Apartment Therapy The Kitchn - Archive for the week of 2008-04-25

May is Garden Month at The Kitchn

It seems like many of you are gardening this spring and summer, and we're here to grow things right alongside. We're just getting our herbs, greens and radishes started this weekend... ...

Flickr Find: Food in the Shape of Its Container

See this? That is corn frozen into the shape of its container, just one of several photos in a series by Flickr photographer Zach Kowalczyk. These photos remind us that it is spring! Frozen vegetables...

Replace My Pan! The Trauma of a Busboy and a Pizza Oven

We're sifting through the very sad entries we received in our call for the very worst pans in your cupboards. We'll announce the five lucky winners tomorrow (Friday). In the meantime, here are some of...

Recipe Cheat: Gazpacho With Canned Tomatoes

Saturday morning at the Alemany Farmer's Market, cucumbers were in season and very cheap. When we saw these bright green fruits, our first thought was, "Gazpacho!" But, it's too early for tomatoes, ...

Etsy Treasure: Extending Kitchen Tongs

Take a look at this hardcore set of extending hand-made tongs - made by a real blacksmith! Grilling and outdoor cooking are on the horizon (or perhaps the back stoop, if it's warm enough where you ar...

Is That Grass Fed Beef In Your Pocket?

Has anyone bought meat from La Cense Beef? We're asking because the construction site across the street from the Apartment Therapy offices is covered in these posters directing passers-by to winagra...

Tip: How Not To Overstuff a Roll or Wrap

There are some wonderful foods out there that come rolled up in something else. Chimichangas, cabbage rolls, and the vegetable summer rolls we posted this week. But putting in the right amount of fi...

Kitchen Spotlight: Holly and Sean's Hot Pink

It's the first day of May and the sun is shining! We're ready to throw open the windows and bring color into the kitchen. For inspiration we turned to a favorite house tour from San Francisco, a tour ...

Recipe: Linguine with Mussels and Dandelion Greens

For some reason we often find ourselves shying away from the seafood section at the grocery store. Particularly with shellfish, there's an intimidation factor that just isn't there with chicken or ste...

What Did We Do With Those Lemons?

We really loved all the feedback on our "What Should We Do With These Lemons?" post. You guys left so many delicious ideas and suggestions, it was hard to decide what to do! After much careful ponde...

Kitchn Cure: Week Seven! Learn One New Skill, Drink and Send Invitations

RebeccaCT says "For my "menu" meal, I made a frittata with mixed greens (turnip, radish, and mustard), bread, and roasted radishes. We had it with a CT farm wine made from pears--a dry white wine. Lot...

Hot or Not: Wood Floors in The Kitchen

Wood floors in the kitchen - what do you think of this? We've been in many homes that have bare boards in the kitchen. We like the soft, cool feel of it underfoot - so different from hard tile. But - ...

Cooking By Feel: Indian Ingredients and Flavors

One of the things that got us cooking in earnest was a desire to learn how to cook really good Indian food. We're still a long ways off (homestyle Indian food is a lifelong pursuit) but we've learned ...

Reader Tip: Store Greens in Recycled Salad Containers

We liked this tip from reader and Cure-taker RebeccaCT. She says that when she brings fresh greens home from the market, or when they arrive in the CSA box, she cuts off the stems and repacks them in ...

Cabernet Franc: The Underrated Jewel of the Loire Valley

The Loire Valley, renowned for its splendid chateaux, holds a very special place in my heart. Living in Paris in the 1990’s I spent many enjoyable week-ends at my good friend Béatrice’s family ho...

Replace My Pan! A Sad Story of Cast Iron

Our spring clean giveaway with Staub asked you for your ugliest, worst, most terrible pan. We're going to replace the most pathetic five pans we see with a new and beautiful 12" inch Honeycomb skillet...

Good Food with Evan Kleiman: Grocery Shopping at 99-Cent Stores

Attention, bargain hunters! With all this talk of high food costs and budget crunching, have you ever thought of grocery shopping at $.99 stores? Like Evan Kleiman in her interview with Julie Makinen...

Top Chef Chicago: We Stand Corrected

Well, we're not above eating a little crow. A few chefs we'd dismissed earlier in the competition completely hit the mark this week. Maybe the producers are toying with our emotions and creating ups ...

