When this blog first started up, I did a post all about the kitchen gadgets for the holidays. While I definitely use all of them, there are other gadgets I use nearly every day. And perhaps more important than kitchen gadgets, however, are the food items we use all the time. They’re what help you get the food the way you want it, make the food taste good, and make it nutritious….
Pantry Basics: Pantry Staples
The pantry. Kind of a big subject. You could talk about the types of flours you could have, or the range of spices, or even how to organize your pantry. That’s why this blog is the first in a multiple part series wherein each blog will cover a very specific part of the pantry.
For this first blog, I’m going to talk about the very, very basic dry ingredients that I have in my pantry at all times: pantry staples. So part one of the ” Pantry Basics: Pantry Staples” series starts with……
How To: Whipped Cream
So it’s May—can you believe it’s May? I don’t know about you guys, but May is always an extremely busy month for us: my niece’s birthday, my cousin’s birthday, my best friend’s birthday, my uncle’s birthday, my mom’s birthday. Not only that, but the weather is finally getting nicer and people want to start throwing barbecues. Also, of course, there’s Mother’s Day.
And one thing these events almost always have in common? There’s some dish somewhere that usually requires whipped cream, whether it’s under, on, or in (what’s Mother’s Day without French toast with whipped cream on top?). Let’s face it, most dessert-y things just taste better with a dollop of sweet, pillowy, freshly-whipped cream on top, like fresh summer fruit. And I’m not talking about the stuff out of the can or the tub….
Kitchen Basics: A Basic Flour Primer
My great-great-grandmother was the daughter of a miller in Lithuania who immigrated in the late 1800s. From all accounts, she was an incredible baker who made dining-room-table-length pastries for her family of nine children and their children nearly every week. She could even tell the quality and type of flour just by feeling it.
I’m not my great grandmother and most people aren’t either.
So this blog covers exactly what is says in the title: flour. I feel like this is important basic kitchen knowledge to have. Not everyone likes to, or even wants to, bake. But if you’re cooking you probably will, at some point, use flour. You may even need to know the difference between bread flour, pastry flour, and even pasta flour (for those moments you desperately need pasta but don’t have any in the house. And if that moment comes up, you’ll have this post!)
…
Delight in Spring: Roasted Asparagus
I mentioned it in last week’s blog about spring produce, but we absolutely adore asparagus in our house. We get (probably unnaturally) excited when the first bunches of thin, woody green shoots appear in the grocery stores. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we buy asparagus nearly every time we go shopping throughout asparagus season.
We throw asparagus into stir fries, eat it with eggs on the weekend, boil and shock it and throw it into salads. I’ve even made asparagus soup.
Our favorite way to have asparagus, however, is roasted. It’s quick, super simple and tastes, so, so good. Really! It’s only four easy steps….