Welcome to the Kitchen Scoop Blog

Making homemade biscuits is becoming a lost art. Biscuit mix and frozen biscuits are an easy out to what many cook’s think is too complicated. But these rustic sweet biscuits are not really that difficult and most typical kitchens will have the ingredients on hand.

I learned to make biscuits in my grandmother’s kitchen. “Maw Maw” used to say that you can’t make good biscuits if you don’t touch the dough with your hands. Those words were heaven to a 5-year-old’s ears! Play with your food? Yes!

Shiny, dark globes beckon me like a sea siren calls out to lost sailors. Supposedly pitted, I munch down on my first olive and crack! Not the pit, my tooth.

A few days later I'm sitting in the dentist chair, head cocked back at an awkward angle, mouth open wider than it should be and "Mr. Thirsty" is hooked in the corner of my lip. Miserable barely begins to describe it. But then I close my eyes, rememeber the suculent and briney flavor and decide it was all worth it. But dang, that's one expensive olive!

Please tell me you've done something similar! Was it worth it?

One of our more confusing food choices is whether to buy farmed or wild-caught salmon. Environmental issues come into play, as do health benefits. Wild-caught salmon has a higher and more potent form of Omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your heart and why you’re urged to eat fatty fish three times a week.

Salmon that is farmed in ocean pens, (as opposed to tanks on land), often harm the environment.

So what is a responsible cook to choose? We like the advice from the Seafood Watch list of the Monterey Bay Acquarium in California (click here) to either buy wild-caught Alaska salmon or U.S. tank-raised Coho or Silver salmon. The only problem is finding a store that labels the fish that carefully!

Alicia Ross, (C) 2010

Can you beat a purple and pink sunset at the NC coast?

No desperate cook should be without a good-quality chef’s knife. I know, because I lost mine. I took it along on a special cooking project, and somehow my knife didn’t make it back home. After calling everyone who could have picked it up and trekking back twice to scrounge around for it, I finally accepted the bitter reality. Cooking dinner without my trusty knife the following night, I nearly cried.

I reached for what I thought would be the next best thing. I pinched my fingers, obliterated the onion I was trying to chop and realized I couldn’t go another day without a new chef’s knife.

I've never been much of a margarita fan. But then I'd never tasted a margarita made the way Scott Cole makes them.

Granted the real appeal to his margaritas is that the first step is to walk out in his back yard and pick a few fresh oranges and limes to squeeze, but hey, I can move past that if I have to. And it's really more of method than a recipe.

I can pick up fresh citrus at the store, right? (I'll just keep telling myself it's the same.)

After salting the rims of the glasses, Scott fills each glass with ice. Next goes in the Patron Tequila. No measurement necessary, just to taste, he says. Follow that with a bit of Cointreau.

Takeout trend still strong at restaurants

While unemployment remains at an alarmingly high rate, Americans continue to live busy lives. Lots of multitasking is still going on — and that means food eaten on the run, according to a story on Top Trends in Takeout by The Food Channel.com. Thus, the carryout/takeout category of the restaurant business remains one of the strongest, despite the struggling economy.

In fact more people get restaurant food to go now than dine in, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. Restaurants are catering to the needs of those on the go, offering designated parking and curbside car delivery, and creating special menus such as Ruby Tuesday's RubyTueGo.

Are you still doing takeout for your family? Which takeout restaurants do you like best and how much do you spend per visit?

"Instant" oatmeal that's really the Real Thing!

Old-fashioned rolled oats will cook overnight in an insulated beverage container, according to a foodie at the cooking Web site Chow.com.

“Using Quaker (old-fashioned, not quick) rolled oats, I put 2/3 cups boiling water in a Thermos and add 1/3 cup rolled oats," says the woman who goes by the avatar "rworange."

“The next morning I open it and … hot oatmeal.” This works best with a stainless steel Thermos, "rworange" notes. (Click here for the entire blog entry.)

What's your favorite way to fix oatmeal?

If you’re trying to get more vegetarian dishes into your diet, chili is a great place to start. Since chili naturally relies on beans, vegetables and assertive seasonings for much of the flavor, it’s easy to disguise the fact that meat isn’t present.

There are lots of ways to make vegetarian chili, but we like this easy lentil version a lot. What’s your favorite meatless chili recipe?

Do you remember Billy Beer? Did you ever taste it?

(C) Alicia Ross

Any pizza aficionado knows the crust is the key to good pizza. And while food manufacturers have come a long way in providing consumers with a variety of prepared pizza crusts, a good recipe for homemade pizza crust is still invaluable. I’d go so far as to call this crust from Mollie Katzen (click here to view recipe) a truly great pizza crust.

Mollie Katzen wrote one of my favorite cookbooks of all time, “The Moosewood Cookbook.” My tattered copy has drips and stains and notes in the margin from the 20 years I’ve used it, and I think I have cooked every one of the recipes. Besides my own cookbooks that I wrote with Beverly, I cannot say that about any other book.