Life

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) We’re deep in it. Soup season, that is. And in my opinion, there’s not much more comforting than a steaming bowl of creamy tomato soup. But is there a way to achieve that blissful flavor without the heavy cream? • Non-Cream Tomato Soup The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) If you’ve avoided cooking beans at home because you’ve heard that they are troublesome, finicky, or complicated, it’s time to leave that behind. • How To Cook Beans on the Stove The Kitchn

(Image credit: Maureen Petrosky) Once a year, usually late December or early January, we receive a case of the sweetest pink grapefruits delivered to our doorstep. As with anything abundant in our culinary arsenal over to the bar they went. • Pink Paloma Cocktail The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Store-bought packages or movie theater boxed treats are so often laden with preservatives and ingredients you can’t pronounce, so why not start thinking about homemade versions of your favorites to do at home? • Movie Night Snacks The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The other night I cooked Viking Chicken for my mother, brother and daughter, and they all asked for more, so I think the recipe is worth passing on. • Maxwell’s Viking Chicken The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Lately, I’ve gotten into the habit of making my own corn chips, a process that has proved to be deeply satisfying on so many levels. Here’s a step-by-step guide to making these lighter, healthier chips at home. • How To Make Tortilla Chips The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) What are the essential ingredients for a happy kitchen? In many ways, this is what every Weekend Meditation is about, but for this week I thought I would get a little more specific. Read on for my 10 suggestions and please offer your own in the comments! • Happier in the

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) It’s a new year, and we’re all back to the races — school, work, the daily routine. Lunch has become important again, now that leisurely holiday brunches and Christmas cookies are behind us. So, what’s for lunch? Let us help you. • 15 Hearty Lunch Salads The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) From how to get rid of fish odors to how to repel house flies, from how to remove red wine stains to how to care for a wood table, here are our best tips for a clean and tidy kitchen. • 15 Tips for a Tidy Kitchen The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The momentum of the new year has us inspired to do a clean sweep in the kitchen, and we’re breaking it down into steps that can be completed in 20 minutes or less per day for five days. • Clean Your Pantry in 20 Minutes a Day for 5 Days

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Gifts for new cooks should be practical, yet inspirational, something to not only outfit them for successful cooking, but also get them excited about doing it! Here are 10 ideas sure to inspire and delight. • Inspiring Gifts for New Cooks The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Coffee lovers encompass a range of obsessions: it’s about the bean, the flavor, the caffeine, the ritual, the process, the experience. Whatever your coffee lover’s particular focus, we have a gift idea for you. • 10 Gifts for Coffee Lovers The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) These cute little pot props help a boiling pot to let off steam. Say hello to the Little Pot Critters! • Pot Guard Critters The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Treasured family recipes are priceless, which is why they can easily be transformed into special gifts with minimum expense and just a little time. Here are four favorite ideas for giving family recipes as gifts. • Family Recipe Gifts The Kitchn

Getting ready for a holiday cocktail party and thinking of putting the ole iPod on shuffle? The convenience may seem tempting, but take an hour and make a playlist instead. Cocktail parties are the time to break out the red lipstick, the fanciest drinks, the funniest stories, and the bounciest music. If you can make a playlist that will have your guests shimmying, singing, and flirting, then you’ve set the stage for a swinging night.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) It’s been raining heavily here for several days now, and this has necessitated a slightly different approach to meal time. Instead of asking my usual question what do I want?, I begin by asking what do I have? • Resourcefulness The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Aside from being a college co-ed you typically aren’t seeking Liquid Cocaine or a Prairie Fire as your drink of choice. So can shots be sophisticated? And what’s the difference between a shot and shooter anyway? • Sophisticated Shots The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) A cranberry mostarda is an Italian condiment that is exactly what it sounds like — pureed cranberries with mustard and ‘ahhh.’ And the best thing is making it is easier than you might think. • Make Cranberry Mostarda The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) What do you do if you have an “awful” old kitchen with a low popcorn ceiling and no surface space? If you’re Kitchn reader Faith, you knock out a wall between the bedroom and dining room and build a new kitchen! • Kitchen Before & After The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) What is so great about subscription gifts is that they’re curated to include unusual blends and rare inclusions that the average customer often won’t have access to. Our favorites this year span the range from music to salumi… • Foodie Gift Subscriptions The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Making herb-infused honey has become a favorite way to use leftover sprigs of thyme, a handful of wild mint found while foraging, or the buds of an edible flower bouquet. And if you start now, there’s plenty of time to make them for holiday gifts, too. • DIY Herb-Infused Honey

