Blog Posts by Sarah McColl, Shine staff

Each month, the Shine Supper Club presents a theme for your cooking inspiration. May is Mom's Best Recipes. Join us: Tweet @yahooshine #shinesupperclub with your blog post, Instagram photo, Pinterest pin, etc. Come back to the Supper Club at the beginning of each month to learn the new theme.

What did all of Mom's Best Recipes have in common this month? Each one was a comforting classic that gives us a sense of home no matter where we are. A big thanks to this month's participants (be sure to check out their blogs!): Sarah Lipoff, SoCal Resident, In Foodie Fashion, Saveur, Zester Daily, and Eating Well.

Shine Supper Club - Sticky Monkey BreadMom's Sticky Monkey Bread
Sarah Lipoff nailed the spirit of this month's theme with its intersection of memory and eating: "I've been thinking about the things my mom made when I was young that have stuck with me over the years. With my own tot at home, I want to start great cooking memories with her - just like my mom did with me." Sarah made her mom's sticky monkey bread from her

Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen in Knocked-Up.[Every week, Shine finds an answer to one of life's little mysteries. If you've got a burning question you want answered, tweet it to @yahooshine #burningquestions or share it in the comments section.]

Movies have wheeled us into the delivery room to witness the sweating, screaming, grunting, groaning, and inevitable "you got me into this" jab at the panicked dad. Even the childless among us have an idea of what a contraction sounds like. But what does a contraction feel like?

"The quippy answer is 'you know it when you feel it,'" says Paula Spencer Scott, author of The Pregnancy Journal. That's a favorite description on pregnancy bulletin boards, in addition to mentions of the worst menstrual and digestive cramps of your life, multiplied by infinity. While it's different for each woman, of course, everyone seems to agree on one thing: they hurt like a mother.

"It's almost like being gripped by a python," describes Spencer Scott. "It's like you swallowed the python but he's still

I'm going to let you in on a little secret, and by "secret" I mean something maybe everybody else in the world knows who took home ec, but I had to learn after years of standing overwhelmed in the grocery store, eager to walk home empty-handed and order Chinese. It happened like this. Dinner was easy at my house one week. And then dinner was easy for another week, and I decided I better keep my mouth shut about it for fear the feeling would go poof. So I kept quiet, and kept cooking, and tried to figure out what exactly what working. The nightly dinner rush became more pleasure than panic, and here's what I discovered: It's all about the produce.

We eat a lot of roast chicken at my house. As in, I pretty much roast a chicken every Sunday night. That night we carve it up, later in the week I use the leftovers in salads, sandwiches, stir-fries, and curries, and every now and then I'll boil the bones to make a make a light stock for soup. But here's the clincher: it's not boring (I

by Sarah McColl, Shine staff

We fully support any holiday that involves sitting outside with a margarita and eating chips (come to think of it, why aren't there more holidays like that?). Whether you're ready to get your cook on for Cinco de Mayo, or just want to live vicariously through ambitious food bloggers (margarita macarons, oh my!), we've got a complete menu from drinks to dessert that will put you in prime condition for a siesta.

Related:

Leftover rotisserie chicken recipes

Rhubarb recipes

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This guac omits one much-maligned ingredient.Avocados are almost universally beloved for their creamy, rich texture. But cilantro? It has its own I Hate Cilantro page on Facebook and an "anti-cilantro community" dedicated to the "fight to ban the most loathesome garnish of our time." The green herb scattered in many a Cinco de Mayo dish is a polarizing culinary figure, to say the least.

Its hatred is long-standing. Food science writer Harold McGee reported in the New York Times that the word "coriander" may come from the Latin word for bedbug, its aroma like that of "bug-infested bedclothes," according to the Oxford Companion to Food. These days, the word more commonly attributed to cilantro by its detractors is "soapy." Some go farther: vile, revolting...you get the picture. So what's a guacamole-loving Cinco de Mayo host supposed to do?

Follow Ina Garten's lead and leave out the green leaf. Her guacamole is a bright, vibrant testament to just how well garlic, lemon, and avocados work together, and its chunky texture won't be

Join us for the May Supper Club! | Paperless PostIt's difficult to choose just one, I know. There's summer's cold tuna macaroni salad flecked with dill, a perfect lunch on the hottest days. Incomparably fudgy brownies (they come from a box), buttery mashed potatoes (with lumps, please), Christmas' cranberry crunch, addictive chile con queso, crisp green salads. But if I had to choose just one dish that no one seems to make as well as my mom, it would be her turkey soup.

In the first dark evening hours of Thanksgiving, before Trivial Pursuit has turned ugly and while the second wave of guests are still helping themselves to pie, my mom slips the turkey carcass into a huge pot and slides it onto the wood stove in her kitchen. It will bubble there overnight. At tomorrow's lunch, when ambitious shoppers are returning from early morning sales and last night's hard partiers are just waking up, my mom will ask someone to bring in the the blue and white bowls from the pantry. One by one, she ladles in her turkey soup, topping it with

April's Supper Club was all about spring cleaning the way we eat. When we elbow hearty braises, root vegetables, and comfort food out of the way, what bright spring goodness takes its place? Personally, I'm obsessed with rhubarb these days, but y'all had great ideas to freshen up the dinner table on a nightly basis.

by Sarah McColl, Shine staff

While the rest of the world can't shut up about ramps right now, I find my thoughts attuned to rhubarb alone. Those slender, leggy pink stalks are the head-turners of the spring (asparagus, who?). Rhubarb reminds me of Jane Russell in Gentleman Prefer Blondes: worthy of the spotlight with her tart, smart bon mots, but crowded offstage by a sweet Marilyn Monroe-esque scene stealer: strawberries. Rhubarb deserves its due and with a few different dancing partners. Enter gin, grilled mackerel, red lentils, and other surprising couplings. She's ready for her close-up.

More Feast Your Eyes:

Leftover rotisserie chicken recipes

Healthy quinoa recipes

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