Baking without Eggs

What do you do when you're in the middle of baking and suddenly realize there are no eggs in the house?  Substitute something else you do have, of course!  I saw these Egg Substitutions on Facebook and thought this list might come in handy someday.  So I'm sharing.

I'm going to have to try some of these even if I'm not out of eggs.  Just because.  I'll save the eggs for omelets!

Handy Reference of Cooking and Baking Substitutions

Here's a great list of handy baking substitutions for those times when you're in the middle of a recipe and realize you're out of an essential ingredient.  Chances are you have something in your pantry that can be substituted.

Source: eReplacementParts.com

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• Baking Measurements and Substitutions
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When to Buy Organic

I admit - I think I should be buying organic fruits and vegetables, but I just can't bring myself to pay the cost difference.  Is it important to only buy organic?  Or are there certain fruits and vegetables that don't matter so much if they're organic or not?  I really don't know, so when I saw this on Facebook this evening, I thought it would be worth holding onto.  It's a list of the fruits and vegetables that you really should buy organic, along with a list of 15 fruits and vegetables that are lowest in pesticides and safest to purchase conventionally.
 

The list is designed to be printed out so you can carry it with you to the grocery store and have a handy reference.  It doesn't list everything, but it's a good start.  I can tell by looking at the list that I am buying some of the worst ones and should definitely look into switching to organic, but it's nice to see some of my favorites on the other side, too - so I can just concentrate on fixing the bad ones first.

Here's a list of 45 popular fruits and veggies, ranked from highest to lowest amounts of pesticide residue, if you'd like some more information.

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• The Most Pesticide-Laden Produce, And Healthier Alternatives

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Find the Freshest Fruits and Vegetables

This looks like a really handy resource.  Use the Seasonal Ingredient Map at Epicurious to find out what's in season where you are.  Simply choose the month and click on your state.  Being in Wisconsin, I'm not able to find anything right now, but if you live in one of the southern states you're in luck!  In Louisiana, arugula, beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, fennel, lettuce, radishes, spinach, and turnips are all in season.

Me, I'll just have to wait - for both the garden and the farmer's market.

Epicurious also gives ingredient descriptions, shopping guides, recipes, and tips to help you get the most of your fresh ingredients.

I Need Better Food Pics

In some cases, I just plain need pictures - good or not.  I've been using Pinterest for a while now, and I started thinking that it would be a great way to handle the 'table of contents' on this blog.  Currently I have the tabs at the top linking to all the different categories - using Blogger labels.  And that works OK.  You click the tab for soups, and you get a page with all the posts I've labelled 'soup' - simply scroll down through the posts to find a recipe that looks good.

I thought it would be nicer to create a Board on Pinterest for each of my categories.  Clicking the tab would give you a page - like this one I created for Soups - with all the recipes in that category.  The only problem is that it's not quite that easy.  Why?  Because I don't have pictures on all my recipes, and that means either I can't add those recipes to the Pinterest board, or I have to use my header, which doesn't quite convey the idea.  It's that yummy picture of the recipe that is going to make people look in the first place.  I know I love the pictures in a cookbook - whether I'm cooking or not, I can still get a lot of enjoyment out of looking at the pictures.  Of course, my favorite cookbook - The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals - has no pictures at all, but...

Anyway, I have been trying harder to take pictures of everything I make, but I don't always remember - sometimes not until it's half gone, and sometimes not at all.  And, my husband has been known to laugh at me for taking pictures of food.  My problem is that I don't really know what makes a good food pic.  I know one when I see one, but I don't really understand why it's good, and how do I go about taking some of my own?  So it's time for some research into food photography and getting better food pics.  I found a couple posts to start with:

1. Food Photography Techniques and Tips
2. 25 Food Photography Lessons You May Have Missed

and most of all, I just need to remember to take some shots of everything I make - good or not.  Practice makes perfect, right?

In the meantime, what to do about those Pinterest Boards?  Do you think it's a good idea for the 'table of contents' part of this blog?  What do you use to organize your recipe posts to make them easy to browse?

These Foods Contain the Most Antioxidants

Image via Wikipedia

I was reading through a magazine today and found this list of the top 20 antioxidant foods, so I thought I'd   share.   Scientists believe that foods rich in antioxidants prevent damage from molecules called free radicals.  "If you increase the consumption of foods high in antioxidants, research indicates that you'll protect your body from the damage from these free radicals," says Dr. Ronald L. Prior, research chemist for the USDA, who conducted that study that produced this list.

