Every cook has a time when he or she has just been boiling - and I’m not talking about water. I’m talking about the times when your brownies have overcooked, your veggies just won’t turn out quite right and your roast won’t hit its mark on the meat thermometer even after an extra hour in the oven, on top of which your microwave won’t work, the kitchen mysteriously smells like burning and hungry relatives are grumbling impatiently in the next room. It’s enough to make you want to take your kitchen knife and throw it right into the wall (since, you know, it would be a bad idea to actually aim for any of the complaining relatives).

Now, I like my knives far to much to subject them to that kind of treatment, which is why I absolutely love the idea of these Knife Hooks (click on “home accessories” to find the product listing). They’re made of stainless steel and are sized just like a real knife, or at least like the part that is visible. There is no blade; they attach to the wall like traditional wall hooks. The knives look great once they’re up and, aside from being useful in general, they’re pretty much guaranteed to put a smile on your face no matter how frustrated you are in the kitchen.

There are two things that jump to mind when someone mentions a filled cake. One is a simple layer cake, sliced in half and filled with jam or buttercream. The other is a molten center cake - always a Valentine’s Day favorite - that is a chocolate cake with a chocolate truffle center, which melts as the cake bakes and leaves you with a rich sauce when you dig in with your fork. King Arthur Flour has a specialty pan online that offers a simpler (and cuter) option for this Valentine’s Day.

The Sweethearts Cake Pan bakes up a half-dozen heart-shaped cakes that each have a small divot on top that can be filled with chocolate, jam, whipped cream or anything else you can think of. The little cakes are adorable, and dead-easy to work with. Plus, since hearts are perfectly acceptable all year round (unlike, say a Christmas tree), you can use these again and again.

Is bottled water really better than tap when it comes to drinking water? When it comes to hot water, it may be.  A recent NY Times article points to research conducted by environmental scientists that hot tap water is more likely to be contaminated with lead than cold water. The reason for this is that hot water will dissolve anything - including contaminants like lead - much more easily than cold water and if that water encounters something like an older leaded pipe or some rust before coming out in your kitchen sink, it could very well end up in your glass. The risk, which accounts for up to 20% of all lead exposure, can be increased by further heating the water, because the lead will become more concentrated as water evaporates.

The risk is minimized by using cold water, so it’s probably best not to use hot tap water when drinking or cooking, even if using hot water will speed along the process of boiling water or fixing dinner.

I’m a huge soft pretzel fan. Whether they’re homemade or store-bought (preferably from a store or market that specializes, to some degree, in pretzel production), I’m usually happy to munch on a salted pretzel with a bit of mustard. But pretzels certainly come on more forms than soft, and the crunchy variety certainly has its uses, especially where dips are concerned. I had never had too much success in turning out a homemade breadstick-like pretzel in the past, but after I caught sight of a lovely post on this very subject, I decided to try my hand at pretzel sticks again.

It’s a good thing that I did, too, because these were quite addictive! The finished sticks were very crisp, although not hard all the way through in the way that store-bought pretzel sticks are, and were pretty easy to make. The dough did not need a long rise and, once shaped, the pretzels only needed a quick dip in a hot baking soda-water bath before baking. The water adds a familiar pretzel taste to the sticks, helps to create a chewy crust (important in soft pretzels, somewhat less so in this case) and makes it very easy to adhere salt and other toppings to the sticks.

For toppings, I used a very coarse salt on some and grated Parmesan cheese on others. The cheese versions had a lot more flavor and made for a more interesting breadstick. That said, I liked the plain salt version. Be creative when it comes to the toppings. Try cheese, but feel free to use sesame seeds, poppy seeds or just plain salt and pepper to finish yours. Because the toppings will have no problem sticking to the wet dough, be careful about how much salt you use as a “dip” if you opt for plain salted pretzel sticks; I had a few that were overly salty, even for me.

