A Net in Time

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Review: Everyday Homemaking with Everyday Cooking

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Want to try a new cookbook?   Well, Everyday Homemaking provided me with a collection of tried-and-true recipes in their book Everyday Cooking.  Included in this cookbook are numerous hints to make your cooking journey simpler, while emphasizing whole foods.  

When you open this cookbook (choosing from either a red or blue cover), you will find a great table of contents clearly breaking the book into sections for cooking, and for hints.

You can tell she comes from a large family cooking standpoint as she has a variety of ways she tells us about in order to save a goodly amount of time in the kitchen.   From handly convenience foods, to make your own cream soups along with how to do batch cooking.

She takes her time and talks like you are sitting with her in the kitchen, chatting over how to make a meal or save time to do other things with your family. 

There is such a plethora of recipes to choose from AND Vicki tries to make it easy by offering different ways to make the same recipe (so if you don’t have a pressure cooker, make it as a casserole, or cook it on the stove top).   If you want the step by step way of making bread she’ll give the long way, or the short way.  

Here’s one I want to try with my lad yet.

HINTS!   Oh my the hints included.  Scattered throughout the book.  Just lovely helpful things that make it easier to be a good homemaker and cook.

We made a whole variety of meals, such as bread, muffins, pork chops, deviled eggs and more.  We worked on trying recipes from different sections of the cookbooks.

My lad was impressed that he was able to make deviled eggs.  Though he did suggest it would be helpful to draw a picture showing which way was length wise on an egg.  🙂

What are the things that I appreciated:

  • Equivalency lists! Did you that 3.5 cups of almonds is equal to a pound?  Great to know eh?
  • How to make sauces and extracts and things that you use ALL THE TIME when you are cooking.  Did I get around to trying any of them?  No.. but time will come. 🙂
  • For those that are into low-carb or gluten free, suggestions are made. 
  • Her desire to help people eat healthier.
  • her mini food and nutrition unit for students was a good read through and something I can work on with my lad this year. 🙂 
  • a well done index, being able to find what you need easily is a wonderful thing. 
  • Clear description (along with pictures) of good kitchen items.
  • Clear description (along with pictures) of the different grains/wheats one can use in their cooking. 

Recipes we tried and our thoughts on them:
The muffins… we discovered that they taste great with a slab of homemade jam on them.  🙂  They turned out more biscuity than muffiny though.

The bread….the lads devoured it, again with homemade jam.  Though we didn’t use the odd ingredients as we don’t have them in the house and I wasn’t buying them for two loaves of bread. 
Deviled eggs.  This is a recipe my lad made.  Mixed reviews.  I thought them better than some I tried but not as good as the ones we’ve most recently had.
Pork Chop Casserole…I liked this, hubby found it bland, the lad dug into the pork chops and ignored the rice.  (Typical of him to do that though)
Chops in Herbs and Wine.  I liked the taste of this recipe. The lad liked the meat, hubby didn’t touch it… as he was in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs so did that instead.  
Chicken and Noodle Casserole.  I used her basic recipe but changed it up a bit…using rabbit instead of chicken, and cooking the noodles with the rabbit as a casserole and adding a few more herbs.   This was excellent and would happily make again.

Things I would love to see improved:

Vicki mentioned that this cookbook was used to help her children learn how to cook, as such I thought it would be a great book to help my lad improve his repertoire.  We did not find this the case as all ingredients were in imperial measure (not in grams or metric).  Occasionally items such as a stick of butter were used…this one really had him wondering and we asked a friend who lives stateside what a stick of butter was equivalent too.   YEAH for friends!  Adding in worldwide equivalency measurements would easily resolve this issue.  I later found this explained near the end of the cookbook, adding it to the recipe would make it easier.

Adding a glossary would be really nice, it would give a ready answer to questions like “Mom, what is sponging?”  Instead of having mom give a completely blank look.  I know how to cook, I just don’t always know the right terminology at the moment!  🙂

End result:
There is much in this cookbook that I like, the tips and helps and lessons.. GOOD STUFF!   As I’ve gone through this review, I discovered that I think of this cookbook more as a “way to cook naturally” rather than a whole foods cookbook. Why? Many recipes used ground grains and my hubby’s whole food cookbooks will use the grains whole (like his red wheat shepherd’s pie which is really good).  This book teaches you use natural foods instead of the overly processed foods.  Which is a great thing to do!

