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Raspberry Jam

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It’s the season for raspberries again! I love foraging for black raspberries and making them into jam that we can enjoy the rest of the year.

I keep this jam very simple – just raspberries, a little sugar and some pectin. I find that this jam doesn’t need anything else to make it wonderful. Sometimes simple is the best.

A little note on the pectin. I like using pectin for raspberry jam because the raspberries don’t have much natural pectin in them. The pectin allows the jam to thicken quickly without a lot of cooking. I find this results in a brighter raspberry flavor. I use Pomona’s Pectin as it allows me to use less sugar that other brands of pectin. I also follow the recipe in the box of pectin, except I use a little less pectin. This gives a looser set to the jam, which I like. If you like a thicker jam, then increase your pectin and calcium waters to 2 teaspoons each. You can find Pomona’s at local stores like Whole Foods and Fresh Thyme or order on-line. Pomona’s website has links on which local stores carry their product.

Okay. Enough on that. Now for raspberries. I mentioned black raspberries already. I love them. But you’ll never find them in the store and probably not even at the farmers market. For those of you interested in more foraging information, The Backyard Forager is one of my favorite foraging sources. This is a link to one of her articles on black raspberries vs. blackberries.

If you don’t have a bramble bush in your backyard like I do, you can use any other raspberry for this recipe. Fresh red raspberries can be hard to find in the store because they are so delicate and don’t transport or stay fresh very long. Ideally, you want to use them within a couple days of picking. If you can’t find good fresh raspberries, feel free to use frozen raspberries. They will be as good, maybe better, than fresh. And remember – you can freeze your fresh raspberries for later, if you can’t get to them in time.

If you have extra raspberries that you don’t know what to do with, here are some ideas. Besides eating them fresh, I love adding them to kombucha. You can also add them into (or on top of) your overnight sourdough pancakes or waffles or oatmeal waffles. My other favorite way of using them is to put them into oatmeal – we especially love them in baked oatmeal. I’m working on posting that recipe soon – so check back for it! The jam also works heavenly in all of these recipes. I hope you enjoy!

Raspberry Jam

July has arrived along with the short raspberry season. Jam is one of my favorite ways to enjoy the taste of raspberries all year long.
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Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups raspberries fresh or frozen
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon calcium water included in Pomona's Pectin package
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Pomona's Pectin

Instructions
 

  • To sterilize the jars, place rack in the large pot and cover jars in water. If you don’t have a rack, fold a dish towel and place on the bottom of the pot before you put the jars and water into the pot. Place lid on the pot and bring to boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn off heat and leave the cover on the pot. This can be done while the jam is made. NOTE: A boiling water bath can be done in any stock pot that allows for water to cover the jars by at least 1-inch. A tall stock pot is fine to use, just place a towel or rack in the bottom so the jars don’t sit directly on the heat source. If your stock pot doesn’t fit all of your jelly jars, only jar up the ones that will fit in the pot, keeping the rest of the jam warm on the stove while the first batch of jars processes. Once the first jars are done processing, jar the remaining jam and process in a second batch. Alternately, you can just jar any extra jam to eat right away or freeze. 
  • If you are going to process the jars in a water bath, prepare the lids according to the directions on the box – usually just wash and place in warm water. I do this in the small saucepan on a back burner. 
  • Prepare calcium water according to package directions.
  • Combine sugar and pectin in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
  • Combine raspberries and calcium water in large saucepan, jam pot, or stock pot. Bring to roiling boil, stirring constantly
  • Add sugar and pectin mixture to raspberries mixture. Bring back to boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute or until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat.
  • Fill hot jam jars with 1/4 inch headspace.
  • Clean rims and place lids on jars.
  • Set jars into the simmering pot of water (on the rack). Jars should be covered by a minimum of one inch water. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Start timer when water is at a boil. 
  • After the processing time is complete, turn off heat and remove cover. Let jars cool 5 minutes in the water bath. Remove jars from canner and place on a towel on the counter.  Do not retighten bands, if loose. Cool 12-24 hours. Check seals. Label and store jars up to a year for best color and flavor. Any jars that don’t seal should be stored in the refrigerator and used first.
  • If you don’t want to process this recipe in a water bath (or you have a jar that doesn’t seal), you can jar the jams and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 6 months. 
Keyword fruit, homemade, jam, preserves

Homemade Yogurt

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After many years of making our yogurt, I feel like I’m finally ready to put down all my tips into writing. To start with, we are going to focus on dairy based yogurt. If you want to make non-dairy yogurt, you’ll need to go elsewhere.

