Saturday Throwback: Frugal Food Hacks - 10 Tricks to Simplifying Online Recipe Searches

Earlier this year, Casual Kitchen (my new favorite blog) posted a stupendous essay called How to Tell if a Recipe is Worth Cooking with Five Easy Questions. A phenomenal guide to recipe analysis, CK’s tips are invaluable whether you’re reading a cookbook, browsing the web, or picking through Grandma’s age-old dessert file. The post was so good, in fact, it inspired me to write a sequel of sorts – one focusing on simplifying online recipe searches.See, combing the web for recipes can be a tricky venture. Between quasi-independent monsters (AllRecipes, Chow), corporate mega-sites (Cooking Light, Food Network) and neato personal blogs (The Wednesday Chef, A Good American Wife), there are literally millions of dishes to pick through. As taste is...

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Posted in: Cooking,Organization

Veggie Might: How to Care for Cast Iron Cookware

Penned by the effervescent Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about the wide world of Vegetarianism.Yesterday, Kris floored us with her Top 10 Kitchen Items list. So much good stuff—I use 6 of the 10 (pepper grinder, kitchen scale, food processor, bulk storage containers, tongs, and slow cooker) weekly, if not daily.My choice of skillet, however, is cast iron all the way, and if I keep treating them properly, the two I have will be my nonstick pan of choice forever and ever, amen.Growing up Southern, every kitchen I knew had a cast iron skillet for frying chicken and baking cornbread. It’s a versatile piece of cookware, which makes it great for tiny New York apartment. Once I started cooking again, after a long hiatus of take-out...

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Posted in: Cooking,Organization,Veggie Might

10 Essential Kitchen Items for the Healthy Cook

Our May Top 10 series continues! Check out other installments, 10 Cheap Ways to Simplify Food Shopping, 10 Ways to Eat Less Meat, and 10 Cheap Shortcuts to Making Cooking Oh-So-Much Easier.A healthy cook’s kitchen is much like any other. There are probably some pots, a few pans, a spatula, and, mysteriously, 48,000 whisks. There might be a chef’s knife among the cutlery, and a splotch of tomato sauce on the floor. Somewhere, maybe behind the spice rack or in a rarely used thermos, lies a king-sized bag of guilty pleasure M&Ms.However, upon deeper inspection, there are differences between the two galleys. Foremost among the cookware lies a large nonstick skillet. Claiming places of prominence in the utensil drawer are a zester and pack of...

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Posted in: Cooking,Organization

Ask the Internet: How to Handle Food Cravings?

This week’s question comes from reader Elizabeth:Q: I try to eat healthy as much as I can, but after a long day at work, I sometimes crave something sweet and/or want take-out. I try to do this in moderation by limiting how often I eat them, but I'm never sure if I'm indulging too often.I've learned where I can alter a recipe to make it a lot healthier, but there are some things that just aren't the same made light or in small portions (chocolate chip cookies come to mind).So, how do you handle cravings?A: Good question, Elizabeth, and thanks for writing in. Cravings are tricky little things, and I use a few different strategies to vanquish them. Sometimes, I straight up indulge. Healthy eating is great, but it should never turn into deprivation,...

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Posted in: Ask the Internet

Grilled Portobello Mushroom Burgers and Me

Today on Serious Eats: Lemon Yogurt Mousse. You’ll like it better than the finale of Lost. At the very least, it will make you cry less.Last night, like every other island-obsessed J.J. Abrams acolyte on our big blue marble, the Husband-Elect’s television (and by proxy, mine) was turned to LOST. We had a few friends over, as well – all LOST fans, all of whom were overjoyed by the re-appearance of a certain … er, no spoilers here. But, needless to say, I’ve never seen people react like that to anything besides A) the 1980 U.S.-Russia Olympic hockey final, B) the birth of their children, or C) V-E Day.I’ve only caught on to LOST in the last year or so, and only because Husband-Elect lets me change it to Biggest Loser during the commercials. So,...

