If you have any questions or anything you would like to know how to do, post it here. Whenever possible, I will have "Viewer Mail" posts in which I will answer the questions posted here.

Enjoy!

Kitchen essentials: knives, equipment, pantry
Cooking methods: dry (searing/sauteing, pan frying, deep frying, broiling/grilling, roasting/baking), wet (poaching/simmering/boiling, steaming), mixed (braising, stewing)
Mixing methods (specifically pertaining to baking): muffin method, creaming method, bisquit method
Making menus and shopping lists for the week
Making a roux
Other thickening methods
The 5 "mother" sauces: bechamel, veloute, tomato, espagnole, hollandaise (Those last two will probably be awhile. I never use espagnole, and hollandaise is very difficult.)
Making gravy
Fabricating a chicken
Candy making
Storage
Pie
Making salad dressing
Chocolate
Cooking pasta
Cheesecake
Yeast breads
Cooking eggs
Egg white foams
Pancakes and waffles
Cooking rice

I have moved this blog to pinchofkaty.blogspot.com. It's more accessible since I can get on blogger at work. I hope to see you there. :)

I don't even want to look at the thing that tells me how long it's been since I last updated. Evan and I just moved into our new house (!) on Friday, so the past two weeks have all been packing and moving and unpacking and cleaning and packing some more and moving some more and . . . you get the idea.

But, I actually got a chance to cook tonight. I made this cake, which may have been an unmitigated disaster. I haven't had the guts to take it out of the pan yet. I did something really stupid and put it in a springform pan. Word to the wise: those things leak. Don't pour cherries in a liquid in the bottom of one of them. Especially when you are out of paper towels and will therefore stain one of your dishcloths.

On to happier news, I made a kick-ass pasta salad tonight. I'd never attempted a pasta salad before. My mother often told me of how she could never get a pasta salad to work for her, so I had kind of developed a fear of making pasta salad. Well, it's actually pretty easy. I don't know what I was afraid of. Here's what I put in it, but I don't think it really needs a recipe. I just looked in my fridge for what looked good and threw it all together. Based on my admittedly limited experience, I would suggest 1 part pasta, 1 part veggies, 1/4-1/2 part cheese, and 1/4-1/2 part meat (if you wish).

( Here's what I put in mine. )

Untried Sweet Recipe of the Week
Brownies from Mark Bittman

Untried Savory Recipe of the Week
Pasta with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Bacon from Serious Eats

Internet Tool of the Week
Food Blog Search

Cooking Tip of the Week
How to Make Grilled Pizza via Serious Eats - This makes me even more eager to move into our house so we can actually use our grill. (The city we live in does not allow propane grills in aparment complexes.)

Food News of the Week
Craft Brewers Reformulate Beer to Cope With Hops Shortage - I thought my favorite beers tasted different.

Funny Food of the Week
Steve Carell's SNL Monologue via Serious Eats

( The rest under the cut )

Getting started in a kitchen is hard. If you don't have a lot of experience cooking, how do you know what you need to buy now, what can wait for later, and what will go unused? I already had a fair amount of cooking experience when I got married and moved out of my parents' house, but I still messed up. There were quite a few things that I wished I had put on our wedding registry and a few that I look at now and go, "Why did I want that?" For example? An iced tea maker. I had an idea that since my husband--good southern boy that he is--liked sweet tea, I could make it at home with an iced tea maker. I used it once. It's still taking up space in my small appliance area in the pantry. I honestly don't know why I haven't gotten rid of it.

Now let me preface this list by saying that I normally cook for myself and my husband only. The following list of equipment has served me well in this capacity. I feel that it would still translate well to larger families, but I can't know for sure. I've divided the list into three parts. I would recommend buying everything in the first list before attempting to cook in your kitchen. (You should be able to do this with good quality equipment for less than $300. Yes, you can buy the cheap stuff and save some money, but you'll just end up buying it over and over. Get some good quality, durable equipment, please.) The other two lists I have put approximately in the order in which you should buy them.

