We were at a family reunion a few weeks ago at a hotel that served free breakfast. Since Cooper has been on an egg strike recently, and the Cheerios were actually generic cardboard toasted O’s, we needed to find something else for him to eat. Luckily, he’s been on a big yogurt kick lately, but as we quickly found out, dude loves muffins.

I tried to give him the healthiest muffins I could, but let’s be real: we were talking food service muffins that come in flavors like chocolate, chocolate chip, and something that resembled blueberry, but may have just been “tic-tac-flavored” or some damn thing. I’m good with him eating muffins, but I wanted to find a recipe that was a little bit healthier once we returned home.

After a quick Google search, I found one that caught my eye on cooks.com. It involves Cheerios, which as we all know, is baby crack, so I knew he’d like them. It gets most of its flavor from spices, rather than sugar, but I threw in some blueberry-infused craisins, just to give it a kick.

Cheerio Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 c. finely crushed Cheerios
• 1 c. flour
• 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1 c. apple sauce
• 3 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 c. soy milk
• 1/2-2/3 cup of craisins or other fruit

Just mix the dry ingredients together and add the oil, egg white, milk, and apple sauce. mix with fork until it forms a batter (about 30 seconds or so of stirring is really all you need). Put in desired amount of craisins and bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes.

I love this recipe because it’s super-simple and quick to make, and the only thing I had to buy was the canola oil and the apple sauce. I used soy milk, because that’s what we had on hand, but you can use whatever you want.

I baked mini muffins and put them in a ziploc bag for breakfast the next morning. Luke apparently let Cooper eat five of them. Yay for him liking the muffins, but five? That’s probably not a good idea.

For better or for worse, pasta is a staple in many vegetarian diets (and that sentence is how I am able to justify this as a “Hold the Meat” post [brilliant!]). A lot of times, I’ll pretend to be healthier about it by buying whole wheat pasta and/or organic noodles. However, sometimes I”ll just throw the $1.00/box stuff in there too.

The other day though, I was reading All & Sundry, and she was talking about how she’s recently been making more food from scratch. This is something I’ve been trying to do as well, especially now that Cooper is a bit older and is eating human food (as opposed to, you know, dog food). So I clicked through to some of the recipes that she’s used, and holy crap! Why the hell didn’t anybody tell me that there are only three ingredients in pasta, and that they’re all things that I have in my house right now?

2 1/4 cups flour, 3 eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. That’s all! It’s super-easy too. You just beat the eggs, and put them into a little flour nest in a large bowl, like so:

Then you mix it all together until it forms a ball of dough. Knead it about five minutes, and then put it in some greased plastic wrap (I just sprayed some cooking spray on it) and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, at which point you can get your sauce on the stove. After that, take about 1/4 of the dough and roll it out.

This part was actually pretty fun for me, because it was the first time I’d actually used a rolling pin (I know, I’m really pathetic).

Roll it out until it gets about as thin as you would want a noodle to be. Then, roll it up like you would a jelly roll and cut it into little wheels:

After that, just unfurl them, and put them aside. Do this for the three remaining quarters of your dough, then boil the pasta for about 5 minutes, until it’s firm but tender. The noodles start to float when they’re done; it doesn’t take long at all. After that, you’ve totally got pasta– without even having to have a pasta machine.

For a first try, I was really impressed with how it came out. Other than the 30 minutes the dough has to rest, it’s actually a pretty quick process. I made it kind of slow, just because I was nervous about it, but in general you can do this pretty quickly. It’s important to note that you don’t really have to roll the dough up– you can just roll it out and cut strips. I’ll probably do that next time, because the noodles ended up being a little thicker than I wanted them to be.

Going forward, I’d like to experiment with filled pasta, as well as different kinds of flour– maybe I’ll even use Debbie‘s favorite, spelt flour. But for the first time I wanted to keep it as straightforward as possible, and I’m quite pleased with the results.

Ah, the cupcake! The trademark of children’s birthday parties: rich and creamy top of icing and sprinkles, tasty, cakey goodness below the paper wrapper… and a disaster for the egg-allergic.

