As people become more aware of the health risks associated with artificial additives and synthetic food coloring, there has been a growing interest in natural food dyes.

Whether you’ll be frosting sugar cookies this Easter, dying eggs, or wowing your guests with colorful spring concoctions, homemade natural food dyes can be a great way to make your Easter more beautiful, healthy, and fun.

Why Dye?

Artificial food coloring is so cheap and easy to use, why would you consider making your own dyes? Well, here are a few reasons:

1. They're healthy. Natural food dyes are made from organic fruits, vegetables, flowers, and spices, many of which contain healthy vitamins and minerals. Beets, for example, are a good source of vitamin C, iron, fiber, and iron. It never hurts to sneak a little good nutrition into your diet!
2. They're safe. While the exact dangers of artificial dyes are still under debate, some things are clear. Several artificial food colors used in the U.S. have been proven to cause cancer in animals, and at least four dyes (Blue 1, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, and Red 40) have been shown to cause hypersensitivity reactions. Using natural food dyes allows you and your family to avoid those harmful chemicals.
3. They're environmentally green. Artificial food coloring is generally made from non-renewable, petroleum-based chemicals. Using natural food dyes is a small way to do something good for the environment.
4. They taste good. While you have to be careful not to use natural ingredients that have an overpowering taste, many natural dyes add a pleasant subtle flavor that helps cut the cloying sweetness of frosting and desserts.
5. They're fun. Making your own food dyes—especially if you rope your family into doing it with you—can be a fun and meaningful seasonal tradition. And Easter is the perfect time to add color and creativity in the kitchen.

Tips for Making Your Own Natural Food Dyes

• Keep it clean. These ingredients stain easily, so be careful! Wear gloves. Protect your countertops. (You may want to work on a cookie sheet to catch any spills.) Use cheesecloth or a towel that can be permanently stained. And if your kids are helping, make sure they’re not wearing their Sunday best!
• Adjust the intensity. Remember that natural dyes tend to be more muted than artificial dyes, so expect the colors to be less intense. With natural dyes, you’ll usually end up with softer pastel colors…perfect for Easter! To kick up the color, you may need to use about twice as much dye in your recipes.
• Start with primary colors. Find good recipes for red, yellow, and blue dyes. (See below.) Once you have those three colors, you can mix them in the right proportions to make almost any color you want!

RED

Traditional ways to make natural red food coloring include beet juice or dry beet powder, hibiscus tea, strawberries, paprika, cherries, pomegranate, tomatoes, or cranberries. Some of these ingredients have strong tastes and some have little taste at all, so different ingredients work better for different applications.

To frost our Easter sugar cookies this year, we used dry beet powder because it’s easy to use and does not interfere with the taste of the frosting. Just add a little at a time until you reach the color you want. If you don’t have dry beet powder, you can wash and peel one beet, purée or mash it up, and strain out the juice. To deepen the color, boil the mixture down and/or add a little vinegar.

PRO TIP: That left-over beet is great for making a delicious borscht.

YELLOW

Saffron, turmeric, annatto, lemons, carrots, and yellow onion skins can all be used to make yellow natural food dye. We used saffron because we’re all about keeping it simple. Just crush a pinch of the spice in a mortar and pestle, add a little hot water, and voila!

PRO TIP: Adding a little vinegar may help you extract a more vivid yellow color.

BLUE

Blueberries, red cabbage, purple potatoes, and cornflowers can all be used to make natural blue food dyes, but we used butterfly pea blossoms.

If you haven’t worked with butterfly pea blossoms before, you’re in for a treat! They’ve been used in Southeast Asia for all kinds of delightful drinks and dishes for centuries.

Butterfly pea blossoms are inexpensive and can be ordered online. Steep a dozen blossoms in a cup of boiling water for about 15 minutes, until the water turns a vivid blue. Then strain out and discard the flowers. You can add the remaining blue dye to any food or drink, but here’s part of what makes these flowers so fun: their color changes according to pH! If you add a few drops of lemon juice or some other acid, you’ll see it transform from blue to beautiful shades of purple, lavender or pink.

PRO TIP: Dye your Easter eggs blue with butterfly pea blossoms, then drizzle them with lemon juice or soda to play with the colors.

While pea blossom extract lends a vivid blue color to drinks, it makes a very pale blue in frosting or other foods. We also tried crushing dried blossoms with a mortar and pestle and adding the powder directly into our frosting. It works, but if you use this method, be sure to remove the sepals (the little green leaves on the blossoms) before you crush your powder.

Wishing a healthy, safe, and beautiful Easter season to you all!