The Bare Bones Kitchen
7"-9" chef's knife, paring knife, serrated bread knife - We've been over this one.
2 cutting boards - You need two for food safety reasons-one for meat, one for veggies. You can use a wooden cutting board for veggies, but I would recommend plastic or silicone for meat. Don't use glass or marble cutting boards period. They will dull your knives.
10" saute pan - Non-stick or not, it's really your choice. I have both, but I only end up using the non-stick pan for eggs. Most foods will let go of the pan if you let them sit long enough and start them on a pan that's already heated. If you go with a pan without a non-stick coating, don't buy one that is copper or aluminum. Both metals will leach into acidic foods and make it taste weird. However, if you're into candy making, copper is great. You'll use this to sear meat, saute vegetables, pan fry, and make some sauces.
stock pot and/or dutch oven - I like cast iron dutch ovens over enameled ones. I'm paranoid that the enamel will chip, and besides, cast iron pans enrich your food with iron. When I was little, I was
anemic at one point. The doctor told my mother to cook my food on cast iron. Crazy, isn't it? You'll use this to make soups, cook pasta, deep fry, and braise.
8" square baking pan - I like pyrex best. It's easier to tell when food is done and harder to burn it. You'll use this for cakes and casseroles. It also works as a roasting pan in a pinch if you don't
need to cover what you're cooking. For that, you can use the dutch oven.
Utensils - Silicone spatula, can opener, mixing bowls, and measuring cups and spoons (Oxo good grip ones are great. For liquids I have an adjustable one that's basically a tube on a gasket.)

Not Quite so Bare Bones
baking equipment - 2 half sheet pans or cookie sheets, pie pan, muffin tin, loaf pan, whisk and/or hand mixer, rolling pin
vegetable peeler - Buy one with a comfy handle, not one of those cheap metal things. You know what I'm talking about.
tongs - I use these all the time - to stir pasta, to flip solid food, to toss salads, etc.
wire mesh strainer- Use it to drain pasta, strain sauces/custards/etc, sift flour, decorate cakes with powdered sugar.
cast iron skillet - I use if for pan frying, cooking high-fat meat (helps keep the seasoning), and pancakes. Nothing in your kitchen will heat as evenly. It's a champ.
grater

Time to Trick it out
digital probe thermometer - get one that has a digital readout where you plug in the thermometer which is attached to a cord (like
this). That way, when you're cooking something in the oven, you don't have to open the door to see how close it is to being done. Plus, it has an alarm that will go off when the thermometer reads a
certain temperature.
toaster or toaster oven - I like the toasters with big openings so you're less limited with what you can put in there.
crock pot - Put food in there and leave it all day. Low maintenance cooking at its best.
9"x13" cake pan and/or 2 9" round cake pans and/or springform pan - if you're into astetics when you bake or like cheesecake
stand mixer - I'll just say this. There's a reason KitchenAid is the gold standard. I hear Cuisinart also makes a good one. Look for one with a planetary motion (it orbits while it's spinning). There should
be one beater, not two. They generally come with a whisk, a paddle, and a dough hook. I got my KitchenAid for $100 off Amazon (they have them on sale every once and a while. Be patient and wait for the
sale.)
roasting pan - If you plan to ever make Thanksgiving dinner, you will need one. Get one with a rack. I like the flat ones best.
blender or immersion blender - If you're into smoothies, buy a regular blender. Otherwise, I'd go with the immersion one. Immersion blenders are especially good for making milkshakes and pureeing soups.
food processor - I use mine mostly for making pastry dough and bread crumbs and grating veggies. If you're going to buy a food processor, get the grating and slicing blades. You'll thank me later.
ice cream maker - I have the Cuisinart version where you put the core in the freezer overnight and it sits on a rotating base. It hasn't failed me yet.
coffee grinder - I really want one of those coffee makers that grinds the coffee for you. Anyway, this is nice for having nice, fresh coffee in the morning or for grinding whole spices.
salad spinner - It's good to get the moisture off the surface of greens before storing them. It helps them stay good longer.
pizza stone - The best homemade pizza comes off a pizza stone.

