Retro Sundays

A quick programming note: Beginning next Sunday I'll start our multi-part book club series on Your Money Or Your Life. I don't want to flood readers with posts, so I'll put the Retro Sundays posts on hiatus for the time being and run YMOYL posts on Sundays in their place. Stay tuned!
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Let Them Eat Cake! Thoughts About Wealth, Power and the Food Industry (April 2010)
A few centuries ago only the wealthiest among us were able to secure a balanced diet. How is it that today, the average person's problem is getting too much food?

Almost Meatless: Cookbook Review (April 2009)
A brilliant cookbook centered on low-meat cooking. I considered this to be by far the best cookbook of 2009. Here's my rabidly positive review.

Austrian Cuisine: Viennese Potato Soup (Wiener Kartoffelsuppe) (April 2008)
An easy, comforting and absolutely delicious recipe.





How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Ask CK: The Purpose of Friday Links (April 2011)
Looking back, I might have been a little too harsh on this reader, who whined that my Friday Links posts offered too many things to read. Also in this post: bonus thoughts on SEO and why I never do it.

Garlic Sauteed Cauliflower (April 2011)
Instead boring steamed cauliflower, try this easy variation, which scores several grades higher in flavor and class.

Mujadarrah: Vegetarian Comfort Food From the Middle East (April 2010)
A flexible, easy and laughably cheap recipe you can make in well under 30 minutes.

How to Fight Back Against Overpriced Cereal (April 2009)
See how stealth price hikes, unpronounceable ingredients and aggressive marketing to children entice us to build unhealthy consumption and eating habits. Part 2 of my series criticizing branded boxed cereals.

Applying the 80/20 Rule to Diet, Food and Cooking (April 2008)
You'd be surprised how certain small and nearly effortless changes can have enormous results. This post still reigns as one of CK's all-time most popular, with ideas you can apply to practically any area of life.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Make Risotto (April 2007)
A risotto recipe that will satisfy Italians with its authenticity, yet satisfy CK readers with its simplicity and low cost.

Eat Right to See Right: Foods for Better Eye Health (April 2008)
The foods you eat over the course of your life will directly impact the health of your eyes. Hey, I didn't marry an eye doctor for nothing.

Attention Vegetarians and Vegans! Fresh Corn and Tomato Soup (April 2008)
An amazingly delicious and visually stunning soup that's inexpensive, filling, and surprisingly low in calories. PS: Read this post to unlock one of the great little-known secrets of vegan and vegetarian cuisine.

Six Good Things About the Awful Economy (April 2009)
In the months following the recent credit crisis, many CK readers changed how they ate, what foods they bought, and how much of their food they prepared at home. That's the thing about economic downturns: they help us to recognize our real priorities.

On Spice Fade, And the Utter Insanity of Throwing Spices Out After Six Months (April 2011)
This rule of thumb makes cooking more expensive than it needs to be, and it's 100% pure hogwash. Here's why.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Tomato Lentil Soup with Orzo (April 2011)
A healthy, hearty and easy-to-make soup that costs a laughable 60-70c per serving. An extremely popular recipe from last year.

Food Absolutism (April 2010)
If you enjoy vegetarian cuisine, you're some kind of a crunchy weirdo. If you like eating raw, you must be against electricity. In this post, I tackle several absurd yet suprisingly widely-held notions about food. Thankfully, nothing in the world of food has to be absolute.

Peanut Pineapple Stew (April 2010)
Another extremely popular and laughably cheap recipe. This one combines easy-to-find ingredients in a creative and unusual way, and costs a mere 80c a serving.

Make Your Diet Into a Flexible Tool (April 2009)
Too often we think of our diets as fixed and rigid things. They shouldn't be. Instead, think of your diet as a flexible and powerful tool.

Green Bean Salad: Another Ridiculously Easy Side Dish (April 2008)
When I say ridiculously easy, I mean it. You can get this distinctive side dish on the table in minutes and it will wow your dinner guests. From the excellent cookbook The Healthy Kitchen by Andrew Weill.





How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Food Militancy, and Food Moderation (March 2011)
There's a silent majority of food moderates out there who we can either motivate with our ideas--or drive away by being militant about food choices.

Eight Myths About Vegetarians and Vegetarian Food (March 2010)
Admittedly, the joke about leather belts may have pushed a few readers over the edge, but this was an extremely popular post from 2010 that attempted to bridge the often all-too-wide gap between veggies and meat-eaters.

