#but as to like added flavors on top - i'm not great with herbs because no sense of smell

[sharkneto]

favorite flavor of cheese curd go

classic fried cheddar curds with a good ranch to dip in

[amalthiaph]

Am I too late to say trick or treat????

NOPE. *slides a plateful of the other kakanin I mentioned earlier*

Now, this is my other favorite kakanin called kutsinta.

It's also a type of rice-based dessert. It's sweet and comes in many different colors like light green, purple, and yellow. It can either have coconut sprinkled on top (like this one) or come with yema dip. Yema is somewhat like caramel.

Now, I have a fun story about kutsinta. So their colors are different but their taste is the same. The colors are just food coloring so there's supposed to be no impact to the taste at all. But for me, somehow, purple kutsinta tastes the best.

The story goes back to perhaps 2007-2009. My grandfather used to work for the congressman and we went to the congressman's ancestral home in the other town. The caretakers of the house gave us purple kutsinta wrapped in banana leaves. Now, the thing about the caretaker is that he's just a great cook. Overall. Plus we, Filipinos, know that banana leaf somehow pass on a little flavor to the food that's in it (yk like how herbs work). So, his kutsinta is the best I've ever had. From then on, I associated purple kutsinta to great-tasting kutsinta.

Whenever I'm given kutsinta, I always say that purple tastes best because of that. To this day, my mom kept explaining to me that the color doesn't make any difference to the taste, the caretaker is just a great cook, and the kutsinta was wrapped in banana leaf so the leaf added more flavor to it. But I don't know if it's the joy of journey or being fed food from a great cook or both that cemented the thought of 'purple kutsinta is the best tasting kutsinta' in me.

Jump to today, the congressman's daughter-in-law is my vocal coach.

[littlecarnet]

I've gotten asked by friends what I do offline, since I intentionally limit my screen time. It's easy for me to say I devote a lot of time to creative and meditative activities, but that's probably too vague. So I compiled a very short list of the top activities I like doing daily or every weekend. Many of these I was either trained in or dabbled in out of boredom. Remember, I existed waaay before the internet, so I needed to do something with my time. Heh...

God I've lived too long.

Writing: I write nearly every day for various reasons. Either basic journaling, keeping track of budgets, keeping a commonplace book, writing poetry, listing favorite books and what I think of them, travel journaling, lectio divina, testing out art supplies, cataloging my gem and mineral finds, and mood tracking. Because of this I have so many little notebooks and journals everywhere. Sure I could use a phone or word processor, but it's such a deeply rooted habit for me, plus I really enjoy the tactile feel of paper and pen.

Making tea and bath supplies: I use a lot of herbs for my basic health needs, a skill picked up from my grandmother. I like making rosewater and herb steams for my face, distilling oils from roses, brewing hibiscus into a concentrate for flavoring sparkling water, anddrying lavender for sachets. Herbal healing salves made from herbs and beeswax are a staple in my emergency kit when outdoors. I can make my own soaps as well, tailored to my skin's needs.

Making and mixing ink: Because I do write a lot, naturally I'm drawn to pretty inks. For mundane tings, a simple gel pen will do, but for special thing I go for my glass pens, but there's a satisfaction of making custom colors and even adding scents to them. I have a book filled with ink formulas to recreate my favorite blends.

Drying flowers: During the warmer season I love bunching up sweet smelling flowers, like honeysuckle, lavender, and greenthread, to hang in my room. The added bonus is that the flowers once dried, make a great tea. I also love pressing flowers to use on cards, in scrapbooking, or put between glass to make suncatcaters.

Making incense: Naturally since I work with herbs, I also love making incense. I like using hard sap I've collected from pine trees, but also sweet grass, juniper, star anise, cedar, ect. I powder them, add a binder, and either press them into a cone or pellet. Apart from burning them, I like to put them in small cloth bags to scent a drawer or in a box with stationery or even fabric pieces.

