How To Make Applesauce in the Slow Cooker — Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn

Truthfully, it’s hard to be sad about the end of summer right now. I mean, when there are things like apple picking just ahead of us — and along with it, homemade applesauce (a fall essential) — I can’t be anything but thrilled.

If you’re new to making homemade applesauce, know that you only need a few ingredients, and turning them into a sauce is much easier than you might think. Especially when you bring in the Crock-Pot to do most of the work for you.

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The Right Breakfast Pairing for Your Favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon — A Back-to-School Special

Now that Labor Day is over and school is back in session, lazy Saturday mornings will become a sacred thing. You need a good breakfast and your favorite old-school cartoon show to take advantage of that precious time.

Of course, the correct breakfasts to eat while watching “Hey Arnold!” and “Rugrats” are fundamentally different. You can’t mess this up, so we’re here to help. Go ahead: Choose your favorite Saturday morning cartoon and we’ll tell you what you should eat for breakfast.

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4 Things to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say About Someone’s Cooking — How to Be a Grownup

There’s no way around it — it’s downright awkward when your dinner host asks what you think about the dinner he or she just served. The one they proudly spent the afternoon slaving over; the one you did not enjoy in the slightest. You don’t want to lie, but at the same time, your honesty would crush them.

How do you skillfully handle this situation?

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caponata

caponata

I am never a better citizen of the sidewalks of New York than I am when I have a newborn, or at least the variety we’ve been assigned twice now: those that can only be calmed by long walks in the stroller. And so we stroll, even though it’s unforgivably hot out, even though we rarely get out of the apartment early enough to enjoy those brief parts of the day when there’s an actual shady side of the street to hover on, even though we really don’t need anything else from the Greenmarket or anywhere else, we make up excuses so we have somewhere to go. On the best of days, we see people that we know and the neighborhood feels like something out of Mr. Rogers (although his is notably absent of the guy who yells outside my apartment all day about his superstitions and the clouds of secondhand decriminalized smoke we wade through). We bumped into my son’s old preschool teacher a few weeks ago, someone who likes to cook almost as much as me, and she said she’d recently made a big batch of caponata and had been having it with everything — for breakfast with an egg, in sandwiches for lunch and even with pasta for dinner and I thought that sounded absolutely brilliant. I just needed to learn how to make caponata.

what you'll need
frying eggplant

I read a lot and I learned several things about this eggplant dish. First, definitely don’t try to exhaust yourself by finding a one/true/authentic version. Just about all are authentic and true and few match, because everyone makes it the best way they know how and that’s usually the way their grandmothers made it and you have to be out of your mind if think I’m going to argue with a Sicilian grandmother. However, I knew a few things: I knew that while I am completely okay with frying eggplant the authentic way that it’s totally cool if you’d like to just roast or sauté it. I wanted to stick to a core list of ingredients — eggplant, onion, celery, tomato, capers, olives, raisins, basil and pine nuts — because while you can add a whole lot of things — i.e. garlic, zucchini, sweet or hot peppers, anchovies — I had a hunch there’s enough going on in the flavor department with the core list that it wouldn’t need much more to taste good.

fried, drained, cooled eggplant

… Read the rest of caponata on smittenkitchen.com


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The Kitchn Cure Day 2: Tackling the Refrigerator (with Zen Poetry) — The Kitchn Cure 2015

The Kitchn Cure 2015

The Kitchn Cure Day 2: Wipe down refrigerator door shelves and produce bins.
Join The Kitchn Cure: Sign up and see all The Kitchn Cure assignments

I’m not usually a fan of cleaning my refrigerator. I’m not sure why — I love a sparkling fridge with everything neatly arranged and in its place — but somehow, I often can’t get there. The task always seems so daunting, so mired in guilt around half-used jars of mustard and sticky, mysterious spills I’ve somehow managed to avoid.

But the Cure presents a solution that has me actually kind of excited to take on my fridge, a little sleight of hand that makes it possible even on the busiest of days.

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Here’s What to Keep and Throw Out After a Power Outage — Tips from The Kitchn

Whether you live in an area that’s prone to hurricanes, earthquakes, snow storms, tornadoes, or any other number of natural disasters, if the power goes out, we all face the same dilemma: How long can we still eat the food in the refrigerator or freezer, and what should we keep or pitch after the power comes back on?

Here’s a guide to help you both monitor and know what to do with food when there’s no electricity.

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10 Things You Can Learn About Kitchen Safety from Stock Photos — Nailed It

Yes, a gas mask is required every time you wash the dishes.

There are moments in life when you think, “If only there were photos out there that could really crystallize kitchen safety for me.” We know — we’ve been there. But now, thanks to stock photos, there are!

If you’ve ever wondered how to hold a knife, handle a hot pan, or cook with heat, you may put your mind to rest, my friends, because these folks — nay, masters — show us exactly how it’s done.

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