We've come to the end of the Real Food How To blog series.  In fact, the cookbook will be here on Thursday!  It's a little bit surreal to me, to think that this book started as a simple question from a friend about how to cook dried beans, and now here we are.  You can see all of the posts in this series here. Through all of these tutorials and recipes, I hope that you have learned some new kitchen skills. I hope that you have tried some new flavor combinations. But most of all, I hope … [Read more...]

One of the easiest ways to save something from going bad, or save it for a later time, is to freeze it.  But sometimes freezing things ends up making more work or more wasted food, because everything sticks together and it's hard to use. Here's how I freeze things so that they don't stick together. Use overlapping layers.  When you're freezing something with a bunch of smaller pieces, it can be tempting to just stack them all.  Don't do that!  You won't be able to separate the pieces … [Read more...]

Sometimes you come across a word in a recipe and you know exactly what it means. And sometimes, you kind of have to guess from context. Here are a few common kitchen words and what they really mean (related terms are in the parentheses). photo credit Al Dente – cooked to a firm texture, usually in reference to pasta. From the Italian for “to the tooth”, signifying that while it is cooked, it’s still firm enough to chew. Boil – a method of cooking in water that is at least 212ºF. A … [Read more...]