Untried Sweet Recipe of the Week
Chocolate and Raspberry Cake with Chocolate Glaze from Use Real Butter - Oh my goodness. I need to be careful to protect the keyboard from all the drooling.

Untried Savory Recipe of the Week
Grilled Sweet Potato Salad - I love, I mean love, sweet potatoes. It's like the perfect food. You can make it into a side dish or dessert. Mash it. Bake it. Fry it. Put it in a pie. And it's good for you too. Good stuff.

Cooking Tip of the Week
Your One-Stop Shop for Work Lunch Ideas from Cheap Healthy Good

Internet Tool of the Week
Eats.com - Share local restaurant reviews with fellow eaters.

Food News of the Week
They took all the risk out of eating fugu (poisonous blowfish - Does that mean they took out all the fun? Apparently the best sushi chefs will allow a tiny bit of poison (it's in the liver) to get into the meat of the fish, thus giving you a tingling sensation. Will people want it without the tingle?

Funny Food of the Week
An introduction to the world of cheese racing from Serious Eats


( The rest under the cut )

This post is really just an excuse to teach you how to make tomato sauce. Though Italian sausage is certainly a yummy way to augment your tomato sauce. I confess that I do not often make my tomato sauce. I don't know why. You can make it in giant batches for way cheaper, especially if you use herbs from your garden. Unfortunately, a batch large enough to use an entire package of fresh herbs would be ridiculous. Alternatively, you could also use dried herbs, but it won't taste as good. Seriously, plant an herb garden. Basil, oregano, and thyme are great and quite versatile. I could eat basil straight off the plant. Seriously.

Okay, so I don't actually have an herb garden right now. We're moving from an apartment to a house in less than a month, and it would be a serious pain to move it. I want one so bad. :( I got the herbs from my very first CSA box. The basil was so beautiful I could cry.

So, how do you make tomato sauce?

You can make a basic tomato sauce with just olive oil, garlic, onion, and tomatoes. You saute the garlic and onion in the olive oil. (Most recipes require you to sweat the garlic and onions, meaning you cook them slowly until they turn transparent without letting them brown. I like sauting better. Letting the onion get a little bit of color makes it more flavorful.) Then, you add the tomatoes and simmer. You can augment it by adding bell pepper (with the garlic and onions), oregano, thyme, basil, and/or parsley (at the end), and/or crushed red pepper (whenever, pretty much). I put all of these in my tomato sauce, and I am glad to say that my husband said it was his favorite. I use a mixture of diced and crushed tomatoes because I like the consistency of the sauce at the end, but you can use any that you want. Or even fresh ones.

( Recipe follows )

Stephanie, over at Dispensing Happiness is hosting a Blog Party with a Buffy theme this month. How could I possibly resist? I thought ideas would come to me easily since I was only obsessed with the show for six years, but I haven't watched in almost as long. (When did it go off the air?) I need to go back and watch some, especially the good ole old school second and third season episodes. And call me crazy, but I love me some season four as well. Yea, I know. Adam was lame, but it had some of the best episodes. Beer Bad, anyone? Something Blue? Fear Itself? Hush? = possibly the best episode of the entire show.

Anyway, to the food.



I'd say the inspiration is pretty obvious, wouldn't you? I felt so clever when I came up with it. I used a panini press, but you don't really need one. Just make sure you press down well with a spatula and cook it like a grilled cheese. Or you can just go crazy and use two pans like Alton Brown does. Crazy dude. *hearts* I ate the panini with a salad and called it dinner, but they also make for tasty finger food - depending on the bread, of course. Skinny baguette=finger food. Big fat round loaf=meal.

( My hat has a cow on it )

And to drink with it? A stake driver! What's in it? Why, vodka and orange juice, of course. I know, clever.

I also tried to make red velvet cupcakes with a red filling so it would "bleed" when you bit into it, but the filling fell to the bottom . . . so that didn't work. Put one in the lesson learned column.

Untried Sweet Recipe of the Week
Nutella Ice Cream originally from Chocolate and Zucchini - It seems like it would be pretty rich, but who can resist Nutella?

