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A good friend recently asked me some awesome cooking questions he wanted to learn during his holiday staycation:

I worked up so much gusto in my e-mail response that I thought it was blog worthy!  I'm always happy to impart food knowledge to those who want to learn, so feel free to send an e-mail my way to rosalynsdarling (at) gmail (dot) com.

With that, here was my response to his questions... If you have time off this Christmas holiday and are looking for ways to buff up your kitchen and cooking skills...

Essential Tools for the Kitchen

I'm not one for crazy specialized kitchen gadgets - they're a waste of space and money. Unless you're doing something really specific a ton of times, you really don't need things like garlic presses. The most essential tools needed to make any great dish can be bought at Sur La Table. Why from Sur La Table? Sur La Table guarantees all their merchandise so if anything goes wrong or if you don't like it at any time, they will refund or replace your stuff (like REI or Nordstrom).

Skills to Learn / Things to Make

Seeing that you only have a couple weeks for cooking adventures, I recommend focusing on the two things below. By exploring these topics, you are helping to build your foundation as a home cook and opening yourself to new flavors and techniques.

1. Learn to make dishes that can be re-purposed into different dishes for future meals and snacks.

A lot of newer cooks trying to make the most elaborate whatever dish that requires a lot of novel ingredients, but then they have no idea what to make with those acquired ingredients outside of the recipe they're using. I always say that simple can be so tasty, creative, and easy. For example, you can roast a chicken. In the same pan that's roasting the chicken, add some diced potatoes, rosemary, carrots, celery, onion, beets, bell peppers, garlic - any hearty veggies are good. It's simple to do and requires one baking dish. Then you take the leftovers from that chicken and veggies to make a salad, soup, sandwich, stir-fry. etc. Exciting different eats made from one dish. Say hello to my roasted chicken kitchen sink vegetable soup. It was warm and hearty - perfect for cold days!

Other dishes where you can get creative:

2. Find ways to add layers of flavor into your cooking.

I think one of the main differences between a professional chef and a home cook is that chefs know where to add lots of layers of flavor to a dish. You can give a home cook and chef the same exact ingredients, and the chef will know how to manipulate, brown, deglaze, and season in a way that would usually out-flavor what the home cook makes. People are always shocked at how little ingredients I use to yield such robust flavor. There are lots of ways to layer in flavor: My spice rack brings all the chefs to the yard...

Useful Cooking Resources

I don't have a cookbook to recommend that covers general cooking, and I think that cookbooks do a better job when they cover one topic deeply (like the Tartine bread book or a awesome canning book Food in Jars). If there is a specific food topic you want to learn about, let me know, and I can recommend a book. However, here are some other sources that I think you'd find inspiring and useful:

I've never seen an angry person eating ice cream - true story. Maybe it's because the delightful decadence of ice cream can turn any sour situation into a sweet one. I'll admit I'm having a bit of a tough morning where all the little things are not going so great. I need a treat to placate the inner frustrated me, and so I turn to my kitchen/sanctuary.

I love making ice cream. Love is an understatement. The flavor combinations that can be created are endless, and nothing says, "I love you" to that special someone (or yourself) than a bowl of homemade scoops. The crème anglaise recipe below is a great, classic base from which you can start your flavor experimenting, and it's quite easy to make. Using the recipe below, I created flavor variations of Blueberry Chamomile Swirl and Salted Caramel Cinnamon Ice Cream.

Vanilla Crème Anglaise


Culinary Dance Steps:

1. Before starting anything, set up a stainless-steel bowl in a larger bowl of ice water. You'll need this ice bath to cool down your creme mixture right after cooking (step 7).

2. Put the milk in a medium saucepan and slowly heat on a medium-low flame under the milk is just before simmering.

3. While the milk is heating, in a medium bowl, whisk the honey and egg yolks together well.

4. Right before the milk is about to simmer (before bubbling), remove the milk from the stove, and SLOWLY pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, one cup at a time. If you pour the milk too fast, you'll end up cooking the egg yolks (Ew sweet scrambled eggs).

5. Once all the milk is mixed into the egg yolks, add the vanilla extract. Return the entire mixture back into the medium sauce pan. Slowly heat the sauce on medium-low heat, while constantly whisking. Constant whisking keeps the egg milk mixture from curdling.

