In looking back at a year of photographs from the Cooking Light garden, the miracles of nature are Kodak-clear. We started with rocky, damp soil in February and by year’s end had rich compost, earthworms in every square inch, and hundreds of pounds of produce to show for it. We had rainy weeks and firecracker-hot July days and spectacular ones […]
How to Make Your Own: Chocolate Treats
Instead of roaming drug store shelves for discounted Valentine’s candy (I’m not the only one, right?), I asked our resident dessert goddess, Deb Wise, for some tips on making simple, beautiful chocolate treats at home. First off, why do you love chocolate? What I love most about working with chocolate is a successful outcome. Chocolate can be rewarding and humbling, […]
Making Your Own Chicken Stock
A rich, golden chicken stock is the foundation for so many foods we love: a creamy risotto, a deeply flavored pan sauce, that cure-all bowl of soup. Stock should be the slow simmered result of kitchen scraps (bones, a half an onion still in its skin, unpeeled carrots and parsley stems). Simple, inexpensive, and flavorful. So why haven’t I made […]
You Tell Us: Your Funny Family Traditions
When Test Kitchen chef Adam Hickman spent Christmas with his wife’s family for the first time, he stumbled into one of the funniest family traditions we’ve ever heard: matching pajamas for everyone. “The tradition is that they open one gift on Christmas Eve. ‘What is this? Oh! Pajamas!’ They wear them to sleep, then wake up in the morning and […]
Gold Star Cookbook: Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast
Months before Ken Forkish’s bread book, “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast“, became public, an advanced edition came across my desk. The perfect simplicity the title embodies screamed for my attention; beckoning me to conjure up the powers of natural leavening within those four ingredients. Taking it home, I set my sights on the hybrid-leavening breads (breads that use a combination of Fleischmann’s style instant […]
A Better Nut Butter
As another PB devotee, I decided to expand my horizons a bit and explore the other nut butters out there. The shelves are full of alternatives, from soy to sunflower seed, sprouted almond to hazelnut. The jars in stores were rather pricy (about $6 to $8 each). I don’t care for soupy spreads, and the oil puddles at the top […]
Real Bread in Your Hands
Old-school bakeries had made old-style bread in immigrant neighborhoods all along, but by the 1970s, most Americans were happily eating the spongy white factory stuff. In the ’80s, Berkeley’s Acme Bread Company was among the new-generation Bay Area pioneers to bake loaves that evoked the crusty, chewy pleasures of Tuscany or Paris. Today, many U.S. cities boast no-compromise artisan bakers, […]
Tofu Class
Monday, we were thrilled to have food writer, cookbook author, and all-around great person Andrea Nguyen in our Test Kitchen, showing us how to make homemade tofu. From start to finish (well, after soaking dried soybeans overnight), it only took about an hour and a half. And it was So. Much. Fun. The process starts by whirling soaked soybeans and […]
Luxury, Sustainable
Demand for Caspian Sea caviar among the New Rich and the Just Plain Old Rich has driven many species of one of the Earth’s most ancient fish, the sturgeon, nearly to extinction. Prices rocketed, black market operators clouded the trading waters. But what if you want to indulge, once in a blue moon, responsibly? One option: eggs like the delicious […]
Two New Types of Produce Added to the Dirty Dozen
If there is one thing that the Cooking Light community certainly knows, it's that fruits and vegetables have huge health benefits. As an added bonus, we also can boast that we know how to turn beautiful produce into tasty dinners, side dishes and even desserts. So the idea that some of our favorite foods may have toxic or hold harmful pesticides can be a bit daunting. Thankfully, […]
