Inspiration & Resources for the modern homemaker
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!
Leavening agents are fundamental to the recipes that call for them. You may be able to make chocolate chip cookies without flour (I wouldn’t recommend it…but it’s possible), but you can’t make them without a leavening agent. The importance of leavening is often overlooked. When looking at a recipe with a ton of ingredients, I do have to wonder if… Read More
Have you ever been in the middle of making a recipe and discovered you were out of something? Or practicing “mise en place” (as we should all do), and found that you’re out of an ingredient? And there isn’t time enough to run to the grocery store? Those are the situations in which we rely on substituting an ingredient…. Read More
We learned ALL about chocolate a few posts back (see “All About Chocolate” if you missed it). In a perfect world, we would always use the correct, precise ingredient every single time. But in my world (and probably yours), things happen. The store is out, we thought we had it in the cupboard, or it just plain isn’t available in your… Read More
It’s been busy around here. At least we have a break before the next holiday! Anyway, I decided it’s time for another “Substitute Sunday.” Well, I guess I’m posting this on Monday. Have you ever had that moment? You’re gathering ingredients at the beginning of baking something…walk to the cupboard…look in…and then exclaim “I can’t believe I’m out of that…. 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
I bought a grain grinder when I lived in Charleston. The ducks in our front pond (yes, our apartment complex had a duck pond) ate a lot of less-than-ideal loaves of bread. To this day I wonder how a loaf a bread can come out heavier than the combined weight of its ingredients. I had a blast finding grains. Except… Read More
We all have that moment. Gathering ingredients at the beginning of baking something (because we always remember mise en place), walking to the cupboard…looking in…and then exclaiming “I can’t believe I’m out of that. I was SURE I had that!” Or planning on trying a new recipe, and realizing you somehow forgot to buy the sour cream (personal experience speaking… Read More