Grinding pigments and binders: There's a certain therapeutic process in grinding paint pigment to turn into paint or pastels, along with any binders like gum arabic and limestone. I tend to do this during the winter, when I'm snowed in. In the summer I'll have lots of material to use in dyes, inks, paints, soft or oil pastels, and even colored beeswax for encaustic art and crayons.

Sewing practical items: If a bedsheet is worn or stained, I'll repurpose it into handkerchiefs, napkins, and small bags for jewelry or other tiny things. Old jeans get turned into kitchen cleaning cloths. Its a treat to use fabric that I've put in a box with incense, I can make pincushions and coasters while smelling pine or rose petals. Related to this is tatting, a type of lace-making.

Leather work: Related to the above, I like working with leather to make practical long lasting outdoor gear, such as bags for my binoculars, a roll up kit for my chisels, as well as a secure case for my gem loupes. I've also made a journal cover out of leather, it uses an elastic in the center so I can switch out booklets when they're filled up or need to be moved around.

Jewelry: Basically beaded chokers and bracelets, macrame, and kumihimo. I like making them while listening to music or having a movie on in the background.

Mosaic: Mostly a summer activity, I have a lot of shells, glass, gems, and broken ceramic to create mosaics.

Other stuff I've experimented in: Origami, woodburning, glass etching, bonseki, soap making, cross stitch, embroidery, basket weaving, sun printing, henna, quilling, mushroom growing, terrariums, cultivating dinoflagellates (blue tide), growing crystals, gourd art, ceramics, clay and rock sculpture, calligraphy, stamp carving. Pretty sure there's stuff I've forgotten.

[laurkamkitchen]

I've had my eye on this recipe since last year, as it just sounded like such a fun twist on what was one of my favorite dishes from my trip to Mexico last year.

I made about an eighth of this (it makes a lot!) using vegan feta. Though it took three batches and a bit of effort, I actually thoroughly enjoyed the process of making the tortilla chips, which were by far the best part of the recipe. I had plenty of time to prep those and the toppings while my beet was boiling.

Because I wasn't making much, I had a lot of trouble with the salsa and ended up adding double the amount of beets and tons more water until I was finally able to get things going. I was worried that I'd end up ruining the flavor, but I actually think it turned out divine, balancing out the half a small green chile I put it for just the tiniest bit of kick.

I didn't want the chips to get all soggy, so I ended up not adding them to my (rather chunky) salsa until it was time to plate and serve at the end. I wasn't really sure how this was going to turn out and had pretty low expectations, but the flavor here really just blew me away. It was delicious and yet also unique, more like an upscale brunch dish than actual Mexican food, but I found it delicious. I'm so glad I left the chips alone, as scooping the salsa along with the egg yolk and toppings was a very satisfying experience.

However, this recipe was a lot of effort, so I'm not sure I'd throw myself into making it again any time soon. It would be a lot easier to orchestrate for a crowd, at least the salsa would, so if I did again, I'd for sure be aiming to make a bigger batch.

[ruthlesslistener]

@dino--draws i gotchu dude. All of this is based off of a recipe by Mary's Nest, who has lots of videos on home cooking and bone broths, but I'll write it out here if you don't want to watch the video. I also use a pot and stovetop rather than a pressure cooker, which is a little different.

FIRST OFF, invest in some canning jars. And by 'invest' I really mean that these things are fucking worth it because I use them for nearly everything. Canning broth, canning preserves like pickles, storing freshly-washed berries, stashing carbonated drinks from cans, using them to mix beverages, you name it. You want to get 'em for canning specifically because they have a two-part lid that creates a very strong seal, which is extremely useful for keeping things fresh or carbonated (also the jars are just nice, strong, sturdy glass). The ones I use the most are the 4qt ball mason jars because they hold roughly two cups worth of liquid, which makes cooking easy bc I can just eyeball it.