In order, from highest to lowest:

1. Small red beans (dried)
2. Wild blueberries
3. Red kidney beans
4. Pinto beans
5. Blueberries (cultivated)
6. Cranberries
7. Artichokes (cooked)
8. Blackberries
9. Prunes
10. Raspberries
11. Strawberries
12. Red Delicious apples
13. Granny Smith apples
14. Pecans
15. Sweet cherries
16. Black plums
17. Russet potatoes (cooked)
18. Black beans (dried)
19. Plums
20. Gala apples

The article suggested printing the list out and taking it to the grocery store with you, to help you choose the best foods.  If you don't have a list, just think color - foods in the brightest, most vivid colors are usually the ones that are high in antioxidants.  (Except Russet potatoes made the list but not sweet potatoes which are much brighter and more vivid in color.)

I must admit, I was surprised by the Red Delicious apples on this list.  They're always the last apples I'd pick for anything.  Guess I was wrong there...  Still, I'll probably keep buying the Granny Smiths and the Galas, just because they taste better.  It doesn't matter how high a food is in antioxidants, if you don't eat it, it can't help you!

Related articles

• Beans: Canned or Dry? (recipes.alwaysbcmom.com)
• Best Sources of Food Antioxidants (cookingislife.wordpress.com)
• What are Anti-oxidants? (abysmalfitness.com)

I'm a Recipe Nut

Image by pirate johnny via FlickrI collect recipes, from everywhere.  I cut them out of the Sunday paper, out of magazines, out of the coupon section of the paper.  I have some of them organized in one of those 'magnetic' photo albums, and I use a lot of those recipes over and over.  I have a whole bunch more in a shoe box and some organized in envelopes - according to recipe type - and more in a large envelope, and...  Well, I have recipes all over the place and, even though I cut them out originally because I really wanted to try them, I usually never do get to try them - because I can't find them again!  Or, even worse, I try a recipe that we really like but then I can't find it again!

And that's just the printed recipes.  There are so many recipe sources online.  Sites where you can find recipes for just about anything and even save those recipes for later use.  The problem is that there are so many sites - and I've signed up for and saved recipes at most of them.  But finding those recipes later?  Not so easy, because who can remember where a particular recipe came from?  That's why I'm loving RecipeNut.  It's a site for gathering, collecting, and sharing recipes from anywhere.  Adding a recipe from another site is as simple as pasting in the URL.  RecipeNut finds the recipe info, you add some tags, select some categories to make the recipe easier to find on the site, and save it.

I've been saving all the online recipes I want to try at RecipeNut for a while.  So now I always know where to look!  Now I just need to get around to all the recipe sites and save the recipes I liked over there to RecipeNut so I can find those too.  And all those printed recipes?  I'm either going to have to start finding them (or something similar) online so I can save them to RecipeNut, or I'm going to have to add them myself.  You can add your own recipes, too by manually entering measurements, ingredients, and instructions.  Personal recipes can either be shared with everyone else who visits RecipeNut, or you can keep them private.  So, if you want to save your grandma's secret chocolate cake recipe, you can keep that to yourself.

Besides being a great place to save recipes, RecipeNut is a great place to find them too.  All the recipes there are recipes that people thought were worth saving and sharing.  I usually end up saving one or two from the front page where they always show the most recently saved recipes.  It's easy to save them, just click 'Save' and it's added to your recipe box.  You can also browse through the categories such as Main Ingredient, Meal/Course, or Occasion to find recipes.  I haven't done that a lot because I'm still saving all these other recipes - I'm afraid I'd never stop!
 

Related articles

• Best Way to Organize Recipes from Many Sources? Good Questions (thekitchn.com)
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Curried Lamb

I was going to make this Curried Lamb and Lentil Stew today, or a variation anyway.  I have some cooked lamb in the fridge I was going to use.  Then I discovered I don't have any lentils - so it's back to the drawing board.  I'm searching for a curried lamb recipe without lentils.

Why curried lamb?  It was mentioned in the book I'm listening to, and it just sounded good.  There's a whole lot of food in the book that just sounds nasty, but this sounded really good.

I ended up putting together this recipe for Easy Lamb Curry and this one for Leftover Lamb Curry and came up with something that turned out pretty good.

