Cooking
Inviting Writing: The Parents or the Date?
For our latest Inviting Writing, we asked you to send in stories of food and dating: funny stories, sad stories, romantic stories, goofy stories—as long as they were true and involved food. This week's entry is about being stood up for someone else's date.The story comes from Judy Martin, who works...
February 28, 2011 |
By admin
Dining With George Washington
We associate lots of things with George Washington. He's a face on our currency, he looms large on Mt. Rushmore, and to use that oh-so-familiar sobriquet, he's the Father of Our Country. Edibles, however, don't readily spring to mind. Popular mythology does place him in striking distance of a cherr...
February 17, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Nigella Seeds: What the Heck Do I Do with Those?
Welcome to a new recurring feature at Food & Think called "What the Heck Do I Do with That?" Every so often we'll highlight an obscure ingredient (obscure in this country, anyway), including its history, where it comes from and other interesting information—most importantly, what the heck you c...
February 16, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Nothing Says I Love You Quite Like a Heart-Shaped Meatloaf
I love funny family stories, the kind that get told over and over again and get better with age. My family certainly has its fair share, but since I started dating my husband six years ago, I've heard a whole slew from the annals of his family's lore.
There's the story of my mother- and late-father...
February 11, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
Put Another Beer-Can Chicken on the Barbie
Anyone who watched American television in the 1980s probably remembers the Australia tourism commercials with Paul Hogan (aka Crocodile Dundee) saying he'd "slip another shrimp on the barbie" for us. Never mind that Australians don't use the word "shrimp"—they call them prawns—the catchphrase stuck...
February 08, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
All-Purpose Vinegar
I rang in the new year to the...odor of vinegar. Some friends' New Year's Day party was winding down and the couple began cleaning. "Mom, could you PLEASE not spray vinegar on the kitchen counters while I still have guests here?" their 21-year-old daughter asked. I silently thanked her because as m...
February 01, 2011 |
By admin
A Taste of Sticky Rice, Laos’ National Dish
One cannot travel to the Southeast Asian country without many meals of sticky rice, the versatile staple of Laotian cuisine
February 01, 2011 |
By Mike Ives
Neanderthals Noshed on Plants—and Cooked?
Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted in Europe between 44,000 and 30,000 years ago and perhaps in the Middle East even earlier, between 100,000 and 60,000 years ago. But, ultimately, it was the modern humans that survived, while the Neanderthals died out.To better understand the extinction of N...
January 31, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
Delicious Wild Mushroom Recipes
From two of Oregon’s best chefs come two recipes to liven up your wild fungi
January 28, 2011 |
By Smithsonian.com
Weirdest Pizza Toppings
This month's Inviting Writing series is about "first tastes," revelatory experiences of foods you'd never tried before. My first memory of a first taste is of pizza. I was six years old, and the pizza was pepperoni with extra cheese at a pizza parlor that had just opened in my neighborhood. I remem...
January 06, 2011 |
By Laura Helmuth
Fruitcake 101: A Concise Cultural History of This Loved and Loathed Loaf
The action of Truman Capote's 1956 short story "A Christmas Memory" is set into motion when a nameless sixty-something woman looks out her kitchen window and exclaims, "Oh my, it's fruitcake weather." Thus, she and her dearest friend, her 7-year-old, live-in cousin Buddy, begin amassing supplies fo...
December 21, 2010 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Holiday Gift Guide: A Food Book for Everyone On Your List
As Christmas draws closer, have you finished your shopping yet? If not, try turning to your local bookstore to find something for nearly everyone on your list:The Aspiring Home CookRadically Simple: Brilliant Flavors with Breathtaking Ease, by Rozanne Gold. All the recipes in this lovely cookbook a...
December 17, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Cooking With the Stars: Celebrity Cookbooks
There was a time when celebrity chefs were rare. When I was growing up, there was Julia Child and...umm...does Famous Amos count?Now celebrity chefdom is easier to achieve than ever. Cordon Bleu training is no longer a prerequisite—a perky (or, in some cases, cranky) personality and a knack for coi...
December 15, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Leeks
All the hubbub about Wikileaks has me thinking about another kind of dish from an underground source...leeks!When my father-in-law sent us home from Thanksgiving with a bag full of fresh leeks from his garden, I thanked him (diplomatically, of course), but was secretly befuddled. Having seen leeks ...
December 09, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Unorthodox Potato Latkes for Hanukkah
In my half-Jewish family, latkes were a coveted once-a-year food. My health-conscious Catholic mother, who learned how to make potato pancakes from someone or other (certainly not my cooking-impaired Jewish father) made them on the first night of Hanukkah every year. We ate them just before lightin...
December 07, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Holiday Gift Guide: New Children's Books About Food
Know a kid who's interested in food—eating, growing, or cooking it—or who you wish would be? With the holidays coming up, one of these food-related children's books could be the perfect gift idea.Unless otherwise noted, all titles were published this year. If I've missed something great, please add...
November 30, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Nutmeg: The Holiday Spice With a Glamorous Past
Forget turkey. The flavor I most associate with Thanksgiving, and the holiday season in general, is nutmeg. I like the sound of the word. I like the spice's warm, woody scent. I like the way it adds complexity to both sweet and savory dishes. And, unlike many foods people now associate with the Tha...
November 24, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Inviting Writing: Family Feasts at a Georgia Granny's House
We've received such wonderful stories from readers in response to our latest Inviting Writing theme about eating at Grandma's house—thank you! This one, a richly detailed recollection of Southern-style family dinners in the 1950s and early 1960s, seems perfect for Thanksgiving week because it's a v...
November 22, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Five Colorful Ways to Eat Fresh Cranberries
Fresh cranberries abound at this time of year, and you may even be ambitious enough to slog through a bog to pick your own, as my friend Bryn did in Massachusetts. (It was fun, but next time she'd prefer to try it without a 30-pound toddler on her back, she said.) After baking all afternoon, she st...
November 16, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Inviting Writing: Lefse Lessons With Grandma
Continuing our Inviting Writing theme about "eating at Grandma's house," today's story celebrates another Bestemor. Author Jenny Holm is a freelance writer who grew up in Minnesota, but has been all over the place since, from Russia to D.C. to an organic farm in Vermont. Currently, she's teaching E...
November 15, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