NEXT: ingredience. You'll want bones with a little bit of meat on 'em, some form of acid like cheap wine or vinegar, and you'll want vegetables, herbs, and spices. This is where the 'scrap stew' bit comes in, because these bones and veggies don't have to be prime quality, or even whole. You can use old bones from roasts, carrot peelings, wilting celery, onion skins, etc etc, all your produce or meat bits that are technically edible but are looking very unappealing at the moment. I like to have a scrap bag where I just toss in all my carrot peelings and then stuff them into the freezer to boil down later. All the veggies will just turn to tasteless cellulose and tossed in the compost by the end of the boiling process anyways so quality is not a concern here. Fresh herbs are nice, but also not necessary- the dried stuff is just as good. As for spices, season your stew however you want! I'm pretty sure everything that works together would make for a good broth

What I use for bone broth:

-Beef bones like knucklebones, oxtail, neck bones, marrow shanks, etc. I'm lucky in that I live right next to cattle farmers and can get a big 5lb knucklebone for 12 bucks (which makes 3-5 batches of broth btw, so worth the price), but if you can, try to buy from butchers or Asian/Persian/Mexican shops because they typically have the parts you need for relatively good prices. For gelatinous broth, mix bones with lots of ligaments (oxtail, knucklebone) with your shanks or scrap meat to get a nice beefy jello at the end of it. You can also use pig hooves or chicken feet; I haven't tried these yet, but I've heard pig feet are great for adding in more collagen and chicken feet is basically required if you're making chicken bone broth out of old roasted carcasses. Just make sure to label it as halal or not if you do use pig feet, and forgo it entirely if you don't care about it being gelatinous (I prefer it because the collagen apparently helps with IBS, and I haven't had an experience to disprove it yet)

Preparation:

-Bone prep: (NOTE: if your bones are already roasted/cooked, skip this step entirely). If your bones are raw, you'll want to roast them for added flavor. Throw those bad boys on a tray with some olive oil and then toss 'em on the middle or bottom rack of the oven at 350F, roasting them for 45 minutes to an hour (depending on thickness). If you have oxtails, flip them at 30 minutes.

-Starting the stew: Put all your bones and scrap meat into your cooking pot, making sure to scrape off all the drippings into the pot if said bones were freshly roasted. Pour one cup of cheap red wine over the bones (or 1/4th cup vinegar), then pour in enough water just to cover. Set heat on burner to medium-low and cover with a lid, letting them warm up and get close to boiling while you prep your veggies; this gives the acid time to start leeching calcium into the water, and lets you skim the scum off the top before you add your veggies, cutting down on time spent later. This is also when I like to add in the salt and black pepper, which I eyeball.

-Vegetables: Rough chop celery, carrots, and one onion into pieces just small enough to fit into the gaps between the bones. Skim the scum off of the top of the water left by the bones, then add in as much vegetables as you like. Pour in more water, enough to just cover the tops of everything. Your pot should be pretty full.

-Spices: Throw in two bay leaves and shove in either a large sprig of parsley, or sprinkle in enough dried parsley for a sprig (again, eyeball it, it's up to you). Then, if you haven't already, dump in either some black peppercorns or ground black pepper, and season with a little bit of salt. Garlic is also an option, if you want your broth to be a little more pungent.

-Cooking: Put on the lid and then turn the heat up to high just long enough for the pot to start boiling, then turn the temperature all the way down to low. You want it to be at a very gentle simmer, something just hot enough for bubbles to lazily be drifting up to the surface. Once you've reached that state (which may require you to keep your lid ajar), let it sit and simmer for 9-11 hours, checking occasionally to skim more scum off the top or add water, if you want a less condensed broth

Straining/Canning:

-Once your broth is done, turn off the heat and grab two bowls: one for bones and meat, the other for vegetables. With tongs or other implements, move all the meat and bones to one bowl, then the vegetables to another. Keep the bones, meat, and marrow for later batches- use them until they're either just mush, or until the bones literally start to crumble apart. The vegetables, however, have been wrung of all their nutrients, and are now basically just mushy cellulose. Compost these.

