Happy Wednesday, all!It's time for our QOTW (Question of the Week) where we'll be talking about ingredients, methods, and sometimes just plain fun food stuff.I've been eating a lot of pasta lately, which made me wonder about our different methods of cooking pasta. I used to do the traditional full stock pot of water and a big punch of salt brought to a boil first until I learned about starting your pasta in cold, shallow water (about 2" above the pasta line).Since then, I've never looked back. It takes less time, less water, and less salt, and you still get a great al dente result if you pull the pasta on time. I know it's heresy to lots of people, but I swear it works! :D*Note: A comment below reminds me this applies to dry and not fresh pasta.So this week's question: HOW DO YOU BOIL PASTA? (And any other pasta cooking tricks you'd like to share.)Looking forward to your answers!~ YFNCM :)

Happy weekend, kitchen friends!It's time for our QOTW (Question of the Week) where we'll be talking about ingredients, methods, and sometimes just plain fun food stuff.This pic is from that one time I made Valentine's Day Toad in the Hole with Seared Foie Gras for breakfast. :)Since we're mostly homebody types who like quieter meals with low commotion, we tend to stay in on Valentine's Day because restaurants are usually slammed. So I'm starting to think about our menu in for Thursday night.Sometimes I like to make some kind of pasta with a really rich, developed meat sauce, like oxtail prepared osso buco style. Sometimes a seafood feast hits the spot - oysters, shrimp cocktail, steamed Dungeness. Can't ever go wrong with a steak dinner for the hubs. Still chewing on it...Right now I'm leaning towards seafood. :)))So this week's question: Whether it's cooking in, dining out, or even doing the usual because you're just not keen on Valentine's Day, WHAT ARE YOUR VALENTINE'S FOOD PLANS?Looking forward to your answers!~ YFNCM :)

Hey, kitchen compadres!In the interest of sharing our love and knowledge of cooking, we'll be cooking up lots of new ways to connect in the kitchen this year.One of the ways is our QOTW (Question of the Week) where we'll be talking about ingredients, methods, and sometimes just plain fun food stuff!This week's question: What's your go-to cooking salt and why?Kosher salt is my go-to because I like its mild, adaptable flavor that's not too salty or bitter. I've also been enjoying this Sicilian sea salt I got for a gift that has a surprisingly almost sweet flavor for being sea salt.Let us know what your favorite cooking salt is and why. If you'd like to answer with words only, you can use comment. If you'd like to share a pic, do it through a Cooksnap.Looking forward to your answers!~ Your friendly neighborhood CM :)

This is my own recipe. I have a habit of starting out with an item, then I add a pinch of this, a dash of that. Then I think aww that would taste good with some vegetables. For this dish, I washed potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic cloves, in the end my dish was very good.

A taste of Fall. One of my favorite meals to make in the fall and winter. I love this on a fall rainy day.... a very heavy meal to fill you up and keep you warm... definitely a comfort food. #mycookbook

My daughter and I have egg and dairy allergies, so we have to make 2 separate pots of oden. I settled on this recipe through trial and error. Just toss together the ingredients! This recipe is so simple it's almost embarrassing...You could increase the spiciness by dissolving Japanese mustard in hot water to bring up the spice a notch.I heard this is how most restaurants do it. Give it a try. Recipe by moriam

I had a bag of enoki mushrooms on hand, so I added them to my usual breakfast tofu dish and created a new variation.Please try making it with shimeji mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, or your favourite mushrooms other than enoki mushrooms. Recipe by Hokkori-no

Oden is a hearty Japanese one-pot dish that’s perfect for the cold weather. It’s an easy recipe and the bulk of the work is in prepping all the ingredients before cooking.Since Taiwan was under Japanese rule before 1945 for about 50 years, oden was introduced to the Taiwanese during this time period. In Taiwan, it is known as guandongzhu (關東煮), tianbula (甜不辣) or hellun (黑輪) and often found at the night market.Ingredients that go into oden varies between regions and also households. Oden is often sold in food carts, izakayas, convenience store chains, or dedicated oden restaurants. It is usually considered winter food but many people, and restaurants or food carts, serve oden year-round.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkM9sFEfueQ

Hi, everyone!Another year of delicious memories behind us already! Looking forward to all of us sharing and creating more kitchen connection together in the year the come.This NYE, we’re potlucking and hanging at a friends’ ranch. My contribution’s pretty easy - oysters on the half shell and Rockefeller style. Lots of shucking and not much cooking for me today. 😬 Sometimes it’s really nice when everyone shares the work.I’ll be posting my Rockefeller recipe later after I have a chance to take pics.I hope you'll share your favorite NYE recipes with our community so we'll all have lots of delicious ideas to work with.Looking forward to seeing what you've got cooking today!Just a reminder of our guidelines if you're not familiar:https://cookpad.wasmer.app/us/communityHappy New Year!!!! 😊❤️ShinaeYour friendly neighborhood CM

This is a standard recipe at our house. There's also "Steamed Cod in a Microwave", which is even easier.You can use fresh cod as is, but if using salted cod, soak in water to remove the salt before use. If the foil packets look like they're about to burst while cooking, turn of the heat and let them sit covered for a few minutes before serving. I sliced the carrots in the photo into rounds, then cut out heart shapes with a cutter. I recommend using white wine instead of sake. Recipe by Menayo

How to make tasty chicken thighs and rice in the oven. Convenience of such way of cooking based on that all things made entirely in the oven.

What do you do when you want a tasty soup, but are short on time and ingredients? Why, raid the pantry and leftovers of course! I wasn't sure what to make for dinner and suddenly thought soup sounded really good, but wasn't sure what I had on hand. So I went pantry shopping and voila, might as well be instant! So delicious!