The farm that converted me to a CSA

Right now you’re thinking either, “Ooh! CSA!” or “CS…what?”

It’s Community Supported Agriculture. And I love it. What it means is that The Yankee and I essentially bought into a local farm, and in exchange we get a box of food every week. I wanted to do a CSA for years but I couldn’t hide [...]

Cornstarch: your friend in the garden

Just like last year, I planted a bunch o’ tomatoes in the garden in the back yard. Unlike last year, my tomatoes this year came under attack (ATTACK I say!) by bugs. First it was worms (tomato worms? Hornworms? I don’t know. Icky worms). Then came the stinkbugs. All my tomatoes were being eaten and [...]

Saving a cast iron skillet

Remember when I wrote a cautionary tale about cast iron? Allow me to review:

Rust is not your friend.

I know. This is shocking news to you all.

I’m happy to report that picture up there is all the same pan. A bit of an improvement, yes?

The folks at Lodge told me [...]

Garden update!

Remember this post?

This:

Turned into this:

Pretty awesome, huh? And this is after I pulled a few things, too — like the green beans, which were taken over by ants. Grr. But I did get a bunch of them blanched and frozen first.

In my little 8×4′ garden I grew:

Brandywine tomatoes [...]

Homemade corn tortillas

I have a new toy! After doing a few batches of flour tortillas rolled out by hand, I realized that, um, I’m not very good at rolling out an actual circle. I bought this cast iron tortilla press from Amazon and I love it! I went with cast iron rather than lighter weight aluminum because [...]

How does your garden grow?

Wanna know how much The Yankee rocks? A LOT.

He built this:

And, because that line in Rocky Top about the dirt being too rocky by far is all true, we filled the raised bed with this:

Saturday morning we headed out to Home Depot with The Kiddo. We [...]

Guinness Cupcakes

You know this is going to be good, don’t you?

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and LovesToEat.

You will need:

1 cup Guinness beer 1 cup (2 sticks) butter 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 cups all purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs [...]

Cast iron: a cautionary tale

Want to know what happens if you let your cast iron sit around, unused, with a lid fused to the skillet? Allow me to show you.

Please to remember: I have a love of cast iron. A serious, deep, and abiding love. And the pretty, shiny skillets to prove it:

See [...]

Say hello to my little friend

I’d like you to meet my BFF in the spice cabinet: Miracle Blend.

Why do they call it that? Well, because it is indeed a miracle. For reals. It is the fastest, easiest way to transform anything with a single spice (that makes it sound a little bit like Superman). I use [...]

Pain de Mie

Do we all remember my Pain de Mie fail? Cute, right? Well this is what happens when you actually have a pain de mie pan:

Square bready goodness.

Following this recipe from King Arthur Flour (I know, you’re shocked), I let the bread rise to within about 1/2 inch of the top [...]

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