There are a few things to watch out for when assembling the recipe, but if you follow the tips below, you’ll be left with a great jambalaya that’s sure to please a crowd on a chilly winter day. Enjoy! Looking for a stove-top jambalaya? Here you go! Jambalaya vs. Gumbo The base ingredients for these two classic Creole dishes are almost identical. The main difference is that gumbo incorporates a roux, or some sort of thickener, and is served either by itself, almost like a chili, or over a bed of rice....

I guess I love them because they appear so insubstantial; it doesn’t seem like you’re eating much, a guilt-free mini-indulgence. The only problem I run into is that if they’re good, it’s sort of hard to eat just one, isn’t it? Take these chocolate cookies for example. They seem so innocuous. Thin, light. But with a deep chocolate flavor from natural cocoa, and lightly spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, molasses, and just a sprinkling of tongue-tingling cayenne, these cookies are hard to resist after the first bite....

What Is Japanese Eggplant? Fortunately, Japanese eggplant is, in my opinion, a lot easier to work with than globe eggplant. These Asian eggplants are long and narrow, are much more delicate on the inside and have more tender skin. They’re lovely. This recipe for Japanese eggplant stir-fried with ginger in a miso sake sauce comes from my friend Nancy Hachisu’s stunning cookbook, Japanese Farm Food , and according to Nancy, is her husband Tadaki’s “soul food”....

Now that I’m older, I’ve given up dolls, but not my love of strawberries. I grow strawberry plants in my garden, and I eagerly anticipate plucking the sweet berries from them each June. At the top of my strawberry-loving list is ice cream. My Ideal Strawberry Ice Cream When I started the process of creating my ideal ice cream, I knew I wanted the texture to be luxurious and the color to be light pink....

In essence, this casserole is deconstructed stuffed peppers. It has all the same elements, from onions and bell peppers to a cheesy topping, only done in a big skillet. Consider it the more casual cousin to stuffed peppers, arguably easier to make, a bit homier, and tastier. The dish is built on layers of flavor. Mushrooms and turkey (the recipe calls for ground turkey and spicy turkey sausages) give it a satisfying meatiness....

Well, I have eaten my words, and this fabulous salad as well! This is a lovely way to prepare summer squash or zucchini—thinly sliced, marinated briefly with mint in olive oil and lemon juice, tossed with toasted pine nuts, and served with shaved Parmesan. A veritable zucchini carpaccio. I have made one small adjustment to my friend’s original recipe—increasing the amount of olive oil and lemon juice recommended. I found I needed more to adequately coat all of the squash....

At the time, I just thought they were weird looking and didn’t taste like much. Nothing at all like the real artichokes that we kids fought over at the dinner table. My childhood mind decided that they didn’t grow very good artichokes in Jerusalem. Why Are Sunchokes Called Jerusalem Artichokes? Hah! Well, mystery solved. Turns out Jerusalem artichokes are neither artichokes, nor are they from Jerusalem. They’re tubers, native of North America, and the plant is related to and resembles sunflowers....

A good vegetable peeler is lightweight enough to make peeling pounds of vegetables a quick task. It should be comfortable in the hand, with a blade that stays sharp over time. And ideally, it should be an affordable, accessible tool. With all these factors in mind, we looked at numerous vegetable peelers and asked two professional chefs for their opinions on what makes a good one. Here, the best vegetable peelers in a variety of categories to help you find the perfect one for your peeling needs....

In order to recommend the cream of the bread machine crop, we tested 10 popular models in our Lab. We used each to make whole wheat, banana bread, and gluten-free bread. The top finalists were also tested on how well they made white bread. Our testers rated each on not only the final bread but also how easy they were to use and clean. In the end, the Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker won out for its intuitiveness and usability....

Fortunately, you don’t need all the bells and whistles to get your daily caffeine fix. There are plenty of budget-friendly coffee makers that get the job done. A few lower-end automatic coffee makers out there come with some of the features you’d find on larger, more expensive machines. To really stay within budget, it also helps to look at manual machines. You’ll need to do a little more measuring to get the perfect cup to pair alongside a slice of coffee cake, but it’s definitely within reach....

