I’m going to be honest. Usually when I separate eggs, I just use my hands. Yes, it’s true. I do wash them first, but I just think it’s easier and faster than using something else. However, I do know there are some people who just can’t handle weird stuff on their hands…..having a toddler rid me of any problems like that. Sometimes I use my handy-dandy egg seperator from Pampered Chef……but sometimes not. I think “do I want an extra dish to wash?”But, knowing I’m different than most and knowing that most people don’t have an egg separator, I thought I’d show you a handy trick for separating eggs. All it requires is a glass and a funnel. Please make sure the funnel has a small opening at the bottom. I tried it with a larger funnel and the yolk slipped right through it. Oops. You want it big enough for the white to get through but small enough for the yolk to stay. Clear as mud? Set your funnel over a glass, like shown. [Read more…] |
Too Hot To Cook Recipe Listing
| I got several entries for this recipe listing, but not as many as I had hoped. I guess everyone is as busy this summer as I am. 🙂 I’ve put some really great recipes below. They don’t use the oven and stovetop time is very minimal. Thanks to everyone who submitted! I also put several of mine below so they are all in one place for your convenience. You’ll also notice I put a few of my favorite recipes from other sites too. Enjoy! And if you’d like to have your recipe added, just let me know and I’ll include it. Make sure it’s a “whole foods” type of recipe that doesn’t use processed food. Thanks! [Read more…] |
Canning Peaches – A Tutorial
Okay guys, bear with me…..this is going to be a long post. I wanted to tell you that in advance in case you wanted to get comfortable, get a drink, or pitch a tent. It’s hard to do a canning tutorial without tons of pictures. So, here you go! I wanted to can peaches this year – I first thought about freezing them, but mom changed my mind. Moms have a way of doing that. 🙂 So, we went to our family’s produce market and bought two boxes of peaches. They were so pretty! I enjoyed working with them and smelling them…..and okay, eating them. [Read more…] |
Easy Saran Wrap Alternative: Shower Caps to the Rescue!
We all have them – bowls that don’t have lids. Or maybe they have a lid but your 2 year old hid it somewhere and you can’t find it even though you’ve looked high and low. Or maybe it’s just a weird shaped bowl that a lid wouldn’t work on…..but sometimes you need to cover those bowls anyway. Enter shower caps! Yes, shower caps. They work great on any bowl that doesn’t have a lid. I like covering my bread bowls with them when I have dough rising. It keeps the bugs out….or dust….or flying magnetic letters.I love how handy they are so I always keep a good sized stash around. If one gets dirty, I might wipe it off……or I might just throw it away and get another one. Or, if I do something dumb like stab a knife through it, then I just pitch it and get a new one. They are nice to have in case of a lid emergency. [Read more…] |
How to Season an Iron Skillet
 |
| This family is in love with cornbread. Here is a true statement – cornbread is best in an iron skillet. I’m not even going ask if you think that’s true, because it is. And I don’t care what you say. :-p If you haven’t tried the cornbread recipe above, you might want to. It will make your family love you and bring you flowers. Barry gets really excited when I say I’m making cornbread. BUT in order for your cast iron skillet to work, it needs to be seasoned. Why? Seasoning makes it just like a non-stick pan….well, except for all the hazards of using non-stick. I really am not fond of non-stick pans, but I have several. As they die, I will replace them with nicer iron skillets, cast iron enamel, or stainless steel. I’m secretly feeding them arsenic so they die quickly. SHHHHHHHH! [Read more…] |
How To Cut A Pineapple
 We be lovin’ pineapple up in this house….that’s street slang (or as street slang as I can get). A fresh pineapple makes canned pineapple taste like sawdust. I really fell in love with fresh pineapples when I was in Trinidad…..we would buy them at road-side stands and come home, cut them up, and inhale them. They were SO good……almost made me want to move there – except for the whole 100+ degrees all the time thing. I like buying them when I can get them for a good deal ($1.99-2.50). How do you choose a good pineapple? Most people will tell you to pull the middle leaf out of the top….and if it comes easily, it’s ripe. That’s not been a good indicator for me. Here’s how I do it – your pineapple should have a yellow tint, starting from the bottom up. If it’s mostly green, it’s not ripe. Also, smell it…..at the bottom where it sits. If it smells sweet, and it’s yellow chances are it’s a doggone good pineapple. It’s a good idea to let your pineapple sit upside down about 30 minutes before you cut it. All the sweetness resides in the bottom (sorta like me!), so if you do that, it’ll let the juice distribute before you cut. Let’s cut this bad boy! [Read more…] |
How to Cook Quinoa
