Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The PB&J doughnut at Doughnut Plant (LES in NYC). Oodles of peanut-y goodness via the peanut butter glaze and sprinkling of crushed peanuts. Plus you get the added bonus of delicious handcrafted blackberry jelly with every bite. So. Darn. Good. But you probably knew all of this already, fellow New Yorker!

Yes! Thank you Kenji for the chopsticks mention in your second installment of kitchen tool essentials (although, since I started using mine, they quickly became a top 5 kitchen tool essential). For those who haven't mastered the art of the long sticks, it may be worth your while to practice. They become an extension of your hand. Imagine the precision of being able to pick up or maneuver screaming hot foods around with your fingers... this is the benefit of using cooking chopsticks. Plus, it's so badass! (Though be warned: once you start using them, you may find it difficult to work without them!)

How to Boil Water was a better show, on basically the same premise.

This show just highlights the horror that FN has become. The network continues to lose any educational content it may still have left by the second. It's all ratings-hungry sensationalism geared toward the lowest common denominator. The only reliably decent cooking shows on television are on PBS.

It's incredibly disheartening that such a broad-reaching network station wouldn't try a bit harder to bring food education into the homes of Americans. A popular cable network is a great vehicle to do some societal good, to get people excited about cooking and preparing their own foods using fresh and healthy ingredients.

Admittedly, I take it too personally, but early FN actually helped inspire me to become serious about cooking in the first place. Now, the only reason I'll watch FN is if I want to elevate my blood pressure and start yelling at one of the moron celebrity chefs hawking their sodium- and fat-laden monstrosities (no thanks!).

Over course, I'm over-generalizing the negatives.. There are a couple decent humans left of FN. But they're most certainly in the fading minority.

Mark Bittman's Cranberry Relish with Orange and Ginger. Hand's down. Fresh ginger adds a modern spark to this unfussy classic that nothing else can.

hooray! water spinach is my favorite vegetable of all time. i love the multitude of leafy greens to choose from in the Chinese supermarket... makes healthy cooking/eating a breeze on a hectic week night. thanks for the article!

Frozen smores are another alternative. They are awesome, easy to make, and much less messy than the traditional smore. The non-campfire version as follows:

Take one graham cracker square (1/2 of a whole rectangular cracker) and put it on a microwave-safe plate. Place two squares of Hershey's milk chocolate on the cracker. Place one jumbo air-puffed marshmallow on top of the chocolate. Microwave for 20 seconds on high. (Chocolate will get melty, marshmallow will get enormous.) Immediately place another graham cracker square on top and gently press. If you can resist eating, put it (on its plate) in the freezer and freeze for at least an hour. Chilly deliciousness for around 75 calories. Yummm!

Anything with less than three ingredients. In the summertime it could mean an 1/2 a fresh pineapple, a couple mangoes, a pint of strawberries. If I'm motivated enough to boil water, I'll eat half a bag of edamame. Two staple "meals" are oat cereal with dried fruit and nuts and a bowl of sticky rice with seaweed, wasabi and bonito sprinkles. Then there's always getting sushi delivered to the house...