Chris Phillips

My office has witnessed The Case of the Missing Spaghetti, The Hidden Brown Rice, and most recently A Summertime Spring Roll Mystery. Clearly there’s an office lunch thief among us. And while I have my suspicions, I’ll leave cracking The Case of the Office Refrigerator to the professional sleuths. Instead, with apologies to Nancy Drew, let’s focus on six proactive ways to make sure your lunch meets the right mouth. When I bring lunch from home, I eat right at noon.

Buddy, you’re never going to get another decent night of sleep again! My husband and I heard this line several times a day in the months leading up to our son’s birth. Now that he’s here, people continue to inquire almost daily about the sleeping habits of our new little family. I implore you: Stop asking new dads about how much sleep they are getting. If dad or baby aren’t sleeping well, they don’t want to talk about it more than they already are.

I will be forever haunted by memories of Thanksgiving 2015. While so much of my Thanksgiving was just right — my grandmother’s china, a pecan pie from a hip bakery, carefully cooked Brussels sprouts and chestnuts — one major element was missing. My turkey didn’t smell! No, my guests were not greeted with the fragrance of perfect heritage turkey roasting with apples, onions, and sage.

Some soups work well in polite company — a light bisque or a boeuf bourguignon, for instance, are the stars of a dinner party menu. But then there are other soups that are really just for you, just for those days when you need something simple and nourishing without much fuss. That’s this kale and potato soup. It’s humble, unassuming, and best enjoyed alone at the kitchen counter with the last hunk of some crusty bread.

Pepper makes its way into just about every dish that passes through the kitchen so make sure you’re using good quality pepper. After all, the good stuff doesn’t cost more than lesser pepper. You don’t use pre-ground black pepper, do you? Ground black pepper really isn’t worth buying.

Why not cook a dry-aged Porterhouse steak tonight?We suggest serving steak for mid-week celebrations because they are quick. The only prep work required is a trip to a good butcher. Your steak will broil to rare perfection in under ten minutes. On Valentine’s Day, less time in the kitchen means more time for, umm, other things.Here’s our step-by-step guide to cooking steaks in your broiler.

I fumble frosting. I skip sifting and I don’t have the patience to whip and whisk and work on a cake all morning, only to see it crack it half when I attempt to flip it out of the pan. That phrase “Easy as pie” … what a lie! I’m not a natural baker, but I keep working.Have you ever seen a carpenter lean back with such satisfaction and brag about how he made his whole log cabin with his own two hands?

Dear The Kitchn,I make a habit of going to the farmer’s market, even in the cold months. I want to support the farmers and buy their onions, squash, and garlic. But, as you can see in this picture, many of the onions I’m buying at the farmer’s market are brown in the middle and have a slightly spoiled smell. Is there something I can look for when shopping for onions so that I avoid these spoiled specimens? Thanks for your help,RPRP,Thanks for your question.

Allie Lewis of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food asked for your holiday cooking questions. Here’s the first of five questions Allie is answering for us – welcome to The Kitchn, Allie!Q: Despite not overworking my pie dough and keeping the ingredients very cold, not stretching it into the pan, and letting it chill for at least an hour, my dough still shrinks quite a bit.

Allie Lewis from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food is here to help with your holiday cooking questions.If you need holiday cooking help, ask Allie. Please post your question in the comments here by 5 p.m ET on Thursday, 12/6.We’ll pick five of your questions, send them over to Allie and post her answers later this month. If your question is selected, Allie will send you a copy of Martha Stewart Living Cookbooks: The Original Classics.

Hey, hot chocolate fans, here’s an indulgent treat for you or a sweet gift. This French-made Mauviel chrome hot chocolate pot retails for $200 at Williams-Sonoma, but is available for half that here.The ash wood handle keeps the pot cool, while the narrow top limits evaporation.More listings after the jump …OTHER COOKS’ STUFF• Oxford Encyclopeida of Food and Drink (2 volume) for $175• John Boos Butcher Block for $675• Le Creuset – 2.

Have you heard about the brownies made with carrots and spinach (PDF recipe)? The new cookbook Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, wife of comedian and sitcom star Jerry Seinfeld, shares advice on how to hide vegetables so kids will eat them. There’s recipes for pureed cauliflower in mac and cheese and kale in spaghetti and meatballs.

