Vincotto

Vincotto is a “cooked wine” and from what I understand it’s made from overripe grapes and can be a lengthy process. This is a quicker method to obtain similar results. I used it in a duck recipe, and the remaining bit was so tasty I slathered it over a pan seared chicken breast.

You basically […]

Guacamole

I love a good chunky guacamole any day (hold the jalapenos). However, my husband has an aversion to tomatoes, and one of my daughters hates anything onion, unless it’s powder. So we have found a happy medium. Avocados are healthy and I want my kids to enjoy guacamole so I don’t fight the onion issue. […]

Ranch Dressing Mix

When I read the ingredient list on the back of my ranch dressing bottle a few years ago, that was all I needed to figure out how to make my own (we do store a few bottles to keep on hand for moments when I may not have all the necessary ingredients to make the […]

Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)

Oh, this stuff. We used to live near Dearborn MI) and had easy access to Lebanese food. With every meal came pita bread and the garlic sauce with the mayo-like consistency. There seem to be two varieties (that I noticed – we didn’t eat at every place out there but we did try our fair […]

Perfect Pan Gravy

Making a pan gravy from meat drippings has become one of my favorite things to do once I’ve cooked meat in a skillet. This is also how we make our Thanksgiving gravy from turkey drippings. I will be honest – I don’t use the giblets when making our gravy. The thought grosses my husband out. […]

Ketchup

Yes, I know ketchup can be purchased pretty cheap. Yes I realize for many, making your own ketchup may not seem like the best use of time or resources, and that’s fine. Sometimes I even use storebought ketchup in my recipes if I didn’t have enough tomatoes to make ketchup. But when tomatoes are in […]

Italian Dressing Mix

This can be used as a seasoning, or actually turned into a dressing.

Ingredients:

1tb garlic powder 1 tb onion powder 1/2 tb sugar 2 tb oregano 1 ts pepper 1/2 ts thyme 1 ts basil 2tb salt

Method

Combine ingredients. Use as a seasoning, or combine 2 tablespoons of the mix with 1/4 c […]