Written by Kate Tietje What says “fall” better than pumpkin bread?  Okay, maybe pumpkin spice or apple cinnamon, but that’s …

Chocolate.

Is it good or bad?  There’s quite a debate out there about this right now.  Some are saying chocolate is good, because is contains so many antioxidants and flavonols and other “beneficial” chemicals.  Others say it’s bad, because of its caffeine content and some of the chemicals it contains….  So, clearly, there’s disagreement here! 

About six weeks ago, we went to a restaurant to celebrate my father’s birthday.  They had “shrimp and crab au gratin” on the menu, and I had to try it.  It was so good!  I decided that I would need to make it at home.  I looked up various recipes and none looked quite right, so I set out on my own.  I omitted the crab, even though I love it, because it is very expensive! This is what I came up with.

Do you use vanilla extract in baking?  I know I use mine a lot for baking, homemade ice cream, and other things.  There are a lot of reasons why I choose to make my own extract for these purposes, which I will share with you.  And then I’ll get to the good part: how to do it!

Today we have a guest post from one of our readers, Anna Drozdova!  She mentioned in a recent comment that she makes ginger beer and I just had to know how.  I thought all of you would want to know too.  So here she is!

I decided that this year, I wanted to make my own pumpkin puree.  I usually buy a can or two each winter to make pumpkin bread, but of course there are issues with BPA in the can liners.  Making my own seemed to be the best solution!

Tomato sauce wasn’t even my first project, but it was the one that weighed most heavily on my mind. While friends were gathering up strawberries and other earlier crops to make jellies and jams and all sorts of things, I was just waiting. My family won’t eat jellies and jams so there was no reason to make any. But tomato sauce! We go through that like crazy! It was one of the biggest things I’ve planned to can and no, I am STILL not done! But I actually did this one in a few different stages so I “perfected” my technique a bit. I’ll share with you the way that I did it, and explain why some of the other ways are not my preferred way. Here we go…be prepared to get messy!

Butter.

It’s a wonderful fat. However, buying GOOD butter (grass-fed, organic) is expensive. We’re talking anywhere from $5 – $9 a pound. That can get expensive, especially if you go through butter like we do (about 1 – 1.5 lbs. per two weeks). However, making it yourself is MUCH cheaper! And it’s easy, too. Today I’m going to show you how.

Written by Kate Tietje I came up with this recipe when a friend visited. It was delicious. She said, “I …

As I was roasting a chicken to make the week’s meals (gravy, stock, etc.) I thought…I bet some yummy herb-roasted potatoes would be great with this. I’d just gotten some very delicate, organic Yukon gold potatoes from our CSA so I was dying to try it. Ben wasn’t a fan, but the kids loved them and so did I. So here they are: