How to Cook Brown Rice

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

There's one technique that I still see novice cooks and professionals struggle over: it's how to cook brown rice. The proportion of water to rice, how long to cook, whether to steam or cook over direct heat…these questions trip cooks up.

The extra layer of bran, which differentiates brown rice from the bran-less white rice, is what stymies cooks because it requires a little longer cooking time. My technique, which hasn't failed me in years and always produces perfectly fluffy grains, is easy to remember: one part rice to two parts water. Most use a 1:1 3/4 ratio, but that's hard to remember and leaves you no wiggle room when it comes to getting the heating right.

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The Secret to Getting your Kids to Eat Spinach

By Marilyn Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Want to know how to get your kids to eat spinach? Simple: add a little crispy bacon. I don’t know about you, but my boys literally vibrate when they can smell bacon cooking. They would eat just about anything with bacon crumbled on top. This old school salad is perfect for finicky kids and not bad for adults, too.

I stopped frying bacon in a pan years ago … now I bake it in the oven. For those of you who don’t know this trick, place a baking rack on top of a sheet pan, then arrange the bacon slices in rows on the rack and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F. The bacon won’t shrink as much as in a pan, the rack keeps the bacon from soaking in fat and most of all, there’s no splattering grease, making clean up so much easier.

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The Best-Ever Shortcake

By Lori Powell
For One or Two Bites, a blog for singles and couples

This past weekend, I had a bunch of people over to celebrate Father’s Day. I needed a delicious sweet to end the meal that I could make ahead, that was seasonal and most important, a home run for the dads in the group.

I had bought some local strawberries (they just started making an appearance in my market) and so I thought, strawberry shortcakes! The dough is super simple and luckily I had all of the ingredients, which meant not having to make another trip to the market.

Now I have had my share of shortcakes over the years, but this one takes the cake, literally! Maybe it’s because it contains a lovely amount of heavy cream and butter -- two ingredients that are not part of my everyday consumption or at least, not used with abandon these days.

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Salad for Summer Days

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

If there’s any dish that says summer, it’s a salad. Cold, crisp lettuce, fresh vegetables, a tart vinaigrette or cool, creamy dressing. They’re the perfect combination for a refreshing meal when no one wants to turn on the oven or even think of turning on the stove for one minute.

There are, obviously, limitless types of salads and things to throw in them, but my tactic when approaching salad is to keep it simple – no more than two or three types of vegetables, excluding the lettuce. And the dressing, whatever the type, should always be a little tart, never sweet or heavy.

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Quick and Tasty Tofu

By Sandy Hu
The latest from Inside Special Fork

My friend Mary doesn’t like tofu. And I can understand why. I didn’t like it much as a kid, either. It’s pretty bland and tasteless. If umami expresses the savory quality in foods, tofu is the exact opposite, representing almost the absence of taste.

But hey, I’m not knocking tofu because I’ve really learned to like it. I like the silky type, mashed up with soy sauce and mixed with hot rice and a healthy sprinkling of sliced green onion. I like diced tofu in salad bars. And I like Sun-Dried Tomato and Walnuts Tossed with Penne, which, by the way, completely disguises the tofu “taste.”

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