Blog - Page 28 of 125 - How To Cook Like Your Grandmother

Review: Nakano Seasoned Rice Vinegar

September 10, 2010 (Updated March 20, 2014) by Drew Kime

Several years ago I discovered oil and vinegar wasn't what you put on salad when you didn't have "real" dressing. Use good oil and good vinegar and it was better than most store-bought dressings. "Good" doesn't mean canola oil and distilled white vinegar. Usually it's extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but I've got about a half-dozen different vinegars in the cupboard. The folks at Nakano offered me a sample of their seasoned rice vinegar. I didn't have any yet, so I took them up on … [Read more...]

How To Make Pot Roast

September 9, 2010 (Updated March 20, 2014) by Drew Kime

Beef, Dinner Dutch Oven, recipe card

Yes, I've done pot roast before. But that was in a crock pot. (Oops, I mean a "slow cooker". Crock-Pot is a brand name.) Now that I've got a Dutch oven*, I've got a new method. It's faster, easier, clean-up is easier, and the results are at least as good. Gotta love that. * Technically Le Creuset call theirs a "French oven". Find me anyone outside their company who calls it that and maybe I'll be number 2. But until then ... it's a Dutch oven. So let it be written, so let it be done. … [Read more...]

How To Make A Compost Pile For (almost) Free

September 8, 2010 (Updated March 20, 2014) by Drew Kime

Gear garden

Recently Grist ran a slideshow of various urban composting options. Some of the options looked a bit ridiculous. (Tabletop composting? Seriously?) But the intensely low-tech, almost-free pallet composter looks like a keeper. … [Read more...]

How To Make Potted Chicken

September 7, 2010 (Updated January 30, 2015) by Drew Kime

Dinner, Fowl Dutch Oven, Italian, recipe card, Undieting

My first thought when I tasted this was, "This doesn't taste like Italian to me. Maybe French." Jenn agreed. But her father, Lou -- whose mother and six sisters were all born in Italy -- said, "No, that's what Italian tasted like when I was growing up." I cook tomato sauce with beef or sausage in it all the time. I don't usually do it with chicken. But this, the ingredients and the method, is exactly how Nana, Sentina, Coca, Josephine, Bertha, Nora and Perrina used to cook. … [Read more...]

How To Make Shrimp Creole

September 2, 2010 (Updated March 20, 2014) by Drew Kime

Dinner, Fish recipe card, Undieting

I'm a Yankee. So I have no idea how traditional this version of shrimp creole may be. But it sure is tasty. NOTE: It's always a good idea to ask where your meat is coming from, but with shrimp it's even more important. With the oil spill in the gulf, we don't yet know the impact on fish that could be caught this year, or the long-term viability of the fisheries. And it's probably best to avoid imported shrimp, except from Canada. (This assumes you're in the U.S. Otherwise, check your local … [Read more...]