There’s a time and a place for getting your hands dirty: cleaning the house, working in the garden, cooking in the kitchen. Afterward, though, you’ll need a good, reliable hand soap, preferably one that doesn’t damage the skin it’s meant to protect. “Most ingredients are very drying and very fragrant, and fragrance is always a […]

When we sit down to eat this time of year, we should toast farmers rather than cooks. They’ve done the heavy lifting, and their produce, in all its ripe glory, allows us home cooks to do so little and get so much in return. Since I prefer dishes that require minimal effort, summer is my […]

Yeah, we know, “Shark Week” is pretty disappointing. No, the shark that Michael Phelps “raced” was not real. No, a giant prehistoric shark called a megalodon doesn’t continue to prowl the seas. Sure, there is some awesome science thrown in there with the bogus “voodoo shark” stories. But basically, the week is a multimillion-dollar marketing […]

James Patterson, the highest-paid author in the world, thinks it’s important for children to mind their manners. Perhaps he feels the same way about his co-writers. For his 2016 children’s book “Give Please a Chance,” the best-selling novelist teamed up with TV personality Bill O’Reilly to remind kids of the value of politeness. But for […]

“Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts” By Stella Parks W.W. Norton. 400 pp. $35 What do Key lime pie, pineapple-upside-down cake and mint chocolate cookies have in common? They are all classic American desserts, but not in the way you might think. Each was invented by the food industry as a way to hawk more stuff. The […]