Kids usually know when someone is trying to put something over on them, so our approach has always been to let them see what they're eating.
first posted: 9/1/2009
Kory Rollison is as handy with a piping bag as he is with a firehose.
first posted: 5/1/2009
Mother's Bistro is the perfect mother-daughter bonding space.
first posted: 5/1/2009
Dal is the Hindi word for any of nearly 60 varieties of dried pulses, a category of legume that includes peas, beans and lentils.
first posted: 3/1/2009
If you’ve eaten sushi, you’re no stranger to wasabi, the pungent green paste that’s served as a condiment.
first posted: 2/22/2009
Hailed by modern nutritionists as the "supergrain of the future," quinoa has been cultivated in the Andes for more than 6,000 years.
first posted: 2/15/2009
If broccoli rabe seems elusive, perhaps it’s because it is—broccoli rabe goes by more names than a time-worn fugitive trying to dodge the FBI.
first posted: 2/8/2009
A brightly colored spice, paprika is used for everything from barbeque rubs to garnishing deviled eggs.
first posted: 2/1/2009
A native of Mexico and South America, jicama is a large bulbous root with a brownish skin and a crunchy white interior.
first posted: 1/25/2009
Also called a “century plant,” agave is a succulent grown primarily in Mexico
first posted: 1/18/2009
The Scoville Scale, developed by chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, measures the heat produced by chile peppers.
first posted: 1/11/2009
We’re so used to many-ingredient stews that cook for hours that when the recipe for oyster stew landed in our kitchen, it looked almost too simple.
first posted: 1/4/2009
A winter vegetable lasagna, filled with butternut squash, turnip greens and spinach, can be the hit of a meal.
first posted: 12/28/2008
You’d think after a recipe has been around for hundreds of years, the kinks would have been worked out.
first posted: 12/21/2008
My friends in Great Britain insist no holiday can be merry without mulled wine. But why should the Brits have all the fun?
first posted: 12/14/2008
Because wheat did not grow well in New England, but rye and corn thrived, breads were often made with a combination of rye flour and cornmeal.
first posted: 12/7/2008
Many pots of chili later, we can honestly say chili lends itself to unlimited variations and is one of the most rewarding dishes a cook can make.
first posted: 11/2/2008
A great debate is raging: Are muffins, in the words of one pastry chef, “just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast,” or are they an entirely different animal?
first posted: 10/26/2008
To the list of culinary duos, we add dates and nuts, as in date-nut bread, date-nut cookies, and date-nut tart.
first posted: 10/19/2008
Spoonbread, a heavenly cross between polenta and a cornmeal souffle is a sweet, airy puff of smooth corn flavor in your mouth.
first posted: 10/12/2008
We’d like a better way of knowing when a pear is ripe.
first posted: 10/5/2008
As it turns out, the questions the Pork Board gets asked most often are about food safety and overcooking.
first posted: 9/28/2008
To save you the job of clicking and scrolling, we found the perfect pie. It has four pounds of tart apples, more than any pie we saw on the Web.
first posted: 9/21/2008
The recipe for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic stopped us dead in our tracks. We read it again and wondered if it could have been a mistake.
first posted: 9/14/2008
As you can imagine, “relish” is one of our favorite words.
first posted: 8/3/2008
In addition to eggs and cream, what’s often called “New York Cheesecake” has 2 1/2 pounds of cream cheese and is invariably described as rich and creamy.
first posted: 8/31/2008
From 1860 until the mid-19th century, it was not unusual for farm housewives and family cooks to bake at least one batch of biscuits every day.
first posted: 8/24/2008
Cookie fans know that real cookies must be baked at home.
first posted: 8/17/2008
Unlike soups and stews, where ingredients and amounts can be tinkered to customize a recipe, there is only so much tweaking you can do with cakes.
first posted: 8/10/2008
Although the recipe depends on who is doing the cooking, tabbouleh is generally made with a variety of sweet and peppery spices.
first posted: 8/3/2008
In the world of brownies, there are two key players—“fudgy” and “cakey.”
first posted: 7/27/2008
When you are used to eating a piece of meat the size of a catcher’s mitt, a 3-ounce serving, as big as a deck of cards, looks like a joke.
first posted: 7/20/2008
Mississippi Mud is an easily made dessert offers a layer of warm dark chocolate pudding, hidden beneath a raft of thin chocolate cake.
