Kitchen Witch - Touchdown! Year of the Rooster Ribs Cooking
Sun., Feb. 6, is a busy day. After several long months, the football season comes to a climactic denouement, with the ultimate testosterone showdown of the year, the Super Bowl. With all the drinking, chortling and caveman dancing that ensues, one works up a healthy appetite - for something along the lines of a brontosaurus burger, perhaps?
I tested the recipe below primarily for its (lack of)...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Gloriously gory Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Citrus of a different stripe Cooking
Ever realize there’s never a countdown to winter like there is for summer? Me, I can’t stand shorter days, colder nights, dreary skies and endless wind. The only consolation for this miserable, seemingly never-ending phenomenon is the arrival of citrus fruit.
And I’m not just talking navel oranges and ruby grapefruits. There’s a groovy world out there behind that rainbow of rind. This week, I...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Crunchy fantasy Cooking
It’s January. It might be cold. It might be gray. There’s an inauguration on the way.
Let’s play make-believe and escape to our magic cabin in the woods, where there are no worries, no gray skies and no inauguration on the way.
Let’s make the most excellent winter-in-the woods breakfast. Let’s make granola.
We’ll take nuts and fruit and sunflower seeds from this summer’s magic garden,...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Exhilarating elixir-ing Cooking
The dawn of a new year is an invitation for purging, letting go, detoxifying on all levels. If you’re like me, you’ve probably had your holiday landfill of butter, cream, animal fat, alcohol and other things that have contributed to dull taste buds and big bulges in all the wrong places. Top this human sundae off with a measly dose of winter daylight and you’ve got a recipe for sludge.
It’s a...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Get lucky this New Year’s Day Cooking
Even this gal, born and raised north of the Mason-Dixon Line, knows that Hoppin’ John rules when it comes to New Year’s Day traditions. You can’t start a year off right without it.
Thing is, you kind of hope you’ll get invited somewhere for a bowl of black-eyed peas and rice, lovingly prepared by somebody who knows how to cook it right, seasoned with plenty of salt, spice and pork product....
| more...Kitchen Witch - Nuts in a bind Cooking
Inevitably during the holiday season — with all of its twists, turns and stress galore — something goes wrong in the kitchen. Even worse, you’ve got a pack of carolers showing up in 20 minutes for yuletide socializing with nothing in the way of vittles.
With Martha in the slammer, this is a good opportunity to develop your own entertaining tricks. After all, every cook and/or party...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Egg-cellent nog Cooking
If your definition of eggnog is derived from a refrigerated supermarket carton, you have my permission to run for the hills. To say that store-bought eggnog is one of the nastiest beverages available for purchase is an understatement. Cloyingly sweet with a chemical finish, commercial eggnog is almost viscous enough to chew. It’s like drinking a Twinkie with a Jell-O pudding sauce.
Good news:...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Pass the pate, love Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Pomegranate 101: A primer on the ‘it’ fruit Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Sock it to ‘em with sauce Cooking
Kitchen More than any other time of year, Thanksgiving evokes a strange justification for tradition, particularly when it comes to the dinner menu. It doesn’t matter that young Sheila has just graduated from culinary school and wants to experiment with a few new recipes; Uncle Phil has been in charge of the stuffing for the past 20 years and won’t be relinquishing his coveted assignment....
Kitchen Witch - Good gravy, it’s Thanksgiving already Cooking
The big feast of the year is only three weeks away. To help get you in the mood, a primer of mashed potato dos and don’ts.
DO:
Branch out beyond Idaho. Consider the Yukon gold, blue Peruvian and Russian fingerling potato varieties, to name a few.
Rinse potatoes well and remove any brown spots or signs of rotting.
Chop potatoes into manageable pieces so they don’t take forever to cook.
Salt...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Homemade fake food Cooking
I owned a Snoopy lunchbox in the first grade. I remember its contents like it was yesterday: bologna sandwich on white; a waxy, Red Delicious apple from Acme; and the highlight of my meal, a surprise snack food item.
I was the great arbiter of processed snack foods. Truth be told, I would have died happy getting a bag of Fritos in my lunchbox every day. But life as a middle-class 6-year-old...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Crunch bunch Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Black magic Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Hey, chick: Take it all off! Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Hummus: The seven-minute wonder
Cooking
Among the canned tuna, pasta, olive oil, strong mustard and coarse salt on my pantry shelves, you’ll always find cans of chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), plus a jar of tahini paste in the fridge. These items comprise my essential kitchen staples — the things that make it simple to whip up somethin’ when there’s seemingly nothin’ in the house.
At the end of a long day, instead of reaching...
| more...Kitchen Witch - News flash: Yankee girl makes mean cobbler Cooking
I know what you’re thinking: No way a girl from Philadelphia can make a Southern boy get down on his hands and knees, beggin’ for more of her fine peach cobbler. But this recipe is so good I even surprised myself.
Infused with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and bourbon, the fruit holds its shape and peachy characteristics. Partnered with a cream biscuit inspired by bread diva Nancy Silverton of La...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Major melons Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Screw the pesto: Two green sauce alternatives Cooking
Good pesto is never boring, but let’s be honest — it’s overused to a cliched extreme. Let’s break out of the pesto box and consider a variation on the pesto theme — venturing instead in the culinary direction of India or South America. Below are two simple green sauces that promise to wake up the senses and the spirit.
First contestant: Green chutney
This is a typical chutney made...
| more...Kitchen Witch - Improv night at the gazpacho Cooking
Kitchen Witch - Eat your cake; it’s good for you Cooking