During a trip through China, I ate a lot of life-changing food—homemade noodles in beef sauce, spicy lotus root with ginger, Sandouping-style boiled peanuts, deep-fried river shrimp with garlic, and the list goes on. Whenever I happened upon a dish I particularly liked, I took plenty of notes so that I could re-create it back home. A Simple Mushroom Stir-Fry While in Beijing and Xi’an, I noticed that much of the food there was sweeter than in the rest of China....

The range is astounding—from different kinds of lychees and durian to jackfruit and soursop. Vietnam is geographically long and varied in climate so many kinds of fruits may be grown, including familiar strawberries and avocados. Within Vietnam’s broad range of fruity goodness, the mango consistently captivates me with its fragrance, silky flesh, and sweet-tangy flavor. It screams, “I’m tropical!” Eating Mango as a Kid When I was about five years old, my mom often mixed chopped mango and rice to get me to eat more....

This version of the old-fashioned Southern treat is made with simple ingredients and uses the refrigerator to do the pickling. The next time you’re enjoying a slice of the summery fruit, save the rinds and give this pickle a try. Easy Pickled Watermelon Rinds Pickling these watermelon rinds is a breeze; all it takes is a melon and a handful of ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry....

For today’s sweet-tart, tropical twist, we’re using pineapple and mango with a brut Cava. What Is Cava? While any sparkling wine would technically be an acceptable choice for a mimosa, I find that certain types of sparkling beverages are better for some juices than others. For the sweet-tart combination of pineapple and mango, I’m sticking with the Spanish sparkling wine called Cava. Cava is often confused with Prosecco, from Italy, since they are both sparkling wines often found intermingled in the wine area of your liquor store....

Usually the beans for this ensemble are refried beans, but this week we decided to serve the beans whole, and dress them up a bit with pan roasted jalapeños, onions, and bacon. So good! Quick and easy too. Sprinkle with fresh chopped cilantro to serve. Want to make your beans from scratch? Here’s how to make them on the stovetop or in a pressure cooker! Remove from pan. Cut away and discard the stem, core, seeds, and veins....

This is a seasonal take on a classic French frisée aux lardons, a bistro-style salad usually made with frisée lettuce, thick-cut pork lardons, hearty croutons, and a poached egg. Here, I skip the croutons in favor of big pieces of fresh fruit and use regular bacon instead of lardons, because that’s what I’m likely to have in my refrigerator. I also swap the poached eggs for steamed eggs with still-runny, velvety yolks....

For this recipe, I’m using store-bought green curry paste, which you can find at the Asian section of a supermarket or at Asian markets. The paste should be thick, not saucy. Once opened, a jar of curry paste will keep in the fridge for a month or more, and you can use it to make other curries. (If your curry came in a tin, I recommend transferring it to a small storage container or freezing it in tablespoon portions....

The flavors of the roasted tomatoes, garlic, carrots, chickpeas, and curry combine beautifully in this vegetable soup while the roasted eggplant gives the soup its substance. I don’t usually like tomato soups, but this one has lots of flavor. We have found that it tastes even better the next day, as the flavors have had more time to blend. Spread them out in an even layer in a rimmed baking sheet, with the tomatoes cut side down on the baking sheet....

Instead of sweetening this all-butter cake only with sugar, I started adding a good portion of honey to complement the aged rum’s heady flavor. It’s loved in our family because it has one of the most delicate crumbs of any cake I make, it’s fairly easy to make, and I usually have all of its ingredients on hand. Try it and I’m positive it will become a favorite in your home too....

Fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped herbs, a few shallots, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil make a perfect sauce to accompany baked salmon fillets. Then put them into ice water for 1 minute. Drain the tomatoes and peel off and discard the skin. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the core and seeds, and dice the flesh. Bake until salmon is barely cooked through and lightly browned on the edges, 8-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon fillets....

