This past Sunday, we brought the food for church coffee hour. In addition to carrots, spinach dip, hummus, cheese, and crackers, my son wanted to bring brownies. Things Not To Do When Baking Brownies: Don't agree to do it in between two hours-long shopping expeditions, on a day when you are still recovering from a … Continue reading How to Salvage Over-baked Brownies
Recipes
Pumpkin Burritos
It may seem somewhat obvious that, if you can make Butternut Squash Burritos from the same recipe as Sweet Potato Burritos, you could also make Pumpkin Burritos. But if you're among the many people desperately searching the Internet this month for new and different ways to serve the remains of your jack o'lantern, it might … Continue reading Pumpkin Burritos
What to Do with Bread Heels
Some people consider the ends of a loaf of bread to be the best parts. My family, though, prefers the middle slices. Daniel often will eat the heel that is at the top of the bag, but by the time we get to the bottom of the bag, the other heel is less appealing. (This … Continue reading What to Do with Bread Heels
What to Serve for Coffee Hour
Many places of worship, and a lot of non-religious organizations, have a "coffee hour" or "fellowship time" or some other name for "when we all mill around and have a little something to eat and drink." At our church, this is a particularly vital time. Many interesting conversations happen, friendships are formed, and plans for … Continue reading What to Serve for Coffee Hour
Spaghetti Sauce, September 16 Version (with apple!)
This most recent in my series of spaghetti sauce recipes is good for "Guess the Mystery Ingredient" if you like to play that game. I added the apple, and added it early in the cooking process, because I was concerned that the mostly-green pepper would give this sauce a sharp, tangy flavor. I have disliked … Continue reading Spaghetti Sauce, September 16 Version (with apple!)
Summer Vegetable Sunflower Blop
Sometimes I have trouble thinking of a good name for a recipe, especially when it's something I have been making for myself without talking to anybody about it, because in my mind it can be called "kind of like what I made the other day" or "mmmmm" or "RY3A0128" or whatever. The name for today's … Continue reading Summer Vegetable Sunflower Blop
Pittsburgh Yam Fake (a sweet potato dish for summer!)
This is the dish to make if you wish you could make New England Yam Bake, but it's 85 degrees in your kitchen and anyway what you have handy is 2 cups of sweet potatoes that were sliced raw, frozen, and thawed (see the first Saturday of Three Weeks of Vegetarian Dinners for historical details) … Continue reading Pittsburgh Yam Fake (a sweet potato dish for summer!)
New England Yam Bake
This is Daniel's mother Elsa's traditional Thanksgiving side dish. I'm posting it in July because I'm about to post a way to make a similar but non-baked dish if you crave something like this (and/or have sweet potatoes to use up) in hot weather! We had made the original recipe many times, referencing a copy … Continue reading New England Yam Bake
Kirn Family Kale
More than three years ago, I posted many ways to eat kale, beginning the article with an acknowledgement that many people think it's just a garnish and that, personally, I grew up knowing kale as a notorious vegetable used by my maternal grandmother’s family, seasoned with cloves and cayenne pepper and cooked “until the wallpaper peels,” to … Continue reading Kirn Family Kale
7 Delicious Meatless Recipes from Other Sites
We enjoy plenty of our own recipes, but I also have fun browsing recipes online and copying down recipes we might like. Here are 7 that have earned pages in our recipe binder. If you are vegetarian or vegan or have given up meat for Lent or are observing Meatless Mondays or meatless Lenten Fridays, … Continue reading 7 Delicious Meatless Recipes from Other Sites
Four MORE Weeks of Pesco-Vegetarian Dinners (winter)
A pesco-vegetarian is someone who eats no meat except fish. That's my family's policy when we're at home. Four weeks of our dinner menus made a popular post, so I'm posting another four weeks. I hope these are helpful to other people who want to eat less meat but aren't sure what to eat instead! … Continue reading Four MORE Weeks of Pesco-Vegetarian Dinners (winter)
Our Recipe Binder
I have seen online many beautiful recipe binders created by full-time homemakers who have master's degrees in scrapbooking or just great skill in making things look perfect. Daniel and I are part-time haphazard homemakers, both of whom like to cook, so we have had to come up with a method of recipe storage that works … Continue reading Our Recipe Binder
Butternut Squash Burritos
UPDATE: I'm linking this to Waste Not Want Not Wednesday, which is hosted at a gluten-free site. You could make this recipe gluten-free by using any type of gluten-free tortilla or wrap, by putting the filling over rice or quinoa in a bowl, or by being super-nutritious and wrapping the filling in big leaves of … Continue reading Butternut Squash Burritos
Spaghetti Sauce, January 7 Version (with turnip!)
This most recent in my series of spaghetti sauce recipes is thick and non-peppery, ideal for use in Stuffed Shells. We got a winter farm share this year, and last week it included two turnips, just two, a big one and a small one. When we divided the veggies with our friends, we got the … Continue reading Spaghetti Sauce, January 7 Version (with turnip!)
Top 11 Recipes of 2011
Happy new year! For the first Hearth and Soul Blog Hop of the year, I decided to compile a list of the 11 Earthling's Handbook recipes that were most popular last year--some of which have been online much longer than one year. Just in case you missed them... 11. Improved Pasta Salad is a nutritious … Continue reading Top 11 Recipes of 2011
Dining at The Purple Tulip
Our son Nicholas is almost seven years old and has three possible careers in mind: railroad engineer, teacher, and waiter. This last interest has increased in the past year, and at dinnertime he sometimes wants to pretend our home is a restaurant. He got particularly elaborate during my mother's summer visit and named his restaurant … Continue reading Dining at The Purple Tulip
Granulated Garlic
Daniel and I love garlic and use it in many of our recipes. Usually we prefer to use fresh garlic, crushed in a garlic press. Every once in a while, though, we'll run out of garlic or find that our last few cloves have gotten squishy--and also, there are a few recipes like Honey Baked … Continue reading Granulated Garlic
Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
Two years ago, I developed a recipe for Raisin Bran Bread to use up a bulk purchase of raisin bran cereal whose flakes were so big and hard and rough that it was painful to eat! We love the bread, so I actually bought more of that aggressive raisin bran whenever Costco issued a coupon, … Continue reading Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe
Instant hummus and falafels!
My mostly-vegetarian family likes to eat hummus (garbanzo bean and sesame seed dip) and falafels (garbanzo bean and pea fritters) but both of these foods take a while to make from scratch. Practically every grocery store sells ready-to-serve hummus these days, but it is pricey and gets moldy quickly. A few stores and restaurants sell … Continue reading Instant hummus and falafels!
Cranberry Bread Without Sugar?
This is not a recipe. It is a story of a recipe that does taste very different if you forget to put in the sugar, but the result is still edible! I have made the Cranberry Orange Bread from the 1968 Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook (snag this one if you see it in … Continue reading Cranberry Bread Without Sugar?
The Earthling's Handbook 