No Knead English Muffin Bread I haven’t baked any bread in a long time, mostly because I don’t eat bread very often lately. I do love to bake, though, so when I came across this recipe for No Knead English Muffin Bread on KitchenParade.com, I knew I had to make it, even if just for fun. If you’re a bread person and eat it often, making your own bread can be a huge money saver. An artisan loaf at the store will run you between $3-$4, but you can make it at home for less than a dollar.
Moroccan Lentil and Vegetable Stew I get a lot of emails from readers with recipe suggestions and I love them all, but don’t get the opportunity to make many of them. Every once in a while, though, an email comes through with a recipe that happens to be exactly what I’m in the mood for eating that week. That’s what happened when I got an email from Rachel with a link to this amazing Moroccan Lentil and Chickpea Soup from Wegmans.com. The first thing that I noticed is that it has almost the same blend of warm and intoxicating spices that makes my Yellow Jasmine Rice so irresistible. So, of course I had to try it!
One-Skillet Dark and Stormy Banana Bread I’m getting to know my new kitchen space. New oven (it’s a KitchenAid… it’s amazing), new light, new muscle memory from cracked eggshell to sink, new drawers for the whisks and spatulas to live and which dang drawer is it!? You know the drill. Change and newness. When I’m getting to know a new kitchen I like to make a supremely familiar recipe.
Flushable Cat Litter Flushable cat litter is just one of the many types of cat litter available today, and it is an excellent option for cat owners that are concerned about the environment and wish to avoid filling their rubbish bins with bags of soiled litter. Traditional cat litter is made of clay, which has to be disposed with the weekly rubbish as it forms a very hard, cement like constitution in water. This means that traditional clay litter cannot be flushed down the toilet as it would clog up the pipes and systems, so it needs to be disposed of in landfill where it can remain for a very long time.
Canning 101 Archives – Living Homegrown I don’t know about you, but I hate how most canning jars make it impossible to easily label the side of the jar. There are so many bumps, logos and designs that no smooth surface is left for a label – especially if you want to use a large one. And I like to write on my jars with ink paint. Well, you can’t do that when it is covered with designs. No Knead Rosemary Parmesan Skillet Bread If I could only eat two things for the rest of my life, it would be bread and chocolate. What would you chose? I generally try to avoid white bread unless I make it from scratch, just to keep things balanced. I actually think I’ll give this recipe a go with half-whole wheat flour, half all-purpose flour next time because I think it could still be delish.
100 Steps to a Plastic-Free Life » My Plastic-free Life We have some great bulk food stores here in the Bay Area (Rainbow, Berkeley Bowl, Whole Foods, for example) and I can get almost all dry foods as well as some personal care products from the bulk bins. These foods include rice and other grains, pasta, beans (learning to cook dried beans is an important part of plastic-free living), seeds, nuts, all kinds of flour, baking soda and other dry baking ingredients, cereal and granola, pretzels and chips, some candy, tofu, oils, nut butters, olives, herbs, tea & coffee, and more things than I can think of right now. The key is bringing my own reusable bags and containers with me to the store. You can carry the same kind of cotton bags for bulk purchases as for produce (see above.) Glass jars and other containers work great as well.
Farmer's Salad with Beet Vinaigrette Enlarge Credit: James Oseland SERVES 8-10 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved½ cup red wine vinegar1½ cups olive oilKosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste1½ lb. fingerling or small waxy potatoes3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped4 slices whole grain bread, cut into 1" pieces1 small white onion, thinly sliced1 cup pickled beets from a jar, drained1½ tbsp. whole grain mustard1 tbsp. honey1 small shallot, roughly chopped8 oz. mixed greens1 cup pickled red cabbage from a jar, drained4 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and quartered2 tbsp. roughly chopped basil1 tbsp. roughly chopped mint1 tbsp. roughly chopped parsley 1. Toss tomatoes, ¼ cup vinegar, 2 tbsp. olive oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, 6–8 minutes.
Shanghai Scallion Pancakes Shanghai scallion pancakes were one of our favorite breakfast street foods among the many choices we featured in our recent Shanghai Breakfast post. I’ve eaten many a scallion pancake in my life, but what Judy and I had in Shanghai was by far the most decadent we have seen and also without a doubt the most delicious. These Shanghai scallion pancakes were thicker, moister, and more jam-packed full of scallions than your average scallion pancake.
MsMarmiteLover: Mini cheddars for lunchboxes Riley Pearson, 6 years old, was sent home from school because his parents put a packet of mini-cheddars in his lunchbox. The school has set up a healthy eating policy for lunchboxes and "Chocolate, sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks are not allowed. If your child's lunchbox is unhealthy and unbalanced they will be provided with a school lunch for which you will be charged." The parents complained and called the media, now the school have expelled Riley and his four year old brother. It seems to me that another approach could have been taken: the school could have gathered together parents and children to discuss healthy eating. New Changes in Canning Lid Procedures? – Living Homegrown Recently, Jarden, (the company that manufactures all Ball Canning Jars and lids), very casually mentioned that they completely changed the recommendations when using their canning jar lids. No explanation was given for this change. So, I called them up to get the scoop. Below it is the latest information… The UPDATE:
Gluten Free Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins - Shutterbean I don’t want to look at the calendar right now because it means we are really close to Summer coming to an end and the school hustle will set in and before you know it, I’ll have an 8 year old and then it’s Christmas and AHHHHHHHH. I just had to pause and catch my breath. Oh, wait. My birthday is coming up. I will be in my late 30s. Closer to 40. DIY Deodorant - The Zero-Waste Chef Unlike my other recipes, you don’t actually eat this one. But because I make my deodorant (mostly) out of food ingredients and several people have asked me how I do it, I thought I would go ahead and post the recipe on this food blog. This stuff works. When I first decided to attempt to live plastic free, I had the most trouble replacing conventional shampoo and deodorant. I tried to solve these problems simultaneously.