ pinboards, the acquisition of Punchfork makes a lot of sense. Punchfork currently uses social factors from Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter to power the site.

This is the first major acquisition for Pinterest.

Published and showcased via Leanpub, “The Startup Chef” currently sports 75 recipes from people all over the tech spectrum. It’s the work of YouTube’s Hunter Walk and ABC News’ Maya Baratz.

“What does the founder of the most popular blogging platform on the internet make for breakfast? What type of creative pastry do Randi Zuckerberg and her sister Donna whip up for their family during the holidays? It’s all in here, with their own personal stories and recipes, for you to make and enjoy (in a totally non-creepy, non-Single-White-Female sort of way).And of course it wouldn’t be a launch if there wasn’t that ‘one more thing’: all proceeds from the book will go to charities aiming to end hunger — ranging from feeding hungry children in the US to helping feed families severely affected by Hurricane Sandy,” they say.

Here are some recipes from some notable people that you’ll find in the ecookbook:

• Double Marinated Tenderloin / Fillet of Beef by Daniel Ek, CEO Spotify
• Porcini Mushroom Pasta Sauce by Soraya Darabi, Foodspotting
• Mom Crowley’s Sausage Soup by Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
• Eggnog Cinnamon Chip Scones by Donna & Randi Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg Media

They suggest that you pay $20 for the cookbook, but will accept $10. They say that the book will receive new recipes and updates as they come in, and you’ll receive all of those for free. You can sample the cookbook here.

[via Business Insider]

Well here’s one idea: By making some panda bread (or would you call it Panda bread?)

Googler John Mueller reshared a post detailing some of most adorable bread I’ve seen in quite some time. And it looks like it would be pretty good for your holiday leftover sandwiches.

The recipe, originally found on the Taste For Adventure blog, is available in full below:

Prep Time: 2 hrs 30 min
Total Time: 3 hrs
Serving Size: 1 sandwich loaf

Ingredients
3 cups Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk w/ 1 egg yolk (both should total 1 cup together)
3/4 tbsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp green tea (matcha) powder mixed w/ 2 tsp hot water, OR green food coloring
3 1/2 tsp cocoa powder mixed w/ 1 1/2 tsp hot water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Directions

1. In a small bowl, microwave milk and egg yolk for about 30 seconds. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar and yeast.
3. Add in butter, salt and milk mixture, stirring on low speed with the dough hook attachment.
4. Increase speed to medium and knead until dough comes together and pulls away from the sides, about 5-10 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add a tbsp-ful of dough at a time until it is smooth and elastic.
5. Divide dough into three pieces, two about equal and one about 1/3 the size of the other two.
6. Place one of the large pieces in the stand mixer bowl and mix with green tea/water mixture OR green tea food coloring until desired color is reached.
7. Remove dough from bowl and place in a lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled.
8. Clean stand mixer bowl, then place smallest piece of dough in stand mixer and combine with cocoa powder/water mixture until color is blended through. Remove dough from bowl and place in a separate, lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled.
9. Place plain piece of dough in a separate, lightly greased bowl, covered, to rise until doubled. All pieces should double in about an hour.
10. Once dough is risen, on a floured surface, divide plain dough in thirds, with one piece being half the size of the other two (as you did before). Use one of the larger pieces to form the face. Divide the cocoa dough in quarters and use two quarters to form the eyes.
11. Quickly place the smallest piece of plain dough between the eyes to keep them in place. Stretch remaining piece of plain dough over the whole bread to lock everything in place.
12. Take last two quarters of cocoa dough and form the ears.
13. Divide green dough in two pieces, one twice the size of the other. Take the small piece to fill in the space between the ears. Take the larger piece of green dough and stretch over the whole bread to lock everything in place.
14. Place dough in a lightly greased loaf pan, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
15. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
16. Once dough is risen, bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on the outside (the inside should register 190 degrees F). Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing or serving.

Then again, if you’re not a baker, why not try one of the most classic viral vids of all time. It’s pretty Panda-ey:

So when grandma’s recipe book just isn’t cutting it anymore – here are some online resources to help you make your loved ones happy. Or at least to help you from totally ruining Thanksgiving.

