I overbought clementines during the holidays and am now dealing with a box of withering fruit. As I mulled juicing them, I remembered a charming story from The New York Times magazine last weekend that has inspired me to try a clementine sherbet.

Dining editor Pete Wells wrote about his son Dexter’s fascination with all things culinary — a father-son obsession that has included grinding coffee beans and baking cookies. The father-son chefs had made lots of sorbet during the summer, but Dexter wanted to make ice cream. A food allergy to eggs prevents him from eating real ice cream, but recently while making tangerine sorbet, Dexter insisted on adding cream.

When it was frozen, it reminded me of long-ago Creamsicles and Orange Juliuses at the mall, but it had a bright juiciness I don’t remember from my childhood. What we didn’t eat right away Dexter packed into tiny plastic bowls to freeze for later. He wanted to sell orange ice cream to our neighbors.

Read the story first, then grab your kid and juice some citrus. The Wells family recipe is here. (I plan to substitute a soy milk creamer, although Pete says half-and-half works fine too.) And don’t miss the video demonstration by food tester Jill Santopietro in her latest (and funny) Tiny Kitchen video, posted below.

The Web has opened up a whole new world for foodies and, as regular readers of the Well blog know, cooking at home can be fun and healthful. There are great cooking blogs, easy-to-search recipe sites and search engines like Google to keep cooks well supplied in new ideas for the kitchen.

But for me, there’s nothing like a cooking demo video to motivate me to try something new. Basic recipe sites help you find new dishes to prepare, but cooking videos go beyond the recipes and are typically packed with tips on techniques and tools. My main complaint is that many Web sites, including my own, don’t do a great job of making videos easy to find.

Here’s a look at a few great places to find how-to cooking videos. If you don’t find what you need here, just do a Google search for a recipe name and include the word “video,” or search for a food on YouTube, where you’ll find more examples of cooking videos.

Gourmet Magazine. I never miss the magazine’s The Test Kitchen videos, featuring food writers and editors sharing simple tips. I’m planning to try this home-made organic ricotta recipe, clearly demonstrated by food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez. And I’ve already blogged about this great pomegranate deseeding technique in You vs. the Pomegranate.

Tiny Kitchen. I love this new video column featuring New York Times magazine food tester Jill Santopietro. Her last video for a Roquefort and walnut salad took me beyond the recipe. Since watching it, I’ve made only home-made salad dressing and now dress my salads differently. So far she’s only made a few videos, which you can find on the Moment blog, but Tiny Kitchen will make regular appearances on Well in the new year.

The Minimalist. New York Times food writer Mark Bittman has a devoted following to his cookbooks and columns. But his video cooking demonstrations prove his mantra that cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. One of my favorite Mark Bittman videos shows a simple recipe for chocolate ganache.

Bon Appetit. These videos lack the fun production values of some of the others, but they are packed with tips. Check out How to Whip Cream, How to Make Gravy and Knife Skills: Dicing for a new look at some basic techniques.

Epi Video. This site features cooking techniques from around the world, such as this recent post on how to make sushi rolls as well as videos submitted by viewers, including the recent Crunchy Grilled Shrimp Po Boy.

What’s missing from my list? Share your favorite cooking videos by joining the discussion below.

As a child, Jill Bloomfield remembers pouting at meals until her mother would reheat pizza or give her peanut butter and jelly. So what happened when she grew up?

Jill Bloomfield.

“I became an adult who sought out peanut butter and jelly,” said Ms. Bloomfield, 33, a former middle school and high school teacher in St. Paul, Minn. “I was a picky adult. I wanted things like grilled cheese.”

But Ms. Bloomfield quickly learned that colleagues look askance if you order a grilled cheese sandwich at lunch. Realizing that fussiness about foods is a handicap in a grownup world, Ms. Bloomfield began looking for ways to retrain her taste buds.

“I had to train myself to branch out and like more foods, and with that came learning how to cook,” she said. “”It’s not impossible to retrain yourself, but it’s difficult.”

