How To Make Rice in a Rice Cooker — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

(Image credit: Christine Han)

If you eat a lot of rice with your meals, or if you feel plagued by a rice-cooking hex, then a rice cooker is a must-have in your kitchen. It turns out perfectly cooked rice, night after night, meal after meal. Almost more than any other kitchen gadget, this one is all about making one thing in your life easier. Here’s how to use one to make a pot of rice tonight.

READ MORE »

To Carve Pumpkins Safely, You Only Need These Two Tools — The Great Pumpkin

(Image credit: Joe Lingeman/The Kitchn)

While those inexpensive pumpkin carving kits you see at the grocery store may seem appealing (they promise everything you need — and when is the last time a plastic saw ever hurt anyone?), they’re actually not your best bet.

“I don’t use them,” says expert pumpkin carver Hugh McMahon, who heads a team that makes 300 jack-o’-lanterns a season (including portraits of Michael Jackson and Albert Einstein!). Not only do those chintzy orange knives break too easily, but they’ll also never give you very detailed results. They’re not always the sharpest, and you know what they about using dull knives (they’re more dangerous than sharp ones!).

Instead, McMahon says there are only two tools you need to carve a pumpkin safely.

READ MORE »

10 Grocery Items You Should Always Buy at IKEA — Plus 7 Other Good Picks — Shopping

It’s no surprise those bags of frozen meatballs are a top seller at IKEA’s U.S. stores. But the bright-blue tubes of Kalles Kaviar smoked fish roe spread? No way. Who buys those? Turns out, lots of people. In fact, they’re the most popular of all IKEA’s seafood products. And those bland-looking cylinders of dry crispbread? They’re a best-seller too, as are those suspect-looking jars of pickled fish fillets. In fact, everything I’ve usually avoided in IKEA’s “Swedish Market” grocery section is a top-seller for the chain’s stateside stores. I had to wonder, is it the novelty factor? Or are there really that many Swedish ex-pats living in the States?

Or maybe that stuff is actually pretty good. The only way to know is to put them to the test, so I sampled IKEA’s most popular products in six different categories, plus a few of the chain’s newer items, in order to find the store’s best groceries.

READ MORE »

Twitter Is Obsessed with This Smart Colander Trick — Kitchn Tricks

(Image credit: @Daibellaaa)

There are some things in life we don’t question. Unlike tying your shoes, where you might use the loop, swoop, and pull method or the bunny-around-the-tree method, the kitchen colander leaves little to interpret.

Up until this point the colander seemed like something that needed minimal directions, if any at all. Like IKEA directions! First, place in sink; second, dump in pasta. It seems unquestionable until you see this alternate method that had me looking for the face-palm emoji!

Why haven’t I been doing this my entire life?

READ MORE »

You Need to See the Trailer for This Bollywood Remake of “Chef” — Food TV

When I stop to think about the things I shout from the rooftops and spread around social media to friends and family in regards to a new movie, usually it’s about the latest Thor movie (everyone who stars in them is just so dreamy!) This time, however, I couldn’t text the link fast enough to my foodie friends about a great movie that’s getting a Bollywood remake.

READ MORE »

FDA Says “Love” Is Not an Actual Ingredient, Sorry — Food News

As the number of products on supermarket shelves continues to grow, marketing, package design, and uniqueness in branding have become big business. This is especially true for smaller labels trying to sway the average consumer to purchase their product.

This was the case with Nashoba Brook Bakery‘s granola, which lists an ingredient on its bag that makes a consumer’s heart go pitter-patter: love! But the FDA has something to say about that.

READ MORE »

The 2 Worst Dishwasher Mistakes You’re Probably Making — Cleaning Tips from Kitchn

A few weeks ago, we spent some time talking to Ted Lindeman, a professor in the biology and biochemistry department at Colorado College. We originally wanted to know which packing material he preferred for bagged lunches: plastic zip-top bags, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap. (He picked the bags as long as we all promised to use each bag at least five times before tossing them — and that when washing them between uses, we use just a little bit of not-too-hot water.)

But then he said two things about dishwashers that stood out to us even more than his unpredictable pick (we thought for sure he’d pick the foil, but that came in second place). Here are the two dishwashing mistakes we’ve been making. Are you making them too?

READ MORE »

Our 3 Favorite Eye-Opening Coffee Subscriptions — Shopping

If you’re anything like us, your morning is completely centered around coffee. But just because getting your daily caffeine fix has turned into a well-worn routine doesn’t mean you have to drink the same ol’ coffee every day. There are so many different coffees to try!

With literally thousands of roasts from all over the world, however, attempting to be adventurous with your coffee selections can get a little overwhelming. Which ones do you try? Where do you start? Easy. Sign up for a coffee subscription and let the experts do all the work for you. They scour the best roasts and deliver them to your door on a recurring basis. Here are three of our favorite coffee subscriptions — and a bonus one for espresso obsessives! — that will turn you into a coffee aficionado, rather than just a caffeine junkie.

READ MORE »