i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
This is a fun recipe that can be modified to your taste. Seafood dynamite is usually some sort of baked seafood dish with mayo, the creaminess of the mayonnaise making it a decadent treat. You can often find it in the appetizer section of a …
First, let me just say yes, chickweed (Stellaria media) tastes good—like if butter lettuce and alfalfa sprouts had a baby… but it’s a pain to harvest and harvest enough of it to justify making a salad. However, if you have nothing to do and are …
When we were little, my grandparents taught my sister and I how to make these origami boxes from the stacks of magazines they would get in the mail. We would sit at their country style dining table (which is now the kotatsu table in my tatami room), carefully folding each one. I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 when I started and the directions to fold this box are deeply ingrained into my muscle memory—I can probably do them in my sleep. The boxes, when unopened, folded up neatly in a stack.
Aside from being just a fun thing for kids to do, it had another use—as something to throw fish/beef/pork/chicken bones in while we ate dinner. It was also used to toss pistachio and peanut shells in, watermelon seed and pumpkin seed shells, egg shells, orange peels, etc. while we sat around the table playing games or talking or playing Mah Jong. Once we were done, each person would just throw the entire box in the garbage.
Eating the menhaden with all of its tiny bones reminded me that I was out of these, so I pulled up a stack of magazines and got to work. My cute little daughters of course got very interested and learned to make them as well and I marveled at how each generation passes these small traditions down to the next.
What I like about this is that I can use the previous year’s seed catalogues to make this, and it can easily go in the compost when it’s been used (make sure your paper type is compostable.) It’s a fun DIY project that is also zero waste. The boxes are simple, and I can make one every thirty seconds or so. Below are the photo instructions.
Here’s something that’s a little bit more on the “normal” spectrum in terms of food since I know some of my creations might be difficult for the average homesteader to find use for. I dehydrate hot peppers and powder them to save space, and this …
As I scour the internet for recipes on Akebia shoots, the thin, curling new vines that sprout each spring from last year’s now woody growth, the only thing that I can find is anecdotal evidence of the Japanese eating it as fresh greens, especially in …
Shishito peppers are delightful little morsels that do beautifully blistered on the pan or in the air fryer. Mild, sweet, but packing with flavor, these peppers are a great little side or snacking dish. This recipe tosses the blistered peppers into a olive oil, feta, and lemon mix.
I love the flavor of lemons and am liberally using my salt preserved lemon puree in many of my dishes that could use a punch of citrus. No longer am I despairing about the fact that I don’t have any fresh lemons on hand nor am I wasting them. I may do a sugar preserved version of them in the future. I dried a bunch of my oregano which comes back stronger year after year which provides some herbal notes. I’ve been powdering my dehydrated tomatoes to save space and a sprinkling of that has me thinking of summer.
All in all, this takes about ten minutes from start to finish, since I do it in the air fryer. Without an air fryer, you can broil it on high in your oven but make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Perfect blistering has just a hint of char which imparts some smokiness. Pair this with some crusty bread and smash a pepper with some cheese on it or dip into the remaining olive oil which will be mixed with the running juices of the peppers.
Today is the one day this week where we’ll be having warm and non-rain-y weather so my husband and I packed up the children and decided to go fishing. After all, if we didn’t get out soon, the great Coronatine of 2020 would have us …
The trifecta of apple, bacon, and gorgonzola makes this roasted Brussels sprout an enviable centerpiece for lunch or dinner (or breakfast, I’m not judging—Brussels sprout hash is a thing.) I like using my air fryer for this because everything is roasted to perfection. Prep time …
Cacio e Pepe has always been a little bit of a bucket list item for me. I always wanted to try it since I have heard about its deliciousness over and over again but never order it when I see it on the menu (nor is it often that I do see it on a menu.) Literally translated as “cheese and pepper,” this dish isn’t complicated in terms of ingredients, but does require some understanding on emulsifying the cheese into a creamy sauce. Unlike what I thought, it doesn’t use a white sauce base and instead relies on the pasta water to provide thickness to the sauce.
The spicy kick of the black pepper really ties the dish together. Splurge on a high end Pecorino Romano and good peppercorns—you won’t regret that. You can grate the cheese, but it makes it so much easier if you just grind it in the food processor a few times.
I wish I could give you the exact measurements for the pasta water, but it honestly is just keep adding until you have enough to coat your spaghetti in the creamy sauce. Too little and the sauce will tighten up really quickly when it starts to cool, too much and emulsification will be problematic.
As I’m going through my chest freezer, I found a container of the various berries I grew last year—I very often shove them all together into the freezer, if there isn’t enough to immediately make something with due to varying ripening times. I sometimes grab …