How to avoid stress eating

September 10, 2020 by
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A few days ago I made a batch of my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Naturally I had to have one warm from the oven, but I did not stop there. By the time the evening ended I had downed six cookies. That is not a healthy way to eat, but these days I seem to lack the willpower to… read more

The ‘right’ way to cook rice

September 8, 2020 by
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Rice is the most widely consumed staple food for a significant portion of the world's population, especially in Asia and Africa. Each rice-centered culture uses different techniques to cook this versatile cereal crop. What is preferred in one country can be anathema to another. The BBC's Hersha Patel discovered this the hard way when YouTube personality Uncle Roger mocked her method… read more

The ebb and flow of seasonal eating

September 7, 2020 by
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In the depths of winter, while comforted by hearty stews and decadent pies, I dream of the first raspberries plucked off the vine in late spring and ripe tomatoes adorning a BLT in August. When August finally rolls around, I look forward to cozy nights by the fire, apple desserts, and warming soups. This is not to say I fail… read more

Food news antipasto

September 6, 2020 by
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Potato salad is not just a picnic staple, it is part of the Black cultural dynamic. The 2006 movie Who Brought the Potato Salad? explores the dish's relation to Black family dynamics, and recently Dr. Jon Paul Higgins expounded on this topic. Over at The Kitchn, he writes about why potato salad plays an important role in many Black social… read more

Until it’s done

September 5, 2020 by
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Neither my grandmother nor my mother loved to cook the way I do. Nevertheless, as a farm wife, my grandmother was required to feed the family and was not able to send for takeaway or go to a restaurant, so she learned how to cook and learned well. Most of her cooking was done without recipes, but she did write… read more

On following the rules

September 4, 2020 by
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There is a joke that has gone around for years (generations?) that goes like this: a girl watches her mother make Sunday roast while growing up. Each time, the mother cuts a couple of inches off one end of the roast, puts it in the pan, adds seasoning, and puts it into the oven. When the girl grows up, she… read more

Even perfection gets boring

September 3, 2020 by
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Scroll through most of food Instagram and you will find meticulously plated dishes, awe-inspiring intricate cakes, and tables overflowing with stunning tableware, each item placed just so to present the perfect vibe. As you swipe from one perfect image to the next, you might start to feel inadequate at your own culinary inadequacies or worse yet, become bored with it… read more

Nourish Me Home by Cortney Burns Cookbook Review

September 3, 2020 by
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Growing up in the Midwest, Cortney Burns has always held an appreciation for food. After cooking professionally in Australia, Burns moved to the San Francisco area and worked in various restaurants before additional travel took her to Idaho, Seattle, and Hawaii. In 2008 she returned to the San Francisco area and in 2011 joined Nick Bella at Bar Tartine where… read more

How a single cookbook defined a city’s cuisine

September 2, 2020 by
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Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, the 13th largest city in the EU, and the historical capital of Bohemia. Its long history includes being a culinary capital, but decades of communist rule relegated the storied foods of the city and its environs to the history books. Anthony Bourdain described the Czech Republic as "the land vegetables forgot." The… read more

Food waste is down due to pandemic eating and cooking

August 31, 2020 by
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Coronavirus safety measures have drastically changed the way most of the world shops, cooks, and eats food. Not only are people making more food at home, they are also embarking on baking adventures and have even created a shortage of home canning supplies. One change that has been a positive one is that people are wasting less food than before.… read more

Food news antipasto

August 30, 2020 by
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Audiobooks are wonderful to listen to during a commute or while relaxing on vacation, but have you ever listened to an audio cookbook? A recent tweet from Abrams Books touting the audiobook of Michael Ruhlman's latest release, From Scratch, says that "listening to audio cookbooks can be a great way to learn how to be a better cook without getting… read more

To all the bowls I’ve loved before

August 30, 2020 by
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I recently received a sales catalog from a famous cookware store. There is nothing at the moment that I need in my kitchen, but that didn't stop me from leafing through the pages. One item in particular captured my attention. In a page titled "Fall Color Refresh" were sets of melamine mixing bowls in three different colors. At first I… read more

Do you like your recipes poetic or practical?