Untried Savory Recipe of the Week
Bourek bil Kefta from 64 sq ft kitchen - It's a North African spring roll type concoction, and it looks really yummy. I have a fascination with Middle Eastern flavors, but I've never tried them. (Well, actually, I did go to an Israeli restaurant in New York. Oh man, that was good.)

Cooking Tip of the Week
How Does Brining Work? from The Kitchn- Brining works great on poultry, pork, and shellfish. It helps the meat stay juicy and infuses it with flavor. This post explains why.

Internet Tool of the Week
Cookthink - Plug in what you're in the mood for, and it will spit out recipes to satisfy that mood.

Funny Food of the Week
Cigarettea via Slashfood - Basically a teabag shaped like a cigarette. I suppose it can soothe the oral fixation and feel of the cigarette in the hand for people who are trying to quit smoking.

For Your Recipe Collection
Roasted Chickpeas
Steamed Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Energy Bars
Lemon Chicken
Hush Puppies - I have such a weakness for them.
Flower Pot Desserts - This one goes against my from scratch sensibilities, but when the end result is this cute, who cares?
Scallion Pancakes
Homemade Oreo Cookies

For Your Edification
Asian Flavor Combinations
Italian Pasta Template
Indian Ingredients and Flavors
What is Spelt?
How to Decode PLU Stickers

For Your Entertainment
Culinary Brain Teaser: The Incompatible Food Triad
A Dishwasher for Your Wall

All right. This is going to be the beginning of a mini-marathon of
posts. I have indeed been cooking and taking pictures and such, but I
have just not had time to actually post any of it what with looking
for a house and everything. I figured that we'd have more time since
we bid on a house and our offer was accepted, but we're having
problems with the contract. So, ugh.

In happier news, red beans and rice is yummy.

Let's start(ish) this out with a little lesson in Creole cooking, of
which red beans and rice is a part. Apparently, it is not Cajun.
Personally, I find Cajun and Creole nearly indistinguishable since
they share very similar flavor profiles. Does that make me a bad
southerner? Perhaps. I can, however, tell you a bit about the
history of the two cuisines. Cajuns - or Acadians - came from Canada.
They have French roots, and therefore Cajun cooking is French cooking
adapted to locally available ingredients. Hence you have the
ubiquitous presence of roux (a thickening agent based on flour and
butter or oil), stock, and their adaptation of mirepoix called the
holy trinity. Mirepoix consists of two parts onion, one part celery,
and one part carrot. The holy trinity simply replaces the carrot with
bell pepper.

Creole cooking originated in New Orleans. It also uses French
techniques, but blends other European, African, and American
influences. It also has different origins in that Cajun cooking
originated from peasant food while Creole cooking originated with
aristocrats.

Along with roux, chicken stock, shellfish stock, onion, celery, and
bell pepper, there are several ingredients you will commonly find in
Cajun and/or Creole cooking. These include garlic, green onions,
cayenne pepper, bay leaf, shellfish (esp. crawfish (crawfish etoufee
is friggin yummy)), smoked sausage (esp. andouille), and white rice.
You can pretty successfully fake a Cajun/Creole dish by including the
holy trinity and some of the other ingredients.

Now let me say that I am not an expert on these cuisines. I've
learned what I have by looking for recipes to satisfy the tastes of my
Southern boy of a husband and talking to my history buff and
Louisiana-living father in law.

Now that the background is over, let's get to the cooking.

Traditionally, the beans, rice, and sausage are cooked separately and
combined at the dinner table, but I don't do that. I mean, why dirty
up three pots when you can dirty up just one? So I throw it all in
the Crock Pot. This is also often made with a pork bone or ham hock,
but I don't do that either. I find the andouille sausage imparts
plenty of meaty flavor to the beans. If you are a vegetarian, I would
suggest adding some liquid smoke or smoked meat substitute as the
smoky flavor of the sausage is very important to the dish. This makes
a ton, and it's even better as leftovers, so freeze it for later.

