If you like rice, you probably like fried rice, the side-dish standby of Chinese American restaurants, and a great way to use up leftovers if you make it at home. Variations of fried rice are are found in many countries, but certain steps in the recipe are universal. Learn the basics of making fried rice, and you can create endless variations by using whatever ingredients you'd like. I'm certainly not a fried rice expert like some of the Asian bloggers whose recipes I'm featuring in this post, but here are a few things I've learned from making it many times.

From cookbook author, blogger, and reportedly all-around nice guy Michael Ruhlman comes the ultimate summer challenge for serious cooks: make a BLT sandwich from scratch. Now if you're thinking to yourself, no big deal, I make BLT sandwiches all the time, read on to see why this challenge is for truly serious cooks.

Next up in my series of posts on The Sauces of Summer is a sauce that you've probably had if you've gone to a Greek restaurant and ordered a Gyro or the Greek-style kabob called Souvlaki. Tzatziki is a yogurt and cucumber based sauce with herbs that's almost always served with both those dishes, and it's also served as a Meze or appetizer in Greece. Some Greek-American restaurants call this simply "white sauce" but whatever you call it, lots of people love Tzatziki sauce.

The school year has ended or is ending soon all over the U.S., and for many families making ice cream goes hand-in-hand with the arrival of summer. Making ice cream with your kids is one sure way to get them to eat your cooking, and there aren't many adults who'd turn down homemade ice cream either. Every year at this time I'm amazed at the creative ice cream recipes that start showing up from food bloggers, so here are a few new ideas for Ice Cream Summer 2009.

People have different ways of defining the arrival of summer, but for me it's when the weather is warm enough to eat outside. I think there's something about fresh air that makes food taste better, which may be why barbecues and picnics are so popular. You probably have some favorite summer recipes, but if you're up for trying something new, I think lentil salad is a perfect dish for outdoor eating.

Since it's Memorial Day weekend and that means the start of grilling season in lots of families, it seems only fitting that I give you some new or improved ideas for things to cook on the grill for this edition of Weekend Menu Planning. Whether you're grilling with charcoal, gas, an electric grill, or using a stove-top grill pan, here are some grilling menu suggestions that will make your guests drool.

Butter tarts are one of the few foods we have that are uniquely Canadian. We have many regional specialties but more often than not they belong to a culture that started somewhere other than Canada. We are, after all, an officially multicultural society. The mighty butter tart though is one food that we can brag about as being our own. Sure, there are other regional dessert that are similar - the south has its pecan pie and the Quebecois their sugar pie but there is only one butter tart. A pastry shell filled with butter and sugar and well, mainly butter and sugar.

How do you feel about your freezer? In my kitchen I have a side-by-side refrigerator with a freezer, plus an additional upright freezer, and both my freezers are usually pretty full. I admit, I'm one of those crazy ladies who can't stand to throw away perfectly good food or ingredients, so I'm always thinking of new things to freeze.

If you've never made caramelized onions, you may not realize the special kitchen magic that takes place when onions are sauteed for a long time in olive oil or butter and the natural sweetness of the onion turns them into golden bits of onion deliciousness. Caramelized onions simply taste amazing. Not only that, onions are inexpensive and caramelized onions are simple to make.

I adore mushrooms.  I love everything about them: the way they smell, the way they taste, the way they look.  Well, I suppose none of that brackety shelf fungi will be winning any beauty contests, and the same goes for huitlacoche (corn fungus that looks disGUSting), but chanterelles are pretty cute.  I love that mushrooms convert decay into something more palatable.  Nature can be so brutal and yet so simultaneously awesome.  Unfortunately, I have a little mushroom digestion problem that prevents me from going too far overboard, but trust me when I say I love them more than you do.  Just don’t make me prove it.

Every spring fresh fava beans burst on to the culinary scene. They appear in markets and gardens, and of course food bloggers start writing about what they're making with favas. Interesting that favas would get so much attention, when by all accounts, they're fairly labor intensive to remove from the pods. Are they worth the trouble?

Contributing Editor Alanna has already started us down the path of the artichoke this spring, but this thistly edible could use some extra press.  One post to plant the seed, another to coax you on, and maybe a few more before you’re convinced to actually cook them if you’re new to their preparation.  After all, they’re intimidating with their thorny leaves and foreboding, though easily subdued, choke.  But they’re also delicious and, once you learn how to handle them, fun to eat.