The Kitchn Archive: Jul 2018

Walk down any freezer aisle and among the ever-growing selection of vegetables you will inevitably find spinach (and other leafy greens like kale and collards, if you’re lucky). Frozen spinach seems like a simple and pretty straightforward item to buy — or so it would seem. You’re faced with the choice of bagged or boxed spinach, and it is important to point out that (regardless of brand) one of these spinach packages reigns supreme.

Are you a natural-born host — or a wannabe — but a total Thanksgiving newbie? Feeling like this is the year you’re going to finally step up and host the Thanksgiving of your dreams? We’re working with an advertiser to help one reader take on the daunting task of hosting the holiday with a total Thanksgiving crash course. We’ll send a video crew along with a Kitchn editor into your home to shoot four quick, friendly, and fun videos.

In what has to be the most iconic scene in Meet the Parents, an eager Ben Stiller tells his girlfriend’s parents about the time that he milked a cat so that the smallest kitten in a litter could eat. “You can milk anything with nipples,” he explained. “I have nipples, Greg,” a stone-faced Robert DeNiro responded. “Could you milk me?

I’ll be honest with you: I’ve been a cucumber skeptic for years. It’s not that I ever disliked the vegetable — it’s just that it never really did that much for me. The crunch is fine, but the flavor is, well, nonexistent. Especially in the summer, when there is so much abundance around, I always felt my time was more well-spent on things like tomatoes and corn.

In the deepest part of our hearts, we all believe one thing: You don’t really have to cook in warm weather. (You can blow it off entirely, in fact, if you cover your tracks well.) That’s because the vegetables are blooming and the ambition is wilting just in time to call in sick and head to the beach with a bag of apricots. But after we’ve had our fill of unadulterated spring produce, our stomachs might finally start grumbling for cooked food.

We all know the best place for macaroni and cheese is in one’s mouth, but how we get it there is a matter of some debate. Do you use a fork or a spoon? The nation appears to be divided. There are YouTube videos and Reddit threads devoted to the “right” way to eat macaroni and cheese, and now cult-favorite brand Annie’s has conducted a nationwide survey to figure out what utensil people prefer to use when eating one of the most delicious dishes on the planet.

I love having frozen veggies on hand. It’s an easy way to go an extra day or two before I need to hit the grocery store or turn my leftover lunch into a more substantive meal. Recently, though, I was perusing the frozen veggie aisle at my Harris Teeter, and I noticed something: They have eight kinds of frozen broccoli, and some cost more than twice as much as others. What gives? At first glance, there’s not a huge price range — all the bags of broccoli cost between $1.

We know you’ve got that bag of frozen peas or cauliflower languishing in the freezer because we do too. Want to make more room for ice cream in your freezer by using up those frozen vegetables regularly? Same! Our very best advice for using up the frozen vegetables is to skip the lengthy directions on the back of the box or bag and try these few shortcuts instead. You’ll get the same tasty, nutritious vegetables in less time from the freezer.

The freezer is such a treasure chest of kitchen delights. I reach into my own for frozen vegetables to get dinner done in a pinch, ice for cold brew and boo-boos alike, and frozen fruit like berries, cherries, and peaches (yes, even in the height of summer!). And yet, I’m not making smoothies every day. No, I’m using frozen fruit for everything from dessert to dinner in a few surprising ways that makes these frozen gems worth their weight in gold.

Many of us use the terms “barbecuing” and “grilling” interchangeably. For example, you’ve likely invited friends and family over for a backyard barbecue, where you’re serving up grilled burgers and dogs. If we’re getting technical (and we are), that’s not actually a barbecue. Here’s why.