Gray Chapman

Gray is a food and beauty writer who has covered lipstick science, brain surgery, and the history of the Tequila Sunrise. She enjoys eating noodles with her husband, Dane, and sharing cheese with their dog, Jerry.
    How to Do Salad for Dinner Like They Do in Paris
    Here are a few tips we're borrowing from the French for taking salad out of side-dish territory and making it the main event.
    Gray Chapman
    Jul 13, 2021
    Slow Cooker Butter Bean Minestrone Uses Up Whatever Veggies You Have
    Clear out your crisper drawer with this forgiving summer soup.
    Gray Chapman
    Jul 19, 2020
    The Best Veggie to Grow If You’ve Got a Patio or Small Yard
    Tiny Victory Garden
    Zucchini often produces famously high yields, can thrive in a number of climate conditions, and does well in roomy containers as well as raised beds.
    Gray Chapman
    May 24, 2020
    Want to Start a Container Garden? Your Best Bets Are Salad Greens (or Maybe Tomatoes, If You’re Lucky)
    Tiny Victory Garden
    Even if you only have room for just one or two containers on your balcony, you’d be surprised at how much you can work with in that setting.
    Gray Chapman
    May 23, 2020
    If You Only Grow One Thing in a Windowsill Garden, Mint Should Be It
    Tiny Victory Garden
    Or, how to enjoy mojitos all summer long.
    Gray Chapman
    May 22, 2020
    3 Things You Need to Start Your Own Tiny Victory Garden
    Tiny Victory Garden
    It's easy to feel overwhelmed, but you really only need these 3 things.
    Gray Chapman
    May 21, 2020
    Everyone Should Grow a Tiny Victory Garden — Here’s How to Start
    Tiny Victory Garden
    Whether you’re working with a tiny balcony, a few square feet of dirt, or a window box; whether your porch is soaked in 10 hours of sunlight a day or you live in the shadow of a high-rise, you can start your own tiny victory garden.
    Gray Chapman
    May 20, 2020
    Recipe: Slow Cooker Broccoli Cheddar Soup from The Pioneer Woman
    The slow cooker is a mainstay of modern American cooking — but it’s not just you and me firing up the Crock-Pot on a weeknight. Famous chefs and celebrities are not above its charms, and this week we’re bringing you five recipes from five kitchen stars that show off their favorite ways to put the slow cooker to good use. First up: Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman herself, with a classic broccoli cheddar soup that is kid-friendly and good for any cold night.
    Gray Chapman
    Feb 3, 2020
    Slow-Cooker Beef and Kabocha Squash Stew by Giada De Laurentiis
    Giada dresses it up with rustic sun-dried tomatoes, a red wine reduction, fresh herbs, and kobocha squash.
    Gray Chapman
    Jan 29, 2020
    Recipe: Martha Stewart’s Slow Cooker Cheesecake
    The slow cooker is a mainstay of modern American cooking — but it’s not just you and me firing up the Crock-Pot on a weeknight. Famous chefs and celebrities are not above its charms, and this week we’re bringing you five recipes from five kitchen stars that show off their favorite ways to put the slow cooker to good use. Most people associate Crock-Pots with thick, hearty stews or fork-tender cuts of meat.
    Gray Chapman
    Jan 21, 2020
    The Best Tips from the Pizza Nerds of Reddit
    From bread to burgers, if there’s a dish over which people can obsess, there’s likely a thriving community for it on Reddit. The subreddit r/Pizza isn’t just about people who love pizza — r/Pizza is a place for pizza disciples.
    Gray Chapman
    Jun 3, 2019
    Comfort Cooking: 7 Recipes to Make When You’re Feeling Anxious
    When my nerves are shot, my anxiety is at a fever pitch, or I’m just generally stuck in a quagmire of existential malaise, I go to my kitchen. Routine cooking almost always helps me feel better. It helps my brain stop spinning and forces me to slow down, even for just the short time it takes to chop an onion. At the very least, it separates me from a screen for a while. (The built-in aromatherapy is helpful, too.
