Cooking Tips

This page is an index to all the cooking tips about things Kalyn has learned from years of reading cookbooks and being an adventurous and passionate cook! 

For the benefit of those following The South Beach diet, where appropriate there are notations after each recipe listing indicate Kalyn's opinion as to which phase of the diet that recipe can be used for.

Cooking Tips for Gardeners:
Cooking with Fresh Tarragon
Cooking with Fresh Parsley 
Cooking with Fresh Mint
How to Make Gremolata (with fresh parsley) and Recipe Ideas for Using Gremolata


Freezing Tips:
My Favorite Tips for Freezing Garden Tomatoes, Fresh Herbs, and Vegetables

How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer and Stop Paying High Prices for Minced Garlic in a Jar

Freezing Fresh Lemon Juice and Lime Juice: How and Why I Do It (all phases)

How to Freeze Fresh Basil (all phases)

How to Freeze Fresh Herbs: Rosemary and Thyme (all phases)

More About Freezing Fresh Herbs: Thai Basil, Sage, Tarragon, and Mint (all phases)

How to Make and Freeze Tomato Sauce (all phases)

Making Pistou Sauce for the Freezer (in honor of Julia Child, all phases)


"How-To" Cooking Tips
How to Make Gremolata and Recipe Ideas for Using Gremolata

How to Make Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts That Are Perfect Every Time (all phases)

How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs (all phases)

How to Make Slow Roasted Tomatoes (all phases)

How to Make Beef Stock (all phases)

How to Make Chicken Stock (all phases)

How to Make Turkey Stock (all phases)

How to Make Ham Stock and Recipe Ideas Using Ham Stock (all phases)

How to Make Garlic Confit (all phases)

How to Make Absolutely Perfect Restaurant Quality Salad at Home (all phases)

How to Make Pot Roast in a Crockpot, Balsamic and Onion Pot Roast (all phases)

How to Make a Frittata (all phases)

How to Cook Fresh Artichokes (all phases)

How to Cook Artichokes in a Pressure Cooker (all phases)

How to Grill Zucchini (all phases)

How to Cook Spagetti Squash as a Summer Squash (all phases)

How to Roast Red Bell Peppers on a Barbecue Grill (all phases)

How to Peel and Cut Up a Butternut Squash (phase 2 or 3)

How to Roast Anaheim Green Chiles on a Barbecue Grill (all phases)

How to Cook Dried Beans in a Crockpot Slow Cooker (all phases)


Other Tips:
Kalyn's Favorite Antipasto Salad - and Tips for Satisfying Salads at Home (all phases)


More Cooking Tips will be coming.  If there's a certain tip you'd like to see featured, feel free to leave a comment here and if it's a topic I know about I'll be happy to share my knowledge.

Cooking with Pumpkins and This Halloween I'm Going as a Blogger

Today is Halloween, which means of course that tomorrow we start counting down to Thanksgiving. Have you started to think about what you'll be cooking? Last November I had fun sharing my ideas for a South Beach Diet Thanksgiving, and I'll be back with more things for the menu this year. There's no doubt the Reduced-Sugar Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake shown above was my favorite new recipe last Thanksgiving. Before I tried that, I hadn't ever been too much of a pumpkin fan, but now I'm a convert. If you want to see how many other good things you can make with pumpkin, check out Cooking with Pumpkins which I wrote recently for Blogher. I've seen more good pumpkin recipes popping up since I posted it, so if you have a good pumpkin-cooking idea, leave it in the comments.

Beef and Sausage Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

(Recipe updated 10-30-07) I'm going through a process of updating some of my earliest recipes with better photos and sometimes improved instructions, and when I came across this recipe recently I decided it really needed a facelift. (Thankfully Blogger has now improved their system so earlier recipes can be updated without breaking the links, thank you Blogger!) Truthfully, when I first started blogging, it never occurred to me that people would be finding my earliest things more than two years later, that's how clueless I was about the internet.

Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins Recipe with Bacon and Green Onions

There are so many multi-talented people writing food blogs, and photographer and cookbook author Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks is definitely one of them. About a month ago she shared a recipe from Rose Elliot for Cottage Cheese Muffins, and as soon as I saw the recipe I knew I'd be making them. It took me a few weeks to make Heidi's vegetarian version with sun-dried tomatoes and basil, but they were delicious. I loved the idea of a muffin with cottage cheese, eggs, Parmesan, and almond meal, with just the tiniest bit of flour, and decided I wanted to experiment and see if I could make a version that was more of a breakfast muffin.

Stove-top Pot Roast Recipe with Mushrooms and Sage

Recently I got a new enamel-coated-cast-iron pan that I'm quite infatuated with. This pan is so heavy and conducts heat so well that I thought I'd try using it to make pot roast on top of the stove, something I never did before because I didn't have the type of heavy dutch oven you need to cook a roast this way. I used boneless chuck roast, rubbed it with some steak rub, and seasoned the liquid with Better Than Bouillon Mushroom Base, some onions, and some finely chopped frozen sage. (Why didn't I have the idea of freezing sage years ago!) The pot roast was really delicious, one more reason why I love this pan.

Recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash with Lime and Rosemary

I loved this Roasted Butternut Squash with Lime and Rosemary!

I find it amusing that even though Thanksgiving is such a traditional meal in the U.S., every year the food magazines are loaded with new Thanksgiving recipes for people to try. Maybe it's just my family, but I'm guessing many people are happy with having the same tried-and-true Thanksgiving dishes every year. Then there are food-obsessed people like me, who love trying out traditional foods cooked in new or unusual ways. I was reading the November Bon Appetit in the faculty room at lunch, and screamed with delight when I saw the recipe for butternut squash roasted with lime juice. Now there's a new idea! Quite honestly, the other teachers looked at me like they didn't know what the fuss was about.

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Thai Chili Garlic Paste

I should probably confess right now that I'm a bit of a condiment freak. At any given time I normally have 40-50 different types of sauces, pastes, mustards, and other assorted bottles of things of various nationalities in my refrigerator. That's why it was surprising recently when I found a recipe I wanted to try which called for Thai Chili Garlic Paste, and even though I absolutely love Thai food, I didn't have anything by that name in the fridge!

Roasted Chicken Thighs Recipe with Black Bean Garlic Marinade

I'm the kind of person who believes in following the spirit of the law, but not necessarily the letter of the law. It's that free-thinking attitude that helps me reason that even though the South Beach Diet recommends avoiding chicken thighs, it's the skin and fat on that part of the chicken that the diet is wanting you to avoid. Therefore, if you'll promise to remove the skin and carefully trim away visible fat, chicken thighs should be a perfectly good South Beach Diet food. I love to buy them when they're on special, and for this recipe I used a package of twelve chicken thighs that cost less than $4.00.

Recipe for Flourless, Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies (Gluten-Free)

These Flourless and Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies are also gluten-free!

Saturday I was out cruising around the food blogs when I spotted this recipe for Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies on Cookie Madness. You can imagine how the world "flourless" caught my eye in this recipe title. I read through the ingredients and decided I would try making a flourless, sugar-free version of the recipe, switching the sugar for Splenda or Stevia-in-the-Raw Granulated Sweetener. I knew that Splenda or Stevia would have slightly different baking qualities than sugar, but I figured it was worth a try.

White Bean Soup with Roasted Turkey Italian Sausage, Zucchini, and Basil

I got a new pan recently, which I decided to show you, since I'm infatuated with this pan. It's not Le Crueset (due to my school teacher's budget!) but it's a blue enamel covered cast-iron dutch oven by Chantal, which I got at TJ Maxx for $40. Talk about a bargain! I love this pan, and that's the reason I got up Friday morning thinking of soup, and left two cups of dried white beans soaking in the pan while I was at work.

