Cooking Articles

Long Weekends Lead to Kitchen Adventures

Long weekends are made for cooking something new. On weeknights it can seem risky to venture outside the cooking comfort zone. Well-known and loved pastas and chicken dishes are safer fare for a hungry...

One Last Slow Cooked Summer Dinner

Although summer is not officially over until late September, Labor Day weekend seems to mark the end (or the beginning of the end) for many of us. It is the close of vacation season, time for back-to-school...

Roadmap to Dinner

When eating with others, whether at a restaurant or a good dinner party, I often hear people say “if only I cooked like this, I might cook more.” Just this past weekend at a yoga retreat I heard many...

Have a Cow

When I was a kid, I used to love going to the Purple Cow, an ice cream parlor on the South Side of Chicago that used to be a haven for neighborhood rugrats like myself. �Not only did they have a wall devoted...

Labor Saving Crockpot Cooking Tips

The slow cooker is a great way to save some time and effort when cooking a great meal. In honor of our national day of rest, Labor Day, I have pulled together some crockpot tips, suggestions, and shortcuts...

Burger Bar For Labor Day

Burgers, hot dogs, tacos, pizza: no everyday food is too pedestrian for even the most critically acclaimed chef these days. Whether it’s a function of the economic change or there has been a seismic...

A Bite of the Apple

What’s your apple eating style? Are you an “Equator Eater?” You are if you take a big bite out of the center of the apple and eat a band around the middle before consuming the top and bottom. ...

Making School Lunch as Cool as Their Lunchbox

No matter how cool the super hero is on the outside of the lunch box, it’s getting your kid to eat what’s on the inside that’s the real challenge. Now, you could cop out and send your child to school...

Hey, Taste-Test This: Olive Oil

Seems each summer I get a brainy idea to do some taste testing. Remember when we did the hot dog taste tests the other year? All I had to do was buy a whole bunch of different kinds and then coordinate...

Weekly Budget Savin': Back to Basics

All summer long we’ve been hearing how skyrocketing gas prices have put a crimp in America's style. While a good thing for the environment, it’s not such a good thing for weekly food budgets. As...

Eat Your Stars and Get Your Greens

Ah, the things we tell kids to get them to eat their vegetables. Suddenly broccoli becomes “Trees” and raisins and peanut butter on celery sticks become “Ants on a Log.” When an unappetizing...

Go All Teriyaki On Your Chicken

I vaguely remember visiting Hibachi grills when I was a child. The memories are mostly just images of flaming onion towers, eggs spinning on the hot grill, and the heat of the flame leaping up. I sometimes...

Simplify Your Life In Time For Labor Day

Labor Day is coming up and the slow paced days of summer are drawing to an end. With the onset of early autumn comes a much faster paced life of back-to-school, the end of summer vacations (and possibly...

Farm to Table, By Way of Thailand

There comes a time to be tired of the usual summer fare. For me that time is now. I am somewhat surprised with myself that, after so many months of waiting for sweet corn, ripe heirloom tomatoes, and...

Tomatoes, Tomatoes . . . Everywhere

Whether or not you have a garden, I bet you’re seeing a lot of red around now. It’s that time of the year that finds gardens and farms bursting with the last of the juiciest, ripest tomatoes. Yes,...

Low Expectations: What Does the Bachelor Bring to a Potluck?

It's that time of year when poor students--undergraduate and graduate alike--are clamoring to get together to reacquaint themselves with each other. It's also that time of year when married couples invite...