i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
I had some radishes left over from making the perilla kimchi and wanted to use it up before it went bad. Our whole family loves pickled radish, especially as a side dish. Traditionally, it’s said to improve digestion and clear your palate. Normally it’s done …
I brought my pot of shiso indoors before the first below freezing temperatures to see if I could extend the growing season for just a bit. I had transplanted a few of each variety that had self sowed in my garden into a pot for …
And the race to use up the pumpkin spiced puree is on. I thought, what’s the easiest way to use it up? Pumpkin pie has been done to death and quite honestly, it’s gotten to the point where I can’t tell the difference between that and sweet potato pie
Maybe.. CARBOHYDRATES.
So muffins it is. I found a recipe online for pumpkin muffins, and replaced the vegetable oil with butter (because butter makes everything better), and chocolate with pumpkin seeds (I’m not big on chocolate and I have a bag of pumpkin seeds in the fridge.)
It came out absolutely decadent–moist but crumbly, both my daughters each ate one before it even fully cooled down. I had one with (surprise, surprise) a smear of butter and some hot tea and that made for a delicious afternoon snack.
I know when the husband unit gets home tonight, they’re all gonna disappear… even if I did make about three dozen of them…
Ingredients
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Mix all the ingredients and pour into muffin/cupcake cups (or a muffin tin) and bake for 20-25 minutes, until outside is cracked and golden brown.
I always have Ahi tuna steaks in the deep freezer, for those days I just want sashimi/sushi but don’t have the desire to go out and buy it. The first time I saw the packages in Aldi, I did a double take and knew I …
Remember when I made the spiced pumpkin spread? Well, what I didn’t tell you was that I ended up making a huge batch of it–about half a gallon to be exact. Who knew one pumpkin could produce so much? Anyway, it’s been a race to …
I knew it was going to be a cold day when I woke up this morning and I was buried under blankets I didn’t want to come out of. When I stuck my toe out to test the air, I could tell that my wood stove had gone out some time during the night, and the house was sporting 60 or so degrees. Because I have kids, I wasted no time in gritting my teeth, taking a deep breath, and plunging myself out into the living room to restart the fire. Once that was roaring, I thought about what I wanted to make in order to stave off the cold.
And that was ramen.
Not just any regular old ramen though–garlic miso ramen with a deliciously thick broth, a beautiful marinated soft boiled egg, and some thick and hearty slices of charsiu melty pork. But, outside of the city, where was I going to get such a thing? I sure as heck wasn’t going to drive into the city just for a bowl, dragging two screaming children, no matter how tasty it might have been.
So I endeavored to make my own. I did it once before and while the end result was glorious, it was way too much work to be slaving over a hot stove for hours at a time, trying to make sure it doesn’t over boil or evaporate too much. Then I remembered–I got a pressure cooker and that meant a broth that would otherwise take at least overnight could be done in less than two hours.
I picked up some pork trotters and a thick slab of pork belly at the butchers–they didn’t have chicken feet so while I was at my local Aldi picking up scallions and a heck of a lot of garlic, I also picked up a small whole cornish game hen.
This was even better than last time, and I highly, highly suggest you make your own if you have access to either a crock pot or a pressure cooker. The broth full of gelatin and calcium and all those nutrients that leech into the soup.
This recipe is always a hit as a side dish during any event or party–it’s tasty in its fresh simplicity. It uses copious amounts of mint (spearmint or peppermint), which is just as well because they can get invasive if not controlled. I usually make …
We carved up the pumpkins today just in time for Halloween, and that meant a lot of pumpkin innards. I don’t really like throwing away perfectly edible ingredients and I just so happened to have seen a recipe for pumpkin spice. Now, I’m not big …
My husband likes bacon, I don’t, but sometimes he’ll buy a pack and beg me to make it for him. I’ll put bacon slices in the roasting pan and crisp it up that way (nice and even), and while he munches on his favorite cured meat, I’ll wonder about what to do with all that bacon fat that’s been rendered out into the pan. I don’t like to waste food, so while sometimes I will mix it in with my poultry feed to give them an extra boost of oils (especially during the winter when they need more fuel to say warm), I will also cook with it.
That’s when roasting vegetables come in handy, because while I don’t like to eat bacon, I do like the smokiness it imparts to food that has been made with it, brussel sprouts being one of them.
Brussel sprouts, once roasted, take on a sweet and nutty flavor. It’s something I never had until I was an adult, since Asian families don’t tend to eat them. They’re in the cabbage family, and are cool weather crops. I didn’t grow any this year, but may do it next year.
In any case, it’s a great way to utilize leftover bacon grease, and my husband gets to basically eat his bacon twice. This dish is sweet and savory, perfect for a roast dinner in nippy fall weather. You can use olive oil in place of bacon fat if you want it vegetarian/vegan.
Ingredients
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a roasting pan, toss the brussel sprouts in the bacon grease, honey, with a dash of salt and pepper, until evenly coated. Spread them so it is one layer.
3. Roast in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, or until tender and slightly charred.
As the cold weather sets in, the cool weather crops come out. Once the weather began dropping into the 40’s during the night, I cleared my annual bed and began to prepare it for the fall crops. One of the things I often grow (but …