Learn the basics
Last week, The Denver Post‘s Food section quoted us in an article by Kristen Browning-Blas: “Dealing with kitchen phobias head on“ Here’s the intro: Now that our political fears have been allayed or amplified (depending on whom you voted for), let’s put the attack ads behind us and face our kitchen phobias. When I asked … Read more
Isn’t it amazing how the holidays bring out the worst in us—especially family gatherings? No wonder they make such perfect fodder for movies! In the spirit of happier and saner holiday gatherings, here are some secrets (seven, to be exact) for toning down the stress around one of the biggest stressors of all: holiday meal making.
Yesterday’s post talked about relaxing our expectations. That can be hard to do on a jam-packed schedule. One thing that can help: Limiting our exposure to things that fan the flames of panic. Seeing a whole pile of recipes clipped from the newspaper, for example, . . .
How can we avoid the pitfalls of perfectionism, complexity and audience intolerance at cooking time? Relaxing expectations is a good first step.
There’s good evidence that the food world is spiraling into the stratosphere of perfectionism and complexity: Consider the sheer amount of cooking information we’re exposed to: dozens of food shows and entire food networks, hundreds of internet sites devoted to cooking and recipes, . . .
A couple of resources that might prove helpful for an herb and spice adventure. They feature recipes that are indexed by spice, making it easy to find new ways to use those herbs and spices on your experimentation list.
Go ahead and get hooked on using herbs and spices. In tough economic times, it’s an amazingly cheap thrill–especially using herbs from a kitchen or outdoor garden. And once you begin seeing common herb patterns, you can begin exercising your own creativity.
If you’re ready to start using herbs and spices more adventurously, or just at all, here are
Seven More Rules of the Road for a Successful Spice Adventure
Ready to start using herbs and spices more adventurously, or just at all? Here are Six Tricks and Tips for a Successful Spice Adventure
If you want to begin using more and/or more interesting herbs and spices, the most important step is taking the plunge. Don’t get persuaded to hunker down in your comfort zone by a possibility of un-success that’s really pretty small and hardly disastrous.