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Let’s talk caramels. The candy kind. The chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, deeply sweet, and insanely addictive kind. These make some of the best gifts ever, so grab a bag of sugar and your candy thermometer, folks! We’re making caramels today. • How To Make Caramels The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The coziness of this drink begins as soon as you set the ingredients to simmer on the stove and the scent of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves wafts through the kitchen. • Cranberry Apple Cider The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) We really like the idea of big dinner parties, be it hosting Thanksgiving or inviting friends for Saturday dinner. But we’ve found that the only way to both save our sanity and have a good time is to make a Big Bad Master Prep List. • How To Party Prep List

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Having too little turkey can be a total disaster. Do you know how to choose the right amount of turkey to feed your Thanksgiving Day guests? Here’s the rule of thumb: • How Much Turkey Per Person? The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Here are 15 recipes to fulfill your holiday bread basket needs, including classic potato dough dinner rolls, light-as-air cheese gougères, buttery angel biscuits, and a basic buttermilk quick bread with ten different flavor variations. • Thanksgiving Breads The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) If you follow Deb Perelman on her enormously popular blog, Smitten Kitchen, you are already familiar with one part of her East Village, NYC home kitchen very well… • Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Do you have a bake sale coming up this season? Maybe you have a favorite recipe that always flies off the table? We put together our first bake sale last year and were a little surprised by some of the best sellers. • Bake Sale Best Sellers The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Here’s what makes a tarte tatin so fabulous: even if your crust isn’t perfect, even if it crumbles a bit when you flip it, and even if the tarte is not perfectly centered on your serving platter, it will still taste like something that came directly from heaven. • A Classic

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Anyone else here think that the stuffing is the best part of Thanksgiving dinner? As the self-designated stuffing-maker in our house, I’ve tweaked and tested my recipe over the years until finally settling on this one easy method. • How To Make Stuffing The Kitchn

(Image credit: Gregory Han) Do you have a friend or loved one on active duty overseas? If you’d like to send them a holiday food package this season, here are a few rules to keep in mind when shipping edible goodies to troops overseas: • Mailing Food to Troops The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Are you roasting a whole turkey for the first time this year? Or perhaps you want a quick refresher to brush up on the basics? We’ll help you make your mama proud with these step-by-step instructions for roasting a delicious turkey. • How to Cook a Turkey The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Call me crazy, but I love a good holiday potluck. But finding that perfect dish that will simultaneously please and impress, plus be easy to shuttle along in a car or on a bus, is no small feat. Perhaps one of these this year? • 15 Potluck Dishes The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) How do you cook and shred a pork shoulder? How do you carve a roast chicken? What’s the secret to crispy skin? The answers to all these, plus many, many more in our definitive tips, tricks, and techniques guide to MEAT. • 28 Tips & Tutorials About Meat The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Jodi Liano and Catherine Patsios recently launched The San Francisco Cooking School, a new professional cooking school that also has an extensive home cooking program. They have a real understanding of what a home cook needs to know. Here are their top tips: • Essential Tips for Home Cooks The

