make your own

If you're already a fan of making your own snacks, then why not start preparing your own condiments, too? One of the easiest in my book is balsamic glaze: all you really need is a bottle of balsamic vinegar and 10 minutes. Here's how you do it:

1. Pour a cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Bring the heat to a boil without reducing the heat on the stove.
3. At this point, turn down the heat so that boil reduces to a simmer. Stir occasionally and allow to simmer until the vinegar has reduced by at least half (for a thinner reduction) or more (for a more syrupy consistency). However impatient you may be, don't try to increase the heat, unless you want to be left with a stiff, hardened mess!
4. Allow to cool and transfer to an airtight container; store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Use your new condiment as the base for healthy antipasto skewers, or serve it with fruit and ice cream for an easy yet sophisticated finish to your meal. Ready to move on to more condiments? Master recipes for homemade ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise.

Have you ever made a balsamic reduction?

Source: Flickr User thepinkpeppercorn

We all get hungry throughout the day, and while it's easy to pop into the nearest café or corner store to pick up something to nibble on, it's much more rewarding, and satisfying, to make your own snacks. The good news is if you spend a little time on the weekend preparing some tasty treats, you'll be able to toss them in a bag and throw them into your purse to enjoy for the week ahead. Note: these ideas also make great snacks to sneak into movies . . . shh!

• Make some sinfully delicious tiki party mix. Any bacon lover will be thrilled to snack on this.
• Cracker Jack's aren't just for the baseball stadium. Munch on this sweet treat to get you through long afternoons at the office.
• My grandma always had candies in her purse. Make your own caramel candies, wrap them individually in wax paper, and keep a stash in your purse whenever you need to calm your sweet tooth.
• If you're trying to keep things a little healthier, cut your vegetables ahead of time, and pack them with some homemade hummus or white bean dip in tupperware.
• Stale, processed cookies from the grocery store? No thank you! Try some no-bake date cookies instead.

Do have snacks you make ahead of time?

What if you could simply conjure ingredients out of thin air? It sounds like something out of a Star Trek episode, but it's absolutely possible in one instance: sourdough. This tangy, fluffy bread gets its start as a simple fermented flour and water mixture that pulls its yeast fungi straight from the air! While you can certainly bake delicious bread using the dry active yeast that comes in sealed packets, fermenting your own sourdough starter at home will give your loaf a distinct flavor from, say, a baker in Maryland or North Dakota, thanks to the yeast organisms indigenous to your area.

Yeast and its naturally forming bacterial friend lactobacillus also help to keep out the bad stuff that causes food to rot. As long as you regularly "feed" your starter mixture, you can leave it out on the counter without fear of poisoning bread fans. And while it makes a fine loaf, don't be afraid to try it out in pancakes, pizza crust, biscuits, cakes, and other baked goods. That sour flavor that develops from the starter's lactic acid makes everything taste delicious!

Though cultivating your own culture sounds like a mad scientist's experiment, this petri dish will only take 10 minutes out of your day while yielding a bounty of baking options. So read on for this simply sour recipe

If bread is the staff of life, then this cook has been wobbling on shaky legs for much of her culinary career. What is it about baking bread that's so daunting? I suppose I've rationalized my bread-baking evasion by telling myself it takes too long and my spaghetti-noodle arms can't knead well enough. But I recognize those are silly excuses, so this week I set about tackling the easiest bread recipe I could find.

About five years ago, New York Times journalist Mark Bittman introduced the baking-phobic world to Jim Lahey's no-knead bread recipe and — in typical Bittman fashion — wowed us again by reducing the 24-hour process to a mere five hours. Camilla valiantly (and very successfully, I might add) took a stab at the original, but for those of us who can't plan further ahead than tonight's dinner, this may be the closest we'll come to a lovingly leavened, rustic loaf.

Bittman's recipe calls for a wet dough with plenty of yeast and leverages that high water content to steam the dough in a heavy lidded pot before browning the loaf. This process results in that crisp, crackly crust and fluffy, chewy interior that you crave in a rustic loaf, and all this without a single kneading stroke. Someday I'll pursue the weight training that will get my arms in bread-kneading shape. But until then, I thank Mr. Bittman for fostering my lazy side. For the recipe, keep reading.

Good things come to those who wait. And by "good things" I mean a loaf of bread so delicious, you may find yourself daydreaming about it long after it's been gobbled up. The key ingredients for bread-making are patience, precision, a little bit of luck, and, in most cases, a strong arm for working the dough. But if that last bit turns you off, then you've come to the right place.


Jim Lahey's recipe for no-knead bread has made the rounds in the food blogging world, but I'd been somewhat intimidated by it. In an effort to try new things and satisfy a crazy craving for homemade bread, I set about tackling it. For 18-plus hours, I nervously waited for my dough to rise and bubble, convinced the whole time that I would screw it up.

The next day, to my surprise, I woke up to a bowl of sticky, bubbly dough that perfectly fit the description in the recipe. How thrilling! The next few steps required a delicate touch, a lot of flour, and more waiting.

For more, plus this famous bread recipe, keep reading.

While in Miami, we had the chance to nurse our hangovers, Italian style. Chef Fabio Viviani's Bertolli demo was filled with laughs, mispronunciations, and homemade, fresh fettuccine. All in all, it was great fun, and we were surprised to learn that making pasta at home doesn't have to be the headache that it's made out to be. With a food processor, a pasta press, and a few staple ingredients, you can have fresh pasta in a matter of minutes.

A few helpful tips that Fabio made sure to stress: an "Italian tablespoon" is not the same thing as an American tablespoon (see above photo), quality products and ingredients shouldn't be messed with, and that extra-virgin olive oil shouldn't be used in high-heat situations.

If you're up for a pasta challenge, find the recipe when you keep reading.

Strawberry-infused tequila, Irish cream, limoncello, and gin: if ever there's been a DIY spirit, we've made it. What, I pondered, could we tackle next?

When the Scandinavian food trend hit tables this year, the answer dawned on me: aquavit! This time-honored Norwegian spirit — infused with the flavors of spices such as coriander, caraway, fennel, and dill seed — seems oh-so-festive for the holidays. Make a batch for your friends, then hoard a bottle for yourself! For full effect, serve it chilled in shot glasses with smoked salmon with dill, rye crackers, and other Nordic fare. Skål!

Read ahead for an easy homemade aquavit recipe.