However, like most everything else, there is an alternate recipe for cupcakes that has nary a yolk. If you do it right, and add some butter cream frosting to boot, there isn’t much difference between an egg-included and eggless vanilla cupcake.

Vanilla Cupcakes (No Egg Edition)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup soft, light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 cup water

Preheat your oven to 350. Line or grease a small muffin pan. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Stir in the sugar, then add the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a smooth, liquid batter.

Pour or ladle the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them up 1/8 inch from the top. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until risen and firm to touch. Wait two minutes, then remove and cool on wire rack.

Growing up Jewish, one of the things I looked forward to each year was Passover. Not because of the never-ending Seder that lasted longer than it took for Moses and his gang to cross the Red Sea, but because of the dessert that came after the pomp and matzo. Mainly, I looked forward to the macaroons; those sweet and delicious temptations that went easily into your little kid mouth in one bite (and usually one chew). A child bent on spending a considerable amount of time in the bathroom could down an entire can of Manischewitz macaroons in one setting.

Little did I know, even while I was pushing a chocolate-chip macaroon down my gullet, that what I was eating wasn’t a true macaroon. It was only later, only a few months ago, in fact, that I discovered a true macaroon — crunchy and golden on the outside, chewy and full of coconut on the inside. From then on, I vowed to make my own macaroons for Passover and beyond.

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 3/4 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded sweetened coconut
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 7 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to the UHT (Universal Heating Temperature) of 350 degrees. Grease a large cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, coconut, and salt. Then, add the condensed milk and vanilla extract; mix well. The result will be a very sticky batter.

Roll the dough into 2-inch balls and drop them about the same amount of inches apart on the baking dish. Place in the oven for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, or until the tops of the macaroons are golden brown. Remove immediately from the pan to cool. Makes somewhere in the area of two to three dozen macaroons.

Tips:

• If you don’t like getting your hands messy, you can place a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the baking dish. However, it seems that rolling them in your hands turns out much better.
• Due to the condensed milk the dough is very sticky. To avoid more of the dough from sticking to your hands than the pan, moisten them with warm water every so often.
• If you child has allergies to soy and/or egg, this is a perfect cookie alternative for them. My 3-year-old son, who has those allergies, loves these cookies.

Okay, I feel as though I’ve been pretty honest when it comes to my lack of food knowledge. In fact, the main reason I started writing for this site was so I would have a reason to get into the kitchen more. So here’s my confession for the week: other than from a store or a can, I didn’t really know where pumpkin pie came from.

I know that sounds insane, and of course I knew that pumpkin pie, or pumpkin bread, or any pumpkin dish came from pumpkins, but I didn’t really understand the logistics of the situation. I’m not kidding when I say that I honestly believed that the guts of the pumpkin is what got cooked. Sigh. I know.

So my friend Elizabeth came over and explained very slowly and clearly that it’s the pumpkin itself that gets roasted, while the guts just get thrown away. My mind = blown.

My job was to get the pumpkin. I didn’t want to use our happy pumpkin patch pumpkin that we had just picked over the weekend, so I decided to go across the street to the grocery store and buy one there. Now, I love a deal, but this is what got us into trouble. the grocery store pumpkins weren’t being sold by the pound: they were just $5.99 each. So what does that mean? It means that I had to find the biggest, heaviest pumpkin I could, just to get my money’s worth. Because I’m ridiculous.

What I ended up with was pretty much the carriage used in Cinderella. Like, I could hollow this thing out and use it as a dog bed. It was ginormous. It put my 19-lb. cute pumpkin to shame. In fact, we estimated that it was probably around 30 lbs. so yes, I was proud of myself for getting my money’s worth, but dear lord, we did not need that much pumpkin.

So we set to work slicing it apart, and throwing away the guts while reserving the seeds. After we got it into relatively manageable-sized pieces, we stuck it in the oven and baked it uncovered at 375. Because of the insane volume of pumpkin, we weren’t really sure how long to keep it in there, but we knew it was done when it was slightly browned, and a fork went all the way through.