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) I love chunky, clumpy sheets of granola that hold together until you chop them up. And I finally found two significant elements that will help you get deliciously clustered granola! • How To Make Chunky Granola Clusters The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The name itself and the fact that it’s delicious make the El Presidente cocktail the perfect drink of choice while you’re nervously waiting out the election results on Tuesday. • An Election Night Cocktail Recipe The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) There’s something to be said for exposing young kids to new flavors. Sharing food builds bond and prepares your young’ins for a life full of unique and fulfilling food experiences. Plus, it’s much more fun to raise an adventurous eater than a picky one. • Make Mongers of the Kids

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) We’re always amazed by how truly easy it is to make things like sparkling cider at home. All you do is add a bit of yeast to some juice, bottle in recycled soda bottles, and wait for it to carbonate. Presto chango, fizzy cider! • How To Make Sparkling Cider

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) It all started on a whim. Back in early 2010, Antonio, a chemist, and his partner Caroline, an artist, just wanted to make a good ginger beer at home, but what followed was the basis for a new business… • Brooklyn Soda Works The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) You guys — it’s pumpkin season! Of course, pumpkin has so much more to offer than just pumpkin pie. Take baked pumpkin steel-cut oatmeal, for instance, or soft, cakey pumpkin spice cookies. Are these on your fall menu yet? • 15 Pumpkin Recipes The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Once a year you’re allowed to delve into the dark, twisted part of your mind and come up with something that’ll scare the bejeesus out of people. These 10 Halloween recipes are sufficiently spooky… • Creepy Halloween Food The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) There is absolutely nothing more disappointing than getting ready for a big baking project and then realizing your yeast has expired. But no longer! Stored in the freezer, our dry yeast will keep for months past that expiration date. • Freeze Dry Yeast The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Whether you’re looking for a big baked pasta dish to serve guests or a cozy one-bowl meal of pasta e fagioli, these hearty vegetarian pasta recipes will satisfy your cravings. • Vegetarian Pasta Recipes The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Do you know how easy it is to make pasta at home? Really easy! Here’s a great recipe for a basic egg pasta and a step-by-step guide through the entire process. • How To Make Fresh Pasta The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) It happens to the best of us — at least, that’s what I told myself after letting a stainless steel pot boil dry last week. The pot had burned completely dry, turning shades of black, brown, and blue, with a chalky black residue on the interior. Was it salvageable? • Can

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) These pasta and other noodle recipes are meant to be made just after you shrug off your coat, and tossed while you relax back into an evening at home, sipping a glass of wine. This is pasta that brings you home, and feeds you when you need it most. • 15

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) While I would like to live in a world where I eat homemade soup all the time, the truth is I usually keep a few of those aseptic boxed soups in the pantry. In general, boxed soups aren’t that bad but here are nine little tricks I use to improve their

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Doing the dishes is my least favorite kitchen task, hands down. This is why I’ve instituted a “one soapy sponge” policy to help keep the chaos under control. • Soapy Sponge Trick The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) I recently found myself gravitating towards the bulk tea aisle, where I picked up a jug of apple cider and an over-priced satchel of mulling spices. When I returned home, my boyfriend chided me for falling into the “mulling spice trap.” • DIY Mulling Spices The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) My favorite kind of gathering to throw this time of year is a soup party. It encourages a very informal mingling and gives me a chance to flex my soup muscles and try a few new recipes. Here are a few tips that will allow for a no-fail night: • Soup

(Image credit: Emma Christensen) If you’re trying to adapt a regular soup recipe to your slow cooker or improve one you’ve already made, here are a few slow-cooking tips to help you make the best soup ever. • Slow Cooker Tips for Soup The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) You’ve got the sniffles. It’s chilly outside. You want nothing more than to wrap yourself in a big ol’ blanket and settle down with a mug of chicken noodle soup. Am I right? Then this is the recipe for you. • Easy Chicken Noodle Soup The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) We have 20 favorite recipes to get you started on your own soup adventures this fall. There are colorful recipes, like kale and chicken stew, and a creamy soup of Red Kuri squash and coconut milk. And don’t forget the cheesy potato soup… with bacon! • 20 Soup Recipes The

