First, as a person who lived in an area with regular power failures, the biggest thing to remember is to keep your refrigerator & freezer shut. Go get the big ice chest you take camping and use it to store the things you’re going to get into (like your milk, the open jar of mayonnaise, chicken you going to cook for…

And (assuming you have an extra pie plate) instead of pressing the crumbs in place w/your hand or a glass, sort out the cookie crumbs w/your hand, and use a matching pie plate to evenly press the whole surface and end up w/an even crust.

On the applesauce, my grandmother’s recipe for applesauce was to melt a cube of butter in the bottom of a heavy, large pan, add peeled, cored apple slices, a relatively small amount of sugar, and a whole cinnamon stick. Put the lid on and cook until tender. No other liquid other than the melted butter. She used the…

An easy way to keep pickles submerged is to take a ZipLoc bag and put some of the brining solution in it.  Rest it on top of the pickles.  Even if it leaks, you’re just adding more of the brining solution.

So I found this interesting. On using Wondra, it’s described as a mixture of wheat and a smaller amount rye flour that’s been pre-gelatinized. So my question is, why are people screwing around making Tangzhong for milk bread and other recipes when they could just add some Wondra + a bit of water. Seems like it’s an…

One of my favorite quotes from Julia Child: