After lunch, on my way out the door, I stopped the waitress to ask how they made it. She gave me a general idea, which I have attempted to recreate in the steps shown here. The diner version included a little touch of ground clove and cardamom if I recall correctly. I didn’t add those spices, without them the ginger ale still turned out just great! It’s quite easy to make....

Homemade root beer is easy to make! The predominate flavor comes from the roots of sassafras, which one boils with spices and molasses to make a sweet syrup. Sassafras grows wild all over the eastern United States and Canada and traditionally was the main root used for what we call root beer here. Root beer can be fermented, but my favorite method is what follows—kid-friendly, non-fermented, and non-alcoholic. Credit for the root beer goes to Hank Shaw who taught me all about how to make root beer from sassafras on one of his return trips from the east coast....

As with all elemental things, though, the simplicity of a baked potato is deceptive. We’ve all had excellent baked potatoes and terrible baked potatoes. Happily, an excellent one is not any harder to make than a terrible one. The right potato, the right temperature, and the right timing are key. There’s also some spirited jabbing with a fork involved. Get set to bake the best potatoes of your life!...

Do I Peel Acorn Squash Before Cooking? This is one of the most common questions when it comes to learning how to cook acorn squash. You’ll be happy to know that no, you don’t have to peel it! If you don’t want to eat it, once you’ve roasted the vegetable, the skin peels off really easily. How To Cut Acorn Squash: Another big part of learning how to cook acorn squash is determining how to prepare and cut it....

Where to Find the Best Pomegranates You can get them at most supermarkets. But if you live anywhere near where they are grown, it’s best to get them at a local farmer’s market. There, you are most likely to find the ripest pomegranates - the ones whose peels are beginning to crack open, their plump, ripe arils expanding beyond the peel’s ability to contain them. My parents have a big, beautiful pomegranate tree that fills with fruit every autumn....

Here’s why you should bake your bacon in the oven instead! Video: How to Make Easy Bacon in the Oven The Benefits of Oven-Baked Bacon As I see it, there are a few great reasons to bake bacon: So, yes—bake your bacon! The Best Bacon for Baking My preference is a center cut bacon, which has an even thickness width-wise. I generally don’t like to bake thick-cut bacon because it takes longer, but you can bake any bacon you want....

Originally from the oceanic South—Georgia, the Low Country coast of the Carolinas and Gulf Coast states all have their versions—this homey bowl of awesome was historically a simple fisherman’s breakfast: Grits, with some bacon and a few shrimp tossed on top. If you’ve ever eaten it, you can understand why shrimp and grits has burst from the seaside shrimp shanties. The Best Shrimp and Grits Recipe The grits are soft, buttery, and often cheesy, with a savory, bacon-studded sauce surrounding them, and lots and lots of shrimp....

I’ve tried microwaving on half-power to warm it up and also tried dunking the sealed package in a bowl of warm water. But I often end up with a melted cheese puddle with the former method and worry about package leaks with the latter. Here’s what I do instead. Using a stiff spatula, I spread the cream cheese into a thin layer on a plate or other flat surface. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap and set it somewhere warm, like next to a warm oven or radiator....

Jump to:📋 What do we need? 🔪 How to make Cheese and Onion Pies 🍽️ What to serve them with 📺 Watch how to make it 🍲 More fantastic recipes with pastry Individual Cheese and Onion Pies 💬 Reviews Being a Northern lass pies are very important to me. Now that we’ve moved to Devon, most of the chippies near us don’t sell cheese and onion pies.Fortunately they all sell the most amazing fish and chips, but I do miss a cheese and onion pie every now and then....

Black eyed beans One of the best foods to make in a pressure cooker is dry beans. It is fast and you can have these black eyes peas from the pressure cooker to the table in 40 minutes in total. I love beans a lot and I make it at least once a week. I grew up eating beans, not many liked it at the time but parents often tell their children beans would make them grow taller and that seemed to do the trick....