Word of Mouth: Noble Rot

With all the wine talk this past week, we thought we'd introduce you to a bit of wine trivia you may not have heard before! Botrytis cinerea, a.k.a. Noble Rot (noun): a kind of mold that grows on gra...

Martha Stewart Favorite Cookie Contest

We posted earlier this week about the reader cupcake contest that recently wrapped at Martha Stewart. Now there's a reader cookie contest on, and the interesting thing is that you can see all the cook...

Good Eats: Broccoli and Crisp Garlic

Broccoli Sautéed with Crisp Garlic - you don't have to say much more to get our attention. Yes, broccoli is perhaps the most over-used and abused vegetable on the face of the earth, but done right (e...

Swedish Kitchen Tour: Chez Larsson

The Kitchn reader Benita Larsson wrote in from Sweden to share some images of her sparkling white, inviting, immaculately organized family kitchen. After the jump, we catch up with Benita to hear abou...

One Good Pan: Show Us Your Ugliest, Worst, Most Terrible Pan for a Chance to Win a New Staub Skillet

Giveaway entry ends tonight at 11:59pm EST Welcome to our spring cleaning giveaway! We have encouraged you this spring to declutter, clean, and pare down. We also have encouraged you to make sure you...

What Is an Ugli Fruit?

While we believe in buying local and buying in season, we sometimes allow a splurge on an exotic unknown from another part of the world. This week, it was the ugli fruit we saw at Whole Foods. Here ar...

Moving and Storage: Padded Dish Holders

Packing is a pain, especially when it comes to stacks of dishes. We're in the process of moving, and we just pulled out our padded china cozies. They hold our expensive dishes all the time but are esp...

Test Tube Hamburgers, Food Carbon Footprints & Rationing
Top food news for April 28 - May 2

It's Hump Day, which means we're back with the weekly food news roundup. Read on ......

Signs of Life at the NYC Greenmarket

We noticed a lot of people with their cameras out this morning in Union Square. Photogenic spring produce, like this bountiful pile of scallions, is finally becoming more plentiful in New York. See ...

Recipe: Fish Steamed In Banana Leaves

We've sung the praises of steamed fish before (Whole Steamed Rockfish and Lettuce-Wrapped Steamed Fish) and today we're going to share a new recipe....

Good Food with Evan Kleiman: Dinner Parties and the Etiquette of Ingredient Confessions

This past week's episode of Good Food was chock-full of interesting nibbles and tidbits, but we zeroed right in on one interview of particular relevance to Cure Takers as we gear up for the final dinn...

What Time Do You Get to the Farmer's Market?

The early bird gets the ramps. We tried to get to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket early on Saturday, but we didn't make it there until 11 a.m. We asked our friend at the Maxwell's Farms stand what...

One Good Pan: Do You Have an Uglier Pan Than These?

Our lightning-round spring clean giveaway with Staub runs through 11:59pm tonight, but we've already received several entries. Here are a couple of the sad pans and mournful stories we've received. Do...

Recipe: Nathalie Dupree's Hush Puppies

We just posted a great video about Hush Puppies, along with a similar story by Nathalie Dupree, known as the originator of the New Southern Cooking movement. Here, she shares her recipe for these lit...

Hush Puppy... Hush Puppy

. While touring a cemetery in New Orleans a few weeks ago, I overheard Ray Reiker, a wine auctioneer from Alabama and a real southern gentleman, telling our tour guide the origin of the Hush Pupp...

Italian Template Recipe: Pasta, Meat, Greens and Cheese

We've been talking about cooking without recipes a lot lately. We're exploring flavors from world cuisines and ingredients that play well together. Another way to approach cooking instinctively is t...

Picnic Season: Acrylic Drink Dispensers from Pottery Barn

Maybe it's just the food styling and the deliciously frosty-looking drinks inside, but we are really drawn to these new drink dispensers from Pottery Barn. ...

The Minimalist Live: Watch Last Weekend's Webcast

Last weekend New York public television station Thirteen/WNET had Mark Bittman on in a live webcast to demonstrate (he said) that he is not the total curmudgeon he sometimes appears on television. W...