What’s unusual about Ms. Bloomfield’s journey is how far she has come. Today, she is a food educator and cookbook author. Her personal struggles as a picky eater have fueled her interest in helping children learn to cook and to avoid the social and health problems associated with picky eating. (Just two years ago, Ms. Bloomfield was diagnosed with high cholesterol.) After creating a popular cooking course for her high school students, she began offering kids cooking classes and birthday parties.

In the spring, she edited DK Publishing’s “Grow It, Cook It,” which teaches children how to cook with vegetables they grow in a pot or garden. And this fall, she co-authored the “Jewish Holidays Cookbook,” aimed at kids and families. Some of the dishes make it hard to believe Ms. Bloomfield was ever picky about food. She offers simple recipes for harvest rice with pomegranate seeds, pumpkin soup, and chickpea and couscous salad.

Now she’s working on a new book that teaches basic cooking techniques — including seemingly obvious methods like boiling water. “Why do you start potatoes in the water, but you add pasta to water that is already boiling?” she said. “It breaks down a cookbook in the way you don’t normally see and offers recipes to help you practice that skill.” Read more…

The other day my daughter put a surprising addition on her Christmas wish list: the Top Chef Cookbook.

“Grow It, Cook It” is one of several new cookbooks aimed at kids.

I’m not much of a cook, but my daughter sure wants to be. I was raised in a home where a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken was considered a wholesome, hot meal. Fortunately, my 9-year-old daughter is working hard to convert me to the joys of cooking. She loves cooking shows, likes to flip through cookbooks and prefers to eat at home rather than at a restaurant.

Cookbook publishers have caught on and have introduced a number of kid-themed cookbooks this year. While the push to get kids in the kitchen is fueled by marketing, it’s also backed by a health message. Studies suggests that when kids cook, they are more eager to try new foods. To read more about the kid cooking trend, check out my latest Well column “Beyond Cupcakes: Children in the Kitchen,” from Tuesday’s Science Times. Then join the discussion below.

Do your kids want to cook?

Is there a cookbook on your wish list? (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

When the economy crumbles, people start cooking at home more. In May, the market research firm Information Resources had already reported that 53 percent of consumers said they were cooking from scratch more than they did just six months earlier.

A bumper crop of cookbooks is here to help out in the kitchen. Publishers Weekly talked with cookbook buyers for Barnes & Noble and Borders about their picks for the holiday season. Read more…

Mark Bittman braising turkey breasts in his kitchen. (Kelly Doe/The New York Times)

Recently over at the Bitten blog, Mark Bittman shared some shocking pictures of himself at home cooking turkey breasts. Sure, the turkey looked great, but that kitchen? What was Mark Bittman doing in such a small kitchen?

“It appears that Mark has a kitchen just as small as most others in New York,” wrote reader Mark.

“Truly, it’s not the size of the kitchen that counts, but how you use it,” wrote another reader, Guy B. Jones.

Considering I have long used my lousy kitchen as an excuse not to cook, I decided to talk to Mark about the pleasures and frustrations of cooking in a less-than-perfect kitchen. Read more…

It’s pumpkin time. (Ryan Donnell for The New York Times)

When it comes to eating pumpkin, most of us don’t get beyond pumpkin pie. But award-winning chef Dan Barber thinks we’re missing out. Mr. Barber is renowned for taking seasonal, local foods and turning them into innovative dishes that burst with just-picked flavor.

Chef Dan Barber.

And given the ubiquity of pumpkins this time of year, Mr. Barber, executive chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant in Manhattan and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantino Hills, N.Y., is spending time in the kitchen creating flavorful pumpkin dishes to serve this fall and winter. I spoke with him recently about his efforts and why so many of us shy away from cooking with pumpkin.

Is there pumpkin on the menu at Blue Hill this fall?

