From the category archives:

Home Economics

Easy Almond Pecan Toffee

This recipe made me wonder if our candy thermometer was broken. It seemed stuck at 240 degrees, all the while the syrup was getting pretty tan. After some brain wracking, I remembered how to do the “ol’ fashioned water drop.” You know that one, right? Cook your candy base over medium-high heat. As it [...]

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How to Cook Thai Rice Sticks

This cooking class at Let’s Get Cookin’ in Westlake Village was great fun — presented by prolific cookbook author, Hugh Carpenter, we foodies were immersed in Thai recipes, always good eats. Hugh’s dry sense of humor kept us in stitches while we soaked up cooking techniques that are quite useful. Cooking rice sticks, for [...]

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Kitchen Conversions

My desk has a copy of Denise Vivaldo’s brand new The Entertaining Encyclopedia. Denise is a presenter at the upcoming Camp Blogaway Bootcamp for Food & Recipe Bloggers.
A powerhouse in the food styling world, this book is a whopper of a resource. And sometimes it is the “small” nuggets of info that are why [...]

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How To Tell if An Egg Is Raw or Hard Cooked

You’re at the cabin. Everyone else is out hiking. You want an omelet. There’s a bowl of eggs in the fridge. DANG IT, nobody labeled them! Are they raw? Hard cooked?
You are smart, you studied physics in school… remember “inertia?” Take the egg and spin it on a smooth surface. Touch it for a [...]

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Canned Pumpkin Shortage? Simple Steps to Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree

About a month ago, I noticed my local store had no small cans of pumpkin. A week later, still none. Then Larry showed me a newspaper article about the super scary national canned pumpkin shortage. Another week later, friend Marlene circulated an email about it but by then, I had three “sugar pumpkins” to [...]

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Meet Friend, The Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston

You’ll never meet a nicer Lord. Seriously, Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston is quite cool. He’s a former client. Quick bio: direct descendent of Josiah Wedgwood, the 18th century “father of pottery,” served in the House of Lords for more than 20 years – until 1999 – as the fourth Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston. He [...]

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The History of Aprons

Friend, Caroline is an enigma. On the surface: a classic beauty, self-assured self-employed food pro who travels the country for clients and around the globe for fun.
Yet, she’s kind of a country girl. Choosing Home Ec as a profession fit her to a T. One of her favorite pastimes is Knit ‘n Bitch potlucks [...]

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How to Calculate a Recipe’s “Nutrition Per Serving”

It isn’t difficult, and I find it much easier to do it by hand – on paper — than plug data into software or use an online calculator.  That is because so many ingredients seem to have peccadilloes and sometimes the software doesn’t accept your data OR doesn’t have that specific item in its [...]

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