Question for Mom

While I was self-isolating at home, I cleaned out my larder and found several boxes of unsweetened chocolate.  In both the use-by date is obscured, so I can’t tell how old it is.  Is it safe to use this chocolate to bake brownies?  --Susan W.

Yes, proceed with baking.  Chocolate does not spoil, although eventually it may develop ‘bloom’ if not tightly wrapped and kept at room temperature.  ‘Bloom,’ which gives the surface of the chocolate a whitish or grayish cast, is actually cocoa butter migrating to the surface when the storage temperature rises.  It will disappear when the chocolate is melted. 

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Welcome to the World of Canned Chicken

Back when the Covid-19 pandemic started, I laid in a lot of supplies.  Gradually, though, I’ve been using them up in my daily cooking.  Only one item I bought gave me pause—the 12.5-ounce cans of cooked chicken breasts.  I noticed them at my big box store because they were sitting alone on a shelf that had been stripped of everything else.

Want a Chocolate Fix? Try This!

I admit I am a chocoholic.  At Halloween I always make sure I have extra Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups so some will be left for me.  In the summer I turn to fresh strawberries and melted chocolate.  It’s hard to think of a better dessert or a mid-afternoon snack than chocolate-covered strawberries.

Pinto Beans: What Are They and How Do I Use Them?

Dried Pinto Beans (left), Cooked Pinto Beans (right)

Anyone who has eaten refried beans has eaten pinto beans.  They are brown—sometimes light brown, sometimes dark brown—and are often speckled.  They are available cooked in cans and uncooked in plastic bags.

I Need Something New for Dinner

As the chief cook in our house, I usually make the executive decision as to what’s for dinner.  It used to be easier.  When our children were small, they ate what was put in front of them, with just a few exceptions.  

Purple Peruvian Potatoes: What Are They and How Do I Cook with Them?

Purple Peruvian Potatoes, a popular potato in South America, are available year-round in many American specialty grocery stores.  Considered a variety of fingerling potato, they are small and sometimes oval or knobby.  They don’t look like much, and their dark purplish-black skin seems out of place when sitting next to red or golden-skin potatoes.

A Teenager Improves My Recipe

I have several food-savvy friends whom I consult when I have cooking questions.  But until recently none of them were younger than 45.  Then Jake, my 19-year-old grandson, decided he wanted to learn to cook.  He retrieved our second cookbook (“Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room”) from his mother’s cookbook shelf and flipped through it until he found Chicken Sultana, a recipe that looked appealing.

Mom’s Version of Fish and Chips

Even before I moved to London, I knew about a popular English dish called fish and chips.  But I had never seen it, let alone tasted it.  In England we tended to hang out with other Americans, and they were constantly preoccupied with locating as many American foods and restaurant chains as possible. 

We were more adventurous.