A few weeks ago I bought a container of fresh, housemade mozzarella from my local gourmet grocery store. I was looking forward to using it in a recipe, but when I opened the plastic container, a fetid smell wafted up from the ball of cheese in its watery broth. The cheese was clearly rancid. I doublechecked the sell-by date — it was well in the future. What should I do, I wondered? More

We all have well-loved, chipped-up, and slightly shabby tools in our kitchens -- tools that aren't in this season's latest color or made of the highest quality materials. These tools are often the ones we love the most -- the old wooden spoon, the bowl with a hairline crack that still holds fruit and looks beautiful. But there are times when it is right and good to let a tool go. When is that, for you? Here's one tool I'm about to send off to a new home... 

Seven years ago Kathleen bought a derelict century-old carriage house, gutted it, and transformed it into a warm and wonderful home. The Eastern design aesthetic of the renovated space filters into Katherine's kitchen as well. It's easy to imagine what joy this kitchen brings to Kathleen. She can cook, host, share, and celebrate all in one glorious spot!

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If you like the no-fuss functionality of restaurant equipment, you'll probably love this stainless steel wall-mounted dish rack from French design company Tsé & Tsé. It's advertised as a dish drainer (all the shelves have holes in them) to be hung over the sink, but I honestly think it'd work better as a dishware cabinet in a small kitchen, don't you? You could even get a couple and hang them side by side for a wall of open cabinetry. More

My dreams of wealth aren't about diamonds or fancy cars. My fantasy is this: I do all my shopping at Whole Foods and I'm never shocked when the cashier tells me the total. As it is, I only occasionally shop at Whole Foods because I'm often shocked by the total, so when I saw a promotion from the chain claiming "For about $99 you can stock a healthier pantry!" I was skeptical — but also curious. Could I purchase everything on their long list of items at my local Whole Foods for under $100? I grabbed my shopping bags and headed to the store to find out. More

I started my parenting journey like a lot of mothers do: with joy, optimism, and mounds of unrealistic expectations. Lofty goals regarding all the nutritious foods my kids were going to eat were quickly met with frustration as my two-year-old daughter repeatedly refused my offers of fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. For months, I resisted the temptation to provide easy alternatives, but recently, after noticing that her diet had reduced to a stagnant combination of dairy and grains, I began to take a different approach. More

Q: One of my resolutions is to be more methodical about my cooking, eating, and spending. I'd like to eat healthy meals while keeping to my limited budget and I want a system to help me set out what I'm going to eat for a week, keep track of things I've liked, and if possible, catalogue my pantry items. More

If you've ever been interested in making your own sausage, but put off by the equipment needed to do it, Bon Appetit has a smart method that uses just one low-tech tool: a Chinese soup spoon. More

Hey, it's the New Year, so let's all take a moment to ponder our kitchens. I've been setting up a new kitchen, and so the idea of kitchen workflow has been on my mind. This is a big topic, and one that touches on many different aspects of setting up a kitchen: Work zones, storage capacity, tools and cookware. How does your kitchen contribute to your daily cooking and cleaning workflow? Good workflow is different for everyone, but we all know when our kitchen has hit a snag! Here's my big example of tough workflow, from my last kitchen... More

I'm doing a little project over the next few weeks: exploring the biggest problems (and solutions if you've got them) in the various rooms of our homes - starting with The Kitchen.

When it comes to all the things you do in using and keeping up your kitchen, what are the biggest problems that really bug you?? Yes, I'm talking about everything from cooking to storing things to washing and drying dishes.... you name it. I'm even interested in big LITTLE niggling problems as well as problems with your kitchen around healthy eating and mealtime issues. Here are some of the problems that irritate me: More