FROM SCRATCH CLUB

I’ve been mulling over creating a great gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free baking mix in my brain for almost a year now. Finally a moment of inspiration came to me and I made a bee line for my kitchen to put together this gem of a recipe. I say gem because it is the most versatile mix [...]

As the weather has turned warmer, and more Spring-like, my family has been spending more and more time outdoors. We take walks after dinner, race down the giant slides at the playground, and delight in the smells from our neighbor’s grill. A few evenings we have even smelt wood burning from fire pits and campfires [...]

Many people have a specialty in the kitchen. For some, it’s a killer chocolate cake. Others have a meatloaf recipe that cannot be matched. For Mrs. Stiles, it was fried cakes. What are fried cakes? They are essentially the same thing as Old-Fashioned cake donuts (okay, they are the same thing). Who is Mrs. Stiles? [...]

Warmer days have started to descend on us, here in the Capital Region of NY, and everyone is cheering, hoping Spring is here to stay. The happiest of those in my house are my children.  They have been playing outside constantly, soaking up the fresh air and the sunny skies.  I wanted an easy, delicious [...]

According to the Smithsonian, “French women traditionally have relied on subtle culinary cues to signal their amorous intentions. The July 1956 issue of the journal Western Folklore reported: “a young maid lets her swain know whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by what she feeds him on St. Valentine’s Day. It’s a custom that [...]

2011 was the year of food, for me. Food blogging, food swapping, exploring food preservation methods and diving into the world of acquiring local foods. It was during 2011 that I stumbled upon the FSC food swaps and found a place among kindred spirits. 2011 was also a year of hardship: my mom was diagnosed [...]

Editor’s Note: Selifishly, I’m really excited about this post. Miles’ 3rd birthday is Monday and I plan on making him some special cupcakes to share at school… and these are the ones! Hi Hat Cupcakes- nope, I’ve never heard of them either but they look amazing and Becky’s description of them makes me wish a [...]

Editor’s Note: Who wants to learn to make berry-filled hot pockets of goodness? I do! I do! Deanna’s post was first published, in springtime on May 23rd 2011 as Sundays on the Sunporch: Three Berry “Pop-Tarts”. We also get a glimpse of a toddler cooking with a bucket on her head… who doesn’t do that? [...]

Some of my earliest memories are of my Jewish grandmother setting out a loaf of challah, along with a spread of white fish, cream cheese, lox and bagels.  She never made any of these foods herself, but challah still reminds me of her.  Recently I developed an interest in making challah bread myself.  Thinking about [...]

As the Holidays are upon us, cookie-making season is in full swing. My kids have a list of cookies they want to make {or rather, eat}, I have my own recipe list of goodies to try, and then of course there are the edible gifts.  At my house, there will be lots of cookie baking [...]

On the one hand, I really like cookies, like the way they look, like the way the taste, like their size and variety.  On the other hand, I am on the far side of 50, have a sedentary day job and would like to survive to enjoy 25 years or more of active retirement, so [...]

Its pretty simple: I love baking bread and I love eating bread. I bring bread to almost every food swap and am always experimenting with a new kind. Lately, I have been making so much bread, English muffins, biscuits, etc, that I have not purchased any bread products from the grocery store in quite some [...]

Editor’s Note: If you attended Honest Weight Food Coop‘s Harvest Fest, then you (hopefully) sampled these muffins before they were gone. For those who have been waiting for the recipe (sorry we ran out of recipe cards too!) here it is… its a keeper in the Fall Season Baked Goods Rotation if you ask me. [...]

I’ve finally found the perfect apple pie recipe. It’s perfect because you don’t have to make a crust. That’s right, all of the glory and none of the pain. In a small kitchen, even a simple pie crust is typically out of the question. Really anything that requires rolling out dough usually gets vetoed. So [...]

Recently I found myself with a box of tomatoes {Farmer Jon’s Produce, Selkirk, NY}, a desire to process them, but no real plan of attack.  I flipped through the pages of the “Better Homes & Gardens: Canning”  issue, and landed on their Tomato-Basil Jam recipe. I wondered how, exactly, could: tomato+basil = the sweet awesomeness [...]