Q: I am desperate to re-create Newman's Own Olive Oil & Vinegar salad dressing with less oil. I buy Newman's regularly, only to pour (and discard!) at least 3/4 cup of oil from the bottle before using it. Newman's light dressings do not have the same appeal; I am looking for a make-at-home solution with the same exact flavor.

I had a discussion a while back that opened my eyes. After I confessed to a friend about my general dislike of mayonnaise (I know, I know), he told me that he had the same feeling. However, he’d managed to condition himself into liking the stuff. His rationale was that as a food lover, he couldn't accept just not liking a food that’s loved by so many. Do you push your taste buds in order to like new foods?

Planning meals for an entire week is a tedious task. It's difficult to plan one that gives you variety yet simplicity in your weekly labors of love. Cooking for a week is even harder — it's tough to stay motivated and energetic through all the outside stresses we encounter in the work week. On that note, I present a full menu for a household of two that gets you through the week. This is a work week menu plan you can do!

I've been making a lot of caramel popcorn recently — talk about the perfect treat for everything from Teacher Appreciation Day to a birthday potluck! But the unpopped kernels always bug me. Nothing worse than munching a handful of caramel popcorn clusters and suddenly biting into a hard kernel. I finally figured out an easy way to eliminate nearly all those unpopped kernels before they ruin the batch.

Want to make pasta, but lack the motivation to do all that mixing and kneading by hand? No problem. If you have a food processor, you can have a batch of pasta dough ready in about two minutes flat. 

My husband Mike brought many valuable qualities to our partnership: He's kind, charming, smart, and has good taste in books. He loves good food, and makes me coffee every single morning. And somewhere among the upper pantheon of his stellar attributes is also this: He can wrap a burrito so that you can eat it all the way down to the very nub, without it falling apart in your hands. Want to see how he does it? 

Q: I am a recent college graduate looking to take a culinary course for the first time. I'm interested in learning some new techniques for preparing and cooking ingredients and maybe meeting some younger like-minded people along the way, but being in Cleveland, there is a surprising number of choices. 

I do love a good infograph, and this one from Massive Health is worth printing out and pinning to the kitchen wall. It compares our feeling of satiation versus the resulting sugar crash of many favorite midday snacks and treats. Are any of these surprising to you? More

Perhaps it's my many years as a vegetarian or my general aversion to the way fried food makes the house smell that have kept me from making fried chicken at home. But really, if I'm honest with myself, the truth of the matter is: I have no clue what I'm doing. 

Where I live on the West Coast, the roses are in the peak of their first bloom, and their heady, delicious scent and bright blossoms are everywhere!  Soon this lovely, intoxicating event will spread across the country. While roses are pretty to look at and sweet to smell, they also can be delicious to taste. Used in many Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines, roses make sweet, floral preserves and vibrant garnishes. Read on for 12 ways you can use fresh rose petals in the kitchen.