Q: I am getting my first apartment and I can’t wait. I’ve never had an empty kitchen, though. I read your post about basic pots and pans, but what about spices and herbs? What is the bare minimum to have? What’s an ideal, fully stocked, spice pantry? Sent by Katt Editor: An ideal spice cabinet really depends on what you like to cook and what flavors you like.

Brush up just in time for the season.

Q: I love tofu, and tofu stir-fry is one of my go-to, no-brainer recipes. I have one problem: it seems like no matter what I do, when I’m browning my tofu, it always sticks to the pan, and the lovely crispy crust always breaks off from the tofu cubes. I want my pile of veg to be studded with golden-brown cubes, and instead it’s pocked with white blobs and scrapings. It still tastes good, but is not so pretty.

After you’ve cut all the kernels off corn on the cob, you probably think that the cobs have done their duty and have nothing more to give. Think again! Here are two easy ways that corn cobs can add extra flavor to your food. You’re probably wondering what milk has anything to do with corn cobs. Milking the cobs refers to the process of removing the milky liquid (corn milk) that’s still clinging to the cobs.

For a long time I thought there was something mysterious and hard about grilling- the process of hauling out, cleaning, and lighting the grill just seemed so complicated, not to mention actually cooking food on it. Then I met my husband’s grill-obsessed family, who cheerily grill year round, even through frigid New England winters. They showed me that grilling was such a perfect way to be outside, hang out, and get a meal on the table, all at the same time.

Does the kind or shape of pasta really matter for pasta salad? In theory, you can make pasta salad with any kind of pasta that you want, but here are a couple of things to think about so that you make the best choice possible. While fresh pasta is delicious, its more delicate nature means that it isn’t a great choice for pasta salads.

For some reason, eating something off a stick just makes it more fun. Maybe it’s because you’re probably eating outside, or maybe it’s because you don’t need utensils or even a plate. Regardless, skewers should be a staple in your grilling routine, so here are a couple of tips for successful summer skewering! Ever pick up a skewer and have the food spin and flop around it? Thread two skewers parallel to each other to make sure the food stays put.

Everyone’s packed a sandwich before, so is there really a best way to do it? Depending on the sandwich, there probably is if you want to keep it from getting soggy or falling apart as it travels. While it’s certainly not rocket science, here are a couple of guiding principles that will avert possible sandwich disasters. Before we even get to packing sandwiches, we’ve got to talk about the sandwich choice itself.

Got a little carried away at the U-pick farm and now buried in berries, like this reader yesterday? Maybe you took advantage of the farmers market deal and bought three baskets instead of just one? Preserve or use up the surplus in a variety of ways, from hearty salads to tart-sweet syrups. 1. Freezing. Wash and dry the berries. Trim, then freeze them whole or in pieces in a single layer until solid.

I reach for the stick blender to make quick work of blending a big pot of soup, and it’s also great for the morning on-the-go smoothie since I can blend it right in the cup. But beyond these two tasks, what else can stick blenders do? An immersion or stick blender is a handy, inexpensive appliance that can often take the place of a food processor or regular blender.

Q: I am single and often look for ways to successfully and reliably scale down recipes I want to try to serve 2. I was so happy to to see the cooking for two cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen and I quickly purchased it. So far, I love it. However, my burning question is: for the rest of the recipes I want to try from other sites and magazines or cookbooks, how can I scale down the recipe to work for me?

A lot has changed in the world of flours since I was a child. The shelves that used to hold just all-purpose, bread, and cake flour are now groaning with flours milled from seeds, nuts, and grains. What’s the best way to store all these flours, and how long do they last? We spoke to Susan Reid of King Arthur Flour and Cassidy Stockton of Bob’s Red Mill, and they helped us compile this guide on the different categories of flours, where to store them, and their shelf lives.

If I’ve already made the decision to have dessert, then the question of whether or not to have it a la mode is a no-brainer. Yes, please! There’s something about ice cream that makes each sweet bite that much better. Here are five desserts beyond the traditional apple pie a la mode that are begging to be topped with a scoop of ice cream.

Buying fish you’ll be eating raw can be a little nerve-wracking, especially if you’ve never done it before. It’s expensive and you want to make sure it’s safe to consume, so here’s a guide on what to look for and what questions you should be asking. Although stores use the label “sushi grade fish,” there are no official standards for using this label.

We love quinoa salads — we brought you a real beauty in this green goddess salad today! — but this easy-cooking nutritious grain can go far beyond just salads. What else can do you with this pantry staple? Here are five alternative ways that you can eat quinoa throughout the day, from breakfast all the way to dessert. Quinoa is much more versatile than the salads it usually ends up in.

Nothing screams warm weather like a big pitcher of sangria. You’ve patiently waited for the fruit to steep into the wine and do its magic, and now you’re ready to imbibe. But pouring the sangria over ice seems almost sacrilegious since you’ll dilute the flavors that have worked so hard to come together. How do you keep it cold and refreshing? Here’s a tip to keep that sangria cold without losing any flavor.

When a recipe calls for a good-quality white chocolate, do you know what to look for when you compare brands and labels? And does what you choose determine if your recipe will succeed? Here are a few tips for buying the best white chocolate for baking and melting. Many argue that since white chocolate doesn’t contain the dry cocoa solids that are in chocolate liquor, it’s not really chocolate at all.

Morel mushrooms are expensive. Really expensive. While prices vary from store to store or region to region, the fresh ones can cost multiple times more than the other cultivated mushrooms they sit next to on the shelves. Why are they so expensive, and are they really worth buying? I spoke to Ken Litchfield, who teaches fungi cultivation at the Mycological Society of San Francisco, and he said that the high prices of morel mushrooms basically come down to 3 reasons: 1. Hard to cultivate.