-You now have a choice to either single or double-strain your broth. Personally, I double-strain because I'm a picky son of a bitch, but any particles left in your broth won't kill ya. For double-straining, I grab one of my big strainers/sifters (you know, the close-woven wire mesh circle-cup on a handle?), place it over my big liquid measuring cup, and then line it with cheesecloth. Then I ladle the broth into it and wait for it to filter down. You WILL have to rinse the cheesecloth multiple times, so try to do this near the sink if you can.

-Once your cup (or bowl, or whatever you're straining it into) is full, remove the strainer, and pour the broth into the canning jars. Seal the jar while the broth is still hot, and set to the side to cool. Repeat the process until all the broth is strained, rinsing your cheesecloth or shaking out your strainer as necessary. There is a nonzero chance that you will get beef fat all over your hands and countertop. I'm sorry. On the plus side, it's good for your skin and smells nice, so there's that.

-Speaking of fat, DON'T GET RID OF THE FAT. YOU WANT THE FAT. ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU FAT IS BAD IS A FUCKING LIAR. Not only is animal fat very good for you, it will solidify and create a fat cap on top of the broth that acts as an extra seal, keeping it fresher for longer. The first batch with a knucklebone always gives me a lot of fat; this I leave in the jar until I'm ready to use the broth, then I scoop it out, bag it, and use it to cook. Beef fat is really good for frying meat or vegetables in, and is actually pretty chock-full of vitamins and other nutrients, meaning that you don't need to eat as much to feel full and thus have more food left over for the next night. One spoonful is more than enough to oil a pan with and is not nearly enough added fat to hurt you. Save the fat!

-After all the broth has been ladled out, let the jars cool to room temperature. Rinse out your pot to get rid of any debris, then either start your next batch right away, reusing your bones and pouring in more wine and fresh veggies, or set it aside for the morning. You can fully wash it if you like, but it's not really a necessity until you're completely finished with your bone broth, or want to wait to make your next batch (in which case, freeze your bones).

-Once your jars are cool enough, move to the fridge to fully chill. Leave as many as you'll use in a few weeks in the fridge, but remember that once you pop the seal, they won't last more than a few days. Place the rest in the freezer; these will last you months.

-Repeat process as much as you have time for, or until your bones are literally crumbling apart. Your broth won't be gelatinous after the first batch (or, well, not at all if you use collagen-deficient bones), but there's plenty of vitamins and calcium that can be wrought out of the bones after one use, so tossing them after a single use is a waste.

Use: I generally just straight drink the gelatinous stuff or have it with bread on bad stomach days, then use the thinner stuff for cooking. One cup of broth + one cup of water + one packet of ramen = two lunches, and while I haven't tried it yet (being a very big fan of beef broth ramen), using half broth and half water to cook rice would probably result in a good quick meal. There's about 10 million recipes calling for broth, I trust you to find some use for it.

And there you go! Bone broth! It def. takes a little bit of effort to make, and requires time to monitor if you're cooking it on the stovetop, but I find it's really worth it during finals week or crunch hours where all I have time for is some instant ramen. It's an easy way to get more nutrition into your diet if you can't afford to buy meat regularly (provided bones aren't too expensive), and this recipe has a sweet, rich breadlike flavor, so it's pretty good just for drinking. The reason why I consider it such a necessity is specifically because it's versatile and can be made on weekends or holidays where you're spending most of your time at home, while also cutting down on food waste by using up any fresh produce you weren't able to get through in time. Plus it's easy on the stomach, which means that if you ever get sick enough that solid food is a problem, the broth should be mild and gentle enough on your stomach to keep you in relatively good shape. It's not very filling on its own, though- which is another reason to not get rid of the fat!!!

Not to sound like a tradwife or anything but I genuinely believe that everyone should learn how to make bone broth (or, as I affectionatly call it, scrap stew). I'm not gonna call it an easy or simple recipe because you do have to let it simmer for 11 hours and strain it, but if you have a day off to make it its relatively low-effort and cost-efficient and also is a great base for upping the nutritional value of simple foods like cup ramen or plain rice when you're in a pinch for time, as well as cutting down on veggie waste (anything starting to wilt or scraps like carrot peelings can be tossed in there and still make a good broth)

[fernacus77]

I made some real quick whole wheat beer bread, added the seasonings I wanted and a lil bit of monk fruit sweetener, and it turned out great! The recipe here is what I followed, besides my seasonings and monk fruit seasoning.

