Author: Faith Durand

Popular posts published this last week include a tip on cleaning the stove naturally, and how to discover if your baking soda is still good or not. There were recipes for barbecue sauce, spicy roasted chicken thighs, and Thai iced tea. Read for these posts and more!

15. Help Me Find Some Healthy, Satisfying Vegetarian Recipes
14. Recipe: Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs with Miso and Ginger
13. My Aunt Marlyn’s Psycho BBQ Sauce Recipe
12. Parchment Bunny Cubes and Tips for Great Cupcakes
11. Kitchen Tour: Derek’s Industrial Strength Cozy Kitchen

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What’s cooking this weekend? Is your kitchen freshly Cured and clean? Are you making spring-ish food? Passover starts next week, and Easter is next weekend; do you have holiday cooking or baking to do? Tell us what you’re cooking, and take a look at a few posts from the past week that you may have missed.

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During this week of Kitchen & Bath Month we were talking cooktops and ranges: The stove! Here’s some of what we had to say:

• What’s better – gas or electric stove?
• Most beautiful cooking ranges
• How to reheat meat on the stovetop
• How to clean the stove naturally
• 5 tips for getting more out of your stove
• Do you have a range hood? (And if not, how do you cope?)

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Q: I bought my coffee-loving mom the Krups Fast Touch Coffee Grinder, but she’s had problems getting a good brew with fresh ground beans. She has had equally poor results with Metropolis, very old Kona beans from the freezer and store brand coffee, even with double the amount of coffee she uses with pre-ground. She also replaced her very old basic drip Mr. Coffee with a newer version to no avail.

Do you know why this might be happening? Should she be aiming for very coarse or very fine grounds? Or is the low-budget coffee maker the problem? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Sent by Debi

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• Lemon and Sea Salt Focaccia
• Prosecco With Poached Pear Syrup
• Fennel, Beet, and Orange Salad
• Parsnip and Crab Soup
• Udon Soup with Bok Choy and Poached Egg
• My Aunt Marlyn’s Psycho BBQ Sauce
• Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs
• Spicy Baked Plantain Chips
• Double Chocolate Butterscotch Muffins
• Honey and Spice Poached Pears

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Have you ever made poached pears? If not, why? They’re such a treat, and they are also a two-for-one project. The leftover syrup from poached pears makes a delightful cocktail, too!

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Do you have a range hood and vent over your stove? If not, how do you cope with cooking smells, smoke, and grease? We’re in our third rental now with no range hood, and it’s getting tiresome. What about you? Do you have a hood? If you do, do you like it? And if you don’t have one, have you found ways of coping without it?

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Q: I keep hearing that if you want to properly serve food, you need to do this on a hot plate and I was wondering why this is?

Also, what is the best way to do so and which temperature does it need to be?

Sent by Bart

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Andy and Courtney just renovated their 9×9-foot galley kitchen in Richmond, Virginia, and the result is a bright, smart space that is coolly sophisticated yet warm and welcoming. Come peek into this little cottage kitchen and see a before photo (it was a great transformation!), and read all sorts of tips and good ideas for getting the most out of a smaller kitchen renovation — on a budget too!

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Whether you have a gas, electric, or induction cooktop, there are a few things you can (and should) do to keep it in good working order. From cleaning tips to making your stovetop do double-duty here are five tips for making your stove work harder for your kitchen.

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A little cap for your soft-boiled egg, edible gold paint, and an amazingly-delicious cabbage and caper salad in today’s Delicious Links.

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Q: Help! I have a gorgeous ceramic Emile Henry baking dish I’ve used to roast chickens. The outside is covered in grease and nothing seems to remove it.

I usually swear by Bar Keepers Friend, but even it’s not working. Do you have any suggestions?

Sent by Kate

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We are discovering more and more that we are drawn to kitchens without upper cabinets. Take a look at this kitchen, for instance. It’s so open, so bright, and it flows together so nicely with the adjacent dining room. We could hang out in this kitchen all day long!

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Are you ready for the garden, for digging in the dirt, and growing your own food? How about the bounty of summer and the joys of canning? We are, and we just found the t-shirt to do all that in.

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Q: Do you have any recommendations for a couple of good quality oven mitts? I’d like them to be washable in some way, and also not so thick that you can’t move your hand once it’s inside!

Ours are dirty (since they don’t come clean in the washing machine) and charred (since the heat-resistant lining touched the element at the bottom of the oven)!

Sent by Emily

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It’s spring, and it’s time to get back in the garden! Are you gardening this year? Whether you have a tiny windowbox or a half acre of land, there are a few things that should be planted right now, while the weather is still chilly and the earth is just warming up.

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How often do you clean your stovetop? Do you wipe up spills and splatters right away? Or do you, ahem, let it build up? And after you’ve got a crust of burnt gunk, how do you clean it up? Here’s a tip for those of us who, again, ahem, procrastinate on cleaning the stove. There’s a secret weapon we’ve found for getting it clean with no harsh chemicals and with a minimum of elbow grease.

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Take a look at this colorful layered Easter cake! That plus a hearty, delicious dish of sauerkraut and choucroute garni in today’s Delicious Links.

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Since we’re talking about restocking the pantry let us take a moment to pay homage to a little jar that is always, always, in the refrigerator.

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Q: For about a year now I’ve been focusing on eating locally-produced food from small farms. It’s been pretty easy to stick to even in the winter because I live in Seattle.

Lately, though, I have been running into quite a few recipes (especially for cake) that call for orange or lemon zest, which is obviously not native to the Pacific Northwest.

Could you suggest an alternate ingredient that would be a more local substitute for citrus peel?

Sent by Catherine

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