I love to try new things in the kitchen – new herbs, tools, or ingredients. Many times I fall back on the old and the familiar, because they are easy and save time, but I think a good cook tries new things, challenges themself.
Here’s one of those opportunities – Williams-Sonoma is carrying a new type of roaster for chicken. It looks like something you’d see in a lab.
It’s made by All-Clad and it features a detachable arm that hangs above the roaster pan. The arm has a reservoir that can be filled with flavor infusers such as wine, beer, or …read more

A basic French Toast recipe calls for eggs, milk, bread, butter. You beat the eggs in a bowl, stir in some milk, dip the bread slices into the mixture, transfer the soaked bread to a heated, buttered pan and toast till golden brown. It’s delicious served this way. How else can you spice it up? How else do you make it your own? Here are some ideas to make French Toast more interesting:
1. Bake it. Cook in an oven instead of the stove top.
2. Add other ingredients to the egg-milk mixture like vanilla, cinnamon, nuts (almonds are good!), honey, brown …read more

I was watching a cooking show this weekend where the host uses 5 ingredients per dish. It’s a pretty good show, but what caught my attention was that she was actually acting like a real cook. No long sleeves down hanging in the food. Her hair was pulled back. She was wearing an apron.
The first thing I do when entering the kitchen is to pull my long hair up and back. Nobody wants any of that in their food. Yuck. I push up my sleeves and make sure that nothing is going to interfere with my work. I don’t use …read more

This meat sauce is one that I’ve added to and tweaked over the last eleven or so years. It’s become such a standard sauce that I use for everything from spaghetti to lasagna, and I don’t really even measure anything anymore, just add it in as it looks good!

It’s a very basic recipe and can be multiplied for however big of a batch you might need. It’s also very forgiving as far as what you might have on hand. I’ve had to substitute dehydrated onion before when I thought I had fresh in the pantry, etc. You can even make …read more

I’ve always been intrigued by make-ahead cooking. Methods like once-a-month cooking or even weekly cooking are very appealing to me and though I’ve bought a couple of books with recipes and techniques, I just can’t seem to find the time to even get organized in the first place!

My favorite book that I’ve found so far is The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30 Day Gourmet. I actually bought it years ago and didn’t get around to really looking through it until about two years ago. I’ve used several of the recipes for just one-off dinners, though I have doubled up on …read more

Among some of the enjoyable creative work I’ve done during a writing career has been producing cooking columns for newspapers, magazines and online.  I’ve even contributed to cookbooks. 
 This career began rather unexpectedly after I finished a 2-year correspondence course in journalism (comparable to an online class today).  Many people ask me how they can get started, too.
 Study other columns and write some yourself.
 Take a column writing class.  As mentioned above, I did this via a correspondence course.  I now teach column writing classes online.
 Make sure you’re serious about column writing and have ideas enough to keep going.  Writing a weekly …read more

My quilting heritage descends from the Trails End Quilters.  The ladies who lived at Trails End Farm were my ancestors.   My mother and aunt also grew up there.
I’ve been fortunate to have a cooking notebook that my aunt compiled.  In it she includes recipes from her grandmothers, her mother, other relatives, friends and neighbors.  It’s somewhat a cooking history of the ladies associated with Trails End.
 (Incidentally, it was called Trails End because….the farm was at the end of a dirt road or “the trails end.”)
Ah…to have the time to compile these recipes into a family cookbook, with photos and stories …read more

I shared my favorite Top 10 Kitchen Gadgets yesterday. This time I’m sharing the Top 5 Spices that I love. Red Pepper Flakes — I put red pepper flakes on pretty much everything. Except for desserts, you’ll find red pepper flakes on my plate everyday.

Italian Seasoning — I love adding Italian Seasoning on pasta dishes. I like how it contains the basic Italian herbs like oregano, thyme, basil, etc.

Chef Michael Schlow,  chef, restaurateur, and author of the James Beard awarded cookbook, It’s About Time, has some advice for the gentlemen today. Drawing from the vast experience he’s gathered from his work in the restaurant industry, Chef Michael wants you to know that even with the economy the way that it is, it’s still important to take the time to make your date feel special. Recession-proof dating, means wine and dine her, but do it in your home. With Chef’ Schlow’s tips, you can’t go wrong.

Chef Schlow’s restaurants include Alta Strada, Radius, Via Matta, and Great Bay.
*Chef Michael, do you have some …read more

It’s 9pm here – and I’m waiting for dinner.
See, the thing is that I am usually the cook here. But tonight, Paul decided he would cook. Recently Paul has been watching The Food Network and has decided that Gordon Ramsay is his role model for all things kitchen-related. Earlier today he brought home two cookbooks by Ramsay and had to make three trips to different grocery stores before he found all the necessary ingredients for his three course masterpiece.
Cooking for me is about function. I don’t particularly like it…but I do it because we’re trying to save money and have …read more