Tag Archives: kitchen tips

Top Ten Kitchen Tips #2 – Choosing Fruits and Vegetables

I have a friend who worked in the produce department of a grocery store, so he let me in on a few tips for choosing produce. I’ve used them over the years and have had good success. Also, I’ve learned a lot from shopping at Farmer’s Markets over the years and having some hits and misses. Here are some tips that might help you the next time you are pondering the pineapples at the grocery store. 1. The best way to choose a pineapple is to use your nose. Smell the pineapple at the stem end. It should smell like … Continue reading →

Garlic: Buying, Storing and Cooking

Garlic is found in almost every cuisine for good reason – there is no matching its tastiness in a variety of dishes. Here are a few tips for buying, storing and cooking with garlic. Buying Garlic: Look for garlic heads that have firm, compact cloves, covered with the dry, papery covering. If a garlic head has soft cloves, empty spots or the cloves have any green shoots coming out from them, it is old, and best avoided. You will often find Elephant garlic at the grocery store. This kind of garlic is much milder and blander than regular garlic, so … Continue reading →

Olive Oil 101

I discovered olive oil, appropriately enough, in Italy at the late age of twenty-two. I sat in a small restaurant in Italy and watched with fascination, and I have to admit a bit on uneducated repulsion, as the man at the table next to me broke off chunks of bread and liberally poured olive oil over each one before eating them. The rich color of the oil barely resembled the pallid stuff in my mother’s pantry, but still, I couldn’t imagine why he would want to do that. But you know the saying, “When in Rome….”, and boy was I … Continue reading →