Guest of The Kitchn

Jam’s ability to glam up a piece of toast is, of course, a foregone conclusion. But have you ever thought about adding a dollop of this sweet, sticky fruit spread to your cocktail? You should! Shaken with ice and a shot of vodka, jam creates a cocktail of surpassing summery goodness. Whether you’ve been hard at work canning your garden’s bounty or hard at work enjoying the sun, a jamtini is just the thing to toast the end to a perfect summer day.

Although Rubén wasn’t born or raised in the generally warm and sunny Mediterranean city of Valencia, his years as a college student in this region decisively influenced his cooking style. During that time he managed to learn and prepare almost to perfection what is considered by many to be the quintessential Spanish dish: paella. (His friends even gave him the noble title of The King of Paella!

When Josh and Sarah moved into their lovely home in the Cherry Hill Historic District of Grand Rapids, they customized every nook and cranny to their impeccable style. Together Josh, a graphic designer, and Sarah run the lifestyle blog When Regarding Ruffles, so it’s no surprise their house reflects all of their creativity — especially the kitchen!

Stephanie and Jon had wanted to redo the kitchen in their 680-square-foot Madison home for 18 years. They knew the space was sad; as it was, there was little storage and workspace, cabinet doors didn’t close, and the room lacked any and all personality. Then they saw that, thanks to a grant, a local green-building consulting firm was offering design plans at a discount. The result: a kitchen with improved functionality and a look as fresh as a blue sky on a sunny day.

Food packaging contributes to a lot of the waste in our homes, and it’s something most of us just accept. Plastic wrappers for cereal, energy bars, deli meats, and instant coffee all find themselves in the garbage at a rate as high as our consumption. Monosol is aiming to change that by offering edible, water-soluble wrapping. Could this be the food packaging of the future?

My oven broke over Christmas. That’s four months without a big oven. I could have had it repaired at any time but never felt the urgent need to do so. That’s because I have my Breville Smart Oven. (I don’t work for Breville or have any ties to the company whatsoever, I promise). The Smart Oven toasts, bakes, broils, and reheats. It’s perfect for someone living alone or for couples. But it’s also great for cooking for kids.

Love Hipstamatic for the iPhone? Like taking food photos? Then you should check out the the Loftus Foodie Lens and Film Pak inspired by London-based food photo artist David Loftus. It was released in December and it is “crafted to produce luscious food shots with incredible clarity in the center and blurring of the edges.

Jessica Goldman Foung of Sodium Girl has an unusual dilemma, for a young and otherwise healthy woman: She can eat almost no sodium. She is on a mission to make low-sodium eating delicious — and today she offers her best tips on dressing a salad without salt, gluten, or other allergens.Let me ask you this question: What are three things you’re carrying in your bag this instant? Now let me make this guess: You didn’t answer salad dressing. Right?

Fortunately, switching to plastic-free food containers has gained a lot of steam. With steel and glass as the main alternatives, how do you choose? Both containers have their advantages, like being BPA free and long-lasting. To make choosing easier, here is a list of pros and cons for each.Both glass and steel food containers avoid a host of toxins, like BPA and phthalates, that can leech into food from conventional plastic containers.

Chinese or Lunar New Year falls on this coming Monday, January 23rd. In honor of this very important holiday, Bee of the beautiful and delicious website Rasa Malaysia brings us a traditional recipe for hot and soothing soup. Welcome, Bee! A traditional Chinese New Year meal is incomplete without dumplings and a dish of nourishing and soothing Chinese soup, hence I’ve combined the best of both worlds into this pork dumpling soup.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Ilke of the lovely blog Ilke’s Kitchen, writing about her family’s New Year’s Eve traditions of bingo, red underwear (indeed! read on and it will all become clear!) and a scrumptious rice pilaf. Welcome, Ilke!

I love discovering new cocktail recipes and original ways to experience different, unique flavors with classic spirits. But, these days, discovering “new cocktails” on the internet usually means “new fandangled drinks that use a bunch of specialty liqueurs and spirits you don’t have and aren’t gonna buy a whole bottle of to try a new drink.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: We’re bringing you one more post from Melanie Widmann of Coffee Tea Gastronomy. Melanie is a true tea aficionado, and I loved this unique pudding — a delicious and gluten-free holiday dessert.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Nicky Stich of one of our favorite food blogs, Delicious Days, with a lovely little treat for New Year’s (or any time).I never considered myself much a Christmas person; I prefer to rather make gifts or write cards to loved ones when they least expect it.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Jess Goldman, Sodium Girl, talking about health during the holiday period. Yes, I know Christmas is over, and Hanukkah nearly is as well, but there is a whole week of feasting left through New Year’s, and these tips may come in really handy.Most of the year, we eat for sustenance.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Nancy Singleton Hachisu. A native of California, Nancy now lives and works on an organic farm in Japan. I have been so inspired this year by her blog, Indigo Days, and by what I have seen of her forthcoming book, Japanese Farm Food. Welcome, Nancy.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Terry Boyd. Terry is a longtime reader and community member of The Kitchn, and he writes his own blog, Blue Kitchen. I always learn something when I visit there! Fresh rosemary adds a subtle, mysterious something extra to Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Domenica Marchetti. Domenica is a widely-published food writer and columnist, and she has published some wonderful books on Italian cooking, including this year’s favorite, The Glorious Pasta of Italy. Welcome Domenica! Fried dough.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule. I am a huge fan of Cheryl’s writing and photography, not to mention her cooking. At my college, the annual Latke-Hamantaschen debate drew standing-room only crowds.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Germaine Leece of Some Home Truths, an always thoughtful and inspiring blog. (We’ve peeked inside her own home kitchen in Sydney, too!) Welcome Germaine!

