Recipes
What the Heck Do I Do with Annatto?
Welcome to the second edition of "What the Heck Do I Do with That?"—an occasional foray into the less-familiar nooks and crannies of the spice rack, ethnic food specialty store or farmers' market. Last time, we looked at nigella seeds, which are most commonly associated with South Asian cuisines. T...
April 13, 2011 |
By Lisa Bramen
Traditional Cookbooks vs. E-Readers, Searches and Apps
Whenever a new cookbook comes into my possession, the first thing I do is sit down, scan through the recipes and use Post-Its to flag the things I might actually take the time to make, paying attention to ingredients and the time required to pull a dish together. It makes for easy referencing, espe...
March 31, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Marvelous Macaroni and Cheese
The exact origin of macaroni and cheese is unknown, though it most likely hails from Northern Europe, with the earliest known recorded recipe being scribbled down in 1769. A staple of American cuisine, the creamy combo made its way to the United States courtesy of Thomas Jefferson, who, while visit...
March 22, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Inviting Writing: The Secret of Lemon Soup
This month's Inviting Writing series focused on food and dating. We got some great contributions: sweet stories, quirky stories, sad (but triumphant!) stories. Today's entry, sweet but very tangy, comes from Christie Zgourides, who teaches college English, grows her own vegetables, cooks from a ran...
March 14, 2011 |
By admin
Inviting Writing: Doomed by Soup?
For this month's Inviting Writing, we asked people to share their stories about food and dating. Of course, as in Lisa's starter story, dates don't always end well, and sometimes, in some way, the food is to blame.Today's story comes from Evelyn Kim, who lives in Berlin and writes about food and su...
March 07, 2011 |
By admin
Lightbulb Ban Means Reinventing the Easy-Bake Oven
The common incandescent light bulb will soon become a lot less common. In an effort to reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions, the provisions laid out in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (pdf) stipulate that manufacture of the classic 100 watt bulb will cease in 2012, with...
March 03, 2011 |
By Jesse Rhodes
Experiments in Cooking: Salmon Poached in the Dishwasher
Last week, a Smithsonian editor sent me a screen capture of a portion of her Facebook news feed. A friend's status update read, "It's official: salmon cooked in the dishwasher, complete with dishes and soap, is not only delicious but a boon for the lazy person (e.g., me)." *The post was lit up with...
March 01, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
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
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
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
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
