Cooking Articles

Tapas For 3 Or 30

This week's installment comes with a warning: when announcing the meal plan for the evening, be sure to enunciate. Failure to do so could result in impressionable teenagers and men with selective hearing...

Kid-Friendly Cookbooks

Inspiration. It’s what cooks everywhere are constantly in pursuit of. And that’s why so many folks love to read cookbooks. And it’s no exception at our house. Cookbooks make for some great reading—especially...

Bachelor, Meet Shrimp

It has been a while since I graced these pages with my favorite kind of cuisine, Louisiana and low-country food. In part that's been because I've tried to focus a bit more closely on the food or food-related...

Adding Some Heat To Your Salad

Did you think that once autumn arrived salad season was officially over? After all, fall is the perfect time to turn to comfort foods like braises, stews, and roasted meats and veggies. But that doesn’t...

Save Time, Expend Odds-n-Ends

In the world of kitchen frugality, there are peanut butter scrapers and jar wasters. Allow me to explain. When that jar of peanut butter gets low but there is still some sticking to the sides, do you: a)...

Vegetable Oil: Food and Fuel?

Fresh-cut fries, apple fritters, funnel cakes. It’s definitely feeling like fall here in Lancaster County and I’ve had the hankering for a delicious deep-fried dish—maybe since it’s been fair...

Sides That Sit Well For Thanksgiving

I don't know about you, but one of the hardest parts of organizing Thanksgiving dinner is figuring out the timing. The bird is in the oven at 350 but you are supposed to be roasting Brussels sprouts at...

Proposal Pork Chops

I have a friend who can remember nearly every outfit she wore during special moments in her life. Her red Mary Janes on the first day of kindergarten, the hand-embroidered peasant blouse for high school...

Thanksgiving Dinner's Late? There's an App for That.

Thanksgiving always begins with the best intentions. Guests are told when to arrive and what to bring. The turkey goes in the oven anticipating that it will be coming out with crisp golden brown skin...

Breakfast For Dinner!

You’re in the middle of another hectic week, and nobody has had time to do a grocery run. Between work, going to the gym, and shuttling kids back and forth from school and their various activities,...

Fancy Hot Cocoa: A Holiday Feast

Loyal readers of The Sweet Lowdown know that I'm not a huge chocolate fan. I've tried to extol the virtues of many other delicious dessert flavors in my column, but for some strange reason, it keeps coming...

A Chinese Restaurant Favorite

My family and I have been enjoying more than our share of takeout and restaurant meals lately and one of our go-to choices for a meal out is Chinese food. Our local Chinese haunt really is one of the...

Hot Chili for the Autumn Chill

Since the clock fell back last weekend, the evenings have instantly taken on the unmistakable feeling of autumn. Parts of the country have already had their first snowfall and others have felt a chill...

Crazy For Tortillas!

Tortillas are one item that have become a weekly staple on my shopping list, just like bread. In fact, sometimes you are more likely to find a bag of flour tortillas in our house than a loaf of bread....

Double-Layer Teen Adventure

There wasn’t a speck of anything for dessert in the house—well, besides some old dark chocolate baking bars. And while I’ve been known to break off a piece to pair with peanut butter in a pinch,...

Grab a Dozen Ears of Fresh Corn--Only

Or don’t make this slow-cooker soup. Seriously. If you think that it doesn’t matter, I guarantee you’ll be writing in to me telling me about this starchy, chewy, just overall-unappealing soup:...