Fresh Direct will stop using cardboard delivery boxes. They’ll use recyclable totes and bags instead. Seems like a big improvement, right?Bummer is that Fresh Direct will take up to three years to make the change. “Switching our systems will involve a complex re-engineering process,” Fresh Direct explained in an email they sent to customers yesterday.

Rachael Ray’s garbage bowl flies as a concept: put a bowl on your counter and drop peels and meat trimmings into it as you cook. This tip frm the Queen of Quick saves trips to the garbage can and keeps kitchen floors and counters cleaner. But do cooks really need a Rachael Ray branded melamine Garbage Bowl to get the job done? Wouldn’t a compost pail or a regular bowl be a better solution?

You’ve been asking for our sauce recipe using fresh tomatoes. We’ve been refining our recipe, double-checking our measurements, and now we’re ready to share. Let us know how this compares to your tomato sauce recipe and the recipe your great-great grandmother carried over from Italy (we should be so lucky!). This basic tomato sauce manages to hold on to the fresh, bright flavors of a garden tomato while also providing some complexity.

Tomatoes and apples fill the markets right now and they are begging to be sauced. On Monday, we talked using a wide pan to keep tomato sauce tasting more lively. Today we want to check in with you on another tool of serious sauce makers: the food mill. We’ve heard many people scoff at the food mill. We think they don’t understand how this old-fashioned looking tool differs from a food processor, blender, or standing mixer.

When we make tomato sauces, we reach for the deep, tall, and thick-sided dutch oven.Not so fast says The Joy of Cooking: The faster a tomato sauce is cooked, the fresher and brighter its flavor; hence we prefer using a wide skillet that lets liquids evaporate quickly. We made the batch of tomato sauce today with perfect balance: lively acids and sweet ripe Greenmarket tomato, complex basil and garlic, and rich carrot sweetness.

Dear Kitchen,I noticed that Ikea now sells wall ovens and cooktops. Does anyone know anything about the quality of these appliances?I really don’t demand that my oven be professional quality, and I like the appearance of these appliances. I like being able actually see them before buying. The information in the catalog and online are a little spotty and the person at the store was no help at all.

Dear Kitchen,Last September, I was in Italy and tried Fiore di Zucca. I think that was pumpkin blossoms stuffed with ricotta and baked. I became obsessed and now I’m craving them.When are squash blossoms in season and does anyone know a place in NYC where I can buy some?Thanks,Rachel (To All Good Questions)Rachel,Thanks for your question. We’ve experimenting with squash blossoms this summer. Look for them at the Yuno’s Farms stand at the Greenmarket near the UN on Wednesdays.

Let’s stand up for the baby pattypan. The baby pattypan has its own unique crown shape and an olive-oil like flavor that cries out for attention. While baby pattypans can work in recipes created for zucchini or yellow summer squash, we’ve been hunting all summer for recipes that were created just for the little pattypans. Isn’t it a shame to slice them up when their shape is so perfect on the plate? Until this weekend, we hadn’t had much luck in our recipe hunt.

Chef Tom Colicchio told The New York Times he doesn’t like okra’s slime. A few Kitchen readers said the same thing on last weekend’s Open Thread.All we are saying is give okra a chance.While okra can be oozy, it also has a refreshing grassy flavor that plays perfectly with other vegetables in season now, including eggplant, sweet corn, and tomatoes.We got home from the farmer’s market with a bag full of okra on Saturday morning.

We cut into a lime with the best intentions. We’ll squeeze half the lime over chicken tacos one night. Then, we’ll stick the left over lime half in the fridge with plans to use the rest in gin and tonics the next night. The problem is that we often forget these little dribs and drabs. They sit in a forgotten corner of the fridge until they go bad. Enter Tupperware’s Forget Me Not.

Italian flat beans, also known as Romano green beans, are in season now. These beans are flat in form, but not in flavor. Compared to standard green beans, these beans have a bright, slightly sweet flavor and more meaty texture. “… More green-tasting, more alive-tasting than other beans,” reports Veggie Venture. We blanched our flat beans in salted boiling water and then finished them in a frying pan with some olive oil, garlic, and chopped fresh tomato.

Update: This store is now closed. In its place is a new Boston kitchen shop — KitchenWares by Blackstones. – 07.28.2010Kitchen Arts brings Bostonians a wide variety of kitchen tools in this classy, small shop. We were impressed with the organization and selection here, but a bit disappointed in the service.We stood at the counter waiting for help for quite a while while two employees discussed their Bermuda Triangle party (BTW, what’s a Bermuda Triangle party? Sounds fun!).

