When I expect to be very busy and there’s bits of this and that needing use for meals, it’s time for a pan of What’s-in-the-cupboard gratin. Today it’s two potatoes, a packet of Trader Joe’s tamales, some French-fried onion rings and small amounts of two cheeses. My week will mostly be spent with the intensive … More What’s-in-the-cupboard Gratin
When it snows in Seattle, the two snowplows which the city owns are pulled out of the DOT barns by rented blue cranes, warm batteries installed in those converted dump-trucks and some roads get sand or salt. The side streets get nothing but cars packing the snow into ice and most of the sidewalks do … More Snow Means Chili & Homemade Tortillas
I’m a ruminator. Some things I just can’t let go. For instance, calling a maple-flavored, cinnamon-sugar topped baked item “Maple Cinnamon Quick Bread” wouldn’t have brought a lot of attention to Trader Joe’s newest branded offering of somebody else’s invention, the Pancake Bread* which I reviewed here earlier this week. However, I’d already decided to … More Cranberry Cinnamon Quick Bread or is it a pancake bread? Recipe.
I grew up making these strawberry preserves in the summers with my mother, standing at the sink, washing and hulling strawberries, leaving them whole, then by some magic in more than a few minutes filling a big stainless steel tub with berries in a thick syrup to cool, also to pluck a whole berry from … More Great Grandmother’s 6-Minute (haha) Strawberry Preserves
My Facebook feed this morning included a post from Washington’s own Bluebird Grain Farms featuring emmer pancakes from their artisan mix. I’d forgotten that there’s a bag of it in the box of flours and such that I brought along in the move, so the virtual reminder and salivation sent me into the cubbyhole kitchen … More Emmer Pancakes? Yes, please.
I’ve joined NaNoWriMo this year with goal of completing the task during the onset of many gray days in Seattle, a sort of pick-me-up as I go along while the season gnaws at my will. 50,000 words in November. A new novel, approximately 200 pages, and, for me, it is the first draft of one … More Let’s Call It Southwestern Gratin
I was looking for a recipe in the bread sections of some cookbooks when the words “Crusty Onion Popovers” caught my eye. My daughter likes onion and when I find a recipe featuring them, I might have a go, and so I did. The recipe included onion salt, which I omitted, and I substituted a … More Preparing for Pumpkin Carving Party with Crusty Onion Popovers
Ms Chef in Seattle 