    Gray Chapman
    May 30, 2019
    How a 4,000-Mile Road Trip Taught Me Everything I Know About Beef Jerky
    In August of 2009, my boyfriend, our dog, and I loaded up my beat-up, two-door Chevy Blazer and set out for our first long-distance road trip together. What started out as a harebrained idea had, over the course of our then-fledgling relationship, solidified into a highlighted streak on the calendar, then a map, and finally a plan.
    Gray Chapman
    May 24, 2019
    7 Things I Learned About Eating Better from Reddit
    Name just about any subculture, fandom, hobby, or niche obsession, and there’s likely a space for talking about it on Reddit. The massive online discussion site currently hosts over one million discussion communities (known as subreddits), focused on just about every subject matter or interest you could imagine.
    Gray Chapman
    May 1, 2019
    What Exactly Is a Plant-Based Diet?
    “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” It’s hard to imagine the prevailing ideas of what healthy eating means without this famous pronouncement from Michael Pollan, which in its reductive simplicity carries a kind of relief from the fluctuations of modern nutritional science. So simple, so memorable — nothing to avoid, but everything to gain from a renewed focus on plants. It could even be seen as the unspoken mantra of plant-based eating. What is plant-based eating?
    Gray Chapman
    May 1, 2019
    Recipe: Trisha Yearwood’s Crock-Pot Chocolate Candy
    The slow cooker is a mainstay of modern American cooking — but it’s not just you and me firing up the Crock-Pot on a weeknight. Famous chefs and celebrities are not above its charms, and this week we’re bringing you five recipes from five kitchen stars that show off their favorite ways to put the slow cooker to good use. For the average home cook (like me), homemade candy seems like an intimidating, labor-intensive thing to pull off.
    Gray Chapman
    May 1, 2019
    This $3 Trader Joe’s Find Is My Secret Weapon for Quick Meals
    When it comes to adding a good, filling, healthy, and affordable protein to a meal, there’s nothing easier than peeling open a tin of smoked trout. Whether I’m trying to throw together a serviceable dinner or I’m in the mood for a particularly decadent breakfast, it’s a quick and pretty delicious way to round out a dish. And, thanks to its shelf life, I can stock up and keep it on hand (I get mine at Trader Joe’s and usually snag five or six tins of it at a time).
    Gray Chapman
    May 1, 2019
    How to Do Salad for Dinner Like They Do in Los Angeles
    Los Angeles isn’t all vibrant grain bowls, fancy toasts, and glowing glasses of cold-pressed juice — the city has a storied salad pedigree, too, dating back to the inception of the Cobb Salad at Hollywood’s Brown Derby more than three-quarters of a century ago. Nowadays, the stalwarts of LA’s health-conscious dining scene are staying true to the city’s legacy, leveraging the plethora of Southern California produce with the city’s boundless culinary diversity.
    Gray Chapman
    Apr 12, 2018
    Do Yourself a Favor This Year and Just Buy the Keg
    I’ve hosted my family’s Thanksgiving for the last few years, and each year I use a secret weapon that makes our gatherings of about a dozen people more fun, more festive, and slightly less stressful for me as a host. It isn’t a turkey-basting hack, or a killer mise en place game, or a Martha Stewart doppelganger helping me carefully garnish each salad. It is, simply, a keg full of beer. The keg has been a game-changer for entertaining.
    Gray Chapman
    Nov 15, 2017
    Nigella Lawson Thinks Instagram Is Ruining Comfort Food
    A question for the ages: If you spend an hour in the kitchen creating a wholesome, nourishing, delicious meal from scratch and don’t Instagram it, did it ever really happen? (More importantly, who is actually eating all those smoothie bowls Nigella Lawson, whose new cookbook hits shelves this week, recently wrote in the Guardian about the many ways in which the internet has changed the way we cook.
    Gray Chapman
    Sep 27, 2017