How to bake a good and crispy french fry at home. Here are three different methods we tried, each with different results from boiling and pre-baking to letting them soak. As part of my french fry flavor creation for Alexia Foods, I needed to figure out the right and proper way to make baked french fries at home. How do you get that crispy goodness without filling a pot full of oil and dumping the potatoes straight into it? (Baked French Fries is kind of an oxymoron.) I tested a few methods... more

Today I’m hosting Kitchen Tip Tuesdays for Tammy of Tammy’s Recipes while she’s away on vacation. If you have a favorite kitchen tip of your own, please feel free to link back and link up down at the bottom. Thanks! We no longer own a nonstick pan. Not a single one. It just isn’t something we found necessary. In fact, we found the cocktail of chemicals in the majority of nonstick cookware rather unnecessary, and so quite a few years ago now, we replaced them all with... more

Steak au Poivre is one of those gorgeous meals that fills the house, is showy to make in front of guests and makes you want to curl into the couch after dinner, completely content and satisfied. Tenderloin filets are pan fried and then added to a rich, creamy pepper sauce. Sometimes you need a showstopper.  Maybe you are trying to impress a date with your cooking skills, maybe you need to show up some food snobs at your next dinner party, or maybe you’re just having an old friend over. ... more

Remember the scene in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where the turkey comes to the table, browned and glorious, and then as Clark goes to carve it the whole thing deflates? Here, let me refresh your memory. This doesn’t have to be you. Roasting a turkey can be easy, and it doesn’t take as long as you think. This is a no-fuss, surefire way to get a perfect holiday turkey. Of course, for inspiration, I looked to Ina. When in doubt, look to Ina. Hungry? Ina. Confused?... more

We try to maintain active social lives, and even though the O6 are a busy family, we usually are able to cram all of our family commitments in and still have time for the occasional show at First Ave. , movie with the gang, or random gathering at a local dining establishment.  This was not the case last week.  We were invited to a happy hour at The Lyndale Tap House, a bar in Uptown Minneapolis which specializes in a classic Baltimore cuisine (yeah, I know, that sounds like an oxymoron) – pit... more

Around our house, chicken rules. Beef is king, but due to the higher fat content, we try to limit our red meat intake. We eat plenty of fish, but with the cumulative toxins that can come with it, we hold off on going overboard. Sure, there’s pork, but the only way Shaina is not a fan and will only occasionally allow it in some smoked varieties – you know: bacon, ribs, pulled pork. So, by default, we are left with either more exotic meats like lamb and ostrich or we fall back on the most... more

It’s summer in Minnesota, and that can mean many things to many people.  For me, it’s not really summer until the road side stands pop up offering cucumbers, melons, potatoes and, of course, sweet corn.  Now, it can’t be just any kind of sweet corn.  You see, I grew up spoiled.  My Uncle Duane had a farm in Southern Minnesota where he raised beef cattle, soybeans and sweet corn, and when the corn was ripe, he’d call my dad and we’d grab a stack of paper bags, head... more