Removing sticky residue from your roasting pans is a cinch with this housekeeping secret.

Scanned from Cooking and Traveling the Cape Cod Way (1953)

Forefather's Day isn't celebrated until tomorrow, but I'm posting this in anticipation of the East Coast's wintry mix blowing up the collective skirt of many folks' salt pork acquisition schedules. I'm a huge sucker for dishes made expressly in observance of regionally significant holidays and events -- especially so when the tenor of the recipe matches the spirit of the occasion. In New Orleans at Mardi Gras, it's all wild-hued, cream-slathered King Cake. On a chilly Christmas Eve in North Carolina, there is sweet, hot Moravian Love Feast coffee, and light potatoey buns, made to be split and shared.

It seems appropriate that a feast in commemoration of the Pilgrims' arrival in a bitter and bleak new terrain would involve some rather hardscrabble fare -- sustenance and utility, rather than sybaritic excess. Then again, I could be projecting 'cause I've never met a succotash I've really liked. Should I be able to get my frozen paws on some pea beans within the next 24 hours, I'll give this one a go.

If you should decide to do the same, please let us all know how it goes in the comments below. All I ask is that you remember to pay for the corn.

Need to defrost a steak and keep it moist? Run it under water!

Nothing tastes like a good blackening. And it's not even hard.

Many people shy away from blackened foods, thinking that blackening means charring the meat, the vegetable, whatever is being blackened.

Au contraire! Blackening refers to what happens to the Cajun spices! The spices get really hot and kazaam! They explode in the heat, turning black and infusing your fish, meat, vegetables or what-have-you with their flavor. Cajun, delicious, and a lot better for you than frying.

Check out instructions on how to make two seriously delicious blackened catfish fillets after the jump.

Recently, I mentioned to my mom that I had an eggplant in my fridge that needed to be used. She started telling me about a recipe that a friend had given her back when she was first married for broiled eggplant. She remembered it being delicious. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention when she told me about it, because if it had been that good, why was it not part of the menu rotation when I was growing up?

The original eggplant got put to other purposes, but this weekend I picked up two nice, firm, white eggplants this weekend at the farmers market, and so this recipe started niggling away at my consciousness again. I put it together tonight and nearly wept at my first bite as it was tender and sweet and crunchy and wonderful. I called my mother up as soon as my plate was clean to ask her how it was possible that she had known of this preparation for nearly 40 years and I was only eating it tonight. In some sense, I'm grateful for her recipe amnesia, if only because it contributed to a fun recipe discovery tonight. If you like eggplant, don't wait 40 years to make this dish.

Despite all my foodie tendencies, I've never made stuffed squash flowers. I grew up with zucchini plants in the backyard every summer and I don't even remember an opportunity to harvest the flowers. I guess they are one of those delicacies that are only available during a very short window of time and if you miss it, then you are out of luck.

However, I've been gazing at the pictures and recipes that other food bloggers have been posting of their own squash blossoms and my curiosity has been piqued. I'm planning on getting over to my favorite local farmers' market early next Sunday, in the hopes that I'll be able to snatch up a few of these little guys for my own experimentation. In the meantime, I will just have to satisfy myself with the digital fruits of the labors of others. Like this recipe for Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Goat Cheese that the Curdnerd posted (he got it from the Santa Barbara Independent). Looks fairly simple and (I imagine) so delicious.

One weekend four summers ago, my then-boyfriend and I drove from Philly to a little town in the New York Berkshires, to spend some time with his mom and her boyfriend of 15+ years. They had a gorgeous, mid-century modern house, with a vibrantly green yard, that gently slopped down for several hundred yards, until it met a stream. Sunday afternoon, after a slightly tense, but mostly fun weekend, Susan served us one last meal before we hit the road. She pulled out some cold, poached salmon, a spinach salad with a special, broiled lemon dressing and a blueberry and mango fruit salad. It was all delicious, but the thing that really stuck with me was that spinach salad. I must have gushed over it, because a few days later, the recipe appeared in my mailbox.

It was printed in the New York Times Dining and Wine section sometime in 2002 or the first half of 2003 (there's no date on the clipping she sent me) and is adapted from Lemon Zest, a cookbook by Lori Longbotham. The recipe is after the jump...

photo by Marisa McClellan

Yes, the 4th of July in the United States is about being All-American, but in my house, we celebrate Korean-style. At least when it comes to food.

One of the centerpieces of any Korean BBQ is galbee, the cross-cut shortribs that are marinated in a sweet soy sauce, then grilled. It's the same basic marinade as for bulgogi, which I shared before. If you want to do galbee up right, make sure you're prepared - you've got to marinate the shortribs overnight at the very least.

What would a collection of SuperBowl dip recipes be without a little blue cheese, considering that it is held to be the gold standard of hot wing dips - excluding hot wing sauce itself, of course. Blue cheese (or bleu cheese, if you prefer) dip is made with a pungent, creamy cheese that cuts into the spiciness of hot wings by adding a new layer of flavor and a cooling sensation that dulls the heat of the chicken. The strongly flavored cheese, in most of these dips, is often combined with sour cream, mayonnaise or cream cheese, each of which contributes to the overall texture of the dip without bumping up the flavor to the point where it overpowers the hot wing itself.

