Oven

THAWING TAKES time. Often I feel like a captive of frozen crystals, waiting for some frozen hunk of protein to gradually abandon its rigid state and be ready to be tossed in the oven or on the grill. As an impatient thawer, I have employed a variety of techniques to hurry the process along. I have become a prier, forcing frozen pieces apart with a knife, to allow air to circulate and do its liberating work. Occasionally, very occasionally, I have planned around the thaw, placing a frozen chicken in the refrigerator early in the morning, so it will be safely defrosted in time for the evening meal.

The menu at Bel Air's Pairings Bistro changes throughout the year, evolving to highlight the best products from each season. This spring, Chef/owner Jon Kohler is serving small, succulent spring chickens, roasted and served with fresh peas and local mushrooms. Pairings Bistro 2105 Laurel Bush Road | Suite 108 | Bel Air, MD 21015 410-569-5006 | pairingsbistro.com Roast Poussin with Wild Mushrooms and Spring Pea Ragout Serves 6 Poussins: 6 poussins (spring chickens, preferably from KCC Natural Farms in Forest Hill)

Alice Teel from Perry Hall is looking for a recipe for a puff pancake that she had lost. She remembered that a cast-iron skillet was put in the oven with butter to melt and then the batter was poured into the hot skillet and baked. When it was done, the large pancake was puffed around the edges and somewhat sunken in the middle, perfect for filling with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Dianne Ross from Baltimore sent in a recipe for an oven pancake that sounds very similar to the one Teel requested.

Wings are football food. There's no denying it. But they're certainly not health food. This recipe gives your arteries a bit of a break because the chicken is roasted instead of fried. There's no loss in flavor, though, thanks to a sweet and tangy glaze made with soy sauce, sugar and balsamic vinegar. They're sticky, for sure, but it's worth it. Just bring napkins (and maybe wet wipes) along with the wings for the game-day festivities. Balsamic soy-glazed chicken wings 4-5 pounds chicken wingettes 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon unsalted butter Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven.

A moment of silence, please. Easy-Bake Oven is celebrating its 35th year. That makes the one I got in 1967 a collectible. It just makes me old.But not too old to forget that Easy-Bake of 30 years ago. It looked nothing like the family stove, a white behemoth that you lighted by gingerly sticking a match somewhere deep into its recesses and hoping for the best. (For years, the neighbors thought singed eyebrows ran in our family.)By contrast, the Easy-Bake used a light bulb. Efficient, yes, but a pale comparison to the drama offered by the exploding oven of my youth.

WASHINGTON, VA. -- I don't need much of an excuse to wangle a trip to the Inn at Little Washington, the celebrated Virginia restaurant regarded as one of the best in the United States. Recently I went there to check out the tony establishment's link to a Dundalk factory. In short, I pursued the local angle to feast on foie gras.The inn has put in a new oven. And the inn's oven, like its meals -- $88 per person on weeknights, wine extra -- is far beyond the ordinary. Instead of a big, black hunk of metal shoved up against the kitchen wall, the new oven is a gorgeous mixture of gleaming copper and shimmering porcelain that serves as the dramatic centerpiece for a new kitchen layout.

Follow these tips from cookiemeister Nick Malgieri, director of the baking program at Peter Kump's Cooking School and author of the just-published "How to Bake", for baking the best cookies around.* Unless a recipe specifies otherwise, have all ingredients at room temperature.* Don't overmix cookie dough. It can cause cookies to inflate and then collapse in the oven. When a recipe calls for mixing ingredients "until smooth," it means that you should mix everything just until it is blended together.

I AM LEARNING to cook all over again. It is called adjusting to a new oven and a new cook top. For the past month I have been cooking with a dual-fuel setup, a Dacor with gas burners and an electric convection oven. The experience has both reminded me of my past and forced me to try the new, bake-it-with-moving-air approach to cooking. I grew up on gas, watching my mother cook eggs on gas burners and bake cakes in the gas-fired Roper oven. Lighting the oven was an event. It required a match and a steady hand to ignite it. Nowadays, this is all done with electronic gizmos.

If I have to look at one more oven, I'm going to ask the salesperson to turn it on so I can stick my head in it and end this misery. I'm pretty sure there was a time in America when consumers had only a mere 100 or so ovens to choose from. This was a nice, simple time when people could discover that their oven had broken, go out shopping the next day to select a new model, and have it delivered promptly the following afternoon. This was also back in the day when brand loyalty existed.

Today's lesson: Drying fruits or vegetables under the sun or in the oven.The best ones are harvested at their peak. The slow drying concentrates the fruit's already-superior flavor, while compacting its bulk. The resulting flavor is more intense and far richer, perfect for use now or to save for more robust dishes later.Drying takes advantage of extra-ripe fruit and the summer season's inexpensive prices. Concentrated flavors of dried produce can pick up the depth of just about any savory or sweet dish.

