A customer recently asked, “What does it mean when a recipe says to cream the butter?” Well, it does not mean to add cream — as he then asked, “the recipe doesn’t say how much cream to add.” To “cream” means more than just mixing together. To “mix” or to “stir” means to just blend [...]

Cooking Asian-style often means stocking your pantry with jars of brown and yellow powders. Sometimes these pre-made blends are useful, but often they don’t have much flavor — perhaps because the spices were ground years ago and taste dusty. Yes, you can toast and grind your own blend, but Kitchen Conservatory now sells a wonderful [...]

When you remember a recipe that you last ate over a year-and-a-half ago, it’s a really delicious dish. Lynne called and asked for a copy of the Ginger Spice Cookies from a Caribbean cooking class she took last year. Have you lost any favorite recipes from one of our cooking classes? Email us and we [...]

Everyday at Kitchen Conservatory features interesting cooking classes with delicious food. But sometimes the staff and customers go nuts for a particular dish because it is especially delectable. Everybody requests the recipe and the leftovers disappear as no one is embarrassed to eat the last bite. Such was the case this week when Barb Nack, [...]

What makes a brownie delicious? 1. Good butter. We are not eating salad or diet food, but luxuriously decadent sweets. Every bite should fill the mouth with the taste of delicious butter. Plugra unsalted butter is my favorite. (Kitchen Conservatory sells Plugra at our store in Clayton.) 2. Good chocolate. If you bake brownies with [...]

To be an American is to love peanut butter (just as to be a European is to love Nutella). Although peanut butter is very nutritious, we love peanut butter because it is sweet and creamy and tastes more like dessert, especially when paired with jelly. Peanut butter cookies have been successfully baked for generations, but [...]

Greek cuisine is so much more than feta and filo. And Greek desserts are not just baklava! This almond-butter-fruit cookie is a Greek family favorite from our resident expert on all things Greek, Maria Sakellariou. Maria, who grew up in Greece and a part of her family’s restaurant, now has a personal chef service, Culinary Odyssey.  [...]

Linzer pastry, which originated in Linz, Austria, is a short, very buttery dough made with ground nuts and filled with fruit jam. Traditionally, linzertortes are made with hazelnuts, but other nuts are also delicious: almonds, pecans, or walnuts. Chocolate is not a traditional ingredient in linzer, but why not gild the lily and add chocolate [...]

I made these pecan bars for a party and a friend asked me for the recipe. Later, I asked her how they turned out. “I never made them.” “Why not, they are so delicious!” I asked. “The recipe was so strange that I was afraid to try them. It seemed like too much butter.” Please, don’t be afraid; these [...]

Twenty years ago, one of my catering customers pulled me aside and said, “you must stop using butter, no one wants to eat saturated fat.” I thought about her advice, but my style of cooking is focused on taste and flavor. So I had a bumper sticker made for my car: It’s Better With Butter. [...]