This particular dip is a pretty standard recipe that you'll probably find in several different places. It calls for sour cream and mayonnaise in addition to the cheese, so "healthy" is not something that could be applied. You can always substitute low fat or nonfat sour cream/mayonnaise; using a good quality blue cheese will make up for any loss of flavor in either of those ingredients.

For most of my friends, getting to eat bulgogi is a treat because they have to go out to a restaurant to eat the Korean marinated and grilled beef. For me, eating bulgogi is about the equivalent of eating meatloaf for my friends. It's boring because we ate it a lot when we were growing up. I know that Korean people always tell non-Koreans that they are wrong when they think that all Korean people eat is barbecue and kimchee, but for my family, it was true. We were in the midwest, and the ingredients for bulgogi and galbee were easier to find than say, fermented soybean paste.

So, since bulgogi seems to be such a treat for my friends, I have written up the "recipe" that my Mom and I use when we make it at home. I say "recipe" in quotes because everyone, of course, makes bulgogi and other Korean foods by taste. Make the marinade, take a taste, and adjust to your liking. It's the same nasic marinade we saw last year for Korean-marinated Flank Steak, but don't you dare call that bulgogi.

Unless you've been off the grid for the past few years, you know that fast food has been taken to task for it's being, gasp, horrible for one's health. Those laying the blame have included most notably writer Eric Schlosser in his scathing book that indicts Mickey D's et. al. and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

Now a lawsuit in California against Burger King Holdings and CKE Restaurants, which operates more than 1,000 Carl's Junior Restaurants, may spell trouble for operators that flame-broil their burgers.

The suit alleges that the companies violated the state's Proposition 65 by not alerting their customers that charbroiled hamburgers could contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which have been implicated as potential carcinogens. The plaintiff says that if the court rules in its favor it may sue other restaurants. If the case succeeds, the restaurants will either post warnings or install cooking devices designed to remove PAHs from food.

PAHs are created by incompletely burning organic substances. Long-term exposure to PAHs has been linked to cancer in humans. Not to make light of cancer but I'm not terribly worried about this carcinogen. Here's why: PAHs are created whenever any meat is grilled. How could something as good as a strip steak possibly be bad for you?

Hey! Steak doesn't have to be reserved for just the carnivores out there! Granted, if you're vegetarian it might be tough to make a meal out of the vegetable sides at your local steakhouse, and if you're vegan, well maybe the House Salad, but when at home, you can still have "steak." Nicole mentioned portabello mushrooms, but I love tofu steaks.

I don't feel "deprived" of meat when eating a tofu steak, or envious of others who may be tearing into a bloody side of beef (which I also do), because I don't eat tofu as a substitute for meat. I eat it because it is tofu. Well, okay, so I also eat it because I feel less guilty about gorging myself on all the buttery, fatty, creamy vegetable sides.

When making tofu steaks, the first thing to remember is that tofu is, yes, rather bland. For me, it has to be marinated or rubbed,or doused with a fairly generous helping of sauce (which I never do to a beef steak, however). Asian marinades are the most common, it seems, but any marinade will work. Tofu is an equal opportunity flavor canvas.

Don't forget that a week from today, Slashfood will be firing up the ol' Weber and slapping some big, beefy steaks onto the grill. Slashfood Steak is Tuesday, May 30.

Of course, it's so much more fun when it's a party, so we'd love to have you join us. It's Memorial Day weekend coming up - the perfect opportunity to cook your own steaks, whether that be in pan with lots of butter, under the broiler if it's raining outside, or on the grill on your patio! Post your pictures and stories on your blog, then leave us a message.

Oh yeah, and don't forget the sides! Personally, I love an iceberg wedge with my steak.

Just to get you in the mood for some beefy love, here's some inspiration:

Grilling: charcoal vs. gas
Which cuts are the leanest
Different grades of beef
No grill? Eat out a steakhouse!
Not beef, but sugar: gummy steaks

Korean bulgogi is made with thinly sliced ribeye or other beef, but the same marinade, with a slight modification, can be used on chicken.

Simply take the same marinade you use for bulgogi (soy sauce, broth, rice wine vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, onion, shallots, sesame oil) and about 1-2 Tbsp. goh-cho-jahng (Spicy Korean red pepper paste) for every half cup of marinade. Let thinly sliced pieces of chicken marinate for an hour, up to overnight in the refrigerator, then grill, pan-fry, or broil the same way for bulgogi.

Popular British chef Jamie Oliver is starting a new series, but he won’t be seen on your TV. Jamie will be doing podcasts that deal with advice and cooking how-tos. Every topic tackled during the podcast will be in response to a query from a real cook who needs help in their kitchen. To get your question to Jamie, all you have to do is dial the dedicated phone line that takes podcast messages: 44 (0)207 043 8223. There is a 30 second time limit for messages and, as it is a standard London number, standard rates apply from wherever in the world you are calling. The best and funniest questions will make it on the air when the podcast launches later this year.