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Grind Your Own Meat: My First Home-Ground Beef for Hamburgers

June 28, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Thanks to KitchenAid FGA Food Grinder Attachment for Stand Mixers, which I’ve rarely, if ever, used before, I ground up a two-pound blade steak last night for hamburgers. (Froze 1 pound for later use.) You have to cut the meat up into 1″ cubes or long thinner strips. This is probably a bit easier to [...]

Springtime: How to Cook and Eat Artichokes

March 22, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

I am almost a native Californian, having moved here just before my 5th birthday.  (Plus my grandmother was born here and lived through the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. We just left for one generation!) I grew up eating and loving artichokes. We grew them when I was a kid and I have periodically grown [...]

Freezing Ground Beef

January 29, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Ground beef is one of the things I like to keep a few packages of in the freezer. A few years ago I bought a FoodSaver vacuum sealer and it definitely makes a difference in terms of eliminating freezer burn on meat, since the air cannot get to the meat. (As a note, freezer burn [...]

Lamb Chops, Cheesy Cauliflower and Chopped Salad

January 29, 2010 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Knowing how to dovetail tasks and what order to do things in is the key to getting a full dinner on the table with the dishes done at the same time. This three item menu consists of: Lamb chops with brown sugar glaze Cheesy cauliflower Chopped salad with vinaigrette Follow the links for the full [...]

Japanese Pickled Cabbage, Carrots and Cucumber

January 8, 2010 by Ellen · 2 Comments 

I love the various little pickled vegetables that come with a Japanese Bento box. I also love having little side dishes and some variety at the table.  I actually went and bought a Tsukemono Japanese Pickle Press 2.2 L. I also bought Easy Japanese Pickling in Five Minutes to One Day: 101 Full-Color Recipes for [...]

Book Review: Family Feasts for $75 a Week

December 17, 2009 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

I’ve been remiss in my book reviews lately.  I’ve enjoyed the Owl Haven blog for quite some time and was thrilled when I heard Mary Ostyn had a cookbook coming out. I didn’t even try to get a review copy but went out and bought a copy as soon as I saw it at our [...]

Another Japanese Dinner: Miso Soup, Tokyo Fried Chicken, Eggplant and Miso

November 19, 2009 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Three recipes from Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat: Secrets of My Mother’s Tokyo Kitchen tonight.   The tricky part is always timing things.  The Zojirushi 6 Cup Rice Cooker / Steamer I bought a while ago comes in handy here, as I don’t particularly have to worry about the timing of the rice so [...]

Turkey, Spinach and Carrot Wraps

September 1, 2009 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

My eldest packed this for lunch for her first day of school. We bought some wraps and spread flavored cream cheese (chive and onion in this case but we often just use the “veggie” one), baby spinach leaves, grated carrots, chopped olives and turkey. Spread the cream cheese on the wrap first, then lay out [...]

Guest Post over on Kitchen Scoop

July 19, 2009 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is Desperation Dinners by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross. They asked me to write a guest post on their blog, The Kitchen Scoop. Having just thrown my daughter a fun backyard high school graduation party, I wrote up my experiences on that, Summer Entertaining on a Budget.  Go check [...]

Book Review: America's Most Wanted Recipes by Ron Douglas

June 29, 2009 by Ellen · Leave a Comment 

Full title:  America’s Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family’s Favorite Restaurants I was sent a review copy of this book. So full disclosure, we do NOT eat out near as much as the average family, which is 3 times or more per week according to the press release they sent me with the [...]

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