Sugar

Sugar is essential for most baking recipes.  In order to have good results, there are a few things to keep in mind.

White Sugar is the most commonly used type.  You want to get it finely granulated – this is the ordinary way it comes.  Lately, there have been more and

Flour

Flour is a basic ingredient included in almost every baking recipe, but the type you use will deeply affect the outcome.  I have intentionally pictured different brands here because I have not found the brand to make any difference in the finished product.

All-Purpose Flour is the most common type and, as its name suggests, useful for all purposes. It is either bleached or unbleached. I use unbleached because

How To - Store Celery to Keep it Fresh

Keeping Celery fresh and crisp is essential to keep from wasting food and to avoid flying to the fridge when you are in a great hurry to make supper only to find that the nice, crisp celery you need to whip up your fastest recipe is a rubbery mess or pithy or worse yet, rotten.  The simple answer

Onions

Onions are used in many recipes and though many of us know which variety to select for which uses, I thought a short explanation would be of help to beginning cooks.

Potatoes

Potatoes are an ingredient used in many dishes. But often, selecting the right potato for a recipe can be confusing, especially for new cooks. A recipe calls for potatoes, but does not specify which kind, so what do you use?  Here are a few guidelines for uses, selecting, and pros and cons for the more