Rare Moon and Stars Watermelon
From the NY Times Dining Section 04.30.08

After a heavy Eating Out section last week, the Times returns with a fabulous Dining In lineup of articles in today's Dining Section. We were arrested by the photo above of heirloom moon and stars wa...

Chocolate Bloom: Good or Bad?

After our discussion last week about why chocolate seizes, we thought we'd take a look at another one of chocolate's quirks: its tendency to "bloom." And unfortunately, we're not talking about the spr...

Twist on a Classic: Square-Edged Wooden Spoon

We've written before about how much we love wooden spoons and constantly reach for them for sweet and savory dishes. They look organic, feel good in our hands, and are sturdy and powerful while being ...

Essential Kitchen Tools: A Baking Stone

Unless you're lucky enough to have a brick hearth oven in your back yard, a baking stone--also called a pizza stone--is an essential tool for all of us would-be bakers! These stones mimic the conditi...

Cooking By Feel: Italian Ingredients and Flavors

As we work to become better at cooking without recipes, we're taking a tour of world cuisines, looking at flavors and ingredients in each that play well together. Yesterday it was flavors in Asian and...

Kitchen Spotlight: Green in the Kitchen

Elizabeth's post earlier today about color-coordinating in the kitchen reminded us how many bright and colorful kitchens we've seen in this year's Small Cool apartment contest. It seems like we saw a ...

Kitchn Cure: Week Six! Checking In...

Ether Maiden is foraging for her own mushrooms (these babies are called Dryad's Saddle Mushrooms), and cooking them up. Check out her other photos here and more tales of mushroom hunting, here. Week...

Wine Picks for Spring

As the weather warms up, we find ourselves reaching for the crisp whites and sometimes the rosés. It's a little early for rosé wines, but we've had some days in San Francisco this month where it wa...

Recipe: Vegetable and Mint Summer Rolls with Spicy Peanut Sauce

We told you we were eager to use mint in some fresh, healthy summer rolls, and it didn't take us long. Here they are! This was our first experience with rice paper wrappers, and they were surprisingl...

Learn How To Butcher in Brooklyn

Our friends at The Brooklyn Kitchen just posted a new series of classes including Lamb and Pig Butchering. Next month Grocery Guy Tom Mylan will show how to cut up a half a pig and a whole lamb. He'...

Stand Mixer vs. Arm Muscle: Do You Mix by Hand?

Food processors are a saving grace. Immersion blenders are oh-so-very handy. And we love our shiny and robust standing mixer so much that it's practically another member of the family. No doubt about...

Farmer's Market Report: Languedoc-Rousillion, France

We were in Geneva, Switzerland attending a conference last week, and had a few days off, so we hopped the border to France to visit a good friend in Languedoc-Rousillion, a region in the south central...

The Cheesemonger: All About Feta

Stop right there. Before you skip over this post because you (like many others, we're afraid) have minimal interest in feta, think again. Ubiquitous, yes, but don't let that tamper with your impressio...

Video: Fava Beans 101

We're excited to see fava beans showing up in the farmers' markets, but we admit to being a little intimidated about all that shelling-boiling-shelling action. Sometimes watching a quick demonstrat...

Basic Sauces 101: Hollandaise, Emulsions, and More

We have a backyard garden party for Mother's Day in the works, and we're thinking that some homemade hollandaise will be a perfect - and classic - accompaniment to the fresh spring asparagus and eggs ...

Morning Survey: Is Your Kitchen Color Coordinated?

Walking past a window display at Williams-Sonoma can make you think you need your microplane to match your pot holders. And while we don't encourage willy nilly consumerism for the sake of a uniform k...

Food Science: How Does Brining Work?

We've talked about how much we love brining lean cuts of meat to infuse extra moisture and flavor before cooking. This technique is widely used in traditional Scandinavian cuisine and has definitely...

Antique Linen Kitchen Towels
eBay Scavenger

Someone very kind recently gave us a set of vintage French linen towels, and we love them. Vintage linen is incredibly strong and durable and wears with a beautiful gentility. Here's a lot of vintage...

Thursday Giveaway Winners: Custom Tastebook

Congratulations to elizb98, Flappy McGee, scsoccerchick6, shaldeman and chromiumman - all winners of our Tastebook giveaway last week! The family recipes they would include in a customized recipe book...