Hamburger Corn Pone Pie (March 2010)
The first recipe I copied out of my mother's recipe collection when I left home. You'll love it.

The Problem with Government Food Safety Regulation (March 2009)
One of my first posts on food politics, where I explain the lifecycle of food regulators.

The Dinner Party: 10 Tips to Make Cooking for Company Fun and Easy (March 2008)
You can cook an entire multi-course dinner at home for four to six people for less than just your portion of the check if you go out to eat. Here's how.

How to Make Fried Rice (March 2007)
One of my cheapest and easiest recipes in all of Casual Kitchen, and one of my most trafficked posts from CK's earliest days.



How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Get More Mileage Out of Your Cookbooks (March 2008)
Don't waste money buying new cookbooks when you can extract so much more value from the ones you already own.

27 Themes and Ideas for Wine Tasting Club Meetings (March 2009)
The most popular and most-widely read post from my series on enjoying wines on a budget.

What to Eat When You're Sick as a Dog (March 2009)
When you're really sick, knowing you need to eat and actually bringing yourself to eat can be two entirely different things. Here's how to get much-needed fuel into your body with a minimum of preparation, a minimum of nausea, and a minimum of effort.

How to Resist Temptation and Increase Your Power Over Food (March 2010)
I promise: this post will change forever how you think about tempting and unhealthy food, thanks to key insights from David Kessler's amazing book The End of Overeating.

An Easier Way to Crack An Egg: Blunt Force Trauma (March 2011)
In which I teach the easiest and cleanest way to crack an egg. A short and extremely popular post from last year.

Ask CK: The Double-Batch/Too Many Leftovers Problem (March 2011)
Leftovers are not a problem. They are the solution.






How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. Each Retro Sundays column serves up a selection of the best articles from this week in history here at Casual Kitchen.

As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Corned Beef and Cabbage (March 2007)
With St. Patrick's Day approaching, here's a recipe for all the Irish (and the Irish-at-heart) that's amazingly delicious, amazingly easy--and mortifyingly unhealthy.

How to Start a Casual and Inexpensive Wine Tasting Club (March 2009)
Forming your own wine tasting club is easily the most cost-effective way to learn about wines. This post contains everything you need to know to get started.

Quick Scalloped Potatoes (March 2010)
This healthy and delicious side dish feeds six, and you can make it under 25 minutes.

The Worst Lie of the Food Blogosphere (March 2010)
One of the most controversial and hotly debated posts at CK. I'm grateful for my readers' extremely civil and well-thought-out reactions, because your input inspired me to explore various food-related pschological themes, including a post series on excuse-making traps, a post about the pyschology of temptation, and an essay on how we instinctively presume there are only zero-sum tradeoffs between food costs, time and our health.

Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup (March 2011)
This incredibly delicious, easy and healthy soup can be made for just 80c a serving.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. Each Retro Sundays column serves up a selection of the best articles from this week in history here at Casual Kitchen.

As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Six Secrets to Save You from Cooking Burnout (March 2007)
Even food bloggers get totally sick of cooking from time to time. Here are the tricks I use to get myself back in the mood.

How to Be a Satisficer (March 2008)
How to grapple with one of the weirdest truths of modern life: Having lots of choices actually makes you less happy.

The "It's Too Expensive to Eat Healthy Food" Debate (March 2010)
In which I take on the condescending ignorance of a certain New York Times food journalist.

What's Your Favorite Consumer Empowerment Tip? (March 2011)
This post summarizes my key thoughts on how to empower consumers. See also several insightful comments from readers on how to make the most of the money we spend.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. Each Retro Sundays column serves up a selection of the best articles from this week in history here at Casual Kitchen.

As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Ten Strategies to Stop Mindless Eating (February 2007)
A comprehensive list of strategies to avoid the key traps and pitfalls of mindless eating.

Paul Prudhomme's Barbecued Shrimp (February 2007)
This recipe, in all its buttery glory, might just be Casual Kitchen's all-time most delicious recipe. If you make it, be sure to book an appointment at your nearest walk-in angioplasty clinic.

The Favorite Cookbooks of My Favorite Bloggers (February 2008)
I asked three of my favorite bloggers to share their top favorite cookbooks, and the result was a fascinating and happily idiosyncratic list of great cooking resources. How many of these cookbooks are in your collection?

