Mary Collette Make a Recipe Just the Way You Like: 10 Tips Salt and pepper, to taste. 1/2 tsp. chili flakes, more or less, to taste. 1/4 to 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, to taste. Recipes seem to be littered with unhelpful directives about “to taste.” For those of us who aren’t exactly Julia Child in the kitchen, … Read more
It’s 3:00. The vending machine is calling, or maybe the doughnuts left over in the break room. You know it’s suicidal to indulge those cravings, but work is so boring and you’re so tired and . . . Maybe more than sugar and calories, you need refreshment—as in something cool, revitalizing and calming, like Iced Green Tea.
I just wanted to make an easy meal after a long day of gardening and computering. Just a little soup and salad–but we have no dressing. Was I going to have to futz and fuss with a homemade salad dressing before I could sit down and eat?
Washing spinach is a pain, but you don’t want to spend the extra $$$ to buy the pre-washed. Make sure you don’t get caught in-between with no spinach at all.
For years, I’ve known the rule for cooking tough meat cuts: low and slow. But in my hurry up world, I tried to do low on a gas stovetop that was calibrated for hot, fast cooking. My last batch of soup bones came out as tough as leather, even though I had cooked them on low. . . Patience and forethought came to my rescue
Here’s the great thing about herb and spice flavor families. Find one you like and you’ve got an easy springboard to creative fun, as in this recipe for Eggplant and Garbanzo Stew with Spicy Coriander Flavors.
Those little jars of prepared garlic and ginger are so completely convenient! No fussing with paper-thin garlic peels, no paring gnarly knobs of ginger or endangering fingers on the ginger grater and no garlic-smelling hands for the rest of the night. But is it OK to use these conveniences? I get this question a lot, … Read more
Know how many pounds of eggplant are grown in China each year? A lot. That’s why Chinese cuisine is a good source of inspiration when facing a surfeit of eggplant.
Do you remember the movie Pleasantville? The beginning, set in the 50s, was filmed in black and white and everything was, well, pleasant. Mom and Dad and the the two perfect teens, living good, pleasant lives. Then the teens got blasted into the future (in a way that only happens in movieland), and life suddenly … Read more
Nibble while you cook. Dieting gurus might not approve of this recommendation, but it’s the only way to root out potential meal time spoilers. Here’s a case in point: I was making a simple green salad tonight with green leaf lettuce and shredded red cabbage. Casting about for a quick accent, I came upon several … Read more