Life in the Kitchen

Yes, it’s possible — and we even prefer it now.

There are certain kitchen essentials we can’t live without — whether those are the tools that are simply indispensable in daily cooking, or the special notes that make our favorite room of the house more beautiful. Somewhere in the middle there’s a blurry area where those necessary kitchen items fade into ones that make cooking a little easier and more convenient.

Before you pour a little oil into the pan and turn on the stove, stop.

Because it’s too damn hot.

I cook a lot. For instance, I still remember cooking through and photographing all the recipes in my cookbook, Bakeless Sweets. The amount of dishes generated by those 75 recipes was mountainous. So this clutter of dishes you see in the photo above expresses how my kitchen looks, most of the time. And yet I have an open kitchen, with the mess on display for everyone to see. (See my whole kitchen renovation reveal.) How do I hide all the dirty dishes?

In the 12 precious weeks I spent in culinary school I learned so many things, from basic vegetable prep, to stocks, fish, meats, and pastry. It was an incredible amount of knowledge in such a short time period, and I could not be more thankful and enthusiastic about the whole experience. But 10 big-picture lessons stand out among everything else I learned in culinary school.

According to some brutally honest landlords.

Keep bugs away without the harsh chemicals.

Quick cleanups have never been easier.

This simple trick can work for anyone.

And why maybe you should too!

This is a sign to go dig through your own archives.

We have a lot of thoughts on how to organize cookbook collections. (See: Some Thoughts On Organizing Your Cookbook Collection.) You can go by subject, author name, book size, or even color. How you choose to store and organize your cookbooks is all about personal preference, of course, but if you need some visual inspiration, where better to look than our Kitchen Tour archives? Here’s a quick peek at how 15 different cooks find ways to store their beloved cookbooks in the kitchen.

So, you’re packing lunch to take to work with you. That’s great. But don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. That’s only half the battle. The bigger task at hand is bringing a lunch that you actually want to eat. You need a lunch that you feel excited to dive into, even when your work buddies are picking up pizza or ordering dumplings and noodle bowls. It totally defeats the purpose of bringing lunch to work if you push it to the back of the fridge and buy food instead.

I’m following these six rules for a kinder spring clean in 2023.

Here’s the inside scoop on what’s coming soon to the fan-favorite discount superstore.

This method is the only way to curb our procrastination.

It’s pawsitively ingenious.

There’s a lot you can do in a small kitchen.

Time to get ready (and organized) for spring on a budget.

For me, the warmth of the Black home has always been a celebration of Blackness, style, legacy, and family.

It also helped me feel more connected to my Jewish heritage.

Since moving in together five years ago, both of our preferred love languages to receive and express love have been “acts of service” and “quality time.”

It's played a big role in how we've bonded through the years.

Do you do this too?

When people find out I am a dietitian and the mom of a school age kid, they often assume my son eats colorful, varied, and healthy packed lunches every day.

True confession: I avoid certain recipes because of the messes they create, which in my world means anything fried or anything that demands the use of a cast iron skillet. So no matter how amazing a recipe looks, the extra work of dealing with hot oil or a seasoned skillet is often enough to make me pass. And I doubt I’m alone here.

Enough of this long, cold, winter; we’re having a Valentine’s party this weekend, and it’s going to involve a lot of cooking, which inevitably means a lot of dancing. I’m one to shake a tail feather while I cook. Are you? This is grounds for a playlist. As a Valentine gift to you, we’re sharing it. If it’s not cold where you live, that’s no excuse not to dance.

As the weather cools down and schedules amp up with back-to-school activities and the impending holiday season, creating a cozy ritual to look forward to seems like a necessity.

Balancing it all doesn’t work.

There’s an unspoken understanding that takes place the moment you accept an invitation to someone’s house for dinner: The hostess agrees to make you feel awesome, while you, her guest, agree to be pleasant and appreciative. When both of these things are in sync, great times over great meals happen. So what are the secrets to being a great dinner guest? Here are five things to do to make yourself a guest to remember. Arrive a little late, you say? Yes, that’s right.

“They call it chaos, we call it home.”

It’s important to honor the home you enter.

"This is a lesson I’ve taken to heart."

Communication is key.

Did it really save them money?

There’s always an excuse, right? Too busy to make plans to see friends I never see; too tired to read the classic book gathering dust on my nightstand; too inflexible to do yoga. But if cooking is something you want to do more, consider your excuses expired. Although there are always reasons to avoid cooking, there are even more reasons to embrace it. Even when ignoring factors like ingredient and portion control, cost-effectiveness, and preserving cultural heritage, food is love.

May is usually the month when your local CSA starts gearing up for the soon-to-come avalanche of summer bounty.  Whether you live in warmer climes and are in the throes of strawberries, peas, asparagus from your year-round box or you’re just starting up again after having the winter off, it’s an exciting time for fresh, local produce.  But it can be a challenging time, too, especially when unfamiliar or overly abundant vegetables show up.

View from My Kitchen Window, WInter Solstice, 2013 It’s a lot to ask, I know, to consider slowing down some today in honor of the solstice. To consider stopping even, right there in your busy tracks, and looking for the sun which may or may not be not be shinning very brightly where you are. You may have to find the solstice in the blueness of shadows, in their thinness and length. You may have to find it in the muted beauty of a bare branch.

Being a good cook isn’t just a matter of knowing the big, impressive skills you can show off to friends and family, like roasting a turkey or making challah bread. It’s also about the small habits you practice daily, the ones that transform cooking into a more effortless and joyful part of your day. These 8 simple habits are easy to pick up, yet make a major difference in your cooking. 1. Make your cutting board non-slip.

Spring has finally arrived in town; the days are longer and the air is softer, and there’s an energy that comes along with all that sunshine. I’m suddenly ready to clean out my office and reorganize my basement and make trips to IKEA and do all the things that always needed more energy than I had in the wintertime. If you’re infected with a similar energy, then we’d like to help you put it to work in the kitchen.

The 10 Simple Things to Make You Happier at Home post over on Apartment Therapy has inspired me to think about a similar post for The Kitchn. What are the essential ingredients for a happy kitchen? In many ways, this is what every Weekend Meditation is about, but for this week I thought I would get a little more specific. Read on for my 10 suggestions and please offer your own in the comments! 1. Keep a well-stocked pantry.

Are you hosting Thanksgiving for the first time this year? Hosting and cooking this great American meal is a big milestone for a cook, but it also can be a moment of some anxiety and nerves. Well, our readers have quite a lot of advice for you. We asked them for their best advice on hosting Thanksgiving dinner, and here are 12 essentials, distilled from the most frequent points we heard. If Thanksgiving seems daunting, these 12 essentials will make it less so.

Cooks, for the most part, are kind and generous people. They tend to want to share the fruits of their kitchen labors with others and express their love and appreciation through feeding people. We support and encourage this at Kitchn, and hope you find inspiration here to practice and express your own version of kitchen kindness.

While weeknights are all about just managing to get something (anything!) edible on the table in as little time as possible, weekends (and snow days!) are for larger-scale, more complex cooking projects. You know, the ones that have more prep time or require obscure ingredients. If you’re feeling ambitious, here’s how to get your kitchen ready to help you tackle even the most complicated recipe.

We’ll take a guess that like every other year, you’re making a resolution to be more organized in 2016. It’s a goal we fully support. The more organized you are, the easier (and more fun) it can be to spend time in your kitchen and get dinner on the table every night. Here’s some of our best advice from 2015 to help you make a fresh start in the new year. Your cabinets can always use more work: Take lessons from these beautifully organized cabinets.