(Image credit: Kimberley Hasselbrink)

I’m a little embarrassed to admit how long I avoided buying shell-on shrimp for fear of having to peel and devein them. It just seemed so intimidating, so messy, and so fraught with potential shellfish failure. I love shrimp too much to have it fraught with anything.

Then I went to culinary school, and the day came when I was handed a pile of shrimp and told to get to work. I’ll tell you what I learned that day: Peeling and deveining shrimp isn’t nearly as hard as I thought. Here’s how to do it, exactly the way I was taught.

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August is the perfect time to curl up with a good book. This hot-and-steamy month is, appropriately, Read-a-Romance Month, 31 days dedicated to swooning and melting, yearning and burning. We asked Bobbi Dumas, founder of this homage to romance novels, to pick her favorite book each week. Naturally, we’ll be complementing her suggestions with something to snack on. And since you’re likely to get hot and bothered, we decided to go with food pairings to help cool you down.

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Mini Fruit Pizzas

(Image credit: Sarah E Crowder)

Sugar cookies may be plain, but they’re far from boring. In fact, their simplicity is exactly what makes them great: You can taste all the butter and sugar without anything getting in the way. That simplicity also means that the dough can be transformed into a number of different desserts beyond cookies. Here are five great ideas to try.

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How To Make Crunchy Granola in the Slow Cooker

(Image credit: Leela Cyd)

You might think the slow cooker is an appliance made for the fall and winter months, when you’re craving heavy soups, stews, and braises, but it can be just as useful in the summer for many reasons. One, it doesn’t heat up your kitchen. Yes, you can cook a full roasted chicken without having to suffer through hours of a sweltering kitchen. Second, who wants to spend time inside during the summer?

We’d rather spend our weekends on the back patio or exploring our hometowns in the sunshine instead of standing over the stove thinking about what’s for dinner. The slow cooker gives you that freedom and makes plenty of summer-friendly dishes. Here are our top 15 summer slow-cooker recipes — from a granola we’re putting on ice cream and yogurt to a pulled pork we’re folding into sandwiches.

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Tomato storage can be quite controversial. Many hold on to the belief that tomatoes should under no circumstance be stored in the refrigerator. Some have never heard such advice. Some keep their garden tomatoes on a kitchen windowsill and, while it is incredibly charming, it might not be the best way to store whole tomatoes. The best way depends a bit on temperature and timing.

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(Image credit: Illustrations: Netkoff/Shutterstock)

Unlike, say, French, Italian, or even Mexican food, Brazilian food is a little more uncharted for many. You may simply think steak when you hear Brazil, but the country has a whole lot more going for it from a culinary standpoint. So before you begin your next culinary adventure, get acquainted with the pronunciation of some of Brazil’s most beloved dishes.

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Grilled cheese with fresh tomato always seems like a really satisfying sandwich — until you sit down and eat one, that is. The problem is that melty cheese and wet tomatoes make for a very unstable sandwich. By making an open-faced grilled cheese and adding fresh tomatoes that have been patted dry, we can avoid many of the pitfalls that plague what should be a perfect pair.

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(Image credit: Coco Morante)

It’s easy to get carried away this time of year and overdo it with your tomato purchasing. I am particularly guilty — my shopping list says that I only need two tomatoes, but then I inevitably get lured in by all the pretty tomato varieties and buy far more than I can handle. And after a few days of nothing but tomato salads and sandwiches, they begin to get a little too soft and wrinkly. Luckily there are still a handful of ways to use those overripe tomatoes.

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One-Pan BBQ Chicken Burrito Bowls

(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

No matter how you cut it, Mondays are rough. Tackling Monday night dinner sometimes feels like the toughest job of all, but it certainly doesn’t have to be that way. Start the week with meals that can be partially or fully made in advance and reheated when you’re ready to dive into dinner. With a little upfront prep and make-ahead magic, these 10 recipes will really help spring you into the week.

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(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

It’s hard to improve on sweet summer tomatoes, but it’s not impossible. Pack as many juicy tomatoes as possible into a simple compound butter and you have a versatile ingredient that you’ll be able to hold onto long past these balmy months and into fall.

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