After it was finished roasting, it was time to make the puree. We peeled off the skin and diced the pumpkin into pieces that would be small enough to fit in a food processor. After it was processed, the puree needed to be drained. Cheesecloth would probably be the recommended way of doing this, but I’m not exactly working in the Top Chef kitchen over here, so we used paper towels and a strainer.

At the end of the day (literally, this endeavor took the entire day), we ended up with an obscene amount of pumpkin puree– Something like 7 quarts or more. So what to do with all of that pumpkin? Well, frankly, I’m still trying to figure it out. But we started out with making some pumpkin treats. Luckily for us, Elizabeth has a website with our friend Lauren, and Lauren had just posted a bunch of yummy pumpkin recipes, including one for pumpkin chocolate chip bread that she made for me last year and caused me to see God.

So we made that and the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were also on that page, and divvied up the rest of the puree into freezer bags, so we can make more delightful fall treats. I’ve still got about five freezer bags left, so stay tuned for more pumpkin adventures!

The result was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, the cupcakes they were intended for ended up as paperweights. Have to remember to use one stick of butter in the batter in the future.

Buttercream Frosting

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Ingredients

• 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. milk or light cream

First, beat the butter with an electric or hand mixer until smooth. Next, add the vanilla extract. Then comes the sugar. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the sugar until well blended. Don’t worry, the mixture will be a little stiff as you combine the ingredients.

When the sugar is well blended you will then add the milk, one tablespoon at a time. Though you wouldn’t think it’s a large quantity of milk, two tablespoons really changes the consistency of the mixture. As you continue to mix for 3 to 4 minutes the frosting will become light and fluffy. I’m sure Alton Brown could describe what breaks down in order for this to happen.

After you get the frosting to the consistency you like you can then add various items, such as candy pieces or food coloring. When it comes to food coloring, only add a few drops at a time and stir until completely blended. Add additional drops for a darker color.

I’ve written before about how spelt flour can sometimes make baked goods come out a little dry. Yes, there are some recipes it works wonderfully with, like these dark chocolate brownies and sprouted spelt flour pizza dough for the bread machine.

So you might think that any corn bread, a dish that can be dry by nature, would completely suck when made with spelt flour. You’d be wrong. I’ve gotten more compliments on the moist and yummy corn bread that I make, based on a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. People want to know the secret for its moistness. Sure, there’s a boatload of butter in it, which is probably the main reason, but it’s nice to know that using a healthy flour doesn’t make corn bread dry. And it really is just as easy as opening the box of mix — wouldn’t you rather serve something made from scratch?

Spelt Cornbread
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Ingredients:

• 2 cups sprouted spelt flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups corn meal
• 4 tablespoons sugar (Sucanat)
• 5 teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free)
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
• 1/2 cup melted butter (organic)

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Add wet to dry and mix until just moistened. Pour into a greased 9×13-inch pan, and bake for 18-20 minutes at 400 degrees, or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

And you know you want to serve it with some homemade chili.

There is nothing finer on a lazy afternoon than a warm chocolate chip cookie and a cold glass of milk. Okay, that combination would be fine on any day at any hour, but ‘lazy afternoon’ sounded more poetic. This is especially true if said chocolate chip cookies are made from hand rather than from a package or refrigerated roll of pre-cut dough.

Good thing is that making chocolate chip cookies from scratch is easy, fast, and can make many more cookies that you can enjoy on other lazy afternoons (because they freeze quite well). Here’s a simple recipe you can use to produce these delectable and popular treats.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Ingredients:

• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs (or egg substitute)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups (1 12-ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add the eggs (or substitute) and beat until combined. In a second bowl stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture (and, by gradually, I don’t mean all at once) and mix until combined. As the last step, slowly stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough (tablespoonfuls for thicker cookies) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes (12 to 15 for tablespoon-sized cookies) until lightly browned. Make sure you slightly cool these before removing them from the sheet. Surprisingly, you’ll get five to six dozen cookies out of this!

