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My mom’s hand mixer has been around for as long as I can remember, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve called it Wally (I had a crush on the older Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver). Growing up, if Wally was on the kitchen counter, it meant Mom was preparing something delicious. And since Wally had two metal beaters, I was usually able to lick one if I played my cards right.

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Sunshine Smoothie with Coconut Clementine & Turmeric

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Smoothies are one of our favorite breakfast options year-round, but especially in the winter because it’s an easy way to brighten the mornings by adding extra fruit to our diets. And since frozen fruit works just as well (if not better — hello, icy, creamy texture), there’s no worry about whether it’s in season.

If you’re stuck in the doldrums of gray days, try these tropical smoothies. It won’t be quite like you’re relaxing on a white-sand beach, but it’ll be closer to it than your normal bowl of oatmeal.

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I can’t stand monotony when it comes to food. However, I could eat pasta every day for days at a time and never get bored. Not considering all the different ways it can be prepared, there are just so many different shapes — from long and flat to short and hollow. And then there’s gnocchi.

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I always try to have a bag of baby spinach in the fridge at all times. It’s versatile enough to throw into soups, sauté into a side dish, or toss in a morning smoothie since it’s so mild in flavor. My latest use for spinach? Stuffed into quesadillas, adding a much-needed dose of green vegetables to a normally cheese- and meat-heavy dish.

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When I made plans to spend a week in Cuba, my gluten- and dairy-free diet was really the last thing on my mind. I was more worried about how many sundresses to pack, whether I would remember my newly learned salsa steps, and if immigration would stamp my passport (they didn’t). I’m pretty sure my travel companion, a vegan, didn’t think too much about what she would eat either. Spoiled by the food options in our respective cities (Brooklyn and Las Vegas), we naively assumed our meal choices were not something that we had to plan for or worry about.

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Cheesy Spicy Popcorn

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When you glance at your microwave and see that button that says “popcorn,” you may think that’s the one and only answer when cooking up a bag of the crowd-pleasing snack. I am here to tell you that it’s not.

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The Best Way to Clean Your Blender

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If you’re an enthusiastic home cook, you undoubtedly have a few small appliances kicking around the kitchen. If you already have a storage system for those appliances, yay for you! But if your storage setup feels wonky — i.e., if you don’t know why your (oft-used) blender is in the cupboard while your (neglected) toaster is on the countertop — then you need our three-point plan to help you find the perfect storage spot for your small appliance. Here’s what to ask yourself.

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This is a bread to impress. Impress your family or guests with the beautiful braids and striations. Impress them with an invitingly complex fragrance of yeast and herbs. Impress them with delicate texture. Impress them most of all with the powerful burst of spring pesto that ripples throughout this bread. If you’re up for an afternoon of baking, add this gorgeous loaf to your weekend to-do list.

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Do you love butter? Of course you do. Who doesn’t love butter? But when you add it to your cooking, do you also fold in a little teaspoon of guilt while watching that butter dissolve into batter? Or perhaps you are making a nice roasted veggie dish and silently screaming to yourself, “Hey, I’m making vegetables here, for Pete’s sake!” in the hopes that it will cancel out the “sin” of throwing a hunk of butter in the mix?

Well, what if you didn’t have to feel guilty about butter? What if butter, that tastebud dream maker, was really a health food star?

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