My first mouthful of Polenta seemed to me to be a heavenly cross between cheese grits and cornbread stuffing — two of the most perfectly delicious dishes in the world (especially to a Southern girl.) From that one scrumptious bite, I was hooked — and you will be, too. That’s why polenta will play a part in what’s for dinner tonight.

Polenta has a reputation for being difficult because it takes some time to cook properly (no, you can’t use the instant stuff — that’s not learning how to cook; it’s just learning how to open packages). And tradition holds that it must be stirred constantly to acquire the proper texture without scorching.

However, with a nice, low, even heat under a sturdy pan, you can let your polenta simmer gently while you prepare something to accompany it, giving only the occasional stir to keep things moving along smoothly.

We’re going to let this meal be a little bit more freeform than usual. We suggest your favorite roast or chop with a nice, savory sauce (a mushroom glaze, perhaps?) served over our delicious, creamy Gorgonzola Polenta. For a vegetarian version, serve it alongside Oven-Roasted Asparagus with Dijon Lemon Sauce or Roasted Root Vegetables. Or go spicy with Arroz con Pollo.

Following the Gorgonzola Polenta recipe will help you get a nice grasp on the basic process for making a classic creamy polenta. When you’re ready to branch out, you can start adding in your own flavors and additional textures.

Here are some basic tips, though, that hold true for any polenta attempt:

• Keep an eye on it! Even though you don’t really have to keep stirring continuously if you keep the heat low to medium low, you still need to watch the liquid level.
• Don’t microwave it.  There seems to be a big push lately in favor of microwaved polenta. But anyone who’s ever microwaved anything knows things just don’t turn out quite right when they’re nuked. They may still taste OK, they may even be delicious … but microwave foods rarely taste like the real thing. At least give your polenta a chance the first few times, and clear off a stove burner.
• It’s not grits. I love grits. You (should) love grits. But polenta and grits are two different things. Polenta still retains a husk in a way that grits do not, and it requires a slightly longer cooking time. You can serve the two dishes in similar ways. But respect their differing heritages when learning how to prepare them.
• It doesn’t have to be bland. People will tell you polenta is nothing but cornmeal mush, and that they ate it as kids and hated it. But don’t judge a food by someone’s else’s (or your own) childhood impression of it. One of the reasons why people feed bland foods to children is because kids often reject usual or intense flavors they later grow up to love. Tired parents default to feeding youngsters foods that are inoffensive yet boring … and those kids grow up to hate those same boring foods. (You often can feed kids interesting foods by getting them involved in the process… but that’s fodder for a different blog.) Your polenta can be creamy and intensely flavorful. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Once you’ve mastered the basic polenta recipe, you can move on to more interesting textures and uses. Try our Polenta and Tomato Lasagna. Or find your own creative ways to work it in — we’ve even seen mention of firm polenta as a “crust” for a pizza-style casserole.

Happy Eating… and Pleasant Polenta!

OK, that title pun was overdone. But these two products will help you ensure that you can cook healthy eggs perfectly every time.

Poaching eggs can be a little hard to master for some — we’ve seen eggs dropped in at the wrong time that turned into shrapnel the minute they hit the water. But a poached egg has many of the flavor and texture qualities we love about a good fried egg … without the grease. So it’s worth your while to make them a part of your repertoire.

The easiest way to do this? Poach Pods!

No, these are not some alien invention out to steal your breakfast. They’re handy little silicone cups that go right into the water and cradle your eggs until they’re all yummy. Just crack your egg right into the pod, and then put the whole shebang into a pot of boiling water. When it’s done cooking, the perfectly shaped egg (no rough edges here) will slip out of the pod easily without leaving eggy residue behind. And they’re dishwasher safe.

We’ve talked boiled eggs before. But now that you’ve practiced and mastered your technique, why not make it even easier?

The Egg N Time combines two, two, TWO tools in one, taking some of the gathering-and-preparing work out of the egg boiling process. This device features a flower-shaped base that sits in the pot and cradles your eggshells as they boil. Set the integrated timer, and you’re good to go. When your eggs are done, you can just lift the entire apparatus out of the pot and place it in a sink or large bowl full of cool water.

Yep … Two kitchen tools egg-straordinaire.

Find a place to buy these egg-ceptional (ha!) tools … and more.

They say you should never eat any meatloaf but your mother’s. And for the most part, that’s true. But, at some point, each person must become his or her own meatloaf-maker. The art of the loaf must be passed on through the ages. And so, friends, your day in the kitchen has come.

Like finger-painting, pottery and child-rearing, the meatloaf is a hands-on venture and less than an exact science. No one person’s ideal loaf is quite like any other. So please take the basic tips we offer you here today and expand upon them. That way, your children can one day insist to their children that all good meatloaf contains pickle relish and boiled eggs, just like Grandma makes. (That is NOT a serving suggestion.)