It has a nice crust and is very soft on the inside, and tastes just like fall! I did a custom blend of 3 star anise seeds, 3 whole cloves, 3 allspice, and pumpkin spice seasoning, and maybe between 1tsp-1tbsp of monk fruit sweetener, and it's just 😭 so GOOD.

I precut the top to see if it does make 12 slices, and technically it does (I cut the ends off that would have made 1 slice total, so there were 11 left after that).

I also toasted it, but because it was still warm after sitting 15-20 minutes, it took 2 cycles to toast, but totes worth it because it toasted well! There isn't much of a burn to it, but it holds a LOT of butter and syrup, and the flavor is even more complex when toasted.

Tomorrow, I'm making a savory version for a friend with fresh herbs and garlic from our garden, I hope they love it! Happy harvest, y'all! 🍞💞

[wickedhoneybee]

I usually don't add on to others posts or post much myself because I'm very shy, so I hope this is an okay way of sharing this recipe with you all; but I HAVE to share with you my go to cookie for the winter season.

It's a lemon shortbread cookie.

These cookies taste like sunshine, which I find really helpful in fighting the seasonal depression that comes along with the dark winters we get here in the Pacific Northwest. These are my go to when I've had an especially hard week during the winter months.

Regarding witchcraft I think these cookies would be great offerings for sun deities or those who's practices focuses around the sun.

Lemons are also known for being good in regards to cleansing and protection. To me these cookies are great for protecting against the cold dark months and reminding you that the long nights and short days don't last forever.

First start out with a basic shortbread recipe.

4 cups all purpose flower

1/2 Tsp salt

1/2 Tsp Baking powder

2 cups Butter @ room temperature ( most recipes call for unsalted, I usually buy salted because it's cheaper and haven't seen a huge difference in texture or flavor)

1 Cup confection sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

The zest of 1 lemon.

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degree farenheit ( or 175 celcius)

2) Sift your dry ingredients minus the confection sugar into a bowl. (I'm lazy so my sifting typically is just running a fork through the dry mixture until majority of the large clumps are gone.)

3) if you have a stand or hand mixer cream your butter and confection sugar and 2-4 Tbsp of lemon juice + zest and once combined begin to slowly add in your dry ingredients until well combined.

If your like me and lack these kitchen tools, use your trusty fork to creme the butter as best as you can, mix in your confection sugar and 2-4 Tbsp lemon juice + zest. Once combined add in your dry ingredients slowly to make mixing easier with whatever tool you've chosen. Typically when after I've combined about half the dry ingredients in, I'll switch from my fork to using my hands. 1) to be able to put my intent and energy right from me into the dough and 2) because it's easier. It may seem at first that the dough is to dry/wet and will not come together, keep working it I promise it will form a beautiful dough.

4) Once dough is formed roll it on out onto a floured surface to about 1/4th thickness. Cut cookies to your preference and transfer to a ungreased non stick baking tray.

5) Bake in oven for roughly 10 minutes ( may take less or more time depending on oven as their temperatures can vary). They should be lightly browned on the bottom but still light on the top.

6) While cookies are baking take the lemon juice and add small amounts or confection sugar while whisking to create a lemony glaze.

7) Once cookies are cooled brush the top with 2-3 layers of the lemon glaze, to amp up the lemon flavor as well as give them a beautiful sheen.

Some variations i've made have included chopped lavender or rosemary within the dough or adding a little bit homemade herb simple syrup to the glaze for an added boost.

On a lighter note!!

🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

I want to hear your best cookie recipes!! I’m looking for family recipes, especially if they have folklore or traditions or ‘grandma always did this but never gave an explaination why’ story attatched! Or your personal tried-and-true faves!

🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

They can be holiday cookies or not!

Gunna bake tomorrow morning I think. Get out of this downward spiral.