Homegrown & Homemade
I’m a dip person. I want to dip stuff into other stuff, all the time. And this Homemade French Onion & Herb Dip is one of my favorite dips- so that’s saying a lot! I think I love it so much because it combines two classics- it’s a little bit of a cross between a creamy ranch dip and a french onion dip. And it …
This has been the year of the fruit leather, and my favorite so far is this plum and crabapple fruit leather… it’s sweet and tart, with a gorgeous color, plus it is very pliable and tender (a great quality for fruit leather, as some can end up as tough as… well, leather). I’m on my third batch already and it seems I haven’t even made a …
For years I’ve tried making pickles- everything from bread and butter refrigerator pickles to classic dills… and for years I’ve never found a recipe I have fallen in love with, until now. I didn’t realize how much my general lack of pickling skills was weighing on me- I mean, a homesteader should be able to make a great pickle, shouldn’t they?! Well, I feel like …
I’ve always thought sweet potatoes were only okay- I’ve never been crazy about them… even the beautiful glowing purple ones we grow in our own garden. And Karl is simply just offended by sweet potatoes, maintaining that they are indeed “not a potato.” I had to start calling them Yams, just so that he would consider eating them! Yes, it worked. They really are a …
Do you ever notice how certain dishes always taste better when somebody else makes them? Chicken salad was one of those things for me. That is, until I really thought about what it was that I liked about other peoples’ chicken salads, and set out to finally nail down the perfect recipe. What I came up with was this: Sweet Apple Chicken Salad! It’s perfect, and it …
This is autumn in a crockpot. You know how I know that? Because it’s autumn… and I went right outside and harvested the sage from my herb garden. We picked the apples from our tree and the onions from our garden just a couple weeks ago! And because when I walked into the house and was hit with the smell of herby, apple-y, slow-braised meat, …
If there’s anything I’m a connoisseur of, it’s likely caramels. It’s my favorite flavor of anything and everything, anywhere. I will without a doubt always order the caramel-flavored whatever it is. A couple of years ago, I discovered that I could make caramel… and I got really good at it. I make the best salted caramel sauce, the best salted caramel buttercream frosting, and the best …
It doesn’t happen often, but when I get the sniffles I turn into a big whiney baby. I’m useless. No pushing through and carrying on with the day here, nope. I’m in bed, on the couch, taking it easy- and almost always with a pile of used tissues on the floor… yes mom, I still do that! You tried hard to break the habit, but …
For some reason I keep picturing a group of big burly men- wearing red flannel shirts and dark denim jeans held up by suspenders, and all sporting the type of beard that birds try to nest in… returning from a day filled with chopping wood in the dense and misty old-growth forrest, they sit around a crackling fire eating spit-roasted pork and drinking out of …
Did you know that almost every time I make this Tomato Basil Frittata (which is pretty often), Karl goes around saying “frIIiiTTtaTTa” in his best Italian accent (which is pretty bad). Must be the scent of fresh basil getting to his head. During the winter when we were eating only preserved eggs, this frittata was all we ever had- because it is so good that we …