Thing is.. I’m a good cook. I like trying new recipes as long as they don’t ask for ingredients that I don’t have regularly in the house.  My initial understanding (that this would be a book to help my lad increase his repertoire of things to cook) didn’t pan out, once my lad hit one too many ingredient that I didn’t know what it was he just shut down and said “can I use “x” cookbook instead?”  Therefore, I tried out a few recipes, some that worked  others that didn’t.  It’s a decent cookbook.. the hints and ideas found within the pages are a .. for serious.. treasure trove of helpfulness to people learning to cook a more natural diet.  If you want to cook better this book will help you!


Vendor: Everyday Homemaking
Product: Everyday Cooking
Author: Vicky Bentley
Received: ebook version
Price:$15.99/$19.99
Pages: 198
Type: cookbook
Received: Ebook
Choice in cover colour: red or blue

A Note From Vicki
As a special offer for your blog readers, I am offering 10% off The Everyday Family Chore System and/or Everyday Cooking
(print or e-book) through Labor Day! The code for your readers is
TOS10books –they can apply it to as many books in their cart as they’d
like, but they do need to shop first, apply the 10% discount code last.
(Sorry — eccentric cart function) Expires Sept 5.

The crew has been reviewing two items from Vicki at Everyday Homemaking.  The Everyday Family Chore System and Everyday Cooking both of which can be found here.

Click on the image below or follow this link to read our reviews. 

Social Media Links:
         Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/everydayhomemaking     
                                Tag:   @everydayhomemaking  

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Recipe: Gooseberry Jelly

By 4 Comments

Guess what I made today!  GOOSEBERRY JELLY!!!

I’ve made gooseberry jam off and on for years…it’s GREAT in a stir fry or stuffed into chicken or with lamb.  But now I have a lad (and a hubby) who aren’t keen on seeds (ergo their dislike of raspberries). 

The boys LOVE it, so I thought I’d share it with you.  Rather easy to make overall.

gooseberry jelly

First off gather up a whack of gooseberries.  Rinse them off and plop them in a pot with 1/4 cup water for each cup of berries.  Don’t worry on it if you are over a bit in the water department.

Take your potato masher and mash them up a fair bit.  If you don’t crush all of them it’s okay, seriously.  You’ll pop that juice out of them them later on.

Let it boil well for about 10 minutes.  Then strain it off.

IF you are like me and haven’t been able to find jelly or cheese cloth you’ll need to improvise.  I use our strainer (normally used for pasta, tip it on an angle over a deep bowl and then let the juice drain.  Then I take a clean nylon stocking and put the pulp from the gooseberries into it and then have the fun of squeezing more juice out of it.   

In the end, starting with about 13 cups of berries I ended up with 6 cups of juice.  To that you add 6 cups of sugar slowly heating it will the sugar melts into the juice.  Once it is all melted, bring it to a full rolling boil for 10 minutes.  Stir all the time, skim off the icky bits (like stems that made their way into the liquid, excess seeds and stuff).

NOW.. HERE is where you have to make a choice…trust they have enough pectin in it to solidify OR add a package of pectin.  Recipes for making gooseberry jelly go both ways.  Since pectin doesn’t keep beyond a year and I have two packages left (and planning to use one in September to make crabapple jelly) I chose to use a packet of liquid pectin as waste not want not. 

Add the pectin and 1 tsp of lemon juice, boil another couple minutes.  Then take it off the heat, pour into clean washed jars.  Put the lids/rings on them and put in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.  Doing the hot water bath gives you a shelf stable jelly.

You could also turn it into freezer jelly by putting it into freezer jars, or fridge jelly meaning you need to use it up within six months.

gooseberry jellly

Got a recipe?  Share it here eh?

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Review: The Benevolent Bee

By 2 Comments

You know what?  I happen to like bees.  I admittedly wasn’t fond of them as a child when one stun me on the eye (landed on my face so I grabbed at it)  BIG mistake.  So it took me a while to get back that, but once I realized how neat they were, I developed a fondness for them.  Stephanie Bruneau brings us the Benevolent Bee, a  book crafted to show us the bee and how she works, AND how we can benefit from all she provides.   

I have to admit, this is a rather neat book.  It talks briefly about the lifecycle and work of the honeybee, but devotes itself to the benefits of honeybees.

Ms Bruneau first teaches the science behind each of the benefits of the honeybee.  She works her way through propolis, pollen, honey, royal jelly, venom and beeswax.   Did you know that in it’s final state honey can last forever without spoiling? 

