We love our mushrooms! Mushrooms are quite versatile as they can be eaten raw or cooked, and they can be cooked in a variety of ways. My preference is to buy mushrooms directly from one of the local mushroom farms especially for canning, freezing or bulk cooking. However, a fair share of the mushrooms we buy also come from the grocery store. When buying from either source there is the option to get larger stuffing mushrooms, one of our favourite ways to enjoy as an appetizer. Large mushrooms (aka s...
This is the time in beautiful Ontario, Canada when road side stands selling produce, honey, baked goods, jams, jellies and even fish appear in abundance. These road side stands generally will operate for the length of the season of whatever produce they are selling. This means some will pop up for just the strawberry season (about 11 days) while others will run until late September adding produce as it becomes available. Road side stand hours are hit and miss so it is common to come across one closed dur...
Boneless pork loin is a good budget stretching meat as not only is it lower price per pound, it is a very versatile meat that can be used fresh or cured. Last week I shared how I prepare a boneless pork loin at our vacation home. Half is cured for peameal bacon, our must have taste of home while the other half is sliced into thick chop for grilling. If need be, the chops can be cut into slices or pieces for other dishes. One of the most common questions I get with respect to peameal bacon is "What d...
I rather like the idea of hosting a monthly giveaway. The last two giveaways were successful so will continue with them throughout the summer, perhaps longer. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these little freebies! As promised, here are the details for June's giveaway. June's giveaway is a copy of Canadian Kitchen Series Vegetarian Cooking, recipes with the basics in mind! This is one in a series of eight cookbooks featuring uncomplicated recipes and so much more. The Canadian Kitchen Series is wri...
Place about a tablespoon of chopped herbs in each ice cube tray well. Top with extra virgin olive oil and freeze. Pop one out anytime you need herb-infused oil when cooking.
We spent much of May at our vacation home in sunny Florida where it was considerably warmer than at home in beautiful Ontario, Canada. Warm weather regardless where we are means a stronger reliance on the outdoor grill. Our outdoor grill at our vacation home is propane only while our main home grill is a dual fuel (charcoal, propane) Nexgrill. The outdoor grill is considered one of our must have kitchen appliances. While we use our grills year round, they definitely see an increased use during the warmer...
A frugal kitchen tends to be a very well equipped kitchen. Acquiring that equipment takes time, money, effort and sometimes patience. Regardless of how careful you with any of your kitchen equipment, ranging anywhere from decor and servingware to bakeware and cookware to small kitchen appliances, it will be necessary to replace or upgrade from time to time. Things break or wear out, tastes change, family size and lifestyle change, and so forth so of all rooms in the house there is always something neede...
We travel by car or by plane to our vacation home for a total of three times a year. Both modes of transit have their pros and cons with respect to length of time and what we can bring with us from home. Car trips are less restrictive to what we can bring but take a considerably longer period of time. Air travel while restrictive as to what we can bring, means we are usually at our vacation home and settled in by late afternoon with a morning flight. Our mode of travel is determined by flight costs for t...
Store fresh in the freezer then grate as is when needed. There is no need to peel it before grating. Place the remainder in the freezer until needed.
While I home can year round, my busy canning season runs from mid-May through mid-October. Since buying our vacation home I have had to shorten that timing to run June through September which really cuts it close for missing the local asparagus. Our first local crop is asparagus usually appearing the third week of May. This spring was unseasonably cool and wet so the asparagus crop was delayed. We were leaving for our vacation home in sunny Florida just after lunchtime on May 6 so I kept a close eye for ...