The key to this recipe is shaping the pretzels properly. The sticks can be any length but they all need to be quite thin to work out. I would recommend between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick, with a preference towards narrower. The thinner pretzels will be crisper, while the thicker ones will be crisp with a slightly soft center. If you find it difficult to achieve such a narrow rope when you first start working with the dough, don’t worry. As you handle it, the gluten (protein) in the dough toughens up and makes the ropes difficult to stretch. Simply let the dough rest for a few minutes while you’re working it, rolling a few new ropes and going back to further stretch the already formed ones after about 5 minutes. Since you’ll need to bake the pretzels in batches unless you have a really massive oven, you can always adjust the pretzels in later batches to be a little thicker or thinner, as you prefer.
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This week’s bites are all over the place - no theme here. A couple on the decadent dessert side and a couple on the savory side.  All, as usual, look very tempting.

• I don’t know how many of you are fans of Starbucks Frappuccinos, but I’m going to assume that you’ve had at least one or two blended coffee drinks that you’ve enjoyed. If so, the Frappuccino Cupcake from So Sinful It’s Sweet is probably going to be right up your alley. It’s a mocha-filled white cupcake, with frappuccino buttercream and whipped-cream on top. Serve chilled, of course.
• Remember the Junior’s Cheesecake Cookbook that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago? Table Bread has been trying his hand at some of the recipes in it, including Junior’s Little Fella Chocolate Swirls. Long name aside, these are simply chocolate and vanilla swirled miniature cheesecakes. There is no crust to fuss with here, just pour the batter into muffin papers and bake for a great party dessert (and one that travels pretty well, too).
• Bananas, peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. These are the key components of a good fluffernutter. Add in some chocolate and a vanilla cake - augmented with said bananas - and you can turn this simple comfort food into a Fluffernutter Cake, like Cookie Baker Lynn did.
• What’s For Lunch Honey whipped up a Chocolate Cranberry Tart that looks very rich, though flavor-wise, it is quite a bit more complex than a glance would suggest. The cranberries add a pleasing tartness that you won’t find with other similarly colored fruits, and they are spiked with fresh and candied ginger. There is milk chocolate mixed into the chocolate cookie crust for added depth, and the glue that holds it all together is a creamy mascarpone filling.
• Souffles aren’t that hard to make once you know how to beat egg whites, but they are a bit intimidating if you haven’t made very many (or none) before. 64-Sq. Foot Kitchen has put together a lovely step-by-step post on the process of making a Leeks and Gruyere Souffle. The base is pretty traditional, made with milk, egg yolks, flour and lots of cheese and beaten egg whites are folded in before baking. It’s always great to get a view of the work process in addition to a shot of the finished product.
• Mashed potatoes are a great addition to yeast breads because they keep things very tender and moist inside, while still allowing the bread to form a nice crust. The Wednesday Chef included it in a Focaccia di Patate - or potato focaccia. The bread has a nice chew and is topped with small tomatoes and Italian oregano. Looks like it would be a great match for soup, or sliced thinly and served as an appetizer.

I don’t deny that I have a sweet tooth, and after talking about the differences between demerara sugar, muscovado sugar and turbinado sugars, I couldn’t resist mentioning one more interesting type of natural sugar: sugar crystals. Sugar is crystalline in its normal state, but “sugar crystals” is used as a name to describe unusually large crystals of sugar. The crystals are formed just the way that rock sugar candies are, essentially letting small clusters of crystals come together into larger groups. They are made with unrefined sugar and have a brown color from the natural molasses of the cane. They also have a subtle molasses-like flavor to them that sets them apart from straight white sugar. The large crystals dissolve very slowly, even in hot liquids, but are pretty popular as an addition to coffee and tea because of the way they add flavor. They can be used to top off baked goods, as well, and will add a fair amount of crunch to a quick bread or coffee cake. The crystals are too large to be substituted into a recipe for regular sugar, although they could be treated in the same way as an add-in like chocolate chips, and stirred into the batter for texture and flavor.

You can find these crystals in some natural foods stores and occasionally in a well-stocked coffee shop, but you can also order them online. Adagio Teas sells the crystals in several different package sizes if you only want to try a little bit at a time (presumably with tea).