The Cook’s Kitchen

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are between 60 and 80 million cases of food-borne illnesses caused by Salmonella each year.  And according to statistics from the US Food and Drug Administration, nearly one-third of all food-borne illnesses start in the home.  Of those cases, 36% are due to cross contamination. 
I think I’m […]

August and September are the favorite months of the year for Chileheads.  That’s when the green chile harvest moves across the Southwest. If you live in that part of the country you have no doubt seen roadside stands, fields where you can pick-your-own, weekend festivals devoted to them and the very common chile trucks in […]

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 […]

This post originally appeared on The Hampton Smoker

Cooks Illustrated have done their usually thorough head to head testing to determine which charcoal burns hottest. Let’s see what they found out…….
What’s the Hottest Charcoal?
Conventional wisdom dictates that hardwood (or “lump”) charcoal flames up fast and furious, while charcoal briquettes burn low and slow. For that reason, most of […]

Here’s a BBQ gadget I haven’t figured out yet. The BBQ Spinner. I like gadgets, I really do, but c’mon. It’s a spatula with what appears to be a spinner hubcap welded on for no apparent reason. I can’t imagine what this thing is like to clean.
From their website… “The burgers will be duly impressed […]

Here in the Cook’s Kitchen we’re always looking for exciting new flavors, tools and gadgets. Here’s one that really caught our eye.
This post originally appeared on The Hampton Smoker

Released June 12th in Japan, Pepsi Ice Cucumber is the newest fruit-flavored beverage to hit the market. A limited edition creation, the beverage mixes the cooling, […]

My wife and I had a grilled pizza dinner party the other night, and we wanted something not too heavy for dessert. What dessert fits pizza better than more pizza???
Fruit pizza can be done several ways, but the way we make it is to start with 2 tubes of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough (yeah, […]

Here is the second in a series of Eyeball Benders, a photographic quiz of sorts. Volume I was published in January.  Below are 14 pictures of common items, things or products. Most are found in the kitchen or are at least related to cooking.  All of the photographs have been cropped to some degree to disguise their identity. […]

Here’s a three minute video that I found that does a good job of showing you how to make pizzas at home. This is part 1 where the dough and the sauce are made.
 
 

Homemade Pizza Part I
Uploaded by desertnut

Have you often found yourself thinking, “gee, if only I had a microwave with me…”? Well, who hasn’t.

The makers of the WaveBox are out to change all that.

These joy makers are just hitting the mass market and are already backordered through May. Somebody’s doing something right. You can even plug them right into your cigarette […]