I’ve been reading all the comments on this post about building a vegetarian and vegan pantry that helps you create healthy, easy meals every day.
So many good additions and suggestions!
Here’s one comment that sums up a lot of the best suggestions.
When I was 15 I got my very first job, working in a bakery. I spent my time after school and weekend mornings selling fresh bread, beautiful pastries and cakes, and warm doughnuts.
Sure, I learned the difference between Italian and semolina bread, how doughnuts are made, and the beauty of fresh pastries. But the best things I took away from that job, though I was too young to realize it at the time, were lessons I’ve carried with me every day since.
There are a lot of great reasons to make your own soda syrup. You can use real sugar, rather than the HFCS devil that lurks in most bottles. You can make flavors that make you happy, from real seasonal ingredients with complexity and intensity, and you can use up excesses of things in your fridge like, say, the time you assumed strawberries being on sale meant that you were going to eat a few pounds of them before they went bad. You can use the syrup as a foundation for cocktails, because it’s Friday and baby, you’ve earned it, and you can package bottles up as gifts for friends, because you’re just that awesome of a person.
And while every one of these crossed my mind when I made this syrup this week (uh, once my kitchen and bathroom were reassembled), I am not sure any of them are the truth. The truth is not practical, logical or even terribly grown-up; it will never make it into a longform think piece about food and culture, thank heavens: I just wanted something pink, tart and pretty in my life, something that fills your kitchen with the smell of cotton candy, sunshine and popsicles as it simmers away on the stove. I wanted spring, and seeing as the weather was not going to provide it for me, I hoped a weeklong dose of ombré green and fuchsia would suffice.
… Read the rest of strawberry rhubarb soda syrup on smittenkitchen.com
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permalink to strawberry rhubarb soda syrup | 2 comments to date | see more: Drinks, Photo, Rhubarb, Spring, Strawberries
4.32 / 5 Stars | 64 Reviews
by Komal
“Tender cooked chickpeas are simmered lightly with tomatoes, lemon juice and onions in a spicy blend of toasted cumin seeds, chili powder and lemon pepper. Served warm, this makes a deliciously fragrant appetizer.”
Breakfast doesn’t get much better than this. I’m talking about tangles of tender collards cooked with bacon (and yes, oh yes, bacon fat), sharing a plate with soft polenta and a perfectly fried egg. If you can wait a whole 10 seconds before breaking that yolk and making a total mess of the plate, you have far more willpower than me.
Going to culinary school was hands-down one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Besides learning the butter-loaded art of classic French cooking, I got to experience living abroad in Paris, made an international roster of friends that I still keep in touch with, and even met my boyfriend (now husband) there. It was a whirlwind dream come true.
I still use many of the cooking techniques and recipes I learned in school when I develop recipes, cook for photo shoots, or cook at home. But almost 10 years after graduation, I’ve realized there were a bunch of lessons about cooking that culinary school didn’t teach me!
There are some kitchen tools that are just universally indispensable, but there are also favorites that vary from person to person. While one cook might have never used a mandoline, another may reach for theirs several times per week.
With that in mind, we scoured our archives to find some of the best kitchen tool recommendations from some of our favorite chefs. We have the standards, like vegetable peelers and food processors, and some suggestions that are a bit more obscure — speed grill, anyone? Take a look and then tell us what’s on your must-have list.