Maybe you’ve seen quinoa listed in recipes…..but you passed right over it because you didn’t know what the heck it was – or how to pronounce it. Trust me, I have issues with my pronunciation of tons of things (just ask Barry). If I see a recipe with something weird listed in it, I usually pass it over and don’t give it a second thought (or if it has clam shells in it, what IS that about? Gag attack!)……but please don’t do that with quinoa! It’s not weird, it’s tasty. You say it like KEEN-WAH. I know, I know. This world would be an easier place to live if you spelled things like they were said. Sheesh. But anyway, that’s how you say it. It’s not a grain or a cereal…it’s actually in the grass family. Yep, Stacy’s finally gone off the deep end because now she’s telling you to eat grass. It’s SO easy to prepare…..faster than rice and just a tad bit longer than boiling pasta. Let me show you how to do it and you’ll start cooking it for yourself. You can find it in just about any store, usually in the fancy grocery section (i.e. organic). It’s not cheap like pasta or rice, but it’s not too bad. I like having something different once and a while, especially when it’s good for me. I buy mine in bulk at King’s Produce in Wytheville…..almost anything you can buy in bulk will be cheaper. [Read more…] |
Making Any Recipe Your Own
Did you know you could write your own recipe book? It’s true. You’re an author in the making….if you’d just stop following those recipes step-by-step. I come across recipes all the time that sound delicious, but I just don’t have the ingredients…..or the ingredients are expensive. I’ll just tell you right now that I’m not going to be buying cardamom any time soon…..unless I feel like selling my birthright. It’s made from gold or something…..must be related to gasoline. So, I use recipes that I find as springboards and I go from there. Sometimes I follow a recipe 100%…..I used to always follow them, but then I got a little more confident and I started taking risks. Life without risk is like baked oatmeal without syrup…..like food without salt……like Stacy without her laptop. So, be bold and try something new (yes, even you, Rebecca Cobb). [Read more…] |
My Favorite Things – 2010
| These are a few of my favorite things!” I love that song…….girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. Yeah, you’re gonna sing that all day now. I’m not sorry. I decided that since it was the Christmas season, I’d talk about my current five favorite things in the kitchen. I’ll also tell you how you can get them cheaper than retail. Yeah, you knew that was coming. If you know someone who loves kitchen things and you can’t think of what to get them for Christmas, then today you’re going to get five options to choose from. Your shopping just can’t really get any easier than this. I should go into business being a personal bargain shopper. |
This is the most expensive of my five things……unless you run into one at a yard sale. I got one this summer for my friend Kim for a grand total of $1.00. Yep. Don’t be a hater. Anyway, I am in love with my food processor. I use it a LOT. It will puree soup….okay, it purees whatever you put in there, but I just wanted to say soup. It does a ton of other stuff too, but I didn’t read the manual. I’ve got a weird relationship with instruction manuals……I don’t read them. I just really enjoy mine. It makes a lot of the things I do in the kitchen a lot quicker. Sometimes if I have a lot of veggies to chop, I’ll just throw them in there and give it a whirl for a few seconds. Done! It can also be used to make pie crust, but we’ll explore that later. So, how do you get this baby cheaper? Mine was a gift from my Mama. Thanks Mama! That’s a good way to get it cheaper. Of course, I already said you could look for them at yard sales. However, if you want one NOW you’re in luck. ‘Tis the season! This time of year tons of electronic things are on sale. This is really the time of year to buy anything electronic. I just saw today that they have tons of options on Overstock.com and they are also offering $1 shipping! [Read more…] |
How to Cut Butternut Squash
Ya know, I’m not very fond of winter. I hate being cold. I go into “shut down mode,” which leaves me balled up on the couch, surrounded by blankets, while I shiver and cry because I hate being cold. Thankfully this year Annie is on the move, so I should stay warm from running all over the house after her……right? Anyway, I know that when it starts turning cold that butternut squash are going to be ready, and that almost makes up for it. I love butternut squash! Annie loves it too! Last year my dad planted several and we enjoyed feeding them to Annie. I enjoyed eating them myself. I like to think that this year he planted more for me, but I’m not stupid. I know it’s all about Annie now. I’m chopped liver. Who cares? As long as he grows them and I get to eat them, I’m happy. Have you ever cooked one? Does it look intimidating? I used to think so, but now I cut them up with ease. It really doesn’t take a lot of time or effort…..and the payoff is amazing! So, let me show you how to cut one so you can enjoy them this season. If your dad didn’t grow any for your 16 month old, then you can pick them up at your local produce market – and they’re cheap! [Read more…] |