Home & Family

Dairy Free, Dessert, Dinner Party Theater, Drink, Gluten Free, Home & Family, Summer, Video

Home & Family: Strawberry Shrub

Trust me on this one, drinking vinegar is great for you. A shrub is a vinegary preserved, fruit syrup that will keep you satisfied all Summer long. Stir some into soda water or shake it with a cocktail!

Dairy Free, Dinner, Dinner Party Theater, Drink, Gluten Free, Home & Family, Summer

Summer Crush Cocktail

We all have one. Sometimes it's the ringmaster of that traveling circus with ice-blue eyes, sometimes it's the lifeguard sitting perched atop a lookout, clad only in red. Wherever you may be in life, it is never too late for a summer crush. While I'm pining for that man in the top hat I will make do with this blush colored cocktail. A mix of tequila and my strawberry shrub, this couldn't be easier to assemble. Wow your guests with a non-margarita tequila drink and fall in love with this sweet sip.

Breakfast, Dinner, Home & Family, Video

Home & Family: Icelandic Rye Bread

Iceland is a country full of wonder and delight. Situated on top of volcanic activity, the residents of Iceland have been able to harness the amazing geothermal activity in the area for both heating homes and baking bread. Check out this great rye bread baked underground by steam heat!

Breakfast, Dairy Free, Dessert, Dinner, Dinner Party Theater, Fall, Gluten Free, Home & Family, Snack, Side, Summer, Video

Home & Family: Mealy Fruit

The secret to avoiding mealy fruit this summer lies in temperature control. Learn the science behind those unfortunate peaches and get some tips on storing your favorites while the weather is still warm!

Breakfast, Dairy Free, Dessert, Dinner, Dinner Party Theater, Drink, Fall, Gluten Free, Home & Family, Meat, Side, Snack, Spring, Summer, Veggies, Video, Winter

Home & Family: Nomiku Sous Vide

What was once a tool fit only for commercial kitchens has been adapted for your home! The Nomiku is an immersion circulator for the modern cook. Control temperature within a fraction of a degree for perfect cooking.

Gluten Free, Dinner Party Theater, Home & Family, Read

Mealy Fruit Chemistry

The bounty of summer is upon us and it is time to investigate that most wonderful invention, the refrigerator. Winter harvests produce tough, solid produce, but the joy of summer is in tender, exquisite, gentle fruit and vegetables. These things can spoil quickly and our attempts to keep them in our homes are often met with mealy frustration. But what causes fruit to become mealy? Can it be avoided

Dairy Free, Dessert, Home & Family, Video, Winter, Summer

Home & Family: Candied Fruit

Preserving fruit with sugar is a centuries-old tradition that seems to rear its head every Christmas. As we celebrate Christmas in July with Hallmark, take to heart some candying tips. Get started on this now and you'll have gifts aplenty on your shelf to dole out come December! 

Dinner Party Theater, Home & Family, Meat, Summer, Video

Home & Family: Tandoor Oven

Forget the grill, invest in a few clay pots and build a tandoor in your backyard this summer! For about $100 you can build a natural convection oven that will make you the envy of neighborhood bbq's.

Dairy Free, Dessert, Fall, Gluten Free, Home & Family, Side, Snack, Spring, Summer, Winter

Candied Lemon Peel

This is not a new trick, it is simply good, old, cooking at its best. When we slowly replace water content in food with sugar we act to reduce the amount of H2O necessary to support the growth of bacteria and microbes. Which is to say, we preserve the food. Sugar is a most excellent prison for your lemons. Keep them alive far past their due date with this solution.

Dinner, Dinner Party Theater, Home & Family, Meat, Summer, Read, Veggies

DIY Tandoor Oven

This is how I will become a grillmaster. Neither changing propane tanks, nor praying at the altar of Weber, but rather with a tandoor. The contraption now sits in my backyard, taunting my with its emptiness. It is neither difficult to build nor challenging to maintain and at the risk of sounding alarmist I want to scream through the digitas WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Breakfast, Dessert, Home & Family, Read

Weight vs. Volume

Any scientist worth her salt will tell you that the two most important factors in any experiment are consistency and reproducibility. Considering that every time we bake we are essentially conducting a science experiment, why wouldn’t we hold the same standards in the kitchen?

Home & Family, Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall, Read

Sweet and Easy

Sugar has withstood much slander of late, and I am tempted to defend it in some sense. Yes, sugar is problematic in the human diet, but not solely because of its chemical structure. You see, we are abusing it. We are junkies. We are addicts. And so I present, not a defense, but an exploration of sugar. Knowledge is power, information is delicious. Eat. Think. Be Merry.