The Cook’s Kitchen

For quick biscuits that taste close to homemade, I gotta give two spatulas up for Grands! Southern Style Biscuits.  These frozen biscuits go from hockey pucks to fluffy rich biscuits in 17 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  The resealable bag means that you can prepare two or three biscuits now and have more for […]

Do you have an Uncle Ben? We all have a favorite Uncle that has a secret recipe or way of cooking. Does he share his secrets with you without having to kill you? Well I am trying a box of rice from my ‘Corporate Uncle Ben.’ He has released two new recipes. They are boxed […]

About a week before Easter, I was driving through my supermarket parking lot, when I saw something that literally made me slam on my brakes. A new chocolate shop had opened up, practically in my own backyard! Forget the supermarket! I pulled into the closest parking space and headed inside.
The name of […]

I’ve mentioned before how much I love kitchen gadgets, so a gadget that cooks bacon was right up my alley.
Skeptical only mildly describes my thoughts when I first unwrapped the WowBacon Cooker. It looked like a plastic drink pitcher with snap-on lid. There was just no way this thing was going to produce edible cooked […]

I love gadgets. It used to be that I wanted the coolest computer related gadgets I could get my hands on. These days it’s cool kitchen gadgets that get me going.
I saw the Zak Designs multi-color measuring spoons in Gourmet magazine and thought they would be fun to have in the kitchen. […]

The other day, I was shopping at Williams-Sonoma, looking for a heart-shaped cake pan. Surprisingly, I didn’t find one. What I did find, was an interesting-looking product called Sprinkles Cupcake Mix. I had seen these mixes in the store before, but the flavors never called out to me, so I just passed […]

Parchment paper is something of an unsung hero, but it’s truly a culinary wonder tool. The food section of the LA Times sings its praises this week (see the full article here). When I worked in a professional kitchen, we used it all the time, but it’s only been in the last ten years […]

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 […]

Every couple of years, I go through my kitchen cabinets and do a massive purge of my cookie pans.  Between getting beat up, bent, dinged, darkened or even rusted, I like to replace them and start anew.  All the better for a perfectly baked cookie, in my opinion. 
If you’re on the prowl for a new […]

I make a lot of candy during the holiday season. Fudge, toffee, nut brittles, lollipops, truffles, you name it, I make it. Last year I discovered the number one tool in my kitchen for candy making, and it took me by surprise. You would think that I would mention my trusty candy thermometer, but no, […]