first posted: 7/13/2008
Generally we don’t make such a fuss over any dessert, but the cherry season is so unreasonably short, we always feel we have to make the most of it.
first posted: 7/6/2008
In addition to side dish salads, which we eat practically every day, we treat ourselves to carefully put-together main dish salads whenever we get the chance.
first posted: 6/29/2008
Anyone who is a fan of old-fashioned desserts will have heard of slumps.
first posted: 6/22/2008
We can remember when roasted tomatoes listed as an ingredient in a recipe would have sent cooks scurrying to their cookbooks for an explanation.
first posted: 6/15/2008
Our favorite rhubarb story happened years ago with the small jar of homemade jam we gave to Julia Child as a house gift.
first posted: 6/8/2008
What I remember most about angel food cake has nothing to do with baking a perfect cake, cutting it into thick slices, and serving them in big bowls with syrupy strawberries and ice cream.
first posted: 5/25/2008
Curry, from the word kari, meaning “sauce” in India, refers to spicy stews or the spices used to make them.
first posted: 6/1/2008
Nothing in the directions for making pesto says you need a strong arm, but if you are making pesto the traditional way, a pitcher’s arm for grinding the ingredients to a paste is nearly as important as the herbs.
first posted: 5/18/2008
Just when we thought we had seen all there was to hamburgers, the recipe for Thai Turkey Burgers landed on our desk.
first posted: 5/11/2008
We know that making a pot of risotto requires practically all of your attention. In addition to keeping the broth at a bare simmer, the rice needs almost nonstop stirring.
first posted: 5/4/2008
If presentation counts for anything, the fruit cup at one of New York’s fanciest restaurants was a stunner.
first posted: 4/27/2008
In 1907, an enterprising Philadelphia delicatessen owner named Edward Schlorer added preservatives to his wife’s mayonnaise and sold it as salad dressing.
first posted: 4/20/2008
There are few things in life that are perfect, but pimiento cheese may well be one of them.
first posted: 4/13/2008
As much as we respect the current thinking about the health benefits of soft spread, trans-free cooking fats, we know that for baking, nothing beats the taste of butter.
first posted: 4/6/2008
We are happy to report that Frozen Chocolate Cream is as creamy and chocolaty as the best chocolate ice cream or mousse.
first posted: 3/30/2008
Shrimp salad and popovers are a terrific combination that would never have occurred to most people.
first posted: 3/23/2008
there's only one dessert that matters in New Orleans: bread pudding.
first posted: 3/16/2008
To say that empanadas, which means “covered with bread,” are turnovers with savory fillings does not do them justice.
first posted: 3/9/2008
As soon as we heard her name-Crescent Dragonwagon- we knew: Here's a person who's a lot of fun.
first posted: 3/1/2008
Kids usually know when someone is trying to put something over on them, so our approach has always been to let them see what they're eating.
first posted: 3/2/2008
What has always impressed us about grains is how easy it is to substitute them for one another.
first posted: 2/24/2008
The torte, which has Valentine’s Day practically written in every mouthful, is easy enough to make.
first posted: 2/17/2008
Thirty years ago, a recipe for eggs in spinach nests might have had a hard time making it to print.
first posted: 2/10/2008
With the sauces, the shredded cheese and the boiled noodles draped over every bowl in the kitchen, putting together a pan of lasagna was a labor of love.
first posted: 1/27/2008
If turkeys are for Thanksgiving and chocolates are for Valentine’s day, dips are for Super Bowl Sunday.
first posted: 2/3/2008
It is no surprise that pastry chefs have dressed up their banana cream pies with everything from dark chocolate curlicues to butterscotch drizzles.
first posted: 1/20/2008
We can remember when making coq au vin might have meant taking time off from work to shop for mushrooms.
first posted: 1/13/2008
Virginia has Chess Pie, and Pennsylvania has Shoofly Pie, but in Indiana, there’s Hoosier Pie.
first posted: 12/23/2007
Focaccia is a flat bread cooked on an open hearth or on a flat stone under a layer of ashes.
first posted: 1/6/2008
It would be wrong to think the only thing that binds us together at Christmas is a standing rib roast.
first posted: 12/30/2007
Saffron buns, or lussekatter as they are called in Sweden, are the lightly sweetened S-shape rolls that bakers make to celebrate the festival of Santa Lucia on December 13th.
first posted: 12/16/2007
For some of the world’s best food, which is traditionally cooked in a matter of minutes, the place to look is in Italian cookbooks.
