Blog

July 9, 2011 - Making Honeyed Ginger

Making honeyed ginger can be a bit tricky–especially if you burn it and have to throw the pan away. Oh well. The heat in the ginger will stay with it even through cooking twice. I bought ginger at 3 different places. The best price I found was at Winco Foods; it was $2.99 per pound....
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July 8, 2011 - Make Ice Cream with Guinness

I am NOT a fan of drinking Guinness. It’s way too serious of a drink for me. One of the girls at work chose an Irish Pub as her birthday celebration place and ordered Guinness ice cream for dessert. She shared with the rest of us, and I liked it right away. Really! So, I...
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July 6, 2011 - Cold Tasty Breakfast on a Hot Summer Morning

My older daughter, who lives nearby, makes up a dozen hard boiled eggs for my ease in being sure that I get nutrients when these lungs are too fatigued to cook. How to make Cold Bacon & Eggs Breakfast: Chop a hard boiled egg up with a tablespoon of yogurt, sour cream or mayo, 2...
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July 5, 2011 - The Little Girl Who Wanted To Be a Mommy: A Modern Fairy Tale

Today we celebrated Amy’s birthday even though her birthday was a week ago. Our family members could coordinate and harmonize their calendars better today than last Sunday. A celebration can take place anytime plus I firmly ascribe to the ‘birthday zone” theory. A birthday is really too special to confine the revelry to just one...
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July 4, 2011 - Celebrating Red, White & Blue Fat-Free Style

For those of you in the U.S., how are you celebrating Independence Day today? Parades? Cook-outs? Family fun? Fireworks? Us, too! With our latest mandate from the doctor, we’re cooking and dining low-fat style. I’m getting better with this change-of-life to low-fat cooking. It’s difficult, but I’m finding inventive ways of changing those heavy-fat dishes...
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July 3, 2011 - Master of the Shih-Tay

As you all know, I am not so good at following directions. For whatever reason, I feel compelled to be creative with even the most simple recipes. It doesn’t always work out for me. My dad is very much the same way. Perhaps he’s where I get it from. He used to claim he used...
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July 2, 2011 - How NOT to Make Horehound Candy

Horehound (marrubium vulgare) I began studying herbs when I was in high school. While other people were at football games and movies, I was in the library. My taste in books was varied. I read lots of murder mysteries and I loved books about plants. Although I never planted a garden back then, I drew...
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July 1, 2011 - Pickle That Squash!

Early summer brings abundant squash – both the yellow crooknecks and zucchini. If you have a garden, chances are it has squash in it and it’s a good bet you’re going to have more than you know what to do with. I thought I’d learned. We do have a small garden, but I didn’t plant...
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June 30, 2011 - June 2011 Monthly Contributor Giveaway

Farm Bell Recipes blog contributors are eligible (and automatically entered!) in a giveaway each month in which one contributor will be drawn (by random.org, using the days of the month that posts run) to receive a prize. Each month’s prize (and previous month’s winner) will be listed here, in a blog post on the Farm...
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June 29, 2011 - Fight Colds from the Kitchen, Too!

Recently, it seems as though a black cloud has been following me, and I have had a need to sleep… Lots and more and lots. This morning I woke up and my throat was hurting…bad. Uncertain of whether I had a voice left and knowing that I had work to do, I got up and...
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June 28, 2011 - Strawberry Moments

I walk in after my shower and she has the chair pushed up against the dresser. She’s got one hand splayed and in the other she is lackadaisically wielding a dripping red brush. Looking up from a sea of nail polish, she looks somewhat puzzled at the crazed look in my eyes and simply informs...
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June 27, 2011 - The Stink-Eye Cake, Explained

All right, folks, I am finally getting around to explaining how I made The Stink-Eye Cake. It took us a while, and I took a TON of pictures, so I feel obligated to use them all. I apologize in advance. It was a silly project, and Pastrymama and myself got a little silly ourselves. Lucky...
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June 26, 2011 - Lemon Mint

I harvested the lemon mint last week! I did not cut it all, I left a few stalks to go to seed so I can sell it this fall in the seed store. It makes great tea and spice for cooking! I especially like lemon with chicken. I rinsed it and laid it out on...
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June 23, 2011 - I Treasure My Memories of Momma’s Crock

My mother had this crock for as long as I can remember. She kept it in the old, white kitchen cupboard with a flour sifter on one side and a bread drawer on the other. The crock was used to mix up the dough for her biscuits. It holds eight quarts. Momma was the champion...
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June 22, 2011 - Ball Real Fruit Pectin – Review

A sad fact of my jam- and jelly-making life is that not all pectin brands are equal. They have very different processing requirements. You can’t substitute one brand for another and use the same instructions. I found out the hard way. Remember that! You can’t substitute one brand for another and use the same instructions....
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June 21, 2011 - The End of the Artichokes

It is starting to heat up here in Phoenix. This week, we’ll be holding a steady 110+ degrees. It will stay that way until a drought-reduced monsoon season rolls through, making it 115+ degrees and 75% humidity. Non-desert dwellers will say things like, “But it is a DRY heat.” Mmmhmmm, yes. Dry like the surface...
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June 20, 2011 - Blue Corn

This year I am growing ‘Six Nations Blue, Long Eared Variant‘! It’s a blue corn! And also called Hopi maize. Blue corn is not really a new thing, it’s a very old heirloom grown by the Hopi and Aztec natives for hundreds of years. Isn’t it amazing how the old things are coming back and...
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June 19, 2011 - From Frozen Tomatoes to Sloppy Joes

I found a recipe for bottled Sloppy Joe Sauce and decided that was the perfect solution to my problem of having too many frozen tomatoes in my freezer. However, the recipe calls for 5 quarts of Tomato Juice. I didn’t have tomato juice, I had tomatoes! So began my journey to turn my frozen tomatoes...
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June 17, 2011 - Pickled Daikon Radishes

Mmmm…these were soooo tasty. Now that I am comfortable canning things, I find I like to can random items. Limes, radishes, eggs, watermelon rinds, and artichokes have all somehow found their way into a briny bath. FYI–I am totally ready for when the zombies come. I mean, eating wise. I very much doubt I will...
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June 16, 2011 - Blackberry Bliss

My husband loves pie. Yesterday I promised to make him one. I have to admit that I started off married life in a pie baking frenzy. Those were the glory days before diaper pails, crunched up Cheerio encrusted floors, and K-2 sized piles of dirty laundry. While I have mastered single handed cake making with...
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June 15, 2011 - Making New Wines

Well, it’s raining and blowing outside, a good day to work in the kitchen and make more wine! Today I racked the banana and apple wines into new jugs. They tasted great but very sweet right now as they still contain a lot of sugar. I started two new wines today–maple and mint! The maple...
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June 14, 2011 - Our New Summer Kitchen

I am so excited! Last month, after a three-day long weekend, our new summer kitchen was finished and in order. Hubby built shelves, hung curtains, and just put himself at my disposal. WOW! The “Summer Kitchen Project” was planned in order to be more economical (propane is very expensive here) and to keep the heat...
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