Wednesday May 30, 2012
Grilled veggies are delicious and easy to make, and they're a natural accompaniment to grilled meat, poultry and seafood. Grilling brings out the sweet flavors in vegetables, and adds a caramelized toastiness you can't get any other way.
How to Grill Vegetables.
Photo © Ray Kachatorian / Getty Images
But let's not forget the obvious: Not everyone has a charcoal or gas grill. Fortunately, you can grill vegetables using a grill pan or even (gasp) one of those electric panini makers. Check out
How to Grill Vegetables. And here are a few more resources related to veggies and grilling:
Join Me on Facebook | Follow Me on TwitterFriday May 25, 2012
Memorial Day marks the start of the summer grilling season, when millions of us venture out to eat food that was prepared outdoors, beneath a sweltering sun, far from running water or proper refrigeration.
Safe holiday grilling tips
Photo © Christopher Aloi
It's no surprise, then, that most cases of food poisoning occur during the summer months. The bacteria that cause foodborne illness thrive in warm, humid environments. Which just happens to be what
our environment is like in the summertime. It's a pretty good description of the environment inside our digestive tracts, too.
Fortunately, we're a lot bigger than those pesky bacteria — and smarter, too. Take a look at these
Food Safety Tips for Outdoor Grilling. And here are some more summertime food safety tips:
Join Me on Facebook | Follow Me on TwitterWednesday May 23, 2012
This week there are two new videos on the site that demonstrate how to make apple butter and pear butter. For some reason the videos are titled "European" apple butter and "European" pear butter, but you can just disregard that.
Apple butter and pear butter are uniquely North American preparations that were developed as a way of using large quantities of fruit that would otherwise go bad. There's nothing European about either the recipes in the videos or the techniques used. So it goes.
Here are the videos:
Join Me on Facebook | Follow Me on TwitterTuesday May 22, 2012
The chef's knife is probably a cook's most important tool. And given the amount of time it spends in your hand, it's definitely worth making sure you have a good one.
The anatomy of a chef's knife.
Photo © Danilo Alfaro
When talking about knives, you might sometimes hear the suggestion to purchase "the best knife you can afford." But that's not much help unless you know what makes one knife better than another. Otherwise, you're just buying the most
expensive knife you can afford.
If you could use some basic "chef's knife orientation," check out this illustrated guide:
The Anatomy of a Chef's Knife. It covers the various parts of a chef's knife and what's important about each one. So when you're ready to buy your next knife, you'll be able to tell the good from the not-so-good. Here's more about knives:
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