She follows this up with recipes, crafts or projects one can do.  You can learn to make elderberry syrup, honey fire tonic, royal jelly fudge, stinging nettle tea with honey, turn honeycomb into beeswax or make a floating acorn cap candle.  So many different recipes and ideas to explore.

She even included stories of people using bee venom.  I’d heard about using bee venom before but never really looked into it. It’s been used in China for more than 2000 years. You can also use bee venom to reduce allergic reactions! 

All in all it’s a very helpful book.   For the budding apiarist this book would be helpful in explaining the benefits of bee keeping.  For the person just wanting to know more about the benefits of bees, this book provides it all!  It’s a wonderfully helpful book indeed.  🙂
About the Author:  Stephanie Bruneau is a beekeeper, herbalist, and artist. She runs
The Benevolent Bee, a small business selling honey, beeswax candles,
herbal body care products, and other handcrafted and hive-derived items.
At the Benevolent Bee “Teaching Apiary” Stephanie observes, learns, and
teaches about bees and bee behavior to students of all ages.

The Benevolent Bee: Capture the bounty of the Hive through Science, History, Home Remedies and Craft.
Stephanie Bruneau
Quarry Books
160 books
Oversized trade paperback

Reviewed for: Quarto Group

Where can you find The Benevolent Bee?

Amazon.ca: The Benevolent Bee: Capture the Bounty of the Hive through Science, History, Home Remedies and Craft – Includes recipes and techniques for honey, beeswax, propolis, royal jelly, pollen, and bee venom

Amazon.com: The Benevolent Bee: Capture the bounty of the hive through science, history, home remedies and craft. 

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Recipe: Beef Stew with Bread

By 4 Comments

Yesterday I decided to try out a bread in a box recipe and needed something to go with it.  I thought stew would be good thing to go with it and was right.
 
The fellows helped me put it together since I’d just gotten home from a walk and my feet were sore so I didn’t want to stand too long.  Wasn’t that lovely of them?

How to toss it together.

First off .. make the bread.  I used a box from Sunset Gourmet called “Cheesy Garlic Beer Bread Mix”.  I made it using a strong ale that hubby said was getting a touch old.   This bread needs to sit for half hour before using.  It’s great for dips, soups and stews.

In the store, show the lad how to price out the cheaper cuts of beef since we’ll be making stew we don’t need fancy meat.   Let him pick out the right package and tell him GOOD JOB.

At home, ask hubby to cut up the beef into small pieces as you dice up 1 1/2 onions and three stalks of celery.  Dump it all in the stew pot.

Liberally add some salt and pepper.  Brown in a little touch of oil.

Get the lad to wash up some potatoes for dad to dice (I think he did three large), and then set him to shelling the garden fresh peas.

Meanwhile dig out the carrots from the fridge and dice them up.. ended up with about four large carrots.   

When Dad is done with the taters watch in amazement as he tosses in tons of different seasonings and then bumble around saying.. don’t we have a thickener of some sort I can throw in here?

Suggest three bay leaves to add to the pot as you dig through your stash of seasoning packages and find some dry chicken gravy mix to toss in.  Explaining to the lad that adding gravy will make it a stew instead of soup as stews are thick with less liquid.

Throw in a box of chicken bouillon/stock (the liquid stuff Campbells makes).. though if my rabbit stock had been thawed out I would have used that instead.  🙂

When it’s all in the pot look and say “oh, need a bit more celery” so do up two more stalks.

Discover a couple of tomatoes going soft so turn them into mush before adding to pot (saucing them before adding to the pot means a boy child not turned off by cooked tomato).   Dice up one orange bell pepper as well.

Let stew for two hours.

In end come up with a stuff slightly on the spicy side (oops.. forgot the sundried tomato mix has some chilis in it hun).   But realize the bread counteracts the spicyness quite nicely…so doing what I intended was an excellent choice with this stew.   The lad exclaims “Mom!   We need to make this again, it was good!!!”  

One of the things I love about stew is it comes out differently every single time, and when hubby and son help, makes it even better.  🙂

All told we put in
1 package of stir fry beef strips
four large carrots
1.5 onions
3 bay leaves
5 stalks celery
About a cup of green peas
3 large potatoes
a variety of seasonings : salt, pepper, sundried tomato, basil, oregano, garlic and more.
one box liquid bouillon/chicken stock
package of dry chicken gravy
about a tablespoon of corn starch
two tomatoes
touch of oil for browning

If you make it, tell me what seasonings you would use.  🙂

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Recipe: Lemon Loaf

By 4 Comments

A couple weeks back I had a yard sale, and as always, I cooked a few things just to see if I could sell them.  Some years this goes well and others years just kinda so-so, therefore I always make food that we like in our household.

