Six recipes show how anchovies or anchovy paste can quietly up the umami in all kinds of dishes, from pot roast to pasta to duck.
YES, ANCHOVIES CAN MAKE THEIR PRESENCE KNOWN, as a pizza topping, for instance. But they can also melt and disappear into a dish, delivering a delicious savoriness that salt alone cannot—and without any fishiness. Continue reading “The umami trick you should definitely have up your sleeve”
A quick guide to buying spices—in-store and online—and to properly storing them.
SPICES AND THEIR AROMATIC BRETHREN, HERBS, are key tools for turning food into cuisine, for giving dishes a major part of their identity. Besides using them wisely, knowing how and where to shop for them—and how to store them when you’re not using them—can make a huge difference in your cooking. Here are some tips. Continue reading “Shop and store right to keep spices fresher longer”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e’re here because we like to cook. So are you. But sometimes cooking is less about fun recipes or new techniques, and more about getting a healthyish dinner on the table quickly and with minimal effort. Here are three store-bought foods that help us do just that. Continue reading “Three get-dinner-done-now helpers we love”
Two woman-owned companies are making reusable, compostable beeswax-infused fabric food wraps to replace plastic wrap.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]L[/su_dropcap]ike many people, we’re trying to reduce our use of single-use plastics. We’re shopping with reusable bags, carrying refillable water bottles and avoiding straws when possible, for instance. So when we heard (belatedly, perhaps) about beeswax fabric food wraps, we were excited. Continue reading “Reducing plastic usage in the kitchen with fabric beeswax food wraps”
At the 2018 International Home + Housewares Show, three cookware makers shared exciting updates to the hardworking kitchen mainstay, the Dutch oven.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]T[/su_dropcap]he sturdy, versatile, cast iron Dutch oven traces its roots back to the early 1700s, the brainchild of an Englishman borrowing a casting technique developed in the Netherlands. At the Housewares Show, we saw some exciting variations on this venerable theme. Continue reading “Three new ways to up your Dutch oven game”
Blue Kitchen is back live this week, with six last-minute culinary gift ideas. This may seem like a short and somewhat random list, but all these items have one thing in common—we actually use them in our kitchen and love them. Happy shopping.
Before we saw this rolling pin from KMN Home at the National Restaurant Association Show this spring, we thought we had quite enough rolling pins, thank you. After we saw it—and after a few weeks of being unable to stop thinking about it—we bought one. Made of aircraft-grade aluminum, it has a laser-engraved ruler. The aluminum body makes it easy to keep cool for rolling pie crust dough—just pop it in the freezer for a little bit. The ruler—with measurements in inches and millimeters—makes it easy to measure those crusts as you roll them. And with its smooth anodized finish, doughs do not want to stick to it. Available in red, blue and black, it is also handsome enough to display. When I bake, this is now the rolling pin I reach for first. The KMN Aluminum Rolling Pin runs around $40. Continue reading “The Procrastinator’s Holiday Gift Guide for Your Favorite Cook”
We like kitchen stuff. We don’t need to own it all, but we just like being around it, looking at it and talking to people who like it as much as we do. So attending the International Home + Housewares Show every year is like the best school field trip from childhood memory. Continue reading “Cool kitchen gear alert: the 2015 Housewares Show is coming to Chicago”
An admittedly biased (and sometimes not so biased) rant on why to avoid stemless wineglasses.
IN THE 1970s, SHELL GAS STATIONS gave out NFL goblets with fill ups. My mom’s kitchen cabinet quickly became filled with them. They were free, after all, and their smoked tint—all the rage at the time—made them a step up from the Flintstone jelly glasses they pushed aside. Today when I see stemless wineglasses, I can’t help but see the ghost of those gas station goblets. Continue reading “Just say no to stemless wineglasses”
Our limited kitchen counter real estate means we try to edit our kitchen tools pretty ferociously. But one tool that has earned a place is the Cuisipro Twist Whisk.
The Twist Whisk was originally created to beat eggs and cream. If you love the hands-on part of whipping cream or egg whites, this, plus a copper bowl, will make the task lighter. Continue reading “Cuisipro puts a twist on an essential kitchen tool with the Twist Whisk”
Cookina reusable, nonstick cooking sheets make grilling, cooking and cleanup simple.
Some things are just made for grilling. Chops, steaks, slabs of eggplant. In my experience, though, fish is not. No matter how carefully I scrub the grate on my charcoal kettle or how much I oil it (and the fish itself), the delicate flesh of even comparatively sturdy fish such as salmon often sticks. So I was delighted to be introduced to Cookina reusable nonstick cooking and grilling sheets at the International Home + Housewares Show this spring. Continue reading “Cookina reusable cooking sheets: nonstick comes to the grill”