Kitchen Scoop Blog

Sometimes I feel like I need a degree in Italian to shop the supermarket pasta section. You’ve got your farfalle (bow ties) and your piccolini (mini farfalle). And then there’s the ruote (wagon wheels); conchigliette (small sea shells); spaghettini (thin spaghetti); and pasta all'uovo (egg pasta). I may be confused, but I’m not complaining. Pasta rescues me weekly, and it's all too easy to get into a rut -- same old noodle, same old sauce.

Choosing a different shape of pasta to toss with a favorite sauce will give a new look and feel to dinner with no extra work for the cook. Factor in the flavored or colored pastas and you’ve got even more fun. During a recent stop on the pasta aisle, I counted 12 shapes in tri-color pastas alone.

Whether it's a Labor Day picnic or poolside chat, wraps are quick to make, convenient to transport and easy to eat. Wraps are simply sandwiches whose fillings are tucked inside a flour tortilla -- like this Turkey Provolone version. You can buy the flour tortillas plain or flavored with various combinations of sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and vegetables.

The only thing you need to know to make a wrap is that it's the fat in the tortilla that makes it pliable enough to bend around the ingredients. (So don't substitute fat-free flour tortillas.) More specifically, the fat needs to be warm. A quick zap in the microwave does the trick.

As for fillings, anything goes. Take a lovely, light green spinach tortilla flecked with garlic, fill it with plain-old deli ingredients -- or even leftover, sliced grilled chicken -- and somehow the result doesn't end up ordinary at all.

Whether you're headed to the park or out to the back deck, wraps make a flexible, stylish meal. We'd love to hear what's in your picnic basket this Labor Day. To tell us, click here.

Okay call us old-fashioned, but some flavor combos never need to change. Take this Southern summertime salad packed with red-ripe tomatoes and crisp cooling cukes. It's addictive.

Perhaps that explains why almost any night -- at any Southern household that grows a tomato vine or two -- you can come to the table to find what we'll simply call Tomato and Cucumber Salad.

So, true confessions? Beverly's mom always peels her cucumbers but we're just too busy (lazy?)! So, truth be told, actually we like the bright green skin. Surely it's good for you, too?

Time to confess: Anybody else find yourself abandoning grocery items while you’re unloading the cart? I thought it was just me – ditching that impulsive box of gourmet crackers and offloading the expensive cheese. Sure I feel a bit guilty tucking the rejects between People Magazine and the National Enquirer for some poor stock clerk to sort out later. And then I saw an Associated Press report estimating at least 25 percent of all shoppers are dumping at least one item they had intended to buy.

When times are tough, it’s hard to scale back and adopt new shopping habits. Those manager’s specials and two-for-one deals are so very tempting! By the time I reach the checkout, the buggy is bulging and my budget guilt starts nagging. The longer the line, the more the goods get scrutinized. (To save the most money, perhaps the longest register line is a secret weapon!)

Retro recipe alert! Remember those frozen “salads” from the ‘50ies and ‘60ies that combined fruit, nuts, sour cream and, more often than not, mayonnaise? Our moms made them at Thanksgiving without fail. Guess what? They’re still good and especially refreshing on a summer day.

Alicia omitted the mayo in this version to lighten it up a bit. Are we the only people left on the planet who remembers this “salad”? Or did your family perhaps eat it as dessert? Tell us we're not the only cooks around who still make it! Comments? Other ideas? Click here!

My sister Louanne and I share at least one thing in common: At our houses, Barbecued Chicken means a man with tongs, meat and fire who has an excuse to hide in the backyard, sip beer and play the banjo. Preferably for a very long time.

As you might imagine, certain grilling recipes tolerate this scenario more successfully than others. So when you're barbecuing chicken under these circumstances, you want to lean toward the thigh-leg quarters, with the skin and bone. This way the chicken cooks slowly with little fuss, and the banjo strumming needs only to be interrupted at sporadic intervals. Even then, all that’s required is a quick brushing or turning. Dousing is in order if flames erupt, but that’s considered a bonus in the man-fights-fire category.

There was a time when you couldn't say Spinach Salad without thinking Poppyseed Dressing. We're not even sure you can buy it from the supermarket these days as any dressing without balsamic vinegar just won't fly. Never fear. For those in the mood to splurge on something slightly sweet with your salad, here's that dressing of old, complete with Poppyseeds as originally published in our Desperation Entertaining cookbook. So they get stuck in your teeth -- it's still a scrumptious trade-off. Comments? Click here!

The research is very clear and widely discussed -- kids who eat regular family meals are:
• Twice as likely to get A’s in school
• 45% less likely to try alcohol and 24% less likely to try marijuana
• 32% less likely to have ever smoked a cigarette
• Half as likely to be highly stressed or suffer extreme boredom

What I love about these stats is that they confirm what I always knew in my heart of hearts: Family dinners really do matter. I’m not just cooking and flinging food into a senseless void. But all good things must come to an end. My youngest flies off to college next week and I can hardly believe I no longer have a nightly dinner deadline. I find myself feeling rather triumphant about what those dinners meant to family life in our household, and I marvel at the fact that against all practical odds – (sports practices, math tutors and confirmation classes to name a few) -- I somehow pulled it off more nights than not.

But actually getting the food on the table is just the start of it.

When I was growing up on Topsail Island we waited anxiously for “white shrimp” to come into season. Every August boats trolled off the shore directly in front of our home in search of the largest, most succulent shrimp species North Carolina has to offer. Topsail White Shrimp Spaghetti is our tribute to this most delicious crustacean.

If you happen to live along the shore, go for the freshest-caught shrimp you can find. If not, previously frozen shrimp make a fine substitute. Choose raw, wild-caught shrimp when you can find them – but again, this recipe is flexible enough to adapt to farm-raised as well.

What’s your favorite way to eat fresh shrimp in August? Click here to comment!

We'd never been able to bake a perfect steakhouse potato – with the skin a little crunchy, and the middle, moist and fluffy. Then a friend who owns several restaurants said “real" baked potatoes need to cook at a very high temperature, without foil or fat, for an hour. After our first try and the astounded look on our husbands' faces, we knew we'd hit the jackpot.