Purchasing a quality chef knife is a great first step for a beginner home cook, but the quality of the knife soon won’t matter if it isn’t cared for. Luckily it only requires a few habits and precautions to ensure the knife lasts for many years to come.

Condiments catch up with ketchup: Heinz might be the heavyweight in kitchens across the U.S., but there are fresh new contenders gunning for the throne. I think one of the biggest bets is we will see consumers get adventurous with their condiments. More chimichurri on steaks, mustards beyond the yellow and pepper jelly on ... everything.

If you're particularly into numbers, the phrase "National Pie Day" might make you think of March 14, aka Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical constant that begins with 3.14. But March is still a couple of months away, so National Pie Day can only mean one thing: a day to celebrate the pastry filled with sweet or savory goodness.

Whenever I see an Indonesian recipe for tempeh, I give it a try. That’s because even though I’ve been a fan of the fermented soybean cake for years, I’m still trying to unlock all its secrets, and Indonesia is where it was born. As chef Lara Lee writes in her beautiful recent cookbook, “Coconut & Sambal,” tempeh hails from 18th century Java.

Roast chicken smells like home. It is the smell of a communal meal, of care and love that goes into thinking ahead and dry brining a chicken and of showing someone you're willing to put in a little effort on a sleepy Sunday. Chicken fat rendering under high heat is, in and of itself, an olfactory experience.

Sometimes leftovers and a new recipe cross paths at just the right moment. I was flipping through "Clodagh's Weeknight Kitchen" by Clodagh McKenna (Kyle Books, 2021) and came across her recipe for a phyllo galette filled with roasted butternut squash.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, I went to the movies a lot, often alone, and I’d see pretty much anything because the golden-salty greatness that is movie theater popcorn makes seeing almost anything worthwhile.

It’s here, everyone! The day that celebrates each and every person on this planet: National Cheese Lover’s Day. (And don’t even come at me with “Well, I don’t like cheese” because that’s not humanly possible, Karen.) Observed annually on Jan. 20, this fromage-filled day honors the people who love and appreciate all things cheesy, like these cheesy facts.

The bagel and lox is a staple of American Jewish cuisine, and, although it has New York roots, it is now popular across the nation. The signature ingredient is lox, which is derived from the Yiddish word for salmon, and it almost always refers to thin fillets of brined salmon.

When I started working at The Spokesman-Review in April 2019, one of the first people I met in town was Kris Kilduff, whose one of many hats includes starting the Facebook group Food Finder Spokane last January. I met Kilduff, born and raised in Spokane, after Facebook exchanges, at a Secret Burger event at Prohibition Gastropub.

When it comes to breakfast, are you a sweet or savory kind of person? Do you top your waffles with strawberries and a mountain of whip cream? Or do you load an omelette with veggies and call it good? No matter which way you lean in regard to the first or second meal of the day, a bagel is a satisfying option.

To braise or not to braise, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the kitchen to prepare vegetables with low heat and little moisture, or to use another technique from one’s culinary bag of tricks, and, with a scorching pan or rapid boil, cook them? When it comes to cooking vegetables, braising is rarely front of mind.

This soup isn’t supposed to excite me, but it does. It’s pea soup, after all, typically a metaphor for drab and boring. While it might not have the outright glamour of other soups, I am enamored with it nonetheless. I love that it’s a warming, filling, meal-in-a-bowl – as cozy as the softest flannel PJs – made with few steps and minimal chopping.

This green smoothie is not magical. It will not detoxify you (your liver, lungs and digestive system do that just fine) or cleanse you (food doesn’t make you clean or dirty) or fulfill the overblown promises inevitably made about one food or another right after the New Year’s ball drops.

The exhausting month of December brought more local takeout and Costco freezer meals to my kitchen than I would care to admit. With my fridge filling up with leftovers and a husband and kids who were constantly home and always hungry, I needed to get creative – and fast.

Count me among the people who pat themselves on the back when they carefully pack away food in the freezer, knowing there’s something to cook and eat in the future. That, my friends, is only half the battle. Of course, there’s the issue of remembering what’s actually in there (I’ve been trying to track our inventory on a whiteboard). 

Last month, I shared a copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s chicken gnocchi soup. It was a big hit, which led to requests for another one of the Italian restaurant chain’s popular soups, zuppa toscana. Loaded with hot Italian sausage, crisp bacon bits, tender rounds of potatoes and fresh kale, this hearty soup is a top-selling favorite.

Everyone knows the sense of disappointment that follows ripping open a fresh bag to potato chips only to discover that two-thirds of it is air. One way around this is to make your own. Whether you praise the delicately thin potato chip or swear by the thicker, kettle style, homemade potato chips are worth the time and effort.

While the new downtown Las Vegas hotel Circa Resort & Casino was five years in the making, Derek Stevens and his brother, Greg Stevens, opened for business during the pandemic: Circa’s casino and amenities debuted Oct. 28, while the hotel rooms became available to the public on Dec. 28.