Once you’ve got a good batch of yogurt, you’ll want to top it with granola or müesli. I also love using it in smoothies and overnight oats. You can also add yogurt into your favorite waffle or pancake recipe. And if you get a nice tangy batch of yogurt, it makes a great substitute for sour cream.

Why make your own yogurt?

As with many things, I started making our yogurt because it saves money. Basically, your only cost is the milk. It does take some time to make yogurt, but it is really mostly a matter of timing and planning. Most of the process is hands off and waiting.

I also love that I know the ingredients in my yogurt. My yogurt has lots of good bacteria and probiotics in it, which is not always the case with store yogurt – but more about that later.

The basic process of yogurt making

My basic process of making yogurt involves the following steps:

  • Start with milk and a bit of yogurt as starter.
  • Slowly heat the milk up to 180 F and maintain for 2 minutes.
  • Cool the milk back down to 110 F.
  • Add the yogurt starter into the warm milk and allow the whole pot to rest in a warm spot for 12-24 hours.
  • Chill the yogurt for at least 4 hours before eating.

That’s it in a nutshell.

You may find recipes that don’t call for the heating process, but I find that my final yogurt is thicker and creamier with the heating method. Heating the milk is a method of pasteurizing the milk to kill any bacteria that may compete with the yogurt bacteria. It will allow the whey proteins to denature and coagulate to enhance the viscosity and texture of the final yogurt. Some recipes will also tell you to maintain the 180 F temp for 10-20 minutes for a thicker yogurt. I don’t personally find that extra heating time is necessary.

The 110 F temperature is important because it’s the ideal temp for the yogurt fermentation to take place. If you accidentally cool down the milk lower than 110 F, just allow it to ferment a bit longer to account for the time it takes for the mixture to come back up to 110 F once it’s in your yogurt maker (or other warm spot)

How long you ferment the yogurt is your decision. Some people do as short as 8 hours, but I find yogurt at a longer fermentation is a bit thicker and has a nicer tanginess to it.

Do I need a yogurt maker?

In short – no. A yogurt maker or a yogurt setting on your electric pressure cooker is just a way to control the temperature to set at 110 F. I had a $20 yogurt maker that worked for me for over 10 years. But if you are just getting into this, or if you don’t want to go out and buy a new one-use appliance (I don’t blame you), try the following first:

  • Check your electric pressure cooker and see if it has a yogurt setting. Most do now and they are wonderful. Use this if you have it.

No yogurt setting or maker? Then wrap your warm pot of milk and yogurt starter in a towel and set it into a larger cooler or the oven with a light on for the fermentation period. You can use an instant read thermometer to track the air temperature in the oven or cooler, if you really want to be accurate, but this works without that extra work. Alternatively, you can set the towel wrapped pot in a warm spot – such as on the top of your refrigerator – and go from there. You can even set the pot on a heating pad to help it keep warm. Once you’ve picked your spot, check the yogurt at about 8-12 hours to make sure it is thickened and doing its thing.

Do I need an instant read thermometer?

No, you don’t. Just like the yogurt setting on your instant pot, a good thermometer can make the difference between good and great yogurt, but it is not entirely necessary. I currently use an instant read thermometer with a clip that stays in my milk while it heats and cools. It has the added feature of an alarm that goes off at 180 F so I don’t scorch my milk.

Before I got my current thermometer, I used a candy thermometer for many years. So anything you have handy should work. No thermometer at all? Follow the temperature descriptions in the recipe and you should end up fine.

What type of milk is best?

Use the best milk you can afford. We are working with a two ingredient recipe here, so if you have access to high quality milk, this is a good place to use it.

Whole milk makes the thickest yogurt and that is what I generally use for my yogurt. If you are using a lower fat yogurt, you can thicken the yogurt by adding 1/4 cup of dry powdered milk when you stir in the yogurt starter.

What if my yogurt is too thin?

If you end up with thinner yogurt than you’d like, you can drain the whey from the yogurt and make a greek yogurt. You can drain as much or as little whey off the yogurt as you like to adjust the thickness. Just line a colander with a couple coffee filters and set over a bowl. Add the yogurt to the calendar and give it a couple hours to drain until it is as thick as you like.

What about yogurt starter?

When you are starting with your own homemade yogurt, I recommend using a plain, unflavored whole milk yogurt from your favorite grocery store as a starter. You will use about 2-4 tablespoons of that yogurt to make two quarts of homemade yogurt.

