Looking for a quick, easy and less messy way of coring a bell pepper? Well, you've come to the right place!

I have always been a sucker for butterscotch. When I was a kid, I would always choose one of those hard, orange butterscotch candies over a piece of chocolate. One those rare occasions when my family went out for ice cream sundaes, I would choose vanilla ice cream with hot butterscotch syrup drizzled over top (my mother, being a chocolate person herself, never understood my choice). While I don't always make the same selection these days (I did come around to chocolate sometime in my teens), I still love the flavor of real butterscotch.

Yesterday on Simply Recipes, Elise published a guest post written by Shuna Fish Lydon of the blog Eggbeater on how to make homemade butterscotch. The post comes with step-by-step pictures, which are extremely helpful for those of us who are never sure if the sugar/butter/cream mixture has cooked to the proper consistency. She makes it sounds really easy, which is at once both encouraging and a little dangerous, as the last thing I need in life is the ability to make butterscotch on demand.

Oh, how I love a good DIY, and it's not that I happen to love sitting in my garage all weekend making things. It's that I am now on a very strict budget and can't go around dropping $150 at Dean & Deluca on a highly coveted spice rack!

A reader over at Apartment Therapy sent the blog her DIY Spice rack project that in the end, cost all of $40, and that's with the spices included! The shelving is from Ikea, the metallic tins are from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and the spices from a local spice store. I am sure that any of us could put something like this together, and what makes this even better than the Dean & Deluca version (aside from the incredible price differential) is that you can customize it to exactly what you like.

I eat a lot of tofu, not because I'm vegan/vegetarian and have to eat some sort of protein, but because tofu tastes good to me. (My being Asian and eating tofu all my life might have something to do with this, too.)

Now, it is just way too easy to pick up several blocks of tofu from the market for ninety-nine cents each, sometimes less when it's on sale, but if you have some time on your hands, you can make tofu at home, per the above video above from Cool Hunting. All you need is 150 g of dried soybeans, calcium sulfate, and the foresight to start soaking the dried soybeans the night before.

A french fry is much easier to eat than a lobster, and for many other foods it is simply a fact that some are easier to eat than others. Some, like the aforementioned lobster, are simply difficult to get into. Others are difficult to maneuver into your mouth gracefully (giant burritos, salads with huge lettuce leaves ) and still others are messy to the point where many diners simply avoid them (ribs) unless they have a very high comfort level with their dining partners.

Chow took on the task of identifying some of these foods are offering readers some tips on how to eat them without the food getting the upper hand. Their suggestions include angling tacos over a plate and pinching the edges of the tortilla together to prevent/direct drips, aiming to eat sushi in two neat bites, spear peas with a fork instead of scooping them and deboning a fish using a banana leaf (or a fork).

I would also suggest a few more food-fighting tips to get your through dinner. First, keep a napkin handy to deal with messes and try to eat sloppy foods either very slowly or very fast to minimize the chances of contact with clothing. When possible, cut your food into bite-sized pieces, even if you think that the piece on your plate will probably fit into your mouth. Finally, try to get you dinner companion to order the same type of food that you did, so that in the event you get messy or eat awkwardly, you won't be the only one.

Chocolate pudding cake is an intensely satisfying, yet simple, dessert. As it bakes, it separates into two layers - a tender chocolate sponge-type cake and a very rich chocolate sauce/ pudding base - so the cake needs no accompaniment unless you want to throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream into the bowl, too.

The second best thing about this cake (the flavor is the first, of course) is that it is incredibly easy to make because it is mixed in the pan that you bake it in. This means that cleanup is minimal and that you can have a delicious, from-scratch dessert on even a very busy weeknight. Not that you shouldn't have it at other times, as well. Any excuse is a good one for chocolate pudding cake.

The absolutely stunning crust and crumb you see in the photo above is a direct result of Not Martha's highly successful attempt at making the No-Knead Bread that Mark Bittman talked about in the New York Times last week. The bread was, to quote NM, "awesome," with a crunchy crust and an open, chewy interior. In short, it was just how you want homemade bread to turn out and the recipe is simple enough for anyone to try, in no small part because there is a video how-to that accompanies the recipe.

And, since I mentioned that anyone can make it, I should point out that just about everyone already has. The bread recipe has spread like wild-fire through the blogs and probably has in the nonblogging world, as well, considering the fact that it was one of the most popular NYT articles last week. There is even a flickr group dedicated to the bread. I'm not sure if I could track down every blogger who made the recipe, but here are a few who have: Smitten Kitchen, Wednesday Chef, Bake my day , Eat, Lovely scones, Bread, water, salt, oil, Unemployed Chef, and Brownie Points.

Feel free to post a link to your post on the bread in the comments if I didn't catch it.

Croissants are one of the scarier things that a home baker can consider making. The dough is essentially that of puff pastry, loaded with butter and folded multiple times to create flaky layers, but also has yeast added to it, which for all practical purposes just adds one more element that could go wrong. Fortunately for anyone brave enough to give them a try, homemade croissants are not actually as difficult as they look as long as you are willing to be patient and make sure that you don't skip any steps in the process to save time. Bea, from La Tartine Gourmande, made up this batch and accompanied her tempting photos of the delicate pastries with an excellent guide on how to make them. Her croissants are light and tender, with a crisp flakiness to them and, of course, a very buttery flavor. This particular batch is slightly sweet and has a touch of sugar and a lot of vanilla added to it, so they're not going to be the best choice for a turkey sandwich at lunch time, but they will be perfect for breakfast.