August 28, 2020 by
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Some recipe writers conjure words like the best poets or lyricists, others are matter-of-fact and straightforward in their prose. Most people have a preference for one type of recipe over another, and Leite Culinaria's David Leite and Renee Schettler are no exception. The two each make the case for their preferred method of recipe writing. Renee lands in the poetic… read more

A dog-gone good idea

August 26, 2020 by
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Today is International Dog Day, a celebration of all things canine. The day started in the US in 2004 by Animal Welfare Advocate and Pet Lifestyle Expert, Colleen Paige, and according to the official website, it "celebrates all breeds, mixed and pure and serves to help galvanize the public to recognize the number of dogs that need to be rescued… read more

Sweetness to go (or delivered)

August 25, 2020 by
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The pandemic has changed the way millions of people worldwide are eating. Many people accustomed to eating out for some (or all) of their meals suddenly had to shift gears and cook at home. While the transition has not been seamless, most people have adapted to the situation and home cooking hasn't been this robust for decades. Baking is another… read more

Spice support: bay leaves

August 24, 2020 by
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Although my grandmother had very few herbs and spices in her cooking arsenal, she always had a jar full of large dried bay leaves. These leaves were used in long-simmering soups and stews, carefully fished out prior to serving. The herb intrigued me since it was the only one using entire leaves that I experienced until I started cooking on… read more

Food news antipasto

August 23, 2020 by
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The era of free wine tastings in Australia may be coming to a close. The pandemic nixed wine tastings for months, and now that wineries are able to reopen, many owners say they will never go back to the era of free tastings. Complimentary wine flights are a cornerstone of Australian cellar door visits – but as wineries reopen, they… read more

Galette to the rescue

August 22, 2020 by
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Traveling during a pandemic can be an exercise in anxiety, but sometimes duty calls. Likewise, cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, difficult in the best of times, is made worse during this stressful time. I have made a cross-country journey due to the untimely passing of someone close to me, and find myself trying to make comforting food in a place… read more

James Beard Foundation cancels 2020 awards

August 20, 2020 by
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The James Beard Foundation's annual Chef and Restaurant Awards were initially scheduled to be announced at a gala event in Chicago. After postponing that event and announcing a virtual event, the JBF has effectively cancelled the 2020 awards. In a press release, the JBF said that the choice to withhold announcing winners this year "comes as restaurants continue to suffer… read more

Are chefs embracing nonstick pans for home cooking?

August 19, 2020 by
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While avid home cooks stock their cupboards with a rainbow of Le Creuset, gorgeous glowing copper pans, and high-dollar triple-ply cookware, restaurant kitchens contain more utilitarian pots and pans, usually plain stainless or aluminum pans. You rarely see a nonstick-coated pan in a restaurant, and chefs often exhort home cooks to get rid of their nonstick cookware, claiming that it… read more

KitchenAid mixer trivia

August 19, 2020 by
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My vintage KitchenAid stand mixer has made countless batches of cookies, cakes, and other items. Even though I have a newer and larger KA, I drag out the old one for nostalgia's sake from time to time, and used it for a small batch of cinnamon roll dough earlier today. As I was scrolling through my news feed this evening,… read more

Food news antipasto

August 16, 2020 by
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Interested in the juncture between cookbooks and history? A new publicly available searchable database called The Sifter might be right up your alley. The Sifter, conceived by food historian Barbara Wheaton, "is designed to be a tool to aid in finding, identifying and comparing historical and contemporary writing on food and related topics," according to the site's mission statement. Modeled… read more

Ten European dishes that chefs think everyone should try

August 15, 2020 by
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Although the EU has drawn together much of Europe into a common market, the food remains more diverse, with each country and even regions within countries having their signature dishes, styles and ingredients. The Guardian (UK) recently asked a dozen chefs (some Michelin-starred and several of the World’s 50 Best) to tell them about local dishes on the European continent… read more

The case for having a bread box

August 14, 2020 by
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When most people think of a bread box, they probably conjure an image of an old-fashioned kitchen or perhaps a scene from a 1950s television program wherein a dress- and pearl-wearing housewife pulls a loaf of bread out of its storage container to make her young child a sandwich. Whether you call it a bread box or a bread bin,… read more

Don’t throw away these valuable liquids

August 11, 2020 by
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For years, I poured two valuable substances down the drain because I didn't know what else to do with them. I don't mean that time I put a colander in the sink but forgot to put a bowl underneath it and poured an entire batch of chicken stock through it before I realized my error, I am talking about the… read more
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