Ever since learning the three R’s in elementary school, I have worked hard at reducing my carbon footprint, especially in my kitchen. I love Meatless Mondays, I use plastic-free storage containers for leftovers, and I gave up bottled water in favor of a Brita tap.
With all the negative things going on in the world, though, I decided I needed to try something even more radical to connect me with what I feel is most important.
Everyone wants to be the cool house on Halloween. But if you hand out bad candy, all the great decorations and spooky music in the world won’t save you from eggs and toilet paper.
To find out which candies people hate the most, bulk candy retailer CandyStore.com looked at 10 years of sales data and 12 independent “best” and “worst” candy rankings, and surveyed 40,000 people. After crunching the numbers, they came out with a definitive list of the worst candies to find in your Halloween haul.
Stay safe, and avoid these 10 terrible “treats.”
Apple cinnamon toaster strudels, those super-sweet frozen pastries, were definitely a guilty pleasure growing up. I have to admit, it’s been years since I last enjoyed one — until this recipe came along.
If you are way more into it being pumpkin spice season than Halloween, I’m going to show you how to put together a low-key party that celebrates the season more than the actual holiday of Halloween. You can pull it off with a three-ingredient cocktail and a batch of gooey pumpkin spice Rice Krispies treats. Here’s how to make it happen.
Zucchini bread was one of the first things I learned how to bake from scratch. It was full of oil and topped with a mound of cream cheese frosting. My 20-year-old self was in love. Nowadays, especially since I bake so often, I try to look for healthier options. These apple-zucchini muffins are the perfect compromise — with their oat crumble topping and dollop of sweetened crème fraîche, that super-rich cream cheese frosting is hardly missed.
There’s just something about shrimp scampi that causes oohs and aahs to break out around the table. Perhaps it’s the combination of tender shrimp bathed in a buttery white wine sauce, or maybe it’s the way everything gets swirled together with a hearty dash of pepper and fresh torn parsley.
For the knowing cook, this is one of the fastest dishes you can make on a weeknight — especially when everything (from the protein to the pasta) comes together in one pot. So invite your friends over tonight and tell them you’re cooking up something fancy.
In terms of sheer comfort, casseroles are high on the list of our favorite autumn dishes. Double points if they have a good amount of cheese, and triple points if they also contain pasta. I am so happy that the chilly evenings of fall have brought casseroles back into my weekly meal rotation. They make the kitchen feel cozy on Sunday and then become easy lunches and dinners all week long. And if company stops by, no problem — there’s plenty to share.
Here are 10 of our favorite hearty casseroles — filling, nourishing, and all homemade — not a can of cream of chicken soup in sight.
A Halloween party without candy is not a party at all. And while homemade candy might be a little too much work at this busy time of year, it is easy to serve your candy loot in style. From a simple plastic glove to goofy bags with big monster eyes, here are five small DIY Halloween projects that don’t require much work but have a big payoff.
I realize that if you want to toss some sausages and vegetables on a sheet pan on a weekday night and roast them to crispy, self-seasoned blister, there are innumerable ways to do it. I’ve fiddled around with this broccoli and chunks of sausage; I’d intended to try a version with cherry tomatoes and garlicky croutons before my tomatoes went south. You may not need a recipe.
But for me, so much of weeknight cooking is a random suggestion that pops into my feed that doesn’t have to be overtly revolutionary, just something I hadn’t considered before and immediately want to make before anything else. In a moment, I go from lethargically considering a bunch of options I’d rejected on previous evenings for various reasons to mentally calculating how long it will be until dinner and wishing it was now now now. Finding these moments is my primary cooking interest.
Attention, scary movie fans: If you’re in the market for a horror flick this Halloween, you can skip your go-to spooky classics and blood-curdling modern favorites. If you want to be truly terrified, it’s time to watch a Canadian children’s film about the dangers of peanut butter.