I made Rhubarb pudding cake (which I love), Rhubarb Cake, and Lemon Loaf.  

I have to admit, I am not very familiar with lemon loaf.. I made it once before YEARS ago for work luncheon I think.   I used this this recipe and modified slightly based on comments.  

Ingredients:

  • 1⁄2 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1⁄2 cup milk
  • 1/2 tsp lemon extract 
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 lemon, rind of

Glaze

  • 1 lemon, juice of
  • 1⁄4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp lemon extract

Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.
  2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until creamy.
  3. Blend in milk and 1/2 tsp lemon extract
  4. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt and lemon rind.
  5. Pour into batter.
  6. Stir to moisten.
  7. Scrape into greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.   DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP.  Just saying.
  8. Bake in 350f degree oven for 55 to 60 minutes.
  9. Cool in pan for 5 minutes.
  10. Remove to rack and while still hot, with a toothpick poke holes all over the top of the loaf, and spoon glaze evenly over.
  11. Cool.

What did we think?
Oops… forgot to grease the bottom on the one I held back.  Should have. 🙂  BUT the recipe tastes good, the lads had fun helping me to finish it off. 

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .

Recipe: Beef Stroganoff

By 4 Comments

It was my turn to cook, and as I had found a roast on sale, I decided to make a recipe I had made in a long time (taking my lad’s not doing cooked mushroom thing into account).  I loosely based it off this recipe off All-recipes.com.  

Ingredients and Directions: 

Put about a pound of cooked beef cut into strips or small pieces into a fry pan.  Add one largish onion, diced.  along with a wee bit of beef juices (from your leftover roast) to cook the onion in a bit.  

Add some spices… I did a red pepper mix with some black pepper and garlic.   Let that cook for a wee bit then add a can of cream of mushroom soup.   Let simmer on low for a while.  

You need to cook the egg noodles, about 8 oz.

When egg noodles are almost done, toss some peas into the water with them.  AND put 1 1/4 cup of greek yogurt (if you like a bit of tang) or the same amount of sour cream into your fry pan.  Let simmer til heated through (turn up heat a bit if necessary but not much and if you do stir it while it heats).   Drain noodles/peas.   Add to the fry pan and heat through.

Serve immediately.

Reactions:
Dad: Tastes good hun
Son: I like the noodles and sauce mom, not sure about the meat.  YEAH!!!  No mushrooms!
Me: Thought it tasted well, and I’d been in the mood for stroganoff for a while so it met that need.

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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time .

Recipe: Rhubarb Muffins

By 2 Comments

I was out dumping some stuff out in the composter this morning and spotted the rhubarb patch I have back there, and thought huh.. why do I wait for it to grow tall?   I could cut some off now and use it.  So I cut off a bit (not too much as the plant is still growing) and managed to get two cups worth.  Enough for a recipe at least!   Then I went searching for one.

Rhubarb Muffins is what I came up with.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk or 1 cup milk including 1 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups chopped fresh or *frozen rhubarb

FOR THE TOPPING
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda and the salt.
In another, smaller bowl, beat together the eggs, buttermilk (or the substitute), oil and the vanilla extract.
Gently stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture, just until combined. Do not over-mix.
Gently fold in the chopped rhubarb and the chopped nuts.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups about three quarters full.
Made 18 muffins for me. 
Sprinkle the tops with the topping mixture.
Bake at 375 ° for about 18 – 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  NOTE: doesn’t need 18 minutes… 15 would probably suffice in my oven.

Other recipes with Rhubarb
Recipes with Rhubarb
Rhubarb Apple Crisp.
Rhubarb Pudding Cake.
Rhubarb Bread.
Rhubarb Cake.

The Original recipe used nuts in it, but none of us are keen on nuts in our muffins.

Results: 
STOP EATING THEM!!!!   I WANT SOME TOO.  THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR YOU GUYS TO EAT!!!    Needless to say, the fellows are rather keen on them.  I have a few left for tomorrow breakfast, but not as many as planned.  🙂
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©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/