Overcoming preservation fears

August 31, 2012 by
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The Washington Post is highlighting four books that can help ease you into preserving and/or canning some of that wonderful excess produce at the Farmers' Market. Titled "This could be your year, first timers" they mention:  The Preservation Kitchen: The Craft of Making and Cooking With Pickles, Preserves, and Aigre-doux, by Paul Verant & Kate Leahy The Pickled Pantry: From Apples… read more

54 winning healthy lunchtime entries from kids

August 30, 2012 by
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Sometime ago Epicurious announced The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. They asked kids between the ages of 8 and 12 to submit healthy lunchtime dishes. They received over 1,200 entries and a distinguished judging panel chose a winning entry from each state and territory. Last Monday, the winners were hosted by Michelle Obama for a "Kids' State Dinner" (actually lunch).  This was… read more

Late with the Lunchbox

August 29, 2012 by
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The kids went back to school today, and my brain is slowly waking up from its summery haze, still smelling vaguely like sunblock.  Logistics are flying left and right as I try to remember how to do all the things School Year Mom does. One thing I didn't even attempt this week was one of SYM's harder events: packing the… read more

Bon Appétit’s “Most Insane” Recipes

August 29, 2012 by
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It's always commendable when an organization laughs at itself, and Bon Appétit is doing just that with its article, The 15 Most Insane Vintage Recipes Published in Bon Appétit. And they include not only descriptions, but also photographs - which truly do have to be seen to be believed. So for a reminder that we all can get truly carried… read more

Are these inventions awesome or ridiculous?

August 28, 2012 by
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BuzzFeed has a fun article called "20 Odd Inventions That Might be Awesome." Not all of them concern food, (though food does seem to bring out the most creativity) but they're all amusing and do pose the question, "Do some people just have too much time on their hands?" Check out motorized ice cream cones, anti-theft lunch bags (they make… read more

Confessions of a Nigella Lawson addict

August 27, 2012 by
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In a recent article in The Observer, Viv Groskop confesses to being a Nigella Lawson addict. In a world where the Kardashians and other non-notable celebrities receive far too much press, we're happy to find someone who adores a celebrity for all of the good things she brings (besides her photogenic qualities). For example, Groskop writes: "Her approach to food… read more

Opening a stubborn jar – and keeping it open

August 26, 2012 by
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At America's Test Kitchen Feed they have a quick video with three different approaches on how to open a stubborn jar lid: Improve your grip by using a piece of plastic wrap, a rubber band, or wear a rubber glove Tapping the jar around the edge to release air pockets to break the vacuum Inverting the jar into warm water… read more

The coolest way ever to separate an egg

August 24, 2012 by
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Grub Street found a great video on how to separate an egg.  The video is in Chinese but it doesn't matter -- it's perfectly clear from the images what the woman is doing. Indeed, it adds a whole new layer of context to the expression "sucking an egg." So check it out and let's hear how you did. read more

You can’t make me like tofu

August 24, 2012 by
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On his blog, Michael Ruhlman has a fun article titled, "Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!). In it, he describes how a cookbook by Andrea Nguyen, Asian Tofu, converted him from an eater who disliked tofu due to its lack of flavor and curdy texture, to someone who learned to appreciate tofu. As he writes after making a Spicy Tofu… read more

Fall cookbook preview – here’s what’s coming

August 23, 2012 by
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Eater has a two-part series on cookbooks to be published this fall - just in time to be added to holiday gift lists. They list numerous books in several categories, as either featured or honorable mentions. The categories include: Chef's, Restaurants, & Other Famous Food Folks; Pastries, Bakeries, Sweets; American Regional; International; Booze; Famous Cookbook Authors; Television;  Magazines, Newspapers, & Websites; the… read more

Your grater is more of a multi-purpose tool than you may realize

August 22, 2012 by
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  Regardless of how much kitchen space you have, most of us are still reluctant to invest the money or storage room in single-purpose items. So we thought this article by Bon Appétit, 11 Things You Didn't Know Were Great to Grate, would be of interest to our community. After all, we know that cheese should be grated, but what about… read more

Ignore the temperature dial on your oven

August 21, 2012 by
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In Brian Palmer's Slate article, "Ignore Your Oven Dial: You can't control the temperature of your oven very well, so stop worrying about it," Palmer gives a brief history of oven temperatures leading to the conclusion that "you'd be forgiven for thinking that 350 on the dial means 350 in the oven. You'd be wrong, though. When you set an… read more

