How To / DIY / Make Your Own
-
Butter Crust for Pie
A lot of people shy away from pies because they’re afraid of making the crust. But what if I told you it was possible to make really flaky, really delicious pie crust with only three ingredients? Not so scared now, huh. This is my go-to recipe for pot pie, or cherry pie, or no pie at all. Yes. I would eat this with no filling in sight. [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:12] Grated butterAnd more grated butter All that butter mixed (lightly) into the flour Rolling out on my pizza stone The rolling pin helps move the crust to the pan Filling Crimping the edge Adding a few vent holes Brushing with egg white…
-
Move Over, Campbell’s … This is REAL Tomato Soup
Okay, maybe that was too harsh. I don’t actually think Campbell’s uses fake tomatoes in their soup. But neither do I believe they walk out behind the factory with little fabric-lined baskets and lovingly select and then hand-pick only the best and ripest tomatoes in the patch for their soup. I think a giant truck backs up to the factory door and dumps half-ripe, chemically sprayed tomatoes from who knows where onto a very cold and neutral conveyor belt. I like my way better. And yes, I do go out to the garden with a fabric-lined basket. I’ve learned that food tastes better when it rides home in such a…
-
Easy Crock Pot Applesauce
I woke up this morning to the most wonderful sight: RAIN! Oh, how I have missed the rain. I know, I know. Everyone else is delighted with summer. And I can take a little summer. But when it’s been as hot (and sometimes humid) as we’ve had lately, then I start longing for good old Pacific Northwest rain. And today it came. 🙂 All that fresh, rain-scrubbed air gave me a cooking- and cleaning-boost. By mid-afternoon, I’d made a crock pot full of applesauce, made a bundt pan and a loaf pan of zucchini bread, shredded eight more batches-worth of zucchini, cleaned our bedroom, vacuumed, swept the kitchen, scrubbed two…
-
How to Make a Perfect Hardboiled Egg
We invited our 2-year old grandson for a sleepover last night. Very, very fun. 🙂 The three of us fell asleep in our queen bed around midnight, right in the middle of a movie. Dave made it to 2:00 a.m., which is about an hour and forty-five minutes longer than I thought he’d hold out. I woke as he was heading upstairs to finish the night in the guest room, but then I was fully awake and stayed that way until 3:30. I’m horrible about that. Once I’m awake, I start thinking again. Last night it was a combination of violin, watercolors, mosaic pave-making (for my garden walkway), and figuring…
-
How to Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes (Without the Sun)
Ah, sun-dried tomatoes. Tangy, umami-full, intense bitelets of summer. (I kind of doubt that anyone will ever find this post by googling “umami-full” or “bitelets,” but those just happen to be necessary descriptors.) Is there anyone who doesn’t swoon at a jar of sun-dried tomatoes? Well, as nice as it is to open a jar of Trader Joe’s sun-dried tomatoes, or even an expensive jar you picked up at some specialty store, it is even better when you’re opening a jar of homemade sun-dried tomatoes. And you don’t even need the sun. Here’s how I make mine: Sun-Dried Tomatoes about 3 lbs of Roma tomatoes (also known as “paste” tomatoes)…
-
Fellowship and Roux
A bunch of years ago, I started thinking how nice it would be if the women at church got together on a regular basis to talk about all things “nest-y” : how to set an atmosphere in your home, how to can peaches, how to sew a button, how to organize your cupboards … that sort of thing. What really got me started on this path was when I realized how many younger women in our church had never had any training at all in this department. Some of them had mothers who worked, some had mothers who were so competent themselves that they didn’t want their daughters in the…