Pouring ingredients into a running standing mixer is a big challenge. It is too awkward to push ingredients from a standard mixing bowl into a running Kitchen Aid. We’ve struggled with this since we first bought our mixers and we’re not the only ones . . . We watch carefully when TV chefs pour ingredients into their whirring, running standing mixers. Celebrity chefs struggle with this little detail too.

Heads or tails Kitchen reader Josie-o emailed in to ask us for drinkware storage advice … and we’re passing her question along to see if we can find any consensus on this. “Just one of those things I’ve always wondered about. I was raised with ‘right side up’ yet curious when friends’ kitchens had their glasses upside down,” Josie-o said.

End your search for affordable everyday dinnerware at Fishs Eddy. Visit the store in Manhattan’s Union Square or stop by their excellent website to send a gift. Fishs Eddy sells American-made sturdy plates and mugs for every price point: from overstock items made for hotels and diners to special dishes that celebrate the New York City skyline, Brooklyn Bridge and brownstones, or even the Brooklyn accent (Cawffee, anyone?).

Dear Kitchen, I haven’t had a microwave for about two years now and most of the time I don’t miss it. But I’m wondering: what do other microwave-less cooks do to reheat meals?I usually make a little hobo pack out of aluminum foil (completely wrap the food in aluminum foil) then stick it in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes. This is a way to avoid dirtying a pot on a the stovetop.Thanks,LauraLaura,Thanks for your question. You’re in good company here.

“One whose cabinets and refrigerator doors are filled with an excess of food seasonings . . . a person affected by a mania for condiments.”That’s a condimaniac according to the spring issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. You know the type: a fridge bulging with three kinds of capers, a rainbow of olives, plus a collection of aging pestos, ketchups, and tapanades.

The monks at West Park served this side at a silent Saturday lunch a couple of years ago at about this time of year.As I tried to recreate their tangle of steamed watercress, spinach, and peas at home, I realized this recipe captures just what’s going on this time of year. (And now, every time I see watercress, I think of monks.)The frozen peas remind me of the long winter we’ve spent eating peas from the freezer, but here the peas are an accent, a garnish that adds some sweetness.

Potatoes and onions are great companions in potato salad and frittata, but potatoes and onions should be stored separately. That’s the advice reader RB shared on the Open Thread over the weekend. An eHow expert agrees: “Avoid storing potatoes with onions because, when close together, they produce gases that spoil both. ” Bigspud.com says, “First and most important, don’t put [potatoes] anywhere near onions. Onions will make potatoes deteriorate in a hurry.

Easy peas-y Frozen peas will be a staple of our shopping cart for a few more weeks, until the fresh local vegetables hit the markets.This week we tested six different kinds of frozen peas from four different stores and set to work systematically tasting them all.Going into it, we wondered if Birds Eye easy-to-find peas packed in silver paper (Key Foods, $1.29, 10 oz.) could win. We had great expectations for the fancy Bonduelle extra fine petite peas imported from France (Fairway, $2.

We introduced Joseph Ades, New York City’s best sidewalk sales guy, yesterday. Today we’re reviewing the Swiss made Star brand peeler he peddles. This peeler is a Swiss kitchen classic, according to Swissinfo.org. The Rex ($2.99 on eBay), a similar peeler made by the same manufacturer, appeared on a Swiss postage stamp in 2003!

Persnickety stoves can seem like they have just two settings: off or devilishly hot. That’s no good for braising. But don’t get all hot and bothered if you can’t find a low, slow heat source to finish your braise. There is a solution — the stove top heat diffuser. We asked Norman Kornbleuth, owner of Broadway Panhandler and Taylor Erkkinen from The Brooklyn Kitchen, to tell us more about stove top diffusers.

We love eating in grocery store cafes. Eating in-store gives us the opportunity to tuck into a sandwich and chocolate chip cookies while we watch people shop. At Fox & Obel, we joined in a conversation about chicken salad salad recipes and over heard lots of gossip about what was especially good in the shop.Fox & Obel is a full-service gourmet grocery store in Chicago’s Near North Side.

We’re dreaming of clam bakes and lobster rolls served oceanside, but we’re still leaping over snowbanks here in New York.Beach weather is months away, but a quick dinner of Linguine with Clam Sauce might help you conjure summer.We checked in with Wild Edibles in Grand Central Market this morning. Today, they have Little Neck Clams from Connecticut and Manila Clams from Washington State.