Don’t eat the rest of that container of yogurt! You just made your own homemade yogurt, right? So, save that extra yogurt to make future batches of homemade yogurt. Just fill up an ice cube tray with that yogurt and freeze. When the cubes are frozen, pop them into a ziplock bag and keep frozen until you want to make yogurt again. Use one or two cubes per new batch – pop them out into a bowl when you start to heat the milk up and they will be thawed by the time the milk cools down to 110 F.

You can also save some of your homemade yogurt in the freezer to use to make future batches. But… (now this gets interesting), this won’t work forever. Store yogurt has active cultures in it, usually about 4-5 cultures. Those are the cultures that create good flavor or make the yogurt easy to culture for mass production. But over time, those cultures get contaminated and weaken and won’t produce as tasty of a yogurt. After somewhere between 5-10 batches of yogurt where you are using the yogurt from the last batch to make the next batch, your yogurt will start tasting slightly off. At that point, the yogurt culture has become “weak” and you need to restart with a new container of yogurt from the store.

If you really get into yogurt making – or you really just love good yogurt, then you’ll want to look up heritage yogurt cultures. These are the European and Middle Eastern yogurts that people talk about when they travel. I use a Bulgarian yogurt culture that is just amazing in flavor. Heritage yogurts have a wider range of flavors and textures and can be a lot of fun to experiment with.

Homemade Yogurt – With or Without the Instant Pot

Here is my tried and true method of making homemade yogurt. I love this recipe because it saves money and contains only milk and yogurt cultures.
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 12 hours
Chilling Time 4 hours
Course Breakfast, Snack
Servings 8 1 cup

Equipment

  • 1 yogurt maker or pressure cooker with a yogurt setting if you don't have a yogurt maker, see the notes below
  • 1 medium to large saucepan
  • 1 instant read thermometer a thermometer makes this easier, but if you don't have one, follow the temperature notes in the recipe.
  • 1 whisk
  • 4 2 cup mason jars optional

Ingredients
  

  • 8 cups whole dairy milk You can use lower fat milk, but whole milk gives the creamiest results. See the recipe notes for more tips on using lower fat milks.
  • 3-4 tbsp plain, whole milk yogurt 

Instructions
 

  • In a large saucepan, heat milk slowly over low heat to 180 F, or until it is steaming and at a bare simmer with bubbles around the edges, but not boiling. Stir the milk occasionally as it heats. Remove milk from heat and cool milk down to 110 F or lower. It should be warm, but not hot. If you stick your finger in the milk for 10 seconds, it should feel pleasantly warm, but not hot. 
  • Transfer 1/2 cup of the warm milk into a small bowl and whisk in yogurt until it is well combined. Add this yogurt milk mixture back to the rest of the milk and whisk to make sure it is well combined. 
  • Place milk and yogurt mixture into a yogurt maker (see notes below) and set the time for 8-24 hours, until it is thick and tangy.
  • Transfer the pot to the refrigerator and chill for at least another 4 hours. It will continue to thicken as it chills.

Notes

  • You can substitute low-fat milk – the higher milk-fat, the creamier and thicker the final yogurt. 
  • If you use skim milk, you can whisk in 1/2 cup of dry milk powder or 1 teaspoon of gelatin in step 3 to make a thicker yogurt.
  • You should heat the milk slowly – don’t rush step 1. 
  • You can cool the milk quickly in step 2, if you are in a hurry. Ways to do this include: use an ice bath, transfer the milk into into a cool bowl, stir the milk frequently.
  • The longer the yogurt sits, the tangier it will become. 
  • If you’d like to make Greek yogurt, set a calendar or sieve over a bowl and line the colander with cheesecloth or coffee filters. Take your finished yogurt (either chilled or not) and pour it into the colander. Allow to drain in the fridge for 4-6 hours until it is as thick as you like. If it gets too thick, you can whisk some of the whey back into the yogurt. Transfer the yogurt to containers. The whey can be used for smoothies, soups, lemonade, or bread baking. 
  • Your final yogurt will taste like the yogurt that you used to start this batch with, so be sure to use a yogurt you like. 
  • You can save a few tablespoons to your finished yogurt for future yogurt making. I do this by freezing some of the chilled yogurt in ice cube trays and storing in a ziplock bag in the freezer. 
  • If you find you enjoy yogurt making, you can also find heirloom starter cultures on line or at some health food stores. These starter cultures typically have a wider range of cultures in them vs. the 3-4 that you find in store-bought yogurt, so they can have a better flavor and may be considered healthier as a pro-biotic food. Follow the directions on the package to active the powdered cultures and once you have a good batch of yogurt going, you can freeze small amounts for future batches of yogurt – it’s a continuous loop of yogurt! 
Keyword breakfast, healthy, homemade, instant pot

Müesli

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Müesli is a wonderful, healthy alternative to granola. And it’s even easier to make than granola, because no oven is involved. Unlike granola, müesli has no added fat or sugar to mess with the goodness of the whole grains, nuts and dried fruits.

For serving, I spoon about 1/2 a cup of müesli over homemade yogurt for my morning breakfast. Add a banana or some berries and you are really set to go for the morning.

And if you are into overnight oats, you can sub müesli for the rolled oats. Just place about 1/2 cup of müesli into a 2 cup mason jar, cover with milk or coconut water, add some yogurt and then top off with your favorite fruit (frozen blueberries are mine). Let sit in the fridge overnight (or two) and you’ve got breakfast ready for the morning.

This recipe really should be considered as a starting point. You can mix and match your grains, nuts, seeds and fruits as you wish. A good rule of thumb to start with is about 80% grains and 20% nuts and dried fruit, but feel free to play with that ratio. I’ve added some warm spices to the mix for a little extra depth of flavor, but they can be left out or played with as you like. Here are some ideas for the ingredients to get you started.

  • Grains: Rolled oats, wheat bran, whole rye, rye flakes, whole barley, sorghum flakes, quinoa flakes, millet puffs, millet flakes, buckwheat groats.
  • Nuts/seeds: Sliced almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas, chia seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes.
  • Dried fruit: Dried apricots, dried cherries, dried figs, raisins, golden raisins, currants, apple chips, dried blueberries.

Müesli

andrea
Müesli is a healthy, low-sugar alternative to granola. Use this recipe as a starting point to make your favorite combination of grains, nuts, and dried fruits. Serve with milk or yogurt.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Course Breakfast
Servings 12 1/2 cup

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup buckwheat groats
  • 1 3/4 cups rye flakes or rolled oats 
  • 1/4 cup sliced almonds
  • 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, chopped
  • 2 tbsp shelled sunflower seeds
  • 1 tbsp flaxseed
  • 1/4 cup dried cherries
  • 1/4 cup dried apricots, small diced
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions
 

  • Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until well combined.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to six months. 

To Serve

  • Serve 1/4 – 1/2 cup of muesli with an equal amount of yogurt or milk, a drizzle of honey, and fresh fruit like a sliced banana or berries. 
  • Müesli also works really well in overnight oats as a substitute for plain rolled oats. 
Keyword breakfast, easy, healthy, oats, whole grains

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I like my cookies to have a nice chewy bite, be soft in the middle, and have crispy edges. Oh, who am I kidding? I like my cookies in any form as long as they are fresh out of the oven. I pretty much have zero standards for cookies other than that they be homemade. All that said, this cookie comes out soft in the middle with crispy edges. It’s pretty darn great. It’s not overly sweet or difficult to make.

A little about sourdough starter…

I wrote this recipe specifically to use up extra sourdough starter. I think the starter helps to give the cookie its excellent crumb and softness. Your starter can be well fed or just your discard. The recipe does call for a full cup of starter, but it can easily be divided in half, depending on how much starter you have available.

And some words on flour…

Whole grain flours really make this cookie. If you only have all-purpose flour on hand, go ahead and use it. But if you’d like to increase the flavor, fiber and nutrients of your baked goods, be sure to give these a try with your favorite whole grain flour. My standard go-to for this cookie is normally a soft white wheat or a spelt flour. Both will make a chocolate chip cookie that has a nice mild flavor with slightly more depth than you’d find using all-purpose flour. But honestly, try this with any flour you have on hand. My favorite flour that I’ve tried with these cookies was buckwheat flour. Let me know in the comments what flours you try them with.