My friend posted a link to this recipe for a skillet cookie the other day, and I could not stop thinking about it. I'd never even heard of such a thing, but today I just had to try it. The blog Sophistimom posted this originally, and I love the post. She recommends using high-quality ingredients because: "You wouldn't want to use crappy flour, or crappy margarine or fake vanilla. That would lessen the flavor, lessen the experience, and still make you fat. " Ha! And point taken.

Potatoes are a humble food. Grown under the ground until harvested and kept in the dark until needed as filler for a soup or a quick side, they are rarely given a moment in the spotlight. Sure, there are mashed potatoes and french fries, but they are used in many houses as a vehicle for gravy or ketchup. When properly cooked, seasoned thoroughly and paired with a complementing sauce, potatoes are surprisingly rich and reminiscent of their earthy upbringing. This recipe is a culinary classic.

Alice Teel from Perry Hall is looking for a recipe for a puff pancake that she had lost. She remembered that a cast-iron skillet was put in the oven with butter to melt and then the batter was poured into the hot skillet and baked. When it was done, the large pancake was puffed around the edges and somewhat sunken in the middle, perfect for filling with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Dianne Ross from Baltimore sent in a recipe for an oven pancake that sounds very similar to the one Teel requested.

Whatever Punxsutawny Phil predicts today, we can rest assured that there's more cold weather ahead. And, as we all know, cold weather calls for comfort food. Actually, any excuse for comfort food will do, but setting out to prepare tummy-warming fuel for body and soul is particularly satisfying this time of year. Without getting into what defines comfort food for each person, some kind of pasta, aka noodles, makes the Top 10 list for virtually everyone on the planet - or at least this half of it. And since we welcome the opportunity to heat up the kitchen, some kind of baked pasta dish seems to smack of nirvana.

Executive Chef Daniel Wecker reflects: This is one of my personal favorites because of the combination of the elegant, flaky flounder with the tartness of the sauce with the capers. I recommend a rice blend or creamy polenta as the starch and a garnish of chopped parsley. This dish pairs very nicely with Pouilly-Fuisse, White Burgundy, a rich, dry white wine. Sauteed Flounder Grenobloise Sauce Ingredients: - 3 cups of brown chicken stock - 1/3 cup roux (equal parts butter and flour cooked)

This Sunday, the Ravens will have to brave frigid Foxborough, Mass. to take on the New England Patriots. But you won't have to stand out in the cold to make these ribs. Instead of a grill, you can use your oven to roast this tender, savory game-time snack. No-grill BBQ ribs Makes 1 rack 1 full rack of ribs (country or baby back) 1/2 cup orange juice Juice of 2 limes 2 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon liquid smoke Extra-large aluminum foil 1 cup of your favorite bbq sauce Spice rub 5 tablespoons brown sugar 3 tablespoons chili powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 11/2 teaspoon ground cumin 11/2 teaspoon ground coriander 11/2 teaspoon onion powder 11/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry sage 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder In a bowl, combine all of the dry rub ingredients.

In an effort to get the creative juices and the maple syrup flowing, I made a new kind of pancake for the family's Sunday morning breakfast. I baked the pancake in the oven.It turned out to be a flavorful, oversize pancake, more like a crepe than a flapjack.But there were howls of protest over its appearance at the breakfast table. The dominant pancake consumers of the clan, the 12-year-old and 8-year-old, did not welcome the newcomer. They wanted the "old pancakes, the ones Dad used to make."

With the flick of a lighter, the propane burner is lighted, and suddenly the back yard sounds like Baltimore-Washington International Airport during the morning rush hour. Ah, yes, the roar of a 160,000 Btu burner on full throttle. More rational people might be in-tixnidated by having such a noise near their homes. We aren't. We're about to use this industrial-strength burner to heat 35 pounds of peanut oil to the hot sizzle (or as sports announcer Keith Jackson might say, the "Whoa, Nellie")

Despite the best efforts of the Calorie and Cholesterol Cops (CCC) to shame us, there are still those of us who really love to give gifts of goodies made by our own hands in our own kitchens. In order to be dietarily correct, however, I suppose we now have to carry on this annual culinary tradition (well, semi-annual, if you count our summertime zucchini bread orgy) with an eye to those on our gift list. Over-indulgers are definitely out. We probably should only give our homemade love to those who have managed to retain a grip on the old saw, "Moderation in all things.

It's National Junk Food Day. Apparently. My favorite all time snack is Pringles. Here's a recipe for Chicken Pringlers. Chicken Pringlers recipe INGREDIENTS •    2- 6.38-ounce cans of  Pringles (BBQ or Honey Mustard flavor) •    2 pounds of boneless chicken breast or chicken tenders, cut into 1 1/2” nuggets •    2 cups of skim milk or buttermilk DIRECTIONS 1.    Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle. 2.    Place nuggets in milk.