Cooking Articles

Preserving Basil

Fresh basil is the ultimate “scent of summer.” Pungent and slightly sweet, it’s the one herb that I simply cannot do without for warm weather cooking. But its lifespan in the garden is limited. As...

Healthy Hiker Diet

My legs are aching but my stomach is not. I have been in Switzerland for several days now living out my Alpine hiker fantasies along with my boyfriend. We are staying at a friend's ski chalet, for our...

Eggspert Advice, Part II

Last week I gave an overview of eggs in Eggspert Advice: Part I. �This week I would like to share some specific techniques for scrambling eggs and making omelets. �Even though scrambled eggs and omelets...

Throw a Girl a Scone!

We’ve been deluged by requests to make scones for some of our wholesale clients, so scones have been on The Monkey’s brain in recent days. Whenever we’ve had some spare time, we’ve been playing...

Ye Olde Family Recipes

While the beautifully color-illustrated, coffee table-style cookbooks that catch our eye at the bookstore might be fun to cook from when we have a free weekend afternoon, it is the basic family-style cookbooks...

The Most Important Meal of the Day. Really!

As kids, adults always told us that the most important meal of the day is breakfast. Like many things in life, it wasn’t until I was much older that I realized, for me, just how true that was. And...

Walk the Plank!

As the summertime comes to an end, your grilling routine might need a little shaking up, and I have just the idea for you. I just recently attempted a grilling method that I had wanted to try for a long...

PB & J: Not Just For the Lunchroom Anymore

A friend of mine recently told me about a dessert she had that she just couldn't get out of her mind. It was a molten chocolate lava cake. Okay, standard fare, I thought. One would be hard pressed to...

Some Like It Hot . . . In the Crockpot

Have you ever tasted something so hot that you felt the heat rising through your body and felt the need to go running for the nearest glass of water? Every time I cook or taste anything flavored with...

The Food of Break-Ups

Whether it was the solar eclipse in Aquarius earlier this month or some other cosmic forces at work, it certainly seems as though this summer has brought on a sea change in relationships for many of the...

A Very Serious Matter

Usually I like to take a lighthearted approach in this column and talk about fun topics associated with cooking and eating with kids. But this week I would like to turn to a more serious matter ñ...

Persimmons, Per Se

When it comes to recipes, my friend Jane is a “little bit country” and I’ m a little bit . . . well, you know the rest. Jane has a treasure trove of vintage, handwritten family recipes stuffed into...

The Fruits of Our Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend to wear white, last party weekend of the summer, last three day weekend until Columbus Day--Labor Day weekend means a lot of things to a lot of different people. What I think we might forget...

Did You Celebrate National Junk Food Day?

Junk food. What do those two words bring to mind? How ‘bout potato chips, pizza, Pop Tarts and doughnuts? Funnel cakes, Twinkies, and Tastykakes? Cheese puffs, candy bars and double-stuff Oreos?...

Back-to-School Mealtime Challenge

Yes, it’s that time already—with kids heading out to school and work-a-day parents heading out to take care of business, it can often mean that everyone is heading in many different directions. By...

Broke Bachelor Blues

Drawing on your own hard times experience, let us pretend we have a friendly, hardworking bachelor who puts in the overtime. Let's say he worked an extra job this summer to build up some of the savings...