(Note: There are plenty of wonderful, smaller food blogs out there. Look around, go deep into the internet food culture. You can find some amazing little resources that can be highly specialized for your needs. Don’t be afraid to jump off the beaten path when it comes to this sort of thing. This list is a starter list of sorts, with some of the big names in online recipes and food tips)

The New York Times Dining & Wine

This big dog of the food world is doing something interesting this year. They have set up a “Thanksgiving Help Line” that is there to answer reader’s questions on Turkey, Wine, Dessert, Side Dishes and much more.

Readers are asked to submit their query directly on the site or via Twitter, using hthe hashtag #ThanksgivingQs. An example of how the NYT is helping holiday chefs, many of the responses to questions like “Why won’t be cranberry sauce gel?” and “How do I get the lumps out of my mashed potatoes?” are in the form of video tutorials.

Epicurious

Epicurious, and its partners bon appetit and Gourmet, have dedicated part of their site to Thanksgiving, providing links to Thanksgiving essentials, vegetarian recipes, and “pie perfection.” They offer a beginner’s guide to Thanksgiving and have checklists that you can use to make sure you don’t forget anything.

Epicurious also allows you to sign up for email alerts for their “Thanksgiving Countdown” messages.

Chow

Chow has an entire section designated for Thanksgiving recipes. Easy to navigate tabs allow you to browse their best recipes from five years of existence. There are multiple recipes for thinks like stuffing, gravy, pies & tarts, and even cranberry sauce. A pretty awesome bonus section shows you great ways to utilize all of those leftovers.

Food Network

Food Network’s site has also created an Thanksgiving section, where they provides recipes and how-tos for pretty much all of the traditional courses you’ll need. They have a pretty extensive selection of how-to videos in their “cooking school.” And of course, there are recipes and videos from the network’s personalities like Alton Brown and Ina Garten.

Serious Eats

Serious Eats has a basic but useful collection of recipes and tips for a stress-free Thanksgiving. They also provide a drink-pairing guide as well as their “Taste-test” section that tells you which brands of frozen apple pies, stuffing, store-bought gravy, etc. are the best – just in case you don’t have to time to make absolutely everything at home.

eHow Food

eHow Food offers Thanksgiving help in the form of tips on Thanksgiving on a budget as well as tips from “in-house” contributor Rachel Ray. eHow food has plenty of recipes, including some instructional videos like how to set a great Thanksgiving table and how to crave the perfect turkey.

Of course, there are many more outlets out there to help you pull off the big meal. But these are some great places to start. What’s your favorite holiday dish, both to prepare and to eat? Let us know in the comments.

Countless burgers will be grilled, steaks will be marinated and beers will be consumed as we celebrate not only the military but all loved ones who have passed. Hopefully, the weather where you are allows for outdoor fun. My forecast looks a little iffy.

If you are looking for ideas for great food and drink, it would help to follow some Twitter accounts that provide you with recipes and tips for the big day. I’ve compiled a list of some of the best and most frequent tweeters from the food category that can assist you in your Memorial Day festivities.

I’ve only included food institutions and publications instead of personal accounts of known foodies, as they tend to also tweet personal stuff. This is about food. So here goes:

Drink Craft Beer – what’s Memorial Day without some quality brews?

Yummit – food facts and recipes from a smaller source.

All Bacon – well, the name says it all. Essential.

Bon Appetit – a staple in good dining. Recipes, lists, and advice for food and drink.

CHOW – recipes and cocking know-how out of San Francisco.

LA Times Food – recipes and reviews from the staff.

Wine Recipes – if you’re sick of beer, check out this feed for wine suggestions as well as recipes involving wine.

SAVEUR – NY based magazine and food authoirty. Uses hashtag #testkitchensmellslike, fills me with intense jealousy.

Maybe John McCain’s spouse is a little different than most people worth millions, and enjoys the challenge of juggling pots, pans, and ingredients. Her resource for good old family recipes, published on the McCain campaign website, had a heaping helping of something else, namely theft.

The Huffington Post described how they found out Cindy McCain’s cookbook bore far more than a passing similarity to that of the Food Network:

This past Sunday, Lauren Handel, an eagle-eyed attorney from New York, was searching for a specific recipe from Giada DeLaurentis, a chef on the Food Network. Yet whenever she Googled the different ingredients in the recipe, the oddest thing happened: not only did the Food Network’s site come up, as expected, but so did John McCain’s campaign site.

