Cooking Articles

Happy Fill-In-the-Blank Day!

With all the yummy, albeit obscure, fun food holidays that are approaching, it's so hard to celebrate just one. What's a girl to do on days like today, when it's National Milk Chocolate Day AND National...

The Red Beet Mystery

Guess which of these happened this week with a bag of week-old red beets in the refrig drawer (that I didn’t have a clue what to do with)? a) Ignored, they got more wrinkled daily, until I finally...

Tears Run Rings? Not With Vidalias

Who knows what Mark Almond is getting on about when he sings "tears run rings around my eyes?" Not me! But I'm pretty sure he's not singing about cutting a soft-celled onion. And even if that song is...

Great Grilled Cheese

Buttered, toasty bread. Oozing, milky cheese. The grilled cheese sandwich is simple yet perfect in every way. Somehow, though, it is possible to mess up this timeless and unfussy dish. Any competent...

What Not To Do When Cooking Fish

Much to my embarrassment, last week I had a night where I swear it were as though I forgot how to cook. I've been cooking all my life--plus there's the hospitality school and culinary school degrees--and...

For A Chilled Out Soup, Try Yogurt

In our Northern climes, soup is a dish we tend to relegate to colder temperatures. It is a dish we serve in order to warm bodies and cure colds. Yet this is not the way in other parts of the world, say...

Cioppino: An Everyday Delight

There are at least four or five dear friends of mine who would stake claim to cioppino as his or her favorite food. And it is not just my friends, for I have more than once overheard a woman talk about...

Yikes, Is That Green Rhubarb?

When free food shows up on my doorstep, I rejoice. It’s a surprise, an unexpected gift from the universe that sometimes requires a little stretching to actually use. But that’s also where creativity...

Deep In the Heart of Frito Pie!

My friend and favorite Austin artist Phil Trussell urged me to write this column, so here's to you, Phil! Here in the Great Republic of Texas in the early 1930s, a gentleman by the name of Elmer Doolin...

Refreshing Summer Sparklers

What do you like to quench your thirst with in the summer? During a hot day of outdoor fun, lots of people love to grab an ice cold glass of soda. Some of us even like to wake up with a morning glass of...

New Food of the Month: Plantains

Geography. It certainly wasn’t a favorite school subject. But then again, I came to appreciate the countries of the world as a late bloomer and through the back door. The back door to the kitchen,...

A Pinch of Pepper

The culinary world is full of food pairings. Wine and cheese, coffee and cream, soup and sandwich, pizza and beer… one without the other seems lacking. They just belong together. But perhaps the most...

Street Food Made Simple, Part I

Imagine driving down the main street of your town. As you drive you pass the bright lights of the many fast food restaurants that beckon you to stop for a quick dinner on the way home from work or a brief...

If you are the person who by-passes the scramble for breast meat at Thanksgiving in favor of the deeper, richer flavor of a turkey thigh, this article is for you. Even if you are a die-hard white meat...

One combination that goes particularly well together is "leftover" and "bachelor." Unfortunately for this single guy, leftovers remind me of feet: they might be fun to fondle after they're given a good...

This summer has packed quite a heat punch so far, with temperatures at or over 100 degrees across the land. If you have a backyard garden that you have been able to water faithfully, then you are probably...