The Cook’s Kitchen

If there’s one thing that I absolutely cannot stand, it’s wasting vibrant, perky produce. But when a recipe calls for only 1 tbl of fresh, minced herb and the store only sells them in gargantuan bunches, my palms sweat as I begin planning my week’s menu all around this stupid little herb, just so every […]

“Bacon! You want to know how good it is?
To improve other food they wrap it in bacon.”
Jim Gaffigan makes the statement above during his hilarious stand-up routine about bacon. I know it’s comedy but it’s really true. Isn’t it?
But in today’s health conscious society, how do we get the taste of bacon without always […]

One of the problems with buying fresh herbs is that before you know it, they’re wilting and can’t be used anymore. Yes, there are ways to freeze them, which is good as long as you remember to do that before they expire on you. But now there may be another solution… the Herb […]

The Cook’s Kitchen welcomes Larry Gaian, who is also a writer for GetYourGrillOn.net and Larry’s own site, TheBBQGrail.com. –Editor

I love using chipotles in adobo sauce. They provide a nice robust flavor to many different types of dishes, however, because of my families intolerance to “heat,” I don’t get to use them as often as I’d […]

Arugula has been one of the hip, “it” greens for some time now. I do think watercress could be next. I mean, if arugula was the popular cheerleader, watercress would be the hot, artsy gal who won’t get fat after college/children. Okay, I kid. But really, watercress, with its versatility, has a lot to offer […]

Cream of Tartar is one of those ingredients that, while I tend to keep it on hand, I don’t use it very often.  That means by the time I usually get around to needing it, I might have run out of it without even knowing it, or it might be rock hard and unusable. 
That’s why […]

I believe I experienced my very first taste of a lingonberry at the breakfast giant, IHOP. As crazy as it may sound, I was instantly smitten. Those delightful Swedish Pancakes are served up with a dollop of lingonberry butter and a small scattering of lingonberry fruits. Reminiscent of a cranberry, lingonberries are much smaller in size, […]

I hate summer in some ways:

I can’t run around in a swim suit all summer, just waiting for the lake to open each day at noon so I can swim all day long.
I have to get up by a certain time to go ‘work for the man’.
It’s hot, and I have to wear long pants! […]

Soup isn’t something you normally associate with summer, but served cold or at room termperature, it can be a simple summer meal with a fresh baguette.  Recently, I had 8 guests for dinner after working all day (what was I thinking?), and served appetizer portions of soup in tiny Chinese tea cups.  The look was stunning […]

A glut of rhubarb from the garden, combined with a pint of strawberries that had seen better days, forced me to come up with a mid-week dessert to satisfy my family. It was unusual to serve dessert on a Wednesday, but I knew my kids wouldn’t stand for another batch of rhubarb-pecan muffins, delicious though […]