I wanted to serve iced tea at a party recently, but was concerned that if I used ice to keep it cool, it would become watery. A friend suggested making the ice cubes out of the iced tea. For some reason the ice cubes were all crumbly and grainy. What was going on?--Patricia In essence, you were making a granita by freezing the iced tea.... Read more →

I love to bake home-made cakes, and I always sift my dry ingredients together three times before adding them into the mixer. I do this so that I won't have any lumps and so that I am certain the cake will be well mixed. My mother insists that "over sifting" will make the cake dry and that she has read this in several publications... Read more →

Lots of recipes that use wine or spirits say to cook off the alcohol. I have heard that not all of the alcohol is cooked off. Is this true? -- Bobbi That's correct. Depending on the cooking method, between 5% and maybe 75% of the alcohol that went into the dish is left behind. But the question really is, how much actual alcohol is that... Read more →