Taste test: Greek-style yogurt

August 20, 2012 by
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For those of us in the United States who watched the Olympics, it was very hard to ignore the continuous Chobani yogurt commercials. And Chobani should be acknowledged as the New York company that introduced and has spear-headed the Greek-style yogurt craze. (Chobani, which was only created four years ago, is actually a fascinating story; if anyone is interested, here's… read more

EYB and the seasonal cook

August 20, 2012 by
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Although I've been gardening vegetables for almost 10 years and have made enough mistakes to consider myself sort of "experienced," harvesting has always been a weak point for me.  If I haven't been vigilant, the late crops are buried under weeds and I can't find them, or the pests have munched them to bits.  As for the early crops, they… read more

The question, Is there too much food television? has elicited some controversy

August 17, 2012 by
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Over at EATER, they asked five chefs, "Is There Too Much Television?" In general, the answer was yes, even from those on television. Per Andrew Zimmern, "I will say that a lot of producers are making shows where people who have no understanding of food culture are talking about food in terms that misguide the public." Christina Tosi at Momofuku Milk… read more

How to tell if your knife is sharp – and how to sharpen it, if it isn’t

August 17, 2012 by
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The knife is, hands down, the most important tool in the kitchen (well, besides the cook, of course). And new knife technology seems to arrive frequently, whether it's Ginsu or Santoku knives from Japan, or new styles from Henckel. But all that technology (and price) won't do a lot of good if the knives aren't sharp.  The Kitchn had a… read more

Renovating the Food 52 kitchen

August 17, 2012 by
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  There are a lot of kitchen renovating articles, but they tend to follow rote patterns: what to do if the sky's the limit, what to do with an absurdly low amount of money, what to do with a miniscule amount of space. In short, many have good ideas, but often are not realistic or practical. Amanda Hesser's recent article… read more

Telling a host he’s about to poison you

August 16, 2012 by
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We're not sure that Ms. Manners ever dealt with the thorny etiquette question that Chow recently posed: Should You Tell Your Host That He's About to Poison You? Chow frames the question as follows: "Here's the situation: A couple you don't know very well invites you over for a Saturday afternoon get-together. One of your hosts is grilling his famous Yucatan… read more

The EYB 100th birthday tribute to Julia Child

August 15, 2012 by
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The word "legend" is a bit overused these days (yes, we're thinking of Usain Bolt), but in Julia Child's case, it's spot on. Even though she passed away several years ago, Julia's name lives on brighter than ever, even meriting an Academy Award nominated role by Meryl Streep. So today, her 100th birthday, we would be very remiss if we also… read more

5 things that are just plain wrong to do with food

August 14, 2012 by
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  John Cheese over at Cracked has an interesting article, "5 Simple Things that Every Bad Cook Does Wrong." While a bit irreverent in tone (my old-fashioned mother would have called his language "colorful"), he does drive home some good points that we should not only teach in the kitchen, but also remind ourselves about occasionally (especially the last two). In… read more

Tackling the faraway nearby

August 13, 2012 by
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Two vastly different cookbooks arrived recently.  The only thing they had in common was that each focused on a country far, far away from this one, and barely addressed by other cookbooks. They gave me a chance to think about the way we indulge our taste for adventure by cooking the food of faraway places, and the way it sometimes… read more

3 coffee tips plus how to clean a burr grinder

August 13, 2012 by
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  It's Monday, the Olympics are over, and it's time for (some of) us to get back to work. So we thought these coffee-related tips would be helpful. The first three are from the America's Test Kitchen Feed and concern Eliminating Early Morning Coffee Problems: Problem # 1: Your milk cools down your coffee Problem #2: You don't have any flavored… read more

6 books for cheese lovers

August 12, 2012 by
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  Cheese is hot right now. In prestigious restaurants, you not only choose wine with the help of wine sommeliers, but now you can often choose your cheese with the help of a cheese sommelier.  And the American Cheese Society just announced they will be issuing an exam that will entitle someone to call him/herself a "Certified Cheese Expert." (Check… read more

Bottled tartar sauce taste test

August 10, 2012 by
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We always enjoy Serious Eats' taste tests and find them to be a great guide. As they point out in their Taste Test: Bottled Tartar Sauce, tartar sauce has both fans and serious haters: "There's no such thing as tartar sauce neutrality. When that nice lady at the clam shack asks you if you want tartar sauce, it's never "I… read more

Happy National Rice Pudding Day!

August 9, 2012 by
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There are so many fancy dishes out there. And so many wonderfully fresh ingredients. And they all have their day. But rice pudding is one of those unsung heroes of childhood that somehow still strikes a chord - and it's global as well. As CNN's Eatocracy writes, "A few humble ingredients - milk, rice and sugar - is all it takes… read more
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