Recipe: Spelt Farotto with Tuna and Artichokes

We talked last week about our newfound passion for spelt berries - an ancient grain with a delicious nuttiness and chewy texture. We are substituting it for rice, couscous, and even pasta in some reci...

Cooking By Flavor: Asian Flavor Combinations

We have been talking about cooking without recipes, which is one of the things many of you said you wanted to learn during the Kitchn Spring Cure. One thing that makes cooking by instinct and feel mor...

The Bake Porter: Bake, Carry, and Serve in Style

We just received some very nice shots of a product we loved at the Housewares show. It's a very simple idea, really, but well-executed and nicely made. Remember those cute cupcakes we posted this morn...

Weeknight Meal Tip: What Do You Do With Bad Wine?

It's happened to all of us at some point; that bottle of wine that we brought back from France or found in a really great wine shop - you know, the one we were saving for a really special occasion? I...

Favorite Storage Jars

Those who are participating in our 8 Step Spring Kitchen Cure have given their cupboards a good scour and some are even re-considering all the packaging their food comes in (or doesn't at all if they ...

Seasonal Spotlight: Fava Beans

At the local farmer's markets, we've been seeing a lot of fava beans. These long green beans show up in the spring and have a short growing season, so snatch them up while you can because they are de...

Infusing More Flavor with a Bouquet Garni

This is one of those things that you've probably used a million times as a home cook, but never realized that it has a fancy name all it's own. A bouquet garni (boo-KAY gar-KNEE) is really just a chef...

Cooking Without Recipes

Cooking without recipes was one of the biggest and loudest things we heard in your Cure requests. We've been talking about stocking your pantry well, which is the first step in cooking without your no...

Recipe: John Besh's Louisiana Speckled Trout Amandine

On my recent trip to New Orleans, I had the pleasure of tasting some incredible food, from classic po' boys to quite elegant, Bayou-inspired cuisine. My first night there a whole gaggle of food journ...

Tip from Cook's Illustrated: Steamed Mashed Potatoes

Kathryn's post on Secrets of Awesome Mashed Potatoes was a popular read last week, so a bunch of you must have mashed potatoes on your mind. That reminded us of a recent article from Cook's Illustrat...

Vote Your Favorite Small Cool Kitchen: Week 4 Edition

Wow! Over 150 entries have now been posted in this year's Smallest Coolest Apartment (and home) Contest. We've been keeping an eye on the kitchens that we see in the entries and taking informal polls ...

Good Question: Help Me Find a Glass Water Crock

Hello! I was in Mexico last year and saw a really simple and beautiful glass water crock (to hold bottled water jugs). I have been searching everywhere, but can only find ceramic versions. Here is a s...

Easy Spring Dessert: White Stilton with Lemon

We don't serve dessert cheeses very often. They are simply not as common, perhaps, in casual homes and kitchens across America, and we just just don't think to pick them up. We drift first towards cak...

Cutest Cupcake Winners at Martha Stewart

The cupcake is not dead after all. We have seen so many cupcakes on the internet these last few years that our eyes were glazing over. But enthusiasm for the cute little cakes is still strong, as evid...

Spring Pesto, Salmon with Ramps, and Radishes with Mint
Recipes from the week of April 20-26

Fresh spring greens, whizzed into a pesto good on bread or over pasta. A violet-colored cream pie with blueberries and lavender. Radishes cooked just until crispy-juicy. Salmon crusted with pecans. Th...

Make This at Home: Pulled Pork BBQ

We were in Memphis this past weekend (it's one of our hometowns) and, as is our custom in Memphis, ate more than one plate of barbecue. This one's from the Germantown Commissary. While we can't get ...

Blogging the NY Times: Confusing Reports on Commodity Crops

With rising food costs, subsidized US corn glutting the market, and the dollar becoming further devalued, we've all been getting a crash course in Economics 101 these past few months. But the New York...

Weekend Cooking: Braised Radishes (Again) - This Time with Rice Vinegar and Mint

Mmmm....spring radishes. We liked the braised radishes that we made last week so much that we cooked them again last night. We made a couple improvements, though - this batch was crisper, lighter, mor...

