Category: Food

How a Pie Shop in a Tiny Texas Town Became a Healing Haven for Broken Hearts

Despite being a tiny town of 90 residents, Round Top is a happening place. Located smack dab between Houston and Austin, Texas, it is a favorite destination for people who wish to escape the city for a weekend. It hosts antique shows three times a year, it offers amazing Shakespeare plays, it boasts a renowned…


Ipanema, a Beloved Brazilian Gem in New York, Makes a Glamorous Return to the City

Carlos and Victor Pedro grew up in Ipanema—not the famed Rio de Janeiro beach, but their father’s Brazilian-Portuguese restaurant, named after those sun-drenched shores, in the heart of New York’s Little Brazil. The lively spot had been a neighborhood staple since 1979, when Alfredo Pedro, who immigrated from Portugal when he was 13, quit his…


Fish-Fragrant Eggplant

By Gretchen McKay From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette I’m a sucker for eggplant in any form, but really adore it in Chinese food, especially when it’s tossed in a spicy garlic sauce accentuated with the gentle heat of chili. So the second I saw the cover of Hannah Che’s stellar new cookbook, “The Vegan Chinese Kitchen,” man,…


Fettuccine Alfredo

Why I love this recipe: Easy – Basic ingredients, a few simple steps, and a quick meal for any night of the week, but fancy enough for guests! This is the best fettuccine alfredo! Comforting – It’s warm, creamy, and everyone’s favorite! I love to serve it with homemade breadsticks and a wedge salad! Delicious from Scratch – Everything is better from…


Get the Kids Involved in Making This Easy Snack

Nori is a mild-flavored seaweed used in all sorts of Japanese dishes. But it doesn’t grow in flat, even rectangles! To make nori sheets moist, wavy, raw nori is cleaned, minced, pressed, and dried into flat, crisp sheets. To up the crispness and make our nori chips sturdier, we fold each sheet in half before…


Best Apple Pie with Flaky Butter Crust

The Best Apple Pie Is A Game Changer I have a little confession.  Despite my affection for all things sweet, cooked apples aren’t what my sweet teeth run to. Fresh ‘n crisp fall apples just off the tree – those, I adore.  I just don’t typically prefer them cooked.  That puts me in the tiny…


The Basics of Home Canning and How to Get Started—Quick and Easy!

So you planted a garden, lucked out when your property included fruit trees, stumbled upon a produce sale you just couldn’t pass up, or joined a Community Supported Agriculture group. Good for you! Now what? What will you do with all that bounty? Your choices are 1) quickly consume your harvest before it spoils, 2)…


Wine: Looking for Values

As popular as wine is today, it’s still seen as fairly pricey by regular consumers, so daily consumers are always seeking strategies to find good values. And now is a perfect time to stock up. Wildfires in California over the last few years have negatively impacted stocks of domestic red wines, which makes them slightly…


15-minute Garlic Green Beans Are a Forever Favorite Side Dish

A quick and timeless combination of garlic and butter make this simple skillet of sautéed green beans an instant family favorite. It’s a 15-minute, five-ingredient side dish that pairs with chicken, fish, steak, and more. Make it once, and you’ll hardly need to look at the recipe when you make it again and again (which…


Slow Cooker Yogurt Is Easy, Plus Better Than Any Store Brands

My somewhat sobering review of the best and worst brands of store yogurt has apparently resulted in some folks considering a switch to homemade. If this is your thought process too because not a single yogurt brand is optimal (grassfed, organic, non-homogenized milk, 24-hour, no additives), I would recommend slow cooker yogurt as an ideal solution. Most…