Eat Well.

I have always been accident prone.

The first time I rode a scooter to school, I hit a pebble and went down hard, knocking my teeth on the road. I never told my parents about that. In fact, I never told them about a lot of accidents I had over the years, like the longboarding mishap or the road rash I got from slipping on a wet sidewalk at a friend’s swimming party. They have no idea how many accidents I’ve had, and I want to keep it that way.

For someone who has so many scars from so many accidents, working in a kitchen seems like a terrible career choice. But actually, it’s a good thing because I’ve had to train myself to be super careful and follow good safety rules. The truth is that anyone can get hurt in the kitchen. When you get too confident and ignore the rules, that’s when you’re in trouble.

My boyfriend likes to tease me that the reason he does most of the cooking is because I’m not safe in the kitchen. (I let him think that because I’m just glad to have a break from being in the kitchen all day at work!) But once in a while, I get the urge to cook at home. Recently, I made grilled cheese sandwiches. I didn’t cut myself. I didn’t get burned. There was no accident of any kind. I have to admit, I was feeling a little proud of myself as I carried my sandwiches up the stairs to show him what I’d done.

And that’s when I slipped on the stairs and dropped the plate.

Life is hard for us accident-prone people, but I swear, we’re the safest people around if we follow good safety guidelines. Here are a few kitchen safety tips I’ve had to learn along the way:

• Make your workspace safe.

  Before you turn on any heat or pull out anything sharp, make sure you’ve cleared out any pets, children, or amorous partners. Don’t leave anything where it can fall, be bumped, or overheat. Have a fire extinguisher nearby as well as a cookie sheet or other flat surface to smother a fire. Also, no slick surfaces.

• Don’t wear anything loose.

  Tie up your hair and avoid loose-hanging clothes or jewelry.

• Never reach into something you can’t see.

  This includes murky water and drawers that are out of your vision. If you have a bin full of dirty utensils, pour it out rather than trying to sort through it by hand.

• Don’t dump broken glass into the trash.

  It will cut through the plastic and hurt someone carrying it. Place broken glass in a used cardboard box, an opened tin can, or some other waste container that won’t easily be cut open when it’s in the trash.

• Make sure your cutting board is secure.

  You don’t want it to slide around! If it’s on a slick surface, lay a damp cloth flat underneath your board.

• Keep your knives clean.

  For health safety, you should always keep your tools clean, but be extra careful not to use a knife that has oil or grease on the handle.

• Make a flat surface on anything you cut.

  The first cut a chef makes is often one that creates a stable, flat surface so that the object will rest firmly in place.

• Don’t use anything wet to shield you from heat.

  A wet towel will burn you just as badly as a pan if you try to use it as a hot pad.

• Don’t wear plastic gloves under grilling gloves.

  Trust me. Just don’t.

• Don't get complacent.

  This is the hardest rule to follow, but it's the most important. When you stop paying attention and start thinking, "I got this!" that's when you spill your beautiful grilled cheese sandwich on the stairs.

With Amazon Prime Day approaching, this may be the perfect time to take the leap and learn how to cook sous vide at home.

If you’re not familiar with the term, “sous vide” (pronounced soo-veed) is a method of vacuum-packing food in a plastic bag and then cooking it submerged in a hot water bath. When sous vide cooking was introduced to the American public in 2006 on the TV show Iron Chef America, people didn’t know what to make of the funny-looking tools. The show’s commentators called them “nice toys.” Little did they know that sous vide would prove to be a game-changing advancement in the culinary world.

At Culinary Crafts, we’ve been cooking sous vide for a decade, but it’s only recently that the method has started making its way into people’s homes. For a long time, the equipment needed to cook sous vide was bulky, overly complex, and prohibitively expensive. A single sous vide machine cost upwards of a thousand dollars, so sous vide cooking was pretty much restricted to top-end restaurants and caterers. But now that affordable, quality sous vide devices have entered the market, home cooks can start enjoying easy, precision cooking with perfect results every time.

How Sous Vide Works

It’s simple. Put water in a pot, plastic bin, or any other container that can hold hot water. Insert an immersion circulator, a thin device that heats the water to an exact desired temperature and circulates it throughout the container. Place the food you want to cook in a plastic bag and squeeze out the air before sealing the bag. Then submerge the vacuum-packed food in the water and leave it alone to cook. What could be easier?

Why Cook Sous Vide?

At first glance, sous vide might seem like a fancy variation on boiling or poaching, but sous vide offers major advantages over any other cooking method.