Sour Dough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Serving Size:
4-5 dozen cookies
Time:
20 minutes, plus rest & baking
Difficulty:
Easy

Ingredients

  • 3 cups + 2 tablespoons (380 g) of soft white whole grain wheat flour or all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
  • 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature or softer
  • 3/4 cup (180 g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (120 g) light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup (240 g) sour dough starter discard
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a medium sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
  2. Combine the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes. The sugar butter mixture should be light colored and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, on at a time to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
  4. Add the sour dough starter and the vanilla extract to the butter mixture and beat for 2-3 minutes until well combined.
  5. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer. Combine on low speed, just until the flour is incorporated.
  6. Add the chocolate chips to the dough and mix until just combined.
  7. The dough can be baked right away, but it benefits from at least 30 minutes rest in the fridge. Wrap the dough in parchment paper and rest in fridge for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
  8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop heaping tablespoons on dough on the pan and bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Wheat Berry Salad

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This is my go-to summer salad because it is easy, healthy and super flexible. And by super-flexible, I mean that I can usually pull off making it without an extra trip to the grocery store. I often find myself emptying out lots of odds and ends of vegetables or cheese into this salad. And it always turns out great. I think the secret is in the salad dressing.

A Bit About Wheat Berries

Wheat berries are the unprocessed wheat kernel which includes the bran, endosperm and germ. They are most often milled to make flour, but in this recipe we are going to cook and use the whole wheat berries. If you are a person such as I who mills their own flour, then you most likely already have wheat berries around the pantry. For the rest of you, you will need to search out wheat berries or another whole grain at the grocery store. The wheat berries can be substituted in this recipe with farro, spelt, kamut, or barley. If your grocery store carries Bobs Red Mill Grains or if they have a bulk food section, you will find one of these grains in those sections.

Step one is cooking up your wheat berries. I use my pressure cooker to cook the wheat berries for about 35 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, they can be cooked on the stovetop for about 60 minutes. Either way, I usually plan for about an hour of cooking time for the wheat berries before assembling the salad.

About the Dressing

I use my favorite homemade vinaigrette, Green Herby Dressing, to make this salad. This dressing is pretty simple and only uses olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic and fresh herbs. You can assemble the dressing as the wheat berries are cooking.

If Green Herby Dressing isn’t happening for you, you can substitute it with a fresh pesto.

About the Rest of the Salad

Once you have the wheat berries and the dressing figured out, the rest of the salad is pretty flexible. I like to add:

  • lots of fresh veggies such as chopped cucumbers, snap peas, fava beans, celery, sliced fennel, and sliced onion.
  • chopped greens such as spinach, radicchio, or kale,
  • a handful of dried fruit such as dried cherries, cranberries, raisins, or blueberries,
  • a bit of cheese such as feta, goat cheese

The wheat berries on their own can be a bit heavy, so I usually add enough veggies and greens to lighten the salad up quite a bit.

Wheat Berry Salad

Serving Size:
4-6
Time:
75 minutes total
Difficulty:
easy

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of wheat berries or other whole grain such as farro, Kamut, spelt or barley
  • 4 cups of water
  • Green Herby Dressing or a 1/2 cup of pesto
  • 4 cups of chopped greens such as kale, spinach or radicchio
  • 2 cups of fresh vegetables such as snap peas, celery, sliced fennel, cucumber
  • 1 cup of dried fruit such as cherries, blueberries, or raisins
  • 1/2 cup of crumbly cheese such as goat cheese, feta, or blue cheese

Directions

  1. Cook the wheat berries in four cups of water. If using a pressure cooker, cook 35 minutes on high pressure with a 10 minute natural release. If using a stovetop, simmer covered for 60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  2. While the wheat berries are cooking, prepare the Green Herby dressing or pesto. Prepare the vegetables and greens by chopping into bite size pieces.
  3. Once the wheat berries are done cooking, drain the extra liquid off and place the wheat berries into a large bowl. Toss the warm wheat berries with the dressing. Add the kale and any hardy veggies while the berries are warm.
  4. Toss the cheese into the salad before serving.
  5. This salad can be served at room temperature or cold from the refrigerator.

Green Herby Dressing

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This is a recipe of sorts for my favorite salad dressing – one I have lovingly nicknamed Green Herby Dressing. In case you are wondering, in my head, I pronounce Herby with a hard H. It just makes me want to sing and dance around the kitchen…

Back to salad dressings, if you follow a couple basic rules of thumb, you can be creative with most of the recipe. That being said, I’ve written this recipe for Green Herby Dressing as I currently make it.

I use this recipe as my potato salad dressing and as a dressing for my wheat berry salad. I toss it on those salads while they are warm so the vinaigrette can infuse a bit with the salad. Green Herby would also be good on a kale salad.

All of the herbs in this dressing would make Green Herby a little strong for a lighter salad such as one based with spring greens. If you want a lighter vinaigrette for spring greens, just back off on the fresh herbs or eliminate them all together.

