How To’sday: How to Bake a Potato

Easy!, How To, Potatoes, Tips, Tutorial 0 Comments

I write this post on behalf of the baked potato. Of that simple, humble item that too often only finds itself offered as a side dish on restaurant menus, sandwiched on the side-dish-health-o-meter between the french fries and the steamed broccoli. And most of us just take the plunge and go with the fries – or is that just me?

A couple months ago, while trying to develop some easy, fairly-healthy meal options that also allowed me to keep the oven on for an hour in an effort to ward off Midwestern winter, I made baked potatoes for dinner one night. Not as a side, but as the whole damn meal. And you know what? It was AMAZING. Why was this not part of my regular meal routine? It is now, by the way: I’ve repeated this tasty dinner several times since the inaugural attempt, and I’ve learned a lot about baking a delightful potato in the meantime.

Here’s how it’s done:

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January 15, 2013

How To’sdays: A New Series of Kitchen Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials

How To, Tips, Tutorial 1 Comment

When I started this blog, I knew that a huge part of the story would reflect my growth and learning in the kitchen, through successes and failures. I’ve learned, sometimes through trial and major error, to make pie crust, homemade cheese, fresh yogurt, beef jerky, canned tomato sauce… the list goes on and on.

And I’ve loved sharing these stories with you. But every once in a while, I am reminded that not everyone is learning the same things at the same time that I am. On one of my earliest posts, someone asked for clarification on how to separate an egg. Other readers have asked for advice topics ranging from tempering chocolate to selecting produce, from substituting ingredients to finding equivalents in other countries.

I don’t profess to be a master of all kitchen knowledge, but in a lifetime of baking and cooking, I’ve picked up quite a few tips and tricks that I now take for granted when I step into the kitchen to start a project. Why should I keep them all to myself?

So without further ado, I am pleased to introduce How To’sdays! Each How To’sday post (which I’ll publish only on Tuesdays, for obvious puntabulous reasons) will be just what it sounds like: a How-To tutorial of some little kitchen tip that may make your life easier, more delicious, or more manageable.

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