( On to the recipe! )

Untried sweet recipe of the week
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake from Food & Wine - It has a blackberry filling and sounds, just, yummy.

Untried savory recipe of the week
Roasted Asparagus with Parmigiano Reggiano from Serious Eats - I usually saute my asparagus in butter or olive oil to the "tender crisp" stage, but this recipe cooks the asparagus far past that point. I've never tried it that way, but it sounds intriguing.

Cooking tip of the week
Tips for squeezing extra value out of ordinary kitchen items from Serious Eats

Internet tool of the week
FOODPAIRING - You can pick ingredients from a list, and it will tell you what goes with it and how well.

Food news of the week
Who says you need eight glasses a day? from Slate - an interesting look at the origins of the "8x8" myth. I don't think it really hurts anybody to drink eight glasses of water a day unless they don't get enough salt in their diet, but it annoys the crap out of me when people wear it like a badge of honor that they drink 64 oz of water a day. Whoop-dee-doo. It reminds me of a Jim Gaffigan sketch where he talks about vegetarians bragging about not eating meat, but that'll get me into this whole thing about people bragging about making lateral changes in lifestyle. Let's just suffice to say that I don't like it. But I do like Jim Gaffigan.

Funny food of the week
Optimus Prime assembled out of tin cans from Neatorama


For your recipe collection:
Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw with Creamy Cole Slaw Dressing from A Veggie Venture
Migas from Serious Eats (A great way to use up stale tortilla chips)
Sweet Potato Bread Pudding from The Kitchn
Poppy Seed Pancakes from 101 Cookbooks
Hash Browns from Simply Recipes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies from Pip in the City
Chile con Queso from Homesick Texan
102 Light Salad Dressing Recipes from Cheap Healthy Good

For your edification:
How to Make a Mini S'mores Grill from Serious Eats
Guide to storing cheese from The Kitchn
Hot to Brine Meat from The Kitchn
How to store fresh herbs from Simply Recipes
How to Mix by Folding from The Kitchn
A Beginner's Guide to TV Chefs from Cheap Healthy Good

For your amusement:
Marijuana Laced "Happy Pizza" Taken off the Market in Cambodia via Serious Eats
The Kitchen of the Future ca. 1999 (video from 1967) from Serious Eats
Fresh, Homemade Rick Rolls via Slashfood

Tupperware is giving away $1 for every purchase of selected items to Boys and Girls Club. In celebration/to bring attention to this, What's Cooking? is hosting a cooking challenge. The challenge was to make something that you loved from your childhood or that your kids love.

The first thing I thought of was chicken and noodles. It was my favorite meal growing up. Somehow, I don't seem to have any special memories to share about it. Unfortunately, my mother used boxed Lipton butter noodles and canned chicken to make it. My foodie sensibilities just will not allow me to make it that way. (Yes, I am a snob.) So, what you see below is my interpretation of a childhood classic in my house. I tried more to imitate the looks of it than the taste. I chose to use a bechamel(milk sauce) for the creamy sauce, though a combination of chicken stock or vegetable stock and milk would work just as well. A chicken stock would be especially nice since it would make the dish taste more chicken-y. I mostly chose the herbs to mimic the green speckled look of the sauce that I remember, but they still go quite well with garlic. I would suggest using leftover chicken for this, mostly because otherwise, you need three pots/pans to make it.

( Recipe follows )

I can't lie. This has been a difficult one for me. It's hard to come up with a pantry that will work for everyone. Personal taste and dietary restrictions certainly play into what goes into a pantry quite a bit, but this should be a pretty good multipurpose pantry, especially if you're stocking it for the first time. This pantry will include perishable items, but only those that should be in your fridge most, if not all, of the time.

( What's good in the pantry? )

I'll be sure in the future to indicate any recipes you can cook from the pantry or by adding 3 or fewer ingredients to what is on this list.

