#spruce eats

Inspiration: If you read last week’s Cooking With Christie post, you know I (after a couple of months of trying to keep the house cool) was finally able to fire up my oven and bake all kinds of stuff. Whilst I was scratching this itch, I also fired up my crockpot — so I could maximize my time in the kitchen. (Which always makes me feel accomplished at the end of the day.) I also had in my…

Ginger Root Tea from the Spruce Eats

This Week’s Recipe: Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Chicken Inspiration: About a week ago, I really wanted some barbecue chicken. In the throws of this craving, I discovered I’d mislaid my original bbq sauce recipe during our big move. So I poked around the internet and found myself a new one on SpruceEats…. And true to form, I made some changes. I omitted liquid smoke (because I didn’t have a bottle…

This Week’s Recipe: Tom Yum Soup The Inspiration: I am a fan of Guy’s Grocery Games on Food Network. Recently I was rewatching the Ultimate Spicy Games and one of the chefs, who’s from Thailand, made tom yum soup*. While watching her prepare the dish, I realized (so long as I’ve got more than thirty minutes) I can totally make this dish! Turns out the most challenging part was finding the lime…

This Week’s Recipe: Crockpot Baked Beans This week’s recipe owes its origin to a craving for a full English breakfast. However, because my husband and I are watching our pennies, going out to eat to our favorite tea room isn’t in the cards. But purchasing a bag of dried beans is, and that’s precisely what I did. Of course, when looking up the recipe, I made a slight strategic error. Instead of…

I’m excited to announce that my writing endeavors have been expanding to include several new-to-me publications Learn more about my latest projects.

I’m excited to announce that my writing endeavors have been expanding to include several new-to-me publications—and going beyond featuring recipes, cooking techniques, and kitchen tools. When I started this food blog in 2016, I was primarily working as a freelance editor with a few writing projects for some of my editing clients. After I published my cookbook The Complete Guide to Pickling in…

Testing mortars and pestles revealed not only the best ones for various tasks but also my favorite: the IKEA Adelsten Mortar and Pestle. Learn about choosing and using a mortar and pestle set.

As I’ve taught spice workshops and ground spices into custom mixes at home, I’ve used a range of tools: coffee grinders, nutmeg grinders and graters, salt mills and pepper grinders, hand-cranked spice mills. But it wasn’t until earlier this year, when I tested seven mortar and pestle sets for The Spruce Eats, that I became enamored of this traditional grinding tool. As I spent weeks using various…

When I pull out a Yoshi copper mat, people are drawn not just to what I’m grilling but to the thin, flexible mat itself. Learn about choosing and using grill mats.

Over the last couple of summers, I’ve been questioned often about one of my favorite cooking tools—one that I use not in my kitchen but on the grill. When I pull out a Yoshi copper grill mat, people are drawn not just to what I’m preparing on it but to the thin, flexible mat itself. So I was excited to share how I use grill mats in my latest piece for The Spruce Eats. As I explain in my post,…