The hows and whys of brining, take two

November 15, 2011

Last year’s Thanksgiving post was about the hows and whys of brining. But it was a video. A seven-minute video. So I doubt you watched it.

My bad.

I don’t doubt, however, that brining will make a huge difference in your Thanksgiving turkey. So I thought I’d ‘splain it again, but in a way that doesn’t take seven minutes of your time. Promise.

The great pumpkin!

October 24, 2011

One of the easiest ways to make your cooking festive is to use it to celebrate what’s in season – serve asparagus in the springtime, tomatoes in the summer, and citrus in the winter.

To me, nothing says fall like pumpkin. And it’s delicious in so many dishes, savory and sweet. Pumpkin also comes in several different forms, giving you plenty of opportunities to include it in your fall cooking.

Fall project: Preserve something

September 28, 2011

I know I can’t keep time from marching on, nor can I stop summer from turning into fall. But I can make the flavors of summer last all year long. And you can, too. By preserving them.

It’s no special trick. Cooks have been salting, curing, brining, fermenting, canning, jamming, freezing, and drying foods for eons. Home preserving sort of fell out of favor for a while there – mid-century cooks newly had people like Del Monte to can their tomatoes, so why not let them? – but today we know that no Del Monte tomato will ever taste as good as ones from your own back yard.

It’s a matter of what’s on hand

September 23, 2011

I really believe that to live well you have to cook.

You have to.

Because if you don’t, you’re subject to what others cook, and that means either eating pre-prepared and processed foods from the supermarket or eating out at restaurants – the first of which is ultimately unhealthy and the second of which is expensive and potentially unhealthy.

6 delicious ways to enjoy tomatoes

September 2, 2011

At my house, this is the time of year when you’re not allowed to eat a meal that doesn’t include tomatoes. We usually have so many, we can barely keep up with them. Here’s how I’m liking them best:

How to pick a perfect peach

August 17, 2011

Over the weekend I taught a cooking class at Ramekins featuring stone fruits. The students asked me how to pick good fruit, including peaches, and so in the interest of eating a lot of good peaches while they’re still in season, I thought I’d share my answer with you.

Homemade ice cream, part three: Experiments with cherry ice cream with chocolate chips

August 9, 2011

It all started when I saw an online recipe for cherry ice cream with chocolate chips, one of my most favorite flavors. The recipe involved steeping milk with fresh cherries, then pureeing the mixture, then adding cream. This made the ice cream “base” which then got cooled and processed in an ice cream maker, with chocolate chips stirred in at the end.
Right away, I was suspicious.

Homemade ice cream, part two: Fruit ice cream

August 2, 2011

Today we’re going to talk about fruit ice cream. As I said in that last post, fruit ice cream is one step more complicated than basic ice cream – but only that.

Summer project: Homemade ice cream

July 28, 2011

Have I ever told you that ice cream is my favorite food? That I eat it almost every day? That I only hesitatingly admit to, more than once, eating a whole pint in one evening? That, as much as I like all desserts, at the end of a nice meal at a nice restaurant, no matter what’s on the dessert menu, I almost always order ice cream?

It’s sweet, it’s cold, it’s creamy, it’s refreshing. What more could you want?

For Father’s Day, take a tip from Dad and grill

June 16, 2011

My dad is a master of the grill.

When I say that you might picture a funny-pages version of dad-as-griller, an only-on-weekends, back yard cook who humorously and consistently builds an unnecessarily huge fire, grills only the simplest of steaks, chops, and burgers, and serves them all just this side of incinerated. My dad, that is not.