6. Once the egg milk mixture reaches a temperature of 185 degrees F, remove the mixture from the stove. You can also tell that the egg milk mixture is done cooking by dipping a spoon in the mix and running a finger along the back of the spoon. If a distinct path is made on the spoon from your finger, it's done (see below for picture). Do not let the mixture get hotter than 190 degrees, or it will curdle. 7. Quickly pour the cooked egg milk mixture into the stainless steel bowl that's in the ice water bath (from step 1). Let the mixture cool, stirring occasionally.

8. When the mixture is cool, pour the creme into an ice cream maker. Let the ice cream maker do its magic, and feel free to add any fun toppings or sauces in towards the end of the ice cream mixing. When the ice cream maker is finished, add the frozen ice cream into containers. Let the ice cream chill in the freezer for at least 4 hours to let it solidify.

Note: You can make the crème anglaise 1-2 days ahead of time (steps 1-7) before making it into ice cream (Step 8)

The last gasp of summer farmers' market vegetables are hanging on to the few warm days we have left, and the fall harvest is in full force. I cringe to think of what the Chicago winter will bring us soon, and I've been feverishly canning all the fruits and vegetables to preserve the dog days of summer. Left going clockwise: Roasted five-chile salsa, Blueberry Chamomile Lemon Compote, Honey-sweetened spiced peach butter with bourbon.

Recipes for these goodies coming soon!

The initial idea of canning, while it seemed a romantic throwback to preserving the farm harvest, was quite intimidating. There was the great unknown of what is involved in the canning process, and thoughts of killing my family and friends with botulism over improperly canned jams and jellies ran through my mind. I had a close friend that confidently reassured me that canning is simple, approachable, and very safe as long as you know a few ground rules:


When canning at home, it's easiest to stick to canning foods that have a higher acidity (pH level of 4.6 or lower) because acid is a natural sterilizer, keeping enzymes, mold, bacteria and yeast from spoiling your food. Here's a spiffy chart from the book "Tart and Sweet" that shows acidity levels of some common fruits and veggies...

High-acid canning can be performed using a boiling water bath, which we'll cover later in this post.


Canning isn't rocket science, and you really don't need all the techie canning gadgets to get started. Here's a list of the six basic essentials for boiling water bath canning:


It's always fun to get creative and tweak canning foods to add your own flair, but there are some things that you should never deviate from a recipe.

Things can you can tweak:

Never tweak the following:


If for some reason a jar doesn't seal while processing in the boiling water bath, it's okay! You can still enjoy unsealed jars as long as you store them in the refrigerator. Just don't store those unsealed jars at room temperature with the other sealed jars.

With those canning fundamental rules in mind, let the canning bonanza begin! (Once you start, it can get really addictive. You have been warned.) Canning high-acid foods requires a process called boiling water bath, which consists of 10 easy steps:

1. Place a kitchen towel on the bottom inside your large pot, and fill your large pot with water. Place your glass jars on top of the towel, and bring the pot to a boil. Make sure the glass jars are submerged in water so they properly sterilize. You can keep the water and jars boiling until you are ready to fill the jars with food. 2. Depending on what canning recipe you use, you'll need to cook your food for a certain amount of time before it's ready to fill the jars. The recipe should let you know how long. Food should be hot when going into the jars.

3. About ten minutes before you're ready to fill your jars with the hot food, turn off the stove and add the disc lids and screw bands into the water pot, making sure they are all submerged in the water.

4. When you're ready to fill the jars with food, carefully remove the hot jars from the pot. Use a ladle (and a funnel if you want) to fill the hot food into the empty jars.

5. When all the jars are filled, carefully wipe the rims of the jars to make sure there is no food where the jar and disc lid will touch. Food left on the rim may result in the jar not sealing properly.

6. Remove the disc lids from the hot water pot and place them on top of each jar. Then, remove the screw bands from the water both and firmly screw each band to secure the lid to the jar.

7. Place all the screwed jars back into the hot water pot, making sure the jars are complete submerged in water. Bring your pot back to a rolling boil. 8. Once the pot is boiling, let your screwed jars cook in the water for the amount of time your recipes specifies. This is called processing the jars.