The cookies will be crisp on the outside, but chewy on the inside; perfect to dip into that cold glass of milk. Best bet is to eat them when warm. But, if you can’t reach for them in time, put them in the microwave for a few seconds to get those chocolate molecules going.

Remember, this recipe will generate almost 70 cookies. So, if that’s too much for you and the family to eat at once, put some in the freezer for a rainy day or road trip. Or, bring half of them to work as a thank you to your boss and fellow employees. Of course, you could be selfish and eat them all yourself. The only downside to that is that you’ll probably take a nap that’ll last until fall.

My father adores garlic. He cherishes it. He has garlic magnets, garlic t-shirts, garlic cookbooks, and garlic chewing gum. He has attended garlic festivals (and yes, I have been dragged along). There is no way that we are in any way related to any vampires, because if we were, they would be dead from the fumes that radiate from our house in a half-mile radius come dinner time. When my twin brother and I were born, my dad, the son of a photographer and a photo hobbyist himself, posed our unresisting, swaddled infant bodies for portraits to send to the eagerly expectant crowd of family and friends who had been watching my poor, tiny mother swell to roughly double her size. And to break up the soft, off-white background (and to differentiate us, I’m guessing, because newborns all look kind of the same) he curled some pink ribbon and some blue ribbon and placed it next to us where a normal parent would perhaps place a stuffed animal. Only since my dad is not a normal parent, guess what he tied it to?

That’s right. A bunch of garlic.

My best friend — my poor, simple, and naive best friend, who eats dinner at our house maybe every other night — was once talking to me on the phone and discussing why she loved her mother’s cooking more than ours, even though she had said and done things that suggested otherwise like, say, eat at our house all the time. Finally, after I kept pushing her, she burst out, “You know, my family understands that you do not have to make everything with at least double the amount of suggested garlic!”

“Oh no,” I said, “you did not.”

But she did. And maybe she has a point.  Garlic is great, sure, but maybe, just maybe, the same way scallions and, to some extent, leeks can provide much-needed onion relief, it was time to get a garlic pinch-hitter. Give our poor, over-worked garlic chopper the night off. Enter our CSA.

The first week my mother and I drove up to Land’s Sake farm and started gathering our allotted bags of stuff, the one thing that we did not recognize on the list were “garlic scapes.” Obviously, the very name suggested inherent promise, but when you look at a giant, squiggly green thing, it’s hard to look at it and know what to do with it, let alone understand it’s full potential. But oh, what potential those squiggly green things do hold.

Now, boring people tend to do one thing with garlic scapes — make them into pesto. Seriously, google “garlic scapes” and the first page is recipe after recipe of how to make garlic scape pesto. Which, don’t get me wrong, is pretty good. My mom made some herself, and I officially endorse it as delicious. But to only use garlic scapes for pesto is severely underselling them.

Garlic scapes can be used anywhere you would use regular garlic, and using it as a replacement in an oft-used recipe is sort of like having a revelation. Garlic scapes are far more subtle and have less of a bite. And they can do what garlic can’t — be sauteed in big pieces that will be edible without potentially killing you.

That’s how I like my scapes — chopped, sauteed, and mixed in things. Lentils, pasta sauce, basically anything. My favorite use was in a giant batch of scrambled eggs with tarragon, dried basil, potatoes, and scallions. In fact, my best friend came over after dinner that night, and she spent about ten minutes gazing forlornly at my sister, who was eating leftovers. When my sister finally offered to let her have the rest, she scarfed them down in record speed and declared them amazing.

I consider my work here done.

…and I’ll show you a Dad who just plain doesn’t like food. Okay, so maybe not every Dad loves cinnamon rolls, but mine does. And chances are, yours does too. After all, what’s not to like about fluffy, light, buttery, cinnamon-y rolls? No, they’re not an everyday treat, but it’s Father’s Day for Pete’s sake!

