Here’s an example of how top-notch ingredients can transform standard ballgame junk fare into a dish you’d be proud to serve Emeril Lagasse. Seek out grass-fed hot dogs (Trader Joe’s carries products from Applegate Farms), whip up your own homemade cocktail sauce, and enjoy a truly American meal. The proof really is in the dog!
Real [...]
I always love to tinker in the kitchen (when my dad does so in his workshop, we call it “puttering”), but lately, I’ve been even more inspired to see if the sometimes-odd-sounding culinary combinations I come up with in my head actually taste as good as I’m hoping they will. Sometimes they do, sometimes they [...]
When I was a kid, I thought cranberries were sweet — after all, cranberry juice sure was! But then I finally tasted an honest-to-goodness whole cranberry and realized that good ol’ Ocean Spray had added a fair amount of sweeteners to make the juice palatable for the American tongue. Now that I’ve veered off the [...]
I love ice cream. (Who doesn’t?) I love chocolate. (Ditto.) Lately, I had the best chocolate ice cream I’d ever tasted — it was silky and creamy beyond belief and hinted at a little something past the cocoa. The secret, I figured out after the third spoonful, was that it was made with coconut milk [...]
There’s a time for crusts and ends and corners, but that time isn’t all the time. Sometimes you just want what’s in the middle without having to bother with anything else. If you’re a big pumpkin fan like I am, you might prefer no-holds-barred, maximum pumpkin, especially at this time of the year when it’s [...]
There’s a “new” natural sweetener in town — at least, in U.S. towns — and her name is Date Sugar.
The term “sugar” is only used to describe form and functionality in this case, however, rather than what the item is, which is simply dehydrated and ground-up dates. (Likewise, palm sugar is boiled-down and dried-out sap [...]
The holiday season is well-nigh upon us, and with it comes tinseling, caroling, and streuseling. (At least, in a Currier-&-Ives kind of way; the modern holidays are more about shopping, gift-carding, and cabbage soup dieting. I think I prefer the tintype version.)
Traditional streusel (streuen means “to strew” in German) consists of butter, flour, and sugar [...]
The best part about an enduring classic like macaroni and cheese is that it’s so darned customizable. Classics are classics for a reason, after all — most are elegant and simple basics that can be served just as they are or used as a springboard for kitchen creativity. Most can also be changed to suit [...]
There are plenty of non-dairy creamers out there: hazelnut, French vanilla, Irish creme, extra-rich…the list goes on and on. (Literally. Take a look at the ingredients sometime.) All of those flavors do, however, have something in common — they’re usually accompanied by hydrogenated oil and high-fructose corn syrup, two of the worst substances you can [...]
