When I found chicken thighs on sale for less than 60 cents a pound, it was an easy decision to buy a “family pack” of 12 thighs. Braising them all meant that there would be lots of meat in the refrigerator to try out some new chicken options. Along with plenty of prepared chicken, the…
Author: hl
Triple Berry Pie
Many years ago, I spent a summer working in the kitchen of a local country club. My job was preparing the cold foods. In that time of no pre-prepared ingredients, every day started with peeling and cutting into meticulously sized sticks 5 pounds of carrots, cutting pounds of cream cheese into cubes for garnishing some…
Spanish Tortilla
Not long ago, I saw a reference to a “Spanish tortilla,” something very different from the tortillas we associate with Mexican dishes. While in Barcelona Spain recently, I had an opportunity to try some “authentic” tapas, including the “Spanish tortillas” I had heard about. As with almost all the tapas we tried, these were delicious,…
Cilantro and Spinach Pesto
(From the archives–originally posted May 17, 2015) Last week there were still some great specials on really beautiful bunches of cilantro, so I picked up some extra. Now, how to use all of it? Of course there is Amy’s great Tortilla Soup (found here: http://frugalfastfun.blogspot.com/2012/02/give-thanks-for-thanksgiving-soups.html), and refried beans are always improved by cilantro. For now,…
Rhubarb Coffeecake (made with mayonnaise)
Here in the upper Midwest, we are seeing more and more poultry farms hit with a dangerous avian flu virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of chickens and turkeys, and there are predictions of sharply higher egg prices coming, so it seemed like a good time to try substituting mayonnaise in one more recipe….
Cranberry Streusel Coffeecake–made with mayonnaise
Yes, it’s time for another recipe using mayonnaise in place of oil and eggs. Now that picnic season is upon us, the stores are featuring specials on mayonnaise, so it’s a good time to pick up a jar just for baking, even if you never use it for anything else. This recipe is adapted from…
Curried Cabbage and Carrots
I am still working through a pretty large stash of cabbage from the St Patrick’s Day specials (17 cents a pound!) a few weeks ago. Cabbage is one of those wonderful vegetables that can be stored in the refrigerator for weeks–not to mention my “root cellar” garage where I felt like a pioneer when cabbages…
Applesauce Oatmeal Cookies
A long time ago, I had a Home Ec teacher who explained there are three basic kinds of cookies: chewy, crisp, and cake-like. These old-fashioned oatmeal cookies are definitely in the cake-like group, soft and moist and full of flavor. They are also relatively healthy (though still with enough sugar that they definitely should stay…
Tackling Those Hard-shelled Butternut Squashes
I’ll admit it. For years, the only way I ever prepared butternut squash was to roast them whole and then scoop out the flesh from the finally softened peelings. Sometimes I would be so brave as to cut them in half, take out the seeds, and turn them upside down on a baking sheet to…
Sweet and Simple Vegetable Soup
Sometimes, inspiration strikes and the results are even better than expected. The story of how this soup came to be is far too long for a single blog post. Just know that I was looking to make a flavorful, comfort-food type soup using some of the vegetables I had on hand. If it was healthy…