There are the spices and seasonings you should always have in your pantry, and then are the special bois. These are the blends that smell so good and look so pretty, but maybe seem just a little too precious for everyday use. These are the blends you should give as gifts.

As the year draws to a close, it’s time to look back and reflect on the best and brightest posts from 2018, and what burns brighter than drugs and alcohol? Here are our favorite booze- and illicit substance-related posts from this year.

In the case of the hard-boiled egg, the yolk provides all of the flavor. Though it is a reliable and easily accessible source of protein, the white is aggressively bland, and no fun at all without seasoning. Salt (obviously) works well, but if you wish to outright infuse the white of an egg with tons of nutty umami,…

Today, upon logging onto Slack, I was greeted with a horror story. Last night, our dear managing editor, Virginia, was making a lentil soup recipe from [redacted], only to find it called for a paltry 1/4 teaspoon of salt. “Reader, it was bland,” she told us, to which A.A. Newton replied “I’m going to scream,” because…

I grew up in a family of ice cream enthusiasts. My dad has always been a staunch supporter of Ben & Jerry’s, and a veritable super fan of Chubby Hubby—you know, the one with peanut butter and, more importantly, salty pretzels.

Service journalism is all about writing for other people, but sometimes I use this platform of mine to write 250-to-1,000-word jokes to myself. This is one of those times. I don’t know if you are up on all the dank memes of 2018, but none have tickled my boobs quite like “They Did Surgery on a Grape.”

It’s frustrating when a recipe doesn’t immediately turn out how I envisioned it, but I always learn something. Just last night, I was working on a meaty situation in my Instant Pot and, though the meat was a little chewy for my liking, both the liquid and the vegetables in the bottom of the insert were delicious.…

The best feta cheese comes packed in a salty, funky brine, and that stuff is pure liquid wonderment. Just as any brine can be used to flavor food, leftover feta brine can be used to whip up cheesy rice; moist, flavorful pork chops; and a crazy tasty pan sauce. (It also freezes very well, which means you can stash it…

Hot alcohol is not my favorite, but I will make an exception for mulled wine. In fact, if trying to force seasonal cheer by making mulled wine in 90-degree Florida weather—in December!— taught me anything, it’s that I’ll make many exceptions for mulled wine.

In the world of food media, Samin Nosrat is a palate cleanser. Though she is a fount of cooking knowledge and wisdom, neither her award winning book nor her Netflix show ever feel prescriptive. Instead, she invites the reader or viewer to learn about, eat and enjoy food, all while radiating joy and warmth. Keeping in…

If the words “coconut rum” bring forth a small wave of nausea, it’s quite possible your experience with coconut-flavored spirits have been limited to Malibu (or something equally cloying). But real, delicious coconut flavor is a delight and it can be added to any spirit—not just rum—by “washing” the booze with a…

When the weather outside is frightful, nothing is more delightful than a large amount of tomato-y, cheesy, baked pasta. You may think that this requires dirtying many dishes—a pot for boiling, a pot for making sauce, and then a baking dish—but this is untrue. All you need to do is slow roast your pasta (in a single…

Last night, as I was watching my stepmother prepare supper, I spied a plate—not a dish nor a bowl—but a plate of melted butter. She then proceeded to dip slices of French bread in the pool of butter, coating them completely from edge to edge before popping them in the toasted oven.

Something about the holidays makes people want to gift sweet, homemade treats to each other. Even the most kitchen-avoidant among us flock to theirs to whip up seasonal confections. If you possess such an impulse but, like me, are quite lazy, I have good news: we have many treats you can DIY, with required effort…

Though getting divorced can be a positive life change, it is one of the most emotional and stressful ordeals a person can go through. It feels like someone you loved dearly has died, and their slightly petty, erratically cruel but sometimes nostalgic ghost is haunting you, mostly through random texts and social media.…

I do not care for the man formerly known as my stepdad, but at least he introduced me to latkes. The slightly cake-y, hash-brown-adjacent potato dish was unlike anything my seven-year-old palate had experienced, and it had experienced a lot of potatoes.

Now that Thanksgiving is over and everyone has cooked the obligatory turkey, we can turn our attention to other, more important matters, such holiday parties, and holiday party snacks. Hosting a good party is a matter of giving the people what they want, and the people—in my experience—want dip.

The holidays are the time to bust out show-stopping main courses, and nothing stops the show quite like a crown made entirely of meat. Most crown roasts are wrangled into shape with a bit of kitchen twine, but if you don’t have any, Alton Brown (very cleverly) suggests using a bundt pan.

I am particular about my mashed potatoes. I like a mix of russets and Yukon Golds, but I rice the Yukons. (I don’t like the texture of riced russets.) This necessitates keeping the spuds separate during cooking, because they’re hard to tell apart once peeled and cooked. Rather than break out two different stock pots,…

If I had to pick one casserole to eat for the rest of my life, it would be chicken—or in this case, turkey—spaghetti. This thing is a cheesy, kitschy, condensed-soup-soaked masterpiece. It is a casserole in the truest sense of the word, and it is a great vehicle for even the saddest leftover turkey.