Avocados are pure food magic. They’re delicious and buttery and can be eaten at every single meal. They’re excellent in everything from smoothies to sushi rolls. You can even pickle them! And they’re full of monounsaturated fat, which is the “good fat” credited with lowering levels of bad cholesterol and reducing a person’s risk of heart disease.

Now a new, low-fat avocado has been developed to improve upon what already seemed like a perfect food, but was anybody really looking for a low-fat avocado?

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To bake bread is to tap into a long lineage of human ingenuity, community, and satisfaction. Flour, water, yeast, and salt come together and hours later you’re slathering butter on your daily loaf. But just how does all that work? And what does it truly feel like to master this simple process? These are the questions we’re seeking to answer. In our series, The Soul & Science of Sourdough, we’re partnering with the minds behind Modernist Bread and the larger community of sourdough bakers to explore how the intersection of soul and science can help you learn the fundamentals of sourdough. Amy Halloran, author (and one of the most curious home bakers we know!), will be your guide as we walk you through the major stages of the bread baking craft, sharing stories and tips along the way. You’ll be inspired as a new baker and nurtured in your current practice. As Amy says, the perfect loaf of bread is simply the one that’s fits in your life. Here’s to finding it!

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(Image credit: The Recipe Critic)

Chicken and mushrooms have been saving dinner for years now. There are so many recipes out there that include this famous kitchen duo, and most of them are easy to make (lots of 30-minute recipes!) and totally delicious. Here are 10 of the recipes you need to try out right now.

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(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.

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(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.

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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.

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When viral videos circle the web, often they’re for super-human acts. (For instance, toddlers that can do anything an average adult can’t usually manage to accomplish.) This video follows the same vibe, but leaves us wondering how one learns they can catch apples when hurled at their face?

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(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?

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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.

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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.

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