Kitchen Tips
Best Way to Cook Brown Rice
To steam, boil, bake, or use a rice cooker? What’s the best way to cook brown rice? This foolproof boiling method produces light, fluffy, plump grains every single time. It’s easy, too! Do you avoid brown rice because it lacks the same light, fluffy quality as white rice? Does it seem dense? This brown rice…
A New Twist on a Beloved Favorite – Taste Testing New Pastas
Rice, corn, quinoa, lentils, chickpeas, black beans…oh my! These are just a few of the new ingredients you may have seen popping up in the pasta aisle lately. Why are they taking over and are these “alternative” pastas worth trying? We taste-tested a few varieties on your behalf, and here’s what we think! Pasta is…
Baking FAQs and Helpful Tips
What are the most common baking mistakes? How can we avoid them? This post addresses common pitfalls and provides expert tips for troubleshooting trickier problems. (Tried-and-true recipes included!) Have you ever flipped a cake out of the pan, only for chunks of cake to break away and remain in the pan? Have you sliced into…
Easy Roasted Red Peppers
While it’s traditional to roast red bell peppers, any type of pepper can be prepared this way, including yellow, green, and even hot peppers like spicy jalapeños or milder poblanos and Anaheims. Store-bought roasted red peppers offer welcome convenience, and I have taken that shortcut many times. Doing it yourself, however, is incredibly easy and…
All Things Asparagus!
With its crisp snap and vibrant hue, asparagus has long been considered a produce delicacy. Following are answers to the most frequently asked questions and will make sure you get the very best out of this seasonal standout! Let’s start with some fun facts! When I began dating my now husband, his parents had a big…
Perfectly Cooked White Rice
A simple technique with an untraditional ratio of water-to-rice along with a few helpful hints ensures fluffy, perfectly cooked rice every time. The basics can be really helpful. Case in point: lots of people have asked me how to prepare good rice. An economical pantry staple, rice befuddles many of us, as it often turns out gummy and…
What’s the Best Way to Cut Cauliflower?
A few helpful tips and visuals will make cutting this wholesome vegetable easier, less messy, and more likely to roast to golden perfection. There's also an easy recipe for roasted cauliflower steaks and answers to frequently asked questions and some fun trivia, too!
Easy Peel Steamed Eggs (soft, medium, or hard)
Tired of hard-to-peel boiled eggs? Shells that slip right off are within easy reach thanks to this simple technique. As a bonus, Easy Peel Eggs can be prepared with soft, medium, or hard yolks and will store in the fridge for a week. Have you ever hard boiled farm fresh eggs? If so, you likely had…
How to Roast Spaghetti Squash
Nutrient dense and endlessly versatile, a few helpful tips and an easy technique will deliver perfectly cooked spaghetti squash every time. No struggling to cut the hard shell either! Scraping a fork across cooked spaghetti squash to magically produce “noodles” is really fun for kids–and kids at heart. But what’s the best way to cook…
Recipe Calculator
A new year brings lots of diet talk. Last week, the government released updated dietary guidelines, and most of the recommendations likely don’t come as a big surprise. Among the report’s findings are that Americans consume too much salt and too much sugar. In fact, the average American consumes up to 22 teaspoons of sugar…
How to Beat Egg Whites
Do you sometimes look at a recipe and notice the need for separating and then beating the eggs whites until “soft” or “firm” peaks appear…and promptly write off that recipe as being too complicated, time-consuming, or just plain not worth it? I’ve done it, too, but there are the occasional recipes that merit this somewhat fussy…
How to Cook Dried Beans (and freeze them for later)
If I asked you for a list of pantry essentials, it would likely include items like canned tomatoes, pasta and/or rice, chicken broth, maybe a can or two of tuna, and peanut butter. And beans. Doesn’t every well-stocked pantry have at least one–and likely more–can of beans? The convenience of canned beans is so undeniable…
