Index of Food and Cooking Articles
 

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Index of Food and Cooking Articles - O

This index is a listing of the many cooking, food, and history articles that I have written about over several years.
Please click on a letter below to search the articles alphabetically.

A    B    C    D    E    F    G    H    I    J-K    L    M    N    O    P    Q-R    S    T    U-Z
 

bottles of olive oil
Olive Oil - Flavor, color, and consistency of olive oil vary, like fine wines, due to different olive varieties, location, and weather. The olive oils of some small producers are treated and priced like fine vintage wines.

onionsOnions - During the Civil War, General Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other ills of warm climates. He sent the following wire to the War Department:
"I will not move my army without onions." The next day, three trainloads of onions were dispatched to the front. Learn all about onions.


 

Lea SchneiderOrganize Right Now - Organization articles by Lea Schneider, Professional Organizer

Avoiding Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
 There is a little Mother Hubbard in all of us, reaching into the cupboard for something we just knew was there – and coming up empty-handed. I used to conveniently be able to blame it on the children or the teenagers. What’s one to do when they get grown?

Change Your Kitchen Along with Your Hair Color
Over the course of the years, I’ve changed my hair color. I’ve changed my fashions. I’ve changed states, houses, cars, and I have even switched from cats to dogs. I’ll just bet that you have made a lot of those changes too. Have you thought about how the way you use your kitchen has changed?

Christmas Kitchen Secrets of the Organized
Entertaining, on top of working, holiday shopping and company, is never easy but it can be made simpler. Here are a couple suggestions to help you make it look so easy.

Conquering Menu Madness
 Do the innocently asked words “What’s for dinner,” drive you mad? You are certainly not the only one! Every night, it is like we are caught on the track with the dinnertime train headed right for us. It is almost like it’s a surprise that it is dinnertime….yet again. If you feel like you are constantly reinventing the wheel, then its time for you to start taking advantage and organizing your own creativity.

For Dinner Tonight? A Plan!
 Your lids may march in a row in a lid rack and your silverware may nestle in drawer liners but if there isn’t dinner on the stove then you’ve missed the boat, as the saying goes. Getting organized in the kitchen means having ingredients to prepare meals. It means having the time to prepare meals. What it doesn’t mean is hours and hours of work.

Is cooking dinner at your house like juggling eggs?
 Sometimes, trying to cook in your kitchen is exactly like juggling. You juggle the junk from the counter to the center island. Then you need the island space to roll out dough or pound some chicken breasts and you move the junk again…to the kitchen table. As you prepare to wash vegetables, you again need to juggle. The sink is full of breakfast dishes, but the dishwasher is full of clean dishes. Again, you juggle.

Is Your Kitchen Really Too Small?
True, I haven’t seen your kitchen but I bet I have seen a lot of kitchens like your kitchen. They are the busy hub of the family and reflect your hectic schedule. Even so, if you muttered one of the three excuses above, you need to know that those excuses don’t often hold up.

Keeping Your Resolution to Get Organized I
If you spent part of December thinking something has got to change, either in your kitchen or your eating habits, then you are in good company. Getting organized usually makes the top ten New Year’s resolutions and January is Get Organized Month, sponsored by the National Association of Professional Organizers.

Keeping Your Resolution to Get Organized II
If you are like me, and have an older kitchen, then you have probably experienced frustration with lower cabinets. When trying to find something, it means getting on your hands and knees, banging your head and rattling around in a dark hole. By the time you have found it, you have muttered a few choice words! There are some wonderful inexpensive kitchen solutions that you can install in lower cabinets. When I say “you,” I really mean you. If I can do it by myself, you can do it too. The installation usually only involves three screws.

Nine More Months of Lunch Packing
One child is yelling about missing PE clothes and another shouting that their life is over because their hair is standing up. In between those issues, breakfast and the normal chaos, dealing with packing lunches can be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Getting organized to deal with the next nine months worth of lunches is certainly worth the small amount of time involved.

Organize My Leftovers – Please!
 It’s the one organizing request that makes me laugh! Leaning into the fridge, packed with tiny plastic containers, plastic wrapped mystery items and aluminum foil bundles, and my friend turned to me and said “Can you organize my refrigerator?”

Paper or Plastic for Holiday Organization?
By the time you have made a menu to cover Thanksgiving or holiday parties or baking, you will find you have a lengthy shopping list. Coming home from the store, even if you have cleared out pantry space, storing away all those items takes time.
 

shucking oysters
Oysters - How To Shuck Oysters - Learn how to shuck oyster with this photo tutorial.

Oyster RockfellerOysters Rockefeller - The dish was given the name Rockefeller because the green was the color of greenbacks and the whole dish was so rich that he wanted a name that would signify the "richest in the world." Learn about the interesting history of this famous New Orleans dish.