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Spices and seasonings
How can you eat the same thing for dinner for 5 consecutive days without getting bored with it? Spices and seasonings. They can transform the mundane to the magical, the dull into a fantastic feast, and make leftovers feel not-leftover-y. The advice on spice is simple: buy it whole from an ethnic store. Ethnic stores…
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Pancake syrup
This is what I think of as an “almost-recipe”. It is substantially right, but there is one thing it falls down on that makes the recipe fail: if you read the comments, people complain about it recrystallising. Recrystallisation comes as no surprise, because there is nothing in the recipe to prevent it. Table sugar is…
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Basic meat sauce – pressure canning
I like having modular components as well as finished items. What I mean by a “modular component” is something which is not complete in and of itself, but that can very quickly become a tasty meal. In the case of this basic meat cause it can become chilli, curry, spaghetti sauce, or even a pizza…
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Seasonal Eating – April
As we head out of the treacherous March weather, more crops are coming into season. This means that your free time is going to vanish at an alarming rate as you try to keep up with what produce starts appearing on the shelves! * New this month Asparagus * beets – roots and greens Green…
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Make your own yoghurt
It’s stupidly easy, laughably cheap, and takes next to no hands-on time. 1 quart (946ml) milk (any kind but not “ultra-high pasteurised”/UHP or “ultra heat treated”/UHT) 1/4 to 1/2 cup non-fat dry milk (optional) 2 tablespoons existing yoghurt with live cultures You can easily scale this up – I made a gallon batch, added 1…
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Cheese straws and obesity
You should make this recipe as soon as possible, because it is that awesome. But I will identify why I think this sheds some interesting light on the obesity problem: Cheese Straws 1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into…
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Seasonal Eating – March
Continuing my ongoing series on eating and canning seasonally, what’s new for March? As the weather is still treacherous, only robust stuff is coming into season. Thankfully there’s more to choose from this month: * New this month *Asparagus Green Cabbage Fingerling carrots Peas Scallions / green / spring onions *Spinach Turnip Greens – turnip…
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Food sovereignty
I heard a recent report on NPR news in which the reporter reeled out the usual trite comments about how bad the economy is, and concluded by saying that this is causing problems for the restaurant industry because eating at home is becoming “the new normal”. This casual, throw-away comment rocked me on a very…
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A food challenge
I have started a food challenge. The challenge is to reduce the distance our food travels, a concept known as food miles. How am I going to do this? I have already started by filling my freezer with meat from a local farmer. As much as possible we will be eating locally and ethically raised…
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Seasonal Eating – February
Here we are, in the spiteful last days of winter. Surely not much can be in season just now? Actually… no. Not much. February is pretty much the same as January, so pull up your stock pot, make a hug pot of stew or soup, and hide from the snow 🙂