On a section of McCain’s site called “Cindy’s Recipes,” you can find seven recipes attributed to Cindy McCain, each with the heading “McCain Family Recipe.” Ms. Handel quickly realized that some of the “McCain Family Recipes,” were in fact, word-for-word copies of recipes on the Food Network site.

The lame explanation for this, well, there isn’t an explanation. It’s being blamed on some “low-level unpaid staff” person, meaning whichever volunteer was asked by the campaign to find recipes for the website and slap Mrs. McCain’s name on them has been thrown under the proverbial campaign bus.

Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal to people; we’re sure the man who would be President isn’t losing any sleep over this. We’re pretty certain if the potential First Lady really did publish a cookbook, and someone looted it to spiff up a cooking website, she and her hubby wouldn’t accept some BS excuse about a lowly functionary stealing it without anyone’s knowledge.

Such a turkey tragedy, and other holiday dinner table disasters, can be avoided with a little help from a good recipe. Yahoo Search has a little something for the food-curious, a new round of Search Shortcuts.

Logged-in Yahoo users can rate recipes on Yahoo Food. When it comes to turkey recipes, quite a few suggest ways to use the leftovers beyond the usual “top turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and gravy; nuke for three minutes on High.”

As Kamae also noted, post-New Year’s searches for ideas for low-fat recipes and other diet suggestions will work the same way.

follow me on Twitter

STUART: Oh, how I hated the Colonel! With his wee beady eyes, and that smug look on his face. ‘Oh, you’re gonna buy my chicken!’

CHARLIE: Dad how can you hate the Colonel?

STUART: Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly, smart-ass!

                  (Mike Myers gives himself a lesson in "So I Married An Axe Murderer")

And Stuart might be right, "Kentucky Fried Chicken Recipe" tops the chain-restaurant recipe searches, everybody trying to figure out what that addictive chemical is. (This is rather amusing to native Kentuckians, as the Colonel’s chicken couldn’t hold a candle to Mom’s – but we will drop into KFC when we’re late for a potluck, anyway.)

As for the rest of the top ten, well, there’s only five others restaurants on it. Maybe all those restaurateurs out there are underestimating the public’s desire for variety. (Hush your mouth! says Mama. Everywhere you go already’s got the same menu as the place ya went last Sunday.)

Anyway, here are the top 10 restaurant recipe searches, according to Yahoo:

1.    Kentucky Fried Chicken Recipe
2.    Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe
3.    Red Lobster Shrimp Scampi Recipe
4.    Wendy’s Chili Recipe
5.    KFC Coleslaw Recipe
6.    Cracker Barrel Recipes
7.    Starbucks Recipes
8.    Olive Garden Minestrone Soup Recipe
9.    Olive Garden Chicken Marsala Recipe
10.    Red Lobster Recipes

Epi 2.0 features include added search and browse capabilities, improved recipe and menu functionality, streamlined navigation, related content, an intuitive user experience and a new blog with six new guest contributors.

The new Epicurious will keep it s 60,000 recipes and features that users depend on, but with better navigation and tools. Improvements, tools and features will continue to be
introduced over the next 18 months.

Updates to the site include new content categories. All content falls within three categories, Recipes & Menus, Articles & Guides and Community. Registered users have access to new features including My Epi, a personalized user space for food fans to communicate.

Along with being able to browse the Recipe Central area in the middle of the home page, users can search for recipes in the new search bar, which features member recipes and editor-tested recipes.

"Epicurious.com has been a pioneer for more than 12 years in the food world online, and our users have always been very involved in the site, whether by uploading their favorite recipes, commenting on blog entries and recipes, or having a lively discussion in our popular forums," said Tanya Steel, editor in chief of Epicurious.com.

"Through the ongoing process of streamlining and personalizing Epicurious.com, we are committed to making the site an even easier place for our users to find their culinary
inspiration, share with others, and shape the site."

And the new:

It’s like this for all the verticals listed on the homepage, including recipes, housing, jobs, hotels, and anything else listed here. It’s a really nice improvement, besides looking better and having more white space, also giving you all those boxes to refine your search, and multiple views for the search results (list view, grid view and map view.

Thanks so much for Arie for pointing me at the new interface.

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