Cooking Articles

Tips For The Everyday Entertainer

The word entertaining sounds so formal, the title “host” or “hostess” so proper, and yet when friends drop by unexpectedly and you end up cooking dinner for them that is what you are doing, entertaining....

Polenta Party!

If you are looking for a new and different cooking idea for your kids, try throwing a polenta party! Polenta is a northern Italian peasant food that became better known in America with the growing popularity...

Hotplate and a Microwave: Cooking in Small Spaces

As much as those spacious kitchens on the Food Network make preparing a meal seem simple and carefree, most of us don’t have the luxury of an immense cooking space. In my years of cooking, my kitchens...

Teens and the Toaster Oven

It all started with a garage sale find—a mini-toaster oven for only 50 cents. Remembering days of late evening snacks of French fries and toasted cheese melts, we bought the item and parked this little...

These New Crockpots Are Hot . . . Literally

Almost ten years ago, my mom’s crockpot was a much-used item in our kitchen. With four kids, a small farm, and my dad’s business, she had very little time to cook. I remember her throwing a whole chicken,...

A Salad For The Season

With warm weather on the horizon, I found myself this past week suddenly craving salad. I’m not talking about a few leafy greens at the beginning of a dinner to fill out my daily vegetable requirement,...

When Your Bowl of Popcorn Needs a Vacation

What does the smell of coconut remind you of? For many people it conjures a beachy scene, both for the scented suntan lotion smell and for remembrances of icy pina coladas. Another reason coconut has a...

Bachelor Bar Basics

Y'all might have noticed I've been stressing "host" style tips and meals in Bachelor Chow. I do this because if you are a single man living alone, you probably need some company, and the best way to entice...

Vinegar, Vincotto, and Verjus: Part Two, Vincotto

Sweeter and thicker than traditional vinegars, vincotto is a condiment that no foodie's pantry should be without. The word vincotto is translated as "cooked wine." Vincotto is made from Negroamaro and...

Tricks of the Trade

This week I want to share my favorite place to buy pastry tools with you. A fancy cake decorating supply store? A gourmet cooking shop somewhere in New York? Somewhere in France? Well, yes. I do...

Men Who Cook: It's More Than Just The Kitchen That's Hot

Recently I found myself flipping through the pages of a popular food magazine and I found my progress abruptly interrupted when my eye caught a picture of a young, rising chef donning his whites. I’ll...

A Drawer Full of Kitchen Gadgets

A tisket, a tasket, a drawer full of kitchen gadgets. Yes, you all know the drawer I am talking about. It is the drawer you approach with trepidation every time you must dig to find the vegetable peeler,...

The New Victory Garden

Spring is slowly warming our shoulders here in the Northeast. While the first day of spring was colder and more blustery than I was hoping for, we decided to forge ahead and celebrate the return of the...

Three Smart Slow Cooker Tips

Last week we had a little blast from the past learning about how Mable Hoffman revved up interest in the slow cooker with her demos and bestselling cookbooks. She was a popular recipe developer and cookbook...

The Present: Chocolate Cupcakes

One important thing I’ve learned about when one of my kids expresses an interest in baking or cooking: Go with it. The trick to building their long-term interest and supporting their enthusiasm is...

So Many Ways With Salmon

Salmon is one of those few fish so ubiquitous that one can almost forget just how versatile it really is. Cooking it on any given night is almost a cop-out. It’s a fish so forgiving on the stove and...