Two Years and a Lot of Doubly Delicious Recipes with Vegetables and Herbs: The Recap

We've reached the end of our week of celebrating the Doubly Delicious Two Year Anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging. People have voted for their favorite vegetable and favorite herb, and one lucky blogger has won two great cookbooks. But before I give you details about both those events, there are people to thank, and a whole lot of great recipes to share.

What a great week of herb blogging it's been! So many friends have shown up with delicious veggie and herb dishes, as well as some new people joining the fun. I've been misty-eyed more than a few times at some of the nice things you guys have written about me, and extremely gratified that other people love learning about herbs, plants, vegetables, and flowers as much as I do. The quality of the entries for this event is something that astonishes me every week, but this week they were really over-the-top outstanding. I am completely aware that it's the wonderful entries written by so many great bloggers that makes WHB a success, and you all deserve credit for what we've been able to create together. Thanks to everyone who participated, either by predicting the winners, voting for your favorites, or sending one of the sixty-eight entries featuring vegetables and herbs.

Spicy Cucumber Salad Recipe with Thai Basil and Sesame Seeds

The weekend has barely started, but all week entries have been pouring in for the Doubly Delish Celebration for two years of Weekend Herb Blogging. Be sure to vote for the favorite vegetable and favorite herb if you haven't already done it! If you'd like to submit a Doubly Delish recipe (including a vegetable and an herb) follow either of those links for more information.


Before the celebration ended, I thought I should post this recipe, since for a while I thought this would be my official entry, (before I tried the Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette that won my heart!) And I've been a bit shocked that so far there is not one vote for cucumbers, a vegetable I adore, and which I buy year-round at Costco. This recipe uses the European cucumbers which are never bitter, and I also managed to sneak in a bit of my frozen Thai Basil in the dressing. If you don't have Thai Basil, you could use regular basil or leave it out completely; this would still taste wonderful without it. This is another recipe that will be a definite repeater for me.

Recipe for Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette and Three Salad Variations

Romaine Salad with Kalamata Olive Vinaigrette and Feta

For a few weeks now I've been thinking about what my recipe should be for the Two Year Anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging. Last year when the voting for favorite herb was tied to the recipe, there was no question I'd use cilantro and make My Favorite Herb Salad. But this year when everyone gets to vote in the poll to choose the favorite vegetable and favorite herb, the recipe didn't have to be tied with my favorites, so I've been wondering what would be a vegetable recipe that really reflects Kalyn's Kitchen.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries, hot from the oven!

(Updated November 2008) Lately I've been finding a string of recipes where you take a bite and know immediately this is something you'll be making over and over. That's just how I felt about these spicy sweet potato fries. Who would have imagined that these tasty roasted sweet potatoes dusted with a spicy mixture of ground herbs and spices would taste so amazing? Just for the record, I tested this recipe on my friend Robin, and she also went crazy over them. She actually stood by my kitchen counter eating the ones left in the pan while I was photographing the plate, and when I came back they were gone!

Now's Your Chance to Vote for the Favorite Herb and Favorite Vegetable of 2007!

It's finally time to vote for your favorite herb and favorite vegetable of 2007 as part of the Two Year Anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging. This year there are two parts of the Doubly Delicious Celebraton:

1. Anyone who's a fan of Weekend Herb Blogging is invited to vote for your favorite herb and favorite vegetable of 2007. If you're a reader of Kalyn's Kitchen who's not a blogger, we hope you'll still participate! Votes in this poll will determine the winner of our contest to predict the favorites. (Since we're voting for favorites now, the contest is closed.)

2. Bloggers are invited to post any recipe with at least one vegetable and one herb for this special WHB event. Deadline is October 14, 3:00 P.M. (Utah time) and here's where to send your entry. Please link to Kalyn's Kitchen mentioning the two year anniversary and include your name, location, recipe name, blog name, and the post permalink in the e-mail.

Thanks to my uber-talented and generous brother, Rand, for creating the polls for me. Now, click the "continue reading" link to vote in the poll or see the results!

Last Chance to Predict the Favorites and Win Two Cookbooks!

