I finally made tomato paste and it tastes amazing. This has been on my to-do, to-cook, to-blog list since I started blogging. Like many things I now make from scratch, I will never be able to eat store-bought tomato paste again because homemade tastes incredible. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I followed the recipe […]
Overcome Your Fear of Commitment—to Sourdough and Other Starters
I can’t look after more than four starters. My ginger bug Mary Ann, my kombucha SCOBY Etheldreda, my sourdough starter Eleanor and my buttermilk Betty all need regular feedings or they’ll die. I take care of this little family in addition to fermenting all sorts of other foods that don’t require starters—kimchi, dill pickles, chutney, […]
Coconut Milk Made from Dried Coconut
I make my own coconut milk for several reasons: Store-bought coconut milk is packaged in either wasteful cans lined with plastic or hard-to-recycle and even more wasteful Tetra-Paks that contain plastic Many of these plastics contain BPA or a replacement that is just as harmful Store-bought often contains food-like and suspect ingredients Homemade contains only […]
Kitchen Gadgets You Didn’t Know You Already Own
A flimsy plastic kitchen gadget that should not exist inspired this post: the Evriholder Avo Saver Avocado Holder. Shaped like one half of an avocado, with a round indentation for the seed and an adjustable rubber strap, this gadget buckles in the half avocado you didn’t eat so you can store it in the refrigerator and […]
A Use-It-Up Challenge (or What We Ate Last Week)
Forgetting to bring your money before you head out shopping can provide a great opportunity to re-examine your shopping list—and in the case of grocery shopping, prevent food waste. The Sunday before last, I arrived at the farmers’ market late. Once there, before even opening my purse, I realized I had neither money nor my […]
Refried Beans
Homemade refried beans taste delicious, fill you up, cost little money to make and contain only a handful of ingredients. The taste of canned refried beans pales in comparison and I prefer that my food not come into contact with plastic. The epoxy that lines cans contains either BPA or a just-as-bad-if-not-worse replacement, such as […]
But When You Do Shop, Shop Small
Shop small could mean shop less. And I do suggest we all do that. But in this post, by shop small, I mean shop at small independent businesses—the local bookstore, bike shop and bakery. Why? 1. Less packaging waste Which came first, our addiction to convenience or the convenience of online shopping? Either way, this […]
Why Cook Two Things at Once When You Can Cook Six?
I strive to run my kitchen as efficiently as possible—I use up absolutely every bit of food, do my best to dirty only one bowl instead of two or three or four and on an ideal day, cram as much as possible into my oven and cook a pile of food all at once. After working […]
Use-It-Up Vegan Apple Crumble
Writing this blog has forced me to figure out how to use up everything. In the old days, had I spied ugly apples at the grocery store—I rarely shopped at the farmers’ market—I likely wouldn’t have bought them. “Ewww, they have blemishes!” Not that the store would have provided the option. Only within the last […]
Herbal Remedies
I just returned from a visit with my family in Canada, where my daughter MK attends the University of Guelph in Ontario. While I was at MK’s, she showed me a list of herbal remedies she keeps affixed to the inside of one of her kitchen cupboard doors. She refers to this list when she […]
Drop that Bleach! The Wasteful Side Effects of the War on Bacteria
War cannot be won. I’m not advocating anything dangerous here, just old-fashioned common sense—and practices. We are too clean and so are our homes. And that germaphobia has created a market—or the market has created germaphobia—for all sorts of wasteful products. I’m not advocating you never bathe. However, this MIT chemical engineer hasn’t showered since 2003 […]