The Granola Blogroll: The Ultimate Authority on Great Granola Recipes (February 2008)
A list of what I consider to be the internet's best and easiest granola recipes. One of CK's all-time most popular posts.

11 Really Easy Rice Side Dishes (February 2009)
This post, which contains a wide range of easy rice recipes to complement any meal, has become one of CK's top five most searched-for posts.

How to Enjoy Wine On A Budget (February 2009)
Many frugal food enthusiasts believe you can't enjoy the pleasures of wine without spending a lot of money. And many wine snobs can't bring themselves to enjoy wine unless they spend a lot of money. Guess what? Both are wrong.

North African Lemon Chicken (February 2010)
This exotic and ridiculously healthy recipe, a Casual Kitchen original, can be made in under thirty minutes at a laughably cheap cost of just $7.00.

Ask CK: More Cookbook, Less Tofu and Annoying Blog Advertising (February 2011)
One of the early and most popular "Ask CK" columns. A reader writes in and asks for low-meat cookbook suggestions that don't use tofu in every recipe, and then another reader complains about blog advertising. Here's how I fielded both questions.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

I created the Retro Sundays series to help newer readers easily navigate the very best of this blog's enormous back catalog of content. Each Retro Sundays column serves up a selection of the best articles from this week in history here at Casual Kitchen.

As always, please feel free to explore CK's Recipe Index, the Best Of Casual Kitchen page and my full Index of Posts. You can also receive my updates at Twitter.
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

On the "Value" of Low-Calorie Food (February 2011)
How should consumers react when offered a low-calorie food options that cost more? A short post that unlocked some interesting ideas and solutions from readers.

Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto (February 2011)
A controversial and popular post about consumer empowerment, and why consumers only hurt themselves when they think about industries and companies with a generalized, simplistic frame of reference. When you presume an industry is only out to get you, is it any wonder that it ends up doing so?

Shrimp Creole, Paul Prudhomme Style (February 2010)
Possibly the single most time-consuming recipe here at Casual Kitchen (which isn't saying much, knowing the hilariously easy recipes I share here). If you like Creole or Cajun cuisine, this recipe is a must-make. From the absolutely exceptional cookbook Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen.

10 Ways to Rethink Water Use in Your Kitchen and Home (February 2010)
Most of us take our fresh water for granted and presume it will always be readily available. But over the coming decades, this may change--perhaps dramatically. Use this post for some surprisingly easy ways to save money and help the environment.

Baking for Beginners: Beer Bread (February 2009)
This hilariously easy bread recipe requires an entire bottle of beer. Laura was furious when she heard this.

How to Apply the 80/20 Rule to Cooking (February 2008)
With just a few slight habit changes, you can unleash enormous improvements in your cooking efficiency and productivity. That means you can eat better, enjoy cooking more, and still save lots of money. Despite being nearly four years old, this post still gets a ton of pageviews.

The Greatest Chocolate Mousse in the World (February 2007)
Yet another utterly flawless Paul Prudhomme recipe. This is, bar none, the best chocolate mousse recipe ever, made from just four simple ingredients. You'll love it.





How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

Readers: once again, I'm restarting the Retro Sundays posts after a short hiatus. For new readers, this series is designed to help you unlock the very best posts from Casual Kitchen's huge archives of content. As always, please share your feedback!

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How To Modify a Recipe (February 2007)
Learn how to configure and adapt any recipe to your needs, budget and tastes with part one of this three-part series. One of 2007's most-read posts!

How to Make a Versatile Vegetable Stock (February 2008)
This is not your typical, predictable soup stock recipe. Not by a long shot. Use the stock recipe from this post and your favorite soups and stews will never be the same again.

Smoky Brazilian Black Bean Soup (February 2009)
An all-time top reader favorite recipe here at CK. Hilariously easy, amazingly flavorful and laughably cheap.

Mindful Chewing: How To Cut Your Calorie Intake in Half--Without Feeling Hungry (February 2010)
If you adopt this incredibly simple habit at the dinner table, you will effortlessly cut your calorie intake without feeling deprived.

