Q: I'm in the process of starting a food blog and was wondering if I can publish adaptations of recipes I find online, as long as I credit the original author and link back to the original recipe?

Sent by Tracy

If you're an animal lover, you've no doubt shared morsels of "people" food with your furry and feathered friends. Feeding table scraps to animals can even be a good way to prevent food waste. But before you give in to those imploring eyes, it's important to consider safety. 

Elizabeth Apron from Marcy Butler Designs

• $88

My husband calls me the "full contact chef." In other words, I don't just need an apron, but a full-body drape. So I'm drawn to aprons that are more full-coverage, like a smock. Marcy Butler sent me one of her new aprons to check out and I really fell in love with it. This apron is heavy and substantial, made of real linen. It has buttons in the back that let you adjust the size and make it stay put. It's a beautiful apron, but also practical for real work in the kitchen. I also love how they have a matching kids' apron, called The Lulu.

I live in Los Angeles, which means I'm always hearing about other people's diets. Raw food, $75-per-day juice cleanses, space food, the cookie diet...you name it, and there is a good chance I know someone who has tried it. When the paleo diet swept through my circle of friends, I felt a little like an outcast, still hanging onto my whole grains and legumes. I know I am a healthy eater — yet it was hard to resist the judgement that I was somehow eating a "bad" diet. 

So it was a relief to read a thoughtful, honest article by food writer and former naturopathic doctor, Winnie Abramson, on why the paleo diet — and diets in general — don't work for her.

Angela and Tania's clever space saving idea not only serves as a dining table for five, but when closed also allows for a visual extension of the kitchen as well as much needed storage. 

• Space Saver: A Murphy Table
  Apartment Therapy

Who: Leicht  
What We Noticed: We hit up KBB London, a kitchen trade show, this week, to take a look at what's fresh and new in European kitchen design. This is a small detail that has been around for a little while in high-end kitchens, but I really like: LED strips inside drawers, that light up when the drawer is opened. 

One of the dangers of cooking a meal for just yourself is the Why Bother Syndrome. This usually happens on a weeknight when you arrive home from work, exhausted and depleted, and the idea of rustling up a nice, hot, nutritious meal just for you seems like way too much effort. So out come the chips and salsa, and before you know it, you're brushing your teeth before bed without having ingested much more than cornmeal, tomato puree and salt for dinner. Does this sound familiar? More

When I embarked on my trip to Greece last week, I knew I'd be documenting the heck out of it, and when I landed in Athens, the first thing I did was order a Greek salad, take notes, and snap it with my iPhone. It was beautiful: ripe red tomatoes from Crete, substantial chunks of feta cheese, perfectly sweet raw purple onions, and lots of fragrant olive oil and dried oregano. Seemed familiar, and yet I relished in the experience of consuming these simple ingredients on foreign soil. Of course it's better there, I thought to myself.

"I'll document all of the Greek salads I eat!" Spoken like a true American. Then I got to the Island of Kea, my final destination, and met my host, Aglaia Kremezi, who set me straight about What Is a Greek Salad.

Who: Jana Kinsman
What: Bike a Bee
Where: Chicago, Illinois

Whenever I'm lucky enough to see beekeeper Jana Kinsman, she’s always sharing something with me: half her cookie, knowledge about bikes, butter and bees or an adorable, hand-drawn doodle. Jana is an illustrator, beekeeper and graphic designer in Chicago. Her latest project, Bike a Bee, is a reflection of her generosity and aims to contribute local honey to the city’s farmers markets, while also creating community collaboration.

There are perhaps two universal truths that all of us (non-vegetarian) writers at The Kitchn share: a mutual love for flavorful, inexpensive chicken thighs and for rich, hearty braises. When the first is paired with the second, their powers know no bounds. And a braise might sound like more of a cold-weather meal, I really love the savory combination all year round — plus it's an easy one-pot dinner for weeknights. Here I added a plethora of bright bell peppers and sweet red onions to help shout "summer braise" from the rooftops.   

When I first started brewing beer at home, I was a 5-gallon girl — much like most new homebrewers. It's just what you do. But there were drawbacks almost immediately. Brewing this much beer at once meant clearing out a precious coat closet for storing carboys and bottles, always having a buddy on hand to help lift the heavy (and hot!) pot on and off the stove, and drinking my way through a lot of beer — which may not seem like a bad thing at first, but can get tiresome if your beer proves less than stellar. Trust me. 

And then I discovered 1-gallon batches. Like a lightning strike to my brew pot, my life as a homebrewer was transformed overnight, and I ultimately developed all the recipes in my new book True Brews to be 1 gallon or less. Here's why I may never brew another 5-gallon batch of beer again.