• Control

  Traditional methods like grilling, boiling, baking, or broiling force you to rely on a certain degree of guesswork when it comes to cooking temperatures, but a good sous vide immersion circulator will hold your food precisely at your target temperature. That kind of control means that there are things you can do with sous vide that are otherwise impossible.

• Taste

  A big reason why Michelin-starred restaurants rely on sous vide is because of the incredible taste it produces. Trapped in an air-tight container, food stays in its own juices, so there’s no chance for it to dry out or lose its beautiful flavors. Even pork and chicken breasts come out juicy, tender, and delicious every time. In fact, sous vide is so good at concentrating flavors that you need to be careful to reduce the herbs or aromatics you would normally add to recipes because those flavors will be intensified during the sous vide cook.

• Convenience

  For a home chef, the ease of sous vide cooking may be one of its biggest advantages. Much like a slow cooker/crockpot, you can “set it and forget it.” However, even a crockpot will dry out and burn food if you forget it for too long, but with sous vide, it’s virtually impossible to overcook food. As long as you set it to the right temperature in the first place, your food will not overcook, even if you forget about it and go on vacation!

• Nutrition

  Because it’s protected from contact with water, air, or high temperatures, food cooked sous vide retains more minerals and nutrients than with any other cooking method.

• Consistency

  Sous vide cooking guarantees that you can get the same results time after time. Not only that, but the food you make will be cooked consistently throughout. For example, with traditional cooking methods, a “medium rare” steak will be medium rare only at its center. The outer edges of the steak will be well done. With sous vide, you can achieve a steak that is medium rare (or any other level of doneness you want) all the way through, from edge to edge.


What Are the Downsides of Sous Vide?

Honestly, now that immersion circulators are affordable, there aren’t many downsides to cooking sous vide. One, arguably, is Time. Because sous vide cooking uses lower temperatures, it takes more time for your food to cook. You cannot “whip up” a meal using sous vide. Just as with a slow cooker, it’s a tradeoff between time and convenience. But all you have to do is plan ahead, get your sous vide cooker started in time, and then wait. There’s no danger of starting your sous vide cook too soon because the method is very forgiving. Your sous vide cooker will continue holding your food warm, safe, and ready until it's time to eat.

The other possible disadvantage to sous vide is that it does not brown food. For some meals (particularly meats like steak), most people like to have a bit of char on the surface, but sous vide will not do that. However, there’s a simple solution: a reverse sear. Once you’ve brought your steak to the right doneness all the way through, remove it from the sous vide bath. Heat a pan as hot as you can make it, and pat your steak dry. (Surface moisture is the enemy to a good sear.) One by one, place each edge of the steak to the pan just long enough to get a good char.



What Kind of Sous Vide Cooker Should I Get?

There are two general types of sous vide equipment: water ovens and immersion circulators. Water ovens are all-in-one sous vide systems where you pour the water into the machine, set your temperature, and let it heat before dropping in your vacuum-packed food. Besides being more expensive, bulkier, and harder to manage, water baths also have another disadvantage. They don’t circulate the water as they cook, which makes for less consistent results.

For cooking most kinds of food, we recommend an immersion circulator. There are lots of good circulators available, so even though we really like the Breville Joule and several of Anova’s models, the best bet is to do a little homework and decide which immersion circulator gives you what’s most important to you.

Here are factors you should consider:

• Price. Unless there are specific special features that you want to add, you should be able to get a very good immersion circulator in the $100-200 price range.
• Temperature Consistency. Arguably this is the most important factor to consider since precise temperature control is the main advantage of sous vide cooking.
• Ease of Use. Some models have controls you can set by pressing a few buttons manually while others are controlled through an app on your smartphone or other device. It’s a matter of personal preference which is better, but read user reviews on how much trouble a particular model is to program before you buy. Also look at the attachment mechanism; some models are difficult to attach to various cooking containers.
• Heating Time. How long does it take for a model to bring the water up to the target temperature? Remember that the water temperature will drop slightly whenever you add your food, so it makes a difference how long it takes to recover to the target temperature.
• Pump Capacity. This is a measure of how well the circulator moves heated water through the container. The more water it moves, the more consistent your temperature will be, and the better results you can expect.


What Other Tools Do I Need?

Cooking vessel

Practically any vessel will do—a deep pan, a ceramic slow cooker pot, even a beer cooler—as long as it can hold enough water. We recommend a clear plastic storage bin because they’re sturdy, they let you see what’s going on inside, and they have plenty of uses when you’re not cooking.