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The best way to have pizza for breakfast is the hot, fresh-baked way, complete with gooey egg on top. It’s also the sort of the perfect way to eat an egg, with creamy ricotta or tangy tomato sauce underneath… • Pizza For Breakfast The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Whether you’re setting up a kitchen for the first time or looking to pare back down to the basics, our Essentials Guides are here to help. Today we look at the cleaning tools and solutions needed to keep your kitchen in good shape! • Essential Kitchen Cleaning The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) What are the pros and cons of dish drawers? Do you have them? What has your experience been? • All About Drawer Dishwashers The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) A week ago Faith was in Venice, Italy, for a short trip, and of course she had to check out the market while she was there! The most famous market, the Rialto, of necessity has something of a tourist flair. Take a peek! • Rialto Market, Venice The Kitchn

(Image credit: Faith Durand) Here’s a great little tip we picked up at a cooking class in Paris a couple years ago — a faster, easier way to mince fresh herbs. It’s so easy we wondered why we had never thought of it! (Classic sign of a good tip, right?) • Faster Way to Chop

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Have you solved the mystery of the humidity drawer in your fridge? Last week, after seeing carrots and cucumbers not survive their time in these cryogenic chambers, we figured we had to look into how to use them properly. • Fridge Humidity Drawers The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Are you an avid home cook and reader of The Kitchn? Do you enjoy blogging, photography, and sharing your own family kitchen adventures? We are hiring a new contributor for the site. Interested? Read on to see what we’re looking for. • The Kitchn Is Hiring The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) How do terracotta floor tiles perform and hold up in a kitchen? Do you have terracotta tiles in your kitchen? Share your experiences with us! • Terracotta Kitchen Tiles The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Are you reminded of your grandmother’s kitchen when you see mint green cabinets? The color mint is definitely a little retro-feeling, but like all things vintage, at some point it’s bound to make a comeback. • 10 Minty Fresh Kitchens The Kitchn

(Image credit: Emma Christensen) Every time we make vegetable stock, we wonder why we ever bother buying it in the store. It’s so easy! Chop up some vegetables, cover with water, and simmer. Done. And all in just a little over an hour. • How To Make Vegetable Stock The Kitchn

Today Beatrix Potter’s very rare personal recipe book will go on sale in London. The 161-year-old book recipe book is full of family recipes, and thanks to an official release by the book’s handlers, we have the actual gingerbread recipe here! • Beatrix Potter’s Gingerbread The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Smoothies are a fast, easy breakfast, and many of us are devoted to our morning shake. So we’ve rounded up our best ideas and tips covering everything from blenders to protein powder, plus inspiring recipes with fruit, greens, and even whole grains. • 20 Smoothie Tips & Recipes The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Sometimes we don’t have time for a full cleanup and overhaul of our kitchen storage, but still, the smallest effort can make the largest difference. Here are six things to do tonight that will only take you 10 minutes. • A Tidy Pantry in 10 Minutes The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The right packaging will ensure that frozen foods retain their flavor, color, and texture, without developing freezer burn or absorbing other flavors and odors. The following containers are suitable for frozen foods: • Choosing the Right Freezer Containers The Kitchn

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) There are so many recipes that can make a little extra to be squirreled away in the freezer for a later time. These little packages from the past are a huge gift to your future self when you are busy, stressed, and in need of a quick fix. • 15 Double

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) Meals are a shared experience in most cultures, so it is a classic time for loneliness to come up if you find yourself alone at meal times. Do you eat alone often? How do you deal with the times when a single place setting at the table feels lonely? • Eating

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) The pita bread you make at home is worlds apart from the stuff you buy in stores, and watching them puff to glorious heights in your oven or on your stovetop is culinary magic at its best. Here’s how to do it. It’s easy! • How To Make Pita Bread

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy) How do you get dinner on the table, week in and week out, without getting bored? How do you stay energized and engaged with the act of cooking at home? Here are fifteen of our best and most universal tips for learning how to plan your meals. • 15 Tips for