The most difficult and frustrating part of making homemade sugar cookies, however, is working with the dough. It can be complicated, even as an intermediate baker, to strike that balance between keeping the dough cold but warm enough to work with it. What’s a baker to do? Here’s my trick. A Better Way to Roll Out Cookie Dough Most people who make sugar cookie dough from scratch were taught to roll the dough out after it’s been chilled....
If I have some leftover chicken in the fridge, I use that for these easy meals. Otherwise, I use this poaching method to quickly cook a few chicken breasts when I need them! Moist and Tender Cooked Chicken When you want silky, tender chicken without a lot of fuss or fanfare, this chicken recipe is the way to go. The chicken cooks gently, retaining much more moisture than with other cooking methods....
The stalks are tough and typically discarded, but the wispy fronds are a lot like dill in texture. They can be chopped fine to use as an herb in soups, sautés, and baked goods. The bulb is most often served thinly sliced and it can be eaten raw in salads, skillet cooked, or roasted in the oven. Eaten raw it is a lot like celery in texture – crispy with a high water content....
My freezer is jammed to the gills—and not only with normal things like frozen fruit and chicken sausage, but also with the random bits of food that one tends to collect as a professional food writer and recipe tester. (Witness: several cups of unused rugelach filling, enough frozen whipped cream to last for months, and more Thanksgiving turkey than you need to know about.) This is all to say that I have learned a trick or two regarding Freezer Tetris and how to maximize space....
A habit I brought home from working in a bakery is always lining my cake pans, even when a recipe doesn’t expressly call for it. Lining your cake pans provides some stress-reducing confidence: the cake layers come out of the pan cleanly every time. And for loaf cakes, you can even use the parchment as a convenient handle to lift the cake out easily. Why Should You Line Cake Pans with Parchment Paper?...
As soon as the roast is done cooking, we remove it to a cutting board to rest. While the roast is resting, we place the roasting pan and all of the drippings it contains on the stovetop and start making the gravy. We’ll use either cornstarch or flour to thicken the gravy, the process is similar for both. Cornstarch Versus Flour for Gravy What’s the difference between using cornstarch or flour to make your gravy?...
His mother, my grandmother who was born in 1899 and lived to the age of 97, used chicken feet when she made her stock and my dad could always tell when a soup had been made with stock from chicken feet. Chicken feet have their own unique and wonderful flavor, and the added gelatin from the feet give whatever dish is made with the stock a luxurious feeling when eating it....
I have a soft spot in my heart for whipped cream because I used it to convince my very young children that I had magical powers. I’d pour liquid heavy cream into a cold bowl then using just a whisk and a little effort my secret power was revealed—I could transform “milk” into sweetened whipped cream perfect for topping strawberries. They. Were. AMAZED! It’s one of my many superpowers as mom....
What Is Ginger? First of all, ginger isn’t really a root. It’s the rhizome (or swollen underground stem) of a tropical plant. Ginger rhizomes grow in sprawling formations, leading to the market term “hand of ginger” for a large, knobby cluster. You can buy ginger fresh or dried. Dried ginger is usually ground, but sometimes it’s sold in intact individual dried segments. When shopping, look for ginger root that’s firm, not shriveled....
It is light and luscious and doesn’t spoil your appetite for the feast that follows. The silky and creamy yet light bisque is the star of the show, while small chunks of lobster play a supporting role. It has a rich lobster flavor and a velvety, sumptuous texture. An Updated and Easier Lobster Bisque I learned to make traditional lobster bisque from a mentor-chef while working at a restaurant. Lobster bisque used to be fancy French restaurant fare, not typically under the purview of home cooks....
If I had to guess, I would bet on any one of these meals. The birthday boy likes spicy, decadent foods, making mac and cheese with chorizo a great choice. He also loves cheesy burritos, especially if it’s topped with guacamole and lots of salsa, so maybe vegetarian freezer burritos? Nacho burgers would surely delight this tween since burgers are never a bad idea, especially when combined with nachos, another favorite....
First, sheet pan recipes are amazing. Toss stuff on a sheet pan. Bake it. Come back in however long, and dinner is done. Cleanup is so easy!Second, homemade ranch seasoning. Many of the ranch pork chop recipes on the internet use the store-bought seasoning mix, and while you can use that in this recipe, I highly recommend trying my homemade mix. It keeps great for months and has so much more flavor than the store-bought version....
Brilliant! A lot like cheesy bread but more fun. I thought I would do my own version with jack and jalapeños. Yum! It’s like a bread version of nachos. In the shape of a hedgehog. That you have to get your fingers messy with melted cheese to eat. Just the thing for a bunch of friends gathered to watch football, don’t you think? Speaking of which, we have several fine Superbowl recipes on the site if you are looking for ideas....
If you’re like me, you can’t wait for peak tomato season, that magical time of year when there is an abundance of sweet, juicy tomatoes available everywhere you turn. But if you’re also like me, waiting for tomatoes to reach peak ripeness is, well, difficult. Produce ripening patience is certainly a learned skill. So, while we wait, let me introduce you to the green tomato. Green tomatoes are simply unripe tomatoes....
You can also make a simple sauce and poach the salmon in it, which is what we are doing here with these fillets, cooking them in a sauce of onions, tomatoes, white wine, and capers. Preparing salmon this way perfect for a quick and and easy midweek meal, and elegant enough for company. And, by the way, it tastes great! How could it not, with these ingredients, right? The tomato onion caper sauce hits all the notes—sweet from the tomatoes and onions, salty from the capers, tang from the tomatoes, lemon juice, and wine, and a dash of bitter from the lemon zest....
We used dinosaur kale (aka Lacinato or Tuscan kale) but you could easily use collard greens, mustard or turnip greens, or spinach. Any leafy green will do. The bonus? It takes less than 10 minutes to cook. Updated from the recipe archive, first posted 2010
And with the season in mind, I figured this week we could enjoy two of my favorite autumn foods: delicata squash and sweet potatoes. While I’m sure you’re already very familiar with the latter, one of this week’s recipes is a great introduction to the beauty of the former. The colorful yellow and green exterior of delicata squash presents well on any plate, and it has a light, delicate squash flavor....
These caramels are my candy pride and joy. For me, the “perfect” caramel is one that is not runny, yet one that isn’t too hard. A buttery flavor is a must and it can’t be grainy in the slightest. This recipe covers all of those bases, so you can see why I share it with pleasure. Because I’ve already beat myself over the head with candy-making frustration, I expect this recipe to be a walk in the Candyland park for you....
Glutinous Rice: It’s Sticky! Glutinous rice is grown throughout the Far East and eaten as grain and ground into flour. When cooked the glutinous rice becomes sticky, each grain holds onto each other like a group hug. Each bite is really sticky, chewy, and satisfying. Glutinous rice is a misnomer since it has no gluten in it. I am not particular to a brand of glutinous rice. They all seem to be forgiving and work well....
