How To & DIY
Low Salt Cooking: Hold the Salt, Pass the Spices!
Most of us consume about 3,400 milligrams (mg) of sodium a day — well above the recommended intake of no more than 2,300 milligrams daily. (There are 2,000 milligrams per teaspoon,.
Herbal Vinegars
Herbal vinegars are easy to make and versatile. Use them in the kitchen in everything from dressings to desserts, as well as outside the kitchen for toiletries and cleaning.
Cooking with Chili Peppers
There are thousands of varieties of chilies, and this diversity, combined with their level of ripeness and whether they are used fresh, dried or even smoked, results in a vast array of flavors. Learn about the flavors of four varieties of dried or fresh chili peppers to take your experience beyond a simple incendiary sensation to enjoyment of a complex seasoning.
The Popularity of Pepper
If we had to select just one spice to flavor our food, pepper, “the master spice,” would be a wise choice. Always the world’s most important spice—at one time worth its weight in gold—pepper accounts for about 35% of the total world trade in spices today.
Spice Up Your Morning
Want to enhance your day from the get go? Take the time to eat a breakfast that nourishes your health and indulges your senses. No more plain toast, unadorned oats or simple salt and peppered eggs.
Homemade Herbal Sodas
Whether you call it pop, soda or a soft drink, today’s popular sweetened carbonated beverages aren’t what they started out to be. Traditional recipes for drinks like root beer, vanilla cream soda and cherry and ginger ales were made from extracts of flavorful botanicals and were often offered in pharmacies for their reputed health benefits.
Flavored Butters & Oils
Spice-flavored butters and oils are the magic wands of cookery, instantly turning a simple plate of vegetables or a ho-hum grain entrée into a gourmet dish. You’d think this enchantment would be harder to come by, but delicious butters and oils are very simple to make, keep for weeks in the refrigerator, and can be whipped up with whichever of the following ingredients you happen to have on hand! Recipes You don’t need a recipe to make flavored butters and oils, but here’s a handful for inspiration: Lemony Pasta Butter Place a big dab of this flavorful butter on hot pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan and coarsely ground pepper, and you’ve created a delightful main dish! It’s also terrific on baked potatoes.
Fall's Bounty
Summer gardens (and farmers' markets!) deliver delicious fresh produce suitable for the day's grill or canning stint -- but fall's harvest is where we look for vegetables that are "good keepers." Root vegetables like beets, parsnips, turnips, and Jerusalem artichokes; hardy cabbages; and winter squash and pumpkins all, under the right conditions, will store well.
DIY Spice Blends
Gift baskets are popular presents because they are useful and easy to give, but they also can be predictable. You can do much better than putting together the ubiquitous basket of fruit, nuts and preserves or soup, cake and cookie mixes in jars for your food-loving friends.
Cobblers, Crisps & Pies
We take the match for granted now, but whoever first thought of pairing sweetened fruit with delectable pastry was a culinary genius. Whether you enjoy creating fancy piecrusts or prefer to drop dollops of pastry atop your fruit filling, there's a pastry/fruit dessert that's just right for you.
