(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…
Basic Potato Soup with Lots of Variations
Part of my family and I were enjoying a pre-Valentine’s day simple supper of soup and bread, with the Chocolate Cherry Cookies I had made for the holiday. I mentioned that, if the cookies passed their taste test panel, I’d be putting them on this blog. Misunderstanding which part of the menu would be added, my…
Chocolate Cherry Cookies
Still trying to think of something sweet you can whip up as a valentine treat for friends or family? While these cookies aren’t heart-shaped (which confused one 3 year old briefly when they were introduced as “Valentine cookies”), they do have chocolate and sweet maraschino cherries, two ingredients just right for the holiday. I first…
Raspberry Marble Cake
Way back when, when our grandmothers did a lot of baking, they had some very basic cake recipes that could be tweaked into something special without a lot of effort. Taking a plain white cake and marbling in some chocolate to part of the batter was one of those things. This recipe does the same…