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Substitutions
A note on some basic substitutions you can make to accommodate differences in what is available in stores. SUET Some stores in the US are now selling “beef tallow”. Beef tallow is rendered out suet. It also tends to be painfully expensive. Amazon.com is now selling Atora suet, which is cheaper than the tallow, but…
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Fresh custard recipe
It’s funny how you can get a mental block about something. In my case, it was custard. I always saw custard being made from Bird’s powder, and even when I moved to the USA I carried on buying it, albeit at a stupid price. Then, recently, I decided to check out how to make custard…
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Making breakfast
One of my weekend pleasures used to be having a sausage sandwich (bangers with brown sauce or ketchup) for brunch. One of the downsides of moving to another country is the lack of the stuff you are used to. Brown sauce, if it is available, tends to be ridiculously expensive. Bangers are eye wateringly expensive.…
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Tahini
I was mulling over my laughably cheap hummus recipe with peanut butter substituting for tahini. The biggest single cost for making home made hummus is most likely the tahini, hence substituting peanut butter. But what if you could make tahini at home, at a laughably cheap price? Is that possible? And how difficult is it…
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Hummus
“Hummus is delicious, but have you seen how much it costs? Even on sale it’s kinda pricy!” How many times have you had that kind of conversation, or versions thereof? Let’s look at a different way to sate your hummus addiction! Let’s start with Alton Brown’s recipe. I have made this many times and it…
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How have you used your downtime?
Winter is a bad time for canners who like to create, but it’s a great time of year for consuming the results! Pies made with fillings made from summer fruit in December? Yes, please! But now we are heading into growing seasons, it’s time to do housekeeping. If you have a pressure canner, contact your…
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Chili and beer
Everyone has their favourite chili recipe. And why wouldn’t you? A meltingly tender stew of mixed meats, and/or veggies, and/or beans, it can be a gourmet feast, a magnet for leftovers, or an acknowledgement that there is too much month left at the end of your pay! How can you incorporate a nice beer into…
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Reduced Sugar Cherry Jam
I am loving the results I get with Pomona’s Pectin. The jam tastes like fruit gently stewed in honey. Wonderful. 4 cups, mashed or chopped, pitted cherries 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice 4 tsp calcium water Place these ingredients in a large saucepan and start to gently heat. 1 cup honey (or, if you…
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Low added sugar blackberry jam
Having picked a lot of delicious blackberries at Holmestead Farm as part of my fun U-Pick experience, I set out to create some awesome low added sugar blackberry jam, using Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Yield: about 5 cups (5 jelly jars) Thoroughly rinse and pick through your blackberries 4 cups blackberries 1 cup honey 2 teaspoons…
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What to do with canned foods?
The whole reason I make canned/preserved foods is to be able to eat them when they are out of season and thus expensive and shipped in over long distances. But once you’ve got them, what do you do with them? Last year I made a couple of different pie fillings while the fruits were in…