Oh cool, the beginnings of the world’s worst casserole

Having a full cupboard can be nice, but it can also be daunting. At least when the cupboard becomes full of spare parts like canned black beans, turmeric and tuna in oil. We have an entire jar of coconut oil just sitting there that we only bought to rub on a tattoo. The hell do we do with it? Well, we could ask NPR, who’s asking for pictures of baffling surplus food in your cupboard so that expert chefs can tell you how to cook it. (more…)

Chicken photo courtesy of Fleisher’s.

Do you look at this photo and think, man, I would seriously pay $300 to slice that bird’s carotid artery? If the answer is yes, maybe you should attend an upcoming chicken-slaughter workshop sponsored by Fleisher’s butchers. That’s the photo that accompanied an email invitation to “For Cluck’s Sake,” where:

Participants will meet at Fleisher’s in Kingston for a light breakfast, followed by a trip to Meadowview Farm in New Paltz where they will have the opportunity to slaughter and de-feather their own chicken! … Participants will learn how to quarter, spatchcock, and skin a chicken for home kitchen use. All followed by a locally sourced dinner prepared by the Fleisher’s crew … Cost is $300 and includes 3 meals, lecture with Joshua Applestone, and a chicken to slaughter and take home!

So … help me out here, foodies, back-to-the-land beardies, Kenji, anyone… does this sound fun to you?  (more…)

PIckled carrots and beets. Photo courtesy of the Gradually Greener blog.

We’ve all felt the guilt. Think back to one week ago, when you were walking around the farmer’s market buying all sorts of just-in-season vegetables, thinking how this was going to be the start of you eating healthy. But that was a week ago. The beets and turnips are still sitting in the fridge, and you’ve got plans tonight, so they’ll be one step closer to the compost heap by morning. If you’re the thrift-savvy Brooklynite we know you are, you’re looking for a way to stretch your vegetables’ life span, so here’s your answer: pickling. (more…)

Technically that is cheese, yes, but doesn't our meat expert Andrew Dorsey look handsome in this shot? Photo by Rachel DeLetto.

Brokesters may not think of fancy places like Marlow & Daughters when it’s time to buy some meat, but if you know your way around a butcher shop you can get some good stuff (locally sourced, grass-fed) without paying weygu prices. There are some cuts out there that are the carnivore’s equivalent to the Contra cheat code, I know for a fact, and I was determined to find them when I sat down with Andrew Dorsey, senior butcher for Marlow & Daughters. Here’s what I found out: (more…)

The hydroponic herb garden at Brooklyn Kitchen.

Fun restaurant fact of the day: the most expensive part of keeping any kitchen fridge stocked is buying the herbs, and if you’re part of the foodie elite Brooklyn is famous for, then the same might just apply to your kitchen as well. Keeping this in mind, here’s how to get the most green from your grocery buck.

Chives: A big winner! With their subtle onion flavor, chives can go into so many different dishes they won’t be around long. But if they are, they last up to a few weeks in the fridge, as long as you wrap them in a damp paper towel and put in them a plastic bag.

Chervil: Don’t buy chervil. Just don’t. It’s pretty, it makes it look like fairies made your food, but at the end of the day the flavor is subtle and unnecessary, the herb is limited, and its shelf life is pretty sad. (more…)

Will blog for drinks.

There’s no shortage of worthy ways to be charitable this time of year, but you’d be hard-pressed to find another that says “Made for BK” quite like this. Open Source, a Park Slope gallery/creative space, is looking for a few good cooks to staff its Open Source Food Kitchen every night in December. For a fourth year, the gallery’s running its month-long free kitchen where a volunteer comes in each night, whips up a meal, and 15-20 starving artists dig in. The site says fellow artists usually don the chef hat, but really, anybody’s welcome to come in and cook. (more…)

Photos by Ellen Knuti

No time for the Park Slope Co-op and too broke for the Grand Army farmer’s market? For my (rather limited) money, the best trick for defeating the rising cost of groceries is maxing out on curiously affordable, endlessly versatile beans and grains from Goya.

Keeping them on hand can make a huge difference in the decision to throw together something for dinner instead of ordering in Thai for the third time this week. With some onions and garlic, a can of beans can become a nutritious and filling meal that pairs easily with rice, salad or any vegetable you find in your fridge. (more…)

©iStockphoto.com

I am a stay-at-home girlfriend. When my boyfriend goes off to work, I spend my days cooking, cleaning our two-bedroom Greenpoint apartment and trying to look good for him when he comes home. I never planned on this lifestyle; my corporate job of four years was outsourced in October when we were already living together. What was a matter of convenience before is now a matter of financial survival — while I’ve always been someone who’s really into keeping her boyfriend happy (that’s how I was raised), it’s now my primary occupation after job-seeking. I’m not alone. I was actually the third of my female friends living with her boyfriend to wind up out of work, and all of us, to some degree, adhere to stereotypically Stepfordish rules to keep our relationships afloat and ourselves sane. Here are mine: (more…)

Worth it? Photo from Big Red Kitchen.

Let us, for a moment, set aside the fact that if you’re a decent cook and you have decent ingredients, whatever you make at home WILL taste better than its packaged counterpart from the store. Similarly, ‘making it’ is usually a better fiscal decision than ‘buying it.’ But there’s still a gray area in the make vs. buy debate that needs to be addressed. The question needs to be asked: Is it really worth it to squeeze those 50 oranges for the Sunday brunch, or will Tropicana do? We visited supermarkets around Brooklyn to price-check a few kitchen staples. Then we explored making them ourselves and did some math. Here’s what we found. (more…)

Bouchon Bakery sliders. Photo courtesy of the slashfood blog.

Brooklyn foodies are praying Thomas Keller is serious about opening a Bouchon Brooklyn, which reminds me of a cooking tip from the famed chef that you don’t need to be a swell to try. Maybe it is a little hard to believe that the man behind Per Se’s $275 prix fixe menu is a penny pincher, but in a magazine interview I did with him two years ago, he cited cost as one reason never to cook with a common ingredient that may surprise you. I haven’t cooked the same since. (more…)