Lamb Curry

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small hot pepper, finely chopped
• 2 T curry powder
• 1/2 t. cumin
• leftover lamb, cut into strips (about 2 cups)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 T tomato paste

Directions:

1. Saute onion, garlic and hot pepper in olive oil until softened and starting to brown.
2. Stir in curry powder and cumin; add meat.
3. Stir in broth, tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil.
4. Cover and bake at 300°F for 2 hours or so.
5. Serve over rice.

The original recipe I used said to bake at 150°C, so I had to figure out what that meant for my oven.  I found this handy site for converting Celsius to Farenheit and just plugged the 150°C in to get the 300°F I used.

I thought this turned out really good, but it was a little spicy so I knew my husband wouldn't appreciate it.  I just heated up some of the leftover lamb I didn't use in the curry and gave him that with some leftover potatoes.  And there's plenty of curry to last me for several days.

• Print this recipe

Crockpot Conversions

I just saw this on Fix-It and Forget-It on facebook - some really handy information.

Many stove-top and oven recipes can be adapted for a slow cooker. If you want to experiment, use these conversion factors (remember, some slow-cookers are hotter than others):

• Low (in a slow cooker) = 200º in an oven, approximately
• High (in a slow cooker) = 300º in an oven, approximately
• In a slow cooker, 2 hours on Low = 1 Hour, approximately, on High.

I love cooking with my slow cooker or crockpot, and I've tried some regular oven or stove-top recipes, but mostly I just guessed on the timing.  This at least gives some basic guidelines to start with.

How to Cook Real Food

It seems simple enough. Eat real food. Cook from scratch. Shop locally. But how do you make it happen in your own kitchen? Especially those of us who never learned how to cook — we were raised on microwave suppers, boxed cereals and toaster pastries. We all face the challenges of a modern life – balancing work and parenthood, all the while trying to feed our families healthier meals.

I recently found out about this online cooking class that will teach you how to prepare nourishing family-friendly meals with simple, step-by-step techniques.  Everything is covered in 12 easy lessons.  You do it all in the comfort of your own home and at your own pace, and you get lifetime access to all course materials.

Check it out and see if this is something that can help you.  Enrollment closes May 31, and there are limited spaces available.

How to Cook Real Food: an Online Cooking Course

Disclosure: I do receive compensation for each enrollment using my affiliate link

Check Out Foodierama

I got an email today about a new foodie website called Foodierama.  Here's what Dave, one of the co-founders, had to say:

Foodierama is a homepage for foodies based on the idea of serendipity. It's designed as a portal front page containing teasers to the latest posts of a list of hundreds of the best food blogs.  Whenever users enter the page they discover something new and exciting: a new blog, a new recipe or cooking technique etc. In addition, users get a panoramic view of what's going on in the food blog-sphere all on one graphic page.

I was definitely intrigued so I had to check it out. It looks like a really interesting website with links to all kinds of great recipes and food information on blogs all around the blogosphere.  I didn't spend much time there, but I already discovered a whole blog dedicated to sourdough - Discovering Sourdough - and I look forward to exploring that one.  Also, did you know you can make pizza in the crockpot?  I found this recipe for Slow Cooker Puffy Pizza Casserole and I think I'm going to have to try it.

What will you find on Foodierama?

Recipe Matcher

I heard on GMA yesterday that the average U.S. household throws out nearly a quarter of the fruits and vegetables it buys. For a family of four, that adds up to about $500 each year, according to a study by the University of Arizona. Read the rest of the story to learn how to store your food to keep it fresher and make it last longer.

Image via CrunchBase

RecipeMatcher looks like a handy site to help you use the foods you have so they don't go to waste. Occasionally I might throw something out, but I don't think it's nearly a quarter of my produce. Maybe it's because I cook this way on a regular basis - planning meals around whatever's in the refrigerator that needs to be used. I think it's important to use what you have. Otherwise, you're just wasting money.

Check your refrigerator and pantry, visit Recipe Matcher, and start typing in the ingredients you have on hand that need to be used. You can also choose the type of recipe you want and what your main ingredient should be, and then search to find recipes using the ingredients you have. You'll get a whole list of recipes to choose from. Each recipe lets you know how long it takes to prepare as well as the other ingredients you'll need.

It looks like anyone can search and find recipes, but signing up for a free account lets you leave comments, keep an online pantry, make and print shopping lists, keep lists of your favorite recipes, and even submit your own, so I signed up. I'm guessing that once I stock my online pantry by checking off all the items I have in my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, the recipes will fit my needs even better, because the site will be able to suggest recipes I have all the ingredients for.