Need more zip in your kitchen? 10 ways to uplevel your ingredients.

2024-03-13T09:47:11-07:00By |

If you’re like most people, you're limiting trips to the grocery store and how much time you spend in the store, sticking to replenishing basic staple items. If that's starting to feel a little lackluster, here are some ways to liven up some of your pantry essentials without needing to shop more often.

6 healthy holiday foods

2024-03-13T10:09:42-07:00By |

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and in many of my patients, I see a mixture of joy and angst. Much of that angst is because holiday meals have a reputation (often earned) for being indulgent and less-than-nutritious. But when you stop and take a closer look, there are many perfectly nutritious foods that we traditionally serve during the fall and winter holidays.

Cooking with Olive Oil vs. Coconut Oil

2024-03-13T10:09:48-07:00By |

My latest On Nutrition column in The Seattle Times, "Coconut oil: It's really not that good for you," is my attempt to set the record straight on whether we should be eating coconut oil with abandon (hint: we shouldn't). As a result, I received a number of questions via email regarding my suggestion in that column to use olive oil as a primary cooking fat.

Recipe: Fresh and Easy Rustic Gazpacho 2.0

2024-03-13T10:09:49-07:00By |

I blogged about my recipe for rustic gazpacho when I first adopted it into my repertoire back in 2014. Much like ratatouille (more on this soon), it inexplicably fell out of favor after a few intense years. How fortuitous that I was re-inspired to make this fresh, lovely, easy soup as I was flipping through Nancy Harmon Jenkins "Virgin Territory: Exploring the World of Olive Oil" before giving a talk on the Mediterranean diet.

Why to Hygge

2024-03-13T10:09:51-07:00By |

I don't remember exactly when I first heard of hygge (HOO-geh)...sometime last year I think. My first thought was that this was the next trend to replace the "life-changing magic of tidying up." My second thought was that I was intrigued.

Recipe: Socca

2024-03-13T10:10:10-07:00By |

My interest in the chickpea flour, water and olive oil pancake known as socca peaked when we were planning our first-ever trip to the south of France. Socca is popular not just in southern France and Italy. The traditional—and best—way to cook it is in a wood-fired oven (mobile or otherwise), but you can easily make do with your home oven using a skillet or pizza pan.

Review: Purple Carrot

2024-03-13T10:17:35-07:00By |

My curiosity about meal kit delivery services recently got the best of me, and I decided to start by trying out Purple Carrot, the vegan meal delivery service that Mark Bittman left The New York Times for last fall. Ironically, on the day my order was delivery, I saw the news that Bittman had left Purple Carrot. When I tasted meal number one later that evening, I was pretty sure I knew why.

My Non-Cookbook Non-Challenge

2024-03-13T10:17:51-07:00By |

I'm fessing up: My 2015 Cookbook Challenge has kind of fizzled out. I think it was a worthy endeavor, for reasons I've previously discussed, namely that I revisited cookbooks that had been languishing on my shelves and cooked some wonderful dishes, but lately my foodie thoughts have been running to magazines, websites and new-to-me cookbooks from the library.

Recipe: Lentil and Mushroom Ragout

2024-03-13T10:17:55-07:00By |

A delicious, hearty lentil and mushroom recipe that's perfect for Meatless Monday, adapted from one of the many fabulous recipes on the Canadian Lentils website. One of the best culinary discoveries I made last week at FNCE!

The Practice of Cooking

2024-03-13T10:17:55-07:00By |

If you've been reading my blog for a while or have perused my website, you know the drill: I love cooking, I own more than 200 cookbooks, blah, blah, blah. That's all true, except sometimes cooking's the last thing I want to do. Quite honestly, sometimes all I want to do is eat something delicious and nourishing before getting on with the rest of my evening agenda.

Embracing the Science of Cooking

2024-03-13T10:17:57-07:00By |

My first thought as I sat in the audience at Town Hall waiting for J. Kenji Lopez-Alt to come on stage to talk about "The Science Behind Better Cooking" was that the audience was a perfect microcosm of old and new Seattle. My second thought was "Dammit, another cookbook I'm going to have to buy!"

Recipe: Rustic Gazpacho

2024-03-13T10:19:14-07:00By |

I sometimes take leftover soup to work in the cooler months, but never in the summer...until I was inspired by an interview with Penelope Cruz in InStyle to make gazpacho, a dish I've sort of avoided thus far in my life. I had a mountain of ripe tomatoes in my garden to use up, and I was getting tired of spending hours cooking them down into tomato sauce. I wanted something quick, easy and delicious!

A non-recipe recipe for Mexican chicken

2024-03-13T10:19:25-07:00By |

Sometimes, I love cooking from a recipe, but other times...I just don't. Like, when I've been busy, or I'm tired, or I've broken my brain working on some project or other. Basically, when I'd rather operate on autopilot rather than think or read my way to a homecooked meal.

Recipe Rescue: How to Pump Up the Flavor

2024-03-13T10:19:32-07:00By |

Have you ever followed a delicious-looking recipe to the letter and felt a little let down by the finished product? Like, it needs a little...something. Me, too. Here are some tips from culinary wizard and cookbook author Rebecca Katz for boosting and balancing the flavor in your recipes.

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