Dad doesn’t even like shrimp, and usually refuses to eat it, but he loves making and eating these shrimp cakes. The base is made with sweet potatoes and they are seasoned with spices, jalapeño chiles, and cilantro. This really is one of the best recipes on this site, so if you have even an inkling for making these, do it! A Spice Mix for Seafood This recipe calls for making your own spice mix by toasting and grinding a few different kinds of whole black peppercorns, cumin seeds, and coriander seeds....

Socca is easy to make, only has three ingredients—chickpea flour, salt, and oil (water if you want to get technical) and requires no equipment – just a bowl and a whisk. It can be made over the stovetop in a pan or in the oven using a baking sheet. Here, we make it on the stove, with a thick batter that yields a softly textured, pliable flatbread. Socca is an incredibly simple and quick flatbread to put together, which makes it an easy option for weeknight dinners....

But even creatures of habit need a change every now and then so I started working on a slight variation of my favorite foods and created this Strawberry Oat Smoothie. It has made a strong showing as of late, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Why This Smoothie Makes a Great Breakfast Here are 10 reasons why it makes the cut for me: What Are the Best Oats for Smoothies Oatmeal makes this smoothie very filling because it contains a lot of fiber (soluble and insoluble), and then there’s the bonus of the minerals in the oats....

While incidents like this may seem small, they add up. Over one-third of the food supply in the United States goes uneaten according to the USDA. And in 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that 40% of all food waste in the U.S. comes from consumers and consumer-facing businesses (like restaurants, grocery stores, cafeterias, etc.). This is especially upsetting when you consider that 38 million people in the country are food insecure....

You can go to any department store and be faced with a staggering selection of pans. Sometimes called a skillet or sauté pan, frying pans come in all sorts of sizes and materials. In a dream scenario, you’d have all the frying pans for every sort of culinary occasion. But due to budget and space constraints, most of us choose a top few contenders to stock in our kitchens. With that in mind, Anolon’s Advanced Hard-Anodized Nonstick Frying Pan is our top pick—for both beginners and experts—thanks its versatility and durability....

Luckily we’ve got eco-friendly storage solutions that can help curb our excessive use of plastic in the kitchen. One increasingly popular example is beeswax wrap, a natural, waste-free alternative to plastic wrap. Beeswax wraps are sheets of fabric, most commonly cotton, that are coated with food-grade beeswax, tree resin, jojoba oil, and/or coconut oil. These wraps are moldable, tacky, washable, and most importantly, biodegradable. Unlike plastic wraps, beeswax wraps are breathable, allowing the food to stay fresh longer....

While slow and steady wins the race with a slow cooker, a pressure cooker capitalizes on speed. It works by trapping steam in a sealed pot, allowing food to cook significantly faster than other methods. With a pressure cooker, you can have warm batches of soup, stew, rice, beans, chili, and vegetables in no time. Our top choice, the Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer 11-in-1, even has bonus cooking modes to sous vide, roast, or dehydrate your food....

How Long Does Yeast Last? Sealed, unopened dry yeast keeps about 2 years. Chilling extends its life span, which is why it’s best to store dry yeast (unopened and opened!) in the refrigerator or freezer. Always look at the best-before date before purchasing a bag or jar of yeast, then buy the freshest one. Opened active and instant dry yeast will last four months in the refrigerator and up to six months in the freezer....

This is coming from a dyed-in-the-wool maker of things, sometimes to the point of bad judgement. I make my own lip balm, sauerkraut, yogurt, and even dish liquid. But I will instantly go to bat for commercial vanilla extract. It’s just…better. How am I privy to this intel? Mostly from using various batches of the DIY stuff and comparing it to the results I got making recipes with the little brown bottles from the grocery store....

Or this one: You haven’t baked for a while, and you make a favorite biscuit and use baking powder, only to find that your biscuits bake up flat as hockey pucks. What went wrong? Baking Soda vs Baking Powder Baking soda (a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate) and baking powder are both leaveners used in baking, but they are chemically different. The easiest way to explain it is that baking soda is a base—it’s alkaline....