My daughter’s 5th grade class had a Multicultural Feast this week.  The feast was about both writing and exploring one’s cultural heritage.  The students had to ask a relative for a recipe that’s been handed down within the family and then to interview that person about the history of the recipe.  All of the recipes...

I get a lot of inspiration for cooking from Mark Bittman.  He’s created recipes for the NY Times for years. Bittman encourages creative cooking with a minimal list of ingredients.  He puts in dollops and dashes and doesn’t agonize about every painstakingly measured item.  Because he doesn’t seem to measure!  That’s how our grandmas cooked. I...

This recipe makes sugar cookies a little healthier by substituting whole wheat pastry flour for some of the multipurpose flour, canola oil for some of the butter, and honey for some of the sugar.  I already posted one version of this recipe.  This new one uses less eggs and less ingredients overall.  My husband...

It’s very satisfying to make your own food coloring out of natural ingredients.  It’s also educational for children to see how people used to get color out of fruits and vegetables.  Not everything has to come pre-bottled from a factory! Since Valentine’s Day is coming soon, today I’ll explain how to make red and pink...

I recently posted a recipe for miso soup that Ayako Egawa from Japan helped me with.  When she saw the photo of the bowls and spoons I used to serve it with, she made this comment: "It is interesting you use a spoon for Miso soup, because we use chopsticks for it. And we usually...

I love reading about day-to-day life in the olden days! It’s fascinating how it was so different from the modern world. Project Gutenberg just posted a book to read online or download called Domestic Life in Virginia in the 17th Century. Presumably, it would be similar throughout the North American colonies at...