Cooking from scratch: healthier, cheaper, and a great creative outlet
Living way out in the country has lots of positives - being near a good Chinese takeout restaurant is not one of them. I've been trying to use my Instant Pot to cook with more often, instead of using it only for rice, potatoes or hard boiled eggs, or making yogurt. I bought a couple … Continue reading How to Make amazing Wonton Soup!
I just read about making angel food cake in a cast iron pot in a recent issue of Southern Cast Iron Magazine - yes, so surprising, no hole in the center! I just had to try it. It calls for a 4 quart cast iron pot - I used my 3 quart cast iron pot … Continue reading A surprising new way to make Angel Food Cake
Last week I showed how easy it was to make chicken Shake and Bake mix at home - and this week it's time for the pork Shake and Bake home version. I'm also giving you a new recipe to try: stuffed Shake and Bake pork chops with onion gravy. You'll need one pork chop per … Continue reading How To Make Surprisingly Good Stuffed Pork Chops With Gravy
Those little boxes of pre-made crumbs for poultry are convenient, but so expensive! And really, the packets of "shake & bake" are common things you probably already have in your kitchen. I make my own bread crumbs, so for me the cost is a few cents for the spices. I save all bits of bread … Continue reading How to Make my Copycat Shake & Bake Crumbs for Chicken
I love granola. But it's so expensive in the store! A few dollars for a small bag. I've made homemade granola for years, but then I found this idea from a magazine. It tastes great, you can make it at your convenience, and it's much cheaper. Lastly, you can tailor it to your own tastes. … Continue reading How to Make Easy, Tasty Overnight Granola
I love pasta, the rest of the family tolerates my pasta dinners. I wanted to use up some sausage, sweet peppers and mushrooms. And I wasn't in the mood for Sausage and Peppers either in a sandwich or over rice. So I started thinking pasta. With some sauce. Creamy. Decadent. Easy. And I happened to … Continue reading I came up with Super Easy Sausage & Mushroom Fettuccine “Alfredo”
I have a lot of berries in the fridge and wanted to incorporate them into breakfast today. Nothing too difficult, but something my family would eat without realizing it is, at least in part, good for them. I decided to use puff pastry, which I always have in the freezer. The berries (sliced strawberries which … Continue reading Make an Elegant Easy Pastry for Breakfast or Dessert
Ree Drumond has a recipe for Rigatoni with broccolini. Well, broccolini is a bit hard to find my my neck of the woods, so I decided to create a riff on her recipe using regular broccoli and any tubular pasta. Since we are trying to eat "better", a whole grain pasta is more healthy than … Continue reading Making Easy Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage
My mother often was baking something when we kids arrived home off the school bus. Most often it was cookies. With four kids and a a farmer husband, Mom baked a lot. So when my cousin and I were talking the other day, reminiscing in part about growing up on the farm, he asked me … Continue reading Mom’s Delicious Molasses Cookies are Easy to Make!
I have a favorite way of starting many chicken dishes. It's a couple simple steps that will create a crispy piece of chicken that you can then go on and use in many recipes. We like our chicken well done. I usually cook low and slow, and often longer than in many recipes, to get … Continue reading One Easy Chicken Method Can Make Many Different Recipes