Quick Bites from the Web

Here again is my semi-regular roundup of interesting food and cooking links I’ve come across recently:

This is kind of squicky: Genetically engineering pain-free animals that can better tolerate the horrendous conditions on factory farms. Shouldn’t we be fixing the way we raise and care for our livestock instead? (Futurismic)
Factory farming is more than just cruel [...]

How to Make Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Popsicles are a great hot-weather treat, but the ones from the grocery store have a lot of sugar, artificial flavors and artificial colors. It’s just as easy to make your own from whatever seasonal fresh fruit you have on hand, and you control the sugar content. The whole family loves these.
I’ve found that pretty much [...]

What’s Cooking in September

Risotto with Corn and Tomatoes, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.

It’s hard to believe that Labor Day is already upon us, school has started and summer is winding down. Now is the time to be using up everything in the garden and getting our fill of fresh veggies because they won’t be around much longer. Here are [...]

What’s Cooking in August

Image via Wikipedia
We are officially in the dog days of summer. I don’t know about you, but around here, it’s been 90+ degrees, hot, sticky, with thunderstorms in the afternoons. The other day when I was walking the dog, I detected the lovely deep summer scent of wet dish towel in the air. This is [...]

Caprese Salad

Melon Caprese Salad, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
A classic insalata caprese hardly needs a recipe. Just layer tomato slices, fresh mozzarella slices and basil leaves, and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. For me, this simple Italian salad is one of the best ways to enjoy the goodness of summer.
But what about when the tomatoes aren’t [...]

A Great Smoothie

Being pregnant, I have been advised to drink more milk, something I don’t really like to do. Since I am wanting to eat a lot of fruit anyway, I have found that smoothies are a good way to sneak more milk into my diet. In case you haven’t encountered one of the thousands of smoothie [...]

How to Make Sorbet

A couple of weekends ago, my husband brought home a gigantic watermelon. “They were selling them by the side of the road,” he said. “I tasted it and it was so sweet I had to buy one.”
How were the two of us going to eat a whole watermelon before it went off? I had the [...]

How to Make Ice Cream

Summer is here, and that means it’s time to break out the one useful unitasker in the kitchen: the ice cream maker. Why do even avowed anti-unitaskers like Mark Bittman and Alton Brown own ice cream makers? Because ice cream is incredibly easy to make, and even the simplest homemade vanilla ice cream tastes miles [...]