Category: food and cooking

I keep a freezer bag where we put onion skins, garlic peels, the woody parts of asparagus, bell pepper cores, celery stubs, anything that might contribute to good stock.

When the bag fills, time to get out the Instant Pot or just the pot. Either works.

Here’s my bag. And here’s the end of a roast chicken.

Put that in an Instant Pot or a big ole pot of any kind. Add water, salt, bay leaf, and anything else you want your stock to taste like.

For the Instant Pot, High Pressure for an hour and a half. For your regular pot, bring to boil and simmer for a long time until it tastes like you want it to taste.

Pour it out, and you’ve got veggie/chicken/bone broth gold.

And you can use it for all kinds of things. This day, I used it for a rice and beans bowl riff. Using what you got. Another pro tip, broth makes you fuller, so you’ll feel all cozy and ready for your afternoon.

This recipe is a riff on Alexandra’s Peasant Bread. Our friend Scotty Humphries brought us a fresh baked loaf of this stuff soon after our second son was born, and = life changed. She shared the recipe with me, and this is the way I like to do it.

You don’t need a mixer for this. You can do it by hand in a bowl. I like using the mixer because it was my Grandma’s, and I like to let the dough hook do some kneading for this no-knead recipe.

Mix or sift the dry ingredients together then add your water and bring the dough together. Again here, I appreciate the work the dough hook does for me. I’ve done this in a bowl with a mixing spoon and bare hands as well.

Cover with a damp tea towel and set out in a warmish place for an hour and a half.

It’ll double in size.

Coat two pyrex bowls with butter, divide the dough in two, and place uncovered in the bowls. Preheat the oven to 425 and let them rise a little until the oven comes to temp.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temp to 375. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Turn them out and let them cool. And you have delicious homemade wheat bread.

whole wheat toast + chevre + scallions + salt + soft boiled eggs + Everything But the Bagel Seasoning = yum, a lil brekkie luxury, and keeping you full until lunchy.

To make a kickass salad dressing, you need acid, an emulsifier, and salt.

The other day I was outa lemons, and I needed a little somethin somethin. Then I spied the dill pickle jar in the back of the fridge. And magic ensued.

Here’s a recent lunch construction featuring my own hillbilly Tzatziki riff.

Here’s what I pulled from the quickly-emptying fridge:

Yogurt, dill pickle juice, scallion and salt. Mix that and add your chunky cucumbers. (I only had a little bit of yogurt left, so I put everything in the container together and shook.)

Chopped romaine and carrots done with the veggie peeler on top of that. There’s some chicken breast I batch cooked in the Instant Pot a couple days before.

Mix that with your hands and into some salad bowls. Thanks for the pretty bowls, Mama.

Toss the chicken in the remaining dressing.

Add hummus, whole wheat pita, use a rubber spatula to get all that dressing out of the bowl, and there’s a yummy lunch.

A recent discovery in our house is the banana and egg pancake. They taste like crepes, and they are delicious.