Cooking from scratch: healthier, cheaper, and a great creative outlet
Summer brings lots of salads - more potato salad, macaroni salad, waldorf salad, and the like. They all have mayonnaise in common, and I have adapted a recipe from The Joy of Cooking that (so far) works every time, to make food processor mayonnaise. Commonly called Blender Mayonnaise, I find it much easier and fool-proof … Continue reading How to Make Homemade Mayonnaise & Potato Salad
Along with the Incredibly Quick Chicken a few night ago, I also cooked up some crunchy -soft potatoes in another cast iron pan at the same time. My cast iron pans live on top of the stove, and they are what I use most often. For these potatoes, as well as the chicken, cast iron … Continue reading Crunchy Rosemary Potatoes in Cast Iron
I needed a really quick dinner, and in the fridge I had some boneless chicken thighs and breast meat, thawed and ready to go. So I grabbed my house seasoned salt mix and a bit of flour, dredged the chicken, and dropped into my cast iron pan. A mix of olive oil and butter (and … Continue reading Incredibly Quick Chicken Dinner
I can't say we ate any crab cakes on the farm. Back then, grocery stores were a bit limited in the seafood department and even frozen seafood was pretty much limited to fish sticks (we did eat those). I don't remember ever having crab cakes or clam strips and certainly never lobster. Deep fried clam … Continue reading How to make Crab Cakes
I decided to use up some apples today before they turned toward spoiling. Pie sounded good. In a spelt crust - I mean spelt is whole grain and apples are healthy, so maybe it's a "good for you" dessert? LOL, I convinced myself. And I didn't want to do my Caramel apple pie. While I … Continue reading Apple Pie with Almond butter sauce
Growing up, one of the first things I learned to bake, and baked a lot of, was white bread. I know, bread is not usually one of the things a child bakes at age 11 or 12, but I did, along with other things like cookies. But I had this bread recipe my family really … Continue reading Farmhouse White Bread, with a Cinnamon Twist
My mom used to make this chocolate cake, with the secret ingredient of salad dressing, quite often. In fact, I also have versions of it as a Spice cake . I've updated a little, and my 8.5 x 10.5" pan is perfect. You can make it into 2 round layers, or a 9 x 12 … Continue reading Mom’s Salad Dressing Chocolate Cake
I found a recipe for a meatball dinner many years ago, and have modified it over time to meet the preferences of my family. It's comfort food for sure, and makes the house smell terrific. It's a good weekend night meal, which you can make in advance and either refrigerate or freeze. It's almost a … Continue reading Easy Weeknight Meatball Casserole
Beef stew was a favorite thing in our family growing up. It took a little meat, usually something that needed a long cooking time to make it tender, a cheap cut of beef. Or whatever my mother had left int the freezer from a slaughtered cow. Daddy had a specific way to eat it - … Continue reading How to Make The Great Fox Pines Beef Stew
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!