Cooking

It may seem too early in the school year to bring up that scourge of school lunches: monotony. With five school lunches a week, week in and week out, the monotony trolls can rear their heads soon enough.

When I was a 19-year-old college student studying nutrition, I took a year off from school to travel the world while working as a model, a job that proved more arduous and less glamorous than it might sound, but eye-opening, nonetheless. Modeling is a bit like acting, in that big-name celebrities make millions, but most in the field consider themselves lucky to make a decent living at it. For me, it met my goal of paying for my education.

The nutrition geek in me is on full display when I talk about soy foods – I could be accused of getting overly giddy about them. Here’s why: Soy is one of the few plant foods that’s a complete protein, with all the essential amino acids in sufficient proportions. It contains healthy unsaturated fats, as well as compounds called isoflavones. The latter are rich with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and have been shown to reduce cancer risk, improve heart health, help alleviate hot flashes, improve signs of skin-aging and more.

Toward the end of last August, when the melons and peaches at the market mingled with gigantic heads of broccoli and plump plums, friends and family came to visit. Among them was Granny Kathy. Though Kathy was excited to meet little Cyrus, she made sure to clarify that she wasn’t much of a baby person. “But let me know if there’s anything around the house I can help with,” she said in a text exchange, noting that she had worked as a plumber in an earlier stage of her career. My partner, Joe, and I were excited to see her regardless, and I thought about how I could make her feel welcome. “What can I cook for you while you’re here?” I texted.

Labor Day is Monday, and many will be planning a holiday dinner or barbeque at home. Whether preparing a Labor Day meal for two or hosting a California-style garden dinner for six- such as those featured in Sunset magazine- today’s recipes can produce dishes that will fit right in.

LOS ANGELES -- For Rebecca Zeitlin, packing her 5-year-old son's school lunch is always full of surprises. Offer him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at home and he won't touch it. But pack it in his lunch with fruits, vegetables and a small treat and he'll dive in. He will "chow down" on applesauce at preschool parties. But if she served him applesauce at home, "he'd look at me like I was ...

It’s hard but rewarding work coming up with recipes to share every week for this column. The inspiration can come from a variety of places: trends I’ve seen on social media, cookbooks that I wish to highlight, scientific studies and new-to-me creations from my own brain. The latter usually begins with a single ingredient, often seasonal, and then I let my culinary intuition and flavor research go from there. May I present to the court exhibit 3,894: this gochujang eggplant stir-fry.

The rich, earthy mushroom known for adding a sublime finishing touch to a dollop of whipped cream, a bubbling dish of fondue or a steaming plate of pasta just got a little fancier.

I know I say this every year, but it seemed like zucchini season got off to a slow start.

LYNDEN, Whatcom County — Even if you’ve never been to Lynden, there’s a good chance you’ve eaten the raspberries grown here. They’re just not the ones you find in the plastic clamshell in the produce section. Labeled generically as “U.S.-grown raspberries,” you’ll find them all over the grocery store: in the frozen triple berry blend and the raspberry lemon muffins at Costco. In Tillamook’s ...

It’s that time of year when return-to-school activities are ramping up. Parents, kids and school staff are increasingly focusing on preparations for the approaching school year. Registrations, launch conferences, purchasing school clothes and supplies, transportation and meal planning, obtaining physicals for athletics and renting a trombone for the aspiring marching band musician in the family. The to-do list can seem endless.

There is no escaping the sense that we are living in the era of peak protein, a moment in time in which reverence for the macronutrient borders on religion.

During summer in my hometown of New Orleans, it can be sweltering even at 7 a.m. But I don’t sweat it. I’ve whittled down the time it takes for me to get out of bed and prepare my morning cold-brew coffee to a record low. Fill a cup with ice, splash in some concentrate and water, and I’m good to go.

We all have our favorite takeout foods. It’s always a pleasure to prepare them at home. Here are three of my all-time favorite takeout burgers and sandwiches, which I don’t make nearly often enough.

My most recent takeout experience at Chipotle – one of our teenager’s favorite sources of quick food – didn’t go so well.

Summer is picnic time, with its welcoming weather, lush greenery and active wildlife. It’s the perfect time to enjoy the many large and small parks around us. Picnics provide an opportunity to ease our mental gears and momentarily escape the usual rigors of our busy lives. Picnics aren’t uniquely American, although we Americans have undoubtedly set the record for distances traveled to picnics, given our obsession with automobiles and our appetite for travel.

My lovely wife, Gina, has been trapped in the kitchen for the past three weeks, working hard to keep up with all the baking needs. She looks tired. I feel like I should feel more guilty about it, too, but I don’t. In truth, it pleases me to see her sidetracked with a hobby that doesn’t detract from those of my own. I don’t say this to be mean, but after years of distractions from my own projects to complete Honey Do’s, or impromptu tasks that suddenly spring up as urgent necessities, I feel elated with the possibilities the current situation presents.

There are few types of food, let alone sweets, that everyone can agree on. But if I had to pick one with widespread, if not universal, appeal, it would be rustic, nostalgic and casual baked fruit desserts. You know the kind: best served warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and easily made with whatever fruit you have around.

A multilayered dip with eye-catching appeal is always an attention grabber at a gathering, drawing everyone to it. And it carries a conversation-starting spirit of discovery, because while each layer is visible, the best way to find out what they’re made of is to dig in and explore.