I find myself sneaking a spoonful of this sweet, garlicky, spicy honey throughout the day. Once you try it, you’ll wonder why anyone bothers eating honey that isn’t infused with garlic. How to Safely Ferment Garlic Honey Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first. Anytime you store garlic, there is a chance of botulism. This recipe adds fresh cloves of garlic into raw honey, which is naturally acidic and stops bacterial growth....

You don’t even really need the herbs! Cucumbers are crunchy and cool with just some vinegar, salt, and pepper. But added dill or chopped fresh basil will elevate this simple cucumber salad to something just a bit more interesting. I like adding a mix of regular basil and Thai basil (the one that tastes somewhat licorice-y). Using Garden Cucumbers With Cucumber Salad About this time of year, we start having an easy cucumber salad almost every night with dinner....

When it’s corn and tomato season, you really can’t beat this cold soup for a refreshing pick-me-up, day or night. Add creamy diced avocados to make this a filling meal. What Is Gazpacho? Traditional Spanish gazpacho was probably originally made on the spot in the field by farm workers using bread, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and water. And, of course, tomatoes. It has evolved and spawned numerous versions. However you make it, you will want to make it and eat it until the last tomato of summer drops from the vine....

These days when birthdays arise in our household, I’ve found my own tricks to achieve a really moist, super chocolatey cake and cupcakes. This recipe uses one of our son’s favorite foods: bananas. If you’ve got an overripe banana laying around and some gluten-free flour in your pantry, you’re well on your way to making these delicious allergy-friendly cupcakes. They’re gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free—always a winner for class parties when your kiddo or any of their friends have dietary restrictions....

Recently, I decided to recreate them at home, only making them gluten-free and dairy-free so we could share them with our extended family and friends, many of whom have food sensitivities and allergies. What Makes a Great Gluten-Free Muffin These muffins are moist with a tight, dense crumb. They feel much heartier than a super fluffy muffin. They’re also studded generously with dark chocolate but aren’t too sweet. And they couldn’t be easier to make: two bowls, no mixer, and the muffins are ready in under an hour....

While grape seeds have always been around, they are tiny and do not give up their oil easily. Thanks to technological advances, it’s now possible to extract oil from those seeds! Grapeseed oil has a neutral taste and aroma. It’s valued for cooking because it holds up to high heat and adds no flavor of its own to a dish. This lack of culinary character makes it a popular supporting player for recipes when you want other flavors to be a star....

I don’t know how they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the Emerald Isle, but it amuses me to no end that here in the States we get decked out in green (lest we invite a pinch), make corned beef and cabbage, and enjoy Ireland’s most celebrated foamy export—Guinness extra stout. You know St. Pat’s is close at hand when the grocery stores start stacking cases of it. It’s malty, hearty, and rich....

Learn it and you, too, will be more apt to throw all kinds of fresh herbs in your cooking! Leafy Herbs vs. Woody Herbs First off, these techniques are for soft, leafy herbs—ones like parsley, tarragon, basil, and sage. They don’t work so well for firm, woody herbs that are all needle-y, like rosemary and thyme. We’re sharing two techniques. One is for little leaves like parsley and cilantro. The other is for flat, broad leaves like basil and sage....

Grilling meat to a safe and delicious temperature for consumption is a seemingly straightforward process, but to achieve backyard grillmaster status, it’s important to understand the types of heat and the degrees of temperature needed for each cut. Grilling Prep As I said above, meat should be cooked to a safe and delicious temperature. A bone-in ribeye steak is safe to eat with an internal temperature of 180º F, but unless you are looking for a doorstop, you will not want to eat it....

So, what is the best way to measure wet and dry ingredients for baking? Measuring by Volume First things first: use the right measuring cup for the right ingredients. Measuring flour in a liquid measuring cup will mess up your recipe. Same with measuring water in a dry measuring cup. Why? Liquid and dry ingredients have different properties. Secondly, not all measuring cups are created equal! Measurements are standardized, but inexpensive sets can (and do) vary in size....

Unfortunately, peeling tomatoes can be more complicated than a typical vegetable. If you try to use a vegetable peeler for the task, you will often lose more flesh than you might like. There are other ways, too, such as microwaving or freezing tomatoes; both approaches seem simple enough, but the former can unevenly heat the fruit while the latter takes too long. So, what’s the best way to peel a tomato?...

“What are we going to do with this goat?” Elise asked. Her acupuncturist Steve had given her an entire front shoulder of a goat from a local farm. Why not goat curry? It was one of my favorite Jamaican foods growing up in New Jersey, along with those awesome meat patties the street hawkers would sell on corners in New York City. Rich, filling and spicy, goat curry (often made with beef back then, when goat was a little harder to find in NYC) was just as good on a hot day as a cold one....

Here’s a guide to the MVP ingredients you’ll need for taking any recipe in a plant-based direction. Instead of Tuna, Try Chickpeas Just like lentils, chickpeas are a great way to up the nutritional quotient of a meal by swapping out meat. When coarsely mashed, they make a surprisingly good stand-in for tuna in the classic tuna salad sandwich. They also provide a convenient option for veganizing saucy chicken dishes....

This microwave baked potato cuts way down on the cook time with nearly identical results (especially if you use my finish-in-the-oven hack below). For a Better Baked Potato, Use the Microwave There are two main reasons to use a microwave to make a baked potato: How to Get Crispy Skin If you cherish the crispy potato skin of a baked potato (I know I do), there’s a trick to achieving a crisp exterior on a microwave potato....

The basic elements are mixed greens with pecans and goat cheese, tossed with a sweet mustard vinaigrette. The recipe has plenty of room for improvisation—use baby spinach or butter lettuce instead of or in addition to the mixed greens, orange segments or sliced kumquats for a citrus note, toasted walnuts instead of pecans, etc. Use more or less of any ingredient to taste. 4 ounces whole pecans 1 tablespoon butter, melted 1 tablespoon sugar...

In my never-ending quest to develop a seafood roll recipe that was undeniably delicious, budget-friendly, and simple to put together, I landed on these warm, Old Bay-spiced shrimp rolls that just so happen to be as crowd-pleasing as they are economical. The Components of a Shrimp Roll There aren’t a ton of ingredients in these shrimp rolls, but each serves a very specific (and important) purpose: The hot dog buns keep everything in their compact, handheld package, and since they’re top split, both sides of the buns can be toasted to buttery, golden perfection....

You know all the times you pull out a fork or knife to test the tenderness/doneness/cooked-through-ness of something? Use a metal cake tester instead! The advantage of a metal cake tester over a fork or knife is that the tester’s tiny pinprick doesn’t let steam or juices escape prematurely (crucial if you’re testing the softness of a foil-wrapped baked potato or roasted beet and it ends up needing more time) or leave behind a noticeable slit or three-pronged poke in your food that can compromise the structure of a delicate piece of fish, for example....

Don’t get me wrong—brines, marinades, and dry rubs are great for adding flavor. But the meat needs to marinate for the flavors to come through and that takes time, sometimes a while. With a paste you can grill at a moment’s notice. We’ll show you how! Then, head outside and fire up the most talked-about cookout of the summer—it’s just a matter of paste. The Building Blocks for a Tasty Paste A paste should be thick and spreadable—enough to generously douse the meat right on the grill—so it needs to be sticky, not loose and runny....