Beyond what you need utensils for—a sometimes griller will benefit from different tools than a sometimes baker—you need to think about the material. Cooking utensils now often have silicone, metal, glass, and plastic options to choose from. Each has its own pros and cons, with some being higher-quality than others. From a razor-sharp zester to a sturdy, versatile spatula, these are the best cooking utensils. What We Don’t Love: Measurement marks may rub off I find myself reaching for these measuring cups often—they are durable, can be microwaved, and can even hold boiling water....

There are countless ways to make a great potato salad. At its most basic, the dish is made by boiling potatoes, tossing them with a dressing, and throwing in a handful of other tasty ingredients like herbs, chopped veggies, bacon, and even crumbled hard-boiled eggs. The dressing is most often mayonnaise-based, which gives the dish lots of creamy richness, or mustard- or vinegar-based, which adds tang and makes a lighter and zippier potato salad....

But sometimes I don’t have the energy to go to Costco for just-roasted chicken and I still want something fast and reliable. So I reach into the freezer and grab WestEnd Cuisine Grilled Mediterranean Style Chicken Skewers ($21.49 for a 14-pack, at least in Los Angeles, where I live)—I always stock up on this Costco find. That’s a mouthful of a name, and it’s also a mouthful of flavor. There are two packages with seven skewers each, which is an ideal amount for a couple, small family, or a single person (hello, me) who is meal prepping or wants a few variations of chicken in a week....

As a kid I always thought that green salsa was made from green tomatoes, but actually it is made with a distant relative of the tomato from Mexico, the naturally tart tomatillo (pronounced “toe-mah-TEE-yo”). A tomatillo looks like a little green tomato covered with a husk. It’s not in the same genus as tomatoes, though both are in the nightshade family (along with eggplants and peppers). Salsa verde is really easy to make from scratch, all you need are tomatillos, onion, jalapeño, lime, and cilantro....

Traditional sloppy joes aren’t hard to make, but it turns out it’s even easier to make a good vegan sloppy joe than it is to make one with beef! And it’s all thanks to one secret ingredient… The Secret to Vegan Sloppy Joes Green lentils! Besides being super healthy, green lentils (also known as French lentils, or Puy lentils) are a great substitute for beef in sloppy joes. They cook up beautifully and have just the right texture and structure to be piled high on a bun....

Salads are one of the best ways to get in a ton of fruits and veggies and a delightful way, plus it’s easy to add protein to most salads. These 21 salads are anything but dull and ordinary. Each one has a unique flavor profile that’s nutritious AND delicious!

Slather pesto on summer sandwiches and burgers, use it as a sauce for pizza, and whip up a quick weeknight pasta dish with pesto as the sauce. Pesto’s rich flavors miraculously transform meals, Might as well call it, “Presto, pesto!” So, let’s see just exactly how many different ways you can make pesto and transform everyday dishes into wondrous adventures!

You don’t want something that’s going to get gooey or wilt in some way if the festivities are outside, so stay away from things that melt easily unless you have a definite way to keep them cool! You want something that’s easily portable, so fancy things that are perishable, delicate, or have elaborate toppings are probably out of the question, too. All that, and it’s got to be delicious and eye-catching, too—right?...

The fruits and vegetables that go on our family’s table are often ones that are currently in season. We’ll be eating our share of apples, celery, carrots, and broccoli with tasty dinners all week long. Though they are available all year around, buying in-season produce lends to a sweeter and less bitter flavor. Plus, they are less expensive. Hurray! New to Meal Planning? Start here! Need More Meal Planning Ideas?...

While it can be oh-so-tempting to throw one of everything in your cart—especially when limited edition seasonal items hit their shelves—I prefer healthy snacks for my little guy, which I consider low in added sugars and with enough protein and fiber to help curb between-meals hunger and endless snack requests. Here are eight of my favorite kid snacks available at Trader Joe’s: ABC Bars ABC Bars—the ABC stands for “almond butter cocoa”—are a lightly sweetened chocolatey oat bar filled with almond butter....