Food

How to Eat Crawfish

These small, tasty crustaceans, sometimes called mudbugs, look like miniature lobsters. They are often boiled with a hefty pour of Cajun spices. If your Southern host dumps a pile of them in front of ...

Cooking Under Pressure

My mother had a first-generation pressure cooker in the 1970s. It was a stovetop model that rattled madly, and when it was done cooking and time to open the lid, we kids had to leave the kitchen in ...

Knife Skills

Most everyone has used a knife in the kitchen at one point or another, and most everyone has cut themselves with a knife in the kitchen at one point or another. Personally, I’ve ended up in the ER ...

Eating Responsibly

A young friend recently stopped by my house as I was cooking dinner—a favorite rice-and-greens dish that is simple, cheap, tasty and nutritious. I’d just started sautéing the onions and ...

Cooking Over Coals

I first met Chef Lou Lambert in Marfa, Texas, at his sister Liz’s iconic hotel, El Cosmico, where he was giving a demonstration on cooking over coals using a Dutch oven. He graciously agreed to be ...

Quick Cooking Tips for 2017

As we welcome in 2017, I’ve taken time to reflect on some of the changes in my life in 2016 that drastically altered my relationship with food. In May, my husband and I celebrated one year of ...

Ali Bouzari and the Eight Capital-I Ingredients

“People worry that science in the kitchen will jeopardize the soulful parts of cooking,” says Austin native Ali Bouzari. In his work as a culinary scientist and educator, and in his new book, ...

The Marmalady Chronicles

Prior to making my first batch of marmalade, I had actually never tasted the stuff. But thankfully, my grandma requested orange marmalade after learning of my new canning habit. I’m glad she did, ...

The Art of Washoku

Did you know that the bento boxes served at sushi restaurants are just one of many types of bento traditionally offered in Japan? Their common characteristic isn’t the raw fish or the cute ...

Chiles Secos de México

Botanically speaking, chiles are actually a fruit and belong to the genus Capsicum. Gastronomically, they are utilized as a vegetable and, when dried and ground, as a condiment. Based on ...