Kitchen battle: Two takes on holiday party food

>>> this morning in "today's kitchen," a cook fight. for years tim and volume why have been working side by side at the "new york times" writing about food from very different points of view. now they are putting their differences aside, kind of, in a new cook book called "cook fight." sim severson and julia , thanks for joining us.

>> kim, where do you come down on this in.

>> for the cocktail party . you want to put together light, easy to ease, balancing your bowl and cup and glass, want beautiful delicious bites. mosquin has an incredibly wrong-headed answer.

>> what's your philosophy?

>> in my opinion for the holiday dinner, i want a me. i don't want to leave and be hungry.

>> thank you.

>> i'm saying something you can hold and pick up is always a good thing and then i've got the big and fat ginger snaps .

>> can physically pushed out the door.

>> this is not fighting fair.

>> natalie is with team julia and al is with team kim.

>> jowlia, you're starting with a texas chili, first you roast the spices.

>> absolutely.

>> you always have to do that with the chili, bring out flavors of the cumin and coriander.

>> warm it up, that's it.

>> and then i would grind those spices, and then we've already brown the neat. get the aromatics in the pan, always want to do that, put an acid in the beef stew so otherwise your meat won't get tender and you want that delicious falling apart texture so let's brown it.

>> talking trash about you here?

>> i'm just saying.

>> quietly.

>> you're going to get your team.

>> she is sneaking like that.

>> chili and raw onions, what a great cocktail party that will be.

>> you're going home alone, for sure.

>> we're going to be doing these amazing ribs. again with the grinding of the spices. the thick is with grinding spices, it seems like a pain in the whatever you can say on tv.

>> tush.

>> you spend all this money on ingredients.

>> brings out the oils and the flavors.

>> we'll do this.

>> so, i'm grinding, julia , i'm grinding my spices fresh.

>> okay.

>> she grinds her, too.

>> you agree on one thing.

>> this is going to be kind of a dry rub .

>> a rub, we'll rub these ribs and then you're going to bake them for a long time. do you want to rub, sir?

>> who wants to be standing around eating a rib.

>> light delicate rips, you bake these for 45 minutes and an hour and they come out and you have great ribs.

>> we've only got about a minute left.

>> we need some judges. get some mojitos.

>> come on.

>> we're buying.

>> look. he's got to hold this and eat it.

>> can't talk to anybody.

>> not cocktail party food, right?

>> hold on, just a second.

>> come on.

>> try the ginger.

>> good morning, everybody.

>> i was just faking.

>> thank you, guys.

>> ginger snaps .

>> hi, kathie lee .

>> has a hand free for a drink, can have a nice chat.

>> still feeling messy.

>> you're not supposed to take