Five Ways to Eat Rutabaga

The first time I tasted rutabaga—or so I thought—was when I started spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with my fiancé's family. Bowls of mashed rutabaga, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little butter, are a staple of their holiday table, although some of the cousins turn their noses up at it. ...
December 03, 2009 | By Lisa Bramen

Learning to Love Olive Oil

Olive oil has never been a particular passion for me, although I cook with it almost daily. Its main appeal is utility—creating texture and moisture; browning without sticking—more than taste. But after attending a recent Smithsonian Resident Associates event about Italian foods, I won't be taking ...
November 30, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Taking Sides: A Vegetarian Thanksgiving

The New York Times food section recently featured a fun face-off between writers Kim Severson and Julia Moskin over what you might call a silly question: What's more important on a Thanksgiving table, the turkey or the side dishes? Moskin wrote an article titled "Show-Off Sides to Rival the Pull of...
November 23, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Five Ways to Eat Beets

I ordered a salad with roasted beets when I was out with my parents recently. They looked at the hunks of purple of my plate and wrinkled their noses. The "I remember when…" statements weren’t far behind. They recalled stinky, pickled beets from a can, which is something they never subjected me to ...
November 11, 2009 | By Abby Callard

Cinnamon as Health Food

The chatty coffee-shop employee's comment confused me. I had paused at the condiment station to add a sprinkle of cinnamon* to my cappuccino, and he was wiping down the counter in front of me."Ah, yes, for your eyes?" he asked, gesturing at the cinnamon shaker."My...eyes?" I fumbled in response. "N...
November 09, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Baking Apples in a Schnitzer

While visiting an Irish friend in the Kilkenny countryside a few years back, I admired her mother's charming wood cookstove. It was nearly the size of a twin bed, was always kept burning, and produced daily loaves of delicious brown bread and amazing apple pies. But, until I moved to New York from ...
November 06, 2009 | By Lisa Bramen

Five Ways to Eat Brussels Sprouts

Yes, I said "eat" and "Brussels sprouts." Oh, stop making that face...Properly prepared, these tiny brassica plants can be a real treat—and they're nutritionally noble (low-cal and fat-free, yet just a handful will provide all the vitamin C you need for the day, plus several grams of protein and fi...
November 05, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Making Homemade Yogurt and Cheese

I learned something potentially dangerous this weekend: cheese, especially fresh (not aged) cheese, is surprisingly quick and easy to make.A group of people in my area who are concerned about the environment has been hosting a series of "lost arts" workshops on topics like making sauerkraut and bak...
November 04, 2009 | By Lisa Bramen

Eat Your Carrot Greens

Last weekend, I picked up some beautiful carrots—the kind that Bugs Bunny would drool over; classic orange cones topped with plumes of greenery—at an organic farmstand. From childhood experience, I already knew that the sweet crunch of garden-grown carrots tastes far better than those mass-produced...
November 03, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

From the Castle - FDR's Stamps

FDR's Stamps
November 2009 | By G. Wayne Clough

Alaska's Great Wide Open

A land of silvery light and astonishing peaks, the country's largest state perpetuates the belief that anything is possible
November 2009 | By Pico Iyer

Five Ways to Eat Winter Squash

There are hundreds of ways to eat winter squash, but these are five of my favorites. Tell me yours...1) Baked maple squash. This is best with smaller varieties like acorn or delicata. Cut in half, scoop out the seeds and pulp from both halves, and place cut-side up in a baking dish with just enough...
October 22, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Save on Your Sandwich

Math hurts sometimes. Yesterday, I came across a "sandwich calculator" that revealed a painful truth: I could be saving hundreds of dollars a year if I brought homemade sandwiches for lunch, instead of eating out at delis and cafes.A blogger at Cockeyed.com did the per-sandwich math for various ing...
October 06, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Kitchen Performance Anxiety

I think I'm suffering from hostophobia, or fear of being an incompetent host (I know, it's not really a word, but maybe it'll make it onto the Schott's Vocabulary blog). My fiancé and I are throwing a housewarming party in a couple of days, and it will be the first time we have been responsible for...
October 02, 2009 | By Lisa Bramen

Portraits of Baseball's Tinker, Evers and Chance

The famed Chicago Cubs infielders were immortalized in verse—as well as through Paul Thompson's lens
October 2009 | By Harry Katz

Baking a Punctual Cake

Today marks the 6th observance of National Punctuation Day.What does that have to do with food? Well, let me tell you. For the past five years This year, people have celebrated are celebrating the holiday with a baking contest. The challenge: bake in the shape of punctuation. So, in the spirit of t...
September 24, 2009 | By admin

Five Ways to Eat Apples

Honeycrisp, Gala, Macoun, Gingergold, Cortland, Macintosh... our fridge was full of apples after a recent trip to visit friends on the north shore of Massachusetts. We went to one of my favorite old haunts there, Russell Orchards in Ipswich, where the smell of fresh cider donuts is even stronger th...
September 22, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Making Cooking Safer in the Developing World

A cooking stove called the Chulha just won an INDEX award for "design to improve life." Why? Because according to the World Health Organization, about half of all households worldwide—and 90 percent of rural households—get their cooking and heating fuel from "biomass" sources like coal, wood, charc...
September 21, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

Cooking With Middle Eastern Spices

A local friend of mine recently received a bounty of fresh Middle Eastern spices, courtesy of a friend visiting from Qatar."I asked her to bring me a few spices, and she went to the market and asked for a half a kilo of everything!" my friend explained. "Want some?"What a happy coincidence—we had ...
September 15, 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

A Collection of Baseball Firsts

Who hit the first grand slam? Who was the first pinch hitter? Presenting the nine players of Smithsonian’s "They Did It First" All-Star Team
September 14, 2009 | By Mark Strauss

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