See up there? That's my first foray into the world of food photography. Not bad for a first attempt if I do say so myself. (Though I have to admit to a little post-camera tweaking.) That lovely looking strawberry sorbet you see above is what I made tonight. It's so so yummy. And it's really not that hard . . . assuming you have an ice cream maker. It would be rather difficult if you didn't. I have this one, and I very much enjoy it. To get it ready for the sorbet, the core has to go into the freezer the day before.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I used some leftover strawberries that were in my freezer as well as some in my fridge. So the amount on the strawberries is purely an estimate. However, I think it's pretty close thanks to the gauge on the side of my blender.

You'll notice the presence of alcohol in the sorbet. Don't worry. You can't taste it. It's just there to lower the melting point of the sorbet and therefore help keep it from freezing into a strawberry-flavored block of ice. If you wanted to be able to taste the alcohol you add, I would recommend orange liqueur or brandy. If you use those, I would up the alcohol content a tad and lower the sugar content to keep it from becoming too sweet and preserve the texture. Other ways to tweak? Lemon juice and/or zest or balsamic vinegar.

( Recipe behind the cut )

I made stock yesterday. Stock is a strange dichotomy for me. It's really quite simple to make, but it makes me feel like an accomplished cook when I see water turn into a rich, golden liquid because of something I did. It might also have something to do with the fact that when I make stock, it means I have cooked with a whole chicken, which means I have cut it into pretty little pieces of drumsticks, thighs, and boneless-skinless chicken breasts. This is a somewhat complex process, so I won't get into it now. But if you'd like to make your own stock without starting with a whole chicken, I would suggest using chicken wings or chicken feet. Most supermarkets will not have these on display, but you should be able to get them if you ask the butcher. In fact, they will probably be glad to get rid of them. If you roast a whole chicken, you can also use the leftover bones for the stock. The bones from a roasted chicken will yield a slightly different result. The stock will be darker and a bit more flavorful than a stock that starts with raw bones. They both have their place in the kitchen.

Chemistry 101
When you make stock, you are infusing the water with the flavor of chicken and your choice of vegetables, yes, but mostly you are working magic with the bones. See, bones are full of collagen, and when you cook collagen slowly with a wet cooking method, the collagen dissolves and becomes gelatin. Gelatin, the thing that makes Jell-O possible, gives stock a rich, meaty mouthfeel. It's also why soup turns into goo when you put it in the refrigerator.

Basic Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
1 chicken carcass, broken down into small pieces or 1 lb of chicken wings and/or feet (cut wings at joints, cut claws off feet)
2 carrots, cut into large chunks
2 celery stalks, cut into large chunks
1/2 onion, layers separated
Optional: herbs (1 bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, a couple sprigs of parsley, and a couple peppercorns would be what I suggest. I usually leave them out. I prefer to not risk the clash of seasonings when I put stock in a dish. Some people also put salt in their stock, but I do not. That's mostly a personal preference, but if this stock is ever going to be reduces, salting it would be a bad idea.)
Water

Method:
1) Toss all ingredients into a large pot and pour in enough cold water to cover everything.
2) Put the pot on a burner set to medium-high, and let it come to a boil.
3) Once it has come to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low. You want it to just be at a simmer - bubbles slowly coming to the surface.
4) Let it simmer for at least 2 hours. 4-8 hours is ideal. Check on it every once in a while to make sure it hasn't come to a boil and to remove any scum that has risen to the surface with a slotted spoon or a wire strainer.
5) When the stock is done, fill a large bowl or your sink with ice and water and place a container big enough to hold the stock in the middle. This step is not completely necessary for a batch this size, but it is reassuring from a food safety standpoint. Also, if you make a batch much larger than this, putting hot stock into your refrigerator will raise the temperature of the fridge into the "danger zone". Letting the stock cool on the stove top is also a bad idea, therefore, ice bath.
6) Place a fine strainer on top of your container, and ladle stock over the strainer into the container until the water level in the pot is low enough that you feel confident pouring the stock from the pot. You can also siphon it, but be careful not to burn yourself.
7) Stir the stock to help it cool quickly, then cover and store in the refrigerator.
8) The next day, there should be a layer of fat on the top. You should be able to just pull it off. Now your stock is done. Use it within the next few days, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

I apologize for not posting in, goodness, eight weeks. It's been a rough eight weeks. This is actually the first weekend I've been home in that time. Unfortunately, I still don't have a "real" entry to give you, but I'm hoping a little link soup will tide you over. Soon, I promise, will be two posts on kitchen equipment and what to put in your pantry. For now, enjoy the soup.