9. Once the jars are cooked, carefully remove each jar from the pot with your jar lifter/tongs and place the cooked jars on a clean towel to cool. Cooling can take up to 12 hours. While the jars are cooling, you should hear the lids making a ping! sound, which means the jars have properly formed an air-tight seal.

10. All cooled jars should have their seals tested. A properly sealed jar will have the following:

Like mentioned before, if the jar did not seal properly (based on the three characteristics above), you can still eat it. Just stick the unsealed jars in the fridge and eat within the next few weeks.

There are TONS OF RECIPES out there for canning, and I plan to post some of my own soon. In the meantime, here are some great sites and books to get your canning mojo started:

I’ve been exploring the idea of making healthy breakfasts ahead of time by making a big batch of [insert breakfast food here] and reheating it throughout the week. Sometimes cold cereal just doesn’t cut it. Who doesn’t like a warm breakfast in the morning?

Although muffins and breakfast cakes may come to mind when thinking of baked breakfast, I’m thinking instead of breakfast casseroles. I know that “casserole” can be such a dirty word when you consider all the awful “Betty Homemaker” recipes. I usually envision a dolled-up housewife with zero cooking skills that tries to make something special out of all the fancy kitchen equipment she never uses…and voila, a casserole is the result.I think the worst casserole I’ve heard of to-date is a Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole. Paula Deen, have you actually tasted your own creation?? Because I have a sneaking suspicion that you didn’t based on reviews. But I digress…

Usually a baked breakfast casserole will have egg, potato, veggies, and meat (either ham, sausage, or cooked bacon). Athough this combination in baked form is quite tasty, I am not fond of reheating cooked egg. Instead I have discovered that baked oatmeal that is not only very delicious, but filling and healthy. Oats, milk, fruit - simple to make, good for storing, yummy for eating. Adapting a recipe from the book Super Natural Every Day: Baked Berry and Peach Oatmeal



Top of the morning to you too! (^_^)

As I was slicing up some plump, juicy tomatoes for my omelet this morning, I had to revel in the beauty of my chef’s knife. The study grip of the handle… the weight of it and how it made perfect incisions into my fruit with no resistance and no tearing…ah, this is beauty in motion.

A thought on a good chef’s knives (Insert whooping and hurrahs here out of love and admiration). This is the one tool in my kitchen’s arsenal I just cannot, I repeat, CANNOT live without. When I begin my culinary dance in the kitchen, my chef’s knife is an extension of my right arm. It is a jack of all trades - finely mincing garlic and herbs, slicing into a tender cut of beef, dislodging joints on chicken, shaving thin chocolate ribbons for a cake, dicing and slicing fresh fruit for one of my infamous pies. If I cook someplace other than my kitchen, I will take my chef’s knife with me to ensure flawless prep execution. Crappy pots and pans, electric cooktops, plastic disposable spoons, maybe a microwave as a the only heating element - I can handle. Bad knife? I’m finished. Sharp, carbon steel that is ready to do my bidding - that’s hot.

After reading this, if you’re now thinking, “OMG, chef knife, where have you been all my life?”, it’s okay. It’s never too late to add one of these beauties to your beloved kitchen. Let me help you with what to look for…

Taking one step back, the breakdown of how much you spend on tools in your kitchen ranks like this:

So when you shop for your knives, there should be no penny-pinching. Don’t do it - not worth the $30 saved! Trust me. :) I recommend that your chef’s knife should fall under these criteria:

As for brands, every cook has their tried and true, trusted brand or two. Mine are Wüsthof and Global. I like to use my Wüsthof  for more heavy duty chopping of squashes, melons, etc. - German blades are more durable against basically anything that needs a little more oompf. For speed and precision, I like to use my Global knife because it has a very nice thin blade and is an overall lighter knife than Wüsthof. If you want to play around with a few brands to figure out which knife you jive with the best, I recommend going to a Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma store. They'll let you test drive any knife!

Once you get your awesome bo-bawesome knife, you’ll want to take it for a spin. Here’s a great video on basic knife technique for the home cook. I think this Tom fella and I see eye to eye on this subject matter.

Happy chopping, slicing, and dicing!



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