get your yummy back

Periodically, I take some time to troll my favorite food blogs and online resources to see what’s being cooked, tasted, procured, grown, picked (pickled – or both?!), and discussed.

Ever wonder how best to store nuts, rice, or flour? Should you refrigerate apples? How long will that bag of dried beans last in the cupboard? Search no more. Or rather, search all you like, at stilltasty.com. This site is the “ultimate guide to shelf life” and has answers to your most frequently asked shelf life questions including guidelines for storing and freezing all sorts of pantry and perishable items.

Some of us learn by seeing, others learn by doing. No matter – we’ve all got a lot to learn. Rouxbe (a fun play on the French cooking term “roux” and pronounced like “ruby”) is an online video cooking school with a vast library of how-to videos covering both basic and advanced cooking techniques. Whether you want a quick tutorial on how to cook pasta, how to use parchment paper for baking, or how to do whatever new-to-you technique a recipe calls for – this is the site for you. 

I learned recently that America’s Test Kitchen, home of the good people who bring us Cook’s Illustrated, is launching a public radio program called America’s Test Kitchen Radio. Now I can listen to discussions about recipes, cooking  equipment, and time-saving techniques while driving, cooking, or cleaning the house. I like it!

On a final note, Michael Pollan is coming to Santa Barbara  and I have tickets to go see him. My guess is you have either read something by him or about him. Not familiar with his work? Check out this article from the NY Times Magazine: Out of the Kitchen; Onto the Couch.  According to Pollan, “…a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for. What is wrong with this picture?” Think about it – and get cooking!