However, a good meatloaf has certain essential characteristics that must be present. Mastering these musts will help ensure that your loaf is technically perfect. (Whether it tastes good to anyone but you is a personal gamble you take when you begin to express yourself through the art of the loaf.)

A good meatloaf:

• Sticks together: A good meatloaf has enough bread (or bread crumbs), raw egg and meat to hold itself together as you add in a few other tasty ingredients. It should be slightly sticky and firmly cohesive as you mix it (and, yes, you need to get in there and mix it by hand, at least the first couple of times, so you can get a feel for how it should hold together). If it seems to be separating into small, individual clumps, you need to add in more meat or bread and egg. Do NOT over mix – this can’t be stressed enough. You want it to hold together, but the individual ingredients still need to be visible.
• Isn’t too wet or too dry: Make sure your meatloaf is the texture of wet, sticky bread dough – not cake batter, which is way too wet, and not moist stuffing, which means it’s too dry.
• Is NOT a giant hamburger: Meatloaf was originally intended to be a way to stretch small, leftover amounts of ground meat until grocery day. So the essence of the meatloaf is ground meat PLUS something else. Now we prepare and cook a meatloaf for a variety of reasons, but to be true to the spirit of the dish, you should make sure your loaf isn’t all meat and sauce. After all, if you wanted to cook a hamburger, you could just, you know … cook a hamburger.

Once you’ve got a basic recipe down (we have a couple of interesting ones to try here and here), try adding in your own tidbits and flavors. Some popular variations and add-ins include a barbecue meatloaf, meatloaf with green and red bell peppers added in, flavor enhancements like pre-mixed onion soup or dip mixes, and the afore-mentioned hard-boiled eggs (actually a very well-loved mix-in.) Just be careful to keep your basic meatloaf qualities in mind as you add things – this means you should never overpower your meat/bread/raw egg base with other ingredients. So add things in slowly, a little bit this time, more the next time.

But don’t be afraid to experiment — the loaf is an evolving artform.

We suggest serving your masterpiece with simple mashed potatoes (try mixing them with the meatloaf sauce or whip up a classic brown gravy) and steamed broccoli with or without a scrumptious cheese sauce.

Happy cooking!

Part two in our Summer Grilling Perfection series brings us to that icon of the picnic table: the hamburger.

And America’s female grilling expert, Elizabeth Karmel, has given us some tips for taking your burgers from dry and ordinary to juicy and extraordinary (be sure to check out our Q&A with Elizabeth here). read more »

June 3 is National Egg Day, so as you head home (staying on the sunny side of the street, of course), you might consider how to incorporate this versatile, delicious staple into tonight’s meal. read more »

Have you ever found yourself looking down at a sushi menu wondering what the difference is between fugu and unagi?  You certainly don’t want to get those mixed up!

Have you ever been baking and found out that you are 1 cup short of powdered sugar?

Have you ever planned a menu and been stuck on what wine to serve with it?

You can find all of these answers and more in our collection of charts under the “Guides” section of LearningHowToCook.com!  “How does that help me at a sushi restaurant,” you ask?  Our charts can be viewed via most PDA’s and Smartphones (BlackBerry, iPhone, etc).

So!  We’ve made the big announcement that our labor of love, LearningHowToCook.com, is live on the web.  One of our favorite features is the Techniques section of the site.  Here you will find tips on everything from cleaning different vegetables to basic knife cuts.  The step-by-step pictures display at the top of the pictorial in a quick and easy flip book; but if you need a little more guidance, there are detailed instructions under each picture below!  You will find links to these techniques next to ingredients in recipes as well.  For instance, if a recipe calls for “cleaned artichokes”, there is a link that says “learn how”.  Simply click on that link and presto! The site will take you to the step-by-step instructions on how to clean the artichokes.  Browse the technique pictorials…you may learn something new.

So!  We’ve made the big announcement that our labor of love, LearningHowToCook.com, is live on the web.  Here are a few hints on using the Shopping List function on the site.

*When you are browsing our delicious recipes, you can automatically populate a shopping list by hitting the brown and orange pan icon at the top of every recipe.

*Check the ingredients you need to buy at the grocery store.  This will fill the lines of “My Shopping List”.

*You can also add items you need that aren’t in the recipes (i.e. cat food, paper towels, juice).

*When your list is complete, save it!  This will enable you to go to a print screen that is black and white so that you don’t use up all of your color cartridge.

*You can add multiple recipes to the shopping list whether you are a member of the site or not; but, if you want to save your favorite recipes for easy reference you can create a user login on the Home page!

*When you have multiple recipes on your list, the print screen will display all of the ingredient types together.  This way, when you are in the produce section of the grocery, all of the fresh vegetables will be grouped together for a more organized shopping experience.