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Posted in: Mains,Vegan,Vegetarian

Saturday Throwback: Picky, Picky - Frugal, Healthy Menu Ideas for a Fussy Crowd

Every Saturday, we post a sweet little piece from the CHG archives. This week, we journey back to September 2007...   Recently, my old roommate R and I had a few friends over for dinner and Game Night. (Apples to Apples! It’s the funnest.) Problem was, we didn’t know what to serve. Here’s why. (This is not a joke.)H is a vegetarian, and was pregnant at the time.F is mostly vegetarian, with some exceptions. He hates ginger, cake, and honey.D loathes vegetables, and eats pasta almost exclusively.S won’t touch an endangered animal. (This actually rules out a lot of fish.)R is allergic to dairy and was on Weight Watchers.K (that’s me!) was also on Weight Watchers, and in descending order of disgustingness, will not eat/drink: mayonnaise, anise, figs, scallops, cauliflower, radishes, ginger...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Cooking,Frugality

Top 10 Links of the Week: 5/14/10 – 5/20/10

The links today are like David Bowie, my friends. They start out groundbreaking and a little offbeat, get better as you go along, begin experimenting with androgyny and heroin, eventually marry Iman, and then remain hot well into their '60s. (Um ... lost the metaphor in there somewhere.)1) Get Rich Slowly: What You Can Learn From Baby Boomer BlundersIt’s pretty rare that we highlight a post that’s not really about food, but I think this one’s important. I’m at the tail end of Generation X, and my parents are Boomers. Sometimes, it’s difficult to convey to their peers how personal finance has changed for my age group over the last ten years. Pensions, guaranteed health insurance, and fail-safe home equity are largely things of the past. This...

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Posted in: Links

Veggie Might: Neglected Cookbook Library—Super-free Carrot Cake

Written by the fabulous Leigh, Veggie Might is a weekly Thursday column about all things Vegetarian.A couple weeks ago, I was waiting for CB at Cowsheds & Stately before seeing a movie at the nearby cinemall. I tried to resist the magnetic pull of the New Cookbooks table, but its power was too strong. I drooled over one in particular: Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan, an animal-free tribute to Latin food (and what I’ve been craving mucho lately).The book was gorgeous, and it took all my strength to leave it there on the table. But I did (though I’m still thinking about it two weeks later) because I have too many cookbooks I never use.You would never know that I have over 30 cookbooks. My weekly cooking repertoire revolves around a few well-honed...

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Posted in: Desserts and Snacks,Vegan,Vegetarian,Veggie Might

10 Ways to Eat Less Meat

Today, we continue our May Top 10 series by addressing a popular topic in both the food and personal finance blogospheres: eating less meat. “Why in the good name of Bea Arthur would I want to eat LESS meat?” some might ask. “I don’t get enough bacon as it is. Plus, humans were meant to be carnivores, right? Otherwise, how do I explain the dead alpaca in the fridge to my kids?”Well, sweet reader. We come not to demonize meat, but to praise consuming it in moderation. Because when raised right and chomped sensibly, beef, chicken, pork, lamb - maybe even that alpaca - can be pretty good for you. What’s more, it’s good for your wallet, your children, the Earth, the moon, the universe, other universes, the multiverse, the Rebel Alliance, Hoth,...

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Posted in: Buying Food,Health

Green Kitchen: Hot and Sour Soup with Baby Bok Choy

Green Kitchen is a bi-weekly column about nutritious, inexpensive, and ethical food and cooking. It's penned by the lovely Jaime Green.After three years of farmers market shopping, I still don’t have a great handle on when fresh vegetables start showing up. I've got a history with this seasonal amnesia, too: when I was little, I would be surprised every year when it was cold at Halloween. I got that one to stick, just in time to outgrow trick-or-treating, but then I spent years expecting trees to have leaves by mid-March. And now, for the last few weeks, I've gone to the farmers market with no idea whether I'd find bountiful produce, or just more of last year's apples. For several spring weeks, it's still been those dang apples (okay, and...

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Posted in: Green Kitchen,Soups and Stocks,Vegan,Vegetarian