The Rookie Cook

You need some delicious, yet scary treat for your Halloween party.  And you have come to the right place.  Let the Rookie Cook give you some simple and easy ideas for Halloween snacks.
The Rookie Cook: Halloween Snack Ideas

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Want to impress your friends, Romans, and countrymen?  Learn how to make a Caesar salad with the Rookie Cook.

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Heavy cream is not the same as whole milk. Also called “heavy whipping cream,” a heavy cream has between 36% to 40% milk fat, and will double in volume when you whip it—whip it good.
That having been said, in a pinch you can indeed substitute whole milk for heavy cream, but to be honest I [...]

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The French yield to no one in their culinary snobbery, and nothing says snobbery quite like an expensive herb blend.  Although the herbs have been collectively used for decades (at least) in southern France, commercially prepared mixtures have only been around since the 1970s.  Unlike disco, this blend of flavors is still tasteful.
Herbes de [...]

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Georgia has the Vidalia onion, Washington has the Walla Walla, and here in my beloved Texas we have the 1015, a sweet onion named after its ideal planting date: October 15. It took 10 years of research before this Lone Star State legend was introduced to the world in 1985. Ten years to develop an [...]

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The Coke versus Pepsi clash is relatively new on the scene. When it comes to American summertime beverages, the “sweet or unsweet” iced tea feud stretches back before the Not So Civil War Between the States to Free the Slaves. South of the Maxon-Dixon line, sweet tea rules. According to Georgia State [...]

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Cornstarch has homestead rights in my pantry.  At just about any time of the year, you can find that yellow box on the shelf.  Corn syrup is generally in residence when I’m baking pies, but there have been times when I’ve wanted to make pies and yet couldn’t really justify a special run to the [...]

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Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads
Author: Bernard Clayton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN-10: 0743287096
ISBN-13: 978-0743287098
I’ve wanted to master bread baking ever since I was a kid. Maybe it’s the chemistry geek in me. Maybe it’s that making bread was somehow exotic to me, since I never saw my mom bake bread. [...]

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Time for another stop on the Comfort Food tour. Today’s recipe not only includes potatoes, but cheese and bacon. Definitely not a recipe for vegans, though vegetarians could adapt this without too much difficulty. Best of all, this recipe is easy for a rookie cook to scale up or scale down, so [...]

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Great comfort food usually relies on a few simple ingredients. Take mashed potatoes—just don’t take mine, considering how highly they rank on my comfort food scale. What’s in mashed potatoes? Potatoes, maybe a little butter, maybe a little milk, a little salt and pepper. That’s it. A basic theme that [...]

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