It took me a few tries, but by combining the best elements of three different recipes, I have created what is, in my own semi-humble opinion, the perfect cinnamon roll. And if you don’t believe me, just ask my Dad, cinnamon roll connoisseur extraordinaire, who said they were the best he’s ever had. The sheer number of them that he ate tells me he wasn’t just being polite. So since I won’t be with my Dad this Father’s Day, the next best thing is to share the recipe with all of you. And in case you’re wondering, this is what I got my Dad instead.

On to the recipe!

Cinnamon Rolls (makes 12)

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 3 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting/kneading
• 2 tsp instant yeast
• 2 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cold butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• about 1 cup milk

For the filling:

• 1/3 cup sugar mixed with 3 tbsp cinnamon
  
• 3/4 cup sweet (unsalted) butter, at room temperature

For the glaze:

• 3/4 cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional, but worth it)
• 4 tsp warm water

In a large bowl or a food processor, combine the flour, yeast, salt, sugar and 2 tsbp cold butter. Combine with a fork, pastry cutter, or your fingers until the butter is completely absorbed into the mixture and it is well blended. Add the eggs and combine well. Add 3/4 cup of the milk and stir, adding a tablespoon more at a time if it is too dry. When it becomes very difficult to stir, turn out onto a clean, well-floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, adding as little flour as possible to keep from sticking. The test I use to tell if the dough has been kneaded enough is to poke it. If the indentation stays, knead a little longer. If it springs back, it’s good.

Form the dough into a nice round ball and put it into a lightly floured bowl. Sprinkle a little more flour on top, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise until it’s doubled in bulk, around 1-2 hours. At this time of year it shouldn’t take long at all. When it’s risen, punch it down, form it into a ball again and let it rest for 15-20 minutes, until it’s slightly puffy.

Butter a 9″x13″ baking pan or two round 9″ cake pans. Put the dough on a floured work surface and press with your hands to flatten it. Then, roll it out, using flour as necessary to keep from sticking, into a 10″x18″ rectangle. If the dough doesn’t stretch easily, just cover it with a towel and let it rest for a few minutes before trying again. To fill the dough, spread the butter on evenly, leaving 1 inch of space at the end furthest from you, and sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar. Carefully roll up the dough, starting with the end closest to you. Use the sharpest knife you have to slice it into 12 rolls. If they’re not all exactly the same size, don’t stress. They will all be delicious.

Place them in the buttered pan(s), cover with a dishtowel, and let rise one last time until doubled in bulk. When they’re almost ready, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Pop them in the oven and let them back until they’re golden brown, about 30 minutes. Leave them in the pans to cool, and make the glaze by mixing together all of the ingredients. Drizzle it over the cinnamon rolls while they’re still warm, and enjoy! Most likely they will all be gone the first day, but if they aren’t make sure to freeze the leftovers because they will get stale very quickly otherwise.

This past weekend I was very excited because I was planning on having a fellow foodie over for dinner, so I was getting ready to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately plans changed at the last minute, as they sometimes do. Luckily for me, my life has no shortage of foodies in it, so I was able to bring all my food up to my sister’s house and serve it to her and her husband.

I had been craving macaroni and cheese for a while, but kept putting it off. Finally, after sitting down in front of some Food Network, I caught Ina Garten making her Truffle Mac and Cheese, and I knew that I had to make it.

I have to admit, that I can see the draw of mac and cheese from a box, because to make the dish right there are a whole lot of steps. This recipe is no different. It starts with cooking down a bunch of mushrooms with sherry. Because I love garlic, I added a couple of minced cloves into the pan with the mushrooms, as well as a sprinkling of dried thyme. I just can’t help myself from tinkering with a recipe.

After the mushrooms were cooked, the juggling act began. I had three burners going at once, but still managed to time everything perfectly: roux in one pan, milk warming in a pot, and pasta bubbling away on the third. There were a lot of steps, but they were all very simple; they just required good timing and a willingness to put some work into the dish… work that would pay off.