How to Own the Consumer Products Industry--And I Mean Literally Own It (February 2011)
Everyone who reads Casual Kitchen should own at least a couple of consumer products stocks. This post will help you start being an active owner--and not just a passive consumer--of the food industry.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Use Food and Wine Jargon Without Sounding Pretentious (December 2009)
I learned two important things after writing this post: First, the people who really should read it most likely won't. Second, never create "composite characters" made up of people from your old career. I had three separate colleagues from my former Wall Street days ask me if this post was about them.

Eight Tips to Make Cooking At Home Laughably Cheap (December 2006)
This post was inspired by a know-it-all friend from Manhattan who claimed it was cheaper to eat out than to cook at home. Fool. I later created the meme Laughably Cheap and a ton of laughably cheap recipes to go with it, and well, the rest is history.

Wintry Tomato Vegetable Soup (December 2007)
This easy and inexpensive soup recipe has been a long-time favorite here at CK, and it's an absolutely perfect meal for a freezing winter day.

Capitalize on Your Cooking Core Competencies (December 2007)
Turn your household into a well-oiled cooking machine with the tips in this post--the final installment in my series on How to Team Up in the Kitchen.

Blog Improvement 101 Links (December 2008)
What are your plans to make your blog even better in the coming year? I put together this list of the ten best articles on blogging from 2008, and I'm still referring to each of them in my efforts to improve Casual Kitchen. These articles are as useful today as ever.

A Short Guide to Common Nicaraguan Foods (December 2009)
Laura and I spent a week in Nicaragua two years ago (we were there with a team of eye doctors giving free eye exams), and we simply fell in love with this country and its unpretentious foods. This post gets a surprising amount of search traffic--and a ton of comment spam from people selling Central American real estate. Go figure.

Eight Things Frugality Taught Me (December 2010)
Most people live in a state of constant fear of being different, and one result of that fear is our culture's voracious consumerism. What has frugality taught you?


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Mastering Kitchen Setup Costs (December 2006)
How to build a well-stocked kitchen at a surprisingly reasonable cost. This post--from the very first month of CK's existence--is one of my all-time most widely-read.

Three Strategies to Create Space in Your Kitchen (December 2007)
Do you have a tiny kitchen? Are you and your family members climbing all over each other rather than cooking? This post is for you.

Pernil: Puerto Rican-Style Roast Pork Shoulder (December 2008)
I'm not kidding when I say that this was one of the best Christmas meals I've ever had in my life. And it's hilariously easy to make.

Mint Melts: Teaching Kids to Cook With an Easy Cookie Recipe (December 2008)
Sure, cookies may not be healthy. But they are an ideal teaching tool to get your kids interested in cooking. Here's how.

Cheap Eats in Honolulu: Nine Inexpensive Restaurants You Should Check Out in Waikiki (December 2009)
Yes, you can find inexpensive meals in one of the USA's most expensive vacation spots. These nine restaurants are by far the best and cheapest restaurants in the Waikiki district of Honolulu.

How Have Your Tastes Changed Compared to Your Parents? (December 2010)
Back in my parents' era, making it to your second bottle of Tabasco meant you'd had a long marriage. Today, Laura and I go through a bottle a month. In this post, readers share the many ways their tastes have changed since growing up and leaving their parents' homes.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

Readers, a quick public service announcement: if you'd like to support Casual Kitchen, please consider doing so by using Amazon.com via any of the Amazon affiliate links here at CK. It's perhaps the easiest (and least expensive!) way to support your favorite blogs--every purchase you make pays a modest commission to Casual Kitchen, and there is absolutely no extra cost to you.

Thank you! Now, onward to this week's Retro Sundays...
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Using Salt = Cheating (December 2006)
Salt, when overused, blinds your taste buds and covers up your food's true flavors. Here's how to de-condition your palate away from salt. See also the bonus recipe for Easy Split Pea Soup.

Seven Ways to Get Faster at Cooking (December 2006)
Seven practical and specific tips that will make you into an efficient cooking machine. One of the first high-traffic posts in CK's history.

Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Camarones Ajillo) (December 2007)
A spectacularly good and shockingly easy recipe from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Daisy Cooks. I promise it will be one of your best meals of the year.

Pasta With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (December 2008)
A striking pasta sauce that's so easy it's almost unfair.

Survivor Bias: Why "Big Food" Isn't Quite As Evil As You Think (December 2009)
Who's really selecting the foods on our grocery store shelves? We are. That's right: fattening and unhealthy foods are on our store shelves because we put them there.

Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup (December 2010)
One of 2010's best recipes and a runaway reader favorite. You can make this easy and unusual soup in under an hour (of which just 20-30 minutes is "active" time) for less than $1 a serving.






How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

Readers, a quick sneak preview: this week Casual Kitchen has an important post coming up--an interview with former FDA Commissioner, and author of The End Of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler!

This is an enormous "get" for me, and while I'm an admittedly shameless Kessler fan (his book has hugely influenced the views and philosophies here at CK), I made sure to throw some tough questions at him. I think readers will enjoy his provocative responses. Look for it on Tuesday!
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This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Why Davis Baking Powder Put in a 23% Stealth Price Hike (December 2010)
A product we all use surreptitiously sneaks a gigantic price increase on consumers. I contact the company to find out why. Incredibly, they call me back to explain their position.

How to Whine About Big Food (December 2009)
Quite a few readers took my ironic tone literally and thus missed the point of this post. Ultimately, however, it went on to become one of 2009's most popular posts, and the first of dozens of articles I've since written on the theme of consumer empowerment.

Spicy Sauteed Beets (December 2009)
A striking and hilariously easy recipe that you can make in under 30 minutes. It's funny: this post got a collective yawn from readers when it first ran, but it's gone on to become a highly searched-for recipe.

15 Creative Tips to Avoid Holiday Overeating (December 2008)
This post contains my most powerful habits and tactics to help you control your food intake during those all-too-dangerous holiday months. Warning: a few of these tips are downright weird.

How to Team Up in the Kitchen (December 2007)
When Laura and I first got together, the kitchen was the site of some of our biggest turf battles (think two Napoleons trying to work together). Eventually, however, we figured out how to collaborate as cooks. This post reveals our best secrets.

Why I'm a Part-Time Vegetarian (December 2006)
The first post ever here at CK. It's not exactly my best writing, but it's where I haltingly outline some of my views on avoiding rigid dietary labels--and rethinking the amount of meat in the standard western diet. PS: At the end of this post there's also a bonus: a laughably cheap and easy Spanish Chickpea and Garlic Soup recipe.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Make Your Own Inexpensive Sports Drink (November 2007)
This post will take 15 seconds to read and it will save you hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of dollars over your lifetime. Never again overpay for heavily-advertised Gatorade or Powerade.

Reader Questions and Answers on Raw Foods and My Raw Food Trial (November 2009)
My raw food trial unleashed a slew of Q&A from readers curious about the psychological and nutritional effects of the diet, how much extra it cost, what my food cravings were, and how much of a pain in the ass it was to cut up all those veggies. One helpful reader even warned me that my colon would blow. Um, it didn't, thank goodness. Bonus post: see also Four Final Conclusions From My Raw Foods Trial.

Malcolm Gladwell Was Completely Wrong About Cooking (November 2009)
When it comes to cooking, don't believe a word of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hour Rule. Read this post to learn how to become a good cook--and I mean a really good cook--in a matter of days.

Follow-Up Thoughts on The Realities of Your Grocery Store (November 2010)
You'll never guess what the primary source of incremental profits is in grocery stores these days--and it has serious ramifications for consumers.

Ten Frugal Things We Do (November 2010)
Thanks to readers, who contributed a huge list of their favorite frugal habits in the comments, this post crowdsourced an enormous collection of great ideas and advice for saving money.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

The Pros and Cons of a High-Carb/Low-Fat Diet (November 2007)
A decade ago, I fell under the spell of Dr. Robert Hass' groundbreaking book Eat To Win, which changed everything I thought about eating and exercise.

Cookbook Review: The Cornbread Gospels (November 2008)
You'd never guess a book about cornbread could be such a joy to read. The Cornbread Gospels is a goldmine of amazing recipes--more than 200, ranging from straight cornbreads, to muffins, to flapjacks, pancakes and johnnycakes, to desserts--even an enormous chapter on foods that go with cornbread. This unsung gem of a book should not be missed.

How to Make a Simple Frittata (November 2008)
An easy dish that everyone should add to their cooking arsenal. Frittatas are laughably easy to make, they seem fancier than they really are--and you can eat them without any quiche-like threat to your manhood.

The Seven-Day Raw Foods Trial (November 2009)
Last year, in a fit of both curiosity and masochism, I attempted a seven day trial of eating 100% raw foods. It turned out to be both a significant challenge and a highly instructive experience--and it permanently changed the way I eat. This series went on to become one of the most widely-read in Casual Kitchen's history.

