Author: Faith Durand

Melting crispy cookies filled with rhubarb, and a jar of mustard made at home with Guinness!

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Wow. We are so smitten with this bright, cheery cottage kitchen! It belongs to Misty and her family in Austin, Texas, and it looks like such a great place to cook.

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How do you cook rice? Cooking perfect rice is second nature to some cooks, but others really struggle with it. How do you cook rice — brown rice, white rice, long-grain rice, or short-grain rice? Arborio, jasmine, basmati — do you cook them differently? Tell us the best way to cook rice, and why it works for you!

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We are so bad at remembering to set out butter to soften. Then we are standing there, ready to start making a cake or cookies, and oh — the butter’s still rock hard. Oops. We often microwave the butter, but sometimes this backfires and melts the butter into a puddle of liquid. How do you soften butter for baking or cooking? Do you have any extra-special tricks for get this done faster?

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Every week we bring you our favorites from our friends over at Serious Eats. This week we couldn’t pass up these walnut fortune cookies — yes, you can make fortune cookies at home! Plus there were hazelnut poppy seed cookies, a day in the life of the Today Show food stylist, candied pecans, and more!

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We are firm believers in staying in on Valentine’s Day. It is not a good night to eat out; restaurants are crowded and prices are inflated. But if you stay in, you want to keep it simple and classic, and what’s more classic than a good steak, simply prepared? Add a loaf of bread, a salad, and a bottle of wine, and you have an extremely easy and delicious meal. But how to cook the steak? We love grilled steak, but some of us don’t have grills, and it is a little cold outside. Well, here is an absolutely foolproof, easy, and quick way to make a steak indoors, in the oven.

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A new treat from Bakerella, plus more Valentine’s goodies in today’s Delicious Links!

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Truly good and sustainably-sourced salmon is growing increasingly rare, and more expensive too. So when we splurge on it, we want to cook it perfectly! What do you think is the best way to cook salmon, and to bring out its rich, tender flavor and texture?

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Whether you’re using your built-in cutting board for extra surface space (or for cutting veggies), you’ll want to make sure it’s been cleaned. Even though we just moved in, we could tell our wood cutting board has been around the block a few times. So we gave our chef friend a call to learn how to properly clean our built-in cutting board.

• Read the full post at Apartment Therapy

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Q: I’m going to a dinner party next Friday to celebrate the Olympic opening games. We’re all supposed to bring a dish that represents a different country, but I’m stumped! I’d like to make something vegetarian because there will be a few in attendance.

Any suggestions? Russia, China and France are already taken.

Sent by Sarah

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Q: I am looking for a hip cool water pitcher for my fridge. It does not need a filter since I have a sink mounted Brita. In fact I prefer it filter less. It’ll just hold water.

I saw one from Japan at DWR that had charcoal and stones that supposedly gave the water miracle qualities. I don’t need that but the design was great. The problem though is it held only 30 ounces. I need something that doesn’t need refilling every 5 hours. Any recommendations of water pitchers with a nice aesthetic would be awesome.

Sent by David

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Q: I’d like to replace my tired old nonstick skillet and grill pan with a cast iron version of each. My range is a ceramic top and the manual recommends using only enameled cast iron, which doesn’t seem like it would be up to task for high heat searing. The only solution I could think of was a cast iron pan that has an enameled bottom but a non-enameled cooking surface.

But I can’t seem to find any information on such a thing. Do you know of any such pans? Any suggestion at all would be appreciated!

Sent by Marta

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Q: Hi – I desperately need some dishwasher help. I took the advice offered in the holiday dishwasher post about using vinegar and keeping the dishwasher clean.

I prefer to use eco-alternative or naturally derived dishwasher soap, but no matter what I do I can’t get my dishes to come out without a whiteish residue that feels like powder when it dries. Can your readers recommend an eco-brand that actually works? I hate the feeling that I am drinking and eating dishwasher soap (even if it is “natural”).

Also, regular non-eco dishwasher detergent doesn’t work that great either in my machine, even though my water isn’t too hard or too soft and the machine is brand new and was recommended by Consumer Reports!

Sent by Rebecca

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Q: For the past couple months, my Whole Foods (Dupont Circle) has been out of cannellini beans. I had just started incorporating them into a lot of my meals, but every week I go in there, and the shelf is completely bare! Other grocery stores have been out as well.

No one at the WF could give me an explanation as to why the beans have disappeared. I’ve tried Googling “cannellini beans shortage” and keep being referred to a shortage in November ’08. Any ideas? I wanted to see if anybody else has noticed this!

Sent by Alexandra

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Q: My partner and I live in a small NYC apartment. One thing we couldn’t part from when we moved here was our 50-bottle wine refrigerator. It keeps a temperature of around 45-47 degrees. Half of it is always empty and we were thinking of putting some food items in here – what do you suggest?

Our thoughts run from artisan cheeses, potatoes, onions, garlic, fruits…?

Sent by Michael

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Q: I like taking pictures of food that I make, but the camera that I have is not really suitable for nice close-up food photos. They always end up being blurry or weirdly lit, and ultimately rather unappetizing.

I would like to buy a better camera that can suit my food-photo needs. I am not a photographer by any means, and don’t plan on becoming one, so I don’t think a camera with lots of lenses and adjustments would be a good investment. Do you have any recommendations for compact, easy-to-use cameras that are good for taking pictures of food?

Sent by Ayumi

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Q: I am a new cook, and I was wondering how I could make my own red wine vinegar.

Could I just leave an old bottle of not-so-great wine out for awhile? If so, how long?

Sent by Amanda

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Q: Is there a rule to how often you should clean out your pantry? Just today I took the time to go through everything and I found so many expired items. (Jell-O with a date from 2005!)

Is there a standard for how often you should go through your shelves so you don’t end up with so many expired items?

Sent by Pattie

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Q: I recently made a Mexican chicken soup that was very simple, and absolutely delicious. The recipe called for rice to be cooked in the stock. It was delightful, and I eagerly looked forward to days worth of leftovers as the weather got chillier.

One problem: The next day, the soup looked like Mexican Rice Pudding, not Mexican chicken soup. All the rice had swollen and absorbed 70% of the stock. It was still tasty, but nowhere near as nice or as appetizing.

Is there a way to cook rice in a soup without it doing this? I’m loath to cook it separately because the first bowl’s rice has such a nice chicken-y flavor that I don’t want to lose.

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Q: I’m a college student living in my own place and I am a pretty avid hobby cook. I’m trying to find an inexpensive but good quality cookware set that will have the basics I need but won’t take up too much room in my home or burn through my bank account.

My preference is for copper, although that’s mostly just an aesthetic preference so I’m open to other materials. Do you guys have any resources or suggestions for my problem?

Sent by Kirsten

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