Posts tagged as:

frugal

Easy Meyer Lemon Curd

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This is a sneaky trick. In my recipe binder there is a stunning magazine lemon custard recipe, which is baked in a water bath. I hadn’t made it yet, but had every intention. That is, until my friend Sandy told me her mother (native Californian, Meyer lemon tree owner) would make the lemon meringue recipe [...]

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Plain, Simple, Versatile Cooked Shredded Chicken

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“This is a recipe?” you may ask. Well, no, but it’s a favorite technique of mine to tackle a few things simultaneously on a leisurely Sunday, my happy cooking day. Chicken parts were a very good price this week, frugal friends. Sunday morning, I threw two pounds of them into the crockpot with two bay [...]

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Wisconsin Schaum Tortes

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Happy birthday to my mom, Gloria.  She used to make us Schaum Tortes. Googling around, I had a laugh reading, “Unless you’re from Wisconsin, you won’t know what a Schaum Torte is.”  I’m a native Californian who ate a lot of ‘em but that makes sense… both my folks are from Wisconsin.  Mom, a Kewaunee [...]

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Larry’s Pesto Pizza

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This is another installment in my series, “Hands Off, Ladies, He’s Mine.” Larry made dinner again recently and decided to create a spin-off of his most excellent pizza.   If you are skilled at making homemade pizza, then you can become comfortable playing with it.  Larry does this on occasion, deciding fun toppings and layouts. This [...]

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Emperor’s Farmers Market Salad

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Entitled “Cucumber, Carrot and Tomato Salad,” the recipe served 130.  That’s a good sized “cooking for a crowd” recipe, but considered small at Project Angel Food.  This was my cooking task last week with fellow volunteer, Sarah.  Since it had great blogging/household dining potential, I wrote the full size recipe on a box sticker to [...]

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Easy Fresh Apple Tart ~ Homage to Julia Child

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Fellow IACP members, who recognizes this plate?  Julia Child was a founding member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals; over the years, the group’s cookbook awards gala grew to a rather big splash.  The year 1997 was so splashy, attendees received this commemorative platter and Julia took the time to autograph plates for anyone [...]

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Bacon Macaroni and Cheese

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Bacon, bacon, bacon.  It’s not something that is always in the fridge here, and when it is, it takes several recipes to use it up.  Frankly, I’d love to consume multiple strips each morning; guilt overrides that.  What to cook with some el tocino? Four slices are needed for Bacon Mac N’ Cheese.  If ever [...]

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Thai Pasta with Chicken or Turkey

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In anticipation of turkey leftovers, friends… Larry and I both work from home offices so we share a good number of meals together. For my lunch today, I dibbed leftovers of this Thai Pasta with Chicken while we were still eating it for dinner last night. We were in Thailand a few years ago and [...]

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Thelma’s Popovers

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Larry makes his mom’s golden, airy popovers skillfully.  Some recipes in our household are his alone, and this is definitely one.  If I proclaimed a decision to make some popovers, fuggeddaboudit.  Not allowed.  He has his giant binder of recipes and I have mine. My mother-in-law, Thelma is now 88 and doesn’t cook anymore.  A [...]

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Tri-Color Bleu Cheese Potato Salad

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Picture a Sunday picnic at a countryside winery with good friends who like to cook and eat.   Homemade gourmet, local wine and a tinge of sun-kissed cheeks on a glorious Southern California afternoon really makes you believe that “life is good.” Larry and I enjoy Gourmet Clubs, which amounts to three or four couples agreeing [...]

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Mini Basil and Goat Cheese Turnovers

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Dinner party for four here. Casual menu:  Larry made his Excellent Pizza. I was excited for dessert, Butterscotch Pudding.  But while shopping for ingredients, it struck me…  I hadn’t planned an appetizer. Wracking my brain (well, not wracking, but thinking harder than normal while shopping), my sis-in-law’s recent pool party snacks struck me as do-able. [...]

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Butterscotch Pudding

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I cannot stop thinking about this Butterscotch Pudding. Friends Barbara, David and Annie were coming for dinner and I wanted a simple killer dessert you might see at a cool restaurant and say, “oh boy!” Oh boy oh boy oh boy Butterscotch Pudding. Thank you, Gourmet’s Ruth Cousineau for this. A few of the reviews [...]

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Green Turkey Chili

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Even in summer, the Crockpot works overtime here.  In fact, we get all the little appliances together and set the rice cooker to finish simultaneously.  Yesterday, Larry and I hit a 5 PM movie and when we walked in the door, dinner practically served itself.  We ate this Green Turkey Chili with a scoop of [...]

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Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

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Do you have a go-to recipe that works for most occasions? Add Glazed Lemon Poundcake to your list. Hostess gift? Check. Dessert for potluck? Check. Neighbor thanks for taking in your mail? Check. Oops, I forgot a birthday? Check, check, check.

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Larry’s Excellent Pizza

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Have you seen the foodie blog, Hungry Hungry Hippie?   Blogger Elise’s mom is my cousin, Melinda.  I noticed this week that HHH was being written by middle sis, Laura – that’s how I discovered their ENTIRE family is vacationing in Hawaii, ‘cept Laura!  What a good sister – and turns out, a good blogger. I [...]