first posted: 12/9/2007
About 35 years ago, Americans cleared off space on their kitchen counters to make room for Crock Pots.
first posted: 12/2/2007
Last Thanksgiving, instead of sitting down to a table crowded end-to-end with turkey and side dishes, we decided to start with a first course.
first posted: 11/25/2007
Brussels sprouts, named after the Belgium capital, originated in northern Europe and were probably first cultivated in this country in the early 19th century.
first posted: 11/18/2007
To make a flaky crust, it helps to understand what happens when a pie bakes.
first posted: 11/11/2007
The first mention of Election Cake, which turns out to be more of a yeast bread than a cake, was in the spring of 1771 in Hartford, Conn.
first posted: 11/4/2007
After years of languishing in the shadow of multi-layered, multi-tiered and densely frosted cakes, cupcakes are making a comeback.
first posted: 10/28/2007
One busy day in 1889, a little French apple tart made culinary history.
first posted: 10/21/2007
The directions for making a pie crust sound ridiculously simple: “Combine flour and salt, cut in shortening, add water, and shape into a ball.”
first posted: 10/14/2007
Recently, we decided our all-purpose tomato sauce, the one we depend for pizzas and spaghetti with meatballs, and anything else that needs a blanket of sauce, needed sprucing up.
first posted: 10/7/2007
We have always had a weakness for old-fashioned desserts, which explains why our recipe box is filled with recipes for crisps and cobblers.
first posted: 9/30/2007
With all the buzz about Ratatouille, the summer 2007 animated movie, we decided to revisit Ratatouille, the recipe.
first posted: 9/23/2007
Braising, one of the oldest ways of cooking, originated as a method of preparing food on an open hearth.
first posted: 9/16/2007
Before deciding that summer is not the right time for a pot of hot soup, read what Jasper White has to say about corn chowder.
first posted: 9/9/2007
It's a big old-fashioned cake, easy to transport and a real crowd pleaser.
first posted: 8/1/2007
There is a limit to the number of fried green tomatoes we can eat, so we decided to do a little culinary improvisation.
first posted: 9/2/2007
It's hard to imagine any connection between a falling Dow Jones and food habits, but in the early 1990s, people headed for comfort food.
first posted: 8/26/2007
We are great fans of the dinner hour and have always thought "come for supper" had a friendlier and more appealing ring than "join us for dinner."
first posted: 8/19/2007
We have always thought one way to meet people at a party would be to stand in a corner holding a bowl of macadamia nuts.
first posted: 8/12/2007
Coconut Crumb Cake is one of those recipes you never quite believe. To begin with, it has only seven ingredients.
first posted: 8/5/2007
When faced with a couple of ripe bananas and leftover cornbread, we decided to turn them into one of New Orleans' most delectable desserts, Bananas Foster.
first posted: 7/29/2007
Without lifting the lid of every pot, we know that most cooks choose boneless, skinless chicken breasts for their recipes.
first posted: 7/22/2007
Food historians generally credit French chef Auguste Escoffier for creating Cherries Jubilee to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebration.
first posted: 7/15/2007
It's the combination of juicy fruit, whipped cream, and something to soak up the juices and provide a texture contrast that makes shortcake the queen of desserts.
first posted: 7/8/2007
It may make absolutely no sense to some people, but whenever we plan a meal, we start with dessert.
first posted: 7/1/2007
Roasted red peppers, especially the kind you make yourself, are so astonishingly good they should be the first recipe that anyone who wants to learn to cook is taught.
first posted: 6/24/2007
Barbecued lentils is the kind of dish that promises a delicious compromise for vegetarians and meat eaters.
first posted: 6/17/2007
The recipe for key lime pie could be right out of a cookbook for dummies. It’s ridiculously easy.
first posted: 6/10/2007
The long spoon that comes with a parfait is a dead giveaway that the delectable treat about to be set in front of you is no ordinary ice cream dessert.
first posted: 5/6/2007
Okra is not the kind of vegetable you love at first bite. It’s not the taste that makes you think twice before taking another forkful, it’s how it feels when it’s in your mouth.
first posted: 6/3/2007
Not a day goes by that we don't think about a new way to transform a box of berries or a bag of apples into something delectable.
first posted: 5/27/2007
Thirty-five years ago, before the fastest way to a meal was a cup of Ramen noodles, college students made Bolognese sauce.
first posted: 5/20/2007
In 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the order making Mother’s Day an official holiday, the celebrations could not have been more low key.