For your recipe collection:
Cheesy Bread from Simply Recipes - Difficulty Rating: Easy
Ocean Broccoli Beef from Tigers and Strawberries - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Thousand Layer Lasagna from 101 Cookbooks - Difficulty Rating: Very hard
Hashed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon from Simply Recipes - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Creamed Spinach with Bacon from Simply Recipes - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Granola from Orangette - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
The Ultimate Minimalist Macaroon from Bitten - Difficulty Rating: Easy
A Birthday Cake Recipe That's a Keeper from Slashfood
Gingerbread with Milk Chocolate from Serious Eats - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Salted Caramel Ice Cream from David Lebovitz - Difficulty Rating: Hard
De-LICIOUS Chocolate Pie from The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Red Velvet Cake from Serious Eats - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Pasta Puttanesca from Smitten Kitchen - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Green Bean and Radish Salad from Serious Eats - Difficulty Rating: Easy
Busy Day Cake from Orangette - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
DIY TV Dinners from Chow
Steel-Cut Oats from The Kitchn - Difficulty Rating: Easy
Hamantaschen from Serious Eats - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding from Leite's Culinaria - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Calzones from The Kitchn - Difficulty Rating: Moderate
Slow-Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken from The Kitchn - Difficulty Rating: Moderate

For your edification:
Poaching Eggs from Simply Recipes
Tip: Blender and Mason Jar from Simply Recipes
Winter Produce from Chow - also contains links to spring and summer produce lists
Cookbook Hall of Fame from Cheap Healthy Good
Baking Lab: Why Did Our Cake Fall Flat? from The Kitchn
Creative Sack Lunches for Kids from Culinate
The Essential Kitchen from Slashfood
The Dos and Don'ts of Buying a Cookbook from Cheap Healthy Good
Can Yogurt Really Boost Your Health?
Black Tea Can Help Prevent Parkinson's from Slashfood
Simply in Season Produce Guide via The Kitchn
The Failure of Using Corn as Fuel from Bitten
America's Fat Problem from Mark Ruhlman
Demystifying Gluten from The Kitchn
Spring Kitchen Cure from The Kitchn
Is Box Cake Mix Really Faster? from The Kitchn

For your amusement:
Hello Naomi's awesome cupcakes
Divorce Cake from Slashfood
Beer Cake from Neatorama
The Future of Fast Food from Calorie Lab
Bittersweets - A new twist on conversation hearts
Germans Raid for Chocolates from Slashfood
Cute Hedgehog Eating from Serious Eats
Fred's Home - funny home products
Roger Clemens Doesn't Know What a Vegan Is from Serious Eats
People Destroying America - The Happy Meal via Serious Eats
Bottoms Up Shot Glasses from Serious Eats
Food Themed Computer Accesories via Serious Eats
F**k Grapefruit via Serious Eats
Piggie Pastries from Serious Eats
Paula Deen is Trying to Kill Us from Serious Eats
Cookin With Coolio from Serious Eats
Garlic Zoom Chopper via The Kitchn
Milk Chocolate: A Love Story from Serious Eats
Anthony Bourdain Rants About Food Network via Serious Eats
Vegan Stripclub Opens in Portland, OR
Milk's newest ad campaign via Serious Eats
Buritto, Baby, Same Difference from Serious Eats
Rolling Stones Rice Krispies Commercial via Serious Eats

The Grip

There are two main ways to hold your knife. First, for ease of understanding, let's call your thumb finger #1 and your pinky finger #5. I think you can figure out the rest. In the first grip, you wrap fingers 2-5 around the handle and stabilize the blade with your thumb at the base of the blade. In the second grip, you wrap fingers 3-5 around the handle and grip the base of the blade between your first and second fingers. Personally, I prefer the second grip. It feels a little awkward at first, but I feel I have better control of the knife with that one.

