The One Word Challenge is picking a word that you will focus on for a whole year. This one word shapes how you look at your year. I was recently introduced to the concept of One Word. After looking around a bit on the internet, I see that it has been around for a while. If you are not familiar with it like I was, it is the idea of picking a word to be the focus of your year. It’s meant to be an inspiration for you, not one more thing to do. There is a website and a book all
I am a month behind on goals. I should have done two last month. But I just can’t seem to get caught up on anything. So I am going to try again this month to do two goals. The first of my goals for the month is homemade tomato paste and ketchup. The second is pretzels. After watching an episode this morning of Good Eats where Alton Brown makes pretzels. I feel better about trying it. I will explain in that blog post why I was a little apprehensive of making pretzels. My tomato plants took a while to take
August was a really busy month for me and I didn’t get my goal accomplished. So I am doing two goals this month. I wanted to learn to make hummus. I found a bunch of recipes and the pesto hummus looked the best to me. I have pesto in the freezer already and do this was an easy one for me. I have been eating garbanzo beans (chickpeas) since I was a kid. But hummus wasn’t something I had ever tried until a couple years ago. I’m not sure if it just became popular or if I had been
With June’s goal, I shared that I wanted to learn to make graham crackers and marshmallows so we could make s’mores with homemade ingredients. Graham crackers came out perfect. Marshmallows on the other hand didn’t work so well the first time around. I knew that Granola Girl had made marshmallows before and they turned out great. So I asked for her recipe to attempt them again. They turned out perfect. They looked so good while mixing I wanted to stick my fingers in there and try it. But for fear of my finger getting stuck in the whisk or
My list of foods I want to learn to make has grown tremendously. The more I learn to make the more I want to learn to make. I decided to learn to make graham cracks and marshmallows this summer then make s’mores with them. When Lucy, Jamie and I had gotten together, I tried making marshmallows. It was a failure. I will try again of course. But until then, I made graham crackers. And we made s’mores with store bought marshmallows. When I make the marshmallows, I will whip up some graham crackers and actually roast those marshmallows
Apparently I waited too long to attempt my goal for this month. I really need to start earlier in the month. I have seen people making cannoli many times on tv. But I have never had one. So I put it on my list for my goals. Last week I realized I needed cannoli forms. They came late in the week and I was so busy I just didn’t get to them. So finally today, I attempted them. And of course, they didn’t go the way I wanted. In the middle of making them, Lucy and our mom stopped by
I’m on a quest to learn to make all kinds of cheeses. So far I’ve made cream cheese and mozzarella. I will soon be making a cheese press so I can make harder cheeses. The harder cheeses I want to make are going to take some time. They need quite a bit of time to age. But until then I’ll keep making softer cheeses. Next on my list was homemade ricotta. This one is really pretty simple. It doesn’t even need rennet. It also doesn’t need much time. My first attempt at ricotta was a flop. It didn’t curdle
I have had angel food cake so many times. My mom would make them for my dad because they had less sugar than regular cakes, or that’s what she said. My dad was diabetic and that’s what she’d make for special occasions. With 1 3/4 cups, I’m not sure that’s much less. But we all did enjoy those cakes especially served with strawberries. I vaguely remember my mom making angel food cake from scratch a time or two, but I mostly remember her using a mix. I have made quite a few from mixes as well. After my grandmother
The Hardworking Husband likes to watch food shows on TV. One night we were watching one of those food shows and someone was making popovers. For some reason, I had never heard of popovers. They must be a Northeastern food. So I decided it was something I needed to try. I put it on the calendar to make. They seem pretty simple in ingredients but from watching that food show, I know they can be tough getting them to pop. I also learned from that show that you need to use a popover pan and not just any pan.
For my first goal this year, I decided to make blueberry bagels. The Hardworking Husband loves blueberry bagels. I love bagels and we don’t have a great bakery to buy any. I wish we had a Panera Bread here, but we are too small of a city to have one. I always stock up on bagels & bear claws when I go to Denver to visit friends. But since we generally don’t travel through the winter because of bad roads, I’ve been out of bagels for quite some time. Well, I’m out of bear claws too, but I’ve made some