Inspiration & Resources for the modern homemaker
There are a few things in the baking world that seem almost magical to others. Bread making is one of those. To those who haven’t made homemade bread, it seems mysterious and vast. Unknown terms and the unknown magic of yeast. But it doesn’t need to be. People have been making bread since…well, the beginning of recorded history. It only seems so… Read More
We’ve gone through a lot of ingredients over the last year or so during my “Ingredients: Everything You Need to Know” series- their uses, where they come from, etc. And it’s time to start with the all of the spices you might run across. Let’s get started with parsley!
Today, I’m going to explore leavening agents: baking soda, baking powder, yeast, rapid-rise yeast, etc. I suspect the hidden cause of many failed recipes are bad ingredients. Not bad as in ‘spoiled’ or ‘expired.’ Bad as in low-quality or the wrong ingredient. When I started making bread, I had some disasters. One loaf even the ducks at the pond wouldn’t… Read More
My husband loves salmon. I dislike the price, but I like a happy husband. And I can admit it tastes pretty good. Especially when I make my “Roast Salmon w/ Bell Pepper-Tomato Vinaigrette.” The only annoyance is those little bones running in a line down the entire fillet. For those who are curious, they’re “floating” bones (aka- not attached to… Read More
Chocolate…who doesn’t love chocolate? [Looks around…hears crickets] I’ve learned a lot throughout my lifetime. As a kid, I learned that mixing cocoa powder into milk does NOT make chocolate milk. As a teenager, I learned that there were multiple different types of chocolate- aka I discovered dark chocolate. Yay! As an adult, I learned that it’s easy to scorch chocolate… Read More
Previously I covered the many types of wheat flour, including: all-purpose, self-rising, bread flour, cake flour, pastry flour; as well as the less common ones: gluten flour, semolina flour, spelt flour, bulgur flour, etc. (See the blog post -or- visit the ‘Ingredients’ page.) However, the other day I got an off-the-wall question about the types of wheat. I had no idea of the… Read More
As I’ve been learning more about cooking and baking, I’ve discovered that understanding the fundamentals behind recipes is vital. Yes, Pinterest can provide 100 bread recipes. But which one should you use? And if you have a great bread recipe that works….most of the time? What’s going on the other times? So I’ve decided to start a series tentatively titled… Read More