The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

Okay, potato salad lovers, you have got to SEE THIS.

And while you watch it, just imagine how much more fun it would be to cook dinner if the Ross Sisters could come over every day around 6pm and perform a few food-related numbers to power you through your cooking tasks. I, for one, would never be crabby again.

My guess is, however, that the Ross Sisters are either no longer on the planet or a tough act to book, so I will simply view this video whenever I make potato salad and I suggest you do the same.

A caveat: don’t attempt any of the things the Sisters do in the 2nd and 3rd minutes. Although you may burn a few potato-related calories, you will most likely end up in the ER. Read More

My daughter Nora is pissed off at me.

“Why do you buy things for yourself right before Mother’s Day?” she asked, irritably, when I bragged that I had just bought a panini maker, exactly what she’d planned to get me as a gift for my favorite holiday.

It is pretty shocking whenever I buy something for the kitchen, whether or not a holiday is involved, because I do it so rarely. I have limited counter space (and limited patience) for cappuccino machines and waffle irons. When things like that enter my house, they usually make their way to the garage in short order, where they cure for a couple of years before heading down to the Goodwill. Read More

Now that the swine flu is, you know, just SO last week, we can reflect on some of interesting stories related to the panic.

Maybe the most jaw-dropping is the one about those 300,000.  Egyptian pigs who were lined up for slaughter even though there were no cases of the flu in that country, causing outrage in the global community of pig-huggers.

Maybe the most making-lemonade-out-of-Lemons story is the one about that marketing-savvy company that sought to sell advertising space on face masks. Read More

I’m not usually one to get emotional over utensils. I own as few as possible and use each of them for multiple tasks, some way beyond what they were designed for. The apple corer scoops out zucchini guts or bores a hole in a cupcake to make room for filling. The ice cream scoop measures batter for cupcakes, and, last week, served as a gardening tool when I planted mint.

Recently, after our dog Oliver left evidence of an upset stomach on our carpet, I used my spatula in the clean-up process. I know what you are thinking: remind me never to go to Jessica’s house for pancakes. Well, calm down. Even for me, the idea of putting that spatula back into food service was too much: I tossed it. Read More