first posted: 5/13/2007
In 1926, a Los Angeles man names Julius Freed put some orange juice into a blender, added a few other ingredients, and flipped on the switch.
first posted: 4/15/2007
Somehow an assortment of fresh herbs ready and waiting in the refrigerator makes us more creative cooks.
first posted: 4/22/2007
All cooks need at least one recipe they can rely on for entertaining. They don’t have to be expensive or complicated.. .
first posted: 4/8/2007
The pie is named for Brandy Alexander, a cocktail with a fuzzy history, which was created almost a hundred years ago.
first posted: 4/29/2007
Although there is no authentic list of ingredients, Italian cooks say it’s possible to tell where a minestrone was made by what it contains.
first posted: 1/14/2007
The story behind Lobster Newburg, a dish of lobster meat in a sherry cream sauce, is so closely linked to Delmonico’s restaurant that they should be told together.
first posted: 1/21/2007
We get so used to store-bought salad dressings, it’s easy to forget how simple they are to make.
first posted: 1/28/2007
When the name of a recipe refers to a style of cooking, you have a good idea of what’s in a dish.
first posted: 2/1/2007
About 75 years ago, someone got the bright idea of serving soup and a sandwich together and calling it a meal.
first posted: 4/1/2007
If raiding the refrigerator were an Olympic sport, Bob Cobb would have won a gold medal.
first posted: 3/25/2007
Anytime there’s a special celebration in New Mexico, posole is on the table.
first posted: 3/18/2007
What is so great about Kona Coffee? Sure, it’s the only coffee grown in the United State, but I never thought it was very great. Then I met John Langenstein.
first posted: 3/11/2007
A favorite hodgepodge Hawaiian specialty is saimin, a delicious noodle soup.
first posted: 3/4/2007
Home cooks have always used indigenous ingredients, and in Kentucky, bourbon has always been on hand.
first posted: 2/25/2007
While most people are familiar with the po-boy sandwich, not everyone is as familiar with another of the New Orleans' iconic sandwiches—the muffaletta.
first posted: 2/18/2007
When the Reagans were in the White House, The New York Times ran a small story with the family’s Christmas menu. One of the dishes served was Monkey Bread.
first posted: 1/7/2007
If you have never made Red Velvet Cake, you are in for some surprises. First, you will use more red food coloring for a single recipe that most cooks use in a lifetime.
first posted: 12/31/2006
American chop suey, a charter member of the comfort food crowd, was the dish that used to fill us up at potluck suppers and cafeteria lunches.
first posted: 12/24/2006
My one meager claim to fame is the fact that in 1936, my grandmother, Ruth Hanly Booe, invented the Bourbon Ball.
first posted: 12/17/2006
It is tempting to call vegetable beef soup
first posted: 12/1/2006
For an everyday meal in Kentucky, grits are fine. But for special occasions, it has to be corn pudding.
first posted: 11/1/2006
The old-fashioned dessert, Indian Pudding, which young and old, especially in New England, have enjoyed since Colonial times, is based on cornmeal.
first posted: 12/3/2006
Of all the products raised and grown in this bucolic region, one of the best known is duck, thanks in large part to the Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Duck Company.
first posted: 11/26/2006
What’s bright red, named after a bird, tart and tangy, and bounces? Yes, bounces. The answer is . . .
first posted: 11/19/2006
For an everyday meal in Kentucky, grits is just fine. But for special occasions, it has to be corn pudding.
first posted: 11/12/2006
Surfers and food-savvy travelers to Mexico have long considered fish tacos an essential part of the Baja experience.
first posted: 11/5/2006
Despite its name, an oyster pan roast isn’t a roast at all but rather a seafood stew.
first posted: 10/29/2006
Bananas Foster, a simple, elegant and oh-so sinful concoction, originated in New Orleans in the 1950s at the legendary Brennan's Restaurant.
first posted: 10/22/2006
The most important ingredient for a proper Hawaiian feast a succulent, falling-apart tender, smoked dish called Kalua Pig.
first posted: 10/15/2006
Perhaps no other dessert is so identified with Pennsylvania Dutch country as Shoo-Fly Pie.
first posted: 10/8/2006
Like so many supper table classics of its day, however, Chicken Spaghetti was more an idea than actual recipe.
first posted: 9/10/2006
Senate bean soup is as bare bones as you can get navy beans, ham hocks, a little onion and a lot of water.
