Using up the bottle
As someone who has cookbooks that celebrate cuisines from all over the world, I frequently encounter recipes that call for an ingredient that I previously have not tried. I am game to take chances in my cooking, so I…
Cooking Tips
Making do in a pinch
It has always been vexing to find out you are out of a critical ingredient just after you start making a dish, but with the pandemic throwing off shopping routines, it's even more disconcerting. That is why knowing what…
The art and logic of ice cream cake
Ice cream cakes are not just the province of Dairy Queen. You can make your own showstopping dessert if you know the right tips and tricks, says food writer Tara O'Brady. She provides a handy primer that lays out the…
All about eggplants
Some foods get an undeserved bad reputation because it is all too common to encounter them in badly prepared dishes. Eggplant (aka aubergine) is one such food, and its very mention can conjure images of a soggy, slimy,…
How to clean up a floury mess
The coronavirus pandemic might have made bakers out of us all, but once the bread is in the oven, the hard part of baking begins: clean up. As Margaret Eby of Food and Wine explains, combining flour and water is…
Spice support: green garlic
Perhaps I'm stretching the definition of spice a bit by including garlic, but it is generally treated more like a spice than a huge part of the meal (chicken with 40 cloves of garlic notwithstanding). Anyway, this post…
Flouting conventional fungi wisdom
Just when you think you can't be surprised by a new cooking technique, someone comes along to shake things up. The debate about whether to wash mushrooms before cooking has raged for decades, but how you should cook…
How seasonal differences can affect your baking
My kitchen has a large window with a southern exposure. During the winter months, I enjoy the sunlight that floods the space with light, but in July...not so much. The kitchen becomes stifling hot and humid to boot.…
Spice support: capers
I'm stretching the definition of spice a bit to include capers, but since they add a flavor dimension similar to adding spice, I found it appropriate. To learn more about capers I turned to an interview of David…
Weighing the options, is this recipe egg worthy?
As we shared in our weekly roundup, many folks are looking to bake during this pandemic. In that article, we shared ideas for cultivating your own yeast, sourdough and other ideas for bread. I am fortunate and have a…
Where there's smoke...
Plenty of recipe writers will tell you to make sure you don't heat an oil past its smoke point, or dire consequences will occur. This raises the dual questions of what kind of consequences and how bad are they? The…
Improve your baking in ten weeks
I love to bake and usually have a baking project going at any given time. To keep this habit from further expanding my waistline, I give away most of the cakes, cookies, pastries, pies and tarts that I make. My friends…