Curious about canning? Why not get some friends together and host a canning party?! Kim O'Donnel of "Canning Across America" tells us how. Plus, the art of sword swallowing, how cooking played a role in evolution, and a great question about drying homemade pasta!

• Canning Across America - Kim O'Donnel was a canning newbie when she started a national movement by posting a question on Twitter! She tells us how this has evolved since then and how we can get in on the action.

• How Cooking Makes Us Human - It may be the act of cooking - not the tools used for cooking - that pushed our evolution. Professor Richard Wrangham explains that cooked food gives us more energy than raw food, a fact that tipped off a lot of biological and social advances in our ancestors.

• Single-Handed Cooking - We read J.J. Goode's piece about the struggles and triumphs of cooking with only one arm when it was published in Gourmet's July issue. It gave the piece a whole new meaning to hear it read aloud by the author!

• Drying Homemade Pasta - Lynne's tips for drying homemade pasta: knead the pasta dough really thoroughly, let the pasta sheets dry slightly before cutting them into noodles, and dry the pasta so that no noodles touch (broom handles are great!).

• The Art of Sword Swallowing - Not surprisingly, some of the only literature about sword swallowing seems to have come when someone has an injury in the act!

• Hear all these interviews and more at the Splendid Table!

Did you catch this episode? What sparked your interest?

Related: Canning Questions with Marisa McClellan

(Image: Flickr member The Bitten Word licensed under Creative Commons)