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Tuscan Chicken Pallard over Fettuccine

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There was this handsome, bald guy on TV making dinner with ingredients I already had (minus arugula). I’d never seen him before (and I love TV). His show was A Lyon In The Kitchen on the Discovery Health Channel and now I know his name is Nathan Lyon. A recipe like this is one of [...]

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How to Make a Flower Pot Ice Cream Sundae

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This tiny treat is just plain cute and got me thinking about the slice of leftover chocolate cake in the freezer. Honestly, you cannot screw this up. For example, chunks of frozen frosting on my cake became corks for plugging the flower pot drain holes.  I smashed up the rest of the cake for the “dirt.”  [...]

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Penne with Bacon Gravy

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Whoa baby, if you like a hearty belly-ful of pasta and flavor, use bacon AND whole wheat penne.  You won’t be hungry for days.  It is still June Gloom weather outside here and I haven’t lightened up my cooking yet for the next season.  We have a lot of dried pasta variations in the pantry, [...]

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Peppered Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar

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The year was maybe 1965.  My dad’s job involved transforming a Southern California strawberry farm into a housing development.  Families were invited to “pick all you want berries” on a festive day prior to plowing the field under. Our family of seven had a Country Squire Station Wagon.   With all the seats down and five [...]

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Fresh Basil Quiche with Tomatoes and Mushrooms

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It worked, he ate it.  TWO portions.  I know that Larry is a Real Man, and now I know he will Eat Quiche.  Maybe it was the All Butter Pie Shell that put it over the top because nuttin’ tastes bedda dan budduh. We humans really are easily swayed.  The stigma quiche picked up via [...]

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Homemade Chicken Stock

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I’m not a slave to homemade stock, but I make it when I have the “stuff” that goes into it.  Once you do a batch, you will LOVE it.  Today’s is earmarked for Vietnamese Pho Soup which requires a special (but totally worthwhile) trip to the local Asian market for “sticks and leaves,” as Larry [...]

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President Reagan’s Macaroni and Cheese

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Mac ‘n Cheese has recently become a signature family dish, thanks to my sister-in-law, Lynne (who I call “Sissy”). Last Thanksgiving, she brought a whopping slab of it to my sister Gretchen’s big feast; Sissy apparently made way too much for another need and this one was a spare. (Imagine… a SPARE mac ‘n cheese!) [...]

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Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup

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  This recipe post is being updated for our current almost-winter season. The weather here in LA only got cold this week, so last night’s dinner was steaming homemade chicken noodle soup in the attempt to warm us from the inside-out. If you own a crockpot, print this frugal, filling recipe.

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Chilled Gazpacho

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Somebody tell me:  why does any vacation now result in me coming home with a “muffin top” (aka pot belly)?  I’m technically a lean-ish person, but lately, yikes.   Even places with not great food, I channel Miss Piggy.  Thus, when we get back home to our “grind of choice” (as my friend, Cathi calls it), [...]

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Green Salsa Chicken

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It is hard to photograph chicken when the meat is falling off the bone. And excessively juicy. And bubbly hot, but it is sooooo easy to eat this good stuff. Two ingredients only – chicken and green salsa. A few months ago, we threw a huge bash for a significant Larry birthday. My goal was [...]

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Fresh Homemade Yogurt

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Why make yogurt?  To feel French, mostly.  And then to feel healthy.  Plus then to just do it for fun, since it is quite easy, it tastes fine and ingredients are few.  When I make homemade yogurt, I use my little yogurt maker machine, purchased after reading French Women Don’t Get Fat.  Cute book and [...]

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Funeral Soup

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My grammar school friend, Val, lost her mom to cancer and the service was held at Holy Cross Cemetery, where my father-in-law is also buried.  Being there made me think about the circumstances of his death, and my pot of Funeral Soup.   This is a meatless version, but after I photographed it, leftover Turkey Meatloaf [...]

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Signature Salad Dressing

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Not one of Oprah’s best recommendations.  From her show What Ya Cookin’, Nashville? back in 2003, I printed out a salad dressing recipe by a local home cook named Dee.  “This garlicky salad dressing will add pep to all kinds of leafy greens!”  Oprah raved!  Hack, hack, it coated my tongue with oil and garlic.  [...]

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Killer Deviled Eggs

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“This recipe dates back to my mom’s grandmother,” Laura emailed.  In 2004, I wanted a “killer Deviled Egg” recipe because they are a favorite of mine and friend, Laura claimed her mother’s method was the best.  She was right, and her signature dish morphed into mine.  This simple recipe wasn’t easy to get, she had [...]

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Best-Ever Roast Chicken Claim is True

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If there is one food I cook well, it is Roast Chicken. Mine always come out juicy and tender; I use the nifty tool, a Spanek verticle roaster. You don’t need anything beyond the wire gizmo that makes your bird sit upright in the oven. So why try a new recipe? The headline. I tore [...]

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Favorite Ham Story, And The Recipe

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This is the best recipe ever to cook the perfect ham for Easter. It was by luck that I stumbled on this compelling story about feeding a sophisticated crowd via a cheap ham, called the “Ham Gambit.”  Most likely, the use of the word CHEAP got my attention because there are few people who are [...]

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Fresh Homemade Applesauce in the Crockpot

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I recently learned that it’s perfectly OK to re-do a recipe post as long as you keep the original title and the post date. That keeps you from erasing the post’s history, but lets you actually rewrite history! This was one of my very first, and the writing was crappy, at best.  My original photo was also [...]

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