The Kitchn Archive: Aug 2011

Imagine picking up a box of Earl Grey tea bags at your local store and brewing a cup, as you have for many years. You bring the steamy beverage to your lips and realize something is wrong. Did someone replace your favorite tea with dishwater? That’s (literally!) what some Brits are saying about Twinings’ new Earl Grey recipe, launched in UK in April. Read on for the incredible comments from outraged tea drinkers.

Do you like limeade? I do. But I find many limeades too syrupy and sweet, and rather lacking in citrus punch. Well, not this one. This drink is punchy. I get sad when lemonade or limeade isn’t punchy enough. Weak, barely a hint of citrus — all sugar. Not this stuff. It punches out on every level. It’s all lime, with a lingering herbal note from rosemary, and with just enough sugar to keep it from being mouth-puckering.

Wow. Have your ever had a gastronomic moment when you know you’re eating the best version of a particular dish? Eyes light up, noshing sounds commence and belly sighs exhale as fellow diners exclaim, “No THIS is the best!”, “Oh my God!” and “Praise Mac & Mornay!” This happened recently and thank goodness I had my camera and notebook to document and jot down the ultimate mac and mornay recipe.

When the busy fall comes around, breakfast is just as important as lunch — and it’s even more important to make it easy. If you are looking for an easy, grab-and-go breakfast, try my current favorite: These eggy, cheesy, savory muffins from Rose Elliot and Heidi Swanson.Cottage cheese muffins is a rather modest name for these savory, high-protein little muffins. They are made with cottage cheese, eggs, ground almonds, and just a smidgen of flour.

Even growing up in Southern California, as a child the only tacos I ate were made of seasoned ground beef, chopped tomato, shredded lettuce and a sprinkling of grated cheddar cheese in a crisp, yellow, U-shaped shell. When I was finally introduced to the soft, vegetable-less, cheese-free taco truck version, I realized the tacos I grew up eating were not Mexican at all. But where did the American taco originate? And what’s with the crispy shell?

Sugared raspberries are an elegant touch for any dessert. They are at once crunchy and soft, bursting with sweetness and natural flavor. They are a real surprise when you bite into one and the liquid juices meld with crystals of sugar. Best of all, you can apply this same technique to other seasonal fruits: Blueberries, Italian plums, blackberries, even rose petals are wonderful when sugared. You don’t need very many of these sparkling sweets — they are very potent.

Hops are famous in the world of beer, but did you know you can also cook with the stalks, leaves, and flowers of this easy to grow vine? Over at the Bon Appétit blog, Ian Knauer has some tips for growing and cooking with hops.Knauer was told not to expect any hops within the first year of planting cuttings, but vines burst to life in the rich soil and ample sun of his family farm, and he was able to harvest a gallon of hops.

Did you know tomatoes had 55 percent more calcium and 25 percent more iron in 1950 than they did in 1999?Grist wrote about a study that compared the nutrients found in fruits and vegetables grown in 1999 to those grown almost 50 years before. Breeding high-yielding crops, it seems, has led to a loss of nutrients in our produce.The loss is not just because of depleted nutrients in the soil.

The BLT is a crowd-pleaser at any time of year, but when tomatoes are at their peak during the summer, this sandwich is good enough to be the star of the party. Over at Saveur, they have some ideas for organizing an easy and economical BLT party for a crowd.Winnie Yang throws an annual BLT party for around 50 guests, and she shares her tips for planning and timing an even like this. Almost everything can be done ahead of time, she points out, like making homemade mayonnaise the week before.

Ranch dressing from a bottle (or mixed from a packet) has a strong allegiance to my culinary childhood and for that reason alone I will not disparage it, just as I will not speak against pop tarts or packaged mac’n’cheese. But now that I’m an adult (what?), I prefer fresh flavors and real ingredients over the powdered additives and unknowable, unpronounceable chemicals of bottled dressings.

If there’s one thing that can bring us out of mourning the end of elderflower season, it’s the appearance of elderberries. These juicy, tangy, slightly sweet and Vitamin C-packed berries make delicious jellies, wines, and syrups – and, we recently learned, shrubs. Ever had a shrub? Ever since Elizabeth posted about shrubsEvan Kleiman It took us awhile to finally get around to making a shrub of our own but now that we’ve started, it will be hard to stop!