It is a relatively simple matter to grease and flour a cake pan. Jus spray it with cooking spray (rub with butter), sprinkle some flour on top, turning the pan to coat it evenly, and you're ready to go. Lining a cake pan with parchment paper can pose a problem for some, especially if you try to draw a circle out on the paper and ever-so-carefully cut around it because it is easy to screw up, not to mention that it is tedious work. Fortunately, there is a simple way to get a piece of paper to fit exactly inside of the circular pan. It's as easy as following the photos above and will take no longer than reading this post:

1. Take a piece of parchment paper larger than your pan and fold it into quarters. Fold that piece in half, then in half again until it is quite slim.
2. Place the point of the paper in the center of the upside down pan.
3. Use scissors to cut a straight line just inside the outer edge of the pan.
4. Unfold and place in pan, if necessary, fold back up and trim a corner to make it fit better.

Nabisco makes more than a dozen varieties of Oreo cookies, not including the ones that have their fillings dyed for each holiday, in addition to 4 Oreo ice creams and 8 other Oreo-related products. They do not sell what is rapidly becoming one of the most popular types of Oreo, albeit the unhealthiest: deep fried Oreo's.

A popular fair and carnival food, just like the deep fried Snickers bars, it involves dipping an Oreo into a thick batter and popping it into a sizzling hot pot of oil. When pulled out, hot and crispy, they are topped with powdered sugar and served. According to many,  they are delicious and more easily justifiable than a Snicker's due to their relatively small size. One blogger described them : "The Oreo loses it's hard crunchy texture and becomes a warm chocolately cake delight. The creamy center melts and creates an inner glaze." Should you want to risk the health hazards of deep-fried foods for the delights of one of these treats, you can find instructions both here and here.

[Image the farmers wife] 

Petit fours are classic party treats. True, they are seen more often on a plate of pastries at an elegant hotel then they are at an at-home party, but that shouldn't be the case. They are easy to make. You can see that I left one of mine only half covered in chocolate so that it would be easier to see the components.

Start with a store-bought pound cake or sponge cake. Cut it into one-inch cubes and then cut those in half lengthwise. Spread a thin layer of jam in between the cake slices and stack them back up. Melt down some white chocolate and dip the cake square into it. Place the dipped petit fours onto a sheet of wax or parchment paper to dry, topping them with sprinkles or other small decorations while they are still sticky. This is a great activity for kids because the chocolate can be melted in the microwave and they definitely won't mind getting their fingers sticky in the chocolate!

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

There are lots of packaged mixes at the store that can make cooking a meal for your family fast and easy after a long day at work. Generally speaking, these mixes are grains with spices and sometimes vegetables and include favorite brands include Rice-A-Roni and Zatarains. Hamburger Helper operates along similar lines, but calls for the addition of meat. These options are already a cut above precooked frozen foods, but there is still something commercial about them. Many new gourmet mixes, with fresher vegetables, original spice combinations and unusual grains are coming out, like the Trader Joe's Spelt with Red and Green Peppers mix pictured here, which make for a lovely change on the dinner table.

To add a touch of homemade flavor to what is essentially a meal from a box, without taking too many extra minutes out of an already busy evening, try sauteing some garlic in the bottom of the pan before adding the mix, or dicing an onion or a shallot and tossing it into the pot with the cooking liquid. Read the ingredients and see what might pair well. This spelt mix, for example, would be good with extra peppers or, since it was well spiced, a vegetable like sweet potatoes or squash to round it out. Or, for heartier fare, take an example from Hamburger Helper and heat up some sausages while the grains cook and toss them in before serving.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

I don't care what anyone says I use butter all the time over any of those over processed "spreads" and substitutes. Have you seen how they are actually made? Just terrible. I haven't attempted to make my own butter but it sounds easy enough, if this recipe in the latest issue of Grow Your Own magazine is anything to go by.

• Leave Double Cream to warm to room temperature
• Pour into a clean jar until one third full. Tightly screw on lid and shake jar up and down until butter starts to form
• keep shaking - up to 30 minutes they recommend (that's going to hurt!) until there is a lump of butter in the liquid (buttermilk)
• Drain buttermilk into a cup and fill jar with cold water. Swirl butter around and carefully pour water away. Repeat until water is clear
• Put butter on a board and press down on to it to force out and remaining buttermilk. Any left inside will make the butter go sour.
• Wrap and refrigerate.

 

Oxidation is essentially the process by which something starts to break down once it has been exposed to air, as some metals - notably iron and copper - will rust when left untended. When a cut fruit, such as an avocado, banana or apple is exposed to air, its flesh also begins oxidize, discoloring and turning to an unappetizing shade of brown. The trick to keep avocados, guacamole and any other dip with the buttery, green fruit from turning brown is to add citric acid to it.

Citric acid is a weak, naturally occuiring acid that is found in many fruits and vegetables, though its highest concentration is in lemons and limes, which are up to 8% citric acid. In addition to imparting a slightly sour taste to citrus fruits, it is a strong antioxidant. Adding just a teaspoon or two of the acid to a mashed avocado, or brushing a bit on the surface of an apple, will keep the fruit looking as though it were just cut. A splash of lemon or lime juice in your guacamole will keep it green and tempting from the moment it is made, until there isn't enough left to dip a chip.

It is quite untrue to say that no casserole is a good casserole. After all, they have enjoyed fairly consistent popularity over the course of the last century, though the concept has been around much longer. If all casseroles were horrible, we wouldn't still be making them. Recipes for casseroles, however, can be downright scary. A can of sauce, a frozen chunk of miscellaneous meat and less than appetizing vegetables, possibly added to conceal a look of produce past its prime.