Author Archives: Tasha

Bill’s Myriad Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This isn’t a recipe, as much as a general idea of how to cook something.

A couple of weeks ago we made a tasty Arizona Pumpkin Soup that said it would do well with some toasted pumpkin seeds. We bought a bag (a few cups worth) of raw pumpkin seeds thinking, how hard can it be? Well, not very, though there are a few gotchas.

The three types we made were:

* Olive oil and salt
* Cinnamon and brown sugar
* Spicy!

We used a recipe from Pumpkin Patches and More as to give an idea what temperatures to roast at and whatnot.

This is pretty loose, since it’s not a cookbook recipe, and I didn’t take very good notes (sadness!). But, nevertheless, you’ll get something to work from!… Continue reading →

[86] Easy Apricot Squares

The Complete Book of Cookies, edited by Deborah Grey

One night I decided dessert sounded like a good thing. I also decided that the ice cream in the freezer, going out to buy dessert and going out to buy ingredients for dessert all sounded like bad things. So I was stuck with what I had in the house, but not in the freezer.

What I had in the house was a bunch of ingredients, but nothing that could be immediately eaten and rightfully called “dessert”. Oh, sure, a spoonful of honey sounded “tasty” but not “dessert”. So I whipped out this cookbook to see what I could find.

The first thing I found that I had basically all the ingredients for were these apricot bars. What I didn’t have, I felt I could fake reasonably well.… Continue reading →

Farmer’s Market Cookbook by Ysanne Spevack

Cover of Farmer's Market Cookbook by Ysanne Spevack

If I am not mistaken, this is the last of the “seasonal” themed cookbooks I have to share. I believe that after this cookbook, we only have three more that we can link to via Amazon, and only six more cookbooks total to profile. I find that pretty exciting! Soon I will be caught up on one aspect of this blog.

I believe Bill and I bought this book at Powell’s book store, in Portland, Oregon. I’ve only been once, and I still dream about that store. It was an amazing number and variety of books; I was in heaven. Also, I purchased a lot of books. No surprise there, eh?

This cookbook makes me a little hungry. Like the last cookbook, there are a variety of recipes that call for ingredients I’d never think to put together.… Continue reading →

[84] & [85] Bacon, Roasted and Microwaved

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

Okay guys, I have to be honest. Angelique sent me “this Food Network Humor link”:http://foodnetworkhumor.com/2011/01/ridiculous-food-network-recipe-of-the-week-paula-deens-english-peas/ the other day, and I laughed a lot. Then I commented that I shouldn’t be laughing because I’ve posted some similar recipes, and would do so again.

Her response? “Two ingredients?” She was incredulous and doubtful that anything so unlike a recipe had ever appeared on this site. Just for honesty’s sake, please examine the following two links: “Rachel Ray”:http://foodnetworkhumor.com/2010/11/the-most-ridiculous-food-network-recipe-of-all-time/ and “MetaCookbook.”:http://www.metacookbook.com/archives/37-18-Bacon,-in-our-toaster-oven-broiler.html

Of course, we admitted it was a bit of a cop-out from the get-go. And we tried to make it up to you by including an amusing story to go with your cop-out bacon. Furthermore, if you didn’t know this already, all the photos on our page go back to our flickr site, and some of the photos have “notes” on them.… Continue reading →

The Organic Seasonal Cookbook by Liz Franklin

Cover of The Organic Seasonal Cookbook by Liz Franklin

I don’t remember buying this cookbook. I thought, upon looking at it, that I’d bought it at Amazon right before we started this blog, during my “cookbook binge”. I figured I told myself something about the cookbook giving us more insight on how to cook “weird” food, like we might get from our CSA. I seem to be wrong, though, because Amazon usually tells me when I’ve bought something from them and it’s silent here.

So, I haven’t the foggiest. It doesn’t have a lot of emotional attachment for me, so when I started to write it up, I was stymied about what to say. Not having bought it during the “cookbook binge”, I couldn’t even jokingly talk about how silly it is to binge on cookbooks.… Continue reading →