The goal of a food and drink pairing is to make both taste better when consumed together. It’s a partnership to bring out the best in everyone! So while red wine with steak is probably the most well-known duo, there are still a handful of beverages — both alcoholic and non-alcoholic — that will make that juicy steak you just cooked up an even more delicious experience to partake in.

This month we partnered with the Astrotwins to reveal the ways your zodiac sign informs your chocolate preferences. According to the Astrotwins, “Each zodiac sign has a distinct set of personality traits — and believe it or not, there’s a chocolate recipe out there to match every horoscope sign.” Geminis don’t sit still.

This month we partnered with the Astrotwins to reveal the ways your zodiac sign informs your chocolate preferences. According to the Astrotwins, “Each zodiac sign has a distinct set of personality traits — and believe it or not, there’s a chocolate recipe out there to match every horoscope sign.” You’re as classic as they come, Capricorn. You value the essential, simple things in life and live happily with understated elegance.

This month we partnered with the Astrotwins to reveal the ways your zodiac sign informs your chocolate preferences. According to the Astrotwins, “Each zodiac sign has a distinct set of personality traits — and believe it or not, there’s a chocolate recipe out there to match every horoscope sign.

This month we partnered with the Astrotwins to reveal the ways your zodiac sign informs your chocolate preferences. According to the Astrotwins, “Each zodiac sign has a distinct set of personality traits — and believe it or not, there’s a chocolate recipe out there to match every horoscope sign.” For you, Scorpio, chocolate is all about intensity, mystery, and sensuality. That’s why something like a molten lava chocolate cake appeals.

Here’s an instant way to add depth to your boxed mac and cheese. It’s an upgrade that will not only give it a spicy kick, but also sour, umami notes. Yes, I’m talking about kimchi. Kimchi is potent stuff, and that’s exactly why we love it in instant mac and cheese. Often the boxed stuff can fall flat — it’s only cheese and milk and starch, after all — and a little lift can really go a long way.

I recently had my first piece of gingerbread cookie of the season, purchased from my favorite local bakery. It was everything a good one should be — yet it was missing something.

Are you on team snack board yet? These budget-friendly dinners are a great tool to have on hand for a simple, stress-free meal at home shamelessly made of nothing but snacks. Building them isn’t hard, and there aren’t any rules, but there are a few mistakes to avoid to ensure success. Here’s what to always keep in mind when you’re assembling a snack board of your own. Once again, snack boards are supposed to be stress-free.

Go to the store with a “head of cabbage” on your list and you’ll see your choices are abundant. Gone are the days when a big orb of green cabbage was your only option. Now there are a whole slew of varieties readily available, all with great potential in the kitchen. So which one to choose? Here are the four most common types of cabbage out there and how to best use each. This is likely the first thing that comes to mind when you think of cabbage.

Whether it’s homemade or from a box or can, sometimes soup needs just a little something extra to help spice it up. That’s when we reach for the heavy-hitting flavors from the side door of the refrigerator. Think of condiments as soup’s finishing touch. Go beyond that squirt of Sriracha and try one of these instead. The beauty of fish sauce is its versatility beyond the Asian canon of flavors often found in noodle dishes or curries.

I love a big bowl of soup for dinner, but often I find that I need a salad and some crusty bread to really call it a meal. Thicken that soup up a bit and make it creamy and suddenly it feels like it can hold its own on the dinner table. Here are five quick and easy ways to thicken any soup and make it a meal in a bowl.

Mornings are about efficiency. How can you quickly get out the door while still managing a healthy breakfast and a caffeine kick? Here’s your answer: Cook your oatmeal in tea. You’re not only getting a buzz from your breakfast bowl, but it’s also creamy, spicy, and delicious! The concept is simple. While you usually cook your oats in a simmering pot of water, cook them in a simmering pot of tea instead.

Looking for a Halloween treat you can give as a sweet little gift? With a bit of food coloring and a tiny bit of artistic direction, you can turn marshmallows into colorful treats that are as enjoyable to make as they are to eat. Start by grabbing three small bowls, filling them with water, and adding a few drops of food coloring (yellow, orange, and black) to each one. Then simply dip large marshmallows into the bowls.

While you can’t beat homemade broth, we also love how easily you can make something delicious and nourishing from a box or two of the store-bought stuff when needed. However, there’s a secret to making extra-flavorful soup from it: your freezer. Keep a well-stocked freezer full of ingredients that add flavor and substance and that boxed broth will fool you. Here are seven essentials to have on hand. Keep a few bags of frozen veggies in the freezer to toss into a soup on a whim.

There’s something about Rice Krispies Treats that already make them seem fit for the Halloween season — perhaps it’s that candy-like, extra-gooey thing they have going on — but with the addition of candy corn, they become the perfect treat. This is easy — I promise. Get your favorite recipe for Rice Krispies Treats (may I suggest this one?) and gather the supplies (toasted crisp cereal, mini marshmallows, and whatever else it may call for).

Plain cream cheese is delicious, but why not get a little creative with your morning bagel? Here we have 11 ways to start with plain cream cheese and turn it into a schmear to make your fancy bagel shop jealous. We’re not just talking about run-of-the-mill cream cheese flavors like scallion or strawberry — these 11 unique mix-ins start with pumpkin, progress to pickle, and close with chocolate. These are schmears to kvell over.

There’s something about having a big bottle of fresh apple cider in your fridge all fall that feels oddly reassuring. Maybe it’s the fact that a taste of the season is always just a glass away, or that it always feels like a treat because it’s only during these few short months that cider makes a regular appearance in your kitchen. But after a few glasses of sweet, pure cider, it’s fun to play around a little with the bottle.

Prepping and freezing your own breakfast sandwiches is a morning game-changer, but knowing how to do it right is equally important. There are a few simple rules to follow to achieve freezer-friendly breakfast-sandwich success. Follow them and your rushed weekday mornings are bound to be better. When prepping breakfast sandwiches for the freezer, it’s important to wrap up each one individually.

Whether you slow-cooked a pork shoulder or roasted a chicken on Sunday or you simply picked up rotisserie chicken on your weekly shopping trip, shredded pork and chicken are smart tools to have around. When weekday lunches all too often feel uninspiring and stale, both versatile proteins spice up the norm. Combine them with a few additional ingredients to make lunch something you actually look forward to. Here are 10 ideas to get you started.

For the uninitiated, a chile pepper is either hot or not, but actually each pepper can produce a different kind of heat depending on its variety. The Scoville scale assigns a number to the pepper depending on how spicy it is, and one factor to determine this number is whether the heat the pepper produces is sharp or flat. What does “flat heat” actually mean?

Bite into a chile pepper and you may simply think it’s hot or not, but according to scientists, that heat is more specific than you might think. The spice of every kind of chile peppers is measured using the Scoville scale, which assigns a number to the pepper depending on how pungent it is. One factor to determine this number is whether the heat the pepper produces is sharp or flat. What the heck does “sharp heat” mean?

A light, refreshing fruit salad is a great way to wrap up a summer cookout. But it’s all too easy to get carried away when you’re cutting up your fruit and end up with a giant bowl that’s way more than you need. The leftover fruit salad may be great over your yogurt the next morning, but soon after it starts to look sad and slightly mushy. Here are five ways to use up fruit salad that’s just past its prime.

It’s usually right around this point in the summer, each and every year, that I get the warmest, fuzziest feeling at the farmers market — the abundance of seasonal fruits and vegetables has a way of doing that. Saturday after Saturday, piles of tomatoes after piles of peaches, I start to think it may just last forever, that those deep winter days of nothing but cellared potatoes and onions will never arrive. But the sad truth is that they will.

When you go to the store to pick up fruit, how do you know exactly what size you need? Get familiar with a little melon math and consider the problem solved.

Unlike, say, French, Italian, or even Mexican food, Brazilian food is a little more uncharted for many. You may simply think steak when you hear Brazil, but the country has a whole lot more going for it from a culinary standpoint. So before you begin your next culinary adventure, get acquainted with the pronunciation of some of Brazil’s most beloved dishes. This classic fragrant stew consists of fish, tomatoes, hearts of palm, peppers, onions, and cilantro.

Slice up a peak-season tomato, eat it plain, and it will be a glorious thing. But tomatoes play extra well with others. Toss two more ingredients in the ring and you’ve got the kind of salad that only summer can bring. Take, for example, the caprese: Pair fresh mozzarella and basil with those tomatoes and everyone is happy. Here are 11 ways to mix up your tomato salad routine.

Walk through the farmers market this time of year and you’ll be blown away by the variety of tomatoes laid out at various stands. I always find myself lost among the shapes, sizes, and colors, trying to buy at least one of each unique type just to see what it tastes like. Here are just some of the incredible array of tomatoes that flock the markets.