Vinaigrette Basics

So… lets start with the basics of making homemade salad dressings. We are going to be focusing on vinaigrettes with this post. I’m going to save creamy dressings like ranch and blue cheese for another day.

The trick here is to remember to keep it simple. A few ingredients and a quick spin with the immersion blender. Don’t get bogged down with the fact that you are MAKING YOUR OWN DRESSING! It is actually really easy to do and lots healthier that the store bought stuff. I also usually make just a small batch. Usually enough for the salad I’m making or maybe enough for a week or maybe two. It won’t last in the fridge much longer than that, anyway.

The base for vinaigrettes is usually olive oil. After that, you add a touch of vinegar and seasonings to test. I find it helpful to remember that the rule of thumb for the ratio of oil to vinegar is 3:1. So that means 3 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Don’t get these swapped around or you’ll need to start over – ask me sometime how I know that! Anyway, three tablespoons of oil and one tablespoon of vinegar.

To mix the ingredients together, I use my handy dandy immersion blender and the tall beaker that came with it. The immersion blender does most of the chopping and emulsifying for me. I also use the beaker to measure the oil and vinegar as I pour them in. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can pull this off with a regular blender or a little whisking and chopping. Note that for this particular recipe of Green Herby Dressing, there is a lot of chopping of herbs involved.

Vinaigrette Ingredients:

  • Oil for the vinaigrette base. Usually this will be olive oil.
  • Vinegar of choice, this will add a little acid and kick to the vinaigrette.
  • Dijon mustard adds a little creaminess and flavor, but it is optional.
  • Sweetener such as honey or maple syrup. This is also optional, but you can use it to balance out the vinegar if you added too much.
  • Garlic gives a good flavor, but it can be substituted with a shallot or left out completely.
  • Salt and pepper.
  • Other additional ingredients include fresh or dried herbs.

Green Herby Dressing

Serving Size:
1/2 cup
Time:
5 min
Difficulty:
easy

Ingredients

  • 6 T olive oil
  • 2 T apple cider vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, sliced or chopped
  • 1 large bunch of herbs of your choice (parsley, dill, cilantro, basil, oregano, chives, etc)
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Remove stems of the herbs.
  2. If you are using an immersion blender or blender, combine all ingredients except the salt and pepper in the blender or a small bowl. Blend until combined and the herbs are finely chopped.
  3. If you are not using an immersion blender or blender, finely chop the herbs and garlic. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, chopped garlic and herbs.
  4. Taste and season with salt and pepper. You may also add a touch more vinegar to taste.

Butter Pie Crust

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Sure, I know pie crusts can be found pretty easily in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. But I would argue that it can be a really fun process to learn how to make your own crust. For me, my pie crusts have been a labor of love over the years. I’m constantly perfecting my pie crusts with lots of practice. I play with how I crimp the edges, mess with the latices, and design different patterns on the top. But really, in the end, if I’m going to bother to make a pie filling, then it seems that the least I could do is surround the filling with a little extra love.

Pie crust recipes are not super complicated. The ingredients don’t vary much between one recipe and the other. The difference between a flakey crust and a less perfect crust comes out in the techniques. This post is intended to give you a quick start into making a crust. I learned originally from a basic recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook, and that’s still where I sometimes send people for help.

If you decide you want more pie crust in your life, then I recommend delving into more details after you have tried a basic recipe a few times. This will give you a feel for where you need to polish your technique. There are lots of good classes, books, and videos available with tips to a great pie crust. But for beginners, I recommend keeping it simple and not getting too bogged down in the details.

Here are a couple of my tips to get started:

  • One, keep things chilled – this includes both the ingredients and yourself.
  • Two, roll from the center of the dough out.
  • Three, give yourself time. Start the dough the morning or even day before you want to bake the pie. This allows time for chilling and also time for mistakes.