The recipe does have one little snag: it calls for truffle butter. I thought that I was going to have trouble finding it, and I was prepared to pick up some truffle oil and do the best I could with the recipe. I was lucky enough, however, to find the exact amount of truffle butter that I needed sitting on the shelf in Whole Foods. If you do find truffle butter, here is a bit of advice: don’t smell it. Seriously, the odor is overwhelming. It turned my stomach a little bit, but the truffles didn’t end up spoiling the dish. In fact, they added a complex undertone to the cheese (cheddar and gruyere) and mushrooms.

The mac and cheese was really delicious, with the cheddar and gruyere adding different flavors that blended really nicely, along with the earthy mushrooms. Mac and cheese is a great comfort food because of the rich, creamy sauce. I added some crushed red pepper to the cheese sauce to give the dish a little kick, and it did the trick.

Overall, it was a delicious and decadent mac and cheese, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fancy recipe. I find mac and cheese to be a little rich to be the only thing on the plate, so I served it with some grilled chicken marinated in balsamic vinegar and honey, roasted tomatoes, and some greens. It turned out great, and all the flavors really worked well together.

I tried a box of Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff once. It was not bad, but the powdered sour cream and the little noodles were not all that impressive. Now I like the idea of all the ingredients in a box so all you have to do is add the meat and a quick meal is ready, but I can make this same thing from scratch and have a much better tasting and more filling meal that is cheaper and will take the same amount of time.

Jeff’s Stroganoff is a very simple and tasty dish. The prep time is minimal and it will fill you up. This is one of my favorite recipes for using the ground meat from my hunting successes. The small package of powdered sour cream that comes in the box is just not enough. Also the dried onion in the season pack is not the best either. I prefer fresh onion in my dishes.

Jeff’s Stroganoff

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground elk, deer, bear
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 pack brown gravy mix
• 1 16-oz container sour cream
• 3-4 cups milk*
• 1/2 bag egg noodles
• salt and pepper or seasoning salt

Brown ground meat and diced onion until onion is soft and the meat is cooked thoroughly  Add salt and pepper or seasoning salt to taste.

Mix in the gravy package. Add the sour cream and milk and mix well. Now add the noodles, reduce the heat and simmer for 20  minutes stirring occasionally.

* add more milk if necessary.

See, Portuguese people (because in case you didn’t know already, I live in Portugal) don’t appreciate cheese that isn’t Portuguese. Which is all well and good for them, but for me it sucks because cheddar cheese is hard to find, and expensive. Well, it was, because I recently stumbled upon a ridiculous bargain at a grocery store I normally never go to: white organic English farmhouse cheddar, on sale for 99 cents per brick because like I said, Portuguese people just don’t appreciate the stuff, so it was nearing the expiration date (when everyone knows that cheese doesn’t just go bad).

Being the shameless individual that I am, I now have nearly three kilos of cheddar cheese sitting in my freezer, and I’m ridiculously happy about that, because one of my favorite go-to meals is homemade macaroni and cheese.

When it comes to mac and cheese, I’m kind of a purist. Like I said, as far as I’m concerned, it needs to be made with cheddar cheese. No need to get fancy with gruyere or parmesan here. Also, aside from the macaroni and some flour to make the roux, for the sauce, I don’t want anything in it that doesn’t come from a cow. That means no mustard, no tomatoes, no bread crumbs, and for Pete’s sake, no onions. Salt and pepper don’t count, because they go into everything. Trust me, it’s much better without all those extra ingredients. So, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1/2lb large elbow macaroni — you can use a different pasta shape, just don’t tell me about it.
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk — I use low-fat, but any kind is fine
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper

First, preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Get a large pot of boiling salted water going, and cook the macaroni until it’s almost, but not quite al dente. You should still see a little bit of uncooked dough in the center when you bite or cut it in half. Drain, place in a buttered 2-quart baking dish, cover and set aside while you make the sauce.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook together for a few minutes until well combined and bubbly. Now, if you’re like me and have problems with lumpy sauce, here’s an easy trick to circumvent that problem: turn the heat off and let it cool down for a couple of minutes. Then, stir quickly as you add the milk, a little at a time, and you should be lump-free. Turn the heat back on to medium, and keep stirring until it starts to thicken. Once it’s thickened, stir in 1 1/2 cups of cheese until melted and well-combined. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce over the macaroni in the baking dish and mix well. Sprinkle the remaining cheese evenly over the top and pop it in the oven. At 400º, it doesn’t take long to get bubbly and browned on the top, 15-20 minutes max. All you need to add for a great meal are some simply cooked veggies like broccoli, green beans, or carrots, and a big green salad.

