The enemies of olive oil are air and sunlight which cause oxidation and loss of flavor. There are many ways to protect your olive oil, but the most popular is to store your oil in a tinted bottle with a spout.

I also like using an old enamel coffee pot, a trick I learned from Sam Clark, chef and owner of the Moro restaurant in London. More

The new year is a chance to make a fresh start in the kitchen. It's a good time to stand back and look at your space — is there a little project you've been meaning to take care of? Maybe you want to hang a pot rack? Rearrange your pots and pans so they are more organized? Hang a picture over the sink? This is the perfect kind of New Year's resolution — nothing that requires ongoing commitment. Just one small, well-selected improvement of your kitchen space. More

This kitchen doesn't look like much - and I'm embarrassed by my love for dyed eucalyptus at the time - but it was my first kitchen of my very own. We're looking back on our first apartments over at Apartment Therapy, and while looking back through old photos of mine, I came across this one of the kitchen: More

Q: I have a quandary to crowdsource to your smart readers. I am moving halfway across the country from home and Hubs for a year for work (I'll come back a few weekends a month). I have to be pretty picky about what's worth lugging out there. I don't bake much, but I love to cook and eat just about any kind of cuisine. I'm pumped to be moving to the West Coast, Land of Magical Wintertime Farmer's Markets, so I want to be able to cook for myself and the occasional visitor or two.

So--from dishes and utensils to gadgets--what do you think are the absolute essentials?

Sent by Kat More

We've talked in the past about a few ingredient staples that help us get dinner on the table faster. Here are a few more great pantry staples (no fridge, no freezer stuff here) that will help you throw meals together at a moment's notice. More

Do you have a new cook or someone just setting up their kitchen on your holiday gift list? Perhaps a seasoned cook whose kitchen arsenal could use an update? Check out these 10 budget-friendly kitchen basics. No gadgets here! Just tried and true essentials. More

My fiance and I have been in our temporary housing with its (supposedly) fully stocked kitchen for about a month now. Thanks to many of your excellent suggestions, we were well prepared to deal with the inevitably shoddy cookware and missing pieces of "essential" equipment. Here's a look at what we ended up bringing and a few things we wish we'd brought! More

We received a question from a reader asking about the most useful and essential serving pieces. Carrie said that she just inherited a set of fine china, but the set (as well as her everyday Fiestaware) has no serving pieces. If you're in the market for serving pieces, like Carrie, what should you get? Here are our picks for the most useful, basic, and essential serving dishes, and we'd love to hear your take on this as well. More

Here's a variation on a reader question that we get a lot: what basic pieces of cookware do I need to set up a new kitchen? This one is from Mandy:

I'm a young woman in her early twenties getting ready to move out of my parents' house and into my own. While I've got a lot of hand-me-downs coming my way, one thing I have to buy myself is a set of cookware — pots, pans, skillets, baking sheets &mdash the whole nine yards. I've read some scary health news about cooking on nonstick surfaces, but I know from experience that it's the most user-friendly.

So my question is, what do you recommend for affordable (but quality) cookware, and what are the pros and cons of various surfaces?

More

We're moving into this kitchen tomorrow. Well, the apartment that holds this kitchen. And right after we make our bed, we'll start unpacking our pots, pans, and plates.

It's been a long, hard, slog of a move -- one that makes us think we'll want to answer the above question by crying, "Takeout!" But it's our new home, with a new kitchen, and we'd like to christen it with a memorable meal... More