As a kid growing up in Illinois, my Mom had a very limited spice rack. In fact, I remember salt, pepper, garlic salt, and onion salt. There must’ve been some spices she used for making pies because we made hundreds of apple pies over a couple weekends every year…but I don’t ever remember seeing them. I’ll save the stories of pie baking for another day, because today I wanted to … [Read more...]
Meal Planning…Why Should I Bother?
There’s one in every crowd, that Mom (or Dad) who seems to have it all together. The one that's both the envy and bane of everybody else’s life. We envy her because she’s got it together, but we’re also pissed off that of all the people in the room she’s the one who really doesn’t need it to be together. Sometimes she’s really vocal about how she’s “so overworked”, yet her … [Read more...]
It’s as easy as boiling water
As I was working through some of the recipes for my college kids, it dawned on me that I didn't really know how long it took to boil water. After some research, the answer is extremely simple: It depends. Unfortunately it depends on: The size of the burner The size of the pot The type of pot you're using (stainless steel is much less effective than copper or … [Read more...]
Hectic Household Meal Plan 02/02/2015
Below is our meal plan for this past week. As always, it's subject to time, ingredient, and energy (of the cook) availability. I'll try to keep you updated on how things actually go. For now, I'm only including the breakfast and dinner menus. I don't have solid plans for the lunches. Wherever possible, I've linked to the recipes that I started from. Invariably I've made changes … [Read more...]
Hectic Weeknight Meal – Penne Pasta
One of the folks I follow on Twitter sent out a plea for help last night. It was #MenMakeDinnerDay in the Twitterverse, and he was looking for new ideas, since he felt like his dinners were getting boring. If his life is anything like mine, the kids were probably simply not eating what was put in front of them...or not eating it with any enthusiasm. We all get in ruts, but … [Read more...]