Trader Joe’s Lime & Chili Cashews
When you crunch into these snacks, the flavors come in waves.
Sichuan Dipping Salt
This is the tastiest seasoning around.

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TOOLS AND GADGETS TOOLS AND GADGETS
Collapsible Colanders

You can’t walk through a kitchen store anymore without seeing silicone gadgets everywhere. Sometimes its use seems purely gratuitous, but silicone happens to be a great material for colanders. Continue...

Source: Saveur
INGREDIENT INGREDIENT
Raw and Roasted Fennel
fennel Photo: kalamun/Flickr

I first met fennel at a cocktail party. It was on a crudité tray, raw, nestled between the "baby" carrots and the grape tomatoes. It was only fair that I mistook it for celery. Continue...

Source: Saveur
pasta e fagioli Photo: Giuliano Hazan
SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKING SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKING
Comfort Soup

Pasta e fagioli, a cold-weather dish if there ever was one, started out as a peasant meal that made its way onto the menus of many modern Italian restaurants. It is found throughout Italy in many variations: the only commonalities among the recipes are beans and some kind of pasta. Continue...

Source: Saveur
MARKET FINDS
Winter Vegetables: Spinach

There is a remarkable amount of bustle at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in New York during the colder months. Jack Algiere, a farmer whose official title is "four-season grower," plants all kinds of vegetables, including spinach, quite possibly the farm's most popular winter vegetable. Continue...

winter spinach Photo: thebittenword.com/Flickr
Source: Saveur
TOOLS AND GADGETS TOOLS AND GADGETS
Mixing with the BeaterBlade

My hulking KitchenAid standing mixer was in semi-retirement until recently: when I took the BeaterBlade for a whirl, I quickly decided that my 20-pound monster-mixer was now worth hoisting out of the cupboard. Continue...

Source: Saveur
INGREDIENT INGREDIENT
New Year's Freezer Guide: What to Buy

Last week, I suggested what you can get rid of in your freezer while you're embarking on winter kitchen cleaning. This week, we'll talk about what you want to keep stocked in your freezer: these are ingredients that you'll be reaching for again and again. Continue...

ice cream homemade Photo: thebittenword.com/Flickr
Source: Saveur
SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKING SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKING
A Perfect Trio: Penne, Spinach, and Ricotta

When we make filled pasta together, we often end up with more filling than we have pasta. One time, we decided to make the extra filling into a pasta sauce. Continue...

penne spinach pasta ricotta Photo: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Source: Saveur
MARKET FINDS
Winter Vegetables: Rutabagas

Despite being immortalized by Frank Zappa in his song “Call Any Vegetable,” it seems to me that not many people enjoy rutabagas. But with the Advanced Rutabaga Studies Institute declaring 2010 the "International Year of the Rutabaga," maybe it’s time to re-evaluate them. Continue...

rutabaga Photo: elvissa/Flickr
Source: Saveur
INGREDIENT INGREDIENT
New Year's Freezer Guide: What to Throw Away
freezer essentials throwaway Photo: x-ray delta one/Flickr

My freezer is often packed with accumulated foodstuffs I can’t bear to toss. But with the change of the decade, I feel compelled to discard the old and make room for the new, in life and in my freezer. This week, I'll suggest what you can dump from your freezer for the New Year. Continue...

Source: Saveur
onion goggles Photo: RSVP
TOOLS AND GADGETS TOOLS AND GADGETS
Onion Goggles

I used to wear cross-country ski goggles when frying doughnuts to keep the oily smoke out of my eyes. This was a source of much amusement to my friends, but now cooks all over America are doing pretty much the same with RSVP’s onion goggles. Continue...

Source: Saveur