Food
One Way to Not Waste Fruit
I really dislike throwing food away. Who’s with me? I might as well flush money down the toilet. Cha-ching! Whoosh. Not to mention all the people in this world who don’t have food to eat. We are very fortunate. Now, generally speaking, we do pretty well with not wasting food. I’ve gotten better about estimating just how many fruits and veggies we will eat in-between grocery shopping trips. My goal is to shop once a week, but it’s more like every 5 days. If we do end up with leftover fruit, my kids do enjoy fresh fruit smoothies. If we have leftover smoothies, those can be turned into popsicles. But there always comes…
The Day My Bread Didn’t Rise
This post needs a little background. In short, we moved to Georgia. I couldn’t find bread we liked here, so I started making a knock-off recipe of Dave’s Killer Bread. I make bread at least once a week now and that’s what we use for toast and sandwiches. Fast forward to the beginning of October and that’s when there was a hitch in the giddy-up. I lost my bread mojo for a couple of days. It was gone, people. It’s the first time since I started baking that my bread did not rise. Henny Penny, the sky MUST be falling! And it didn’t just happen once. It happened twice. In…
Homemade Vanilla Syrup for Pancakes or Milkshakes
A couple of years ago I was rockin’ my ratty yoga pants on a Saturday morning. I was feeling so darn accomplished for being coherent enough (aka fully caffeinated) at 7 a.m. to make pancakes for my children. Let’s face it, Saturday morning cartoons were not created for kids. They were created so parents could sleep in past 7 a.m. So, anyway, I’m up and mixing the pancake batter when I realize we don’t have any pancake syrup. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Well. That was a major downer. They say necessity is the mother of invention. In my case, necessity is the mother of “Google it.” So, I pulled up a…
Homemade Hamburger Buns
My entry into the world of bread making has really just begun, but already I find myself falling down the rabbit hole. What type of bread can I make next? Will it taste better than store-bought? Uh…just stop me before I start planting my own wheat, okay? Thanks. One of the bread items I still buy are hamburger buns. My dad visited me recently and brought me hamburger from his farm in Oregon. How cool is that? And yes, it did stay frozen on the airplane. Since I have some yummy meat filling up my freezer, I decided this was a good time to try making hamburger buns. I looked…
Savory White Chicken Chili
There was a day a week or so ago when the temperature felt almost chilly in Atlanta. I even put on my favorite leather boots. I was in my short sleeves and it got a little warm later in the day, especially while hiking back up the hill from the bus stop, but let’s not focus on that. The calendar says it is fall, so I’m running with it. I decided it was time for soup. It’s been so hot all summer that I haven’t made soup in ages. This is a good one too! I like this Savory White Chicken Chili recipe because it is filling, but still healthy and…
Blackberry Freezer Jam using Frozen Berries
Earlier this year we picked blackberries at a local Georgia farm. It was a fun, family day in 90+ degree heat! 😉 Instead of using the berries right away, they all went into the freezer using this method for freezing berries. After facing a near outage of jam (it was a close one, there was rationing happening on the lunch sandwiches), I decided it was high time to bust those blackberries out of the freezer and make some delicious Blackberry Freezer Jam. Since the berries were in the freezer, I spread them out on a cookie sheet and let them sit on the counter for a good 30 minutes while they…
Spiced Apple Cider Baked Donut Holes
So, the calendar says it’s fall. I’m not entirely sure the temperatures in Georgia got the memo though. Hello 80 degrees! It was time to take matters into my own hands oven. These look like muffins since I made them in mini muffin pans. They did have more of a baked donut (or is it doughnut?) texture though. Whatever their technical classification, they were so darn good. And remember how I said that a glaze makes everything better? Well, I think I’ve changed my mind. A dusting of cinnamon and sugar…delish! The recipe came from a site I just discovered, Sally’s Baking Addiction. The recipe calls for buttermilk,…
Vanilla Glazed Carrot Muffins
If you read this post about vanilla glazed banana muffins, you’ll see that I’m kind of on a glaze kick. So, let’s talk about carrot muffins. Technically, they are carrot applesauce muffins. I just didn’t want to get too wordy…especially since my mouth is full of muffin. My kids devoured these muffins. I should say that I liked the banana muffins a little better. I thought the carrot muffins tasted a little too healthy – I think because of the whole wheat. I should clarify that’s not a criticism of the muffins, just of my tastebuds. They are still evolving. 🙂 Perhaps next time I will mix the whole wheat flour with…
Sweet Cherry and Blueberry Galette
Now, I know summer is practically over (waahhh) and cherries are probably only available in the frozen food section of your supermarket, but I’ll never remember to post about this delicious goodness unless I do it now. Plus, I think it is time we answer this burning question. Can you bake with sweet cherries? I’ve grown up thinking there are pie cherries and sweet, eating cherries. Pie cherries are tart and give baked pies a wonderful flavor. Sweet cherries are deeeelicious! Most growers will also say that sweet cherries are best served as a fresh fruit and not as an ingredient in baked goods. I decided to find out for myself.…
Vanilla Glazed Banana Muffins
An alternate title to this post could be “how to make a relatively healthy muffin less healthy, but more delicious.” Another appropriate title would have been “how to make 24 muffins disappear in 24 hours.” Bananas aren’t my go-to fruit, but the rest of my family eats bananas like they are going out of style. My kids do eat the bananas after they develop brown spots because I tell them those are the sweet bananas. Ha! Every once in awhile, though, I end up with the wrong ratio of consumption to banana browning. And there those brown bananas sit mocking me. I hate to throw them away, so a couple of…
