My mom was always stretching food, and never wasting anything. Once in a while (once every GREAT once in a while), there would be left over cake.  So this trick works with any cake - frosting, no frosting, any filling. Sheet cake, layer cake, bundt cake. Cake that's slightly dry or starting to get stale. … Continue reading Make a quick dessert from leftover cake and pudding!
I have fond memories of helping my mother cut up (with a hatchet!) the Hubbard squash she grew each year in the garden. If you've never seen a Hubbard squash, read this. They are huge, and can make dozens of pie from just one squash. And we always had more than one! My mom used … Continue reading Fox Pines Pumpkin Pudding
Denning is a natural instinct for dogs – just watch a dog afraid of a thunderstorm. The first thing they do is hide behind or under something to feel protected. For puppies, crate training is most often associated with house breaking, but a crate can be a friend for life when needed. A crate is … Continue reading How to Crate Train a Puppy
Bread pudding was a dessert my mom always made on the farm. On the practical side, it was inexpensive to make for a large family, it used up stale bread, and it was easy to make. from ingredients always on hand. On the down side, as much as I loved it,, it was commercial white … Continue reading Make a Posh Farmhouse Bread Pudding
Flour is really a pretty generic term, even though we most commonly use it to mean white wheat flour. At it's most basic, flour is a powder, finely ground from roots or grains. It can be made from many things. Native Americans made flour from acorns! My mom only had one kind of flour, and … Continue reading Just how many kinds of flour are there?
I have obsessions in my kitchen - cast iron anything...really good knives....beautiful ceramic dishes. I have plenty of each, more than I need to actually have a function kitchen. I also obsess over glass jars. It's my mothers fault. She saved glass jars (and card board boxes, "Just in case we need it") in addition … Continue reading My Kitchen Obsession – 20 Ways to Reuse Glass Jars
I love garlic. It's very good for you, with antioxidants and several vitamins. Recently some studies have shown garlic can help with high blood pressure, colds and flu, cardiovascular disease, to aid in lowering blood pressure. It may even assist in preventing dementia and cancer! Good enough, for me, let's throw it in every thing! … Continue reading Easy ways to Peel Garlic & How to get rid of the Smell!
Homemade chicken stock is so much better than boxed or canned. First, note there is a difference between stock and broth. Broth is usually made just from meat, and tends to be a lighter color. Stock is made from bones, has a darker color , feels thicker because of the collagen that breaks down from … Continue reading Making Homemade Chicken Stock from Scraps
Today suddenly turned into a pierogie day. I didn't really plan on spending hours today making them, but that's okay. I'm happy to be doing it on a cold blustery day when I plan on staying in anyway. Pierogies are like little dumplings, pasta dough filled with mashed potatoes and cheese. They can also be … Continue reading How to Make Homemade Pierogies
I hit the weekend, and after a busy week I don't feel like doing much. I could sit and have coffee in my bathrobe for a couple hours. However, somehow the kitchen counters and island have just become totally covered with stuff. You know what I mean - not really dirty, but things have just … Continue reading How to Tidy up When You don’t Feel Like It