Caprese salad … the perfect dish to highlight freshly made, mozzarella cheese. What could be lovelier? How about if the cheese in that fabulous dish could be made in your own kitchen? No kidding! You really must give it a try. Well, you should if you’re a cheese freak like me anyway. Continue reading
We’ve been doing a good bit of bread baking here lately as I’d like to move completely away from purchasing commercial, additive-laden, sandwich breads and rolls. Happily, we have the burger bun replacement firmly in place. Next on the agenda was finding a sturdy, whole wheat loaf for sandwiches.
I decided to give Kim Boyce’s “Oatmeal Sandwich Bread” a try — this is from her fantastic cookbook, Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole Grain Flours. This made a VERY large loaf — I’ll be scaling things back a bit in future versions — but overall I was quite pleased and loved the molasses flavor lending a bit of sweetness to the whole wheat. Continue reading
As part of our shift toward a “whole food” kitchen, I’m working on leaving the boneless chicken breasts and pre-cut packages aside and focusing on only purchasing whole chicken. While this requires a certain shift in your meal planning, it is much more budget friendly and you get the added bonus of the rich, beautiful chicken stock made from the bones and skin.
Even when we’d purchase a package of thighs or such, we’ve always saved the bones and other bits for making stock. However, I’m really coming to discover the added value that the neck and back provide to the chicken stock. Suddenly, each batch is more golden in color, has a greater depth of flavor and seems to have more of that gelatinous quality when chilled that says “good for you nutrition” all over it. Continue reading
Ah feta, those tangy, salty crumbles that are the perfect touch to top a fresh, green salad or toss into a breakfast omelet. Of the many cheeses that frequent our kitchen, you can generally expect to always find feta. And now I’m excited to let you know that it is simple to make your own feta at home!
While my first attempt at making queso fresco yielded less than optimal results, I couldn’t be happier with my first batch of feta. Once again, I’m so pleased to have found the good folks at Cheesepalooza who have been the inspiration for my journey into making cheese at home. Continue reading
When the weather turns colder, can you think of anything more comforting that a hearty bowl of stew? That was certainly what I was looking for when visiting Austria on a wet and chilly afternoon, oh so many years ago. To that point in my young adult life, I thought I’d had goulash — but I was wrong … oh, so wrong.I remember as we were reviewing our menus (and recovering from the cold), that I commented ordering goulash there would be so “typical” and “touristy.” Expecting agreement, I instead received the patient hubby reply, “There’s good reason people order goulash in Austria.” Darn, he’s just so practical. So, order it I did … and fell in love. Continue reading 
