Much food writing centers around celebrity chefs and big-time restaurateurs. But you can’t beat a cooking contest’s $1 million prize for serious business. The Pillsbury Bake-Off is in its 45th year and still inspiring home cooks across the country. No fewer than 100 recipes made the finals out of tens of thousands entered. The actual [...]
Among the hues of Thai-style curries, I always gravitate to green. Spicy and herbaceous with fresh chilies and cilantro, the dish is doable at home. But like so many Asian specialties, it requires not a few specialty ingredients to taste like restaurant versions. While Thai curry paste is readily available in more grocery stores these [...]
This week’s Eno Outings column by Janet Eastman acknowledged that it’s never too late to remedy a botched Valentine’s Day. If your efforts didn’t go as planned, or you just want to keep the romance burning, a home-cooked meal could be just the gesture that makes your valentine swoon. While a nice dinner out ranked [...]
Much as most of us want to be romanced for Valentine’s Day, the holiday can ingnite anxiety in those inclined to count calories. But among the array of sweets, there are some that offer a bit of nutritional benefit, as well as some boost to the heart. If there’s any holiday to treat the ticker [...]
Overdosing on sodium continues to be one of the biggest threats to Americans’ health, just one point in this week’s A la Carte feature of a Grants Pass cooking series. Processed foods, of course, not the salt shaker are the main culprit. Today’s story listed several strategies for avoiding sodium in processed foods (along with [...]
Cooking videos have become much bigger business for YouTube, which conducted a Next Chef “boot camp” last month to identify promising online personas. They found UCLA art-history student Sara O’Donnell, aka Average Betty, whose “Six Tips for an Awesome Football Party!” racked up 332,555 hits — and counting. That’s no accident, according to a recent [...]
Just as there’s good reason to prepare chili for Super Bowl, guacamole is practically a must-have. Maybe it’s the quantity (Mexico is in the midst of its Hass harvest) or the marketing (what could go better with chili and chips?), but Americans eat millions of pounds of avocados over Super Bowl weekend alone. I’m just [...]
Football doesn’t exactly put me in the mood for fine food, not that I haven’t given it my best shot. Last year, my husband uncharacteristically decided to watch the Super Bowl from the comfort of his own couch with only me to complete the cheering section. Because televised football can’t hold my attention for more [...]
It’s time for slaws, at least if you ascribe to the philosophy of seasonal eating. Cabbage, as one of my first Season to Taste columns noted, is available from local farmers even in the depths of winter. That column suggested using cabbage in pad thai, but slaw would not be put off another year, particularly [...]
I can attest to the deliciousness of the andouille sausage sandwich pictured on the front page of this week’s A la Carte. But as someone who doesn’t want to eat meat — even poultry or fish — all the time, I appreciate the efforts of establishments like Figgy’s Food Truck to provide tasty vegetarian options. [...]
