Saffron’s reputation as an expensive, exotic spice has often scared away cooks from trying recipes that use the fragrant, colorful threads.

Lasagna has long been a go-to for potlucks, welcoming neighbors and new babies and feeding big families. Now those layers of pasta and cheese stack up to form their own social movement.

Chefs tend to be opinionated, and Molly Baz is no exception. In her new cookbook, “Cook This Book: Techniques that Teach and Recipes to Repeat,” she hammers home her firmly held opinions on wedge salads, breakfast and, above all, salt.

Cool potato dishes straight out of the refrigerator beat the heat at mealtime.

Ask a local gardener what they’re harvesting right now, and there’s likely to be a short answer. Okra, they’ll probably say. Ask for more details, and the answer will be: lots of okra.

The old adage about too many cooks didn’t apply in Jeff Mauro’s family. Surrounded by cousins, uncles, aunts and siblings, he grew up loving to hear the phrase, “Come on over,” because it meant that spectacular food would soon be on the table.

We’re at that awkward stage of the summer where a hot meal sometimes sounds good — but a hot, cranky cook definitely does not.

Few foods evoke the lush, golden pleasures of summer as much as peaches do. Whether it’s an early-season peach from Fredericksburg or a Fairfield peach in August, biting into the juicy fruit is like the perfect summer: sweet, surprising and a little out of control. While peaches are availabl…

Even at a time when cakes have become over-the-top, opulently decorated centerpieces and stars of their own television shows, a simple, unadorned pound cake can still reign supreme.

Texas isn’t just home to the best barbecue in the country; it’s also the birthplace of one of the iconic barbecue pits, the Old Smokey. Made in Houston, the Old Smokey’s proportions and portability have made it a favorite of barbecue fans and one of the few pits to have its own cook-offs.

When it’s too hot to cook, it helps to remember that cuisines around the world have faced the same problem and come up with cool solutions.

Fireworks aren’t limited to the bombs-bursting-in-air variety. Spicy flavors can set off a mouthful of fireworks.

Summer has many of us on the move, and that includes Galveston’s Own Farmers Market. The market moves to its new home at 28th and Market streets on Sunday and will operate there every Sunday morning throughout the year.

Juneteenth picnics aren’t anything new. Historical documents show that even the first anniversary of the historic reading of the order freeing enslaved people in Galveston was celebrated throughout Texas with picnics and prayers.

“Whole foods” isn’t just the name of a supermarket behemoth. For some cooks, it’s their cooking philosophy, as they try to find uses for every part of the fruits and vegetables in their kitchen.

Celebrity cookbooks can be fun to read (after all, these are people whose job it is to make things look good) but sketchy to cook from.

Although they’ve become a staple in restaurants far nicer than the greasy-spoon diners that gave sliders their name, a panful of sliders travels well for picnics and backyard dinners.

Local gardens are beginning to hit their seasonal stride, and vegetable gardeners are keeping a close eye on their tomato plants. The days of picking juicy, flavorful red tomatoes are almost here, and for gardeners who planted cherry tomatoes, those happy days are already here.

There are two kinds of people who eat fried fish: The ones who like tartar sauce on the fish and those who prefer ketchup. Or, maybe the two types are those who have found how good tartar sauce can be and those who haven’t yet.