Jane O'Shea articles

You walk into the grocery store needing milk, eggs, and bread, but somehow leave with $100 worth of groceries. It might feel like a failure of self-control, but supermarkets use carefully planned layouts, promotions, and product displays to influence what shoppers buy. Once you understand these tricks, keeping your grocery bill under control becomes a whole lot easier.

Even the most celebrated chefs have secret culinary boundaries, and Giada De Laurentiis is no exception. Her refined palate, shaped by Italian tradition and years on camera, hides a surprising list of ingredients she won’t touch.

Throughout history, wealthy diners have gone to extraordinary lengths to enjoy foods that ordinary people could barely imagine eating. From tiny songbirds drowned in alcohol to elaborate banquets featuring exotic animals, some of the world's most prestigious delicacies came with disturbing consequences. Many were celebrated as symbols of wealth and sophistication, even when their preparation involved cruelty, environmental destruction, or ingredients that would disgust modern diners. The history of these unusual foods reveals just how dramatically our ideas about luxury and acceptable eating have changed.

Shaped by Indigenous, Spanish, and African influences, Colombian cuisine has something delicious to offer for everyone.

Irish soda bread is a wonderful bread that you can make in under an hour with just a handful of basic ingredients.

Wooden and plastic cutting boards each have strengths and drawbacks. We review the pros and cons of both so you can decide which kind is best for your kitchen.

Coffee has been blamed for everything from high blood pressure to upset stomachs, and poor sleep. But modern science suggests that moderate coffee drinking can give serious health benefits. It’s how you go about it that matters.

With labels promising everything from “cage-free” to “omega-3 enriched” to “pasture-raised", it's important to know how to choose the right eggs for your health and budget.

Whole wheat flour can add nutrition and flavor to your baked goods, but it acts differently from all-purpose flour. We review some tips to help you get the best results out of your whole wheat baking.