Plastic bags

These can be (1) single-use or resealable vacuum bags, (2) reusable silicone bags, or (3) ordinary freezer bags. Vacuum bags give the most reliable seal, but they require you to buy a pump or vacuum sealer. Silicone bags are eco-friendly and can be reused ad infinitum, but their thickness makes it a little harder to get an air-free seal. This problem can be (mostly) solved by using the water displacement method and by adding weights so the food will be completely submerged. Plastic freezer bags are easier to work with, but they tend to break at temperatures around 158°F or higher.

Ping pong balls?

You’ll also need a way to prevent your heated water from evaporating away during long sous vide cooks. Some specialized sous vide cooking containers come with lids designed for that purpose. Or you can always just cover your container with plastic wrap. We have found that covering the surface of the water with floating ping pong balls is surprisingly effective at slowing evaporation and cutting down on the energy bill.



Binder clips

If you aren’t sure that the seal on your bag will stay completely water-tight, you can use binder clips to attach your food bag to the side of your cooking vessel. This will leave the food completely submerged while the seal of the bag is safely up above the waterline. If your food floats, you can use the clips to attach a weight to the bag. Submerging the bag completely ensures that the food will cook thoroughly and evenly. (You can accomplish the same thing by adding food-safe metal ball bearings in the bag.)

Pot lid organizer

Finally, if you will be sous viding several bags at once, you may want to buy a pot-lid organizer that will fit in your cooking vessel. By holding the bags apart from each other, the organizer will allow each bag to be completely surrounded by the hot water, cooking evenly and completely.



What Should I Cook First?

Once you’ve taken the plunge and bought a sous vide cooker, there’s a whole world of foods to try with your new-found superpower.

A good way to familiarize yourself with the advantages of sous vide cooking is to try out foods that are often challenging with traditional cooking methods. For example, tough cuts of beef can be difficult to soften up without overcooking and drying out, but with sous vide you’ll find that they pose no challenge at all! Alternatively, certain meats are notoriously easy to overcook, but you can delight your family and amaze your friends with perfect sous vided chicken breasts, pork, or veal.

Perhaps the best way to flex your sous vide muscles is with a dish that is a touchstone of chefs’ skills: perfectly cooked eggs Benedict with Hollandaise sauce.



Keep an eye on our site for ideas of must-try sous vide recipes.

FUEL

Lump charcoal

• it gets hot quickly (in 10 to 15 minutes).
• it reaches very high temperatures (up to 1400°F) which allows you to give food a wonderful char.
• it burns more completely, leaving behind less ash.
• it gives a clean, flavorful smokiness to your food.

Briquettes

• it’s readily available.
• it’s less expensive than lump charcoal.
• it’s easy to fit onto your grill and move around to control your fire.
• it gives a more consistent grilling temperature.
• it burns longer (100 briquettes ought to let you grill for up to an hour).

Wood

FIRE

Set Up Safety

• Set up your grill safely far away from potential fire hazards like structures or low- hanging trees. (Anticipate possibilities like things falling or being blown around by wind.)
• Position your grill where pets, children, or foot traffic won’t accidentally bump into it.
• Think about the mess. I’m not just talking about the ash; I’m also talking about the mess from the food itself. For example, if you’re grilling meat, you’re always going to have drippings, so don’t set up your grill on any decorative or porous surface. Stay away from concrete, nice flooring, or patio wood if you can. Grass is good.
• Arrange your tools and space ahead of time. When you’re holding a scorching-hot chimney in one hand and tending to a sudden flare-up with the other, it’s too late to be thinking about where you’re going to safely put things down.

Fire Safety

• Don’t wear anything loose like a tie or dangling, long hair while you’re grilling.
• Keep “helpful” neighbors and everyone else at a safe distance from your fire.
• If you ignore our advice and use self-igniting briquettes, at least don’t use them in a chimney or with an electric coil starter.
• Once your fire is going, never leave the grill unattended.
• Be careful when opening the lid of your grill. When you turn or move meat, be especially alert for flareups from melting fat falling onto your coals.
• Wear proper protective gear and don’t set hot items near flammables, where someone can accidentally touch them, or where they can be knocked over by the wind.
• Have a functioning fire extinguisher and/or a water hose nearby, just in case.

Food Safety

• Wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling food, especially raw meat.
• Keep your plates and platters clean. Don’t put cooked foods onto the same plate with raw foods or where raw meat has been.
• Keep your tools clean too. If you use a fork or tongs on raw meat, wash it thoroughly before you let it touch any cooked food.
• Especially for less experienced grillers, it’s a good idea to use a meat thermometer to check your food and make sure it reaches the recommended internal temperature.
• Don’t leave uncooked, perishable food sitting out (even to thaw) for more than 2 hours. In hot weather, don’t leave it out for 1 hour.
• Don’t put grilled food into your fridge until it’s had time to cool off. Putting hot food into your fridge can change the temperature enough to make your other food spoil.