Ostrich Eggs, Paris Sweets, and Pantry Basics
Top posts from the week of April 20-26

Are you working on stocking your pantries this weekend? Our cupboard stocking posts on Friday were very popular and there are some great comments adding to the advice and ideas on what to keep in your...

Weekend Meditation: Identity Crisis

I used love my small, cluttered kitchen. Joyfully I would produce delicious, many-coursed meals from my Barbie-sized stove, stuff a week's worth of organic produce into "my cute refrigerator", balanc...

What's Cooking This Weekend...
Weekend of April 26-27, 2008

Hey, it's almost May! We see signs of new life and green growing things all around us. Are you planting herbs or vegetable seeds this weekend? That's on our to-do list, along with many other things. T...

Kitchn Cure: What Every Pantry Needs: Savory

With a well-stocked pantry, you'll not only be prepared to cook a wide range of dishes, you'll save time and money in the long run, because by getting accustomed to your personal set of supplies, you'...

Open Thread #151

A warm welcome to all new readers!Questions and comments here - we're around all weekend....

Sweet Bread and Golden Eggs: It's Easter (Again)

Did you know that Easter comes twice a year? Well, sort of. Western and Eastern Christians celebrate it on different days, so while one eggs-n-bunny phase is long past, Orthodox Easter is this Sunday....

Good Grains: What Is Spelt?

We are stocking up on our pantry basics and working on cooking without recipes this weekend. This reminds us that we have a whole new landscape of pantry basics that have been livening up our cooking...

Tip: Getting A Good Caramelized Top On Crème Brûlée

Recently, a friend of ours asked us, What do you think is one of the sexiest foods? Our response: Crème brûlee. We get so much pleasure in cracking that caramelized sugar top to get to the smooth,...

Good Question: What Is the Best Chef's Knife?

Here's a great question from Heather. This is as basic and practical as it gets. Time for chef's knife recommendations! My chef's knife is awful! I had trouble cutting butternut squash when I roaste...

Spring Garden: The Mint is Back!

A few years ago we helped weed an entire bed of mint out of a family member's garden. Mint is a sneaky plant; it takes over as soon as your back is turned. Look at this same bed now, full of nice shru...

Kitchn Cure: What Every Pantry Needs: Sweet

We're feeling listy today. As a supporting document to this week's ...

Design Friday: Fridgy - The Folding Refrigerator

As the weather warms and we start thinking about picnics in the park and camping, this Fridgy prototype from designboom's kitchen is the heart of the home competition, is an interesting idea. The d...

Web Resource: iGourmet

We've mentioned before that we love online shopping for gourmet food items. Another of our favorite online resources is iGourmet, who we really like for cheese purchases....

Spring Herbs: Using Fresh Mint

We've seen plenty of herbs at the farmers' markets lately, and one we'd like to use more of is mint. And not just for sweet stuff......

Beautify! Carton Vase from CB2

Several of you weren't wild about the spring vegetable centerpieces from Epicurious that we posted yesterday, and we see your point. However, whether you're using asparagus or just peonies, we do beli...

Regional Specialty: Kentucky Derby Pie

More pie! We've been hanging out in Louisville for a couple of days, and everyone here is gearing up for the Kentucky Derby next weekend. If you are planning a Kentucky Derby party (or are followi...

Straight Up: How to Rim a Cocktail Glass for Margaritas - and More

It's a beautiful warm day, perfect for the cooling tang of a Margarita. You have everything you need to make a top-shelf, hand-crafted drink: fresh limes for juicing, Cointreau, a good quality “silv...

Good Question: Help! Can We Get Rid of This Microwave?

Help! We're small, and we're trying to be cool, and we spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Our house came with a semi-ancient Caloric oven/stove/microwave combo. The microwave broke a couple of times,...

Entertaining: Theme Parties and Pie Socials

NYC has just opened another "single food" restaurant. Totally Baked, serving only baked potatoes, joins restaurants like S'mac (only mac n' cheese), Peanut Butter and Co. (peanut butter creations), an...

Olive Bars vs. Pre-Packaged Olives: Which Do You Prefer?

So many grocery stores now have olive bars, with big barrels full of olives sold in bulk. They are great when you want a mix to serve as appetizers, and although some people get squeamish about germs ...

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