Baby, it’s cold outside and it’s an ideal time to enjoy a hearty soup supper with the family or a few friends. Make it a cozy affair—dine in the kitchen or on trays in front of a roaring fire. Before dinner, offer wine to go along with assorted cheeses and crackers.
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Football season is in full swing and just about everyone is off to the stadium or sitting in front of the television set to watch their favorite teams. If you’re opting to enjoy the game in the comfort of your home, rather than gobbling down all sorts of chips and dips, cheese and crackers, perhaps you might want to consider serving a meal either at halftime or after the game is over.
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If you find yourself with more fresh parsley than you can use, try storing it in the freezer (cleaned and mostly dried) in a plastic Ziploc bag or wrapped in plastic wrap. Next time you need some parsley, remove bag from the freezer and chop it or crumble it with your hands. The texture will be different, but the flavor remains the same. (Will stay fresh up to 2 months.)

If you have trouble making all of your meatballs the same size, try using an ice cream scoop. They come in many different sizes and you end up with a beautifully uniform product. This technique also works well for things such as chocolate truffles and crab cakes.

If a recipe calls for buttermilk and all you have in your refrigerator is regular milk, you can make an acceptable substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let this stand at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, or until you see the milk thicken to the consistency of buttermilk.

In order to curb the gastric disturbance which beans cause in some folks, try adding a small amount of baking soda to the beans just before serving (a teaspoon or so should do it). You should see some bubbling action, and this helps temper the affect on sensitive individuals.

If you hate throwing away that expensive vanilla bean after using it only one time to make a custard (or whatever), don’t!
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When juicing limes or lemons straight out of the refrigerator, try “nuking” them in the microwave for a few seconds (10 to 20, depending on the microwave).
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Labor Day unofficially closes the summer season, but the weather is still warm enough to spend your day outside celebrating with a family picnic or barbecue. The menu can be anything from barbecue to lobster boils. But what can be easy, fun and appetizing is serving burgers. You can have regular hamburgers or cheeseburgers, but why not do different kinds as well? You know, kick it up a notch.
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If you have children that are “tweens” (twelve years old) or older, and are familiar with cooking, you might want to suggest that they invite their friends over for a supper party. They might need a little supervision and the recipes we offer here from EMERIL’S THERE’S A CHEF IN MY FAMILY might serve well as an introduction to entertaining their peers. Hey, this might be a good time to hone their skills in setting the table, dining etiquette, cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher.
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