I’m not one for violence, but the last piece of pernil at my house has been known to provoke a scuffle or two. The biggest hurdle to overcome when making a succulent pernil is waiting for it to cook. The entire house fills with its aroma. “Hangry” attitudes emerge as stomachs twist into knots of anticipation. This speaks to how delicious pernil is and how much we love it....

Do You Instant Pot? We held out on getting an Instant Pot when they first started to gain popularity because we were pretty satisfied with our Crockpot and slow cooking. I mean what’s not to love about the Crockpot, right? However, we passed up on the Black Friday deals for the Instant Pot, and then regretted it for an entire year! Ha! So, last year on Black Friday it was our main priority....

I love making stuffed chicken. It’s always a hit at the dinner table to have a perfectly cooked chicken breasts stuffed with all sorts of tasty goodness. In this particular version of stuffed chicken, I decided to utilize fennel, a super healthy and underutilized vegetable. Fennel is incredibly flavorful and brings a level of sophistication to this simple dish. Add in some roasted red bell pepper, artichoke, and cheese and you have a killer filling....

Everybody should have a friend like Jim. He can swim a mile, bike thirty, and still have the energy to cook up a batch of his legendary hamburgers for his friends. Jim learned to cook from his mom and loves nothing more than to see everyone’s delighted faces as they bite into something delicious he’s prepared. Especially satisfying after a hard day of body-boarding and surfing are his hamburgers which are seasoned with fresh rosemary from the garden and A....

Baking the chicken for a short time in a hot 450°F oven helps to seal in the juices, while prolonged cooking in a moderate 350°F oven tends to dry it out. Chicken breast is so easy. I always have it on hand, and there are countless recipes where I can use it. But more often than not, I simply bake it in the oven. And when I do, I make sure not to dry it out....

For this recipe, I use two smart shortcuts to make kuku sabzi. The herbs are chopped in a food processor instead of by hand and the kuku is baked in standard muffin tins, creating smaller portions. The whole dish comes together in 40 minutes. The freshness from the herbs, the tartness of the barberries, and the crunch from the walnuts make this a delightful meal to share with family alongside a salad, a creamy yogurt dip, and Persian flatbread like sangak, barbari, or lavash, or as part of a mezze platter....

Can I Use Store Bought Marinara Sauce? Our lasagna stuffed chicken recipe calls for marinara sauce. You can opt to use store bought sauce if you’re in a crunch, but we always prefer to make our sauce from scratch! Try our homemade spaghetti sauce if you have the time – we promise it’s worth it! Shredded Mozzarella Cheese: You’ll notice that our lasagna chicken recipe calls for shredded mozzarella cheese. Now, you can find this stuff prepackaged at pretty much any grocery store....

Just vodka, lime juice, and a ginger beer pour-over and you have a simple drink for any season. If you’re not familiar with this icy beverage you probably recognize its characteristic serving vessel—the copper mug. Copper mug or not this vodka highball is utterly refreshing and easy to make for beginner mixologists. What is a Moscow Mule? The Moscow Mule belongs to a family of drinks called highballs, which just means the drink is more mixer than alcohol....

Mushroom caviar just sounds so much more catchy than “mushroom spread” or “minced mushrooms and shallots sautéed in butter,” doesn’t it? Even though that’s basically what it is—a vegetarian version of the real thing. The good news is that this mushroom caviar is terrific! Especially for those of us who love mushrooms. It’s a quick and easy spread for crackers, perfect for a gathering. Once the mushrooms have cooked for about 5 minutes, add the garlic and a tablespoon of dry white wine (if using)....

Are you a salted caramel lover? I think everyone’s a salted caramel lover aren’t they? How did we ever survive before it was invented! You may think that this stuff has only been around for 4 or 5 years, but actually it was invented over 3 decades ago in 1980 by French chocolatier Henri Le Roux. He first created in when making salted butter caramel with crushed nuts (yum!!)....