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 [...]

Wow, a Quick and Easy Paella

I have never made paella before because I always assumed it was a difficult and time-consuming dish. The recipes I have seen for paella call for a lot of ingredients, usually cooked separately, including a large variety of seafood that would require a special trip to the market.
But then I ran across Mark Bittman’s recipe [...]

How to Make Granola

Granola is not something I ever thought of making for myself, even though I eat it with yogurt almost every morning. It just seemed like something you buy, rather than something you make. But when you think about it, there are several advantages to making your own granola. First, it’s cheaper to buy the basic [...]

Quick Bites from the Web: Make It Fast Edition

In this edition, a slew of helpful cooking tips, tricks and quick recipes:

A great idea from the Kitchn: Preheat your cooking sheets when baking oven fries and the like, and eliminate the hassle of turning food.
The Kitchn also provides tips for how to rid yourself of the cookbook and invent your own dishes.
Lifehacker debunks myths [...]

Homemade Pizza Is Easy — Really

Dear Mark Bittman, I have to apologize for having doubted you and not believing that it really is as easy as you say it is to make your own pizza dough. For a long time I have resisted because I believed that making all doughs is difficult. But I finally broke down and tried your [...]

How to Cook Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker

I have been wanting to cook more of my own beans lately. Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters inspired me, with his descriptions of how nutritious and tasty beans can be when you cook them yourself. Dried beans are supposed to have a better flavor and texture than canned beans, and you can control the salt [...]

Some more good blogs for foodies

Just a quick note about some other good blogs I’ve been reading a lot of:

Bitten is Mark Bittman’s blog, and it’s where you’ll find his New York Times Minimalist columns plus a recipe of the day and other food-related finds from Mark.
Michael Ruhlman, a really good food writer, has a very worthwhile blog, and he [...]

Review: Food Matters

Cover via Amazon

Food Matters by Mark Bittman (2009)
In Mark Bittman’s latest book, he claims he has discovered a method of eating that can help you lose weight, improve your health, save money and stop global warming. It sounds too good to be true, but his commonsense approach to food — as if it “matters,” hence [...]

Quick Bites from the Web: How Tos and More

Some useful food-related links from the Interwebs that I’ve rounded up for you:

CookThink teaches us how to poach anything, how to make a souffle, how to make a compote and how to downsize in the kitchen.
On Mark Bittman’s blog, how to lay out a garden.
On Michael Ruhlman’s blog, how to be a food writer, plus [...]

What’s Cooking in April

It has been a cold and rainy March in North Carolina. There have been no opportunities to get outside and even start to prep the garden. There is a lot to do, and time seems short. I am very much ready for spring to start in earnest, but that’s what April is all about.
The farmers [...]