Today, the next installment in your summer “prep” school lessons: how to remove corn kernels from the cob, without making a big old mess.

Anyone who’s ever tried to do this simple task on a cutting board knows how those kernels can go flying. I eat a lot of summer corn and tend to find the kernels in every corner of my apartment after performing what should be a simple procedure. So I perfected my technique, and found an easier, cleaner, better way to shave them cobs.

As the fresh corn abounds, try using up your kernels in one of our favorite recipes from In the Small Kitchen–our Corn and Barley Salad with Chive Vinaigrette!

CLASSIC FOURTH OF JULY COOK OUT MENU: Guacamole with Tortilla Chips; Cheddar Cheese Burgers with Charred Red Onions; Sarah’s Herbed Potato Salad; Blueberry Crisp Tart.

For a while now, the burger has been a staple of my restaurant dining. Not because I didn’t think a burger homemade by me would be up to par, but because it’s often the thing that jumps out at me from the menu and lands onto my plate. In part, this trend in my order is a result of that fact that Phoebe and I always want the burger’s side,…

Here are some more ideas for delicious summer drinks!

I can remember my first-ever chai tea latte. It was a Saturday in the early spring of 1998, and I had a terrible cold. Feeling sick, I had played hooky from a friend’s bat mitzvah (this was seventh grade, when every weekend’s activity revolved around bar and bat mitzvahs), yet I was somehow up to joining my family on a shopping trip to the Upper West Side. Not only was my nose running but it was also raining out, and at last my family and my whiny…

We’ve given you How To Devein Shrimp, Brown Meat, and Make a Vinaigrette. Today, an essential technique for making delicious savory food: how to make garlic paste.

It may sound simple, but it’s important to extract and diffuse the flavor from your garlic, especially when you’re serving the garlic raw, in guacamole or salad dressings. We also use garlic paste in our of our favorite recipes from In the Small Kitchen-our Provençal Baked Chicken, an addictive (and cheap) dinner party main.

For another perfect hangover brunch for one, check out this menu

When I’m alone, I’m decidedly not the biggest breakfast eater. Once I’ve had my coffee and finished my morning emails, it’s always close enough to lunch time that I can tell my tummy to be quiet and start counting down to noon. The idea of dirtying my pans twice in a two hour span of time just never seems worth it.

The other day though, I woke up in Josh’s apartment craving eggs and carbs like no other. At least,…

Not long after January 2011 reared its cold wintry head, the two of us made a decision: when our book came out on sunny May 24th, we were going on a book tour. Book tours for first-time authors are largely unheard of. But we were determined. We spent long hours catering, saving up money for our trip. We reached out to friends in faraway states. And we bugged our dear PR gal, Megan, who managed to stay in good spirits despite all of that bugging, to keep contacting book stores to host us. In late April, we finally settled…

Photo By: Tim Atkinson

We started our Dude Food series this spring in order to mix up the usual BGSK offerings with interviews and submissions for and by dudes. As you can image, having “big girls” in our name has been a bit of a deterrent for the male population. We like to think of this section as the man cave below the BGSK kitchen. If you have ideas, become a dude food contributor!

You might know Ed Casabian as “The NYC Nomad.” A year ago (officially!), Ed moved out of the apartment…

For more tips on great portable dishes, check out our guide to Becoming a Potluck All-Star!

We’ve seen quite a few planes, trains, and automobiles lately, with our book “tour” and all. These excursions have brought back to mind the need for super portable dishes-the kind we brown bag for lunch in the Bolt Bus cabin, or, better yet, bring to an actual patch of green when we picnic with friends. So I thought I’d share with you one of my favorite summer picnic go-to’s: couscous salad.

I’m a…

Any of you who have lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts will remember Toscanini’s. When I was in college, Toscanini’s was my place. It provided my latte before morning class and my coffee and cookie on the way to the library. Best of all-but a little more rarely-it was the doler-outer of my “micro sundaes.”

Anyone else nostalgic for those micro sundaes? Here’s the deal with micro sundaes: for $3 (a regular small cup or cone was something like $3.50, so $3 is a deal), you got a pixie cup-sized sundae, complete with a half-sized scoop of Toscanini’s super rich ice…

We started our Great Minds Eat Alike series in order to mix up the usual BGSK offerings with interviews and submissions by cooks and eaters whose mentality towards cooking and eating meshes with ours. Today we are incredibly excited to bring you a super sweet dessert from none other than super sweets expert, CakeSpy.

Cakespy.com is a Dessert Detective Agency dedicated to seeking sweetness (literally) in everyday life. We do this by writing about bakeries, conducting baking experiments, and picking the brains of bakers and food artists, and finding awesome products for lovers of…

For a fish-friendly Father’s Day Meal, check out this Formal Pescatarian Dinner!

In preparation for Father’s Day last year, I had my dad teach me how to make his favorite morning oatmeal. In addition to announcing that my dad is an oatmeal man, I also revealed that he is not a grill guy. A year later, this has changed.

Last summer, my dad went on a grill kick, learning how to fire up his chimney, manipulate a flame, and create a perfect crosshatch on beautiful pieces of seafood. So this year, I can…

Thank you to all those who participated in our big book and Le Creuset Essentials Giveaway! We are so grateful for all the wonderful BGSK recipe love notes, and for spreading the word about the giveaway and the book. But we can only have one winner, and the person taking home a signed copy of our book AND this awesome French oven is…Sara (Gendernalik)!

Here’s what Sara had to say:

Love the onion dip recipe… and there are so many more that I want to try! I am going to make the heirloom tomato bruschetta after I…

Frying chicken for the masses is, for us, one of those cooking tasks we do our best to avoid. Not only do we imagine being stuck, apron clad, by the stove all night, but we start to resent our tiny apartments when we wake up two days later and they still smell like oil. Our solution is to minimize the time spent cooking, and the mess, by reducing the amount of chicken we fry in the first place. Here, a small portion of fried chicken becomes the accent on a crunchy salad that’s been dressed with our interpretation of…

Check out our other great tips for how to serve fruit for dessert.

It’s no secret that I am not the baker in this little cooking duo of ours. This wasn’t always the case. In high school, when our cooking and non-cooking friendship began, I baked all the time—mostly cookies, but also the occasional pound cake, banana bread, and cupcake.

Back in October, I began working as a personal chef, making a three-course meal once a week for my client, who just so happens to love her sweets. It was kind…

On Friday nights after long weeks, my preference is often to stay in rather than go out. Alex comes home from work relaxed, and we’ll eat dinner at the coffee table over Time Out New York, while we plan fun activities for the rest of the weekend. Saturday and Sunday sprawl ahead of us, and it’s the pinnacle of relaxation to sit and contemplate them, as if from afar.

There are nights when we’ll go out for a drink in Prospect Heights before or after dinner, and nights when we’ll veg in front of the TV, watching Buffy or…