The week of celebrating the Two Year Anniversary of Weekend Herb Blogging starts tomorrow! When I get up in the morning I'll be posting a set of polls where people can vote for their favorite vegetable and favorite herb of 2007. This is your final reminder that we kicked off things early with a contest to predict the favorite vegetable and favorite herb, and when voting starts, I'll be shutting off comments on that post. (You can't let people keep predicting the winner after voting has started can you?) So for a chance to win two of my very favorite cookbooks, click this link and leave a comment predicting what you think the favorites will be. Don't forget to come back tomorrow to vote in the poll. The contest and voting are open to all readers, so please participate even if you're not a blogger!

Sauteed Chicken Breasts Recipe with Olive and Caper Sauce

Not too long ago Simona of Briciole wrote about a type of pâté di olive she uses as a topping for bread. For some reason, the idea of that combination fixed itself in my mind, where I imagined it as a topping for sauteed chicken breasts, and nothing would do except for me to try it. Of course, I loved it; what's not to like about the combination of Kalamata olives, capers, onion, and thyme with a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar? I did add some parsley to the mix as well, and changed the proportions just the tiniest bit. I know Simona will not mind because she realizes how I rarely follow recipes the way they're written; and I think my version still has the spirit of her recipe.

Salsa Verde with Green Tomatoes, Avocados, and Cilantro

In Utah, we've entered the time of year when gardening is a little bitter-sweet. It hasn't frozen yet, and plants still are green, but they aren't producing much. Every day there's the pessimistic desire to just pull out the plants and get the garden cleaned up, fighting against the optimistic thought that you just might get a few more vegetables. I have green tomatoes galore left on my plants, so before I pull them all up, I thought it was a good time to try this green tomato salsa recipe which comes from Street Food by Tom Kime, truly one of the most interesting cookbooks I've ever received to review. The subtitle of the book is "Exploring the world's most interesting tastes" and it features unique and delicious-sounding recipes from all over the world, with great photos too. I just can't say enough good things about the cookbook or this recipe, both are really wonderful. If green tomatoes aren't in season, I think you could definitely make this with tomatillos, and it would be delicious on grilled fish or chicken or used in fish tacos, as well as a great salsa for chips.

Kalyn's Kitchen Picks: Meza Peppadew Feta Dip

It's been a while since I've shared a product recommendation for Kalyn's Kitchen Picks, but last weekend I picked up a container of this Peppadew Feta Dip at Costco, and I completely loved it. This had the kind of flavor that made me take one bite and wonder why I hadn't bought it months ago when I first saw it. It's made by the same company that makes the Meza Hummus that I'm also wildly enthusiastic about, but I didn't find this dip on their website yet.

White Bean Salad Recipe with Roasted Red Pepper, Arugula, and Parsley

This salad is one of those intuitive recipes that just pop into my head sometimes, usually because there's a certain ingredient in the fridge that's been there a while. This time it was some arugula that was calling out to be used. I've experimented with a couple of versions of the recipe before I got around to posting it, and this is the one I like best, with the dressing flavored with balsamic vinegar, which I think tastes so great with arugula, and a tiny bit of Spike Seasoning. The salad was great the way I made it with canned beans and red peppers from a jar, but if you had the time or energy to cook your own beans and roast the red peppers, this would be over-the-top fabulous.

Recipe Favorites: Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

(This recipe is being featured again as a Recipe Favorite; originally posted December 10, 2006)  I'm quite a fan of stuffed peppers, although when I was a kid I never liked them when my mother made them. I think that's because she always used green peppers from the store, which always taste a little too strong to me, although I do like fresh-from-the-garden green peppers. This recipe favorite is a version of stuffed peppers that has South Beach friendly black beans and spicy ground beef inside red bell peppers which are stuffed raw to keep them a little crispy. There's also tomatoes, green chile peppers, Ancho chile powder, and cumin to make it just a little spicy. This is a delicious variation on stuffed peppers, and a great way to use those big packages of six red peppers you get at Costco.