Cooking Fear? Part 4

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, . . .

Cooking Fear? Part 2

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, . . .

Using Herbs and Spices–Outside the Comfort Zone

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.

Crockpots and Slow Cookers: What Is a Good Slow Cooker Recipe?

There are lots of slow cooker recipes to choose from. The problem lies in choosing just one or two to actually make. While a lot of that choosing is a matter of personal taste, here’s one thing I’ve learned specific to slow cooker recipes: Look for recipes that take advantage of a slow cooker’s two big advantages: cooking the heck out of tough characters, and fixing it and forgetting about it.