Frying chicken, especially multiple batches if you’re feeding a crowd, can be a stressful dance of breading, frying, and keeping the chicken warm since each batch takes forever to fry — not to mention making sure that the chicken is safely cooked through! Here’s one easy step to incorporate into the process to make the whole thing a lot more zen.

After you’ve dug the last spear out of the pickle jar, you can either pour the pickle juice down the drain and bid it adieu, or you can save and repurpose it into something useful or tasty. Don’t waste that flavorful liquid – here are some great ways to give it new life! 1. Salad dressings: Replace the vinegar in your favorite salad dressing with pickle juice, or drizzle some pickle juice into potato or pasta salad to punch it up. 2.

Rice vinegar is used in a lot of Asian cooking because of its mild acidity and hint of sweetness. Recipes usually call for the two most common varieties, rice vinegar or seasoned rice vinegar. What are the differences, and which one should you buy? The subtle, but important differences in rice vinegar and seasoned rice vinegar boil down to sweetness and acidity. While there are many types of rice vinegar, including red, brown, and black, the most commonly available one is white rice vinegar.

I try hard not to lug around a heavy purse or bag, opting to carry only my keys, phone, wallet, and sunglasses in a small purse. A few years ago, however, an unexpected addition made its way into my purse and has found permanent residence: plastic utensils. As a poor culinary student in Paris, my food mainly came from leftovers I brought home from class and the grocery store.

I reach for my large bottle of pungent fish sauce when making Asian vinaigrettes and dipping sauces. However, since it’s so strong, it always seems to take a while to get through the bottle. Here are some out-of-the box ways to integrate fish sauce into more of your cooking!

What you eat while traveling can sometimes involve extremes: it might be a continuous stream of buttery pastries from Parisian patisseries, or the sad monotony of business trip club sandwiches through room service. No matter what kind of trip it is, you don’t have to settle for eating a wilted grab-and-go sandwich from the terminal kiosk. Here are some ideas on what to pack that will actually make you look forward to your in-flight meal!

Parchment paper seems to have an annoying way of not staying in an empty baking pan. Even when it’s creased or greased, it always tries to pop up, making pouring batter in and smoothing it out more difficult than it needs to be. Kitchn reader Laurel sent us this smart tip for securing the paper to the pan – use clothespins!

Sticky rice goes by many names — waxy, sweet, and pearl among them — but the most confusing one is glutinous. Does glutinous rice actually contain gluten? The answer is no: glutinous rice is gluten-free. The misleading name simply comes from the fact that glutinous rice gets glue-like and sticky when cooked. Why is it so sticky? It all comes down to starch content: the starch in rice has two components, amylose and amylopectin.

Timing a meal so that everything is ready at the same time isn’t easy, especially when you are serving a delicate sauce that needs to be kept warm. Sometimes there isn’t enough space on the stove or you need to commandeer the saucepan for another dish, so here’s an easy solution to keep your sauces piping hot using something you probably already have in the kitchen cabinet.

The grilled cheese is the little black dress of sandwiches with good reason: it’s classic and never goes out of style. There’s just something about the simple-yet-unbeatable combination of buttered, toasted bread with gooey cheese in the middle. But what if you could up your grilled cheese game by making them even cheesier? A sprinkling of a hard, aged cheese like Parmesan or Pecorino Romano onto the buttered bread before you toast it adds an amazing dimension to the final sandwich.

Using nonstick cooking spray is an easy way to grease all the edges and corners in a baking pan, but it always seems to coat the area I’m spraying over with a sticky film too. Does this happen to you too? Here’s the best way I’ve found to make sure your pan gets greasy while your kitchen stays clean. It’s simple: Spray cooking spray into your pan over an open dishwasher door.

Q: I recently received a bottle of cherry balsamic vinegar. Other than using it to dress salads, or perhaps to top a baked brie, I’m at a loss! What are some recipes that allow the flavors to shine/complement other ingredients? Sent by Vicky Editor: Readers, what fun things do you make with cherry balsamic vinegar?

Some people like the ritual of peeling and chopping up garlic, but I hate it. The garlic sticks to the knife, I hate picking out any green shoots in the middle of a clove, and my hands have a faint eau-de-garlic on them for the rest of the day. But skipping the garlic in a recipe is not an option since I love its flavor. My happy discovery? Frozen garlic. I’ve purchased the Dorot brand of frozen crushed garlic cubes at Trader Joe’s for years.

Packing for a picnic might seem like a breeze since, unlike a barbecue, there’s no on-site cooking or raw meat involved. But since you’re traveling and eating outside without the convenience of refrigeration, here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re loading up the picnic basket to pack it safely. You still need a cooler. Pack your cute picnic basket with non-perishable food, napkins, and dinnerware, but pack all perishable items in an insulated cooler with ice packs.

Q: The bergamot herb in my garden is beautiful this spring – I’d love to get some ideas for cooking, baking, and infusing with it. Any suggestions? Sent by Morgan Editor: Here’s a description about the bergamot herb (also known as bee balm) and some suggestions on how to use it. Readers, what do you make with bergamot herb?

While potato salad is a year-round dish, it really becomes a staple as the weather turns warm. Whether you’re going vinegar-y or creamy, warm or cold, the order it’s put together makes the difference between a potato salad with great textures and flavors, and one that is just ho-hum. If you remember the right order to do things, you can easily throw together a tasty potato salad with what you have on hand. Multitask. Start by boiling your potatoes.