Kitchen Tips & How-Tos

No buttermilk for biscuits or pancakes? You can make a substitute in five minutes with milk and something from your pantry.

If your pot roast is chewy instead of fall-apart tender, it’s usually not the recipe. Here’s what’s really going on and how to fix it.

You bite into a piece of aged cheddar or Parmesan and hit tiny crunchy white bits. Here’s what they are, why they’re a good sign, and how to tell them apart from mold.

A potato with green patches under the skin looks odd, and it’s worth paying attention to. Here’s what the green means and when to cut it off or toss the potato.

Many of us were taught to let leftovers cool on the stove first. Here’s what food-safety experts say today, and the one trick for a big pot of soup.

A frozen turkey needs a lot more time in the fridge than most of us think. Here’s the simple rule, a chart by size, and what to do if you started too late.

Grandma’s butter dish sat on the table every day of her life. Is soft butter on the counter safe, and for how long? Here’s what to know.

Every year we packed the car and drove four hours each way. This year I said I was staying home. Here’s how the family took it, and the fair plan we came up with.

The game was always on and nobody was really talking. One Sunday I asked for an hour with the TV off. Here’s how it went, and the small rules that made it stick.

For twenty years I made her stuffing recipe at my own table. This Thanksgiving I made mine. Here’s how I told her, and how we ended up with two pans and no hard feelings.