Butter Pie Crust

Serving Size:
2 crusts (for one double crust pie or two single crust pies)
Time:
20 minute + rest time
Difficulty:
easy

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 14 T unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes (see notes) 
  • 1/2 cup ice water + 1-2 T more as needed
  • Additional flour for rolling out dough

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, add the flour and salt and stir to combine. Add the butter to the flour and toss with your fingers. At this point, you can use a pastry blender, or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour. You should try to work quickly here. If you are using your fingers and it is a warm day, you can chill your fingers with ice cubes before you start. The key is to try to keep the dough chilled. If using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks crumbly and the largest pieces are the size of peas. 
  2. Sprinkle ice water, one to two tablespoons at a time, over the mixture and toss with your fingers or two forks. Add water by the tablespoon until the dough holds together when you squeeze a handful of it.
  3. Turn the dough out onto the counter and divide the dough in half. Gently shape each half into a disc about 4-5 inches across. If you are making a lattice top pie, you can shape the dough into a 6×3 inch rectangle. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Seal any broken edges by rolling the wrapped dough along the edge. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least a couple hours before rolling out. Ideally, the dough can be made the day ahead. 
  4. At this point, the dough will keep about 2 days in the fridge or it can be put into plastic bags and frozen for up to 6 months. If frozen, remove it the day before you plan to use and thaw in the fridge. 

Homemade Coleslaw (Vinegar Based)

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This recipe for vinegar based coleslaw is so delicious and easy. You may never go back to the store bought stuff again. Try it with your favorite barbecue recipe. It is perfect on pulled barbecue chicken or pulled pork. Personally, I like it as an easy side to any picnic. And I’ve been known to snack on the leftovers straight out of the bowl.

In my opinion, the best part of this recipe is that you can control the sugar and fat. The store-bought versions never taste just right to me, probably because they are loaded in sugar.

If you have a food processor or grater attachment for your mixer, this is the time to get it out. A mandolin with a shredding blade would be a good friend to this recipe also. But you can definitely use a sharp knife to slice the veggies. It doesn’t take that much time and there are no hard and fast rules of how finely cut anything needs to be. The main tip that I have is that you try to cut all the veggies to the same width. Of course, there is one easy time saver – just substitute with a bag of coleslaw mix and make the dressing. You’ll save lots of time and still have the big health advantage of making the homemade dressing.

If you don’t have all of the veggies called for in the recipe, you can adjust the recipe to whatever you have on hand. No green onion? Use a little red onion. No green cabbage? Just use all red cabbage. You get the idea. I only had green cabbage when I made it for this post, so there you go.

Vinegar Based Coleslaw

Serving Size:
8
Time:
20 min
Difficulty:
medium

Dressing Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • 1 T of dijon mustard
  • 1 T of honey or 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon of celery seed
  • kosher salt and pepper, to taste

Salad Ingredients

  • 1/4 of a green cabbage
  • 1/4 of a red cabbage
  • 2 whole shredded carrots
  • 3 thinly sliced green onions

Directions

  1. To make the vinaigrette, add the vinegar, mustard, and sugar to a small bowl. Whisk while slowly drizzling in the olive oil until emulsified and then finish with celery seed, salt and pepper. Taste to see if you like the sweet/sour flavor. Add a little vinegar if you want it more sour or more sugar if you want it a little sweeter. If the flavor seems flat, try adding a little salt.
  2. Cut the cabbage in four quarters and remove the core. Chop the vegetables and add to a large bowl. Season with celery seed, salt and pepper and toss everything together.
  3. Pour the dressing over the veggies and toss together. Tongs or your hands work really well to toss.
  4. This salad is best if you make it an hour or two before you want to serve it. If you want to make it much further ahead of time, keep the dressing and veggies separate and toss together a bit before you want to serve.

Instant Pot Chicken Tacos

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This is a super quick way to get dinner on the table. Only four ingredients and you basically dump everything into your instant pot.

If you are like me and enjoy rice with your tacos, I’m also sharing a trick of cooking the rice at the same time as the taco meat. You will basically put the rice and its water into a separate bowl and set it on top of the chicken. Then the two will cook at the same time. If you have a rack that sits nicely over top of the chicken without hitting the bottom of the lid, use it. But if your rack doesn’t sit nicely (and it probably won’t), it can seem a little awkward to plop the bowl of uncooked rice on top of the chicken. Never fear. It will work. Just put the bowl of rice on the chicken, however you can make it work. Be forewarned, the rice will likely pick up a little of the color and flavor of the tacos. Not a problem in our house, but if you are looking for perfectly plain, white rice – don’t follow this method.

This cooks so quickly that you may find it takes you longer to prep your toppings. Hey. There are worse things in the world. Just let the pressure cooker go into the the warm setting and open it just before you are ready to eat.