first posted: 9/17/2006
An apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze
first posted: 9/24/2006
You may know this simple dish as chicken and rice, but in the Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry, it is a defining element of the region’s cuisine.
first posted: 10/1/2006
One of the oldest and best of the truly American dishes enjoyed all across our country is corn pudding.
first posted: 9/3/2006
At the top of our list of recipes we like to make when the weather gets really hot is gazpacho.
first posted: 8/27/2006
To American Southerners, cornbread is made of all or mostly stone-ground cornmeal, more often white than yellow, with buttermilk as the liquid.
first posted: 8/20/2006
Native San Franciscans will tell you that cioppino (pronounced cha-pee-no) hails from the North Beach section of town.
first posted: 8/13/2006
No summer trip to Maine is complete without a lobster roll. It is Maine's version of fast food.
first posted: 8/6/2006
Sarah Tyson Rorer published a recipe for peanut soup in her influential 1902 volume, Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book.
first posted: 7/30/2006
Found only in the western Rocky Mountain areas of Montana and Idaho, it takes up to 15 years for a wild huckleberry bush to mature.
first posted: 7/23/2006
Crab cakes are a Maryland institution, and the best are Maryland bred. The high priestess of crab cookery is Mrs. Devine, who rules the Lexington Market in Baltimore.
first posted: 7/16/2006
The first time you eat a piece of Texas sheet cake, chances are you'll say to yourself, "This cake tastes familiar. Where have I run into it before?"
first posted: 7/9/2006
An Irish proverb states, "It's no use boiling your cabbage twice." Obviously the author never heard of pierogies.
first posted: 7/2/2006
For soul-satisfying comfort, nothing equals a fragrant bowl of old-fashioned chicken and dumplings.
first posted: 6/25/2006
An American G.I., just back from World War II, and his buddy changed the course of pizza - and Chicago - history
first posted: 6/18/2006
These dainty little bites travel in noble circles - with the likes of devilled eggs and petit fours.
first posted: 6/11/2006
Chocolate and vanilla is a terrific combination, and cooks use it whenever they can.
first posted: 6/4/2006
There is something about opera singers that sends chefs scurrying to their stoves.
first posted: 5/28/2006
It's hard to imagine that a hamburger without cheese, bacon, ketchup or a bun would stand a chance.
first posted: 5/21/2006
Lady Baltimore, the 1906 novel by Owen Wister, might not ring a bell, but you may have heard of the cake that's described in the story
first posted: 5/14/2006
When a sandwich is served with a knife and fork, you know you're in forsomething special.
first posted: 5/7/2006
The only way to have a true Caesar salad is to make one yourself.
first posted: 4/30/2006
In cooking, as in fashion, where one knockoff leads to another, the road to Boston Cream Pie seems fairly straightforward
first posted: 4/23/2006
The season for hot cross buns, those big mildly spiced yeast rolls packed with currants or raisins and decorated with a cross of white icing, begins the first day of Lent and lasts until Easter
first posted: 4/16/2006
Passover is a holiday that revolves around food. That may help explain why it is celebrated by more Jews than any other holiday.
first posted: 4/9/2006
To dessert-lovers, a good cake has no down side. Unless, of course, it happens to be an upside-down cake.
first posted: 4/2/2006
As I tasted the pasta primavera at New York City's Le Cirque 2000, restaurateur Sirio Maccioni told me the story of pasta primavera.
first posted: 3/26/2006
How, in the name of all things authentic and Irish, did the green in St. Patrick's Day celebrations become green food coloring?
first posted: 3/19/2006
I remember the first time I ate really great biscuits. Mattie Ball Fletcher, who was almost 100 years old at the time, made them for me.
first posted: 3/12/2006
The addition of cornmeal to a yeast bread dough adds a characteristic toothsome, pleasing, irresistible crunch, a grit.
first posted: 3/5/2006
Who would have thought that chili without green pepper, tomato chunks or a blast of hot chile pepper stood a chance on the American menu?
first posted: 2/26/2006
A couple of times a year, I take my bean pot from the top of the cabinet,give it a good scrub and make baked beans.
first posted: 2/19/2006
Chocolate and the kind of novel with Fabio on the cover share a vocabulary: bittersweet, hot, dark, melting, surrender, lust, passion, yearning, hunger.
first posted: 2/12/2006
We've been so distracted by itsy-bitsy portions of nouvelle cuisine, low-carb spaghetti and convenience food, we've almost forgotten what good food is all about.
first posted: 2/14/2006
