Q: What's the deal with Cara Cara oranges? I've seen them pop up everywhere and in a lot of magazine recipes. How should I use them?

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It happens. You leave a banana in the bottom of your work bag and pull it out the next day to discover a big, fat bruise. Or maybe you buy a big bag of apples at the store without inspecting each one only to notice a big welt on one of your Granny Smiths. Is it safe to eat the bruised fruit? If so, is it just as good for you as a perfect apple? More

I'm one of those people who always has a snack tucked away in my bag, a worst-case survival tactic for when the hours between meals stretch just a little too long. I love me some yogurt-covered snacks: raisins, cranberries, pretzels, all of them. It's taken me a while to work out how I might make these favorite snacks at home, but my golly, I think I've finally got it.

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I have been looking forward to this apple — a new variety on the market — ever since I tried an early-season sample on my apple harvest tour last fall. I loved its crisp texture and delicate floral flavor back then, and the growers promised me that these apples would be even better after some time mellowing out in cold storage. Lady Alice is now in stores, and I can happily say that they were right.

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What happens when apples and peanut butter – that old standby – get dressed up with a little flair? They turn into these charming little apple sandwiches. More

We love the sweet-sour taste of pineapple just about anytime, but it has particular appeal during the dog days of winter. You can buy pre-cut pineapple from the store, but it's fresher and more economical to buy a whole one and cut it yourself. Here's the way we do it. More

Here's a fun, simple, very rewarding DIY project to help lift the January doldrums: make your own Earl Grey (or Lady Grey) tea! I can personally attest that this tea will win over even those of you who, like me, usually don't care for Earl Grey. The process itself is easy but it does offer one challenge: sourcing fresh bergamot fruit. Read on for my very simple homemade Earl Grey tea recipe. More

Once a year, usually late December or early January, we receive a case of the sweetest pink grapefruits delivered to our doorstep. At first we love them. For breakfast, in salads, in cake and juiced. Then our citrus enthusiasm slowly begins to wane. There's no avoiding the mound of softball- sized fruits each time I step into the kitchen. As with anything abundant in our culinary arsenal over to the bar they went. I decided it was time for them to have a go at the shaker. More

Recently, while nosing around in the freezer section of the market, I noticed that frozen fruit mixes labeled "tropical" always contain banana, pineapple and strawberry. I found the same thing in the dried fruit section. Strawberry? Doesn't "tropical" refer to the steamy and fertile band of earth near the equator, between the tropics of Capircorn and Cancer? This is not a place where strawberries thrive.

So I began to ask myself about truly tropical food combinations, and I thought of doctoring up some banana bread. More

The unwritten subtitle on this one is really "without creating a gigantic mess in your kitchen." As delicious as they are, pomegranates are notorious for leaving your counters, your cupboards, and yourself splattered with sticky deep-red juice. Here's how to do it while keeping the crime-scene-like mess to a minimum. More