Don't Cut Yourself!

The first way to prevent kitchen cuts is to make sure your cutting board doesn't slide around. A lot of wooden cutting boards have grippers on the bottom. If your cutting board does not have grippers on the bottom, there are a couple of ways to keep your board from sliding: get a tea towel damp and put it under the board, or get some grippy shelf liner and cut it up.

Secondly, whenever possible, keep your knife in contact with the cutting board. When you cut into an item, you'll roll the knife into it. You obviously can't do that when you cut into a large item or cut horizontally, so when you're doing that, just make sure that the item is stable. When cutting an item horizontally, press your palm against it and cut parallel to your palm.

Finally, move the food, not the knife. Curl your fingers under and use your knuckles as a guide, kind of like this. Just make sure the blade never comes above your knuckles.

What does chop/mince/dice mean?

Chop just means to cut it up. It doesn't have to be small or square, just cut into manageable or bite-sized pieces.

Dice means cut it into squares. If size is not indicated, 1/4" squares are pretty standard. 3/4" is large dice, 1/2" medium dice, and 1/4" small dice. When dicing a round object, at least square up the bottom so it doesn't roll around. Truth be told, unless you're trying to impress someone, I think it's a waste of time and food to cut things into perfect cubes. Just make sure every piece is close to the same size so it cooks evenly.

Mincing is fun. You cut things into tiny pieces. To do so, first you thinly slice the item. Then you'll want to grip the knife like this, with one hand gripping the base like normal and the other hand at the top of the blade near the tip. Then you'll rock the blade back and forth, rotating around the tip, until you achieve a mince.

Here's a pretty good video about correctly using a knife. The only problem I have is that she moves the knife instead of the food. It's much safer to move the food.

I try to buy what's in season whenever possible, but sometimes that can be very difficult. If you don't have a farmer's market or CSA convenient to you, it can be almost impossible to tell what is in season. Supermarkets keep almost everything in stock all year. It's a great convenience when you want a nice fresh salad in November, but it's expensive. And, the amount of fuel needed to move all that food has become so much that they estimate that it actually impacts the environment less to drive a mile than to use the calories from food to walk a mile.

So, support local farmers, save the environment, save money, and get better tasting, more nutrient-rich food to boot: buy in season. To help you do so, every month, I will list what is in season and a few ways to prepare them.

( Here we go! )

Here are the top four rules for caring for your kitchen knives.

1. Do not wash them in the dishwasher.
2. Learn to love your honing steel.
3. Choose your cutting board carefully.
4. Don't store knives in a drawer where they can go clanking against each other.

Now to expound upon those rules.

1. If you wash your knives in the dishwasher, they will chip. This dulls your knife, and if a knife gets dull enough, there's no going back. At the same time, don't just throw your knife in the soapy water. I wouldn't want you to cut yourself. (Related: If your knife falls, let it drop. Don't try to catch it.) The knife should be in your hand from the moment it goes into the soapy water until the moment it is dry and back in storage.
2. The cardinal rule of this is to keep the knife at a 20 degree angle to the honing steel. You'll also want to move the knife down the steel from the base to the tip. The easiest way to do this is to hold the steel vertical against a table or counter. Start with the heel of the blade near the top (handle) of the steel and rotate it downward. Do this a few times on one side of the blade and then switch sides. When you feel more confident in your honing skills, you can get all fancy and hold them both in the air like the chefs on TV. :) Here's a dude showing you how to do it the fancy TV chef way.
3. Basically, don't use a glass cutting board. They'll dull your knives. I don't even know why the sell them. I would suggest a plastic one for meat and a wood or plastic one for vegetables. I'll get into why in the kitchen gear post.
4. This is why it's a good idea to buy knives in a set. You'll save money over buying the knives individually, and most come with a handy dandy knife block. If you buy your knives separately, there's always the option of a tray for your drawers, a magnetic holder for your wall, or you can buy an empty knife block.

Next time on Cooking With Katy: Using your knives (yes, they are so important that they get three entries)