Today I put about thirty pounds of pork belly into cure for bacon and pancetta, made a loaf of bread, mixed a bottle of homemade citrus cleaner, and buried one dead chicken. Get a shovel. This is urban homesteading. If you keep chickens, dead chickens are part of the deal. You get what you get…
Romaine Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Tangy Blue Cheese Dressing
This salad came about, as so many things in my kitchen do, because I was looking to use up some leftovers. For dinner a night or two before I made this salad I had roasted several sweet potatoes in their skins and served them simple and plain, with butter and salt passed at the table….
Build vs. Buy – A Garden Soil Dilemma
We’ve all been there, out of room and eager to expand the garden. That sod starts to look like the enemy and eventually the only question is, do you smother the grass with whatever you can find, or do you buy ready-to-go soil and get your seedlings in the ground asap? Build vs. Buy, a…
Digging For God
Let’s take a second and address that last giant venting post about douche-waffles before getting back to our regularly scheduled programming, shall we? First, thank you. I know I said I wasn’t looking for atta-boys, and I wasn’t. But when you shish kabob your heart onto a stick and hoist it up into the ugly…
Thoughts On Douche-Waffles Who Poop In Your Pool
When the USS Enterprise is in a big ol’ space battle, there comes a point where Captain Kirk, or Captain Picard or whoever is sitting in the big chair, has to “direct all power to the shields.” Everything else gets sent into reserve-power-mode: lights dim, warp speed is out of the question and the photon…
Beyond PB&J: Easy Sauces To Use Your Preserves
Pantry full of jam? Yeah…me too. And while I like a good jam thumbprint shortbread cookie as much as the next person, there’s only so much sweet I can take, you know? (Okay, that’s is a lie, but at least 19 times out of 20 I do not actually scoop homemade jam into my mouth…
How to Get The Seeds Out of A Pomegranate Without Going Crazy
Pomegranate: possibly the most delicious fruit ever. Surely the most tedious fruit ever. Separating all those seeds from the extensive, bitter membranes that intersperse the delicious seeds of the pom is a herculean task. I have developed a pretty decent hold-sections-of-pom-over-the-sink-and-scrape-the-seeds-off-with-my-teeth technique, and even manage to eat this seasonal winter fruit without getting horror-movie-esque levels…
Biweekly Menu Planning Form (Free Downloadable)
This year, with my son in preschool, mornings are spent shooing two kids along and getting everyone out the door on time. The AM has to be far more regimented, and fast breakfasts and easy, (often make-ahead) lunches are essential. We are also doing a lot more freezer-meal cooking to streamline dinner these days and…
Split Pea Soup with Bacon (or, How To Eat Well For Almost No Money)
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and…
How To Grow Your Own Garlic
Since garlic at the market is usually pretty cheap and available year-round, it doesn’t occur to many people to grow their own. But garlic is a seasonal crop that tastes much better when it’s truly fresh – just harvested garlic is amazing. The big plump cloves have a strong garlic pungency but are also almost…
Infuse Your Booze! A Complete Guide To DIY Flavored Liquors
This is one of those posts where I will come off as a lush, and an opinionated one at that. But these cocktails? They are simply research, baby – this is all for you. Infuse Your Booze If you like the creativity of cooking and combining flavors and you drink hard alcohol then booze infusions…
Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips and Bourbon
Let’s talk about how pumpkin flavors are forced into everything at this time of year. I know this isn’t a universal feeling, but I kinda run screaming from pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin ale, pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin pie flavored vodka (blech) and many of the “pumpkin spice” type commercial products that hit the shelves in October…