I’m working on a pumpkin dish right now actually. We’re braising pumpkin that is cut in a cylinder shape, then cooling it down and wrapping it with a brick dough, which is a thin French pastry dough. Then I’m sautéing it again, crisping it and weaving speck around it. Speck is cured ham, which we cure at Stone Barns. I’m still working on it. There is so much pumpkin at the market right now, and I’ve always wanted it on the menu. Read more…

Kid-friendly gardens are part of Alice Waters’s plan to create “edible schoolyards” for children. (Matt Dunn for The New York Times)

Next month, some of the biggest stars of the culinary world will gather for the New York City Wine & Food Festival. Among the many great events is a star-studded panel called “Beyond Chicken Nuggets: How to Raise a Healthy Eater.”

Tickets are still available to see famed chef Alice Waters, Food Network star Rachael Ray and children’s food author Jessica Seinfeld, who will join me on Sunday, October 12 to talk about how parents can improve the quality of food their children eat. Pediatrician Harvey Karp, author of the best-selling “Happiest Baby on the Block” and Penn State food researcher Leann Birch also will lend their expertise to the panel.

Among the topics to be discussed will be Ms. Waters’s efforts to create an “edible schoolyard,” in which schools create and sustain an organic garden that is integrated into the school’s curriculum and lunch program. This week, I spoke with Ms. Waters about her interest in the eating habits of American children. Read more…

Rachael Ray, right, cooks with a protege at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival. (Red Eye Productions)

Many parents shoo their children out of the kitchen when it’s time to prepare the family meal. But some studies show that involving kids in meal preparation makes them more likely to try new foods.

I recently spoke with Rachael Ray, the host of several popular television programs and a best-selling cookbook author, about cooking with kids. Ms. Ray regularly holds children’s cooking workshops and is the founder of Yum-o!, a nonprofit group that focuses on helping kids and families develop healthy relationships with food. Read more…

Boiled, steamed, microwaved or raw? (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg News)

What is the best way to cook vegetables? It’s one of the most common questions asked by readers, so I decided to explore whether boiled, steamed, microwaved or raw is better.

Unfortunately, as you’ll see in today’s Well column in Science Times, there isn’t a simple answer. How you prepare a food influences the nutrients and phytochemicals that end up on your plate. The challenge is finding the right balance between healthful preparation and delicious eating.

To read the full column, click here. And post your comments below.

The most healthful meal is the one you cook at home. But for those of us skilled at the art of takeout, the idea of cooking in our kitchens is daunting. Who has time after a busy day to shop, chop, prepare and cook?

Mark Bittman. (Suzy Allman for The New York Times)

The Times’s food writer Mark Bittman always makes cooking look easy as author of the weekly Minimalist column and his new blog Bitten. He’s also the author of several cookbooks, including “How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food.” I recently spoke with Mark about the how-to’s of home cooking, his favorite ingredients and a lot about beans. Read more…

What’s your favorite? (Larry Crowe/Associated Press)

Over at the Bitten blog, food writer Mark Bittman needs your advice. He’s putting together a list of the best cookbooks ever.

Ten years ago, he wrote his own list called “Fifty Cookbooks I’d Rather Not Live Without.” A lot has happened to food and cooking in a decade, and Mark wants to update the list.

Can you help? Post your suggestions below for your favorite cookbooks of all time. Depending on how insightful or clever your post, Mark may consider tapping you to help review cookbooks for his section.

As a health writer, I’ve read hundreds of nutrition studies and countless books on diet and eating. And none of these has contained such useful advice as the cover of Michael Pollan’s latest book, “In Defense of Food.”

Wrapped around a head of lettuce are seven words that tell you pretty much everything you need to know about healthful eating. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Author Michael Pollan (Alia Malley)

This seemingly-simple message is surprisingly complex, because there is food, and then there are what Mr. Pollan describes as “edible food-like substances.” Mr. Pollan, who writes for The New York Times Magazine, developed something of a cult following for his best-selling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which traced the food chain back to its original source. But while “Omnivore” left many scared to eat, “In Defense of Food” helps the reader bravely navigate the food landscape, explaining what food is, what it isn’t and how to tell the difference.

Mr. Pollan agreed to take some time this week to answer a few questions from the Well blog. Read more…