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us here at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts. The topics range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Jess Thomson of Hogwash. Jess is a friend and terrific writer and recipe developer. She recently published a book on doughnuts, and she brings us this recipe for sufganiyot, those fried, jelly-filled pastries so beloved at Hanukkah.

Every holiday season we ask a few friends to join us at The Kitchn for a series of guest posts that range from favorite holiday recipes to family memories and traditions. Today’s guest: Erin Scott of Yummy Supper, a blog I have really admired this year. Welcome Erin! Our holidays have gotten more and more simple, and I couldn’t be happier.

With all the hustle and bustle in the kitchen this Thanksgiving, I quickly realized the insufficiency of my recipe organization. Cards and clippings were floating everywhere, getting sprinkled with water and gravy, and disappearing in the chaos. So before Christmas arrives, I’ve decided to devote some time to reorganizing my recipes in the hopes of making my life easier and facilitating better use.

Have you noticed that challahs reinvent themselves each year for the Jewish New Year? All year long, we shape our challahs into beautiful braids. On Rosh Hashanah, our challahs are round to symbolize the cycle of the year. Just like our challahs, the new year is a time when we too can consider how to transform ourselves in a positive way during the coming year.

I am delighted to welcome Jessica Goldman of Sodium Girl to The Kitchn today. Jess has an unusual mission for a young writer: Make eating sodium-free food sexy, fun, and delicious. Jess has a type of lupus that requires her to eat a very low-sodium diet, but she has turned this challenge into a quest for flavor without salt — and she has done it so well that it earned her a book deal. Look for her book on fresh, flavorful sodium-free eating next fall.

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. She has showed us quick picked mushrooms and quick pickled roots — and today, in her last installment, it’s pickled berries!

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. Last week she showed us quick pickled roots — this week, it’s pickled mushrooms!Welcome to the second installment of my quick pickling guest post series!

Summer means fresh garden produce, and fresh garden produced needs preserving as much as possible. So we turned to Tigress for a brief summer series on quick and easy pickling, which is just one way to preserve the bounty of summer a little longer. Pickling is surprisingly easy — take a look at this first post to see just how simple it can be.Oh snap! Summer is here and you want something snappy to ward off the heat?

Entertaining is our main topic this month, and we wanted to give a little attention to that biggest of bashes: weddings! One of my favorite resources for planning a sane, practical, personal wedding is Meg Keene’s site A Practical Wedding. We’re swapping posts today — I will have a post there this afternoon on building a practical wedding registry. Here’s Meg now with some practical advice for doing some or all of the cooking for your own (or someone else’s!

So even though we’ve only been in this house for a few months, I swear our spices and mixes are multiplying in the dark recesses of their cabinet. The main pantry cabinet stays pretty organized, but this spice cabinet has been growing more chaotic by the day. Before sitting down to make a grocery list for the weekend, I decided the time had come to corral the chaos to see what I actually had before heading out to buy more.

Last year when I photographed the home of John Saint-Denis for his house tour, I immediately fell in love with his kitchen. It’s quite stunning, with a presence that lingers throughout the rest of his home. When my friend (and Top Chef Just Desserts winner) Yigit Pura came to visit a couple weeks ago, we took a tour of John’s kitchen.When John and his friends bought the building, they each offered their own custom renovations to their respective units.

We asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share a holiday treat with us during our holiday break. I really appreciate the multi-generational focus of Yvette’s blog, Muy Bueno Cookbook, and her loving recreation of authentic Mexican cooking, family-style. And when she sent along this bright, festive take on the margarita, I was sold! Here, complete with swizzle stick, is drink number one for your New Year’s festivities.Move over cranberry sauce and, H-E-L-L-O Cranberry Margarita!

We asked some of our favorite food bloggers to share a holiday treat with us during our holiday break. Kasey (also of eating/sf) writes a fabulous blog that mashes up food and music. Here’s a slice of Turntable Kitchen, a story of New Year’s in a Russian family, with a beet recipe to match. My family, being Russian, celebrates New Year’s a bit differently than most Americans. Growing up, we wouldn’t get a Christmas tree, but rather, a New Year’s tree.