Are they critical details or just the chef’s preference? Have you ever looked at a recipe and thought, “What’s kosher salt? I only have regular salt” or “I don’t have a lemon, what could I use instead.” Have you looked in your pantry and wondered, “Why do I have five kinds of vinegar?” These technicalities…
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How to Make a Smoothie: You can do it.
I am entirely baffled by the smoothie business. There are websites wholly devoted to making smoothies. Companies that will ship you perfectly proportioned frozen ingredients for a not-so-healthy cost. And $300 blenders that let you can crush ice in an instant. I can’t understand how a whole industry has been created to use up ripe…
Acorn Squash: Why would you choose this winter squash?
Acorn squash was the squash I remember eating as a kid. My mom would cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, add margarine (these were the 80s) and brown sugar, and bake the halves in the oven and serve the family a side dish for dinner. Easy right? I guess it isn’t bad. It’s…
How to Make the Ultimate Garden Chili
Unless you’re from Texas, you should be using fresh vegetables to make chili in the summer. Many years ago, a man accosted me in the dining room about the chili we served, not being chili. My nature is non-confrontational, so I nodded my head and listened about the demerits of beans, and learned that chili is…
Three Important Reasons You Can Change a Recipe
Use this recipe as a guide. Adjust measurements and ingredients as necessary. — Andrea Bemis, Dishing up the Dirt One of my favorite farm-chef bloggers finishes each recipe with these words. And I love her even more for them. The acknowledgment that recipes are meant to be changed to suit your needs is not talked about…
Easy Cheater’s Tomato Sauce for Procrastinators
If my grandmother had an immersion blender, would she peel and deseed tomatoes? During the past five years, I’ve reinvented preserving tomatoes. This method has developed from two concepts. First, when your tomatoes are ripe, you might not have enough to bother with the process of canning. And second, you might not feel like canning…
A Superior Stuffed Pepper Recipe for Practical People
This dish should be about the peppers, not the presentation. There wasn’t a vegetable recipe I hated more than stuffed bell peppers. The typical recipe is a multi-step affair that starts with browning ground beef, making rice, maybe a separate tomato sauce. Then you get around to the peppers, all of which need to be…
How To Make Popcorn, The Cheapest Snack Food At The Store
Save money and make this healthy snack yourself. When people talk about the high cost of food, I can’t disagree. No one wants to waste money, but prepared foods at the store will start to add up fast if you are not careful. I’m not always in touch with grocery store trends, but after seeing…
Simple Storage Advice to Reduce Vegetable Waste
Where do you put your produce when there are no directions on the package? There is probably nothing worse than an inexperienced cook that wants to eat better, takes the time to seek out a box of vegetables from their local farm, and then unknowingly has them wilt away in a matter of hours. I receive…
Melons: The Fruit of Summer
Melons are one of the highlights of summer. And unfortunately for their thick skin, they have become as unseasonal as potatoes and onions. Growers have managed to harvest melons with machines and ship truckloads of them from outside the country throughout the year. At my local stores, they show up in early May, coming from…