Category: Uncategorized

Contraband Peanut Butter

How much do you love your food, and how far would you go to protect your precious cargo while traveling? Would you be willing to risk federal incarceration and also take on the TSA (the “jolly bunch of inept iPad-stealing…

Steel-cut oats in a rice cooker

Someone like me benefits the most from a thoughtfully planned breakfast.  The alternatives often are granola bars and cold cereal.  I never find those satisfying. Steel-cut oats are satisfying.  However, cooking them on the stove is impractical.  I don’t know…

Uses for a kitchen scale

Many exist.  For all those reasons I recommend home cooks buy a scale.  This holds for beginners especially. Some writers are passionate about scales to the point of posting a manifesto.  Instead I’ll provide a few examples and none of the…

The Arnold Palmer

I finally got around to watching a “30 for 30” short on the iconic drink.  It’s worth a few minutes. As I can’t get the video to embed, here’s the link.  My favorite parts are the Dave Arnold segments.  He’s…

Quick Tip: Regenerating Scallions

Scallions (aka green onions) are a great ingredient to add to your dishes either as a garnish, or a component of the recipe. If your recipe calls for onion, this could be a more subtle substitute. Vegetables are expensive though,…

Anise seed popcorn

I kicked off the blog with a post on thyme salt brussels sprout chips.  The trick was to grind the thyme to a powder so that it would be light enough to stick to the chips. I borrowed this solution from an…

Basics: Cooking with Water

What is water? We often take this odd substance for granted, and because we take it for granted, we rarely think of it as odd. Still though, it is one of the few substances that defies the consistency of physics…

Smoked paprika chicken soup

Until recently brothy soups escaped me.  During the “Snowpocalypse” I finally figured one out. The idea that had eluded me was the balance between a strong stock and aromatic vegetables and other aromatic ingredients (e.g. herbs and spices).  In the…

DIY Butter

Last week, I wrote a quick tip on making flavored (aka compound) butter, and it got me thinking why people insist on, as a standard, using softened, but not melted butter. Sometimes we just follow convention and accept it for…

Flavored Butter

One nice way to add a special touch to a dish, is by accompanying it with a flavored butter. One of the first times I had it at a restaurant, I remembered it was a delicious revelation. Making this is…