Tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day and it is also the day that Darina Allen’s new book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking, will be released.
As many of you know, I attended Darina’s Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland about 6 years ago. I wrote about it for The New York Times Travel Section.
For my full review [...]

I’ve been posting more frequently over at Amazon’s Al Dente blog lately. And, this morning, I posted a pitch for The New Doubleday Cookbook.
I’ve had this book for fifteen years now so it isn’t exactly  “new,”  but it’s a timeless resource that I turn to again and again. I constantly pull this culinary “encyclopedia” off the [...]

I’ve been posting over at Amazon’s Al Dente blog this week. So you might check out my posts regarding the Butterball Turkey Talk Line, BBC Good Food, and Epicurious.com.
All of these online resources offer solid recipes and useful tips. They also have new features designed  to make the holidays easier and more enjoyable. Be sure to check them out.Other sites [...]

I was poking around Washington’s Auburn Supermall recently and stopped by the Corningware Corelle Revere store. I immediately noticed a large display of one of Corningware’s classic casseroles—Blue Cornflower.
I hadn’t seen these basic blue and white casseroles in retail stores for years and asked the salesman about them. He told me they were recently reintroduced by [...]

As many of you know, I am a big fan of my Zojirushi Bread Machine. I purchased mine almost two years ago from King Arthur Flour and indeed it has been money well spent. 
I love this machine because I can load it up with the ingredients, set  the cycle and carry on with my day. [...]

A few weeks ago, I stopped at an estate sale on Seattle’s Sandpoint Way. I hadn’t intended to stop there, but the sign was too compelling.
Handwritten on plywood, it read: “Estate Sale–60 Years of Stuff.” Indeed, while strolling the driveway there was lots of stuff–artificial flowers, Christmas ornaments, hair curlers, and kitchen [...]

We are all familiar with the Butterball hotline which goes live just before Thanksgiving and fields all sorts of turkey related questions .
Well, did you know that Ball has a Home Canners’ Help Line, which is available during the week yearround? Staffed by experienced home canners, the Help Line is the place to go when faced with [...]

When I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, three years ago, necessity indeed became the mother of my inventions.
As I strolled the grocery stores in Alaska’s largest city, I was often homesick for Seattle’s hot weather produce–the basil, the peaches, the corn, and  the tomatoes. The climate simply couldn’t grow these hot weather foods, and they needed to [...]

Yikes! If I was heading to Muncie, Indiana in the next couple weeks, I’d be rushing to the local heritage museum known as Minnetrista.
Until August 23, this museum, which is dedicated to nature, history, gardens, and art, will be hosting ”Can It! 125 Years of the Ball Jar.” 
Although Muncie isn’t the birthplace of the Ball jar, [...]

Do you want to make jam but resist the idea of stirring a hot cauldron on a beautiful summer day? Although I do make cooked jam during the summer, I recently decided to experiment with freezer jams.
I had never made freezer jams. But after perusing the recently released 100th Anniversary Edition of The Ball Blue [...]