Instant Pot Chicken Tacos

Serving Size:
4-6
Time:
25 minutes total
Difficulty:
easy

Ingredients

  • 1-2 pounds of chicken breasts
  • 1 cup of chicken broth (or water)
  • 1 cup of your favorite salsa (I like salsa verde)
  • 2-3 T of taco seasoning (adjust to taste)

Ingredients – Rice (Optional)

  • 1 cup of your favorite rice – white, brown, long or short, doesn’t matter
  • 1 1/4 cup of water (add 1/4 cup of water for brown rice)

Directions

  1. Add chicken, broth, salsa, and taco seasoning to the insert pot of your instant pot. Stir.
  2. If you are making rice, rinse the rice. Combine the rinsed rice and water in a 4 or 6-cup oven safe bowl (such as a pyrex dish). If you have a rack, place it on top of the chicken and set the rice dish on the rack. If your rack doesn’t fit, you can wiggle the chicken around to set the rack in the pot or you can set the rack on the chicken, or you can just set the rice bowl directly on top of the chicken.
  3. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker. Set the cooker to high pressure and cook for 12 minutes. Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes and then release the remaining pressure manually.
  4. Using oven mitts, remove the bowl of rice. Using tongs, place the chicken onto a cutting board and allow to cool for a couple minutes. You can use two forks to easily shred the chicken for tacos. If you made extra chicken, you can make short work of the shredding by placing the chicken breasts in your mixer bowl and use either the dough hook (Bosch mixer) or the cookie paddle (Kitchen Aid) give a few pulses and let the machine do the work for you.
  5. Serve shredded taco meat with your favorite shells, tortillas, and taco toppings.
  6. A quick note on the extra liquid in the pot. You can (and should) add some of it to the shredded chicken so you have nice moist taco meat. But, you may have some extra left over. Before you toss it, consider saving it for a second meal. If you have leftover chicken, add it back into the cooking liquid the next day for a chicken taco soup. Serve over tortilla chips with a little cheese and sour cream on the top.

Homemade Laundry Soap

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Posting about soap and cleaning is not my normal sort of recipe. But I do love my homemade laundry soap. I’m sure that many of you think I’m nuts for all of the things that I make instead of buy. With regards to homemade laundry soap, my main motivation is that I don’t like to waste money or resources. With four boys in our house, I do a lot of laundry. And the store bought detergent for a family of six, adds up quickly – even when you buy the cheap stuff. Then consider all of the plastic containers that liquid detergent comes in.

Our friends, Kevin and Lori, introduced me to this recipe years ago, and I’ve never looked back. I think it cleans just as well as the liquid stuff that I used to use. If you research homemade laundry soap recipes, you’ll find that recipes fall into two categories – powder and liquid. I use a powdered version, mainly because it is easier to make and store. I have also read that the Borax is activated by water, so it loses some of its potency when you make a liquid laundry soap.

I grate my soap pretty fine and then run it through the food processor using the sharp blade. Add a bit of the Borax and/or washing soda with the soap in the food processor and you’ll produce a fine powder. I’ve found that if I don’t get it very fine, some of the soap may not dissolve in cold water. Not a huge issue, just annoying to find little white specks of soap on your black shirt. The food processor fixes that issue.

When making this recipe, you can use pretty much any bar of soap. I am currently using Ivory soap, but have used Fels Naptha and Kirks Castile in the past. Kirks Castile has an unscented version, but it is pricey and difficult to find. Thus, Ivory. I find my Borax and washing soda at Farm & Fleet. Borax is pretty easy to find in most big box stores. Washing soda is not as easy to locate. But Farm & Fleet has it. Ah! Farm & Fleet. Anyway, I digress. Wherever you go, both will be in the laundry isle. Both are sold in large boxes. And washing soda is not the same as baking soda. Same sort of orange packaging – different product.

And finally, because someone will ask – I do not have a HE washing machine. I understand that you can use this recipe in your HE machine, because it produces very low suds.

Homemade Laundry Soap
Author: Andrea
Make sure to grate the soap into a fine powder. I use the grater attachment on my food processor to grate the soap and then the sharp blade to mix the Borax and washing soda with the soap into a fine powder
Ingredients
  • 1 bar of soap – Ivory, Fels Naptha, or Kirks Castile are good starting points
  • 1 cup of washing soda (not baking soda)
  • 1 cup of Borax
Instructions
  1. Fine grate the soap. I use my food processor’s grate attachment.
  2. Combine all the ingredients. I combine in my food processor with the sharp blade and pulse until the soap is a fine powder.
  3. Wash your food processor!
  4. This recipe can be multiplied. Four bars of soap and four cups of washing soda and Borax will last our family of six about 6 weeks.
  5. Store in containers. I used 1 T to a large load of laundry. 2 T for extra dirty laundry.