Boston Style Baked Beans

This week I am continuing my quest to eradicate all processed food from the house with a simple-yet-hearty recipe for Boston-style baked beans.   I have been searching for recipes that are easy and healthy. I need to be able to make them in bulk and store them. I don’t want to sacrifice the meals…

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Sourdough Pancakes

Working at Ass O’Clock in the Morning (TM) has its good points and its bad points. I work a job that has rather…unconventional business hours, and our shifts are either 5:45am-1:45pm or 1pm-9pm. As a staunch diurnal, I have opted for the former of the two; trading those luscious hours of sleeping-in for the glory…

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Basic Egg Custard

When I was in 7th grade, my parents signed a form giving permission for me to participate in a raffle put on by my science class. The prize? Tiny baby chicks from our egg-incubation study. I am sure my folks were skeptical. Chickens? We lived in suburban Santa Cruz. People didn’t have chickens in our…

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Spiced Persimmon Bread

  I wrote last week about the farmer’s market, and about how I am trying to be more responsible about using the produce I bring home before it goes bad. I am happy to announce that we have made some very good changes to our kitchen paradigm, and have significantly reduced our produce waste. I…

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Pear-Ginger Buttermilk Scones

I love kitchen gadgets. LoveloveloveloveLOVE. The weirder and more obscure, the better. I have cabinets full of ricers, garlic slicers, mallets, weird whisks with funny bits for extra fluffy foams. I love my hand-crank pasta machine. I want an extruder. My stand mixer? We have an understanding that makes room for the boyfriend, but otherwise…

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Back to the Basics 2: Acorn Bread

Or, I ought to say, “A-Cornbread”. This isn’t a yeast-leavened bread and is not suitable for sandwiches or toast. It is very similar to a basic cornbread recipe which begins as a batter, bakes up in the oven, and is served in crumbly squares fresh out of the pan. Yup, just like regular old cornbread….

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Back to the Basics: Acorn Flour

There was a time when the Californian diet was dependent on acorns. Some native groups consumed acorns as up to 50% of their daily caloric intake. Besides being plentiful and rather easy to harvest, acorns are *delicious*. So why do people look at me like I’m a maniac when I tell them that I am…

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Croissant Bread Pudding

It is not hard to get your hands on day-old pastries. What’s hard, sometimes, ARE the pastries. But here’s your chance to make them ol’ croissants shine like new! Croissant bread pudding! There’s really not much to it. Which is good, what with how busy I’ve been this week. Fortunately, there’s always room (er, I…

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Huckleberry Lemon Sauce

I love huckleberry season. Why, you ask (as if you don’t love them too, be honest, now)? First off, huckleberries, while small, are not plagued with the standard onslaught of unpleasantries that often come with wild foraging: no brambles, thorns/spines, no awkward crawls under bushes or 3 mile hikes through the rain, no damaged clothes,…

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