A Tale of Two Breakfasts (November 2010)
One of these breakfasts has a third the calories of the other. Which one would you choose?

Prices, Zombies and the Advertising-Consumption Cycle (November 2010)
Don't respond mindlessly to advertising and marketing. Instead, read this post--and you'll start to see heavily advertised products as destroyers of consumer value too. One of the most important articles in my series on Understanding the Consumer Products Industry.






How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:


When High-Fat Food ... Can Actually Be Healthy For You (November 2007)
Believe it or not, it's okay, occasionally, to eat energy-dense, fat-laden food. This controversial article was one of my early explorations of diet and athletic training.

Groundnut Stew: A Classic and Exotic Vegetarian Recipe (November 2007)
One of the most popular recipes in CK's history, this healthy, hearty and laughably cheap recipe combines everyday ingredients into a stew so exotic you'll hardly believe you made it in your own home.

Ten Tips on How to Cut Your Food Budget Using the 80/20 Rule (November 2008)
By now most readers know my near-fetish for the 80/20 Rule. This post--one of the most popular of 2008--contains a entire barrage of hilariously easy ways to save money on food and kitchen expenses.

How to Write A Killer Links Post (November 2009)
Links are the currency of the internet, and this post explains how to spread link love and attract new readers by sharing other peoples' content on your blog. PS: There are so many bad high-traffic blogs out there that it literally offends me to see a good blog go unread.

Speed-Weaning: How to End Your Caffeine Addiction in Just Three Days (November 2009)
The idea of weaning myself from coffee was utterly inconceivable until I discovered this easy, three-day process. Try it, and you'll see that kicking the caffeine habit is far easier than you'd think. (For the raw-curious readers out there, this was a critical preliminary step before my 100% raw foods trial.)

Organic Food, Chemicals, and Worrying About All the Wrong Things (November 2010)
There are lots of ways we can control the health risks we face in our lives. However, when you pay up for organic foods, make sure you're not paying up for the illusion of control. Interestingly, I thought I'd get far more pushback from readers on this post than I actually got.

Divorce Yourself from the False Reality of Your Grocery Store (November 2010)
Why does your local grocery store so often sell products at prices that are totally divorced from their value? There's a good reason for it--and it's not what you think.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How Not to Waste Fresh Herbs (November 2007)
It's incredibly frustrating to pay extra money for herbs like parsley or mint and then just use a tiny fraction of them in a recipe. This post will help you use the rest--rather than having it rot in the back of your fridge.

The Macchinetta: Stovetop Espresso Coffee (November 2008)
You don't need a barrista anymore: with this unusual and surprisingly inexpensive coffeemaker you can make a rich, espresso-style coffee in just minutes in your own home!

How are You Adjusting to the Economic Crisis? (November 2008)
Back in '08 as the credit crisis was just starting, I asked readers how they changed their cooking, eating and entertainment habits to adjust to coming economic uncertainty. Read this post for a ton of exceptional money-saving ideas that you can put to use right now. (PS: Please don't follow the advice of the commenter who said she's running up her credit cards.)

Overpriced and Overengineered: Kitchen Gadgets for the Non-Frugal (November 2009)
Too often, the housewares industry sells us products we don't really need at prices we should never pay. Don't get sucked in.

Indian Mung Bean Stirfry (November 2010)
You can make this filling, healthy and delicious meal in 30 minutes for a laughable 70-80c per serving. Plus, bonus instructions for how to sprout your own mung beans at home.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:


The Priming Reflex: How to Control Your Appetite (And Turn Your Back on a Million Years of Evolution) (October 2009)
The priming reflex might be the single most unfortunate legacy of human evolution. It was extremely useful in a prehistoric era when food was scarce, but it's singularly unhelpful today, in an era where we're surrounded by plentiful food all the time. Read this post to learn how to fight off the priming reflex--and keep it from subverting your health and your diet.

Obesity and the Obama Administration: A Blogger Roundtable Discussion (October 2009)
I asked a rountable of five bloggers for their top recommendations for Obama to solve our obesity epidemic. The result? A collection of surprisingly blunt and creative ideas.

A Recession-Proof Guide to Saving Money on Food (October 2008)
An extremely popular roundup of all of my best advice on how to save money on food.



How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!