Yes, it is completely possible to make your own sour cream, and it is not only way yummier than said plastic tub of mystery ingredients, it is super easy. Like Bob and his balsamic reduction, I’m ashamed to even call this a recipe. Still, I feel it deserves its own post.

I’ve seen recipes to make sour cream on the net, and they all have to do with actually “souring” the cream by adding a culture. This is ridiculously unnecessary. I figured out a few years ago that I could make sour cream the exact same way you make sour milk, which is a great substitute for buttermilk.

Here’s all you need:

• 1 cup heavy cream, set out for a few minutes to take the chill off
• juice from 1 lemon or lime, about 1/4 cup

Mix them together and let them sit at room temperature to thicken for 10-15 minutes. Give it another stir, and voila! You have sour cream. Once you try this, you’ll never go back to that factory-made stuff. The taste is unmistakeably fresh and lightly tart, the perfect balance for spicy food. If you don’t use it all up right after you make it, you can put it in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to five days, just stir again before using.

If you’re buying taco seasoning from the store in kits, you can save your self a lot of money — and a lot of unneeded sodium! — by making your own at home.

There are scads of recipes all over the internet, but over the last few years I have refined my DIY taco seasoning to be the perfect amount for one pound of meat and to suit my family’s tastes. Here is what you’ll need:

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1.5 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• dash of ground cayenne pepper
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

If you like it spicy, add more cayenne; we are catering to the needs of a four-year-old.

I mix the spices in a small custard cup, and once I have begun browning the meat (I used ground turkey for the picture) and have broken it up, I add the seasonings. This meat works great for tacos, taco salad and anywhere else you would like taco meat. I suppose you could stuff a burrito, too.

So save the money on the kit: add just a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, and you’ll have your own healthy taco seasoning.

Most content originally posted by Debra McDuffee at DIY Life.

I was formerly one of those who felt that the box mix was the best way to go. It was quick, easy to prepare, and made adequate cakes of flat, semi-cooked, dough. But, as I’ve matured, I’ve come to realize that going the homemade route is not only better but simpler as well. Two reasons for this: one, the cost of ingredients needed for a batch of a dozen or so pancakes is much less than the purchase a box of mix. Two, with homemade pancakes you can substitute various ingredients when dealing with food allergies.

In addition, if you compare the time it takes to prepare homemade pancakes as opposed to those from a box there isn’t much difference. Even with the simplest pre-packaged mix you still need an ingredient or two as well as some prep time in order to produce pancakes. So, why bother buying mix from a box when you can make pancakes using a few standard ingredients you have around your humble abode.

I did this a few days ago and was able to produce pancakes that were lighter, fluffier and tasted better than those from a mix. And, it only took me about 15 minutes from start to finish. So, without further ado, here is the recipe for a simple stack of pancakes.

Basic Breakfast Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred or sifted before measuring
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, slightly beaten (or substitute)
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• dash of vanilla extract

As usual, you will combine the dry ingredients — the flour, baking powder and salt — in one bowl, and the wet ingredients — the egg and milk — in another bowl. If you have a person in your household who has an egg allergy a substitute like corn starch orEner-G egg replacer can be used. Combine the wet and dry ingredients together, stirring until smooth. Add the melted butter to the entire mix and stir once again. Adding a dash of vanilla extract to the mix will give these ordinarily bland pancakes some flavor.

Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto a hot griddle and flip when the batter begins to bubble. The recipe produces about 14 medium to large sized pancakes.

See how easy it is? Now, if you like your pancakes with a little more kick, look no further than CliqueClack Food for Debbie’s recipes for potato veggie and chocolate chip banana pancakes (not all in the same pancake, mind you).