Planning Your Fire

Light It Up!

1. Think Big

2. Be Practical

3. Prioritize

4. Size Matters

5. Amenities

6. Protect Your Guests from the Elements

7. View the Space Through Your Guests' Eyes

8. Lighting

9. Permits, Licenses, and Insurance

10. Work with a Planner and Vendors

• For furniture, All Out Event Rental
• For lighting, Moonlight Lighting
• For tents, Diamond Event and Tent
• For restrooms, Royal Restrooms or Simply Privys

• Pizzeria 712 - 320 State St #185, Orem, UT - This has been a Crafts family favorite since it opened. 712's approach shares many of our own philosophies and values regarding food - simple yet creative, ingredient driven, and house-made. Always delicious!
• Asahi - 1470 N State St, Orem, UT - Great sushi at a great price. Conveniently located. We go here a lot!
• Tsunami Restaurant & Sushi Bar - 1616 W Traverse Parkway, Lehi, UT - Not only is the sushi fabulous, there are lots of delicious options to satisfy even the sushi averse, including an impressive sake list.
• Oteo - 139 S State St, Lindon, UT - Tacos, sopes, and empanadas after our own hearts! Innovative and trendy, yet still simple and without fuss. Don't miss the avocado tacos.
• Black Sheep Cafe - 19 N University Ave, Provo, UT - Southwestern Native American cooking with full bar selections. Upscale and full service, but still casual. Ryan recommends the hog jowl tacos!
• Cravings Bistro - 25 W Center St, Pleasant Grove, UT - A modern take on classic comfort dishes (grilled cheese and soup). It's impossible to pick the wrong sandwich, but if you're undecided opt for the ABC (apples, bacon, and cheddar). And it's just a few blocks away from our own office!
• The Foundry Grill - 8841 N Alpine Loop Rd, Sundance, UT - Ryan spends a lot of time skiing the slopes at Sundance, and drops in here often for an elegant dinner of modern American cuisine. The Tree Room, and Owl Bar are excellent too!
• Peace On Earth - 35 N 300 W #200, Provo, UT - Let's be honest, it's not easy to find a great cup of Joe of Utah County. We're so happy to see more places like this coming to town. Great sandwiches and beautiful digs as well!
• Taqueria 27 - 1688 W Traverse Pkwy, Lehi, UT - Great food at great prices. Fun for groups. Also featuring an array of specials updated daily.
• 180 Tacos - 3368 N University Ave, Provo, UT - Too many taco places you say? There's no such thing! Great to dine in or take. The daily specials are always fun!
• Bam Bams BBQ - 1708 State St, Orem, UT - Delicious Texas-style BBQ. And just like in Texas, the best thing is the brisket!
• Yamato - 1074 State St, Orem, UT - As much as we like to see new comers in our local restaurant scene, we're also ecstatic that places like Yamato stand the test of time. Excellent sushi as well as other classic Japanese dishes.
• CHOM Burger - 45 300 N, Provo, UT - Just because you've ditched fast food for good, doesn't mean you can't find a tasty burger out there. We love CHOM. And the milkshakes are killer too (especially the rotating seasonal selection)!
• Sidecar Cafe - 1715 W 500 S, Springville, UT - In addition to the great breakfast and lunch menus, you can check out the Legend's Motorcycle Museum while you're there.
• Straptank - 1750 West 596 South, Springville, UT - Across the parking lot from Sidecar, this brewery (yep, you read that right) features pub grub to satisfy all comers.

Tips for care of your end grain board

• Utah air is awfully dry and cause wood boards to split and crack. Conditioning the wood will prevent cracking and keep it looking beautiful. A good rule of thumb for treating a new board is to oil once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, and once a year for life. You should also treat wood after washing with heavy soap or anytime the wood looks dry.
• There are various conditioning oils, creams, waxes and blends available specifically for wood boards. However, the simplest solution is as good as any: mineral oil. Avoid vegetable oils and any others that aren't perpetually stables since they will eventually go rancid and make your board stink.
• Keep your cutting board on the counter top where it can breath. Avoid storage in places where airflow is stifled and where moisture can get trapped.

• Always wash your board by hand with soft materials. Only use soap when necessary. Never wash in the dishwasher, and never leave the board to to soak submerged.